Category Archives: Hotels

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And this isn’t even all of it

Olympia, WA

Turns out Olympia is not too shabby. The downtown is reminiscent of San Luis Obispo or parts of Portland. There is a lot going on and great food (which is always key to me liking a town) and I’ve already done more in the last two weeks here than I sometimes do at home in Seattle.

The first week I was here I immediately nestled into my hotel room like an old familiar bathrobe. The only difference is that this time I took advantage of the pool and hot tub. When I was on the road before, there were always too many kids or I was alone and didn’t like hanging out with a bunch of strange businessmen by myself. After some “martinis” (in quotes since it was really just expensive vodka shaken over ice and given a twist of lemon) a few of my co-workers and I enjoyed a dip in the hot tub, followed by an improv game of pool baseball.

Later in the week Jay took me out on the town to listen to some bands. When walking around Oly at night waiting for his friend’s band to play, I was amazed at how many people were out and about and how welcoming everyone was. We wandered into the basement of a house and listened to an off-the-wall group (possibly former drama kids) play a few songs and no one looked at us like, “who the hell are you and what are you doing here.” Especially since I’m starting to feel more and more like an old yuppy. I hate that.

If that wasn’t enough after work activity, the next night we went to Homo A GoGo. We had tickets to see the Indigo Girls (who were amazing as always) but the highlight of the night for me was hearing Mirah play. Jay and Matina introduced me to her music and I can’t get enough of her. I have quite the crush. She is the cutest little thing with a voice that sounds almost like the lead singer of Frente! and she writes and plays with a unique and mesmerizing style. I was hooked instantly and tickled later when I caught sight of her up on the side of the stage during the Indigo Girls just in time to watch her throw her bra at them. She was so discreet about taking it off, you could hardly think of it as scandalous. It was more adorable, if anything.

Later when we wandered out of the concert over to Jay’s friend Josh who was selling Vegan treats to post-concert appetites, I noticed Mirah crouched down in front of the bin of Zucchini wraps and Marionberry Tarts. While Jay talked to Josh about his new vegan cookbook called, “Something Delicious This Way Comes,” I fidgeted excitedly trying to get Jay’s attention so I could point out that the most amazing woman in the world was practically sitting on his feet. But being that he’s 6’6″ with shoes on, he never noticed her. As she grabbed her food and stood up to walk away, I mustered up a wimpy “Great show” and she replied in the sweetest voice, with a dimpled smile, “Thank you.” It was heaven. I’ll have to tell Matina all about it.

The Indigo Girls had a raffle for someone to sing on stage with them. I bought five tickets and didn’t win, but the entire build up to it had me wavering back and forth between hope and fear that I might win. The girl who won did a great job singing “Closer to Fine” with them because you could tell she was just happy to be up there. I have to say though, I was wearing an almost identical outfit to both Amy and Emily, so I think I would have looked great up there with my jeans and T-shirt that had Elmo on the front and “Tickles Wanted” on the back. I even imagined that if I won, they would read my t-shirt and tickle me and I could say I was tickled by Amy and Emily, so bow before me, if you must.

Homo A GoGo is sponsored by the Gender Variant Health Project (GVHP). Check out the site for more info. It was an amazing event and I wish I could have participated in more activities. So that was just my first week in Oly. This is the start of week three of eight. But don’t think I’m done yet. On to a recap of Week Two.

Last week I headed home on Tuesday night in order to go to my XGym on Wednesday. I got to see RAR and Jenna over dinner at Bizarro which is a great Italian restaurant near Greenlake. I highly recommend it. RAR and I looked through our Europe journal and reminisced then I wandered off around midnight to wake up Aaron, who had rolled into Seattle earlier that day. We stayed up talking until 2am, so needless to say, XGym hurt at 6:45am and driving to Oly after that was near dangerous. Still worth it though.

Back in Oly, we went bowling after work and then Jay and I went on a search for some quick Vegan food, which is terribly hard to do when you’re tired and you want something fast. We ended up at Japanese, which was delicious. Thank god this isn’t Iowa.

