Wide awake in Seattle

Did you see what I did there with the title!? SO CLEVER!! lolololololol

Seriously though, I can never think of good titles for blog posts. But I am in Seattle now and I am, in fact, awake. So I guess that will have to work for now.

Anyway, I don't really have anything specific to say and I feel weird having to type this at a public computer. I don't actually know if there are people that read this, but in the slight chance that there may be somebody that does and could possibly be interested in what's going on in my life, I figured I would post an update.

I arrived in the Seattle-Tacoma airport at about 1:30, picked up the keys for the rental car, and started out on a wing and a prayer (and some directions I could only hope were right) toward my temporary home. While contending with Seattle traffic, I had to chastise myself over and over for thinking too Nebraskan. My mind was racing with thoughts like "this place is so big" and "there are so many people, so many cars!" and "why is everything so close together"! This is definitely nothing like the busiest parts I've seen in Omaha. Perhaps it was the stress of traveling, but that's all I could think about as I was driving from the airport into the city. I had to check myself and try to overcome all the stress to appreciate the beauty I was driving through. Washington really is a beautiful place, and the weather was stunningly amazing. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, but I hear that isn't really a common thing around here. Either way, I'm pretty thrilled Seattle came up with some good weather to welcome me.

I get to stay at the Harbor Steps apartment complex. I looked up the address before I left Nebraska and I was pretty stoked to see that it was right by the water and right in downtown Seattle (at least I think this is downtown). That being said, nothing could prepare me for how beautiful and impressive the whole thing is. I get to stay on the 21st floor of the North East tower of this complex. I can throw a rock and probably hit the harbor, but odds are I would probably hit an unfortunate person walking on the streets below instead. I can see massive buildings and beautiful architecture. This is definitely a city! As I would come to find in the following days, there is still a homey atmosphere here and the people are so nice.

I spent my first night alone in the apartment. I went out to explore the streets below. It was kind of funny because I opened the door and stepped outside and I was immediately lost. The funnier part of that was I absolutely loved the feeling. I loved being able to just walk around and take it all in. It also helps that my love of having a sense of direction and knowing where North is at all times works out well with the fact that the harbor provides a great landmark (or water mark??) to help me keep my bearings.

I ate dinner by myself at a little Mexican restaurant right outside of the apartment complex called Guayma's. It was actually kind of pleasant to be able to sit by myself to decompress and unwind. It was even more pleasant to enjoy a beer with some chips and I couldn't have been happier in that moment. How wonderful it is to just be happy and feel taken care of even in the smallest things. Anyway, I ordered these ceviche tostadas that is kind of like 'pico de gallo' and a bunch of seafood blended and dumped onto a crispy tortilla. It was pretty good! Hooray for being able to enjoy good seafood again!

I got my little car back on Saturday, and I feel so much better to have that now. I was blessed to be able to rent the Corolla and get me from the airport to the garage of my new digs. Even so, it was still kind of big for my taste and the windows aren't set up as they are in my Scion, so I felt like I was driving a boat with no windows through the crammed streets of downtown Seattle. That's probably just the stress and my hatred of traffic talking though. With my little bean car handy, I feel much more comfortable zipping around the streets now (when I do feel courageous enough to go out without walking). I saw some ridiculously steep hills and for the first time in my life I considered a having a manual transmission to be a bad idea. However, I'll get used to it--just like all the other drivers here...kind of--and I even learned a cool handbrake trick from the truck driver who delivered my car. Hopefully I don't get a ton of chances to use it.

I spent some time walking around while I was looking for a grocery store. The concierge here did me a solid by telling me of the place and giving me directions.

"Sure, you can walk there!"

Actually, next time I'll probably drive. It really wasn't that close at all (View the route here). Either way though, the weather was nice and the city beautiful, so I didn't mind walking and I got to learn some more about the city. I did walk past the Space Needle and the Music Experience Project place and those both seem really cool. I'm excited to check them out someday. I also walked by the future site of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation building and I got pretty excited for that too.

I found a different way to walk back that took me through the Belltown neighborhood and then down 1st avenue to see that whole stretch of restaurants and shops. How much cooler this place will be when I'm not so broke!

Last night I ran into a lady I had met on the elevator on Friday and she invited me to a small work party on the big deck of one of the buildings here. I got to meet some people and they took me out to some pub here in town. I started to realize what a beer snob I had become in Lincoln, but apparently that flies here so I'm in good company. Either way, I hope the USPS is ok with sending beer through the mail because I will be missing Emperean.

I hung out with those guys for a while and then walked a few blocks (more like a mile) to meet up with one of two people I actually know here to a small party for a girl that also works at Microsoft. Turns out Microsoft people like to get together and throw parties and they are just the way I like them: kinda nerdy. I had some fun with that and eventually went home.

This morning I got up and went to Mars Hill church. I checked out a few churches online before coming here and I was really excited to check this place out. Apparently the building used to be a really seedy and problematic club before the city relieved them of their liquor license. The church bought the building and started up a congregation in downtown. To be honest, the building was smaller than I expected and I drove right past it the first time. Inside it was pretty amazing.

Sitting at church, for the first time since I got here, I felt homesick. It was weird though because I felt so at home. It reminded me a lot of the people I came to love and know as family back at Lincoln Berean, but at the same time it was awesome to see people worshiping God the same way we did back home. It was cool to see God's church glorifying His name. It was a good reminder that God definitely is everywhere and that this whole experience is very pervasive. It was kind of an emotional morning for me and it was weird because I rarely get emotional. Either way, I was thrilled to be there.

I came up with this philosophy when I was younger: "don't date the first girl you meet." I figured this out because I moved a lot. Being the new guy. It's pretty easy to work that angle with the ladies. When I moved to Texas though, I starting hanging around with one of the first girls I met there and was immediately locked out of meeting other people in a more natural way. Plus--and this sounds terrible--there is always the danger of jumping the gone and not enjoying the best relationship out there.

I think the same can be said of looking for a church. I want to keep the mentality of checking things out, being open minded, and staying out of the way until God moves me to the right church. However, if I end up sticking around at Mars Hill, I think I'd be a happy camper. We'll see how that goes. I think they have some kind of worship service tonight and they're going to try to get me plugged in to some smaller groups and communities around the city so I can meet some people. I'm looking forward to this.

So this ended up being pretty long, but that was my weekend! Or the things I cared to write down anyway. To the readers back home, I miss you guys! But be happy for me. This is a cool place and I think I'm going to enjoy figuring out what my life is going to be here.

I start work tomorrow so I might spend some time preparing for that.

Take care everybody!

Forgot to mention! I don't take many pictures, and I don't have any cool photo album for you to check out. However, I do take some pictures on my phone and send them to Twitter occasionally. You can follow me on Twitter to catch any pictures I might toss on there