What makes a home…home?

Have you ever thought about that? What is it that can make a place feel like home?

Yes, definitely, there are things like family, love, etc. I completely agree with that. But…for me, there are other things that make a place feel like home.

A feeling of familiarity — nothing quite says home like knowing your way around a place, knowing where a good place to eat is, or knowing where the grocery stores are. But even more than just that bit of basic familiarity is knowing where some of the not-so-well known areas are…like the parks and trails. I think, too, there’s knowing the alternate routes to get somewhere. In the Tri-Cities, it’s knowing that if the bypass (Hwy 240) is slow, you can get onto GW Way to get to Kennewick, or knowing that you can take Davidson to McMurray if even GW Way is really crowded.

There’s also familiarity with the place you’re living IN, at least for me. It’s little things like knowing where the light switches are and which one turns on what light that helps.

A feeling of comfort — you know why I think family is associated with home so much? I think it’s because, for the most part, we’re comfortable with family. We can let our hair down around family. We can be ourselves around family. The same goes for good friends – you’re familiar with them, and they’re familiar with you, and you can just have fun.

I realized recently that for me, there were some other things that made a place home…the house we live in didn’t quite feel like home until I baked bread here. For some reason, actually baking something – for me, specifically bread – was like breaking in a good pair of shoes. I was surprised what a difference it made to me. At the temporary housing, I had this almost burning ache to bake something, ANYTHING, to make the place feel a bit homey. I bought a really cheap foil cupcake baking thing, some cupcake liners, and a cheap little box of muffin mix (love Jiffy!), and the place just felt more comfy after I’d baked them!

There’s also a smell associated with home – and maybe that’s what the baking did for me, bring in that homey smell for me. But you know how a place will have a unique smell when you move into it? Having your own smell in a place adds to that feeling of home – it’s like it has YOUR smell. I know it sounds a bit weird, but I hope you get what I mean.

I guess I’ve just been thinking about all the things that make a place feel like home because of the recent move into this house. I’m still not 100% feeling like this is home, but it’s getting closer. I think when everything is unpacked and has its place, that’ll help, too.

And, maybe a few more baked goods wouldn’t hurt. 🙂

So, we’re in the Tri-Cities for a quick weekend visit. We’ve only been here a few hours, but there are a few things that I couldn’t help but notice as differences between the “West Side” and the “East Side” so far.

Traffic

I’d forgotten about traffic in the Tri-Cities. It annoys the HECK out of me! I just don’t get it. And maybe living in Seattle has added to the annoyance I remember having earlier. Do people in the Tri-Cities realize just how incredibly open the roads are? No, seriously – WHY, dear people, are we driving 55 mph in a very clear freeway with a 70 mph speed limit? See, I can understand Seattle’s traffic – it’s a heavily populated area, lots of cars, funneling into a few lanes of traffic with stop lights every block that aren’t exactly synched. So, that naturally leads to lots of cars backed up on the road. But in the Tri-Cities, there’s space between cars, there’s space between lanes, and we’re driving under the speed limit! We also watched one person keep driving with their blinker on to change lanes – with quite the open space to change into between us and the car in front of us, but until we moved, they didn’t want to move into the lane. I told Rich, “If they were in Seattle, they would have changed into that spot a long time ago!” It just cracked me up.

Speed Limit Signs

I know this sounds silly, but it took us awhile to actually FIND speed limit signs in Seattle. Then we realized why there probably aren’t that many — why bother telling people the speed limit is 50 mph when you’ll probably be going 35 mph most of the time on the road? And even when there ARE signs, it doesn’t seem like people follow them – when the roads are open, and traffic is flowing, it’s like people in Seattle are trying to make up for all the time they’ve had to spend waiting for traffic to move on other days and other times. Just because it’s 40 mph on the road doesn’t mean that anybody will be going 40 when there isn’t a delay! Try 50! Just because you can!

On our way from Pasco to Richland, I was a bit surprised how often we’re reminded of the speed limit. I told Rich at one point, “It’s a bit weird to see so many speed limit signs through here.”

Street Lighting

I forgot what it’s like to actually drive in the dark. It actually dawned on me one early morning as I was driving in to the gym before work — there are LOTS of street lights on I-5 in Seattle! And today, coming in on I-90 before the exit to 182, I was amazed at the LACK of street lights! I’ve never been all that comfy with how dark I-90 is driving past Benton City at night. I don’t think I’ve driven it enough to remember where the curves in the road are, so I feel very disoriented along the way.

