Oh, shit. I thought you were right uptown? What did I miss?

Anyway, yeah. Living *in* Seattle is not as cool as it sounds. It’s expensive and it’s loud and people are kind of assholes. It’s not the peacenick hamlet it’s made out to be. Not since tech infiltrated and turned it into a pretty proper metropolitan area. If I were to move back to Washington, I would ABSOLUTELY love outside the city. Maybe even like half and hour or an hour out. Anacortes maybe. Or something like that. Bellevue or Redmond or Ravenna if I had (lots of) money.

he said he lived north of seattle!

near a beach, room for the dogs...

ETA:

15 miles north of downtown is uptown. Er, ok... maybe 15 minutes. Maybe more like 5 miles? But it’s certainly still in Seattle.

Plus that was like months ago that he said that. I’m supposed to remember, or face the wrath of your weirdly placed exclamation points?

So are you in Edmonds then? Is that the right ball park? You don’t have to give specifics, obviously. I’m just chit-chattin’

lol. That is EXACTLY where I live. Hahaha.

Yeah....Bellevue is like....crazy nice. I can't see myself living there. It's...like too nice...I'd feel out of place all the time. We went for a stroll through the town and everything was clean and like perfect. It felt sort of empty at the same time....Not like a ghost town or anything, but there was this really weird vibe to that town. I'd live in Seattle maybe for a year to really test it out. I think I'd try to stay by Pioneer Square maybe....other than the homeless there I think it's a really neat little area.

I lived in Bellevue shortly, for about 9 months. It’s definitely weird, especially when you have this done-up downtown, and then that shithole Factoria on the other side of the residential area.

Think that’s weird, try Mercer Island. My god, that place is like another planet. I had friends from there, and I’d stay at their houses on weekends, and it was surreal and terrifying in a way I will probably never be able to pinpoint. I’ve never had a lot of money, but I’ve never really been poor. Always considered myself fortunate. These folks live in multi-million dollar homes and have a little cottage industry built around serving them. My friends didn’t even think they were rich. Unsettling. Course this was a long time ago, so maybe it’s different now. Probably not.

Some nice places in the city are Queen Anne and First Hill. “Nice” is relative of course, but they’re cool. Semi-affordable. I wouldn’t live in Pioneer Square.

Hey get out to a Seahawks game while you’re in town. Seattle’s actually kind of good at football, turns out. Huskies are worth seeing too. Also a good team.

Man, I do miss it there. Kind of a lot.

Coolio. My grandfather lived there, so I’d visit a lot back in the early ‘90s, before he passed. There are definitely worse places to be.

so why not go back? what’s keeping you where you are?

Well, there’s the house I’m living in. We (my family) own it. My mother is in her mid-60s and nearby, so that’s something. She’s still working so she doesn’t have time to check up on the house, so it’s my responsibility. Gotta try and finish some work on it and sell it before I can really consider leaving, and that’s if I wanted to leave my mother.

Also, kinda fallen into a career here. Totally imperfect, but slowly getting better. I’ve actually been recommended for a promotion, which is kind of big. If I were to get that, I’d be making a commitment to stay where I am for a few more years. If I don’t get it, I’ll seek work elsewhere. If I find work in my field (or one of my prior fields) that pays well enough, I’ll consider moving. If said work is in WA, then so be it. But that’s a lot of “ifs.”

I’m in a really weird place right now.

yeah i knew about the house, but a house can be sold (unless it’s underwater, but even then, you can eat the losses if you must).

and a career if it’s a good one will have opportunities (and i’m sure better ones) elsewhere. i thought you had a promotion already with more responsibility (but no money). if this is a whole new thing congrats!

right now that the economy is still doing well it’s a great time to sell houses and find jobs. i mean unemployment is very low and businesses are having a hard time finding qualified people. come the next recession it will be the opposite— nobody will buy and jobs will be scarce.

but anyway i got lost in the digression— i didn’t know your mom was nearby. i thought she was back in WA! i missed that bit of info. i thought the house in your current state was just an ex-house you had taken over and she was elsewhere, and your only reason to be there was the house.

but yeah there’s also einstein’s napkin advice, which is not to be discounted.

Kind of is an ex-house, and it kind of was the only reason I was here at first. I was supposed to fix up and get ready for market. Spent a summer or so on that, then found myself with this job, and it became and increasingly bigger deal as time passed. So I decided to live here and work here and see what happened. So far, lots.

Ma’s nearby, but the whole brood is from the Pacific Northwest. My mother and I, and an uncle in NYC, are the only people in the fam who don’t live on the West Coast.

The promotion is a new promotion.

oh hey that is great

My girlfriend currently works in Queens Anne. It’s nice...we actually like to go to the theatre there.

