reasons seattle's okay

Seems most of the blogs I regularly read these days come outta NYC. And good for 'em. I like to think I could hack it in most cities if push came to shove, but that's basically a lie...I'm west coast-ish. I'm suburban. I'm not good with public transportation. I like generic chain restaurants. I shop at...malls.

West-coast-ish as I may be, I'm not crazy about living in Seattle...I've lived here long enough not to appreciate whatever it is the newcomers appreciate. The weather is - yep - RAINY and horrible most of the year. People tend to be clique-ish, politically correct, passive-aggressive. They drive miserably. Too many of them own boats that they too seldomly use.

That said, I have to appreciate a few things about this town:

• I can wear whatever shoes I want. This is the home of "socks with sandals" and while I may have ridden that wave ten or fifteen years ago, I generally choose to conform to fashionable footwear standards. But if I wanted to, I could wear the "LATEST, HOTTEST AQUATIC-HYBRID SHOE FROM REI!" with pride, knowing there were at least a few thousand others out there sportin the same. I could wear something from my high school Doc Marten collection and no one would look at me sideways.
  
• I don't have to worry about which place is this week's "hot spot" because...um...there aren't any. In a land of Microsoft money and Starbucks, the comings and goings of clubs and restaurants are few and far between. There are steadfast local mainstays where the food really is the point (think stuffy steakhouses where the "boat people" go for a ciroc martini after taking their in-laws out on the yacht to oogle the pieces of Bill Gates' pad visible from the lake). There are pizza joints, but the places with VIP lists and 4-hour long waits at the door are the breakfast spots serving the best "organic biscuits and shade-grown coffee."
  
• "Dress Code Strictly Enforced" means that I'm A-OK with a bright pink bra hanging out of my wife-beater and a trucker hat on my head. I kid not. I remember a club opening up a few years ago that called itself "Seattle's only Vegas-Style Niteclub...dress to impess, ladies!" Checked the place out...must have been five or six girls with pink bras, itty bitty stretched-out tank tops and trucker hats. Strictly. Enforced.
  
• Dick's Cheeseburgers. Not the deluxe, they over-do the runny sauce-relish stuff, but a nice strawberry milkshake and a plain old cheeseburger are tasty and cheap...leaving me with plenty of cash in my wallet for shoes from REI!
• The VonDutch trend came and went and we survived obliviously unscathed.
  
• If I know someone that knows someone that works at Microsoft, I can get cheap software at the company store.
  
• If I know someone that knows someone that works at Microsoft, I can get cheap xbox games at the company store (came in handy a few times for Christmas presents).
• If I know someone that knows someone that works at Microsoft, I can get Nalgene bottles that say "MICROSOFT!" at the company store.
• While I can't afford to buy a house here yet, I CAN afford to pay my rent and still have plenty of cash in my wallet for shoes from REI!