The downside in Seattle is I get disoriented with how much lighting there is! There’s a Hwy 99 tunnel (Hwy 99 south) that spits you out onto Western in downtown Seattle that can really throw you off — it’s dark, but street lights are on, then suddenly you’re in near-daylight lighting in the tunnel, then it’s dark with street lights again as you get onto Western! It’s quite the eye exercise as your pupils adjust to each lighting setting.

Political Issues

Lest you think I’m going to ramble about candidates running for office, I’m not. I couldn’t think of another way to capture the difference in what suddenly matters to us now that we live in Seattle. Yes, the big issues – taxes, the economy, health care – we care about. But there are these initiatives on the ballot that we started talking about with my in-laws…related to…roads and traffic! We suddenly care whether or not the initiative to let HOV lanes become full access lanes during peak traffic hours passes or not. We suddenly care about how they’re planning on fixing the viaduct. And we’re explaining it to our family in Eastern Washington.

Oy – that just can’t be good!

So, I just read a friend’s thoughts on her being an “old married hag.” She and her hubby have been together 6.5 years (married for 2); Rich and I have been together 5.5 years (married for 4.5). She talked about spending a few days with another two couples, one engaged, one dating, and seeing the stages of the relationships. It made me think a bit, because I sometimes still step back and am amazed that Rich and I have been together as long as we have! For me, it’s an honest surprise that he’s put up with me for that long and STILL tells me he loves me. He’s put up with my exercise addictions, my health-food crazes, my moodiness and crankiness, my inability to generally take good care of myself — just all of my MANY drawbacks, and he STILL tells me he loves me.

He’s crazy.

But it’s really amazing to realize the stability that a good marriage gives you. The recent move to a new city, new company, new job, would have just killed me if I had done it all on my own. Yeah, I would have found my way, but the stress would have known no bounds! I’ll never forget Rich’s comment to me that hit me hard as we were both in the Tri-Cities still, and I was working myself up into a frenzy trying to figure out how I’d fit everything in that still needed to be done. He said simply, “You don’t have to do it all by yourself.” I couldn’t believe how much I’d been doing myself – looking for places to live, stressing about the budget, how were we going to get the house in sell-ready condition, etc. Now, I don’t know why, after 5 years together, I still was trying to do it all by myself, but, I was. And his words kind of shocked me. First, they shocked me because I realized I WAS doing it all by myself. Second, they shocked me because I realized I had someone who was supporting me, and all I had to do was let him help.

I’m also amazed at my husband because of his willingness to quit his job in the Tri-Cities and move here! Everything that entailed for him was a sacrifice in my book, and a scary one at that. And he supported me all the way. It still amazes me.

Having that constant best friend is just incredible. There really aren’t words to adequately describe it. But it’s comforting for me to realize I’ve been incredibly blessed with a man who knows me, helps me, is my best friend, and loves me deeply.

It was amazing to see our lives get packed into boxes.

It’s equally amazing to see our lives get UNpacked out of boxes!

Among the amazing nature of it is seeing how much junk is IN those boxes! WHY did I, when cleaning the bathroom, decide I was going to keep the sample sized half-empty bottle of bubble bath? Did we REALLY have that much loose change….loose? Honestly, it seems like there’s either a quarter or a dime in each box at the bottom of the box. Did we have that much loose change lying around among those items, or did the packers find that loose change in one spot and have fun just throwing one coin in each box? I’d like to think they had a sense of humor and did the latter, because the former theory is just sad.

Also amazing is where things ended up. So, if I were packing my own house, I might be inefficient in the number of boxes used, but I’d probably put everything of a certain type in one box. In other words, all of the piano books would be in a few boxes, not mixed in with random other odds and ends. The TV remote would probably be either attached to the TV somehow, or MAYBE in the same box with the DVDs and TV antenna. That’s not to say that everything is randomly thrown together, but it’s been both amusing and frustrating to find all of the pieces to things in various boxes.

And, if you looked at how our house is being unpacked, you would know something about our priorities. For example, guess what was unpacked FIRST and FOREMOST? Games. Guess what room is actually nearly complete? The GAME ROOM! And, as Rich worked on that room, what room did Z work on? The master bedroom! Next came the bathrooms. We still have no food in the fridge (unless you count hummus, carrots, lettuce, and milk – technically it’s food, but YOU make 3 filling meals out of that!), and we have LOTS of random glass bottles (again, WHY did we keep the jar that held the pickled asparagus and move it across the state?!) with a few actual Mason jars in there. We have our eating utensils, cooling racks, and a couple plastic cups…but we will haven’t found our plates, bowls, etc. So, the kitchen is KIND of done, but not really. But hey, we have a place to sleep, a place to play games, and our bathroom needs. Technically, I guess the living room is done – couch, loveseat, and coffee table. I’m still trying to find where all the piano books went, though. Oh, and as of yesterday, the entryway closet is done – all the shoes are nicely arranged. Apparently, we could care less about eating…

We still have a bunch of stuff at the apartment that we need to bring over – I’m hoping we get that all done tonight. It’d be nice to be able to do laundry in our house. We have the dirty clothes; the apartment has the detergent.

