Settling in...

I am officially a Washington resident (more on that in a moment). The past several days involved setting up the apartment, which has been no small task. We’ve had to get creative with storage solutions, look at some items and determine if we really need them and make countless trips to both our in-building storage unit and the trash area.

And the result it… we’ve got a pretty fantastic place. Pictures will come soon enough, but, really? The place is fantastic. It’s the kind of urban living I was always somewhat envious of back in my New York days. And, truth be told, I lived well there. But this is something else both from an aesthetic standpoint and a practical one.

Part of the practicality is access to Seattle’s amenities. Not only can I walk to work, but I can easily walk downtown. Or to the Queen Anne neighborhood. Major bus lines stop on both our cross streets. The streetcar stops in front of the place. And my walk to the light rail to get to the airport is 10-15 mins at the most.

I hear you already… “have fun walking in all the rain!”

I’m not trying to dress this up, but the rain in Seattle is… I dunno… just different. For instance, it has rained about half the time I’ve been here, but I have yet to use an umbrella. But to call it a mist isn’t totally right either… I have yet to see rain that obscures the skyline at all. And there’s only been one day I haven’t seen the sun. I took the dog out in the rain last night and I barely got wet. The rain is almost an accessory most days… it’s something to carry with you and is, usually (at least so far), no more of a burden than that.

And when it’s not raining… my lord, I don’t think I’ve ever lived someplace so gorgeous. I’m getting used to turning a corner and having my breath taken away by a sight of mountains, or some body of water, or clouds pushing past a high ridgeline…

As mentioned, I now call the Evergreen State home officially. This involved the trip to the DMV, or in this case the WA Dept. of Licensing. You know how this is going to go…

I did what I thought was all the necessary research. I knew I needed to bring my NC license, another form of personal ID and “proof or residency.” On Sunday, Sarah signed our lease, the forms of which are a legally-binding contract between Sarah & me and our building. It’s notarized. I am in a significant amount of trouble if I do not live up to my end of the lease.

Point being the lease pretty clearly establishes, if you ask me, that I live in Seattle.

So we take our numbers and sit at the DOL. I always feel like that scene in Beetlejuice… I want to shout out “Hey! There goes Elvis! Yo! King!” and steal the number of the person sitting next to me who is about to get called up.

By the time I do get my turn, I walk up and the woman asks me for my proof of residency. I show my lease.

“We don’t accept lease agreements as proof of residency. You could’ve gone to Office Max and printed up a lease agreement and filled it out.”

Yes. Exactly. I am handing you my passport and surrendering my only other existing form of photo ID (my NC driver license) because I am trying to scam the state of Washington.

She began to get lippy with me and I was in no mood to escalate the situation. Instead, I found my self hustling back home to find what few utility and insurance bills I have that are set up to my new address. And then back to the DOL. To take another number. This time, however, it came through no problem.

I’ve already contacted the DOL to find out the specifics of registering my car, which promises to be a fun Saturday adventure.

In the meantime, I am bound for Phoenix. Part of settling in means getting back down to work. This means Phoenix until Friday night, then to Portland Thurs-Fri next week. Then, look out world… after a trip to Miami the week after, both Sarah and I are off to Paris and Warsaw (where I have a business meeting).