I have friends!

Two to be exact.

Making friends here in Seattle has not been terribly easy. Therefore, having two (other than the roommate, Joe) is exciting! When all two of my friends are otherwise occupied, and the roommate is MIA, I've been hanging out solo: wandering the city and looking for jobs. I'm easily docking more than  7 miles a day of wandering - and my feet are feeling it.

Nighttime in Seattle

Now, more about these friends! Ben is a fellow "couchsurfer" who was going to host me when I first arrived in the greater Seattle area, but he was packing to move from the suburbs to the city, so I found someone else. Since then however; we have been texting and planned a meet up. We met at a wine bar in Capitol Hill, Poco Wine Room. We had some fantastic wine, and enjoyed the upstairs seating with tons of windows. Ben is a cool dude who has lived in Washington his whole life, but only in the Seattle area for the last two years. He works in information technology security, and describes it as "exciting, but stressful".

Liz is a friend my dad set me up with (thanks Dad!). She's an awesome lady who bikes, goes to cool concerts, knows all the neat places to hang out and meet people, and has two kids, both closer in age to me than she is (an 18 year old daughter, and 16 year old son). She suggested a cool restaurant/bar in my neighborhood, The Neighbor Lady. Even though it's in my area, I went the exact wrong direction, and wound up walking about two miles more than I had to - BUT if I hadn't gone the wrong direction, I wouldn't have found a $100 bill sitting on the ground. Walk an extra two miles for 100 bucks? ABSOLUTELY!

The Neighbor Lady had some posters hanging up around the bar advertising a flea market they were hosting in their parking lot that weekend. I decided that could be a place to meet people, or at least find some neat stuff, so I woke up early on Sunday to check it out, and wound up sprucing up the wardrobe with some new pretty and cheap clothes (new, cute dress at left).

In my solo wanderings, I discovered an awesome tea room, Remedy Teas. The cafe offers over 150 organic teas, and blends. After you order, the person at the counter brings your tea out to you in a clear pot on a tray with a little cup. The pot is situated on a stand, so the tea brews in front of you by candlelight which adds a nice ambiance. I can't remember which of the blends I picked (actually, the guy at the counter picked it for me since I'm too indecisive for my own good) but it was a lovely white tea blend.


Other than friends, I've also successfully secured a job! I now work at Fran's Chocolate. Fran started the company about thirty years ago, hand making chocolates and confections. She now has three shops, and still gets up every morning, puts on her gloves and hairnet and goes into the factory. Her children run most of the business end of things, but that's not to say they don't know their chocolate! Fran primarily uses organic and/or local ingredients which I absolutely love. There was a two interview process for this job and tomorrow, I have a trial run on the salesroom floor where Fran herself may come in to make sure I'm good with people. They take the chocolate business very seriously.

Today, I have an interview with Athleta, a women's athletic wear company. I'm hoping to be able to have and maintain both gigs (especially since I'll need tons of exercise after tasting all that chocolate!).

I promise, I'll be posting more often as I make more friends, and discover new fun things to do.

Until then, off for another walk!