The adjustment to life in Seattle is coming along pretty well. The hardest thing, for me anyway, is that we don't have our own house, and worse, that we still have two we don't live in. It's not a pride thing (God knows I could give two shits about my lawn ;)), but more of a feeling like I've taken a step backward. That's just American programming I think, but it's an awfully good time to get in to the market, especially around here.
The apartment has really come along, thanks mostly to Diana's work to get it feeling like home. Generally speaking, I would describe it as adequate. We lose about 400 square feet (and a two-car garage) compared to the Brunswick house, so we definitely have some storage issues that we haven't exactly figured out. I think a lot of what it comes down to is that our guest room will store a lot of stuff, and guests will just have to deal with it.
There are lots of little trades. The kitchen is smaller, but the master bedroom is slightly bigger, and both bathrooms are actually enormous. I mean, the shower has dual heads. It generally doesn't require a lot of heat, but it's also kind of low on the upside of the hill, limiting direct sun. But it has a gas stove, which apparently less than 1% or rentals around town have, and that's an enormous plus. I also don't like the parking lot space we have, because it's not a legal 9-foot spot. We should probably ask for a new one, now that I scraped Diana's car against the car port support, I don't want her to have to go down the hill for her car either.
We definitely like the area we're in, as it's convenient for pretty much everything. Work is only 20 minutes, 10 miles and a lovely drive. Everything we could possibly need in terms of retail is within 2 miles, from groceries to Costco to Target, and we're feeling out where the right deals are. There are a ton of restaurants too, but God only knows how long it'll take to try any significant number of them. Joe and Kristen and the kids are relatively close as well. Some of the people I work with refer to this as a "yuppie" area, but you know, there aren't a lot of BMW's at our complex, so I don't know what that means. I've yet to see where the poor people live around Seattle.
I think we also need to expand socially once we feel a little more settled, but after the holidays, I'm sure we'll be in baby prep mode, so I'm not sure how that will go. I feel really disconnected from my friends. Even though most didn't live near me in the first place, they also weren't three time zones away. I hate that I fire up the IM at night and no one is there. Diana doesn't have the benefit of a day job where she meets people either, which has to be weird.
The thing that I can't stop marveling about is just how beautiful it is here. I asked the senior dev on my team today if that ever wears off, since he grew up here. He said he definitely still takes pause when he sees it from where he lives. Stephanie mentioned the same thing to me recently about Boulder. Even on my drive home today, after sunset, I smiled a little at the view across Lake Samammish, the remaining sun light reflecting off of houses on the other side.
So overall, I think it's going pretty well. I still have the anxiety about actually being useful at work, but I've only been there eight days total, with the trip and the holiday. This month will also be slow going because of the vacations folks take. But I really dig the company and the people in my immediate group.
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