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Seattle Day 1
Sep. 1st, 2024 05:06 pmI took the train up and it was a good ride. The train was fully booked, ridership on the Cascades is up significantly over last year and the long lines for the cafe car were a problem. Cascades has some of the newest best train cars in the Amtrak fleet: big windows, bathrooms up to modern standards, easy passages between cars... or so I am lead to believe. They also run the original early '70s cars due to high demand for service and every time I ride I get the old cars with vinyl seats and worn metal. I kinda like the older stock, except the bathrooms.
Here is a picture of my hotel room from the entryway / bathroom:
The toilet/shower thing is on my right and the sink on my left, door to hallway at my back. I really liked the room. I'd say I'd pick this over most of the room I've stayed in over the past decade, but that is a low bar. I would prefer this over larger rooms. The bed was amazing and having it in a nook like that with the view was really cozy.
Most people staying in my hotel were there for the Metallica concert and assumed I was, too. So did all the staff. At a point I was like, maybe I should go along with it rather than say I'm here for an MMO community meetup?
The event was awesome! No one else in my guild was able to go, tickets went fast. I thought it would be mostly me awkwardly introducing myself to people whose names I'd known for like a decades, but a lot of them knew me. And some of the people who knew me introduced me to others including the game director. I'm really glad I went.
The end was awkward because being all 'okay, maybe see you online?' felt weird. People didn't want to leave, but also it was a Friday and locals had worked that day and non-locals were dealing with the time change so after everyone was ready to go crash.
I met Rubi! Sort of, she was too distracted my liking my bag to pay attention to me introducing myself.
There were two people who I did not expect to see there, and who are people I never want to see again, but they weren't really a problem. They ignored me and kept to themselves, which is kind of funny and I might post separately about all that. (But, in short, they would really, really have liked to be talking to the people I was talking to... but stayed away.)
Sadly, after meeting everyone, that was it. I told Jebro if he's ever in Portland I'll treat him to local beer and there is a chance he'll visit, but just a chance. Jebro used to be a competitive GW2 player and was a bassist in a punk band in the UK, he's now a licensed therapist working in Seattle. It's kind of funny if you know Jebro, I remember when I first found out he was in Washington and working on his Masters. I was so confused.
I had a great time. I knew going was going to be a crap shoot, but for once things worked out!
Here is a picture of my hotel room from the entryway / bathroom:
The toilet/shower thing is on my right and the sink on my left, door to hallway at my back. I really liked the room. I'd say I'd pick this over most of the room I've stayed in over the past decade, but that is a low bar. I would prefer this over larger rooms. The bed was amazing and having it in a nook like that with the view was really cozy.
Most people staying in my hotel were there for the Metallica concert and assumed I was, too. So did all the staff. At a point I was like, maybe I should go along with it rather than say I'm here for an MMO community meetup?
The event was awesome! No one else in my guild was able to go, tickets went fast. I thought it would be mostly me awkwardly introducing myself to people whose names I'd known for like a decades, but a lot of them knew me. And some of the people who knew me introduced me to others including the game director. I'm really glad I went.
The end was awkward because being all 'okay, maybe see you online?' felt weird. People didn't want to leave, but also it was a Friday and locals had worked that day and non-locals were dealing with the time change so after everyone was ready to go crash.
I met Rubi! Sort of, she was too distracted my liking my bag to pay attention to me introducing myself.
There were two people who I did not expect to see there, and who are people I never want to see again, but they weren't really a problem. They ignored me and kept to themselves, which is kind of funny and I might post separately about all that. (But, in short, they would really, really have liked to be talking to the people I was talking to... but stayed away.)
Sadly, after meeting everyone, that was it. I told Jebro if he's ever in Portland I'll treat him to local beer and there is a chance he'll visit, but just a chance. Jebro used to be a competitive GW2 player and was a bassist in a punk band in the UK, he's now a licensed therapist working in Seattle. It's kind of funny if you know Jebro, I remember when I first found out he was in Washington and working on his Masters. I was so confused.
I had a great time. I knew going was going to be a crap shoot, but for once things worked out!