In other news – we learned NOT to drive to IKEA on Saturday. Bad idea. It didn’t rain this time, though; both times we’d gone before, it was dark and pouring rain after being dry all day. We were wondering if we’d ever make it to IKEA without it being dark and pouring rain! And we met some people that play games! We hung out with them Saturday and Sunday evening; it was nice to play a few games with people. And we actually are finding our way around Seattle without the GPS on occasion! Now THAT’S exciting stuff!

Happy birthday to Z – well, a week late, but still. 🙂

I feel like my life is a little cliche now. Upper 20’s, living in Seattle, working downtown, for Microsoft. One of my brothers-in-law mentioned that as he wished me happy birthday, and I didn’t realize how true it was! Cliche though it may seem, I’m having fun.

We found a house, and our stuff is now out of storage! WOOHOO!! We slept in our big, comfy, KING SIZED BED last night for the first time since the end of August. What an incredibly large and comfy bed. I’d like to still be there, but, alas, I have work to do.

The house we found is right off of I-5, so we get lulled to sleep by the soothing sounds of the freeway. Last night, those soothing sounds were masked by the fan in the room, thankfully. We’ll probably be getting a white noise maker this weekend to help with that. But, honestly, it’s not that bad, just takes some getting used to. What’s really nice is how close it is to I-5 and the express lanes, so getting to and from work takes only a few minutes – HURRAY! And it’s pretty close to everything while still being a nice residential area. It’s also a more modern house, so it’s pretty updated, and the master bedroom fit our bed AND dresser – bonus!! It seemed like very few of the houses we looked at DID have a bedroom large enough. It also has a bathroom attached to the master bedroom, which is another bonus. The living areas are smaller than our house in Pasco, but roomy enough to still be comfortable. It does make me miss our house, though. Moving from temporary housing to not-so-temporary housing gives the move to Seattle a bit more of an air of finality to it, and I’m surprised at the effect it’s had on me. As much as I’ve been enjoying Seattle, I miss home, and last night, I really missed our house, the yard, the familiarity of it all. Being in temp housing in downtown, I guess I felt more like I was playing – now it’s like everything is “really for real.” We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Last weekend was my birthday, and we had friends visit from Tri-Cities. It was a blast having them and their kids here, especially on my birthday!! We had a FABULOUS dinner of crab and seafood at the Crab Pot. I think it’s going to be a tradition while we’re here – I haven’t had that much fun eating in a long time! And it was GOOD food – fresh seafood! Seriously, you can’t go wrong with a dinner of clams, crabs, and shrimp! (At least, not if you’re a big seafood fan like I am!) Someone in the group had mentioned that it was my birthday, so our waitress came out while the table was being cleaned off and asked if we wanted dessert. We kind of just looked at each other, and then she said, “Since it’s your birthday, it’ll be on the house, so you might not want to pass up a chance to try something…” I voted for the strawberry rhubarb cake. Of course, we were expecting a single serving, that we could probably share. But, instead, we got a WHOLE CAKE!!! It was baked in a loaf pan, yellow cake with strawberry rhubarb topping, served with ice cream! We were VERY impressed, not just with the cake, but with the fact it was a WHOLE loaf cake! And the waitress came out, had lit a candle for the cake, and, all by herself, started singing, “Happy Birthday to you…” I was surprised she even started singing by herself! Rich and our friends all joined in so she didn’t continue singing by herself, but it was GREAT. That will be a dinner to be remembered!

This weekend will be internet-less and full of unpacking boxes – here’s to finding places for all our stuff this weekend!!

I’m 28 today! WOOHOO!!! Friends of ours came up to visit this weekend, so we’re going to be celebrating with them – yay!

So – happy birthday, Z, you have a place to live for the next year starting next week that’s updated and has space for you, your husband, and your stuff!