Hahah..why wouldn’t you live in Pioneer Square?

Fuck me, furniture buying can be stressful.

Nice! I lived in Seattle for 10 years before moving to Eugene, OR (due to housing prices). I lived in Montlake, Fremont, Ballard & Brier. My favorite neighborhood out of those was Fremont, but I liked my Brier house best..

so spare yourself the stress and the expense and just don’t! :D

why suffer?

listen: don’t listen to me. i’m completely nuts.

but srsly: mobility is nobility, as tim leary would often repeat

Just not my ideal neighborhood, but again, I wouldn’t live anywhere in the city-city if I had a choice in the matter. I’d love on the outskirts... probably pretty far out. Somewhere quiet and family-friendly. Weird shit was always going down in Pioneer Square when I was in the area.

Haha thing is I've just moved from one pokey bedsit to a full blown flat (going up in the world here) so there's a few things I want.

Especially this 1960s rug :D

The 1960s never looked so good

wow!

ha ha. well. if you want the rug, get the rug! it should hold the place together... how did the dude put it? can’t recall the exact words

but maybe just take a deep breath before adding any “accoutrements” and... try living like a bedouin a bit?



look at that proud, and elegant man. he’s ready to gtfo in 30 minutes without having to rent a damn uhaul or pester his friends.

Aw, nobody knows the value of a good rug like the Dude.

Hahaha nah I wouldn't get that. Just love the fact that Jackie has a massive stubble. But yeah, a good rug will tie the room together.

This is the one I've got my eye on

Tbh, this is the first time in all my years I've lived on my own that I've even cared about any furniture.

And that guy has many rugs in there. I'm on the same level as that guy.

right that’s what im saying

(but he’s got dirt floors though)

avoid the heavy shit that takes 4 people to move a flight of stairs and you’ll be gold

after years of contractor and software annoyances, i’m now officially learning bookkeeping because i’m tired of relying blindly on others.

Oooh? Any neat stories?

Um. I wouldn’t call them “neat.” I was in and around the area during some weird times. But specifically in Pioneer Square I once gave a homeless man a $20 because I pulled it out of my wallet instead of a single or a $5 and when he saw it he started saying “Oh my lord, thank you sir” so I handed it over... then I walked to a friend’s house and begged a ride home because I was broke as fuck. Girlfriend at the time almost castrated me.

Not sure how I feel about that story in retrospect. Probably not neat.

Why do some independent record labels make it so fucking hard to buy direct from them? I try to avoid using Amazon but end up having to use it as a last resort.

Jay Z

Oh...heh. Probably not neat but I’d say it’s a pretty funny story in retrospect..


Perhaps you overanalyzed the reaction of the homeless person. Maybe he was just happy you were giving him money and not necessarily a $20.

i had some of that patti labelle’s sweet potato pie that was so popular a year or two ago it had a feature on npr.

instead of standing in line for it i just waited for today.

what can i say about it? without any other point of reference i’m pretty sure patti labelle is a diabetic. no pancreas can survive this.

holy mother of fuck this is christina tosi’s banana cream pie level cocaine-sweet

that disgusting dopamine rush. too much! no more for me.

Maybe, but hear this: if you plan on giving money to homeless people, leave home with a few singles in a pocket separate from your wallet. Sure, you might be right, but I say this is a good rule. Don’t pull the wallet out in front of them.

Oh I get it. You’re saying Jay-Z is irrelevant.

...

Ok that’s actually pretty fucking clever. Hahaha!

Yeah. I normally don’t do it on the street because of this. I’ll do spare change n maybe a buck from my car but yeah....I try to leave little room for people to show their dark sides. Everyone’s got one. Fortunately a lot of the homeless here don’t really beg it seems....or just drunk....which can be a little tense. Normally I don’t give a fuck but when I’m with my girlfriend, I’m more cautious.

Bahahaha. Glad I’m not a huge pie guy...except for pumpkin...I can eat that shit all day.

me too! except if it’s too cheap or too sweet

easy to make pumpkin pie in a mug in the microwave. just make a bunch of “pumpkin spice” in advance and eat all winter. it’s really a good vegetable, nothing wrong with it. for the crust just nuke some almond flour with butter 30 seconds at the bottom of the mug. i can post the link to it when i find it.

btw i did google “patti labelle diabetes” and sure enough she’s had the beetus for 22 years or something. what can i say— i’m not surprised. THE SUGARS

Apple pie. Better yet, Danish apple pie. Or crumble.

Annihilates pumpkin. Puh-lease.

DwayneEi, Deayneever and DeayneJef are all logged in at the same time......what kind of sorcery is this......and why?

all pie, any pie, beats all cake, any cake.

you have my condolences for your limited experiences...

i’ve had some really fucking terrible pies! :D