Transitions to New Traditions: The Move

New Year's Eve 2009: Sus, Kami, and Myself

This Thursday will mark two years since I decided to pack up all of my things and move 3000 miles across the country to the great Pacific Northwest. Home of Kurt Cobain, coffee capitol of the U.S. and the mecca of tech, Seattle had been seducing me for over ten years.

The first year was hard. I traded late night beer fests for a 5am trek to Microsoft, where I knew close to nothing about what I was actually doing on a day-to-day basis. I was often homesick, slept on an inflatable mattress in my little studio apartment, and was completely dependent on a small base of friends for my most minimal needs. Even though I often thought about giving up and coming home, I always knew there was more in store for me if I stuck it out. I gave myself a two year limit. If after two years I was not feeling successful, happy, and at home, I would head back east.

But if you are reading this back in Massachusetts, then you should know I am nowhere in sight. This actually worked out for me. And over the course of this time, I made a new friend. Her name was Facebook. I had PB&J, a cardboard box as an end table, and stolen wireless from a person who dubbed themselves "crazycatlady". I had Facebook. A way to keep in touch with all of my friends that I missed dearly and a way to connect with new friends in Seattle. Thus become the evolution of my relationship with social networking. 

This anniversary seems like the right time to list those status updates from my first couple of months in the big city. I will also begin annotations of these updates from here on out to start to filter my memories and put them in context.

Jamie Despres is now a minion of Bill Gates.
September 26, 2008 at 7:27pm 

Jamie joined the Seattle, WA network.

Jamie removed her job as Editor/Art Director/Project Coordinator at southcoast247.

Jamie Despres is stunned that she just saw a pedestrian get nailed by a car.
September 30, 2008 at 3:26pm  


Jamie Despres is getting ready for the sox game!
October 1, 2008 at 4:02pm 


Jamie Despres is gearing up for the debates.
October 2, 2008 at 4:24pm 


Jamie Despres is grrrrr at the SouthCoast Media Group which NEVER gets my paycheck right.
October 3, 2008 at 4:45pm 


Jamie Despres is loving the Red Sox!
October 6, 2008 at 8:48pm 


Jamie Despres is thinking Obama will win by a landslide. I hate Fox News!
October 15, 2008 at 7:38pm 


Jamie Despres is mad at DiceK.
October 16, 2008 at 6:06pm 


Jamie Despres is Mia Wallace.
October 31, 2008 at 4:23pm 


Jamie Despres has donated her status to remind everyone to vote for Barack Obama today.
November 4, 2008 at 12:30am


Jamie Despres is wanting to kiss a Hispanic. :: falling in love
November 4, 2008 at 11:02pm 


Jamie Despres is preparing for battle.
November 8, 2008 at 12:47pm 


Jamie Despres is making Muppets.
November 13, 2008 at 10:04am 


Jamie Despres is apologizing for scaring everyone with my muppet photo.
November 13, 2008 at 8:26pm


Jamie Despres is in the healing process. :: hungover
November 16, 2008 at 8:38pm 


Jamie Despres is ready to call it a night with Rambo.
November 17, 2008 at 10:07pm


Jamie Despres is getting ready for a feast. :: Yakima for Thanksgiving with new "family"
November 26, 2008 at 7:52am 


Jamie Despres is giving up Taco Bell.
November 30, 2008 at 5:39pm 

Jamie Despres is going to see the PATS play the Seahawks Sunday!
December 1, 2008 at 6:54pm


Jamie Despres is swiss cheese quiz oh my teeth.
December 3, 2008 at 5:00pm


Jamie Despres is winning...so far. :: start of unhealthy Scrabble addiction
December 8, 2008 at 10:20pm 


Jamie Despres is hating being a woman right now.
December 12, 2008 at 10:17am

In the Beginning, There was the Obvious

Choosing one of the first profile pics was quite the ordeal.

Facebook asked me a simple question. What are you doing? Ummmm....really? Who cares, I thought? So in the beginning, my posts and status updates were mundane. And the UI was strange. I was chartering new social media territory that I had managed to avoid by creating a fake MySpace account just to keep in touch with friends who had moved away. I didn't want people up in my business, and was not sure why any body would care what the hell I was doing. But Facebook didn't like fake (and phew, they certainly did not allow you to theme your profile with cascading glittery rainbows), so I surrendered. 

I tread lightly on this new ground, and kept my status updates quite literal. But then something quickly changed for me. I decided to move 3000 miles from New Bedford, Massachusetts to Seattle, Washington. Kinda, sorta, maybe on a whim? But it happened. And it happened FAST. Then Facebook became a different sort of beast for me. It became the medium in which I would have to keep in touch with a massive amount of friends and family that I was leaving behind, and the platform for "adding" new friends in a city where I only knew two people.

