Caffeinated Day 1

Seattle.

Day one.

I am starting my northwest bike job adventure at a coffee shop. Verite Cupcake Shop in Ballard in Seattle. I say this only because the ceramic cups, the cool air (in comparison to the steamy heat of DC), the hip coffee shop women with pink bangs cut into the shape of V on their forehead, the dads walking around with babies in backpacks, the dogs sitting underneath tables, the boutique hip-semi-orthopedic shoes, the Kavu shop, the Indian flute music and the bicycles that are everywhere is everything that the northwest is to me right now. Ask me again in a month. I’m curious what I would add or delete from that list. This list is part of the illusion tied into my job hunt since for me it has always been about the big picture of place, job and life versus the particulars of employment, simple.

I’ve decided I need some litmus, some way to measure this trip.

It seems worth it, however, to try to look past the superficial statistics like the ratio of locally owned coffee shops to Starbucks in a radius around an intersection, the number of micro-brew beers on tap per capita, the variations of definition of “northwest hippy” given to me (not because I asked but willingly offered up by numerous “indigenous” Northwesterners when trying to describe their homeland). I should stick to quantifiable, empirical data like my carbon footprint, the number of firms I visit or the number of miles traveled on a pie chart sorted by mode of transportation. Yet when all these factors are listed, it seems like none of the information is really irrelevant. Since I am looking for the entire package, every bit of this information is critical. In fact, it’s like a landscape analysis, charting drainage patterns, eco-tones and transit stops to determine “quality of life”. And the recipes can be quite different. Would I take a job in Washington because the opportunity to work on frequent international assignments and being close(r) to my family would heavily factor into the reality that I would have to plan ‘mountains’ into the weekend, not into my afternoon. Or consider working in Seattle where bankers bike commute, my ‘fancy fleece’ and flip flops count as dressing up and the flight attendant on the way here recounted her last hike up Mt. Ranier with the fact that I’m just as far from my east coast family as I was in Switzerland, and diversity thus far (and I realize this is day one, in a hip Seattle neighborhood) extends to Chaco color scheme. But, well, gosh… this is a useful exercise since I am having a hard time coming up with other low-weighted reasons in this city at the moment. It’s no new discovery that Seattle is a pretty awesome spot!

If coffee shop radii is just as important as 401k, here is what I’ve come up with:

Friends visited

Coffee shop camped in for computer sessions (name, music played, coffee consumed)

Miles by bike/bus/train/car

Head laid in/on couch/tent/floor/bed

Firm meetings

- 3 adjectives used to describe the ‘state of the profession’ (by interviewer)

- 3 adjectives used to describe the work they are doing currently (by interviewer)

Firms that ignored me

Flat tires

Bike mates

I’d love suggestions for this list. Critique away!