Saturday, January 31, 2009

Fog, Flurries, and Furries

Hi peeps,

So as Ginny so wonderfully reminded me, it's time to get back to my touristy roots and show you what's happenin' in good ole' Seattle. Thus, I bring you: fog, flurries, and furries.

Not sure if I've mentioned it on here or not yet, but gosh darn if this city doesn't remind me of San Francisco every time I turn around. Now I don't think I've ever been to San Fran (or at least I don't remember), but trust me when I say I've watched enough "Party of 5" and "Full House" to truly know San Fran - I'm practically a resident. That said, (ah!!! visions of man hands and mullets and old ST comp team attack), this city is borderline stalker copycat quickly approaching restraining order level... I had no idea when I moved here what a hilly city this was, how windy it would be, and how friggin foggy it would get! Don't get me wrong, the good parts of SF are here as well like the obvious waterfront (for which every day I try not to take for granted the fact that I like 3 blocks from the water and see it everyday on my walk to and from the bus stop, the grocery store, or the local sports bar), the local fish (and produce!) markets, the coffee shops (I recently heard that you aren't a true Seattlite unless you can thread an automatic sewing machine needle by hand), and there is even the recent addition of a new street car (funny story - they knew that they wanted to name it "... Transit" like the other public transportation vessels, and it's in the area that's south of Lake Union. Wasn't until after they had their grand opening and cut the ribbon that they realized "South Lake Union Transit" had an awful acronym prompting many entrepreneurial types to sell the now famous "Ride the S.L.U.T." t-shirts.....) but I digress. Point being this is one hilly, windy, foggy city. It was pretty cool the other day when a co-worker said "you know I saw on the news this morning that the only part of the needle you could see was the very top - it was completely foggy up until that point" and I was able to reply "yeah, I saw that!"....from my living room!!!

But on to the flurries.... I keep hearing "this is so unusual for Seattle!", but I'm 99% positive those people are smoking crack. Ever since I moved here people say things like "oh it's not usually this cold", "this is so weird for Seattle", and "this is definitely a weird year", but I seriously call B.S. Seattle. Upon probing in the slightest, one finds that this "unusual", "rare" weather and snow has now been happening for at least 3 years...folks, this isn't unusual anymore! I'm not sure who thinks that global warming is happening, but it sure as heck ain't happenin' up here! Thus the flurries. Not that I mind them at all - in fact I quite like them, I just wish the locals would quite being so darn surprised. It's basically like people in Atlanta saying "what??? pollen???? this is sooo weird.", "it's not normally this hot and humid", or "sorry newbie, I can't figure out why we keep seeing mosquitoes - these are definitely not the norm!". Needless to say it doesn't usually stick (truthfully), but it has been flurrying a bit lately. Kinda picturesque while walking around downtown (which we love to do and do a lot!) to tell you the truth.

Crap this is getting long - wind it down, 'Ka.

So lastly for the furries... In our continual quest to experience Seattle to it's fullest, we recently ventured to a Seattle Thunderbirds Hockey game. Pretty cool, eh?? I mean we've definitely enjoyed the Atlanta Thrashers before and when we heard that Seattle had a hockey team that just opened a new venue south of Seattle we were stoked to go! So what if they're minor league, we thought...hockey is hockey and surely they know hockey even better up north! I mean we're only 2 hours away from Canada, eh!

...and so we ventured last Saturday night. We drove, and drove...and drove some more. Finally! Kent, Washington (how do you like that, Sandi?!?). Ok - looks like the suburbs....looks like pretty far away...but hey, I've been to friggin Gwinnett Arena (hard to admit but it was FOO for crying out loud!), so the Kent ShoWare Center can't be that far behind. We get there just about an hour before game time - too late to walk to the nearby "downtown Kent" for food, but apparently also too early for the doors to be open. So we wait with all of the other fans for them to open the doors and think that surely there is plenty of vendors inside for some yummy food. We wait and wait - ahha! They're opening!