Can you believe I didn’t blog all this time? I’m only halfway through what I’ve been up to! I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics with another co-worker, Burnsey, and proceeded to be made fun of for being a fabric buying virgin. When Burnsey realized I’d never purchased fabric before, she immediately called Jay (who single-handedly supports most fabric stores) and they laughed together when I walked up sheepishly holding a ream of cloth asking if I was allowed to touch it or if I was supposed to leave it on the shelf and get help. We made a box for Maria’s wedding so people could put donations to Act of Giving in it, but my only real role in the process was to refill Burnsey and Jay’s cups with Whiskey while they glued and ironed the fabric on. Okay, maybe I painted the box, but you hardly see that part anyway.

In the end, I felt more useful with the glue and ribbon once I realized Jay was no longer able to keep a straight line of glue going. I’m quite the bartender.

On Friday, the night before the wedding, I went to dinner with Aaron and Chris, then met up with Leah. I was hyper and talkative in the beginning, but quickly crashed after a long week. Went home around 11:30 and slept hard.

Maria’s wedding was beautiful. The drive up to Vancouver on Saturday was hot and muggy and the day continued that way. The wait at the border was insane and neither Jay nor I had really planned for that. But we showed up in time for some Tofu dogs and then the baby dedication started. Baby Brennan is a doll and the wedding ceremony that followed was equally touching. With Maria and Sharon dancing into the room and sharing their love with everyone, there was hardly a dry eye. At least, mine weren’t dry. I felt fortunate to be a part of it and as Michelle said at the wedding, we look with love and awe at Maria and Sharon and the family they have created wondering how can anyone say that could be wrong. That is a family I want to be a part of and you could tell everyone in the room felt the same way.

After the wedding, Jay and I stayed with some friends of his, Jen and Andy, who had the most adorable 3-year-old named Sam (Second of course to Maria and Sharon’s son Aidan). It was so relaxing to sit with them and listen to their new CD they are about to release and watch Jen paint. Just the way I would want to spend all my weekends. I learned that 3-year-olds say the darndest things and now that Sam has learned about his privates he loves to giggle and say, “I’m going to throw my balls to Makela!” Makela is his best friend, and one day I imagine she will set Sam straight about what he should do with his balls. Until then, he might just be the brightest 3-year-old I know.

As his dad was leaving for work, he ran over to him, gave him a hug and whispered, “I love you Dad. You’re the best Dad ever.” Now how freaking precious is that. Almost makes my clock start ticking.

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Talking to Strangers

Racine, WI

What a crazy couple of days. For those who know me best, we would all agree that I’m not shy, but I also don’t meet people on the road very often. I tend to sleep on the plane, therefore avoiding having to get trapped into conversation with a potential adulterer posing as an uber-Christian who then buys me the Left Behind book (this has happened). I also love the time of day when I go back to the hotel, usually with takeout in hand, settle against my headboard with my laptop and dinner and usually a terrible in room movie to keep me company. Thus, smiling, greeting, and any general “what’s your story, this is mine” kind of interaction is kept to a minimum. Just the way I like it. Or so I thought.

On Tuesday afternoon I decided that hanging out in the Wausau hotel with nothing to do was not going to hack it. I convinced the hotel to let me check out without a charge (it was 3pm in the afternoon) and I headed towards the Marriott in Racine enjoying the long drive and my book on CD that Leah lent me called Kitchen Confidential. Great book. I highly recommend it. Calling ahead, I begged the Marriott to let me check in a day early. As luck would have it, all they could put me in was their biggest suite. Finally, things are working in my favor.

