Seattle, part 1

I'm currently in Bellevue, WA, a suburb of Seattle.  Tomorrow I'll be interviewing with Microsoft for a summer internship.  I've wanted to do an internship with a major software company for a few years now, so I'm excited.  And let me tell you what, they're treating me well.  They flew me up here, they've provided a rental car, (a Chevy Malibu, if you're curious,) they're paying for my rather spacious hotel room, they're paying for all my meals, and they're letting me stay an extra day to get to know the area.  I haven't even gotten to the free drinks yet, and I'm already feeling like a million bucks.  The girl down in the hotel gift shop even opened up after hours just to let me buy some toothpaste after the TSA so graciously confiscated mine.  (Granted, that wasn't really Microsoft's doing, but I'm still feeling great.)

Speaking of the TSA, I've made a discovery today.  All of my jeans have been mysteriously developing holes in the right knee, so my parents bought me a couple pairs of jeans not too long ago.  Sometime in the last couple years they've started sewing RFID tags right into the clothing, and on my jeans they're inside the right leg seam.  The tag is flexible enough that after putting the pants through the wash, I didn't even notice it for a few days.  I cut one of these tags off the other day, but apparently that was on another set of jeans.  So today when I went through the metal detector in the SLC airport, I was setting off the metal detector despite my empty pockets, shoeless feet, beltless waist, and watchless wrist.  I even had some metal fillings replaced with porcelain ones today.  I was as metal-free as I know how to be.

Blasted jeans.