I tried to "buy" local

I often get annoyed by the "buy local" mentality in Seattle. "Buy local!" says the guy using his Macbook at a non-Starbucks coffee shop. This doesn't make sense to me, since both Microsoft and Starbucks are local, and they do more to support the economy in this area than the little coffee shop down the street. Those large companies drive the economy, and without them, people wouldn't have money to spend on local things.

With this in mind, maybe we should say "buy local and support large Seattle-based businesses!" Then, we could have the best of both worlds: support the large companies so they stay in business, and support the smaller mom and pop places, too. I know this sounds like I contradicted myself because it's unlikely that a Starbucks employee would buy a latte from Cafe Vita, but we could achieve some harmonious compromise. People drink enough coffee around here that I think we could *gasp* support both types of coffee shops. Or at least refrain from saying how much Starbucks sucks.

Anyway, back to my point. Ever since I moved to Seattle in 2008, I've tried to support the local, public pools. I've adjusted my schedule to accommodate the random, 1-hour lap swim sessions, and I've traveled to pools outside of my neighborhood when the hours at my pool don't work. Even with this, though, the hours are quite limited, and now that I work ~30 mins out of Seattle, I just can't make it.

Adding to this, when I'm in school, I dislike swimming at the UW rec center because the pool is set up with 3, double-wide lanes, which makes it impossible to swim fast.

Today, I finally found a public pool time that would work, so I drove to West Seattle, where there is a nice, 50m outdoor pool along the Sound. Upon arrival, I discovered that the pool was closed because I guess 60 degrees is too cold for outdoor swimming? I was unaware.

Frustrated and defeated, I joined LA Fitness. I feel guilty about this, but my rehab has suffered because I haven't been able to swim very much.

Also feeding my guilt, I purchased a 1 year membership (with 1 year free and no initiation fee!). I did this because:

1. I hate monthly fees.

2. I can afford it now. When I return to school, that $75/month will seem pretty pricey.

3. I used to be a personal trainer, and I thought about how the poor guy selling memberships lives on commission, and there probably aren't a ton of members since everyone in Seattle is "buying" local and exercising at the nearby, dungeon-turned-fitness-center, the Olympic Athletic Club.

The only downside is that the LA Fitness smells funny.

Where, oh where, have I been?

Ah! It has been awhile! Where have I been?

Well, I've been working. And for the first few weeks (of my summer internship, mind you), it might as well have been winter.

But this week, summer struck. As a result, we've trended towards taking leisurely lunch breaks that involve beaches.

And Mexican food. Maybe by the beach. Returning to work is often hard after this, but I've managed so far.

I've also watched bag pipers march in the 4th of July parade. Nothing out of the ordinary here; just like any 4th of July in Gates Mills, OH.

And finally, I have a summer reading list, which I haven't done a great job of getting through, but I'm working on it.

Oh, and I added too many feeds to my RSS reader. I'm having trouble keeping up, but it's a good way to force myself to follow tech and ux trends.

My hip is doing ok. Back and forth but sources indicate that it is trending on track.

As I'm writing this post, I'm realizing that the blogger interface is really irritating. Why is the text entry area so small, but the rest of the page is empty? I'm generally annoyed when I post pictures because it's hard to move them around since text entry area is so small. And it always lumps the pictures at the top of the page, so I have no choice but to slowly drag them to where I want them. Come on, google, you can do better than this!