Seattle Trip

Sorry, another long one.

I'm really starting to love these business trips. Of course, I love to travel so I suppose that it all kind of makes sense. Anyway, flew out Tuesday morning, and arrived Tuesday afternoon. Apparently my flight was 3 hours before all my coworkers. Whatever. I did, however, finish the first crossword of my life on the flight out. Granted it was from AM New York, but I never even finished a Monday Observer crossword in school so I thought it was pretty cool. (Don't worry I came back down to earth Thursday when I attempted the Times crossword. That was ugly).

Anyway, I hung out with my friend Lisa Tuesday evening, and went to a really good Asian food restaurant whose name escapes me along with her and the rest of my coworkers. We decided to order wine with dinner, so I obviously felt like I needed to chime in with my opinion. Apparently I was the only one in the group with much knowledge of wine, or at least the only one that made the mistake of admitting it, so the wine selection for the group got put on my shoulders. Initially I didn't like this because I thought "Oh shit, I have to choose 2 bottles of wine for 6 people when we all want something different." In the end however, this was actually beneficial. I ended up choosing a Pinot Gris and a Shiraz. I figured with all the seafood, chicken and pork dishes this would be a pretty safe bet. However there was a beef dish and something else that went with red a little better too, so I figured the Shiraz would be generic enough to at least not clash with anything. I had a little input from the Wine Steward too, which was a big help. Now, the advantage of choosing the wine is that while everyone else at the table gets only one glass, you have to have 2 in order to taste both wines. Awesome. The Pinot Gris went very well with things. I didn't really have more than a half glass of the Shiraz until after the meal since I mostly ate things that went with the white so I have no idea how well it went with things, but no one complained. Wow I'm a snob.

Wednesday my group went out to Breakfast and met with DIG all morning and into the afternoon. I personally contributed virtually nothing to this meeting, but it was nice to get an idea of how things work and why things are done the way there are done.

At night we got a few drinks and then headed to the Mariner's game. Unfortunately, my group was not as organized as the first group that went out to Seattle, so we didn’t get tickets until game time. I was a little annoyed with that since I like seats near the field, but we had a good location even though we were out in left center. We could still see the game. We didn't get there until about the 3rd inning because of the aforementioned drinks, but it was a fun game to watch. We also left early too because it was still tied in the top of the 11th. I also found this a bit annoying, but oh well. We went to another bar after the game, and caught the very end when Beltre (I think) hit a walkoff. After a few drinks we all went back to the hotel, and I was very pleasantly buzzed, perhaps slightly drunk at that point.

Got up 5:30 (Seattle time) Thursday morning and was a bit hung over, though I did take pretty good care of myself Wednesday night so it wasn't too bad. Really I just needed more sleep. While waiting for the coworker I was going to the airport with, I ran to the Starbucks next door (I live in the wrong part of NYC to do this...which is probably for the better) to get some breakfast. While walking towards the Starbucks a guy sitting at the table with a starbucks cup said good morning. Still tired/hung over at this point and not really capable of thought I replied back with low pitched "Morning." He then asked me if I could spare him some change. Now, particularly after living in NYC, I don't give money to the homeless. First, begging is illegal; second there are legit charities around that make sure the money goes to something that actually helps the homeless like clothes etc. instead of something like cigarettes. (Of course, I don't donate to them either but lets not worry about that.) Anyway, if you are a beggar, sitting at a table with a fresh starbucks cup is not a good way to convince me that you need any money. If you can afford starbucks, you're probalby doing alright for yourself. Moron.

My flight back was meh. I was tired and hung over, and you just can’t put airline seats far enough back to get comfortable enough to sleep ok. It didn't help that there were two rednecks just across the aisle who decided they wanted to get drunk, and inevitably try and talk with anyone who will pay attention, and even those doing their hardest to pretend like they don't exist (i.e. me).

Random: My flight was a Delta flight, and one of the passengers was a JetBlue stewardess (or flight attendant if you want to get all PC on me) with a United bag. I was kind a confused.

Anyway, Seattle was nice and warm and sunny. Apparently it poured in NYC so HAHAHAHA on everyone here. Seattle is amazingly clean. Or it least it seems that way in comparison to New York. Nobody crosses the street their unless they actually have a crossing signal. I thought that was really weird, but someone mentioned that the cops there actually hand out jaywalking tickets, and that they're for something exorbitant like $40. Whatever, I still did the New York thing of crossing the street as long as no one was coming. I think if I absolutely had to, I could live there, but I would definitely miss my cold weather.

Anyway, it's good to be back, and I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

Music: Sevendust - "Black,” NIN – “Down In It”