Repatriation - 1 step at a time

I just completed an important step in becoming an American again: I bought a car!

It's interesting, I've only been out of the country for two years. But, it was surprising how much I forgot about the car buying process, logistics of getting insurance and how much, the little things of taking care of a car. These are some of the things that are unique to life in America; or at least life outside of Hong Kong. Life as an expat in Hong Kong can be...too easy in some ways. You don't have a car to take care of, wash on a regular basis. Labor is cheap, so you pay people to wash your clothes, clean your house, drive you from point A to point B. It makes you a bit lazy in many ways. Although, I recognize that there were many unique chores and hardships to that lifestyle as well.

On to the next steps: 1) start my new job as Business Systems Analyst on Monday 2) Find and move into a new apartment! I'm strongly leaning towards West Seattle and have a couple places there I really like.

500 Miles

Thanks to the power of spreadsheets, I know that I have just passed 500 miles run! I started my new life of running at the end of April, last year. I am planning on a long run of 9 miles this Saturday. The weather is supposed to be great, high 60's! I'm progressing well on my plan towards running the North Olympic Discovery 1/2 marathon in early June!

Wish me luck!