 |
August 2, 2000 |
|
My cousin, Tino, is arriving in town today. I'm not prepared for it.
Really! I'm not prepared. I'm probably among one of the biggest
slobs you'll know. I suppose that I just have a high tolerance for clutter,
and my place is far from presentable. Also, I'm in the middle of deadlines
at work and have been spending more time there lately. I wouldn't really
have the time to spend with him.
I saw him only about a couple of weeks ago, at the reunion. He's a great guy… easy-going,
funny, smart. We get along just great. I wish I had the time to prepare
for him a little better, but alas I don't.
I wasn't sure precisely how or when he was arriving, I just
knew that he said, "August 2nd, Seattle" and that's about it. I wasn't
sure if I was picking him up from the airport, or if he was just arriving
at my place, or what the deal was. As it turns out, he was flying into
Vancouver, B.C. and taking the bus down to Seattle. He thought about
renting a car, but decided not to. His bus would be arriving at about
5:30pm. I didn't get all this info until about 3pm.
Now, I have never targetted arriving in Seattle at 6pm. I know
that the traffic problem is not merely noteworthy; it's very impressive.
Today wouldn't be an exception. I figured that one hour and fifteen
minutes should be plenty of time to drive the fifteen mile trip that
normally takes me about twenty minutes. I thought I was being cautious. I
was still late. This is a picture of the driving situation today.
Note that the weather is actually, pretty pleasant. Observe that the
traffic is literally bumper to bumper and also keep in mind that I
had more than enough time to find a good place for the picture and actually
take the pictures. That's a lesson in Seattle traffic. Well, that's it
for the problems with the freeway.
Now, let's talk about the problems with
driving within the city. He was arriving at a bus station that was about a
block off Denny way. I figured that I knew precisely where Denny was;
piece of cake. I'll never again utter those words. You see, like many
cities, Seattle streets run in a grid. However, that's not entirely
accurate. Seattle streets run in two grids. You have the
standard grid where the streets run north to south and east to west,
then there's another grid where the streets run diagonally. You
probably don't believe me. Take a look at the map. You see that one
joining road between the two grids? That's Denny way!
[Terrific!]
You might imagine that the traffic on Denny was particularly bad, and you
would be right. The other predicament from this asphalt nightmare is the
fact that, if you happen to be travelling westbound (towards the left
on the map) on Denny, you could not make a left hand turn. You see,
you would have to be turning into a 45° turn or a 135° turn, and
the department of transportation decided that it would be too much trouble.
So while driving westbound on Denny, you can only make the occasional left
hand turn, and the lights were short. I was near the bus station, two
blocks away, only about ten minutes late. However, it took me nearly and
additional twenty minutes to find a place where I could turn left and
maneuver around the Seattle traffic.
There are many reasons why I don't live in the actual city of Seattle. I
generally enjoy driving. Really! However, dealing with this
massive chaos is entirely a different issue. The idea that getting
somewhere by foot is easier than by car is a foreign one to me. If you
enjoy driving and you plan to move to Seattle, I'll urge you to consider it
carefully. The idea of actually enjoying driving around Seattle
during traffic like this is about as likely as enjoying a well-prepared
lamb shank… as a suppository.
I did eventually manage to maneuver near the bus station, where I
picked Tino up. The weather was nice enough so that we took the top off my
car and drove around. His luggage
fit in the back of my little car, it actually has plenty of trunk space,
especially if you take into account the size of the car. We talked about
getting dinner with Pam or our other cousin Lynn,
who ironically, I had yet to meet. As it so happens, he made plans with
Lynn tomorrow, so tonight would be just Tino, Pam,
and I.
I called Pam at work to see if she was about ready to get dinner. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to pick her up, so she would have to take the bus to wherever we decided to meet. We picked the Old Spaghetti Factory, since it had good food and more importantly, it had parking. There's no underestimating the power of parking.
