Firstly, this may be the fourth St. Patrick's Day Dash I have ever done, but it was the first I had done in ten years.

I'd say this huge break was mostly due to Shobhit's absence from Seattle this time of year between 2010 and 2016. He and I might have done it together again sooner -- he did in 2007 and 2009; I hadn't quite met him yet in March 2004 -- but, he was unavailable. So, it kind of just dropped off my radar. Why Shobhit suddently developed in interest in doing it again this year, I really don't know; it was totally off my radar, and then I was rather surprised when he said he wanted to do it. In any case, that was why we both registered for it.

And then, he decided he was going to visit his mother in India. At first, we didn't think this would pose a conflict: his original intent was to leave soon after Valentine's Day and return maybe a week into March. But then that plan kept getting postponed, and postponed, and when he finally booked it, his mom asked him to stay for Holi, the Hindu spring festival of colors. And suddenly that meant he was going to be gone for St. Patrick's Day, after he had paid to register for this event.

But, then I was trying to find plans to make to fill the four weekends Shobhit would be gone. I wanted one of those weekends to have Jennifer (my cousin) come up from Shelton and stay the night, as doing that with Shobhit out of town really appealed to me. Even when I first mentioned it to Jennifer she was like, "YES!!" -- and she told me Eric was driving her crazy and she wanted the getaway. This was well before she had given any indication of a separation.

So then I suggested she come stay the night Saturday March 16, and then join me the next morning for the St. Patrick's Day Dash, since I now needed someone else to do it with me anyway. I was slightly surprised she was down with that, given how early it was, but in retrospect it makes sense actually, given she is a mail carrier and used to having to be to work by 7:00 in the morning.

I did try to get Shobhit's official registration renamed to Jennifer, and I got one email reply, but this event is probably run by volunteers and they were not exactly efficient about this communication. (Also, the person who responded to me asked me to provide all the registration information for Jennifer, which I had literally just done in the first email I had sent.) So, it wasn't entirely surprising when we got to Seattle Center this morning and there was only one McQuilkin on the registry. The other was still Shobhit Agarwal, but it all still worked out fine -- the T-shirts are unisex and it was already selected to be a medium, and Jennifer said that worked.

She didn't wear hers; I put mine on over the T-shirt I was already wearing. I had worn my green FRUITCAKE T-shirt I love so much, not even thinking about it being St. Patrick's Day. The Dash T-shirt is mostly black, but the writing on it is still green.

I did have to hustle a little getting ready this morning, having set my alarm for 6:00 a.m., and it was very nearly that time when I woke up. It was 6:15 by the time I was done with my cereal and ready to get into the bathroom to get ready for the day; I was done in there at about 7:10.

My initial intent was to take the 7:29 #8 bus down Denny from the stop on 15th & John, which was what we walked to. But then every time I checked the One Bus Away app, it was delayed further: three minutes, then four minutes, then six minutes.

So, I took a Car2Go -- the first one I used in about five years. Those white and blue smart cars they had used for years seem to have disappeared; I actually just checked yesterday, having no idea I'd need one today, to see if they were even still operating in Seattle, and if maybe Lime cars had replaced them. They are indeed still here -- they just have much more normal, regular sized cars now. I guess they swapped out all the smart cars for Mercedes Benzes in 2017.

I checked the app this morning while waiting for that bus that was going to make us later than 8 a.m. to Seattle Center, and that was the end of the time frame listed to pick up packets. (I'm quite sure we still would have gotten our packets, but I like to keep all my bases covered.) There was a car about two and a half blocks away. I already knew they cost 45 cents per minute to drive, so it would only cost a few dollars just to drive the couple miles down Denny Way to Seattle Center. I actually did not realize until checking the app later that, for reasons that totally escape me now -- it may be leftover from some promotion years ago -- I actually had $10 credited to my account already! Shit, if I had realized that earlier, I would have gone for the car much sooner. I still had like $3.60 in credit even when I was done. Driving hat car cost me nothing!

