I am a Seattlite. Period.

I am a Seattlite.

I am an earth-respecting, outdoors-enjoying, exercise-loving, local sports-watching, dog-adoring, healthy food-eating Seattlite.

I do things like prepare non-meat substances for dinner and compost my vegetable scraps while listening to The Head and the Heart.

#proof.  Finally bought my composting bin today and was
super excited to make dinner so I could compost.

I carpool to work.  I complain about the weather.  I go running in the rain.  I shop at farmers' markets.  I would rather wear a pair of jeans and my Northface than dress up and put on a pair of heels.

I avoid drama, and sometimes I smile even when I'm not happy.  I like to read.  I don't own a TV.  I have more electronic devices than I can keep track of.

If I was any more of a stereotypical Seattlite, I'd probably need to move to Portland.  And I'm enough of a Seattlite to be able to make that joke.

I lived in NYC for 6 years, and during that whole time, I never really felt at home there.  New York will always occupy an important place in my heart, but the entire time I lived there I knew it wasn't for good.  I felt like a sore thumb.  I felt like I wasn't me.  I knew I didn't belong there.

I've lived in Seattle for a little over 4 years now, and I have become this city.  This city has become me.  And it was so easy.  From the minute I stepped foot into Seattle, I knew I belonged here.  And my "belongingness" has only been enhanced over time.  

Let's look at how I spent my weekend as an example.

Friday night, I came home from work and immediately set out for an 11 mile run.  After work.  On a Friday night.  I ran 11 miles.  And I was incredibly happy with how those 11 miles turned out.  I started with Lucy and we went for a loop around Green Lake.  Then I looped back home, dropped her off, and headed down to the Burke Gilman for an out and back to cover the rest of the mileage I needed.

Mile 9 (my fastest mile) was a mile+ long hill on the way back home.  I'm
quite proud.

I consider this run to be a successful negative split, even though I had a couple significant uphills in the second half (and downhills in the first).  I'm am really happy with my pace, averaging a 9:09 for the entire run, but with the second half of the run obviously averaging much faster than that.

All along I've been telling myself that Nike Women's wouldn't be a PR race for me (because it is ridiculously hilly), but I'm beginning to actually think maybe I could squeeze a PR out of the race.  I'm not going to get my hopes up though.

When I got home from my run, I foam rolled.  Bonus points for me.

Then I made a tofu-licous dinner, drank a glass of wine, and went to bed.  Exciting Friday night.

But I had to rest up, because the next morning I met up with my Team in Training team for a 60 minute run.  When I got there and realized it was going to be a double loop run, I thought about stopping after the first loop.  But my legs were feeling strong, and Erica and I were catching up after her being gone in Italy for 2 weeks, so I decided to stick out the full distance.

Mile 4 was a water stop.  We don't stop watches during timed practices.
Not for water stops, bathroom breaks, or stoplights.  That way everyone
finishes at the same time.

Again, I am really happy with this pace, especially after having done the 11 miler about 12 hours before this run.  We all chit-chatted for a bit after practice and took our first team group picture.

All the familiar faces are in there.  Erica, MacKenzie, Jason, Jamie, Dorothy,
and more.  Lovely Seattle weather in the background.  And beautiful skyline.

A few of us went out to brunch (another very Seattle thing to do), and spent most of our time talking about running and fundraising.  Cause that's what we do.

After brunch, I went home to take Lucy for a long walk and get cleaned up to head to the Sounders game with Sierra and Cristin.  We lost the game, but being from Seattle, we all know how to take a sports loss.  So we still had tons of fun at the game.

After the game, we went to an old haunt of a bar for me, Cristin, and Sierra to listen to a small local band play cover songs and make people laugh.  I also tried my first (and second) pudding shot.  Think jello shot, but frozen pudding instead, which winds up being the consistency of ice cream and needs to be eaten with a spoon.  Our flavor choices were pumpkin pie, cookies and cream, banana cream pie, and spicy chocolate.  We tried them all.  They were amazing.

Sierra and I had a sleepover with Lucy and Rex (mini Lucy) so that Sierra didn't have to drive all the way back to West Seattle.  Because West Seattle is SO FAR AWAY.

This is Rex.  He is smaller than his roommate Bob Cat.  He is a mini Lucy.

Then this morning, Sierra and I went out to brunch.  Then I went grocery shopping at Fred Meyer, which included buying 3 new pairs of shoes (for less than $100), a new compost bin, 3 different kinds of fake meat, and lots of vegetables.

Then I walked Lucy again, made dinner, and now I am blogging.

So in summary, my weekend included: 2 long runs (that included both Green Lake and the Burke), 2 brunches, 1 Sounders game, 1 local band performance, 1 shopping trip to Fred Meyer, many thoughts about how far away West Seattle is, 2 Lucy-dog walks, fake meat eating, composting, and lots of good friends.

I am a Seattlite.

And by default, so is this little snuggle muffin.

The longer I live here, the more I realize that Seattle is my home.  It is who I am and who I want to be.  And I can't imagine wanting to be anywhere else.