Washington has some extremely heavy stereotypes. Actually, I take that back. The Puget Sound has stereotypes. Eastern Washington and the Puget Sound are completely different places, not that 1/3 of the country cares or knows we even existed. I know before I moved here, I had no idea Washington was a state. I guess that might have had to do with the fact that I was in the fourth grade and in my own little world, but even for as smart as I was in the fourth grade, Washington didn’t exist to me.
I’m actually just going to start with that. Yes, Washington is a state. It is extremely frustrating for someone from Washington to tell a stranger where they’re from, since every American citizen East of Montana thinks we’re talking about Washington DC. If I meant I was from Washington DC, would I have not said that? Also, do I look like I’m from Washington DC? I’m wearing TOMS and I have a NorthFace brand backpack on. I’m unmistakably from the Seattle area.
I always wondered if there was anywhere else in the world, apart from the children in Africa that get the second pair, that actually wears TOMS. Of all the places that could wear them, why do we in the Puget Sound wear them? It rains here every day. They’re canvas and have just about no sole. They get soaked and dirty almost immediately, so why do we spend $50 on a pair of shoes that won’t last long in our weather?
It rains here, probably 85% of the time. Not a torrential downpour, or anything, but just enough rain to mist our greenery every day or so. We wear a lot of rainboots here because of it. Something you won’t see a lot of here, despite the weather, is umbrellas. Unless you’re dressed for a job interview, it’s not cultural to carry an umbrella, unless it’s extremely fashionable. If you have a clear cane umbrella, acceptable. If it has a mustache on it (we love mustaches here, apparently), acceptable. It’s fairly tourist-y to carry around an umbrella. It’s Washington, if you can’t handle the rain, leave.
A couple other fashion stereotypes we have are hipsters, vintage, and people that wear socks and sandals. A hipster is usually someone that wears things like suspenders or vintage graphic tees. A lot of them own six or seven pairs of thick rimmed glasses. I’m sure their vision is fine, but the glasses are so stylish. Am I a hipster? Not necessarily, but I definitely have my days. We shop at secondhand stores. Goodwill, Value Village, Dumpster Values. The older, the better. It’s just one of the ways we recycle here. I got a pair of Reidell roller skates with pink wheels and laces for $14 at a thrift store downtown. They’re the same skates that I was going to buy for $300 online. Living in Washington teaches you how to shop smarter and reuse things other people no longer wanted. And yes, we wear socks and sandals. Not all of us, but a lot of us do. The most common socks and sandals thing I’ve seen is wearing Birkenstocks with men’s wool socks. If you lived here, you’d think it was cute.
We love NorthFace here. I don’t know if it’s because we are north, or because we all have faces, but of all the places in the country, you will find the most NorthFace products here. We have NorthFace brand backpacks and fleece coats and water bottles. They make a lot of money of us Washington residents. I wonder if it’s the same for Eastern WA… I bet it is.
In Washington, we recycle. We don’t just recycle, actually. We reuse, repurpose, and recycle. Our state is literally as green as it gets. Almost everything we do is for the environment. And I’m not saying EVERY SINGLE Washington resident recycles, but there’s definitely more of us here in Washington doing it than anywhere else. My family recycles aluminum cans. My school recycles everything, even down to composting food waste. It keeps our air and plants healthy. We’re not called the Evergreen State for nothing. We drive environmentally friendly vehicles, eat organic food products, and most of our packaging is pre-recycled materials. There are probably more Toyota Prius’ in the Puget Sound than in the entire rest of the country combined. My mom’s looking at a Honda Intensity because it runs of battery half the time and gasoline half of the time. Mostly, that has to do with Seattle gas prices. The excise taxes in Washington on gasoline is probably ranks 5th or 6th highest in the country. Having a car that gets 40-60 mpg AND is good for the environment is exactly what us Seattle folk are looking for.
The Puget Sounds is predominately liberal. We support gay rights, have plenty of activists, have a good deal of diversity, and people here love marijuana. There are a lot of homosexuals here. It might just be because we accept and embrace them, here. People are very supportive of homosexual marriage and rights here. Like most of the Puget Sound population, I have been a part of a gay rights mission, too. In my hometown of Olympia (the capitol), people like to occupy the streets with face paint, torn clothing, and picket signs. This one, I haven’t been a part of since they seem pretty hypocritical to me, but about a fifth of the Olympia residents are a part of this. Recently, they even put up tents around Capitol Lake. I don’t remember what they were protesting, but it was probably something about welfare or taxes. It seems that a lot of the activists think that protesting is an actual job and welfare pays for that. Unfortunately for them, I’d rather not pay taxes that goes to welfare so a couple of lazy 25 year olds want to get high and camp by the lake. Diversity: we’ve got lots of Asians. We really have a lot of respect for people from other cultures. Sometimes, we go a little overboard, but we do like diversity here.
Weed has to be it’s own paragraph. Just about everyone here does it and it’s a very sad fact. It may be the reason why the number of families here that receive welfare checks is so high (haha, get it?). The high school I went to was founded by hippies. Until 2009, we didn’t even have walls that separated classes in most of our buildings. Our team mascot was also the Blazers and we have a boardwalk behind the school that goes out into a forest. It’s like the people in this state are set up to smoke weed. The liberal nature of the area accepts minors smoking weed over minors smoking cigarettes here. People here do not accept that cops arrest minors in possession, rather than worrying about issues they find to be more important. Even the kids here do it. Some as young as fifth grade. I see more posts on FaceBook of pictures of bongs or posts about rolling blunts or “so and so likes Marijuana.” It’s tacky and horrible, but it’s Puget Sound culture.
Every state has it’s stereotypes, both good and bad, but I’m going to leave this place. Sorry Washington, but I’m fitna R-U-N-N-O-F-T ;)
GOAL: Apply for ASU.
GOAL: Turn in ROTC paperwork.
GOAL: Go to the music building and ask about choir.
GOAL: Go to the muhfckn gym today.
GOAL: Pack to go home for spring break.
GOAL: Go to student services and get a course catalog.
GOAL: Read for your writing class. (Irony…)
GOAL: BE A BOSS <3
Since I woke up this morning about twenty minutes after I was supposed to have been in Writing class, I’ve been very productive. I made the competitive team I
TO DO: take the trash out.
TO DO: dishes.
TO DO: go to the gym after GEOS109.
TO DO: math lab at MCLT214- 7 pm.
TO DO: make math notes for tomorrow’s test.
TO DO: clean room.
TO DO: dust room.
TO DO: get a physical at Madigan for ROTC.
TO DO: email writing professor.
TO DO: call LA Fitness.
TO DO: call 24 Hour Fitness.
TO DO: drop a resume by LA Fitness.
TO DO: do GEOS109 report with lab partner.
TO DO: fill out ROTC paperwork.
TO DO: turn in ROTC paperwork.
TO DO: write paragraph for writing.
Sunday, I was supposed to tryout for the Washington Waves Cheer team. The girl that was trying out with me was going to let me ride up with her. The tryouts were in Renton, which is an hour away from where I live. Tryouts started at 730. At about 640, she decides she’s not going and since I don’t drive, I was left at my house, all ready to tryout. Fuck that >:|
I emailed the coach and she said for me to just send her some videos and photos of my skills. I thought the splits would be a great idea, and last night it was. Waking up to my hip in this much pain made that idea a lot less great.
Oh, Ryan. Please put a uniform on <3
(Source: honestybehindthesmile, via fuckkyeahafghanistan)