Cleaning, Changing, and Compromise

After I moved out of my parents' house for college, I've yet to ever live with anyone who is as clean about their living conditions as I am. I've always done the majority of the cleaning in the communal areas and end up cleaning up after my previous roommates. Of course it's just not possible to tell someone to be cleaner and expect them to be better around the place (like how telling a jobless person to get a job won't solve their problems).

I think it comes back to personal standards to living cleanliness. Growing up I spent time helping (or being coerced into helping) clean up around the house, making me acutely aware of my living conditions, whereas I bet that most people didn't have cleanliness highlighted as a part of growing up. This is particularly true about my roommates, as they tend not to see a need to clean (except when they're expecting guests). Their lower standards of cleanliness frustrated me to no end, as I would occasionally try to cajole them into cleaning more often. Of course this wouldn't work, as old habits (such as not cleaning) die hard, cleaning doesn't happen. I think cleaning habits are particularly difficult to change, as there's a high energy barrier to cleaning (especially when there's a lot of it to do) and I think it's difficult for people who are used to a certain standard to raise that standard. My current roommate will occasionally scrub the stove (despite splattering large amounts of it on the stove and floor daily that I tend to clean up), but he'll always miss about half of it.

I've come to the realization that it's generally not worth constantly pointing these things out, especially since there is never any change. It only creates animosity between roommates, which definitely isn't ideal. As this point I've had to be the one to always settle for my roommates' lower standards (so not really compromise) to the point that I'm (barely) satisfied if they do their dishes, shower, do laundry, and take out the trash when it's full. It's a low bar, but it's what I've had to settle for without exploding at someone.

The Amazing Drivers of Seattle

I'm not exactly sure I can pinpoint why Seattle drivers are so bad, but they're pretty bad and getting worse. Actually I can hazard a guess, and it might have something to do with how politically correct things have to be around here and how that mentality of self-importance and self-confidence regardless of actual ability and reality translating to the road. It's one thing to know that you're an awful driver, but of course here in Seattle no one is willing to admit that and everyone keeps driving like a lunatic.

Driving in the Seattle area is an exercise of hyperawareness and anticipation, where I've come to anticipate everyone driving poorly in just about every aspect. Sadly these are things I see on a daily basis that I feel that I haven't experienced on a regular basis in other locations.

• Turning out of the wrong lane-I'm really not sure why you think it's a good idea to make a right turn out of the left lane or a left turn out of the right lane.
• Turning into the wrong lane when there are two left turn lanes (or right turn lanes)-This one really gets me since there's one of these when I drive home from the office.
• Not making wider turns-This is also a huge problem with two turn lanes, as the car in the outside lane will always cross in front of the path of the car on the inside lane, regardless of which lane the outside car will take. This also applies to parking, where drivers will always get really close to the car in the next space on the inside of the turn because they start turning too early. This also results in almost every car angling towards the direction where they came from instead of fitting straight into the space.
• Not yielding-There's an on-ramp that merges with the off-ramp I use to go grocery shopping, and no one will yield to the cars on the off-ramp. Instead they just keep going and for some reason I'm the one that has to fit to their spacing.
• Matching speeds-Speaking of on-ramps, most drivers will not reach highway speeds on the on-ramp, instead choosing to coast at around 45mph and then try to merge on the highway.
• Tapping the brakes-Drivers tapping the brakes before intersections where they have the right of way really baffles me. The light is green all the way but before the intersection there's a fair minority of drivers that will tap their brakes.
• Last-minute lane movements-There's a particular street that's three lanes with the right lane becoming a separate road that's part of my commute to work. Every time without fail during the last block there will be multiple cars from the other two lanes trying to move over to that right lane, and sometimes the majority of cars leaving the road will do that. It's almost possible that before the previous red light they can go over to the right lane instead of trying to cross through everyone.
• Blind spots exist?-Blind spots are a myth to many here as well, as someone will try to cross into my lane when I'm in their blind spot, especially on the highway when I'm passing them. Excessive use of the horn has occurred multiple times.
• Going excessively slow-It's one thing to go above the speed limit, but when there's no traffic and everyone's going 10 below...
• Disrupting traffic flow (other than on-ramps)-Instead of the mentality being "I'll make the turn when it won't disrupt flow" it's "I'll make the turn and it'll be alright if that car slows down". Pedestrians and cyclists also take this route when crossing the street.
• Headlights and turn signals exist for a reason-The lack of turn signal usage seems to be a general epidemic, but the lack of headlight usage really seems to be a Seattle thing, especially when I drive home from work late at night (like I'm about to do now).
• Red lights also exist for a reason-I feel like this one is pretty obvious. I've even seen the police here run red lights after stopping at the intersection.

Unfortunately this is only a sampler of the poor driving, as there are many more things that occur on a daily basis anytime I drive (and it's only a 10-mile round trip to the office...)