Well, Rich is HERE!!! I almost titled this, “Long-distance marriage is OVER!” but then I realized that didn’t sound right. The truth is, Rich’s last day of work was today, and he’s now HERE – no more depressing end-of-weekend goodbye’s. No more tears on the phone every night saying goodbye. My best friend is here, so now we can drive each other up the wall worrying about him finding a job he actually wants and finding a place to call home. Yes, we have a place reserved, but there’s always this…”what else is available” thing that lurks in the background. That, and we have a “rental tour” to go on tomorrow; the relocation company set us up with a rental specialist who has our laundry list of items we want and need in a place we’ll live in. That specialist has scoured the listings and will be taking us to various places to view the properties. We’ll see if anything ends up beating the house we applied for last weekend. I think it might be tough to beat the convenience, at least.

So, I meant to blog earlier about this, but I finally took a spin class at the gym. In short, I don’t think it’s worth the money and should be offered free.

Here’s the thing – I was at a gym where the spin class teachers wore cycling shoes, cycling gear, and sounded quite out of breath with you as they taught the class. Yes, maybe at times the fact that the classes were based on a prescribed formula might seem a little old, but it was always consistently a fantastic workout.

The class I went to here was taught by a girl who I think is probably a good aerobics instructor, but had no cycling experience. She had no gear on – no, not necessary, but I’m used to the cycling instructor at least having the cycling shoes. Most of the people in the CLASS wore the cycling shoes that clipped in. It was an hour long class, and it didn’t even remind me of the occasional “spin-only” class I had done! We pretty much went either 80 rpm or somewhere over 100 rpm on the bikes (equipped with gadgets that measure distance, rpm, etc.). No “reach out to race,” a little climbing, but no “give me more if you’ve got it!” No intervals, either. The teacher never seemed to break more than MAYBE 110 rpm – this guy next to me probably never went UNDER 110 rpm. I finally started doing my own thing, then decided I’d never go back.

The two free classes at the gym actually seem to be better than that spin class – one’s a 25 minute ab class (I did that Monday, after spin, and my abs STILL ache!!!), and the other is a step class. The guy that teaches the step class is AWESOME. He’s gay, he’s hilarious, he’s energetic, and he keeps the beat. The ONLY thing is that, though he keeps the beat, he’s sometimes off on the 8-counts. But, hey, he’s ON the beat, and that’s good for me. I told him after the first class that I actually had done BodyStep, and he commented that the class he’d just taught was probably a walk in the park, then! Well, not quite – I gave it my all and had aching calves for the weekend. I did his class again this last Wednesday, after doing my own RPM (a little scaled down, since I wanted to do the step class), and still enjoyed it. I think it might be a keeper.

So, that’s the gym right now. I’m actually getting into an evening workout groove, though I think I’ll need to change back to mornings again with Rich here, so that he and I can actually have time together in the evenings.

I’ll have to write about my Metro Transit adventures later…let’s just say it wasn’t bad, sure beat having to deal with traffic, but I got so confused with all the routes and stops! And when it’s getting dark, and you’re in downtown Seattle, of the female persuasion, you’d rather you knew what bus was going to get you home.

To add to the things that are incredibly different in Seattle…grocery shopping.

It seems like the really big grocery store in Seattle is Safeway. Following that is QFC – not to be confused with KFC or QVC. There are a couple of Fred Meyer stores, and then there are the rest… So far, I’ve tried a Safeway (it’s still spendy in Seattle to shop there), a Grocery Outlet (don’t know if it was the neighborhood or the store, but WORST EXPERIENCE GROCERY SHOPPING EVER!), a QFC (not too bad, but still a wee pricy it seemed), a Fred Meyer (similar prices to the Tri-Cities), and now…a Trader Joe’s.

Oh – and a home-delivery fresh produce service.

For uniqueness at a pretty good price, Trader Joe’s totally wins out. I was surprised that the prices weren’t higher than they actually were! And it made me happy and adventurous. For example, tonight’s dinner is chicken stir-fry served over cous cous! Their fish selection (frozen) was incredible, and it was just plain fun to shop there!

I’m not sure where the others stand, really. But it IS different going grocery shopping in Seattle – at least it feels like it to me. Maybe it’s just because I’m so accustomed to the fact that in the Tri-Cities, you basically have the super WalMarts, Wincos, and Fred Meyers to shop at. Yes, you have Safeway, but when was the last time YOU in the Tri-Cities saw a Safeway parking lot actually be FULL?

I think I’ll end up at either QFC or Trader Joe’s for groceries from now on. And, when I feel an itch for home, I’ll hit the gargantuan Fred Meyer up north.

