The upcoming road trip to Seattle (err, not actually living in Seattle, but working in Bellevue and living in another suburb) will nearly be the longest I’ve ever taken. My solo drive from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Jacksonville, Florida, was around 1,400 miles and this trip will be about the same. I still haven’t decided if I’ll take I-80 or I-90, but I know I won’t be braving the icy treachery of the Eisenhower Tunnel over I-70.

So, anybody want to join me on this road trip? I’ll drive the moving truck and you can drive my car. No really, I’m serious. I don’t have another person to drive with me, and I’m not sure how I’ll get all my stuff out.

Oh well, it’ll all work out, it’s just going to be complicated is all. The good news is the room is furnished if I’m not able to take my stuff.

Update: This is the general area where I’m going to be living. Notice: Less than one mile from the lake. Unfortunately, I’m not on the water, but I’m hoping there’ll be at least one publicly accessible dock in the area.

Categories: Life
Tags: moving, Seattle

Look, a Photo of Cal!: I managed to make the self-timer work well enough to snap off this photo of me while I was in Seattle a few weeks ago. The Puget Sound is behind me.

Following are more photos I took on my travels to Seattle to scope out the area and land a job. These photos explain why I want to move to the area.

The Quad: This is an area at the UW campus where there’s a nice walkway with some Japanese cherry trees between various campus buildings.

Categories: Photographs
Tags: Seattle, Space Needle, travel

I do not recommend aimlessly wandering downtown streets in search of a bus route. I was confused about which road to catch to take the bus back north out of the downtown area. My feet walked uphill, downhill, and quite a ways north before realizing I was on the wrong road. I found another road, then realized it was the wrong road. Eventually, I found the write road.

The good news is this came after the job fair.

The job fair was at Safeco Field

I submitted probably ten different resumes in pursuit of opportunities ranging from valet attendant to recruiter to enrollment advisor. I’m expecting at least a couple of the managers will get back to me about my applications for these positions.

The hard part may be deciding how much of a pay cut I’m willing to take. I fully expect to be offered at least one position, but can I work for a third less money?

We’ll see.

Statutes of Seattle Fire Department employees doing their best to fight an unseen enemy

Categories: Life, Work
Tags: Seattle, travel

This is the first time I’ve used an iMac since I had Jake’s old clunker at Jacksonville, FL, during the summer of ‘04. I appreciated the clunker then and I appreciate this computer now.

Coming at you Live! from Seattle, heeeere’s… me!

I’ve had an adventurous day. Adventurous, at least, for me. I’ve never travelled anywhere completely alone before. Today I took a bus to the airport, boarded a plane, and flew to Seattle all by myself. I’m finally grown up and it only took 24 years. Now if only I could move out of my parents’ house things could be perfect.

So I’ve already seen a few interesting sites. Tim, who I know from Jax STP 2004, picked me up from the airport. We decided to Pike Place Market to get some food. We didn’t end up checking out the market, but we walked around for a bit. During the walking, we happened to walk by the first-ever Starbucks coffee shop (still operating!) until we found a Japanese restaurant to eat.

Nothing like raw salmon to make my day go right. Mmm, mmm… oishi.

I went to church at Mars Hill after that. It’s “contemporary” in the way _contemporary_ should be: rocking. And by rocking I don’t mean watered-down, sold-out, and shallow. This sermon packed more solid teaching than I’ve heard in the last six months (probably ’cause I haven’t been to church much). I enjoyed it.

Now I’m staying with some people I know up here. I’m exhausted from adjusting my sleep schedule to normal hours so ineed to get to bed.

I wish I had an easy way to send photos from my phone to this blog. I’ve had trouble with it so far. If you’re on Facebook, though, you can look at my mobile uploads and I’ll be adding photos there throughout this trip. For the rest of you, I’ll put some up here on the site later.

By the way, the big Job Fair is on Tuesday so please pray that it works out well!

Categories: Life, Work
Tags: church, food, iMac, Mars Hill, Pike Place Market, Seattle, travel

My cousin is getting married on Saturday. Oddly, the wedding is at a place dear (I think) to many of your hearts: Snow Mountain Ranch. Who couldn’t love a place they’ve cleaned toilets (Jenny), done massive amounts of manual labor, and formed long-lasting friendships? (Jake, this is where you say something sarcastic =)

So amazingly I don’t have to work on a Saturday for once and I’m hoping to trick my body into letting me leave on a regular schedule this weekend. I got off work at 3AM this morning and actually managed to get almost three and a half hours of sleep before waking up. Time to finish getting ready!

On the Seattle front, I’m in the initial stages of planning a trip out there in October. Not quite moving, but I can take a look around and try to stir up something good.

That’s all for now. Sorry there haven’t been more posts lately, but I’ve been distracted.

Categories: Life
Tags: family, Jake, Jenny, Seattle