Shock and Awe.

Alternate titles:
-When It Rains, It Pours
-%#@$!&#%@!!!

So, you know how I wrote at the end of yesterday's post to come back and see what happened today? Shouldn't have done that.

The power was out when I woke up (a little late) this morning. Getting ready for the day by candlelight was a bit more fun than I expected, actually. Probably because it brought me back to my 'pioneer days' - the several years of my childhood that I spent desperately wishing I'd been born in a different century.

My mom very kindly and generously offered to drive me to work because it would be significantly faster than taking the bus in. Except that traffic was backed up for miles in all directions because of the traffic lights being out. Literally miles.

I brought my office-mates coffee so they didn't mind the tardiness as much, and my time at work personally was not too bad. Although the guy who put in his notice yesterday was rather swiftly fired this morning, which made things....more exciting around the office.
In the afternoon I had to do a drop-off/set-up kind of job, which is not something I normally do, so I was a little nervous. I've only done this twice before, and one was a total disaster - I'll really have to write about it sometime. But anyway, I was on track for success this afternoon when I walked over to get a truck and the craziest downpour ever started right then. It seriously looked like Armageddon. The wet version. And, no, I didn't wear a raincoat today.

15 minutes later I was in the loading dock and ready to get to my final destination to complete the mission. The security person told me that the freight elevator was out and I'd have to take the normal elevators. Not a problem, but I wasn't allowed to take the cart, and without the cart I would need to make 4 trips. Not good, but I could possibly make it if I hurried. Unfortunately, the floor I was going to is a secure floor and they needed to get access/permission/confirmation before sending me up. I tried to expedite things by calling my contact, but once she was on the line she couldn't hear me because cell phones don't work so well in concrete dungeons. Who knew? After consulting a few others, she decided to send me up in the mail elevator. Someone showed her the right key combo and secret handshake to unlock the mysteries of this magical gravity-defying box, but it just wouldn't work. Minutes ticked by, and it wouldn't open. She went to get more help and some random dude in a baseball cap walked by pushing a few boxes and said,
"You waiting for that one?"
Silent nod.
"Oh, that's not gonna work. It's in Perkins mode and there's no way it'll come down here."
"Okay, thanks."

What the heck is Perkins mode? For the love. Thankfully, not long after, another guy came and took me to a 4th bank of elevators that took me where I needed to go. The people upstairs were very nice and I even got everything done on time. Driving back to the office I heard a few songs on the radio that I really like, and I was pretty happy. I'd made it through the day with a few adventures, but no catastrophes.

I was getting ready to head out of the office for the day when I got a frantic call that so-and-so needed coat check tags NOW at the jewelry store downtown, so I agreed to run them over. I parked the big white truck in the alley between buildings and when I went back out to leave I faced a dilemma - the alley was too narrow to drive all the way through without hitting other vehicles parked along the side. But backing up into rush hour traffic in the dark, in the rain, in a large vehicle with severely limited visibility, with high pedestrian traffic was going to be dicey. And dicey it was, but it was the only option. Nobody was maimed or killed, and no property was damaged, so I think it counts as an outrageous success.

What was not an outrageous success was navigating the bus system from downtown Seattle to downtown Bellevue. After a long, wet, and frantic search for the correct bus stop and a slow, standing-room-only sweaty ride, I arrived about 45 minutes late to meet my friend Matt (in town from Portland) for dinner. We ended up going to this random, swanky pool bar in the shiny part of town. The place was huge, and there were a lot of private events going on but we eventually found a table. It was really more of a nook, or a station, but anyway... We had a good time talking, etc. and eventually it was time for me to go home and him to drive back to Oregon.

My mom and I talked a little about the day and then realized we were 15 minutes late for Grey's Anatomy. We watched for a few minutes and at the next commercial break jumped up to do a few quick chores. I was getting shoes on to go down and retrieve the garbage and recycle bins from the big road down the driveway when...

Unfortunately I'll have to finish telling you about the rest of tonight tomorrow. Sorry. More later.

Comments

Anonymous said…
baugh! way to leave us hanging, Alexis!

was Grey's good? my mom tivoed it for me, so i haven't watched it yet.
Taylor said…
You're still watching Grey's?! Ha ha. That brings back memories. :)
Alexis said…
Yeah, we missed most of it but I think that, essentially, Lexie freaked out and yelled at Meredith about their dad, Bailey yelled at Shepherd about the way 'people like him' don't acknowledge/value 'people like her', and Izzy and George want their best-friendship back because things are just awkward since their 'love' destroyed George and Callie's marriage.

You know, more of the same.

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