It did confuse me a little, though. I'm really not used to using a digital gear shift. That took me a minute to figure out -- Shobhit's Nissan Sentra is a 2004, so, apparently 15 years ago now counts as "the old days." Anyway, I got us down there with plenty of time to park (I realized later that any other day I could have gotten into trouble for parking in a metered spot, but today is Sunday so all parking is free anyway) and get to Seattle Center and pick up our packets. We had time to mosey around the booths, use the bathrooms, and Jennifer bought us both fruit smoothies.

Having that fruit smoothie proved to be a mistake, because even though I peed preventatively right before we left, that smoothie still hit me before we were even to the halfway point of the walk. The total length is barely over three miles, starting at Third Avenue N on Mercer, turning right down 5th Ave to Denny Way, where it veered over to 4th and went down 4th to Spring and back again. This was a totally different route than the three I had done before, and actually pretty standard and dull -- in the past couple of years, be they walks or marches or protests (hell, even Pride), it's always running up and down 4th Avenue, which must be the City's current preferred road to close down for events of all kinds.

Back in the day, though? Well, this gets back to 15 years ago once again, as 2004 was also the first year I did the St. Patrick's Day Dash. I did it again three years later, in 2007, and both times the route was pretty awesome: from Seattle Center to the Alaskan Way Viaduct, walking atop it. That's obviously history now, as they are demolishing the structure, but for some reason they made it history ages ago: when we did our third stint for the St. Patrick's Day Dash in 2009, they completely changed even the direction of the route, going up Aurora Avenue and turning back halfway across the Aurora Bridge.

The weather sure did cooperate with us today, though. The 2004 Dash was decent, but still overcast -- at least it was dry; in 2007 it was quite rainy and cold; in 2009 it actually snowed (it didn't stick, but still -- you can imagine how cold that was). This morning, Jennifer and I were among very few people wearing jeans and jackets in 41° weather; that was chilly enough. It was totally sunny, though, nearly clear skies; it was around 60° by the time we reached our high today -- quite the quick change after having heavy snowfalls only a month ago, and another slight snowfall just a couple weeks ago.

One thing I tend to forget about the St. Patrick's Day Dash is how festive people get with it, and fun costumes people wear. I got a few good pictures of them in the 41-shot photo album I have on Flickr. You can click over there to get further detail about the walk.

Oh, wait, except I do want to mention this part: shortly after the turnaround point, I separated from Jennifer, and was unable to catch up with her until the finish line. This gets back to that damned fruit smoothie -- I was once again having to pee so badly that I was in pain, and I just could not wait until we returned to the finish line. So, I told her I was going to look for a bathroom at Westlake Center. She said she would keep walking because she didn't want to reach the finish line last.

Turns out, the restrooms on the top floor of Westlake Center have been removed, as has the food court that used to be up there, in its entirety. Now it's pretty much just Saks Fifth Avenue an the Monorail station. I did find a sign for restrooms on the second floor -- only to find that they were closed! Fuck! So, then I rushed over to the lobby of the Westin Hotel, where I have been able to use the restroom in emergencies in the past. It had been so long, though, I knew there was a good chance they would be locked unless you had a key card. And indeed, that was the case. But! A miracle happened, and a guy came and used his key card, and I caught the door just before it closed. And I was finally able to relieve myself.

And Jennifer was messaging me cross streets she was crossing in the meantime: Blanchard . . . Battery. Once I was out again, contrary to what was always the plan with this "Dash," I actually did a bit of running intermittently, trying to catch up with Jennifer. That's why I finally did get to the finish line only about two minutes after she did.

I still took a selfie with the clock.

Jennifer was hungry and wanted to get something to eat, in spite of the smoothies and my having already had cereal and it still being morning. I found a well-reviewed place on Yelp that was just a few blocks away, but the way to get seated was estimated at 45 minutes. So then Jennifer took the suggestion that we walk down to Pike Place Market and eat at Lowell's.