According to Steve, this was going to be a great Marriott because it had a concierge level. I would say it is an old Marriott with a stale stank to it that makes my eyes tear up, but they do have a concierge level, which translates to free food and beverages, with alcohol to purchase. I decided I deserved a little hot tea and a glass of red wine (strange combination, but god I love the two). Upon entering the room, there were two gentlemen talking on the couch. The concierge was schmoozing it up with them and shamelessly showing them her glamour shots. I was going to take my goods and head back to my room, but the gentlemen seemed fairly approachable and interesting. One was gesticulating wildly about being a Master Colorist and Hair Stylist and I figured I’d settle in and eavesdrop.

Turned out to be a great idea; I ended up hitting it off with them. The hair guy, Lenny, was traveling for work, training stylists on how to properly color/highlight people’s hair with his product. He works for a big company that owns products even I am familiar with (and you know I have little or no knowledge of hair). The other gentleman, David, was originally from London {insert moan of passion over his accent here} but was now moving to Racine to work as an IT programmer of sorts for another big company. Long of the short of it, Lenny asked us to be hair models for him the next day and we accepted. My hair getting dangerously close to my butt and the highlights grown out below my ear, I was both embarrassed and anxious to get it fixed. Especially by someone who pretty much has his PhD in hair. 🙂

After sharing many glasses of wine, the three of us decided it was time to check out the bar scene and grab some food. We stayed out until almost 3am, enjoying the local gay bar where they helped us order some Italian delivery (can you believe I was able to find some non-pizza delivery after 11pm at night)? The next day we dragged ourselves out of bed for a day of beauty at the local salon. I felt like a princess. Everyone petting my hair, discussing how to make it seem more vibrant, less fine, and less frizzy…okay, maybe I felt a little picked over, but it was amazing.

We followed it up with another night of good food and wine, and then I worked their brains a little too hard with yes/no puzzles. Ah, the good life of meeting people. Tonight I might head up to Milwaukee for Jazz in the Park with David.

Moral of this story? When you have a good feeling about people, say hi. You could have great company and free hair styling for the rest of your trip.

The one thing people may be upset to hear is that I gave Lenny complete license with my hair and he cut off about 5 inches. No more long luxurious hair. But let’s face it, the hair was starting to get pretty nasty.

Better late than never. Here’s Lenny! He’ll hate me for showing the picture I took after a long night of wild dancing. At least it’s small.

Love your hair, hope you win!

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Pink drops her pants

Hotel bed in hotel room in Sidney, NE

So here I am watching trash tv and trying to learn a bit about div’s and the like so that I can ditch tables and start using KB’s smooth ass process.

But don’t worry, I’m not getting on here to discuss that.

I was just wondering if anyone knows why Pink always wears her pants so freaking low? I mean, it looks really strange. Britney’s low pants are sexy, but Pink lowered them to the point of seeming like we are giving her a physical exam. Just wondering. Is there anyone of you out there that thinks it looks good? If so, let me know. Curiousity is starting to preoccupy my mind.

But then again, I was watching MTV to take a break from my constant Disney channel obsession, which Johnny and Gary had to hear all about the other day. Maybe soon I’ll go into it more on this.

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Ruth’s Blog is my life

Lincoln, Nebraska…still

I decided that even though I have to drive six hours west to Sidney for my next stint, it still wasn’t worth doing tonight. I contemplated driving the 8 hours to Boulder, CO but again, I decided it would be nice to rack up some Hilton points here at the Embassy Suites in Lincoln. I found a great mocha place called The Coffee House, I’ve scoped out all the theatres, and the room service here is outstanding if I decide to stay in my pajamas all weekend.

Which finds me sitting here on my computer for the sixth hour in a row. I’ve been trying to catch up on everyone’s blogs and news and other fun sites. I’m also working on my html skills and trying to design Ruth’s new page. Right now she is using a template, but when she starts her biking tour job we hope she will start posting her digital pics and writing about her adventures. So I’m getting stuff ready for her to do that. I’m sort of Ruth’s Kris Bell. Filling the role he usually takes.

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Burning Knees

Lincoln, Nebraska

Just got in tonight. Went to dinner with Steve and Todd at a Cajun restaurant and the highlight was the Bananas Foster. Neither Steve nor I had ever had it. Delicious!

