AN ADVENTURE WITH THE SOUNDER COMMUTER TRAIN!
That's right! Instead of taking a car up to Seattle, I took the train and got to ride there in the lap of luxury, bypassing all of the traffic along the way.
Truth be told, it was mostly because Geoff was going up separately because he was hanging out with Sandy & Mathias up in seattle after work.
Nathaless, I did take the train. It was quite an experience. It actually costs $8 four a round-trip ticket on that thing from Tacoma to Seattle and back. But I only ever paid $4.
Huh? You ask? Bu-bu-but how? Well, the ticket vending machine (or TVM as I learned they were called) was broken and not accepting credit or debit cards. I had no cash on me because I did much research online and saw that those machines accepted credit and debit cards. A nice man with an authoritative manner (and badges on his jacket and a tan police-style hat) told me to tell Mr. Conductor Man about this problem when he went around looking at tickets. Sounded like a good plan to me.
So I walked all the way to the train and got a seat in about the middle car on the top floor. I enjoyed the scenery and looking at the different designs of the handfull of stations we stopped at. And the conductor never showed up to look at my ticket. So I got to Seattle and walked of the train, scratching my head. How had I slipped through the cracks like that? Oh, well.
The train let us all off just northeast of Seahawks Stadium. I work south of both stadiums. Seeing as how I never got a ticket for the train and had no cash to buy a bus ticket (nor any knolwedge of bus schedules and the like), I decided to walk. Heck, it was like 7:45 when I got to Seattle.
I ended up walking the wrong direction around Seahawks Stadium. The east side. Don't walk around the east side of that stadium, folks. You'll be confronted by loading bays and eventually a chain-link gate that I didn't really feel like climbing over (too high) or shimmying under (too much effort). So I walked back north and then west and went around the west side of the Stadium. Then it was pretty much a straight shot down to the Cobalt building. Well, a LONG, straight shot. Quite a walk! With the detour it ended up taking me a half hour, but I estimated that durned detour to the eastside burned up a good five to ten minutes. That's not as bad. I used to walk that much a couple of times every day back in college. But, man, I am so out of shape. Much worse than when I was in college.
I kinda want to take the train again some time and bring my camera with me (I meant to take it yesterday) so I can document the trip for an Article. That train trip is quite a trip.
I was plenny sleepy during work. I ate the PB&J sammitch (that Carrie made for lunch) before 10:00 a.m. But that was okay, because there was free pizza for all the Production Team members, of which it turns out we all are. So I ate much too much pizza. That barbeque chicken one was goot, though! I think I had five slices altogether?
Another fun adventure at work was the fact that a handful of us builders got emails saying they needed to go upstairs and pick up thier paychecks on account of it being payday. Mike & I did not get that message. So that was kinda crazy. I looked at my online statement and saw that they said they'd paid me, but they also said they'd cut me a check for $0.00. Weird. Mike sent them an email and they wrote back saying that our money had been directly deposited. Even though they said that our first paycheck would be a physical paycheck. Oh, well. I quickly called the bank and verified that I had money.
That's a strange feeling, having money. "That would be fun, to ride Ralph."
I got off work an hour early and walked the 20 minutes through the blazing Seattle sun. When I got to the station I had to go up a big flight of stairs, and I was so tired of walking by that time that I just ran all the way up them. On account of the crazy.
The train ride home was uneventful, and I eventually stopped sweating and fell asleep. I got back to tacoma in good time and drove the ghetto car out of the parking garage and back home. I actually got to see Carrie before she left for class. After she left for class, though, I got a phone call saying that Brandy's class (Caterpillar Bracelet) handout wasn't on the computer like it should be. Could I print out six copies? Well, no, not exactly. My printer was running out of ink. Well, what I could do was burn the handout to a CD, take it to the BF, and print it out on Missa's computer. Which I did.
I then went immediately to Fred Meyer to buy some much needed foodstuffs and things and supplies. They didn't have one thing there that I wanted, but I saw some things there that gave me a pretty good idea...
I came home and put all my groceries away, then headed back to the BF again. But this time I wasn't empty-handed. I was prepared. I came in the back way and stashed my package in the corner of the hallway. I then separated out one of the bunch and hid it behind my back. Pressing a finger against my lips to warn Leilani not to tip her off, I knocked on the open door of the classroom where Brandy was teaching.
"Can I interrupt class for a second?" I asked as I walked in.
"Sure," Brandy said. "What's up?"
I walked over to her and from behind my back I produced a beautiful boquet of flowers. "I brought you flowers."
"You brought my flowers!" She gave me a big ol' hug. Her face took on a cool mix of delight and confusion. "What's the occasion?"
I shrugged. "I got my paycheck today."
I snuck back into the hallway and grabbed a couple more boquets and stealthily approached Leilani, who was helping someone at the stringing station. I tapped her on the shoulder. "I brought you flowers," I said as I presented them to her.
She put a hand over her heart and pretended to get all teary-eyed. It was plenny cute. She said something to the effect that I was the best. I heartily agreed.
I then snuck behind the counter where Gretchen was ringing somebody up. I tapped her on the shoulder and said (again), "I brought you flowers."
"Oh! Chris, you're my favorite!" she exclaimed as she gave me a big ol' hug.
Last but opposite of least I went back into the hall and grabbed up the final boquet. The door to Carrie's class was open, so I stuck my head in. Carrie was very busy doing a demo of something and so didn't really notice me (what else is new? tee-hee), so I knocked on the door and quickly started in.
Carrie looked up. "Hi!" she said with a look of surprise and confusion.
"Hi!" I said back. "Can I interrupt your class for just a minute?"
"Why?" Carrie asked. "What's wrong?"
I love that the first thing that Carrie thinks when I come to visit her at work is that something is wrong. "Nothing's wrong," I said as I stepped up next to her. "I just brought you something." I produced a boquet that was literally twice as big as the boquets I had given the other girls.
"You brought me flowers at work!" she exclaimed. The women in class were all appreciative. Carrie introduced me as her fiance and said something to the effect that I was "a keeper." Who am I to disagree?
I left the BF feeling great. That was a whole bunch of fun. Nothing like making the days of four gorgeous women.
Now it was time to do something for me. I went to Chez Target, and when I came back I had a new acquisition:
The MegaMan Anniversary Collection! I came straight home and played it until Carrie got home from work. MegaMan 8 is cool. It's kinda hard (but nothing like the MegaMan 9 that I have on emulation on one of these computers). It has some animated sequences with voice acting and everything, but the voices they found to do the English version are absolutely hilarious. Dr. Light has a horrendous speech impediment (can't pronounce Rs or Ls) that makes you crack up when you hear it. Not to be insensitive to people with speech impediments, but it's just so bizzarre to hear Dr. Light speaking with one.
