Seattle Afternoon

How not to find your way home in Seattle...

Life has its ups and downs. Near the end of August a few weeks ago (because I had failed to question a powerful prescription given to me by a doctor who was not familiar with my medical history) I found myself gainfully unemployed. I had a second income, but I was only doing contract consulting on the side with no immediate intention of building a full-time business. So I scrambled to find a new permanent full-time position while increasing my self-promotion to attract more consulting clients.

My girlfriend nonetheless said, in her to-the-point fashion, that "this is where the rubber needs to meet the road". I decided not to wait for opportunity to find me, but instead called up a few companies and made some inquiries.

Naturally, the opportunity found me ....

A recruiter looking for someone with extremely specialized skills posted about a job in a forum I was participating in. After looking at his message for a few minutes, I realized the worst he could say was, "You're not what I'm looking for." So I sent him a message, we talked on the phone, I explained my situation, and he asked for a resume. Well, I had recently assembled a working resume and I added a few more items based on our discussion and sent it off to him.

Within a matter of days I found myself talking by phone with two principal owners of a Seattle-based firm, and they invited me out (at their expense) to a face-to-face meeting. "You're in!" my girlfriend said gleefully. I agreed with her that things were looking good. I packed my bags and headed to the airport at the appropriate time. The girlfriend kept insisting this was just a formality. So I formally flew up to Seattle on a Sunday evening.

I don't like using taxis. I have nothing against cab drivers. I just don't like being dependent upon taxi services. So when I reached Seattle I rented a car. After all, I've driven through most states in America. I figured Seattle would be (relatively) no different from all the other cities I've lived in and passed through.

And everyone had told me how beautiful Seattle is. I read online how friendly people can be (if a bit reluctant to commit to close friendships). "It may take a while for me to make new friends," I texted to the girlfriend. "Not for you," she replied confidently. Well, we'll see, I told myself. First, I have to get the job.

The interview process was thorough and challenging, as I expected. I met many people and hope I'll keep all the names straight when I start work. The office is cool and is located downtown. And Seattle's tech community is so relaxed that I'll be one of the best-dressed men in Seattle when I'm just dressing casually and relaxed.

So I reported for interview duty Monday morning, conveniently losing myself on the way (and, technically, I was only 3 blocks from the office when they called to ask where I was).

Seattle not only has more one-way streets than I have seen in any major city, they forbid all manner of turns and entrances at the peak times of the day. Naturally, when you most need to get there from here, you have to go the other way. More than once, I managed to devote about 30 minutes to circling buildings I could plainly see but could not legally reach. It's no wonder so many people walk or take the bus in Seattle. Only pedestrians and buses are legally permitted to go where they need to.

By Monday afternoon I was encouraged to go see the city and discover new vistas, previously unseen horizons, to seek out new civilizations, to boldly go where no Suthern Boy had ever gone before....

I promptly got lost on my way back to the hotel where I was staying (the Mayflower Park Hotel at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Olive Way). Anyone who knows their way around Seattle will appreciate what it means when I say that I passed the world-famous Seattle Space Needle three times while trying to turn onto Olive Way. If you don't know your way around Seattle (like me), I think you have to turn right whenever you see the Space Needle or risk becoming lost for all time.

All the while, the girlfriend and I were sending text messages to each other along the lines of "I told you so!" and "I can't wait to see you", la-de-la-de-da. Somewhere in the midst of all that texting she sent me a request for pictures. Pictures? What was I supposed to take pictures of? I had already sent her a brief video clip the night before from the Mayflower Park Hotel lobby. She loves Japanese art and they had a great screen above the registration desk that I thought she would enjoy.

So I naturally sent her a brief video clip of my passage over what I think is the Aurora Bridge. She wrote back, "You sent me a picture of a road?" Well, I was trying to capture what I think may be Lake Union (it may have been Puget Sound, if I was in a different part of Seattle, like on Alaskan Way) because there was a beautiful sailboat out on the water. I ended up following a winding road up a steep incline and eventually came to a park-like area where tour buses and cars stopped to let people out.

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