Behold the first status updates...



Jamie Despres is making a magazine.
July 22, 2008 at 12:59pm 

Jamie Despres is running over deadline.
July 24, 2008 at 11:43am  

Jamie Despres is going for Chinese food with Ricky Reilly.
July 24, 2008 at 2:59pm 

Jamie Despres is working on a magazine again.
July 24, 2008 at 5:41pm 

Jamie Despres is getting ready to send Dino off with spirits.
July 26, 2008 at 6:15pm

Jamie Despres is getting ready for the 247 meeting.
July 30, 2008 at 3:23pm

Jamie Despres is coming to terms with her Facebook addiction.
July 31, 2008 at 1:42pm

Jamie Despres is a casualty of the FESH-TA!
August 2, 2008 at 12:16pm 

Jamie Despres is looking forward to Seattle.
August 5, 2008 at 8:54am 

Jamie Despres is hanging out with the ghost of Kurt Cobain.
August 8, 2008 at 5:46pm 

Jamie Despres is having a good day. She didn't have to use her AK.
August 13, 2008 at 10:06am  

Jamie Despres is apartment hunting.
August 22, 2008 at 6:59pm 

Jamie Despres is really really excited about moving to Seattle.
August 27, 2008 at 7:58am  

Jamie Despres Save the Date! My going-away party will be on Sunday, September 14th!!!!
August 27, 2008 at 3:06pm

Jamie Despres
my horoscope this week...
Pisces: It may be time to change your surroundings but do so with caution. Remembering to be true to yourself will help you decide what move will work out best. New career opportunities are waiting. Listen to what others have to offer carefully before you make up your mind.
August 28, 2008 at 8:07am  

Jamie Despres is very very tired of packing :(
August 31, 2008 at 8:37am

Jamie Despres is painting the town with Ricky Reilly tonight. Holla if you're down. town.
September 5, 2008 at 5:08pm  

Jamie Despres is thinking that everyone should just deal with the new Facebook. Seriously.
September 16, 2008 at 3:20pm 

Jamie Despres is in Seattle! Finally, ugh.
September 23, 2008 at 1:07am

Status Update

The notion of the profile pic has also changed the way we use the shutter.

The art of journaling and introspective self-exploration has lost its meaning. No longer are these explorations private and personal, kept locked away and permanently inked into journal pages. They are tweeted, updated, and blogged openly for the world to see. We all know the "oversharers"; the SNS junkies who feel the need to tell their 430 "friends" every little thing they do, say, or feel. Each person utilizes the status update in a different way. Some clutter news feeds with emotional diarrhea, news of adopting virtual cows, or as simple heartbeats to say I'm here. And that, to me, is what the social networking world has become — a way to not only keep our fingers on the pulses of our friends, but a virtual heart monitor. One that bleeps along with each tweet, update, or blog post. While I share my status once or twice daily, I try to keep it mysterious and less conspicuous so that it remains a reminder to myself of feelings felt, or moments that I wanted to document in snippets of 140 words or less as unforgettable.

I have been in the SNS scene for a long time now, but have decided to begin a list of all of my FB status updates from the very beginning and in some way document the transitions between each bleep.

I also realized that Facebook and Twitter were the reasons that I started to abandon the blog. They serve as an easier way to tell my story; keep in touch with friends and family and act as personal yet permanent reminders of landmarks of my life. 

The following blog entries will reflect my status updates in clusters of times and places. They are a 140 word or less collections of reflections and observations and will also serve as a personal social commentary on how I use social networking to document my life. I am excited to see how it will evolve, and hope it entices my readers to consider their own views of the way that social networking has molded our relationships, influenced our thought processes, and provided us all a way to share that past generations never got the chance to do before.

Please comment below on how and why you use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in your day-to-day life.

Half Full

Running through the sprinklers at the Microsoft campus.

I have this problem with blogging and journaling in general. I have at least 30 half-filled sketchbooks. Like relationships, they start off hot and heavy, but begin to taper once you have reached a certain level of comfort.

And that is why this blog has been left in the cold. I have reached a comfort level in Seattle. While all my new pals will clearly tell you they have heard the words New Bedford come booming from my lips with pride much too often, I have to say, Seattle is my home now.

It has been over a year since I arrived, all wide-eyed and alone. Ready to reinvent and reinvigorate. So much in my life has changed. The career I had always imagined myself to have has truly taken off and I have been absolutely blessed with the greatest and most talented group of friends that exist in the Emerald City.

