Hello, Seattle

I've officially been back in the Emerald city for a little over a week now. The first big hurdle was getting my live, potted plants on the plane - three in all - which was easier than I expected, despite having to remove one of them from the bag and laying it on its SIDE to go through the x-ray screener. My planes were mostly empty and despite snow in Denver I was only mildly late, so that by 1 am I had eaten at the Gyrocery on University Ave for the first time in I don't know how long.

The next and final step in the moving process was collecting my boxes from Amtrak. Dropping my boxes off in Philadelphia was probably the most stressful event of the entire moving ordeal (not that it was an ordeal, quite the opposite in fact). Within 2 minutes the handlers had busted open an entire box and had to frantically tape it back together. I tried to remain calm and asked if my boxes - all 355 pounds of them - would be placed on a pallet. The guy said, nah. I said, please? (Bearing in mind they had to transfer in both DC AND Chicago.) Perhaps to prevent a scene he relented, bu until I actually saw the pallet in Seattle I was convinced he just told me that to get rid of me. I was told they would arrive in Seattle at 10:30 on Tuesday morning, and by 10:38 I'd gotten the call. The boxes were all in good shape, fit easily into the car, and unloaded without a hitch in good old LFP. If you're ever moving across the country and don't have furniture, I highly recommend Amtrak - the whole shebang cost a mere $207 (anxiety not included).

Since then I've been making the rounds, seeing as many people as possible and fitting in as much work as possible, too. I attended two successful Christmas parties over the weekend and feel like I could live off the calories I consumed in 18 hours for the next week. Otherwise I have very little to report, except that Seattle has made a liar out of me ("It doesn't rain that much!") since it has rained every day since I got back, and promises to for the next 10 days in a row. Nothing says Merry Christmas like a gray sky and a soggy ground.