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Into the Woods
I say that Mike lives in the middle of nowhere, which is largely true, at least compared to things like Tokyo. I mean, I say that *I* live in the middle of nowhere as far as normal Tokyo things are concerned, after all, and that's still a crowded area with tons of houses and stuff. At least there, I can be at a convenience store in 5 minutes walking or 2 on bike, and get to the big station area with the shopping and whatnot in about a 10-minute walk. But out here in Sammamish, you can only see a handful of neighbors' houses at any time, and there really isn't anything within 5-10 minutes of walking.
Infact, the closest thing is a shopping center about a mile away, so more like 20 minutes walk. It's definitely got most of the stuff you need for regular errands, like a Safeway and a drugstore and whatnot, and then there are a handful of other stores around, and some fast food like Subway and Quizno's and Jack in the Box and McDonald's, and a Coldstone and a Papa John's and some other food options I'm less familiar with, and there's also a Game Stop. I ended up getting lunch at Subway and then crossing over to the other half of the shopping area.
There is a Chase bank, which I went to so I could take out some money. Except, amusingly, they only have one ATM, and it is the drive-thru. I was kinda like "Uhhh... am I allowed to go use that one?" "Sure! Just be careful not to get hit by a car." But instead I decided to just go ahead and withdraw money from an actual human teller. I guess it's useful to know what's there, anyway.
I did the Safeway thing and then came home, and the entire expedition took about an hour and a half. I think if I rode a bike that'd cut it down to less than an hour.
There's also a bigger shopping plaza thing near where we usually get on 520. It has a Whole Foods, and a Chipotle, and all this other stuff, BUT it is like 4-5 miles from here and it involves a huuuuuuge hill to get to/from there. It's decent on car but I'm not about to walk that (it'd take me an hour and a half). Maybe I'll try to bike it sometime too.
I dunno. Trying to imagine actually living here. It's kind of weird, of course. I saw deer walking on the main road, and there are frogs ribbitting in the backyard, and a guy down the street raises chickens and they cluck around on his land. It's really different from Tokyo. Heck, if I want to get a bus, the closest bus stop is where that Safeway is, and I'm not even sure where the heck the buses there go to. (Err... I just looked it up. There is a route that goes to Overlake, and another that goes to Issaquah, but they basically only really run during commuter prime times. Argh. There really must be an assumption out here that everyone has a car.) I guess once I got a job it would be irrelevant anyway, and Mike and I could carpool, but right now it's a bit odd. Hoping to get a ride up to Overlake tomorrow and I'll bus to Seattle for the daytime.
At least it's peaceful. If I had a better attention span, this would be a great place to just sit and write.
Anyway, we also watched the movie Up yesterday, which was cute. I'd never seen it before, and it was indeed quite fun and funny while still being quite sad at times. It makes me think I should also try to catch up and see Wall-E one of these years, since I missed that one due to US/Japan timing as well.
Now I am basically here working on a baseball blog entry and trying to come up with an idea for something I can write into a puzzle, but my current best idea requires me to go up to Redmond and scout a location, so bleh. I guess when Mike's home we can both try to figure something out.
Infact, the closest thing is a shopping center about a mile away, so more like 20 minutes walk. It's definitely got most of the stuff you need for regular errands, like a Safeway and a drugstore and whatnot, and then there are a handful of other stores around, and some fast food like Subway and Quizno's and Jack in the Box and McDonald's, and a Coldstone and a Papa John's and some other food options I'm less familiar with, and there's also a Game Stop. I ended up getting lunch at Subway and then crossing over to the other half of the shopping area.
There is a Chase bank, which I went to so I could take out some money. Except, amusingly, they only have one ATM, and it is the drive-thru. I was kinda like "Uhhh... am I allowed to go use that one?" "Sure! Just be careful not to get hit by a car." But instead I decided to just go ahead and withdraw money from an actual human teller. I guess it's useful to know what's there, anyway.
I did the Safeway thing and then came home, and the entire expedition took about an hour and a half. I think if I rode a bike that'd cut it down to less than an hour.
There's also a bigger shopping plaza thing near where we usually get on 520. It has a Whole Foods, and a Chipotle, and all this other stuff, BUT it is like 4-5 miles from here and it involves a huuuuuuge hill to get to/from there. It's decent on car but I'm not about to walk that (it'd take me an hour and a half). Maybe I'll try to bike it sometime too.
I dunno. Trying to imagine actually living here. It's kind of weird, of course. I saw deer walking on the main road, and there are frogs ribbitting in the backyard, and a guy down the street raises chickens and they cluck around on his land. It's really different from Tokyo. Heck, if I want to get a bus, the closest bus stop is where that Safeway is, and I'm not even sure where the heck the buses there go to. (Err... I just looked it up. There is a route that goes to Overlake, and another that goes to Issaquah, but they basically only really run during commuter prime times. Argh. There really must be an assumption out here that everyone has a car.) I guess once I got a job it would be irrelevant anyway, and Mike and I could carpool, but right now it's a bit odd. Hoping to get a ride up to Overlake tomorrow and I'll bus to Seattle for the daytime.
At least it's peaceful. If I had a better attention span, this would be a great place to just sit and write.
Anyway, we also watched the movie Up yesterday, which was cute. I'd never seen it before, and it was indeed quite fun and funny while still being quite sad at times. It makes me think I should also try to catch up and see Wall-E one of these years, since I missed that one due to US/Japan timing as well.
Now I am basically here working on a baseball blog entry and trying to come up with an idea for something I can write into a puzzle, but my current best idea requires me to go up to Redmond and scout a location, so bleh. I guess when Mike's home we can both try to figure something out.