I'M IN SEATTLE!!!

So I moved to Seattle about a month ago to start my super cool job with Microsoft. I'm officially a UX researcher for the Live Search UX team. Yay! I'm so excited, it's been a long, hard road to get here and I feel so blessed :) . Now that I'm here though, I gotta admit the transition is tough :( . From being in school to being in the corporate environment... it's just vastly different. I'm lucky, though. The people I work with are amazing, I'm with a great company that cares about its employees and the community, and the paycheck ain't that bad either. Before you start thinking that I'm rich, I gotta tell you that the cost of living in Seattle is ridiculously high.

My itty bitty studio is over $1000 bucks per month. There's also parking to pay monthly, electricity, water, sewage and omg the list goes on and on and on.... And the work is no walk in the park, too. It's hard work being in the company of really smart people. Driving to work is a pain in the a$$ due to the ridiculously heavy traffic between 8am-10am, and 4pm - 7pm. So my 20 minute trip extends to 1 hour in traffic unless I drive outside of these hours... which I normally do. I guess it makes more sense for me to live in Kirkland or Redmond or Bellevue, which is so much closer to work.... but there's just something about driving back from work and seeing the Seattle skyline from my car that just lifts my spirits as I drive closer and closer to it. Bliss :) Now if only the traffic isn't so freaking bad....

I'm excited for the New Year. 2008 baby! A year older, hopefully a year wiser. Do I have some New year's resolutions? Yes, but I'll save that to write in another day.... :)