I overnighted on Seattle's affluent eastside last week, dining with four friends in two days. The seeing-my-friends part was great fun. The being-on-the-eastside part was cancerously unpleasant.
I'm starting to notice a pattern with my discomfort around people. I cannot abide clusters of rich people. When in packs, they secrete some sort of obnoxious pheromone that permeates everything and everyone in their vicinity. They've aerosolized assholery. In wealthy areas, even the clerks making minimum wage are imperial, entitled assholes. I spent every second on the eastside wanting to throttle someone.
And then I went to a bar in Tacoma, a decidedly less wealthy community. I had a great time and met some really warm, interesting folks. It was just like my experiences in Spokane, Bellingham or Vancouver WA, or Pittsburgh, or pretty much anywhere but Seattle. It's more and more apparent that there's a direct correlation between a community's average income and my stabbiness there.