Seattle Adventures

Sunday morning I hopped on a plane with my favorite former coworker and we zipped up to Seattle for a conference. Well, we got up there as early as we could on Sunday to spend the day wandering around, then went to bed, THEN went to the conference.

View from Kerry Park

Best presentation ever

I unfortunately have been sleeping and eating terribly lately. I've been waking up in like, a blind panic at 3-5am and not being able to go back to sleep. Then food-wise, I've been struggling to eat enough (made worse by CrossFit now demanding more and better fuel), so I was really excited for the change of atmosphere. BUT it also meant that on Saturday night, when I finally was able to get through the night with only two disruptions (but able to go back to sleep, which I hadn't been able to in a while), I woke up way too late to ride before leaving on Sunday morning.

So that's fine, I just got ready, went down to the barn to give TC grain and a kiss on the nose, and then headed out. He's been kind of less enthused about working lately (unless he comes out way spooky), so rather than try to work through it, I'm just going to let him have a few days off and see if he comes out fresher when I get back from camping next weekend. If I come back and he's kind of blah still (he wasn't, he was so excited!), I'll call the chiro/vet/someone out.

Loved it!

At the airport, I found my former coworker/current friend who was also coming to the conference! I hadn't seen her in a while and was really glad that she was coming for a few reasons. I obviously like hanging out with her, but she's also a big foodie and takes no prisoners so I knew I'd have food thrust upon me and/or thrown at me if I didn't eat. Nice! It's not a conscious choice to not eat, it's just my stomach feeling like shit if I do eat and feeling better if I fast.

Our flight went by quickly and soon we were at the Seattle airport. I apparently decided for us that we'd take public transportation to the hotel, since it honestly wasn't going to save us all that much time to uber, and I love figuring out how to use public transportation in new places. In the last few years, I've ridden it in Portland, Pittsburgh, Boston, and DC and not been lost yet. Definitely been lost in the bay area's public transportation system though...

We checked in and then immediately walked down to Pike Place Market for lunch. I was super hungry and the change of atmosphere was making me want to legitimately eat food, so we kind of rushed through it trying to find a restaurant. We did find one and I ate the most I had in one sitting in a few weeks, while my friend gave me the that's all you're eating look. From there, we walked over to see the fish being thrown, but we only saw a couple of fish go by. It was super cool anyway though!

Then we wandered down to the gum wall, which, after feeling a bit grossed out, we decided was super cool. It smelled amazing down there.

One very small part of the gum wall

We were already kind of near the water, so we walked out to the ferris wheel that you so often see in pictures, so I took a few. The weather was perfect, low 80s and sunny, and it was just so nice to be by a gigantic bit of water. Not that I visited the beach much when I was living in the bay, mostly because I worked by it and was not willing to drive over there to see it, but I do appreciate the beauty of a giant sound.

We went back through Pike Place on our way back to the hotel and I found something I didn't know I wanted: an Ocarina. I'm a huge fan of the Zelda series, having played Ocarina of Time semi-regularly since it came out. I have a 3DS that I actually thought about bringing but I always think I have more time than I really do at conferences. The guy was playing various songs from the game and I was standing there thinking that I desperately needed one of these things when he said it was $64 in honor of the N64. I just couldn't justify it. Though now looking back I kind of wish I had splurged because it was SO COOL and I mean, I just got a free trip to Seattle and free food all week.

I want one so much, probably going to just order one

I also saw a CBD lotion free sample that promised relaxation, which is nice, so I took a bit of that and one of the ladies offered me this cream to make my bruise (from slamming a barbell into my shoulder during a power clean, oops) go away. I was like um I know that CBD doesn't work that way, but hey, I'll try it for free. I mean, it totally didn't work, but I did feel really relaxed by the time we got back to the hotel and almost took a nap while we got ready to go back down for dinner.

We stopped in the hotel bar for a second before heading out for food (AGAIN, I was still so full from fish and chips earlier) and had a drink. That plus the CBD made me feel amazing lol. Not intoxicated or anything, just so relaxed that I told my friend that if I fell asleep just to leave me where I was.

We went to a SUPER NICE sushi restaurant that we didn't realize would be kind of expensive. Luckily with my questionable volume of food consumption, we were able to share an appetizer and roll and that was good for both of us. She looked at me like I was some kind of dementor, getting my sustenance from her soul rather than from food. Really, just not super hungry, and also was promised dessert.

Tempura Brie!!!

The sun was setting when we got done, so we went back out to the ferris wheel to look at the sound in the evening. It was beautiful! And from there walked back up (so many flights of stairs guys, I'm so used to living in the flatlands right now) to an ice cream place we had passed. I got their signature float- their homemade orange soda and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I took a sip of the soda first and was kind of confused because it honestly didn't taste very good, but then once as the ice cream had mostly melted, it tasted amazing. I mean, I feel like lots of things would taste amazing if you melt a big scoop of vanilla ice cream in it though. Like I think I'd like beer a lot more.

From there, we walked back to the hotel and I was finally able to sleep pretty well, just one minor wake up at 5am for no reason, where I went back to sleep (!!!) and woke up at my normal time.

Delicious

I took this picture on my big camera as well and am so excited
to edit it! After editing all the others I have... 