Enter the furries.

.....and the kids

......and the kids and the furries and the kids.

EVERYWHERE!


Surprise, surprise, I've heard it's not "usual"... but I think I've made my point about how much I trust the locals and their sense of "norms". And just so you know - the pic above only shows maybe one third of them (ew - what's with the furrie convention?!?!). The arena was small so all seats are good - heck, we even saw a Seattle team win (finally) - but I think the long drive to the burbs, the lack of any good venue food, and last but MOST important, I think the attack of the furries was enough to scare us away for at least a little while!

Nonetheless, if anyone visits and wants to see a minor league hockey game we'd be happy to take you.... We just might not join you inside the venue ;)

Thursday, January 22, 2009

MS Layoffs

Just in case any of you are listening to all of the MS news.... They have announced 5,000 job cuts, 1,400 which will happen today and they have also emphasized that HR will definitely be hit.... but still no more details than that.

I'll keep you posted in between panic attacks.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A last minute steal!!!!

Super late notice, but if there's anyone who's interested, the direct flight from ATL -> Seattle this Saturday-Mon or Tues is only $218!!!!

ORRRR - fly out of B'ham anytime by 5/31 and pay only $174!!!!

Hurry up and book - come one, come all!!!! :D

ps-should I stop dreaming now?? ;)

I owe you all a HUGE....

...apology.

For some random reason I started looking back through my blog today (ok perhaps not that random, but more on that later). Looking at my current front page entries I quickly became quite disappointed in the quality of my recent entries. I feel I have let you down, and for that, I apologize.

This revelation led me to take a trip down memory lane to determine if my talent has drastically decreased or if it was never there to begin with....

Although I haven't made a final decision yet, the good news is that I'm happy to report an immediate return to original blog Erika. Not only do I pledge to more frequent entries, but I also hereby vow to return to the brilliantly witty Erika of my beginnings. (HA! I kid, people! Well not about returning to my witty southern roots, but about the brilliance of said entries...)

This politically correct NW has sucked the fun out of my bones and I vow to stuff all the fun back in dagnabit!
Ok?? Ok. Ok!

But.........now that I've said what I promise to do for you, I ask you one favor in return. Only one, I promise. From here on out, you all must SWEAR to me that you won't let me go limp again. Promise?? Deal? Deal.

Call uncle, call boring, call me absent, call me Judy - just promise not to call me sufficient.
Phew!
Thanks. :D

Love and miss you all,
-your rededicated e :)

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Microspotting

So it's been at least a whole week since I preached the gospel that is my employer which must mean it's about time to hit you guys up with another session...

One of the first people I met at orientation was a guy I sat next to named Tom (who happens to have been born and raised in Atlanta - bonus!) and when we were talking about what we were hired to do here at MS, he said he writes games and was going into the Entertainment and Devices group. Perfectly normal, right? Yeah...except he doesn't know anything about programming. Huh? Turns out he's really a drama/film major - a pen and paper type-writer hired to write the stories, dialog, etc. for games. How cool is that??

Since then I've learned there are a lot of different jobs at Microsoft that I wouldn't have thought of before coming here (it was super weird seeing an apple laptop on my MS bus until I realized we have people here who work on MS products built for macs...). Well another super cool job is this girl named Ariel - she is a journalist hired by MS to write about what it's really like to work here.

It's a very entertaining blog and it gives you a glimpse of all the different type of people who work here - some of them the typical geeks you'd think of - and some of them you'd never in a million years think would work at "the evil empire"...

So take a look and you'll get to see the type of people I get to work with! :) http://www.microspotting.com/

-e :)

Sunday, January 11, 2009

SERIOUSLY - your dance card can't be THAT full....

So the verdict is in.

The 9 (+)! month trial period is over, and I'm ready to state my opinion. I know this is a national matter and I know this might have adverse reactions, but it's high time the truth be told! I'm ready to stand up for the truth.

