On the Banks of the Mississippi

A cool perk of my job is the opportunity for professional development in neat places.

I've been able to cross the country to visit Seattle and head down south to Austin and meet great people to learn wonderful things together.

This year I traveled with three colleagues to New Orleans. 

Every single person we met was delightful. I never thought New Yorkers were anything but nice until I was confronted with that foreign to me 'Southern hospitality.' Everyone was helpful, going out of their way to chat with us. The cab driver, the waiters, the concierge, everyone made us feel incredibly welcome. When I complimented the woman who helped me in the Gap, she saw my license and remarked, "well, honey, we just are a little bit sweeter down here from what you're used to at home." And she was right. Not that people aren't nice here - again, they are. It's just that people say hello to you and chat with you while waiting on line at Starbucks in New Orleans instead of glaring at you if you say that it's a beautiful day. It was refreshingly lovely.

A highlight of my trip was reuniting with my cousin, Stella.

She grew up in Los Angeles and we met once as tweens and spent a few days at the beach making friendship bracelets. She now lives in New Orleans and we were able to share dinner together one evening. Even though we hadn't spoken in about 15 years, it felt like we just saw each other last week. We talked about real issues, life, family, children, faith...and had no judgement. 

Such a beautiful, affirming night. 

I loved the vibrancy that is New Orleans. The food is rich, bold and tasty. The vibe is total energy. The music makes you want to get up and dance, just celebrate life as it is.

And that's what I think people there do. They celebrate. They live. They enjoy whatever they are doing (or at least that's what it seemed like to me). And I need to absorb a little bit of that...hopefully when someone meets me I seem celebratory and not negative. Definitely something I need to work on and one of the most valuable lessons I learned in New Orleans.

Seattle Recap

So, I am home safe and sound from a 3-day conference trip to Seattle, WA. Funky place, if I do say so myself. WARNING:PHOTO HEAVY POST!

The flight there was pretty uneventful, except for the pain searing down my neck and back from sleeping weird. Delta was very cool to fly with and unexpectedly, had tvs on board. very nice plus.

Upon arriving at the hotel, we learned that the housing dept. booked our one room wrong so I actually got to stay in my own room, which was awesome. These were the views from my room:






Any room that overlooks a Nordstrom and Jcrew is fine with me (i unfortunately, did not have the time to shop, which sucked major for me but was good for the budget.

Day 1 was travel, lunch at cheesecake factory, welcome reception (with very yummy crab cakes, salmon, and squash with corn salsa), and a trip to the SPACE NEEDLE!!! This was a very cool experience. I guess you can't go to seattle and ignore the Space Needle and it did not disappoint. We rode the glass elevator up and had incredible lighting. Here are my fave shots:






Day 2 was attending conference sessions, which was pretty good.

Then came the highlight of the trip: My pilgrimage to the first Starbucks. Flippin amazing. I asked the hotel concierge how to get there and then he told me I only had 20 mintues before the market closed and it was a 10-mintute walk. And so, I put on my race through NYC look and bounded out of the hotel on a mission with my colleagues. And made it to the market. But the Starbucks was all worth it:


It was all I ever dreamed of. The original mermaid logo (she is "exposed," unlike the current, more modest logo), the crowded cafe, friendly baristas, and new mugs. So so so so awesome. Here are my shots (and thanks to Deb for the fun ones of me looking like a kid on Chirstmas morning):











And then we walked through the market at sunset...and the creepy people started coming out. Now, I am totally cool with people wanting to be who they are, but it was just weird to watch an attempted mugging...yup, watched a kid try to steal a backpack and a skateboard. creepy stuff, and once the market itself closed, it started getting sketchy, so we went somewhere else to dinner. Here are the market shots:









and the one of mt. st. helen and safeco field in the background

And the final day was a full day of travel...blech. i did get to watch 5 hours of the Discovery Channel series When We Left Earth all about space travel. Thanks Jet Blue for letting me watch space ships explode as I fly. Truly uplifting.

At the end, I was just so happy to be home and eat some yummy pasta. It was a cool place, man, but again, I felt like it was 1996 all over again. I would take Bill Clinton, but not the dred locks :).