What the heck is he thinking

Julie Leung ponders,

which side of Puget Sound is God’s side?

In my opinion, there is no competition for the best side of Puget sound. It’s obvious that God favors the Olympic Peninsula. It’s at least the most awe inspiring.

Me? I’m a transplant. A Wannabe. I’m one of those people that are ruining Seattle for the natives. I do have a little bit of Pacific NW cred. My grandparents lived in Steilacoom while I was growing up. My dad went to high school around here and remembers playing “Smellingham” in football. I’ve always wanted to live here. Back when I was job hunting to get out of Wichita, KS I looked in Seattle. Interviewed a couple of times for contract positions at Microsoft. Never got a bite. I finally got a job in Albuquerque, NM at triple my existing Wichita salary. That was an easy sell, although I had never been to Albuquerque before. After each successive failure of a dot com I worked at in Albuquerque, I revisited the Seattle job market. Then I had to go and meet a girl who wasn’t ready to move just quite yet. After we got married, I mean the DAY we got back from our honeymoon, I was laid off from my last job in Santa Fe. We still weren’t quite ready to move yet, Kim still had some time left on her contract. After 6 months of futile looking on my part, I finally took a leap of faith and flew up here, giving myself one month to find a job. Hoping that Seattle wouldn’t let me down, well I had faith in my professional experience too. Seattle provided for me. I was able to find a place to rent, move up my wife and the cats (sadly not in that order).

Everyday I stop and look out of the window near my office or go out on the view deck and look across Lake Union. I marvel at a body of water that you can’t walk or jump across. I see Gasworks park, Queen Anne hill, the Fremont bridge. I drive past Husky Stadium to and from work. I can see the Space Needle when I get on the bus. I think about where we’ll go eat that weekend; if we’ll try a new place, there are hundreds, or if we’ll go to one of our favorites. The Kona kitchen. Varlamos. Dicks. Chinooks. Primo burger. The Ram. If we’ll just pick somewhere on “the ave”. If we’ll head over to Larry’s market or Safeway and pick up some fresh seafood and cook it at home. As soon as I drive somewhere new in Seattle, I can always find my way home and I always see new places I want to eat or shop or just look at.

Now, as of tomorrow, I’m an official Seattle homeowner. I’m sure kids will follow (twins apparently run in my wife’s family, a fact she failed to mention until this year ). My children will be true Seattle-ites and will wonder about where mommy and daddy used to live and look over our pictures of Kansas, New Mexico, and Arizona with wonder. They’ll be shocked by the lack of green and the over abundance of brown in New Mexico and wonder where the mountains are in Kansas (“See that bump, that’s the tallest hill in Wichita.”).

There are some things I’ll miss about New Mexico and Kansas. But Seattle is, and always has been, my home.