Every day is new and exciting. And while I have suffered some low times, leaving me pining for the smells of malasadas, or conversations over pitchers of Bud with the boys, I have seemed to rise above. I wasn't quite sure that I could do this. I thought I would be back home in a year, but finally, this gig is working out for me just fine.

So I will look at this blog as half-full, not half-empty. And I resolve to keep it updated in 2010.

Silence of the Shovels

An unplowed street in Ballard.

 


















When I decided to make the move to Seattle, I heard the same response over and over again:
 
"I hope you like the rain."
 
"Better bring an umbrella."
 
"Hope you don't rust."
 
I took this all in stride. It's not like Massachusetts is known for its mild, temperate climate. Nor is it a tropical destination. I comforted myself with the fact that for ONCE in my life, I would not have to deal with the snow. There would be no waking up early to shovel out my car, de-ice my locks, and let her warm up for a good 20 minutes before I had to grind her out of the driveway to get to work.
 
My Passat was a case study in itself. The mysterious leak that often left large puddles of acid rain on the floors of my backseat, also served to ice up the interior of my windshield on cold New England winter mornings. I am sure that the chloride inhalation that occurred in the winter of 2004 still has an impact on my ability to adhere to a schedule and articulate cohesive sentences. Spraying de-icer on the interior of the whiny, old VW was a daily habit, and the Passat did not like to defrost. Not one bit. I remember driving it in to the dealer when it came time to trade it in. As I peered through the tiny viewfinder that I had created in my windshield, I crossed my fingers that it would have any trade-in value at all. But I digress.
 
So here I am during my first winter in Seattle. And guess what? True to form (and by form I mean the Jamie luck), Seattle has experienced record snowfall. Fortunately, I am an old pro. Bunker down with people you like? Check. Wait in line at the grocery for a good half-an-hour, while fighting off crowds for the last bag of Tostitos? Check. Ample beer supply? Check. Inflatable inner tube to test out Seattle's hilly terrain? Check.
 
What I was not prepared for, however, was the unpreparedness of the good people of Seattle. When you are not used to snow, you are not prepared for snow. Makes sense, I guess. During the height of the storm, I stood on the front porch and heard nothing. No plows. No salt trucks. No shovels. No cars in the road.
 
Streets remained closed, including the cross-street that leads to my house. Cars skid across intersections like chubby children wobbly on ice skates. Public transit has come to a halt. I haven't gone to work in almost a WEEK.
 
While this is all very new to me, and quite shocking (I'm well aware that New Bedford has over a foot of snow on the ground right now and it is business as usual), it is also kind of nice. It reminds me of winters spent as a child. Worry-free.
 
We are supposed to get hit with another storm on Christmas. I have to say I am looking forward to it. Fuck the umbrella. I should have brought a shovel.

Halloween 2008: Baby Hands, Needles, and Feathers

Mrs. Mia Wallace and a shedding flamingo.

Two Mias and one Vincent Vega.

"And I'm DUH-NEESE"

Duh-neese, Mia, and flamingo at the George to cap off the infamous evening.

Broken Promises

Opening night at the George and Dragon.

I promised I would never start a blog entry with "Sorry it's been so long since my last entry...", so I won't.

The truth is, in a city that is known for being one of the hardest places to make real true friends, my experience has been quite the opposite.

The girls have kept me busy with happy hours, weekend breakfasts, superfluous shopping trips, and weeknight slumber parties. And oh yah, the job has kept me pretty damn busy too. And frankly, after being glued to a computer all day at Microsoft, the last thing I want to do when I get home is even look at my laptop (unless of course it's Facebook related).

My weekdays follow the same rigid schedule. Get up for work at 6:30. Take the 15 to Downtown Seattle. Avoid making eye contact with crazies in the Ride Free zone on 1st Ave. Walk up to 4th Ave. Hop on the 545 Express to Redmond. Work work work. Repeat commute in reverse order. Although it sounds mundane, each day in the studio is unique and refreshing. I am certainly learning quite a bit here, and my co-workers are brilliant, diverse, and a really rad group of folks who make lunchtime stimulating.

I'll occasionally meet one of the girls (Kim, Susannah) downtown and hitch a ride home, albeit after a few cocktails at happy hour.

Weekends have been filled with lots of big city fun. The easy access to organic and locally grown food has scratched my itch to cook for people, and the sports package included in my cable has given me my Pats fix. I can't say I have anything to complain about.

And oh yah, Obama won. Which in turn, means we won. How could I ask for anything more?