I visited Seattle in 2010 when Ford gave me a car and a single Seattle Seahawks ticket for opening weekend.The drive from San Francisco to Seattle with a stop-over in Portland was fun. Only 3 years ago but it feels like decades since I’ve been here.
Seattle is one of those cities I could probably live in if people didn’t get to me so easily. Every city, even the small ones have too many people now and I’d prefer to be left alone, to work on solo projects and stay connected via the stream of an Internet data connection that pipes into my mobile, tablet, laptop and desktop. It’s really unfortunate that large congregations of people are such a turn off because, if they weren’t, I’d live in Seattle next. Well, it’s a toss-up between Seattle and Portland.
Going back west for California is likely to never happen but to spend 5 years in the PacNW would be a lot of fun. There are still seasons once you’re inland and the mentality of the inhabitants seems almost universally accepting and respectful of the opinions and passions of everyone around them. I’ve spent most of the time here in Seattle in the gay district which is known to have the best food, bars and nicest people. In Portland, it’s around the hipsters who brew beer, roast coffee and their primary source of sustenance is via food trucks operated by professional chefs.
Not all hope is lost for a time where I live in this area. For sure, the obvious compromise is that I move to Oregon somewhere away from the cities, away from the people. There are a ton of cabins on a few acres of land where people are working with their hands and making a good living.
Am I unhappy with where I live? Not at all. Would it be nice to change things up? Yeah, go to an area where I can enjoy a bit more culture than Vermont has to offer.
I’m sitting in a cafe called Arabica on Seattle’s Capital Hill. This could probably be the best tasting espresso shot ever pulled. The croissant well, it’s nothing like the memories of waking up at 5AM in the northern french countryside to enjoy a croissant from a bakery in a town with 3 businesses; a bakery, a cathedral and a bar. That was the single best bread I’ve ever had but this is pretty good for an American establishment. The coffee however is excellent. Of course the cafe uses Square to accept payments. I paid with my phone! :)
In fact, I got to this cafe by hailing an individual who rents out their car to people via Lyft. I click “pick me up” on my phone and the person Michael arrived in 2 minutes. He dropped me off at the cafe and on my phone, a choice to donate $5-$15 to him was a single push of a button. I used Yelp to find out which cafe was best in this area and where to get my haircut. The last time I had a beard trim so well done was in India when they used straight razors and massage oil but this was close enough.
I miss a lot about cities. The fact that only establishments that focus on quality survive, where Yelp reviews mean something and you can hail cabs with a smartphone and pay via phone and a single FourSquare check-in leads to an old friend calling you up to have lunch because that check in triggers an alert on their phone that you’re in town. The combination of problems being solved by technology and the incredibly rich diversity of people makes cities so exciting to me. My friend Nick texted me, “On my way” with a foot-note at the end of the text, “Sent via Google Glass”. I chuckled that he’s talking to me out loud while walking but felt jealous that he has this computer on his head. It’s so futuristic as he taught me to use it.
A few times a day, I’m pondering the thought of moving here, or moving to any city like this. I won’t though knowing now that people annoy me on this level of density it’s unlikely I’d make that move. Driving around the Pacific Northwest has me thinking that this region is worth a second look. Colorado also deserves my attention but not Utah, nah I’m good with not living in Utah.
There’s a deeper misunderstanding within that has me wondering why move at all. What inside makes me think that someplace would be better than where I am currently and when will I just figure out that being back home in Florida would be the best possible thing for me. Actually, these questions don’t really have answers. I have fallen in love with Vermont. It’s a wonderful state but northwest america, outside of the cities maybe by mount Rainier or Des-chutes Oregon would be a lot of fun.
Recently, an old friend and I chatted consistently over email for over a week. We each scared each other off with our longer growing messages to each other but it was good to catch up. On a side note, since leaving social media there are so may long lost friends who have reached out. I greatly appreciate their doing that. It’s been awesome to reconnect and each of them mentions that while they followed me on Twitter or Facebook that they weren’t really connected with me. They were just following a narrative that I presented. We weren’t engaging so I’m glad to be engaged with these friends on a more direct level. Anyway, this friend and I discussed romanticism of our lives. Call it a millennial problem but she and I lamented of our ideal when it came to adulthood and that every person living has an intriguing story that I think is worth telling. It’s this romantic notion of life that had me so interested in social media and blogging as a child. The idea that one day this journey would be interesting to someone. The thought wasn’t that my story was that interesting but that everyone’s was unique and special and worth telling.
I still believe this but as I approach 30 years old, there’s this other side that realizes that the day to day isn’t all that exciting. It’s why a biography from a famous person doesn’t detail even their first kiss or the feeling they had graduating from college. Those sort of things aren’t important in the big picture and I got caught up in the small stuff and wasted a lot of time detailing it.
There is still value in chronicling ideas even privately. Maybe in a couple of years I’ll be living in a cabin in Oregon and find something romantic about this post just as I do about the post back in 2010 when I blogged about wanting to make a change in the next few months and then I got a call about a job in New Hampshire. The same kind of post was made before moving to SF so while the chances of another change are slim, I ponder it and maybe something will happen.
Above all because my readership is pretty large between family, friends and colleagues I’m very happy where I live and with the job that employs me. I have side-gigs that I can do from anywhere in the world but my 9-5 is very important to me. I could do that job remotely but it wouldn’t be the same so I won’t actively pursue any ideas here but it’s fun to think about.
Maybe a good analogy to my emotions toward big cities is that a populated area is like owning a sports car but living in conditions that are rainy, icy and cold. There is this possibility of dining at nice restaurants, meeting interesting people and having the opportunities that come with a large amount of people living in a small space but when your day to day is slow paced and you mostly work alone and prefer to be alone, those advantages are moot. Seattle has been fun to visit but after only 3 days, I’m ready to go back to Vermont and prepare for the long winter, brew some beer, roast some coffee and live out my own little hipster existence without the fancy coffee shops or technological awesomeness. Sort of do things all on my own and continue taking advantage of how lucky I am to live in one of the quietest and least populated areas of America. Because as much as I long to live in a place like Seattle or Chicago or even Austin, I equally would like to move to a cabin in northern Canada and specialize more in living off the land, making my own garments and doing my own things 100% self-sustaining. That sounds a lot more special than being another city-dweller who dabbles in home brewing.
For now, I’m just going to enjoy quite possibly the best espresso ever made and romanticize about the lives of the people in cars passing by on their way to a new adventure.
Thanks for reading. Whoever you are.