SNOW!

I woke up yesterday morning to SNOW! I rushed Mark outside right as it started to accumulate, and we walked to the park. This is what Cal Anderson Park looks like with snow:



















By the time we left the park, about 3 inches of snow had accumulated. And it was the nice crunchy, packable snow that is good for snowmen and snowballs. So I made a snowman. This is what I look like making a snowman:


















This is what my snowman looked like:























This is what the house across the street from our apartment looks like:


















And then we took Abbey out. Now, Abbey usually hates the cold, so we figured she would hate snow. But she was as thrilled as I was. Lots of dogs were frolicking around Cal Anderson, like her friend in this picture:


And she loves chasing snowballs, but she couldn't figure out where they went when they disintegrated on impact.

For the record, she is wearing a long sleeve from a teeshirt with a sweater I knitted over it.

Here is one more picture of Abbey. I will put more on facebook soon.

Any investing tips?

Mark and I are interested in starting to invest money in mutual funds. Not just any mutual funds... green mutual funds. This satisfies me both on moral grounds, and the fact that I think green business has a damn good future. The one I like is Winslow Green Growth.... but it takes about a 2500 dollar initial investment... Money we don't have right now. So, if anyone wants to donate a little cash to our cause, I'll pay you back in 10 years. Or, you can just give us investing tips, 5 people who read this.

My neighborhood is walkable!

My address received a 95/100 walkability score. My address in Mississippi? 3/100. One of the reasons I love where I live. Check out your score on the widget I've downloaded.

Capitol Hill

My neighborhood is called Capitol Hill. If you're interested in reading about it, go to this link, which sums the neighborhood up REALLY well! Capitol Hill is this weird conglomeration of homeless people and mansions and a huge population of hipsters. I would wager that it's the most diverse neighborhood in Seattle.

On the map, It's the hot pink section in the center. You can see how close it is to downtown (to the west) and the U-District (to the North). I live a block away from Broadway, which is the main commercial strip on the hill. I live a block away from Cal Anderson park (a renovated reservoir) and from Mark's favorite coffee spot, Espresso Vivace. The best part of the neighborhood is the LOCATION! I can walk to an endless number of bars and restaurants in 10 minutes. Two QFC's (same as Kroger, for you southerners) are within walking distance, and I can even walkdown the hill, over the interstate to the famous Pike Place Market in 30 minutes (but a bus takes 5 or 10). The all-natural pet store where we get Abbey's food has two locations within 1o minutes of me. I'm 2 blocks away from two bus stops that each get to the U-District in about 20 minutes (though driving, it would only be 5-10).

You can get ANYWHERE on the bus, and being a UW student gets me a super cheap bus pass (45 bucks for 3 months! That's only 1 1/2 tanks of gas in my car!). And you never have to worry about parking. It's glorious.

I also just found out that my apartment is getting a used book store on the main floor! Our apartment building is small (only 9 units), but it has a small commercial level that has been unused for quite a while. Since Capitol Hill is getting lite rail (which will take 10 years, but they're starting construction NOW), many businesses are being displaced, and one of our neighborhood's book stores is MOVING IN!!! This is exciting news.


Another great thing about Capitol Hill is the street art. Different dance steps are inlaid on the sidewalks around Broadway and Pike/Pine. So far I've found these steps: Waltz, cha-cha, rumba, bus stop, and tango....

Welcome

So here I am, in Seattle. It's taken 2 months to actually start posting in this blog, and it's been getting more and more difficult to start because life gets more interesting every day. I'm a little sad to have missed posting on those first few days where I was so overwhelmed. My view of life now is so adjusted.

To do a very quick recap. I have moved across the country to go to graduate school at the University of Washington. I'm working toward two Master's degrees. One, an MPA (public affairs) from UW's Evans School, with an emphasis in environmental nonprofit management. The other is an MS from the College of Forest Resources. I don't really have a concentration there yet, and part of it may depend on where my money comes from. But, I'm looking generally towards the social science realm. Right now I'm really interested in urban renewal (making cities more livable by installing parks, green roofing and pavement, increasing urban agriculture, etc.) and for one of my classes I'm doing a pretty extensive annotated bibliography dealing with urban renewal and gentrification as it relates to environmental justice. It'll be a good intro to the topic, and I'm hoping that the project will give me a better idea of whether or not I want to be involved in that area.

I've also moved into an apartment with my boyfriend Mark. This, of course, caused no small amount of drama with his ultra-conservative parents and sister and now i feel awkward around them all. Lovely. Fortunately, my family viewed it much more favorably and thanks to them and Mrs. Lynn, we were able to put together a very nice apartment. It's maybe500 square feet? I'm not sure entirely, but it looks like a real home. I have a huge nesting influence, so it was really important to me to settle in quickly and well. You can view pictures of it here.

I had my own doubts about the decision to move in together, but they have since been completely thrown out the window. It is the most comfortable, wonderful situation I could ever hope for. At least for me... I think I might nag mark too much for his tastes, but he doesn't seem to mind. IT IS SO NICE TO BE TOGETHER, FINALLY! We spent 4 1/2 years apart, and only got to see each other every couple of months, most of the time. That meant that every time we did see each other, there was this underlying pressure for me that everything had to be great and memorable and wonderful. Now that pressure is gone, and it's perfect and relaxed.

We also have Abbey, the dog. She's a little terrier/Italian greyhound mix.
Abbey is about a year old and acts like it. The world revolves around her. If Mark and I are hugging, she jumps into the middle of us (an "Abbey Sandwich"). If Mark is playing piano, she sits on his lap. If she wants to play squeaky ball, she will hit us with the ball over and over again until we comply (and squeaks it incessantly, in case we're having trouble locating it.)

Other than that, keeping Abbey is easy. We do have to walk her 4 times a day, rain or shine, but it's a good excuse to get outside. There's a nice park a block away from us, where we take her, and some times let her off leash to roam around with other dogs. There are also a number of off-leash parks, including one with lake access, that we can take her too. Capitol Hill (and Seattle, in general) is VERY dog friendly.... you can take them anywhere except restaurants (and even then, you can eat outside with them!) and grocery stores. You can even take them on the bus! Everywhere Abbey goes, she makes dog and people friends. Abbey also likes apartment living, and kennels well when mark and I are at school. But, her favorite things is to sun on one of our oversized window sills. You can see pictures of Abbey doing that here.