Lifesaver

Sometimes things happen just at the right time. This weekend was a much-needed pick-me-up after a stressful week.  Spending 24 hours at a beautiful lake house (!) in good company was exactly what the doctor ordered. It seems like a fitting end to the summer - the smell of burgers cooking on the grill, a 3 am rowboat trip out on the lake, s'mores around the campfire...all of those idyllic summer moments that never seem to materialize in real life.

Sometimes the simple beauty of nature is enough to remind you that there is more to life than the daily grind. I just need to take a deep breath and keep on trucking...

perspective

Recent events have disrupted the normally calm surface of my life, sending out ripples in every direction. Things that I had taken as fact suddenly seem less sure - maybe it was a trick of my mind, or simply my own careless arrogance.  I start to doubt my own memories, going back to reanalyze the same facts in a different light.  It's funny how memories are living things, colored not only by our recollections but by our present-day perspective.

Perspective is a powerful thing. Living in my comfortable bubble, I sometimes get trapped in my own narrow vision of the world and get bogged down in my own thoughts, bending and distorting things until they're no longer recognizable. With some wise advice, I've been trying to take a step back and see things for what they are. I know what I know, and I'm trying not to let anyone take that away from me.

stop and smell the flowers

Having lived in Manhattan for the past 2 years, and been on an urban campus for 4 years before that, I have taken walking for granted. It sounds ridiculous, but after moving to Seattle, I realized that it is entirely possible to go a whole day without walking more than 100 steps or so (I think they recommend 10,000 for an "active lifestyle"). How sad! One of my major gripes is the lack of walkable cities in the US. Why have we created communities where the only logical form of transportation is a personal car? There are a lot of reasons why, I know, but I really think if people were able to walk more places, they would be a little healthier, and maybe a little happier too.

I took public transportation to work for the first time today, so I got to enjoy a leisurely stroll back home just as it was reaching that rosy glow time of the day. I love having those 20 minutes or so at the beginning and end of the day to be alone with my thoughts - I don't even know what I think about, really, but it gives my mind time to process, absorb, mull over, and sort through all the things that are running through my brain at any given moment. They say the brain consolidates memories during sleep, but I think I do that during my walking time. Maybe some people can do the same thing while driving home, but I know I'm more concerned about not accidentally breaking any major traffic rules and making it home without getting honked at. Give me some nice weather, a halfway decent sidewalk, and my iPhone and I'll be content :)

settling in

It seems that all the pieces are starting to fall into place.  Apartment? Check. Car? Check. New friends? In progress.

The car buying experience really reinforced that I am an extremely unskilled negotiator. I purposely avoided taking negotiations class in college because the thought of having to prepare for a graded negotiation every week made me nervous, but in retrospect, those classes would have been a hell of a lot more useful than, say, chronobiology. I think my problem is that I have difficulty putting myself in another person's shoes. I mean, to me, negotiation is all about understanding where the other person is coming from so you can use that to your advantage. I wonder if that's something you can learn...? At the very least, the next time I make a major purchase, I'm doing my research beforehand. If I can't understand people, I should at least understand the product I'm buying :P

Tonight's dinner by the waterfront was a perfect ending to a beautiful (and HOT) weekend. I'm still amazed that I can see this view from my apartment. I hope I never become desensitized to this beauty...I'm reminded of a quote from into the wild:

"I’ve decided that I’m going to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up.”

sunny in seattle (for now)

Maybe it's because of the picture perfect weather, but I'm feeling pretty good about Seattle at the moment. While I still miss NYC terribly, there is something pretty amazing about being able to walk down a block and see an unobstructed view of sparkling blue water and snow-capped mountains.  Or being able to drive out a short distance and watch the Perseid meteor showers while laying on the grass by the lake on a random Thursday night. I repeat - amazing.

There are still a lot of things that I worry about of course, but I think the biggest mental hurdles about living in Seattle have been cleared after spending a little over a week here.  I'm hoping I can get in a few more weeks of sun before the infamous Seattle rain settles in for the winter. But I'm happy to say that I feel cautiously optimistic about the long-dreaded move out here. Hello Seattle!