Weekend One: Nuclear Scare

The Flight Home

I flew home for the weekend to join Tam for his friends' wedding. I dug out of work early to catch a flight home.

Let me tell you; catching an Uber from Redmond to SeaTac is no joke during rush hour. It didn't help that it was raining, and I arrived with 45 minutes left to spare to get to my gate. Fortunately, I have TSA pre-check, and had enough time to get some chocolate for my parents.

The flight home was alright. It was one of the first flights in a while that I had to sit next to a child. That was mostly fine, except the kid kept kicking me. THAT was annoying. In fairness to him, he seemed younger than he looked. It's like when you see Great Danes that still think they're puppies. 

At the end of the flight, he kicked me one more time. I was annoyed at this point, and asked him, "Can you not?"

He apologized and stopped. My bad, but I really was a little peeved at that point. Anyway, Tam picked me up, and I went home to sleep. Travel days are hard, and I was tired.

37 Minutes

The next day, we woke up and were looking on our phones, passing time. He got the missile alert; I didn't. I turned those types of notifications on. We analyzed the text message in seconds, wondering about the authenticity of the message. Looking at each other, we made weak references about times when we've joked about dying together. 

Except... In this moment it was our reality. We counted down the 15 minutes from receiving the alert; the same amount of time it supposedly takes for us to get hit. I thought about my parents downstairs ambling through their day like normal. In that moment, I was happy that my parents wouldn't have to live a day without each other, and happy that we were together. 

But time counted down to zero, and up from there. Reports stated that it took 37 minutes for the governor to make a statement. Within those 37 minutes, I became very at peace with my imminent death. There's a gentle calm in embracing your mortality.  The days succeeding the false warning uncovered people angry about the inconveniences and fear it caused. I know people made some dangerous choices so that they would make it home to their families. Some people even had to choose between family members to go home to. That does suck.

Some people quickly blamed the state, adding this occurrence to their ever growing list of woes. It's just unfortunate that the takeaway wasn't that we need to be better at preparing ourselves. Whether it's with supplies or plans or even the reality of life's impermanence. Maybe it's weird, but I often reflect on my mortality to help me savor the seconds that seep away with every single day.  

Wedding at the Kahala Hotel

We joked about not getting ready for the wedding, since the false missile was a sign. Of course, we went anyway. All the guests were in good spirits, and even the officiant joked, "Not even a missile alert can get in the way of their love." In case I've never said it before, I like open bar weddings. It makes it last a lot shorter. I don't even remember what I ate, but at least I recall the food was awesome! I napped after anyway.

For dinner, Tam and I went to Tonkatsu Tamafuji, which I've talked about several times in my Someone I Met blogs. I think that last visit finally broke my binging on it, which basically lasted a year. Anyone who knows and loves me, knows that I can binge on the same food for weeks... And then I'll turn, and won't want it anymore. That's what happened this time, but I still see it as a positive. I'll be able to savor it just like the first time, whenever I go next.

A Pleasant Return Flight

The Sunday was mostly me flying home. Funny thing is, I sat next to a fellow who worked for Microsoft in the 1990s. He told me about how he was able to sell his shares and retire in Hawaii, but he would work for them again if the opportunity was right. He also told me that the campus only used to be buildings 1 through 10; 12 at most. 

It made for a pleasant flight back to Seattle, and this was where my adventure would continue without intermissions home. 

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

I had belatedly learned that I was off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so I took to Facebook to ask for food recommendations. My friends did not disappoint... Also, I was relying on them to dictate the rest of my day so via their favorite places. If there's anything I like to do, it's eat, and I'm always excited to try new things. I decided to head into the city, and because I hadn't figured out how tolls work with rental cars, so I went the long way around.

I had Manao Thai food on Capitol Hill for lunch. I don't really know what it is about traveling, but I always seem to crave panang curry after a flight. It all started on my trip to NZ, and it's been something unshakeable since. 

Since I was blessed with a sunny winter day, I walked a couple of blocks to try a salted cheese bubble tea drink. It's supposed to make it savory, but... It tasted like a dessert I would have rather eaten than sipped. The Moo Bar also has the cutest logo, and while I didn't like the drink much, I could at least peep the cute cow. 

On my walk back to my car, I also checked out Molly Moon's, a popular Seattle ice cream shop. Their seasonal flavor this time around was Meyer Lemon, and I am a sucker for citrus. I know I already had dessert, but no one said I couldn't have second dessert. 

To Bellevue and Home

I went home the same way I came, the long way around, and the view worth it. I'm so used to seeing choppy water because of the constant beating of the ocean waves. When I sailed in high school, it was rare to see glassy water stretch so far. 

