Reviews & Comments
Seattle, WA
re: Seattle Living..hmmmm... - 6/1/2013 -
3/11/2015While there is truth to this review in some respects, I doubt she lived here very long.
The state parks do attract the annoying "granola" types she is talking about, but that's well outside of the city. The REI building is a Mecca for those people too, so that is the big exception in the city itself. Where she is either flat out lying or just too used to being in Arizona and Southern California, it does NOT ALWAYS rain here, and yes, I SAID IT DOES NOT ALWAYS RAIN contrary to what movies and TV would have you believe. The weather statistics you can find online are actually deceiving, because of where they gather that data from; the data is recorded at SEA-TAC which is almost always colder, foggier, wetter, and crappier. Once you get into the parts of the city where people actually live, work, and do things, it's different.
What people don't know about Seattle is that from July until October, it rarely rains. And When it gets sunny, it gets EFFING HOT. It's become a consistent pattern, and usually we have one or two absolutely miserable weeks if a heat wave hits mid-summer. It's also, because of the proximity to the water, uncomfortably humid. Not humid in the way that the south gets where it's like a sauna outside, but just humid enough to make you feel slightly sweaty, gross and uncomfortable. I hate it. While it doesn't stay that hot for all that long, this actually has caused a stupid problem among both locals and transplants alike: not having air conditioning is not only the norm, for some snobs it's like some kind of badge of pride to suffer the heat rather than admit that it is uncomfortably hot when it's hot. I've had alarm clock screens melt due to the heat of an apartment without AC on those days. The local AC snobs scoff and say "It's not this hot for THAT long!" and the transplants (especially Texans) say crap like "100 degrees for ONE week and everyone freaks out. It's 100 degrees ALL SUMMER where I AM from and WE don't complain!" Yeah. Because everyone in friggin Texas has central Air so they aren't living in misery.
But yeah, you can totally do normal outdoor activities like BBQs, picnics, outdoor concerts etc during the summer well into October.
The stuff I hate:
Drivers. People drive like complete morons here. The sun slows them down (those AC snobs also tend to be opposed to things like sunglasses and umbrellas). If the roads are dry for a couple of days, the next time it rains suddenly everyone fishtails and has forgotten how to deal with wet pavement. And OMG if ANYONE sees ONE snowflake and the media finds out, suddenly it's SNOWPOCALYPSE 20xx, and they seriously will start reporting as if the world is about to end, get everyone worked up into a paranoid frenzy before there's even a half an inch sticking. I've seen morons chain up on the side of the freeway when the roads are DRY. Conversely, people here also like their 4x4 trucks and 4WD vehicles, and for some reason have it in their head that this features makes them impervious to the effects of wet/icy conditions. Not to mention, just buying a car does not mean you know how to drive it. You'll see LOTS of big Dodge Rams, SUVs, Jeeps, and Subarus attempting to go up some of the steepest city streets, or sliding down them bouncing from car to curb to car like a pinball. On the freeway, you'll of course see them flipped and wrapped around poles...and the last word of caution there is to beware of the cops too! An amazing number of them don't drive safely in the snow.
last thing....please....please don't bring up 50 Shades of Lame. For one thing, there is an ACTUAL BDSM and fetish community that has thrived here for years. The book got it so wrong on so many levels and the movie was even worse. If you are interested in that kind of thing, go out to a few night clubs and get to know people....but if you bring up that goddamned book, you'll be blacklisted and not even know it.