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August 14, 2005

This Battlestation Is Partially Operational

And we are live from the Upper Left Side (of America)!

It's been almost a year since I first came to Seattle as a grown-up. (I had visited as a twelve-year-old, but that doesn't so much count.) All seven loyal readers (back then, probably more like two) might remember that I even posted a little ditty describing the trip. For the record, that was the second (2nd) ever posting on ThatKidInTheCorner. Alert the official archivist!

At that point, actually moving to Seattle and/ or living here was essentially inconceivable. Not that I didn't think the town was great. Not that I didn't have a blast. Not that I didn't meet a bunch of cool people. It just wasn't on the radar. I was about to start my second year of b-school in the cit-ay, home of all of my friends and close to my family, and source of many viable employment opportunities for enterprising young people. I didn't see myself moving anywhere, much less to Seattle.

Little did I suspect. Little did I suspect.

Through a somewhat complex confluence of circumstances, good luck, and, what the French call "Idunnowhat," I now live in Seattle. As of six days ago.

Since my arrival, I've busied myself putting together my new apartment, which, if I might pat myself on the back, is going decently well. I mean, sure, I don't have any furniture per se, at least not any you can sit on, but I did do a lot of shopping and have at least placed the order for something to sit on. (In the meantime, it's folding chairs from Ikea! They're called Fred!)

In lieu of a longer column about moving in and furnishing one's own apartment for the first time (with special attention given to the number of trips I made to Target this week), I'm dropping some quickies on you:

My Favorite Thing About The New Crib: that's right. I called it a crib. It's my crib. If you come to Seattle, you can check out my crib. I promise. Anyhoo, I face west and have gigantic windows. You can see some water from said windows. The sun sets in that direction. I find none of this disappointing in the least. Also, my rent decreased by 37 percent. That also doesn't suck.

First Time, Long Time: what with the TO nonsense making this Eagles camp THE MOST EXCITING PHILADELPHIA SPORTS STORY IN YEARS, I really, really, really can't say enough about WIP on the web. It's...phenomenal. Sure, I've heard the same six commercials around 840 times at this point (Infinity Online sales department -- you must try harder!), but it's just perfect. Also, with the time shift I get to skip the morning show and start my day with Missanelli and Gargano, who are really in a groove with their show right now. (Also, if you've never checked out the head shots on the WIP web site, you're cheating yourself. Faces made for radio indeed!)

Speaking Of, The Local Non-Union Equivalent: I gave the local sports-talk station a shot. I did. It meant well, but there just wasn't the demented fury among the callers with which I've been spoiled for so long. Also, they non-ironically discussed the Storm. I didn't know what to do with that. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, etc etc, but, err, no one talks about that on the FAN. Ack just sayin'.)

Getting Stuck In: August used to be a pretty dreary sports month. Baseball starts to improve, sure, but NFL training camp is just brutal. In a good way. That is, it's a complete tease -- you get a month of football news without any actual football. It's like trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve as an eight-year-old. This is why I LOVE FOX SOCCER CHANNEL. We are game on in England, France, and Germany right now (and in the middle of things in Mexico and South America as well). Sure, the pro soccer season lasts about ten months (with the other two months given to international competitions and promotional tours), but those two months are still pretty tough. We get spoiled. I get spoiled. I taped six soccer games this weekend. No way I'll watch them all, but I also know there's no way I'll watch some boring baseball game while I have those saved on the DVR. This way I can at least pretend I'm not obsessing about the upcoming NFL season.

Thinking Outside The Bun: can I admit that I had lunch at Taco Bell three (3) times this week? Is that bad? In my defense, I'd been deprived of Taco Bell for a long time (I'd maybe had it three times in the past two years). Also, I only ate it at Target once. Did You Know?: two beef gorditas and a large drink comes to five dollars even (US$5.00) with Washington state sales tax? Good to know.

New Product Development Update: speaking of Taco Bell, they don't seem to have that frisbee-looking thingie they're pushing in all the commercials back east. Also, I see precious little evidence of Coke Zero out here. Though I'm sure it'll be shoved down the SeaTac area's gullet soon enough. Of this much we can be certain: drink Slurm, it's highly addictive!

My Retail-Related Shame Spiral: guess how many times I went to Target this week? Just guess. Hows about FIVE (5)? (I know, I know. It's humiliating.) To make things worse, I'll come clean and let you know that I didn't settle on a bathmat-towel combo until take number five. That is, I tried four different colors (bright red, which made the bathroom look Santa's workshop, navy blue, which was too dark, taupe, which clashed with the cabinets, and grey, which clashed with said cabinets in the opposite direction) before finding one that didn't look hideous. (I know, I know, who is this person?) The answer, it turns out, was olive green.

And that's it for now. I start the new jobbie job tomorrow, which I imagine will offer plenty of fodder for ThatKid, though I'm going to try to avoid it as a topic if at all possible. Still, I promise to let you know if they hand out stormtrooper helmets and teach us the company loyalty song.

Posted by thatkid at August 14, 2005 4:39 PM under ThatKid

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