A Day Like All Days

TUESDAY (New Year's Day)

I got up around five to find Gary awake and doing something with his phone. I went to the bathroom and back to sleep until the alarm went off at six. Gary told me he'd been up since 1:30 or so.

We were packed and ready to go about 7:40, and arrived at Colleen's by eight. We each had a banana for breakfast and Colleen put away the leftover soda, applesauce and gelatin cups. We chatted for a half hour or so, then said our goodbyes and left for the airport. We got our bags checked in and got through security without incident, even though I had to do a bit more disassembly and reassembly than usual due to the tablet and my suspenders. We went directly to the gate and decided to wait until Minneapolis to have lunch.

The aircraft was a Bombardier with four seats across, but we both needed seat belt extenders, which was unexpected. A cute cubbish dude in a heavy tan jacket kept getting up with the seat belt sign on. Across from us was a family of four, likely grampa and three grandkids, who were headed to Saskatoon.

When we arrived in the concourse in Minneapolis, I noticed someone sleeping on the floor between the charging station and the people mover. We made our way to the airport mall, but found the food court closed for renovation. Fortunately there was a restaurant just before the entrance to concourse F, where we had lunch (a turkey burger for Gary and a Juicy Lucy with sauteed onions for me, both with coleslaw and surprisingly good unsweetened tea).

The gate area got very crowded and I noticed a couple of bears across the way, the younger with a thick dark beard and the older wearing a T-shirt with a cartoon labeled BEER which was a bear with antlers. I saw them seated together as we boarded the plane. I thought the cute daddy cub with 3 children had the aisle seat, but it remained vacant until a very well-behaved girl of perhaps 6 or 7 boarded with her mother and took the seat; her mother sat a few rows behind us. We got to see snippets of the first half of the Rose Bowl in which Ohio State was leading 14-3 before we landed. I ended up having the same shoulder and back pain I experienced in Tacoma during my last SMC performance there because there wasn't room to "spread my wings", so the wait for the multitudes of children having to get out of the way before we could disembark was agonizing.

When I got into the terminal I sat down to stretch my back before I hit the restroom. We collected our bags and caught the shuttle to the light rail station. The train trip was unremarkable. When we arrived at Union Station bus stop to catch the bus to Everett, we heard a screeching of tires and witnessed a pedestrian crossing against the light and nearly getting creamed by, of all vehicles, a police cruiser. That car and a second police SUV just behind it in traffic lit up, and when we boarded the bus (a Double Tall, where we sat downstairs in the back with our bags) and passed the scene, two officers were still interrogating the hapless pedestrian, who was a rather cubbish dude but clearly not very bright. On the bus back to Everett Gary showed me the final score of the Rose Bowl: Ohio State 28, Washington 23.

When we arrived at Everett Station I called for an Uber but the driver apparently picked up someone else and my phone battery died before I could cancel the trip. So we ended up taking a conventional cab home. I later got the Uber trip straightened out without incident.

Due to the anticipated chaos in downtown Seattle for May Day, I agreed to pick up Bob rather early for rehearsal, about 3:30 PM. (The usual routine is that I drive to the home Bob is sharing with Neil and Don, pick up Bob and continue to South Everett freeway station, where we board the 512 together and walk to the rehearsal space, then Bob goes in and I go off to grab dinner before returning to rehearsal.) When I arrived, Don informed me that on Friday nights, the Fireplace bar in Everett has a Bear Night which he wanted to check out. The place is normally considered a biker bar, but the owner is cool with it.

We arrived at the church about 4:30 PM, two hours early for rehearsal, so Bob suggested we enter the church through the main doors and take the elevator upstairs to the rehearsal hall as the doors at the top of the hill would be locked. That accomplished, I left through those doors and went in search of dinner. Since I needed to top up my ORCA card anyway, I walked the three blocks down the steep hill on Seneca Street to University Street Station and took care of business at the machine, then returned to Third Avenue. Since I didn't feel like climbing the hill, I walked down Third and, not seeing anything to my liking, descended to the other end of University Street Station and caught the train one stop to Westlake Center. Unfortunately, again due to the anticipated chaos, not only was the mall closed early for the day (except for Zara which has its own entrances), but also BWW where I intended to have dinner. Westlake Park was still pretty chill then, but dozens of bike cops in armor were just waiting for someone to start something.

So I decided to walk to the Pacific Place mall a couple of blocks away, reasoning that they were far enough away from the commotion that they were still functioning. In the food court on the fourth floor I selected Johnny Rockets hamburger joint, where I was served by a cute, twinkish dude with red plugs in his earlobes and a rather flirtatious manner about him, as well as a cubbier dude with a goatee behind the counter. I had a nice dinner of onion rings (served with a lion head drawn in ketchup on the bottom of a paper "monkey dish" for dipping) and a big burger. There weren't a whole lot of customers but I suppose you take what you can get under the circumstances.

Satisfied, I returned to the rehearsal space via Sixth Avenue, taking my time ascending the hill (which is longer and therefore less steep than Seneca). I suppose I could have used the escalators at the Convention Center but I didn't want to risk going out of my way and finding them closed, adding to my walk. Rehearsal went well if a bit sparsely attended. We rode home with Neil as usual.