happy hours
So we had our "Town Hall and Happy Hour" yesterday afternoon, starting at 3 pm, and ending with "Happy Hour" at 4:30. Jeff, our Beer and Wine Merchandiser, really undersold the wine that would be available: apparently a lot of them had been around a long time, making us think that some of them might be either really deliciously aged, or disgustingly "corked." I took some read wine from a bottle with a label that just read in big letters POUR ME, so I decided okay, I guess I'll follow directions. It was fine. I actually took a second cup to go in a HydroFlask bottle when I left around 5:30. It was Scott's suggestion! He came up to my desk when I was gathering my things to go and gave me the idea. I passed him a minute later by the pantry table and said, "You're officially a bad influence. I'm actually going to do what you suggested." He told me he hadn't had any wine at all so I was just having his for him.
Anyway, the meeting was pretty nice. We learned a lot about the new West Seattle store, which does have a lot of very cool elements to its architectural and interior designs. It's also opening in the same location as the first West Seattle store, which opened thirty years ago, in 1989. I'm actually looking forward to checking this store out after it opens -- I never spend time in stores for work -- even though it's still pretty far from me, for a store that's in Seattle proper. West Seattle takes a while to get to.
Cate, our CEO, said more than once that the Ballard opening will be "six weeks later," so even though there is no set date for that store opening, I guess the expectation now is mid-November. Then we have the Bellevue store early next year, and the downtown Seattle store at Rainier Square Tower not long after that. It was kind of sobering when Cate said, "At this time next year we'll have four new stores that we don't have now." Jesus. At least with this go-round we actually have a new "Store Opening Team," which apparently has made things far easier for everyone else, who are not running around pulling their hair out less than a week from a store opening, and many people who would not otherwise be able to actually were able to attend the Town Hall meeting.
I sort of skipped lunch yesterday, with the expectation of food in the late afternoon, although I did have a couple protein bar type products I found around the office. This left me kind of feeling weirdly fucked up and light headed for a while, probably due also in large part to all the sugary sweets I kept stupidly grazing on. I have a problem. Once I had my heaping plate of breads with hummus and crackers with cheeses, though, getting protein from hummus and cheese, I felt a lot better.
The weather was wet in the morning yesterday but dry by midmorning and actually partly sunny by late afternoon, so a lot of us took our plates and drinks outside to the patio. This is likely to be our last "Town Hall" for the year; we'll have our annual Thanksgiving Feast but we won't combine that with an all-office meeting. So this was our last all-office gathering that could include hanging out on the patio, until probably late spring of next year.
So, I walked part of the way home, drinking wine out of a HydroFlask along the way, and then bussed up Capitol Hill from downtown, barely managing to catch a #11 at 4th and Pike. I freshened up and then I spent about three and a half hours at Steamworks, getting action of varying levels of mediocre quality while Shobhit was at work. Tonight after work I'll be doing something nearly as gay: I'm going to see the Judy Garland biopic Judy at Pacific Place at 5:00. By all critical accounts so far, the movie is just okay but apparently Renee Zellweger is pretty great. I guess we'll see.
Another movie tomorrow, and then on Sunday? I fly out with Danielle to Las Vegas! Back Tuesday evening so, just FYI: no DLUs on Monday or Tuesday. So don't panic when you don't see any posts those days!
[posted 12:29 pm]