Why I Love Working in Downtown Seattle

In no particular order...

Reason #122: The Blue Angels roaring over the city every summer.
There's nothing better than the rumble of the jets as they pass overhead on the city. And, there's nothing better than when your colleagues have to say on a conference call "No, we're not under attack, that's just the Blue Angels buzzing the city!" Heh heh.

Reason #29: You get to know the panhandlers/homeless people.
Yep, I know the panhandlers by sight now. While I don't know them by name or stop and have in-depth conversations with them, I certainly have made up their own stories for them in my head. There's the box guy who hangs out by the T-Mobile store on 6th (he shoves the box in front of you daily, it's fun). There's the scowling hat guy that I see every morning outside of the Roxy store. He has a new ball cap every day that he holds at his side. He's also always alarmingly clean for a homeless person, I think that maybe he lives in a nice house outside of town, and funds his mortgage with his hat panhandling skills...(I have decided that the day that this guy returns my smile is the day that I'm going to give in and give him money.)

And then there's my all-time favorite guys (I don't know if they're homeless, but they've made this category any way...): "Shoe shine, Miss? Shoe shine!" Regardless of whether or not I'm wearing leather shoes, they bellow out at all of us as we pass that we need our shoes shined. And, I have to say, they do a pretty good job on my shoes.

Reason #63: The Doormen & Security Dudes
Here at my office building, we have a good crew of doormen who are always smiling and always emitting positive energy. No matter how hot or cold it is outside, they are there in the morning to open the door and shoot me a warm greeting. It makes getting to work in the morning very pleasant, and makes me want to spread a little love (only a little, let's face it: I'm not really a morning person...) to the rest of the world at 8 a.m. And, it makes it a lot easier to juggle my yummy mocha (see reason #4 below), my iPod, and personal effects as I trudge in to work each day.

Reason #98: Bike Messengers
Outside of my office building is one of the few local mom & pop coffee type stands where apparently the whole bike messenger community hangs out. No matter what time of day it is, you can find this motley crew of bike messengers hanging out with their coffee and snacks doing tricks on their bikes and generally making merriment. I love it because it's a community that I'm not necessarily exposed to in other parts of my life, but I feel like I get to appreciate them from afar as I'm going about my daily routine. And really, it kind of makes me want to be a bike messenger. (Well, maybe not really, since I don't own a bike, and can't see myself careening through traffic to deliver a package to random businesses...)

Reason #4: Starbucks
This one's very important. There are no less than 20 Starbucks within a 5 mile radius of my office. More importantly, the Starbucks kiosk (a mere 500 feet from a full store) that I frequent every morning knows my drink order by heart. No matter how groggy or checked-out I am in the morning, I know that the kiosk staff will serve me my grande non-fat, extra stirred, no whip mocha the way that I like it. And I love them for it. :-)