It seems so odd that I've lived in Seattle for four months now. Odd in both ways. On the one hand this was a huge move for me. The biggest of my life (well except for moving from California but I was nine months old so it didn't really faze me). Four months seems like a long time to have lived in this new city and to have not bothered to write and reflect. I guess I wanted to have something important to say. But four months on the other hand seems a little unbelievable because honestly, I feel like I've always lived here. I really expected that moving this far to a completely new city would shake me more. I expected a HUGE adjustment. But it hasn't really been like that.

The lifestyle here IS completely different from the Tri-Cities. But the kids and I are adjusting well. I was going to write that we were the same people and extrapolate that somehow that was why things weren't so weird. But I don't even know that that is true. We're kinda not the same people. It's been incredibly liberating to live 4 hours from my family.

And there are a lot of squirrels.

This is one of the first things that totally shocked me about Seattle. Somewhere in the back of my mind I expected things to be either the same as the TC or less. And the squirrels sort of sum that up. If I hadn't seen squirrels it wouldn't have surprised me. I didn't come looking for squirrels. Somewhere in my brain squirrels and big cities don't go together. If I had seen the same number of squirrels I probably wouldn't have noticed either. But the fact that there are TONS of squirrels everywhere stands out. And they are endlessly amusing. I'm always stopping at school to watch their antics.

There are also crows. Lots of crows. I'm not so fond of the crows. What there aren't is 'seagulls'. The ring billed gulls which I grew up calling seagulls in the TC aren't here. I've seen one. There are gulls here. Bigger ones that seem almost twice the size of what I'm used to. But we don't really see much of them and they aren't the scavenging menace of the seagulls back home.

I've noticed other things here besides the wildlife. Like garbage cans. Back home if you want to throw something away you throw it away. In the garbage can. If it's an area with a lot of paper waste there may also be a recycling bag. But here there are easily 6 options. There's mixed paper, aluminum, plastic, glass, composting, and waste. At LEAST! The other day at school I saw one where someone had cleverly rearranged and altered the letter so it read SEX TAPES! But I don't think that's standard. :)

Schools here are very different. Because Seattle lets you choose any school in Seattle that has room (and having room is a huge issue) it's one of the first things people want to know about the kids if they hear you have them. And the schools are underfunded and overcrowded and in some ways just plain weird. It would have never occurred to me to ask if a school had an art class or music class or a librarian. I thought these were pretty damn standard. But they're not. PE is. It's required. But for instance Aiden's school had PE every day. And it's their only special. They can't afford a music or art teacher. Meanwhile Kathrynn's school (yes they go to different ones because of space issues) has all of these things and she's playing the flute in band and in afterschool drama. It's a little baffling. And there are umpteen private schools which I don't have to worry about at all because I'm too poor to even consider them. Aiden's school is on the chopping block and there's a good chance it will close next year.

It snowed yesterday. Even though people had assured me it doesn't really snow in December.

I stand in the sunshine when I can find it. But I don't really miss it when I can't.

My apartment is insanely cold even though the thermastat insists it's 70.

And electricity is REALLY cheap! Like $45 a month when I was running the AC constantly.

I take the bus a lot.

I've made more friends than I expected to.

School is hard and I don't have any friends there.

So, all in all I'm amazed it's working out as well as it is. And at the same time if feels perfectly normal like I've always lived here.

Life is good.