Monday, November 30, 2009

Things I've Noticed in Seattle...

We moved to Seattle two weeks ago and in that time I have noticed quite a few differences from Atlanta:
  • People are nice. Really nice. I have particularly noticed this when interacting with people in service jobs (Comcast installer, DMV employees, etc.) who not only are nice but appear to be competent, as well. I have yet to see the "I hate my job" attitude that everyone in similar positions in Atlanta seem to have. Of course, that attitude rubs off in the way you are treated... ugh.
  • The speed limit is not 85 MPH wherever you go. People actually do seem to follow the speed limit more closely here instead of going Warp Speed everywhere. And drivers are nice, too! Of course that may be because everyone thinks I'm a tourist because of my Georgia plates... we'll see if that changes when I get Washington state plates.
  • Recycling. Whoa. We were good recyclers in Atlanta. We filled up our recycling bin to overflowing. So we bought a larger, 65 gallon rolling bin which was often filled up to capacity or beyond every other week. Yet we still filled up a 96 gallon "Herby Curby" every week with trash. Now we have a small 12 gallon (!!!) trash can, a 65 gallon (I think?) recycling can (with a wide variety of recyclables accepted, much more so than in ATL) and a can specifically for food waste composting. We pay for the trash we generate and pay extra if we overflow our garbage can or include too many recyclables or too much food waste in the garbage, so it pays to reduce, reuse and recycle. We've had to adjust our habits, but we're making it work, even with all of the extra waste we have generated from moving in. I keep looking at Steph and saying how amazed I am at the tiny amount of trash we're generating these days. I find it eye opening to see the amount of food waste we can generate. Some of it is inevitable (banana peels, orange peels, chicken carcasses, etc.), but a lot of it can be saved and repurposed (trimmings from carrots, celery, etc. can be put into stock, for example). At least I don't see us wasting food like we did when I was traveling non-stop...
  • Groceries are expensive. Safeway is way overpriced, I can't imagine how expensive Whole Foods is. Fred Meyer appears to be the most reasonable of the bunch.
  • Elfin ears? Seriously... I saw someone with a pair last night and they looked pretty freaking real to me, though I suppose they could have been makeup.
  • Cupcakes. Yum.
I'm sure there is more for another post...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bizare. Stumbled across your page totally by accident, but I too am from Atlanta, lived in Seatle 2 years, and now am back in ATL again. And I agree on all points. Vividly remember only going 5 over the speed limit & literally BLOWING past other people on the freeway. There was also the time I was leaving a bank & caught the door for the guy behind me - while 2 more people were entering & doing the same thing. Ended up with all 4 of us holding the doors for each other & no one moving... NEVER seen that anywhere else.

dhs said...

I accidentally deleted this one instead of approving it, so I am reposting it below:

Hey Dean -

It's Trevor here at Redfin. I think I forgot to mention it when we talked today, but welcome to Seattle! Its definitely a great city to live in (although I've never been East of the Mississippi!) Your observation about the driving speed is very true. I think people go so slow because they are so used to the traffic being bad, that 45 MPH seems like speeding :).

Elfin ears... not quite as suprising - perhaps you were on Capitol Hill?

Have you seen the Pemco commercial about recycling? You'll probably get a kick out of that:

http://www.werealotlikeyou.com/
(Click on relentless recycler)

You might also get a kick out of the East Coast Transplant Guy.

Anyhow - much luck in your new adventure in Seattle. Its truly a great place to live.... even though the housing price are ridiculous!

Trevor@redfin