emerald v. apple

I'm at the tail end of my extended 12 day Christmas/New Years vacation extravaganza in the Emerald City of Seattle and have noticed some matters for comparison vs. the Big Apple.

The beginning of my stay in the Northwest took place during the aftermath of a major winter storm which dumped large amounts of snow throughout the area. This became a disaster for the NW. Maneuvering through the snow was impossible resulting in no mailman, UPS man and most importantly, no garbage man! Trashcans stood at the end of driveways for days containing Christmas waste: wrapping paper, styrofoam peanuts, Christmas dinner leftovers, etc. I researched the crisis online, looking at 2 legit Seattle news websites and found articles titled "Many Still Waiting for Garbage Pickup," "Wait for Trash Pickup Continues," "More Delays in Trash Collection." This image was repeatedly used to represent the story:
I mean.... Are you kidding me? Trashcans standing nicely upright, no trash overflow. How is this considered one of the top 5 stories for a major city??

It just doesn't compare to the mountains of trash that greet me as I step outside my front door EVERY DAY.

Something that is always difficult for me to deal with when I visit Seattle is what I call the "friendliness factor." For example, while paying for a purchase at the downtown Seattle GAP store, the overly friendly faux-hawk employee guy continuously talked to my mom and I the entire ringing up process. The basic customer service question "did you find everything ok?" quickly evolved into "anything exciting going on today?" How was I supposed to answer that? Does he really want to hear about how I'm starting to get really annoyed at how hard it is for me to find a pair of black boots that I can walk normally in? I don't really want to share that kind of information with friendly faux-hawk. And why is he insisting on creating this conversation when he has a line wrapping around the sale tables? He is beginning to teeter the line between engaging the customer and plain old inefficiency. In New York, I consider it good customer service to receive a split second of eye contact when the little hooligan behind the counter shouts "Next guest ON line!" Yes, it is customary to say "on line" rather than "in line" and I've never understood it, but that's another story. What is comes down to is I can see both sides of the "friendliness factor" because interaction can often be awkward with a customer. The difference is that people on the west coast insist on breaking the ice, while east coasters just do the bare minimum of the service they have to provide. No one ever said service must come with a smile.

Grocery shopping in Seattle is ridiculously easy. You grab a cart, walk around the store to fill it up, pay for what you chose, push the cart to your car in the parking lot, drive home and unload. Grocery shopping in New York is a little different. You grab a basket, fill it up only until it becomes too heavy, put a few things back because it is too heavy, pay for what you chose, carry all your bags 5 blocks home to your apartment, walk up 6 flights of stairs, collapse once you get in the door, hands feel like they are permanently stuck in claw form from the heaviness of the bags. So what I noticed from this comparison is that because grocery shopping is so easy on the west coast you can do it in your sleep and that's why when you go to your local Fred Meyer store you will see people shopping in their multi-colored flannel pajama pants. ZzzZZzzZZzzz...

Basically what it comes down to is things are much easier in Seattle than in New York but that is pretty much common knowledge. People are friendlier, you can drive anywhere (including to get your morning coffee at the Starbucks drive-thru window) and it is much more laid back. In the case of emerald vs. apple I have to say that the apple can be a little rough around the edges and not always in the perfect form. It can bruise easily or even be rotten on the inside, but is one of the world's favorite fruits. The emerald is a real beauty. It is clean, green and sparkly, a truly beautiful gem! Both are great places to live and visit but going from one to another is a bit of an adjustment, even if only for a vacation.