After the shitty news this morning, we needed to get out of the house in the worst way. Went to see Sherlock Holmes, at a much more comfortable theater in Bellevue, and it was really, really well written. It didn't try to be clever, it just tried to be a mystery with some action components and another great performance by Downey Jr. Plus Rachel McAdams got to kick some ass, which was cool to see. Two thumbs up from us.
From there, we intended to stop by Ikea to see if they had a simple coffee table we could pick up. Unfortunately, it was not available in the color we wanted. And we're talking about a $40 table here, nothing that fancy. Good enough to be functional, cheap enough to retire when we have a proper residence at some point.
Before going out there, we stopped at Fry's Electronics. My boss assured me last week that it was like a wet dream for geeks (my words, certainly not his, I'm paraphrasing), and he was pretty much right. If NewEgg had a retail store, it'd be a lot like this. Pricing was cheap too. You know that if they have USB cables for a buck-fifty, Best Buy it ain't. Even HDMI cables were like six bucks. Of course, the one thing I could really use, a Firewire 400 to 800 adapter, could not be found.
So here's the crazy thing about retail around Seattle: It's all a zoo, all of the time. Around 3.3 million people live in the metro (including Tacoma), while Cleveland is around 2.7 million (including Akron), and with a less shitty economy here, people actually get out and spend money and do stuff. The density of people, combined with hard geological boundaries (water, mountains) pretty much force people into an area, so the urban sprawl can only go so far. Every trip to a grocery store or a Target, or a Fry's or Ikea, means massive chaos. I'm starting to understand why one of the guys at work, a life-long local, doesn't like driving and considers anywhere you have to drive to "far away."
Which leads me to the continuing frustration with the inability of people to drive. It comes in two flavors: People never speed up to merge on to the freeway, and no one does anything predictable, so everyone is always extra cautious. For example, at a four-way stop, first person there is first to go, right? It's a known arrangement, and the traffic keeps flowing. Not here. Everyone will look at each other and start waving people through.
Even though my work commute is relatively painless, this is why I will resolve to take the bus as much as possible. The less time I'm driving here, the better.
And that leads me to a symptom of trying to go out for dinner: It always causes irritation and annoyance when we're not close to home. Here in town, we've been systematically trying places. All have been average at best. The weird thing is that the whole metro is really averse to franchises. Understand that I'm not a huge fan myself of most, especially the low end shitty places like Applebees or Olive Garden. But I'm fond of a few, like Macaroni Grill, BWW and Famous Dave's. Those kinds of places are very convenient when you're in a new place or part of town where you have no idea where to go, and you don't want to eat in a shitty place. You know what to expect and if it's something satisfying. Unfortunately, in so many parts of town, we can't find much of anything that isn't a teriyaki or pho joint in some little shopping center.
We want to find good restaurants, and understand that takes a little planning. I like a solid "greasy spoon" local place, as well as a nicer casual restaurant. We really liked the place we ate at for New Year's Eve. But when you're out and about, and you're tired from the retail chaos, dammit, a Cheesecake Factory is OK. You just can't find one.
This is probably the hardest thing about moving to a new place, for us anyway. At this point, I'm pretty comfortable getting around the east side, but I'm not always sure where stuff is. I'm anxious to see what downtown has to offer, if it's not a pain in the ass to get to.
The adventure continues...