After a quick pitstop in Bellevue, I called the end of my weekend adventure. 

Week One: Trial by Fire

My first week in Redmond was a little crazy.

Getting Here

That was kind of fun... Not. I somehow got sick the day of my flight, and it felt like I had the flu. I basically did everything in my power to sleep on the plane, and I felt extremely bad for anyone who had to sit next to me because I was sick. One woman I sat next to had a mouth mask for the occasion, probably for the best. Phlegm is no laughing matter. The time of day I flew was beautiful, and it might have been the one redeeming part of being sick on a flight.

A post shared by Maxx R (@chococow280) on Jan 7, 2018 at 8:46pm PST

As soon as I landed, I headed over to the baggage claim so I could "get home" to shower and sleep. At the baggage, I saw a man empty his pockets looking for his claim ticket, dump it on a chair, and completely ignore it until a janitor tried to throw it away. Then he threw a fit and basically had the look of annoyance and disgust on his face. I tried not to laugh at him, she was doing her job, and he wasn't really doing anything with the contents of his pockets otherwise.

I began heading over to the car rental building, which is one building with all the rental companies in it. The way that SeaTac organizes the rental cars is genius. Instead of taking a lot of space horizontally, they've opted to take it vertically. As a result, there's only one shuttle for all the companies. It eliminates the need for different shuttle services to pickup customers in the same spots, causing bottlenecks in the arrivals area. LAX, I'm looking at you.  I mean, SeaTac has other problems, don't get me wrong... But this is a definite win.

I was given the wrong car when I first got here, and had to switch it out just when I was trying to exit. It's too bad, it was an Audi... And I had just spent 30 minutes looking at the driver's manual while waiting for my phone to charge. Anyway, I picked up my keys and got settled as best as I could.  

Feeding Myself

I thought the Sunday before my first day of work it would be the perfect time to use Uber Eats and Amazon Now. With services like that, there's almost no need to leave the house. I was also in no shape to be driving around Redmond. What I didn't expect, however, was how badly I overestimated my ability to carry everything up the elevator. 

Since I would be returning home the following weekend, buying a bunch of perishable foods was not the way to go. We don't have a Trader Joe's in Hawaii, so I was very unaware of the great microwaveable options for single serve dinners. Just an FYI, Trader Giotto's is a cute name for their Italian food. Hm... I kind of want the lasagna now.

My Temporary Digs

It's nice. Honestly, it's more space than I could need. I spent a lot of time milling around in my attempts to feel less feeble before my first day. Man, it's been a while since I've written a relatively alliterative sentence.

I generally spend my time off glued to one spot. Now there are several spots that I can sit in:

• The Nook: I brought my watercolors because I felt like it would be fun to have an art project to do myself for a bit. That's what lives on that table. 
• The Couch: If I feel like watching TV for hours, this is where I live. I also sometimes work here leisurely.
• The Bedroom: I sleep there for extra hours on the weekends. It's amazing. 

Having all this space is nice. At home, I generally do everything in my bedroom... It's nice to separate my activity spaces from my resting spaces. 

Jumping Right In

In terms of work, I assisted a training session right away. And when I say assisted, it was more helping out my new manager with the logistics of the training. Nothing super crazy, just making sure that the food showed up on time, and was cleaned up on time. I clocked in a ton of overtime so I got to dig out early on Friday.

That was kind of fun. When you work hourly, you're more conscious of your time, in the sense that you're counting down. When it comes to salary, you have more flexibility. If you're definitely over, then you dig out. You get paid the same no matter what, which is a different mentality than what I'm used to. I think I'm lucky, because my company has policies and benefits that support a healthy work-life balance. I strongly believe everyone should make time to recharge; it keeps people motivated and their ideas fresh.  

My office space.

It's also really humbling to be around people that are smarter than you. It's a good way to check your ego, and engage in opportunities to learn. You're conducting an ongoing internal dialogue  where you can recognize what your strengths are and build upon them, while still creating a foundation for your weaknesses. You won't be amazing, but at least you can do the basics. 

My host manager and I met on Friday to talk about my time here. She asked me what my goal was, and I told her to learn about where I can grow into. I didn't know what's available outside of retail, but I'm willing to learn and try.

She told me that it was brave to say that, and that it takes some maturity to recognize your own lack of knowledge. From there, we concocted our plan to expose me to as much as possible and learn from there.

I never liked too much structure anyway, so this worked for me. Growing is a part of any worthwhile journey, and it was time to get going!