Thirsty Thursday
I had a kind of new experience with people here at the office yesterday evening, right after work—or, I guess I should say more specifically, it happened at Queen Anne Beerhall. I didn't even realize that place was there, so close, all of a seven-minute walk from the office. I'm pretty sure Shobhit and I walked in there once some time ago just to look around, but I had never actually purchased anything there.
I still haven’t purchased any food there, as last night I had only a couple of their fantastically priced $6 well drinks. I had two Screw Drivers, and I got just the faintest buzz, which was very nice, and I never got a hangover from them, which was also very nice. Next time—sometime next month, presumably—I will order one of their soft pretzels, as two of them were ordered by others at the table and they all kind of raved about them.
I actually dragged my feet a little bit before heading over there, afraid of being the first to arrive. I needn't have worried; when I walked in the door and looked to my left, there were already several people there, and the young woman I later learned is named Mia (who apparently has worked here five years now, so that was kind of embarrassing) waved at me so I would see where they were.
By the time the peak size of the group was reached, there must have been maybe 10 people there—9% of the total office staff (which numbers 110, I just now counted on the office staff roster)—and there was maybe half that when I arrived. I sat next to Mia on the other side of the table from the direction I came in, but at the end of the table away from the wall the other end was up against; she scooted over to make room for me. This put me across the table from Rachel, the woman I had chatted with a lot while volunteering Thanksgiving week shifts at the Columbia City store (and thus making her the only person there who I had even remotely a previous social relationship with). She was sitting next to Aimee, our Director of Product Sustainability, who had spearheaded this effort and hopes to have these informal, not-officially-PCC-sponsored (meaning we pay for ourselves) outings each month, to help us all get to know each other better. Or at least the people who will go to them, I suppose. I really never spoke to anyone on the other side of the table from Aimee or Mia, but maybe next time.
I did make a mental note as soon as I sat down that I was the only guy there. Later, a very new guy named Jordan arrived and he sat across from me when Rachel scooted over for him. I think next month I'll deliberately sit on the other end of the table, so I'll already be out of the way of any other new arrivals. No one else came after Jordan did, though; he, Rachel and Aimee are all part of the "Social & Environmental Responsibility" department, and everyone else was from Marketing. I was the only one from Merchandising who came. So far as I could tell, no one from Finance, HR or IT did.
Anyway. I had a good time. I got to chat with Rachel more; I like her a lot. I also got to know Aimee and Mia a bit more—I wound up in a pretty stimulating chat with Mia just as we were all standing up to leave. And I had the longest and most involved conversation with Jordan, who had a lot of interesting things to say, some of which was about being a black man born and raised in Seattle proper, which was very illuminating. It was also interesting to hear about his music industry related job he had before this, how much time and responsibility it took, and to my genuine shock, it apparently paid him less than he makes at PCC now. I kept wondering how old he was, and I never got around to asking. He struck me as pretty young.
I hope next month's so-called "Thirsty Thursday" happens before I leave for Australia, because I don't want to miss it. One thing Aimee did mention was that she did not realize how much staff would be out touring stores, which is a Thursday thing, so next month will likely be on a Wednesday. Perhaps some more people from Merchandising will join then. They'll have to come up with a different alliterative title for a Wednesday, though. "Wet Wednesday"? No, that doesn't work. "Whisky Wednesday"? No, too specific. Somebody offer some suggestions!
Anyway I had to pee super bad, nearly forgot my umbrella in the toilet stall but I didn't, and I walked only a few blocks before finally deciding to hop on the #8 up the hill and then only have to walk the last five blocks home.
And, I have fantastic news! The master bathroom shower drain is finally un-clogged! It only took . . . an entire fucking week! And two bottles worth of Drano. And two treatments of baking soda and white wine vinegar. And two treatments of "Hair Away," the last thing being what I probably should have known about to begin with. That will certainly be what I use for clogs from now on, and I shall reject Drano or Liquid Plumr henceforth.
I had showered in the guest bathroom shower the past two mornings, and Shobhit had the past three. I even hesitated to trust what I seemed to be seeing last night, after Shobhit had gone back to Pacific Supply and bought another, twice-as-large bottle of Hair Away and poured about a third of it in the drain before going to work. When I got home, I turned the shower on, and it seemed to be draining. I then boiled a large pot of water and poured that down as well, and for once it did not back up. The real test would be when I took another one of my 10-minute showers in there, though. I still poured just about a half cup worth in the drain before bed last night, just for good measure. And I took this morning's shower in there, and it drained fine the entire time!
What a relief. We won't have to call a plumber. Not for this, anyway.
I updated my budget and then watched the Netflix comedy special by Fortune Feimster until I went to sleep.
In other news, we leave for Australia one month from today. I'm so excited!
As I've already said, we will surely see lots of damage from the unprecedented bushfires, albeit only on the train ride between Sydney and Melbourne, and during our two days on Kangaroo Island. And speaking of Kangaroo Island, you can click this link, scroll maybe a third of the way down the page, and there is a before/after photo with a scroll bar that is quite stunning, how it shows what has happened where the famed "Remarkable Rocks" are located. I'm hoping a month will be long enough for what looks so barren there now to have gotten at least a little green again, but we'll see. The rocks are clearly rather scorched and will probably still be visibly so when we are hopefully able to go see them.
Those three days—the train ride between Sydney and Melbourne, and the two days on Kangaroo Island—will be the only ones involving much in the way of nature and wildlife while we're there. The rest of our time will be spent exploring the three major cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide) and relaxing at their nearby beaches.
[posted 12:22 pm]