Photos a go-go

Here they are. Now hurry up and plan your trip.

The front door

Kitchen

Living room

Patio in back

Full bath (there's a half bath on the first floor)

I HAVE AN APARTMENT!

It's official. I move in on Thursday and I'm nowhere near ready or packed, but what good is college if you can't remember how to fill out a blue book or pull an all-nighter? It makes up for its size in its cuteness, and I can't wait to have you all as my guests in it. I'll post photos in the next couple of days for those of you who haven't seen them yet.

On a small side baseball note, 7 2/3 innings for a rookie with 7 Ks and still no victory? Your homework is this: Go to the Dome and root for my boys. They need you. You need them. And I need them to need you and you to need them. Everything covered? Good. Now go. And go a lot. And cheer loudly.

And while you're at it, book your flights to Seattle now. My place is really cute and I can't wait to show you my adopted city.

New best friends

Whew. Been a long week of working. Have worked the past two weekends, last weekend both Saturday and Sunday, 8+ hour days. Welcome to the glamour of advertising!

But I'm liking what I'm doing. We're on a big hush, hush pitch that I'd tell you about, but then I'd have to kill you. In addition to that, working on two pretty big projects for T-Mobile. It's going well and I'm figuring out where my cog fits in this giant wheel.

Started working with a couple of freelancers from L.A. and think that I've found another kindred spirit in a writer named Emilia. She's hilarious and we got along instantly upon meeting. Huge smartass and has a million funny stories about growing up in a Mexican family but still being mistaken for either a white girl or an Asian girl. We giggle so much we have to separate ourselves so we actually get work done.

As a result of a bunch of us being new to town, have gone out and had fun the past few nights at dinner, etc. It's nice because none of us know where we're really going, but are all up for new adventures. Had dinner tonight at a great place in Capitol Hill that Randall, an AD from my department, took us to. It was really cool. Everyone here is really helpful and friendly and, unlike Minnesotans, will ACTUALLY call you to hang out and go out to dinner or have beers, instead of just talking about how fun it would be and then never calling you (I'm just as guilty as anyone else). Helps a lot to make me feel more comfortable.

Looked at The World's Cutest Apartment yesterday. I arrived promptly at 10:00 a.m. for the showing...along with at least 8 other applicants. I might have to stoop to desperate measures if this doesn't turn out. It's that great. I was already planning where a little herb garden would go and imagining all of you coming to hang out for a long weekend or more. It's totally perfect for me. Feel like I need to figure out how to get sneak previews of places just to get a jump on the competition. But fear not, my potential visitors! I'm going to find something great, it's just going to have to be perfect timing. Am still crossing all fingers and toes and dusting off my rosary so that I get this place. Lower level duplex in a Victorian house, circa 1906. Did I mention how cute it was? Should find out this weekend, so send all your positive thoughts my way.

If I rent it, you will come. Right?

I spell it O-L-D.

Ventured out and went to my first live show in Seattle. Saw World Party, a band I learned to love in my college days. They played at a really cool, small venue called Neumo's. Despite the giant clown on their website (deep breath) and the other giant scary clown above the door of the place (another deep breath), it was fantastic. The band was amazing and Carl Wallinger sounded as good as he did with the Waterboys. Hooray!

Played all their great stuff, including one of my all-time favorite songs ever (no, really), "Sweet Soul Dream." The lyrics get me every time:

I got rare '61 Beatles/I got a film of my dreams
But I'd burn lose them all/burn them all
Go along without all of it/give up the chances I see
If you'd/take me up/raise me up/let me know the heart of it
Give me your sweet soul dream/Give me your sweet soul dream.

Didn't feel at all weird or uncomfortable. I was among other fellow nerds who, probably a lot grayer and fatter than when the album came out, still know all the words to all their songs. I hope it's the first among many great live shows. Really, is there anything better?

I like Seattle.

P.S.

Twins 4, Tigers 3.

My boys are on fiiii-yah!

Neither rain, nor snow, nor retardation...

I swear, my life is a sitcom.

Before I left Minneapolis, I arranged for FedEx to pick up four packages and have them shipped to Seattle. Two to my office, two to my apartment. Simple, right? Of course not. They delivered each of them to the wrong place. Not a big deal unless you don't have your car here yet and live about 3/4 of a mile from work.