But then I came back to the hotel and realized there were far too many mirrors in here. That might be nice when you have a little lover to play around with, but instead I kept catching my reflection and thinking, “Who let that fat girl in my room?”

Needless to say I threw my sneakers on and went running. I didn’t get very far and my lungs felt like they were on fire. Actually, it’s been two hours since I ran and my lungs still feel like they were ripped to shreads. Kris Bell once told me that if I decided to start running I could work myself into it and eventually it wouldn’t hurt as badly, but it’s hard to have faith. 🙁

Sometimes I understand why people have the fat sucked out of them. I would never do it, but I understand the desperation and especially the laziness. Laziness being the key word. It’s strange how I go about my days thinking I look about 120lbs. and then I see my reflection all of the sudden and am still shocked that I’m no longer that small. Is this the epiphany you were talking about Kris? You said it just hit you one night. Could this be my night where I really start doing something?

Knowning me, it will pass. I’ll be sitting on my bed eating chips this time tomorrow night.

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My Best Gal

Leah is here with me. She’s the one who wrote that I was a dork. I have to concur. If you read the comments on KB’s site, you’ll see why. We sweet-talked her into doing a sweep for a librarian and told her she could share my room for doing it. She currently has a hotel in Walla Walla, but the sweep was closer to Baker City where we are.
menage a trois avec le lapin jaune

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Confessions of a Room Service Slave

Taking a break from working on my class prep. This Content Server gig is tough because I do better by watching people and then adapting it to fit my style and comfort, but I haven’t seen anything taught for awhile and it changes with each class to fit the needs. This makes it hard to really get a handle on it. I was the last person added to the Content Server team and I think I’m nervous that there isn’t enough time for me to get my groove going before it’s all over. I know everyone is still working to get a rhythm going during their lessons, but this just intimidates me more at times. Still, I feel maybe after this trip I’ll get enough confidence up to run with it no matter who I’m grouped with. I hope.

Where will she sleep?

I better get back to work, but first I thought I’d purge my mind of some silly thoughts.

Thought #1: This one is coupled with a confession. My thought is that I should really be 200 lbs. After eating Mexican tonight with Erin and Brenda, I felt unsatisfied and munchy. I really just wanted a glass of milk so I could have some of my cereal, but then I remembered they have these really great pots of tea downstairs and they have room service. So I called and planned on just ordering the glass of milk and a pot of tea. Then I thought, well I usually want two pots of tea because they are kind of small, so I added a pot of tea. Then I saw they had popcorn so I ordered that, but they were out. For some reason I felt like I had to pick something else to replace the popcorn so I ordered a piece of cheesecake. But then I remembered I wanted something a little less sweet so I saw they have half sandwiches. I ordered a half a turkey sandwich and they said it came with salad, so I said, “Great, I love salad!” So in the end my glass of milk turned into: 1 glass of milk, 2 pots of tea, half a turkey sandwich, salad w/ ranch dressing, and a piece of Oregon Berry Cheesecake.

You know what the worst part was? Not only did they assume there were two of us in my room and brought settings for two people, but I couldn’t even fake that my imaginary second person was around somewhere (which is what I normally do, “oh they ran to the car,” or “they’re in the bathroom”) because just before they brought the food, I locked myself out of my room and had to go get a key. We arrived at the same time and it only makes sense that if I had a second person I wouldn’t have needed to go get a key. Embarrassing. I made Brenda eat most of the cheesecake and half the salad. And don’t forget, the milk was for cereal. And I ate that too. Pathetic.

Thought #2: The artists whose works end up in hotels must change their names to escape from the failure. If I were an artist, my pictures would be hanging in K-Mart bathrooms. I just know it.

Thought #3: Just because it’s gold, doesn’t make it pretty.

Thought #4: Am I the only person who eats Goldfish crackers by biting them lengthwise? And if I’m not the only person, do those who do it too feel as much satisfaction as I do?
Heeeere fishy, fishy, fishy....

Oh the little things.