15 January 2009

Historical blogging, part 1

There was a time when I had another blog.  Due to some less than understanding significant others, along with a whole host of other issues, I took it down.  However, I did keep the posts.   While they are over two years old now, I was really enjoying reading back through them and seeing where my mind was not so long ago.   Because of this, I thought it might be a halfway decent idea to just go ahead and post them again, which I'm going to do over the next few days.

First up, Seattle sucks and I'm tired of it.  This post was from January 2, 2007.  My life was falling apart at the time, my marriage was ending, and I was 2500 miles from home and all I wanted to do was get back to Austin.

Seattle sucks, and I'm tired of it. 
Current mood: 
 aggravated

I've been consulting on Boeing's new 787 airliner, so that means I've got to spend an awful lot of time in Seattle.   I've earned over 200,000 frequent flyer miles this year, mainly traveling from Seattle to Austin. 

I'm tired of it.   Seattle is gorgeous if you manage to get here during the summer months.  It's mild, and it doesn't rain (shocker, I know!).   The other nine months of the year?  This cartoon pretty well sums it up:

It's just gray and gloomy and cold and that kind of bullshit rain that never really gets you wet but just serves to remind you how cold and shitty the weather really is.   And no matter what you may think, or how much fun an expense account is, traveling for business is nothing like traveling for leisure.

I've got to get back to Austin.  It's like recharging my batteries when I'm home.  I want to go hang out at Maudies Milagro and drink margaritas with my friends until I can't drive home.  I want to go run my car for a few dozen hot laps at Texas World Speedway.  I want to ride my motorcycle up and down Lime Creek Road until the sun goes down.   I need to be with my friends, my family, and everyone important in my life.

Not that Seattle's all bad.  I can go snowboarding, surfing, mountain climbing, off roading, fly around the city, visit Jimi Hendrix's grave, or any enjoy number of all the cool things Seattle has to offer.  It's just that it's not home, and with a few exceptions, my friends here are of the very superficial variety -- they'll be happy to drink your beer, but when the party's over, they're no where to be found.   And having visited here off and on for over year, I've seen everything here and I'm kind of done with it.

I'll have to make another trip up to Vancouver before I leave though.  They don't call "Vansterdam" for nothing.   If it's vice, it's probably legal.  And if it isn't, no one's paying attention anyway. 



So, in retrospect, what do I think?   Well, I never got back up to Vancouver, and I'm not entirely sure that was a big loss.   I have a couple of vices, which most of my good friends know well, but the vices allowed in Vancouver and Amsterdam really aren't any of those.  I think I was just upset and reckless and destructive and wanted to be stupidly hedonistic for a little while. 

Two years later, and yes, I really do miss Seattle.  I don't miss the weather, and I'll never visit in the winter time, but I did make some good friends there that I really do miss and there's some things in town I'd like to see again.   Hell, I even miss the calamari at my usual friday night eating spot in Sea-Tac airport. 

I'm starting to travel again for business, and that's a love hate thing all on it's own.  I'm looking forward to racking up miles and being upgraded all the time, but I'll miss being away from friends, family, and Austin.   Then again, I really miss my old Boeing job too.  It's still the coolest thing I've ever done and the highlight of my professional career.

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