Monday morning we had the conference all day, and then we ubered up to Kerry Park. I had done a photoshop tutorial on youtube that used this picture, so I decided that I wanted to take one! Unfortunately, Mt. Rainier was not too visible, but we'll see what I can do with photoshop to make it a bit more clear. It was still so beautiful. We stayed there until well past sunset.

It was about a 45 minute walk to our hotel room, and it was a warm night, so we decided to just walk. I was skeptical, but it ended up being SO FUN. We got to see a lot of Seattle and walked right under the Space Needle. It was amazing to see it so close up! And there's an awesome playground underneath, which we totally played on. In my conference dress (but with converse on because I'm not an idiot), I climbed up through a spiderweb of ropes and slid down some slides. That was awesome. Then we kept wandering back to our hotel.

We finally made it around 11:30pm and then went straight to bed. I wish we could have stayed out later but it was also again so nice to sleep a full night (well, only 6 hours, but no waking up).

Right under the Space Needle at night

Tuesday we were set to leave, so it was just conference and then taking the train to the airport. It was far too short of a time to spend there, but now I know that I want to go back, and soon! I know the weather was deceptive and I only did the most touristy of touristy things to do, but I really did get a good vibe from the city and it will be fun to visit again with more time to do more things.

I have actual fancy camera pictures from Seattle but I'm still editing those, watch for those on a Wordless Wednesday when I can't come up with any content. Tomorrow, back to the ponies!

Educational Opportunities

I spent from Tuesday through Friday morning of last week at a conference. My initial plan was to set up my blog on Sunday for the whole week, but my last post went over why that wasn't something I could do. I thought I'd have time at the conference, but not so much because I turn into a social butterfly at these things.

The conference was AMAZING, it's my favorite one. I felt less than prepared for my presentation due to just switching jobs and kind of having to scramble once at the conference to add things to the presentation (luckily we presented late in the afternoon on the second day so we had time). All of the sessions were super informative, and I think that the longer I spend in the field, the more I get out of the sessions.

Also conferences have the best food, this was a custom mac
and cheese station

Mine was quite unhealthy

The most fun was seeing people I don't get to see very often. I obviously immediately reconnected with my former coworkers. We spent a good amount of the conference together, including going out on Wednesday and Thursday together (along with some other friends). I made a ton of new networking connections and touched base with people I've known for a while. A bunch of new ideas cropped up for how to collaborate with other colleges and stuff I'm excited to take back to work.

Friday morning I was a bit hungover, having had a heavy discussion with my former boss (who is now merely an amazing mentor) the night before and then deciding that drinking alcohol, which I rarely do, was a good way to loosen up from that. I stayed up way too late bonding with my former coworker (who is now one of my good friends) and ended up going to bed around 1am to get up at 6am for my flight. I got about four total hours of sleep because I kept waking up feeling sick.

My journey back was real interesting but it was mostly because a) I kept making plans for the possibility of needing to throw up when the mode of transportation got bumpy (my driver to the airport was aggressive) and b) I got lost a few times in two airports I'd never been in.

I finally made it home and decided to decompress for an hour, hanging out with my cat and trying to get myself to eat.

Dinner one night

Peony, Andy, and L were coming over (more on that later) so we could go to an important event (more on that later), so I decided that I needed to go try to ride real quick so I could shower and get ready. TC hadn't been ridden since Monday and before then had a couple days off for rain so he's basically had a bit of a vacation. Peony very kindly fed him while I was gone and I got out there to see he was bright and excited to see me. I took note that all of his legs looked normal (I always expect one to blow the fuck up) and that he needed to be brushed.

I took him out, passing the farrier who was packing up, and put him in the cross ties. I took my time brushing him, getting all the hair off- he's so much lighter this year!

I then glanced down at his left hind and immediately ran outside to see that the farrier had left. Seems like TC had spooked his shoe half way off. This has happened several times before, probably happens every six months, where TC startles by throwing his legs sideways and he sheers a shoe right off.

I picked it up and saw that only half the nails had dislodged and were now poking into his hoof, cool. I ran around the barn asking people if they had anything to take shoes off with, messaging Peony FRANTICALLY asking for her farrier's number (who is in Oregon for the week but coming to put the shoe back on tomorrow), and trying to pull at the shoe a bit. A friend at the barn showed up and I asked her if she had anything, she had nippers but I really needed a rasp to take the nails down on the other side. No dice.

So much fun

Peony was on it though. She sent me "Andy just watched a shoe removal video. He said we can improvise" and I ran up to my house to get ready for the event while they made their way out there.

Andy to the rescue, for sure, they brought a rasp, which we used to file down the clinches to get the nail straight, then we dislodged the shoe a bit with the nippers, and then he yanked each nail out with pliers. Shoe came off and the foot looks normal and the shoe honestly could get tacked right back on, it's totally normal looking. Because TC was barefoot for so long, I'm not worried about riding him like this, the ground is still really soft from the rain. But I ran out of time for Friday so I fed him grain, told him to stop spooking his damn shoes off, and we headed back to my house to get dressed and drive out.

Then it was time to go home

I'm so grateful for friends like these who come to rescue me! I owe them big time! And I think I'm going to be buying a few tools to have laying around just in case this happens again so I'm not nearly so frantic when it does happen... And we'll see what new farrier thinks of possibly putting quarter clips on those back feet! He has them on the front.