Went to grab lunch today with some others from the team…walked down Westlake to the Whole Foods Market where I picked up a little chicken tika masala, a little cucumber salad, a little lemon quinoa, and a little bulgur with cranberries. Oh – I also picked up a few pieces of a smoked sweet potato salad (which was surprisingly spicy – not my favorite). Rich called while I was eating to say he was going out to pick up something to eat (he’s still in Richland) and I told him I was just eating my lunch that I’d picked up. “What’d you pick up?” As I listed the contents to him, he commented, “That’s not fair!!” I remembered what’s nearby work in Richland and felt very sorry for him…quick pick-ups are Taco Bell and maybe something from the Safeway deli (which doesn’t include chicken tika masala!).

I love Seattle.

Well, it was another AWESOME weekend with Rich here. I’m so glad this will be our last week having to do the long distance thing. It has truly sucked all month long. It’s like the ultimate roller coaster – bummed during the week, getting teary every night having to say goodnight over the phone, then so happy during the weekend, only to end up depressed Sunday when he has to leave again. It’s hard not being there for him during the week, too, knowing that he’s got a ton to do at work. It’s also tough to remember how stressful leaving a job really is – tying up loose ends, trying to make sure you leave the best impression behind, dealing with the stress of who is going to take over what to keep customers happy because you never know who can end up having a say in your future career so you really don’t want to leave anything hanging, then suddenly waking up one morning realizing it’s just impossible to do it all…but still hoping a miracle will happen that lets you DO it all. Vicious cycle. Then, suddenly, it’s all over. It’s just crazy. But the happy news is…Rich will be here Friday night, and we won’t have to say goodbye Sunday afternoon!!! HURRAYYYYYY!!!!!

This weekend with Rich was a little longer than most because he came with his sister, Val, and her kids Thursday night. I did have to work Friday, but got home somewhere around 4pm to hang out with the family. It was great seeing Nick, Val, and their kids! I was sad I didn’t get to hang out with them at the Pacific Science Center – I would have LOVED to see the nephews going through the exhibits there. It’s a fun place. By the time I got off work, everyone was starving, so we walked down the piers for seafood and hit some of the shops. Rich kept telling me I could NOT buy Seattle souvenirs now that I was an official resident of Seattle. Dang it.

The Kunde family left Friday night, though we were expecting them to stay at our apartment overnight and leave Saturday. The boys were exhausted from walking ALL day, though. I was so sad to see our oldest nephew, Mason (7), just start crying about leaving Richie’s. Rich is a very fun uncle – he has all the games! Mason started crying when Val announced they had to go home, and just kept crying through the packing of the car and leaving! So sad! I’m sure he was going to miss Rich far more than me, though. I didn’t play with them nearly as much as Rich did. So, it stunk for me, but they’ll be up again later, and, hopefully by then, I’ll be able to take some time to hang out with them more.

Saturday was spent on the road, looking for a place to call “home” for more than a couple of months. We ended up applying for one house that’s actually very close to my work, very close to South Lake Union and downtown Seattle. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best we’ve found so far!! We actually could see our stuff fitting into the house, though it’s only a two-bedroom house. You’d think 2 bedrooms would be enough for Rich and I (it IS only the two of us, after all), but we do have a guest bed, and all the games, and the computer. But it did seem large enough to be able to fit our tall dining table (without feeling cramped), and there was built-in shelving in the downstairs bedroom that looked absolutely PERFECT for the games. And the place had been updated pretty well – brand new carpet, recently painted, new stove, BIG open kitchen – we really could see ourselves living there. OH – and off-street parking (it’s on one of the bigger roads, so that was important). So, the application is in, we have the rental tour with the rental specialists (part of the relocation package) this weekend, and we’ll see if we find anything better from that. If not, at least we have an application in for this house. I see the light at the end of the tunnel for the housing search, and it makes me VERY happy, though also VERY nervous about signing an agreement for a house that isn’t absolutely perfect (though the it’s by FAR the closest we’ve seen yet) and VERY nervous about signing for it while the house back in Pasco still hasn’t sold.

Anybody want to buy our house?

Please?

Another fun thing about the weekend — the debate over who gets to drive the XTerra once it’s here this coming weekend. I REFUSE to drive that while we live here, because going to work is all uphill. The gym is ALSO an uphill drive. So NO, not driving it. I told Rich tonight I’d rather walk to work than drive the XTerra, even if it’s raining outside.

Of course, he said that was fine with him.

Seriously, though, I’d much rather walk or take the bus than do uphill driving on the XTerra. I’m sure I’d scream all the way to work and to the gym. I’m sure the people driving around me would scream, too.

So, another fun week of work ahead – and the last week of having to be apart from my hubby!! WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!