It's for that reason, though, that we walked back down 4th Avenue again, about half the distance southward as we already had earlier. We did pass the Popsicle Sculpture on 4th and Blanchard, though, and Jennifer tried refusing to pose for a photo with it. What finally convinced her was lucky and random -- a lady was passing by and she just offered to take a photo of both of us. Well, sure!

So then we walked the rest of the way to Lowell's, where the line wasn't too bad at all, and the food was delicious. There was one unfortunate incident, though: I ordered a Spinach Florentine Eggs Benedict, and the one that was brought to me had crab on it -- which I did not realize until after taking two bites of it. It was sort of interesting in a bent way, because back when I ate it, I used to love crab -- I haven't even accidentally eaten it since then, and this morning I really did find it gross. Plus, it quite annoyingly got stuck between my teeth.

I think I learned a valuable lesson here, particularly for places where you pay before you even get your food: check for meat, if you're at a place where this kind of mixup is even possible. (It would not be possible at a vegetarian restaurant, but here, the server simply brought me the wrong plate, as at first glance you don't see the crab and it just looked like a Spinach Florentine.) The guy apologized and even took personal responsibility for it, and I chose to let it go. Shit happens. Still, what if it were something I were deathly allergic to? That kind of thing can be dangerous.

I had even been really loving the dish when I took the first bite, which had no discernible crab in it -- only the second bite did. I really liked how it was seasoned, and was delighted to find the correct dish, once it was brought to me, was seasoned the same way. I hate to break it to Shobhit, who loves to evangelize about the benedicts at Glo's on Capitol Hill, but I honestly thing this one was better -- one of the best benedicts I had ever had. (I actually usually get blueberry pancakes for breakfast at Lowell's, but opted not to this time after all the sugary cocktails I had had Saturday night.)

After brunch, Jennifer was all about catching a bus back home because her butt was sore. We just barely made it on a #11 just as it pulled up. We hung out in the condo for about an hour before we got into Shobhit's car and I gave her a ride back to the ferry terminal to head back to Bremerton on her way home to Shelton. It was really nic when, while I was driving her, Jennifer said, "Thank you, I had fun."

Because of course, that would also include spending Saturday evening together -- I went to pick up Jennifer at the ferry terminal at about 5:30 last night. I drove her back, and we set out to get some dinner within minutes of getting back to the condo. I gave her options and she chose Thai -- her greatest concern was that it be a place with cocktails. She also offered to buy dinner because she had her tax return.

So, we walked over to 11th & Pike to a place called Bai Tong Thai Street Cuisine -- I had eaten there before, once with Ivan and Shobhit. I didn't have drinks then though, and the cocktails I had here were delicious. Jennifer and I both had two there. The food was really good too, although the pad thai special was a bit of a surprise, as I expected noodles with added wontons and what it actually was, as a version of pad thai with noodles replaced by wontons. It was still tasty, but I won't order that again.

Anyway, we got to talking about the bar we could see right across the street on Pike, through the window, called Unicorn. I told her they have cocktail names like "Unicorn Jizz," and she was immediately like, "We should go there!" So, once we closed out at the restaurant we went across the street to Unicorn, where I said I would buy our drinks.

We might have been able to drink even more than we did, but for my also ordering "Unicorn Droppings," which is a dessert plate of three deep fried balls of peanut butter cookie dough, topped with whipping cream and sprinkles. No wonder I went from 152 lbs to 157 lbs in two days -- and this is the reason all I am having for dinner today is a couple wedges of cheese. (I have also had three of the huge chocolate truffles Jennifer brought with her, one last night and two this afternoon. Eric apparently had sent them to her, and she decided she'd just bring them on her trip to Seattle. They are delicious, but very, very rich -- and we cleaned out the box.)

We came home after that, and I made us one final drink. I had thought I would make margaritas, but since my previous cocktails had been vodka based, I decided I would finally polish off the last of my gallon jar of apple juice and make hot cider & spice spiked with vodka. Jennifer said that sounded fine and so I made one for each of us, and that was perfect or using up the last of the apple juice I've probably had for a couple of months.

And we both went to bed relatively early because we were set to get up early this morning.

[older St. Patrick's Day Dash posts]