I’ve now lived in Seattle for one year, so I thought I’d write up a little list of things I have learned about Seattle in my short time here.
Things people in Seattle apparently like:
- Knee-high boots
- Roundabouts
- Not knowing how to properly use roundabouts
- Subarus
- Outdoor activities (camping, hiking, climbing, kayaking)
- Nice sunglasses (which seems odd, given the weather)
- Complaining about their not-that-terrible weather
- Not carrying umbrellas
- Making it known to you that they don’t carry umbrellas
- Galoshes (which seems contradictory, given the umbrella thing)
- Fighting gentrification that has already happened
- Having a selection of 23 craft beers, even though they’re all the same variety
- Using turn lanes to merge into traffic
- Condos!
- Mediocre coffee
Feel free to add more in the comments!
Being passive aggressive
Lacking a sense of fashion (“you mean I can’t wear this REI fleece to the opera?”)
Adamantly refusing sensible public transportation
Subversively marketed but mediocre cupcakes
Ben: There are heaps of roundabouts near my work, and I cringe every day I drive through them, as invariably there’s always someone taking a left by turning in front of the rotary-bit, or people treating it like a four-way stop and glaring at me for just blowing right through when I have right of way. You’d think they think it’s a regular intersection that has a strange flowerpot in the middle.
I will say that Seattle’s drivers simply destroy the insipid jackasses I had to deal with every day in Utah, though. They’re just a bit slow on the draw and timid.
Jim Ray: so you’re saying you don’t like cupcake royale… ;) Frankly, I’m not that impressed either, and the tea I got there was terrible.
I realize this is a horribly old post, and trolling isn’t usually my thing, but, uh – yeah, I think roundabouts should be outlawed. I live in Western North Carolina. There are two in the entire county – it’s a teardrop figure 8. One lane, I might add. Living in the south, people are overly polite. The little old ladies STOP to let people in. The tourists, confused by the entire thing, rather than rounding the 8, round the point of the teardrop and cut traffic off. Also, there’s one turning lane in the entire county. People screw that up here like they do Seattle, apparently. I just don’t understand, honestly – you can’t wait to turn left, so you hop in the turning lane to merge? The time this tactic usually takes, they could have just rounded the block and hit the stoplight to hang their Luey. Sorry. Didn’t know it peeved me that much. Thanks for the outlet!