Washingtonians are frozed.
That's right.
Not a typo.
Not frozen,
not freezing,
not chilling,
but officially froze-ed.
(Yes, if you move cross country, you officially have license to make up words. See: G-dub's "strategory" or Jake's "vee-cation" and "bah-ronco" (I know a bit of a technicality here since technically he moved to Alaska far after he invented those words...but call it foresight and succumb to it like I have - trust me, you'll like it.)).


At any rate................... A girl moves cross-country, a girl has NO ONE local to the city, she TRIES to invite others to do things, but to no avail.

I heard from a senior coworker when I first moved here that it takes "AT LEAST 1 year" to meet people....and I have been trying to remind myself of that mantra ever since. Still doesn't make it any easier to invite others all to no avail.

Thank goodness for Clay, Vanessa, Bill, and Joe. Were it not for them I would be packing my bags immediately - but instead I will just whine on my blog and long for the days of yore...the days of southern hospitality.... of friendly families with arms wide open, a genuine concern and caring for new-in-town folk - and even - dare I say it...for non-locals!

Damn yanks!

Damn hippies!

Damn hipkies!

(if you don't get that word, please see 1st paragraph for explanation...)

I don't know if it's the mason-dixon line run west, the higher altitude and longitude, the lack of fried food and waffle houses and chic-fil-a's, or simply because all the people in this city were born and raised here and brain washed into staying and never leaving and therefore already have their dance cards full...but hello people!

Southerners ROCK!!


And despite our clever wit and well-placed sarcasm, we are not evil. I promise to not even expose you to a rebel flag or a potentially-almost-slightly-politically-even-questionable statement.

Weesh!!

I am seriously missing my like-minded sisterhood of the south. I miss my GRITS (girls raised in the south, of course - never was a fan of the food) and I miss my fried green tomatoes.

Ok................thanks for letting me vent - I feel much better :)

Now close your browser and go invite a newcomer to town for dinner or a local tour - ok?!?!?

ps....hmmmmmm.....maybe it's because people just don't like us?!?

pps...............NAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ;)

Saturday, January 10, 2009

DOH! A second pause and a few links....

I know, I know.....It's been a few weeks and I have yet to blog about ATL - so sorry! It's just so many pics, so many memories and field trips, it's all just too overwhelming!

Wow - do I sound like a wimp or what?? ;)

BUT in the meantime (AGAIN), I'm just so thrilled at my thriftiness I just HAD to share (and I promise this isn't even about MS or the usual Amazon, just another random purchase site that I love (piperlime.com) and all of its sister-sites (old navy, gap, and banana).... but you see not only have I convinced Clay to check out the local Goodwill for recent purchases, well, my mom taught me well. She taught me all about rain checks on a sale day and price adjustments after the sale day. But did you know you can get them even when you order online?!? Neither did I, but I tried it randomly yesterday and sure enough IT WORKED!! I ordered a few shoes off said site and then I get the awful "you know that shoe you bought?!?! it's now $20 cheaper!!" email, and so I dug and dug...and there I found it! 14 days later and I can get a credit for the price difference right back on my credit card! Go me!

Cool, eh?!?!? Ok, well I thought so. But I digress....

The other link I wanted to send is a link to a bunch of pics I've posted online lately... I know most of you are already on facebook and can therefore ignore this message, but for those of you who have avoided the devil-book (and are therefore still happy with your lives as they are and not sitting around seeing how great your old classmates can make themselves appear online), check this out if you'd like to see some pics from Atlanta and a few other recent trips: here, here, and here :)

Love and miss you all like always!!!!
E :D

Friday, January 2, 2009

A temporary pause...

So I promise to blog TONS more about my wonderful trip back home later, but Clay took this adorable video of our condo on New Year's Eve and I just had to post... So watch, enjoy, and start making plans to come see it for yourselves!!! ;)

Love,
E :)