This is a post about my hate for Seattle

So, when my parents were here, they kept asking Trevor and I what we wanted to do, where we want to eat, etc. My answer, "I hate this town. I hate the food, so I don't want to pick."
(It was) Not very nice of me, and definitely not productive, but quite telling of my attitude nowadays. My dad, half-jokingly, told me I hate so many things about this place, I should keep a log of all the things I hate so that I don't forget.
I'm not only going to do it, I'm going to try to illustrate it.
Sorry if Seattle is your favorite...
In no particular order:
I hate driving here. There are many reasons for this; city busses, pedestrians, PEDESTRIANS (apparently crosswalks are optional and these people didn't learn to look both ways before stepping out into the street),  bicycles (even in the freaking rain), rain, inept drivers (these are not unique to Seattle though), people park in the street, literally blocking the lane at night and on weekends, really skilled drivers who can cut you off when you have less than a car-length between you and the car in front of you, lack of posted speed limits, and people either drive 10 under or 20 over the speed limit, no in between. This is possibly because this city had the brilliant idea of variable speed limits, which can change at the drop of a pin, so the guy in front of you is following a 50 MPH speed limit, while you are adhering to a 30 or 60.

traffic. pretty sunset, but ugly gridlock.

Also (these are dislikes but not necessarily hates); motorcyclists are required to wear helmets (let those who ride decide!), the seat belt tickets here are way higher than at home (I wear mine anyway, but they even make you buckle up on the shuttle bus here), bicyclists are required to wear helmets (see my motorcycle aside), it's against the law to talk on your cellphone while driving (unless using handsfree-now, I have to divert my eyes much more to initiate using speakerphone for a call than holding my phone whilst driving), and there are homeless people begging at stoplights all the time. Real homeless...like, if you give them a half eaten apple, they'll wipe it off and eat the rest (I didn't do this, but I witnessed it). It's sad. And then there is a toll road that doesn't tell you how much it charges, because they change the cost depending on traffic, time of day, etc. You get a bill in the mail for it, so you don't even find out for weeks!

I'm not a sea-bird, I don't like fish.

yeah, I know Seattle's on the waterfront

I hate the food. I am not usually too picky, but I can't handle this place. Everything is seafood (wonder why, it's not like it's a giant port on the ocean...but still), or vegetarian, or vegan, or pescatarian. I am none of these things. I don't buy organic groceries, because pesticides are lesser than the evil of earwigs to me. I don't think anyone should pay more than $20 for a pizza, but there are pizza places here that are upwards of double that! No one knows what fry sauce is, and there is apparently, no such thing as finger steaks here either. I did not know these were regional foods, and I also thought that Idaho was in the same region anyway...apparently not.

Frosted Flakes, but whole wheat, not corn...because they're healthy

raw pork at the bottom of our food...we found it after we ate.

 We were spoiled in Boise. Our hospital fed nursing moms, because the moms were providing the food for the patient. That is not the case here. I got trays for 3 days, and I did not have any input as to what was brought. To be fair, it was so gross that I wouldn't eat here anyway, but the hassle of leaving the hospital everyday to eat is a hassle, because it means I have to leave Oakley.

Also, this hospital is sugar free...except in the Starbucks. They don't serve regular soda, and the vending machines have "healthier" choices. I prefer diet anyway, just thought it was weird. All the parents complain about the saccharin and phenylalanine on the Cancer floor, because they are all paranoid that their kid is going to end up with...wait, never-mind.

The weather is not great, but I actually do not hate it. I hate the way they drive in it and the way it affects the roads and sidewalks. The only real dissapointment I've had with Seattle weather is that we haven't seen snow yet, and our Christmas was drab because of it. The leaves all stink, because they're everywhere and they are soggy, and home is covered in snow, so I am a teeny bit jealous. However, I would HATE to drive with these folks on icy or snowy roads...so perhaps it is better that the weather has been so mild.

You have to pay for grocery bags. It's stupid, because I don't hate the earth, but I feel like I would be more inclined to use my re-usable shopping bags if it were my idea, and not the city's. It's only 5 or 10 cents a bag, and if I were in Oregon, I would say that it evens out because they don't have sales tax, but the sales tax here is 9 1/2%! They're getting us every which way we turn (toll road pun?)! The bags you receive are then these huge, bulky paper bags that you cannot easily stuff into your purse to re-use later, so you recycle them and pay 10 cents next time too.

I'm not trendy enough for this place

I'm going to go back to the homeless people here for a second, because there are also non-homeless hustlers that seem to be drawn to Trevor in a huge way. He has been stopped on more than one occasion by the SAME guys who want money from him. I love Trevor because he is so personable and talks to anyone. I HATE that Trevor is so personable that he talks to ANYONE, even if it means we are late or miss our bus. Every time that we go downtown, we get stopped (because Trevor cannot walk past someone who strikes up a conversation) and people beg for money. I have gotten to the point where I pull Trevor away while explaining our predicament, and letting them know we don't have money to give them, but I don't like stepping out of my comfort zone and talking to strangers. It's sad, because even if half of them are panhandling swindlers, some of them are very mentally ill, and the sketchy ones usually end up receiving more. Also, because we're so far north, it starts getting dark at 4 pm, so it always seems unsafe!

The rest of my distaste for this place is situational. It is not Seattle's fault for having a hospital that has been incapable of delivering the level of care that I expect, living in a first-world country. It is not Seattle's fault that most of the families sharing the communal living space at the Ronald McDonald house are self-serving and have complexes that lead them to believe that the world owes them something. Thievery is common at RMH because people think they deserve something for nothing, because of the hands they've been dealt. They also do not feel the need to clean up after themselves or their children, they have no qualms about going through our laundry (yeah, Trevor caught a family picking my clothes our of our laundry, and they didn't even apologize when he called them out on it!), and they seem to be irreverent to posted rules.

too many people

Seattle has many things to offer, and if I were on a vacation here, I'm sure I would enjoy it. Being here under my current circumstances, however, do not show the enjoyable side. It's too trendy to be hospitable, and I cannot wait to get back to my land of wide lanes, driveways, garages, and pedestrians who look both ways before crossing the road!