Tino and I drove around the city a bit, while we tried to maneuver our way near the restaurant. It wasn't too bad really, now that I had picked him up. I still felt like an utter moron, for so grossly miscalculating the time, but then again. This is a particularly bad city when it comes to traffic. Still the traffic is considerably more bearable while driving with the top down.
We arrived at the restaurant without much incident. They had a parking lot… a lovely parking lot… which was packed. Nothing is ever easy, is it? I maneuvered once through the parking lot to no avail. There were no spots to be found. We drove around the block and came through the parking lot again, I dropped Tino off to meet with Pam, which I suppose is a bit ironic since they had yet to meet, but they're both resourceful. I snaked through the parking lot this time and found a space, albeit a small one, but then again, I have a small car.
I met them in the lobby, Pam had just arrived. Despite the fact that the place was packed, we were able to get a table right away, which was certainly nice. It's the first time Pam has met any member of my family, and at least now someone knows that she's not fictitious. They exchanged life stories during dinner and talked a little shop since we're all in the computer industry. They both work for small startup companies; I work for a somewhat larger software company. Still we all know the industry.
Then we all hear a phone ring. We all looked puzzled. Oh, it was my phone. Considering that I have had my cell phone for so long, I get very few phone calls on it, and the few ones I get are typically from Pam, so I was bordering on shocked. I looked at the calling number; it wasn't one I recognized. I answered; it was my friend, Trudy. It wasn't pleasure however, it was business. She had called because we had to triage the bugs that were assigned to me, we had to assign them priority and decide which milestone we should target for each bug. Obviously, I wasn't going to leave dinner to do this, however, we decided that it should be done soon. I agreed and continued with dinner.
We continued exchanging stories. And to their amusement, they exchanged stories about me. Not that I have anything to hide really. It's not like either of them have any haunting memories from my childhood; the stories only date back about two years or so.
We hear the phone ring again, and again it was my phone… though a different number this time. I answered. It was my regular D&D crew. Since originally, I wasn't sure when Tino, would be arriving, I had responded to the meeting as "Tentative". I forgot to update them. Steve was the one who called, and I apologized for not being able to make it. I hate missing their sessions; they're a lot of fun.
We finished up dinner. Tino paid for dinner. [Thanks!] We also enlightened Pam about the silly Chinese ritual of paying for the check. You see, Chinese folk are incapable of splitting a check. Really! That's not the only problem; it is also a little disgraceful to not pay for the meal, at least not without a fight. What typically ends up happening is you get this collection of people, who are all fighting to pay for the check, naturally, eventually someone prevails and the other(s) accept gracefully. I personally think it is an issue of control and show of power, but that's just me with my Americanized mind.
Pam ordered a cab and we waited until it arrived, then Tino and I headed out shortly after that. The traffic eastbound across the bridge was uneventful, the sun was beginning to set and it was quite stunning. Then again, I like cityscapes.
Tino is interested in seeing where I work and what my office looks like. We stopped for a while and I show him around, it is evening of course, so it is not populated, however, there are still a couple of folks there and we exchange a few words. We didn't spend much time there.
We did go visit my D&D buddies. Just to see how everything was going. Rich, who is incidentally, the only officemate I've ever had was running my character, Hope. I had to remind him that she recently went up in level and had more hit points, which was a good thing, since he had already worn her down to three hit points. [Great!] Just don't get her killed! Okay?
Tino was pretty tired, so we went back to my place. I showed him where everything was, and told him to make himself at home. I pointed him to my collection of movies and DVD's and that should keep him occupied for a while. The problem is that we had some serious deadlines at work, and I would eventually have to return.
Tino asked me point blank if I was in the middle of a "Deathmarch", I told him I was. He is in the software industry; he understood. Still, I made me feel like a complete ass for leaving him like this, but I did have to go back to work. Tino seemed to be in good shape, so I headed back to work.
I forget precisely which bugs I worked on and how many I investigated, or which ones I fixed. The only thing I really remember is getting home at about 4am, where I promptly went to sleep. The days are just packed.
August 2, 2000