The worst part? I had to admit to my new co-workers that the giant plastic Rubbermaid container (yeah, the BIG one...25 gallon size) contained my shoes. But what I kept from them is that's not all my shoes. It's just my summer shoes. For those of you who know the addiction, believe me, there's something kind of sad when you have to measure your collection in cubic feet.

I ended up taking a cab to work this morning with the two huge boxes of office stuff and was going to take a cab home tonight, but would've had to wait about an hour until the Faith Hill/Tim McGraw concert crowd died down. Hmmm. Guess I didn't know people still listened to country music.

Looked at a couple more apartments this week. The showing I went to last night began at 5:00 and when I got there at 4:55 (yes, I was actually early for something) there were already 8-10 people filling out applications. I filled one out, too and I believe they were checking my references today, so that's a good sign. It's an apartment that's just behind this absolutely adorable craftsman house in upper Queen Anne. The neighborhood is super cool and the house is in a fairly quiet part of it. We'll see.

My friend Brad who knows everything about everything and everyone, has pals out here whom he went to college with. Ever The Coolest Guy I Know, he introduced us over e-mail and I met them last night for my first official Seattle happy hour. Hallelujah! I've been saved! I'm starting to wonder if people at work really go out or if they're making it up. No invites to happy hour, etc. yet, so I may take matters into my own hands on Friday. If Mohammad won't come to the mountain, the mountain pulls the new kid card and sends out a department e-mail to play on their sympathies.

I finally have a camera, so soon there will be the added fun of photos of my super exciting life. Riveted, aren't you?

We are the world

First things first, I was happy to see the Twins pulled out a win tonight. Don't forget, I'm counting on all of you back home to take care of my boys while I'm gone. They need all of us, no matter what time zone we're in.

Yesterday I learned an important lesson about Seattle: just because it looks close on the map, doesn't mean you can walk there in a short amount of time becuase SEATTLE HAS A BUNCH OF HUGE FREAKIN' HILLS.

Yep. Gave myself about 10 minutes to walk up to the top of Queen Anne from the bottom of Queen Anne. The walk was actually really good, just took waaaaay longer than I thought it would because of the incline. And my calves were on fire by the time I got to the place, so I had to just keep walking around (milling about, milling about), until they started to feel normal again. Point taken.

Today at work one of the honchos from Publicis Groupe (notice the fancy "e," it means he's from our global HQ in Paris) spoke at our all-agency meeting. Now, I've been through my share of agency meetings where the brass gets up in front of everyone and blah, blah, blahs about where things are going, shows new work, etc. But this guy blew me away. He spoke about some of that stuff, but mainly about how the big dogs in Europe are genuinely impressed with our office. And it really hit home all the places there are Publicis agencies. And how incredibly diverse our agency is, just in Seattle alone. They've given us a huge assignment that they've pulled away from the agency in San Francisco that could totally put us on the map, not just within the U.S., but globally as well. It's a huge vote of confidence from them and is pretty exciting. I also had to stand up in front of the whole agency (250 strong) because I'm one of the new kids. Thank god it wasn't like when I started at Colle + McVoy and they called my family ahead of time to get dirt on me so they could embarass me. I still haven't forgiven my sisters for that stunt. Bitches.

I've also decided that Seattle is the Land of Unusual Names. Maybe it's just because I work at an ad agency, but here is just a sampling of the names of people I've met in one week, in no particular order: Randall, Vlad, Nicholae, Mattson, Barrie (a woman), Alistair (Yankees fan, so he sucks) and Gethin. More to come on that front, I'm sure.

They're closing one of the bridges on a major freeway at various times over the next few days so the Blue Angels can practice. I guess they close the bridge to avoid people from stopping on the road and staring at the sky. I thought that was funny, and then kind of sad. Brings the term "gawker's slowdown" to a whole new level.

In through the nose, out through the mouth

I'm in shoe hell until one of my giant boxes arrives later this week. So, I thought I'd do my research and plot out where my nearest DSW is.

That would be in Oregon, 154 miles away. Where am I? Ugh. Help me, my peeps.