Ten minutes later, I'm $163 poorer as a result of my first traffic ticket. Emily is angry - there's no way in hell I was going 80 mph, she contends - but there's nothing to do other than continue west. We've got a long way to go before we hit Seattle.
As always, we forgo the easily-navigable interstates in favor of "local flavor" roads. The drive turns out to be quite nice, as we've chosen a scenic byway that takes us through a national forest and over the Cascade Mountains. When we reach the suburbs of Seattle, we get excited about two things. First, we're about to pass through Bothell, where American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis resides. Second, and most importantly, we're 30 minutes away from our dinner reservations at Maggiano's. My brother gave me a gift certificate to the restaurant before I left New York, so it's about damn time that we pass on the PBJ sandwiches and pack on the pasta.
Maggiano's is everything it should be. Tasty. Casually elegant. Fattening. We debate ordering some wine to go along with our meal, but decide to save our alcoholic appetite for this evening's other activity: karaoke at a Seattle gay bar with Emily's cousin, Joey.
We reach the bar (The Man-Ray) and meet up with Joey and his boyfriend, David. They're both awesome, trashed, and awesomely trashed. We get drinks, watch Joey sing a Cure song (which, coincidentally, is the same Cure song that Blake belted out during Gwen Stefani night on Idol), and leave around 11:30. Joey is housesitting for some friends of his, so we go to their 2-story house for the evening. More drinks are served and wine glasses are accidentally broken. It's a fun night. I'm anxious about receiving a call tomorrow from AllMusic - will they hire me or not?? - but have no trouble falling asleep, due in no small part to the strong Tom Collins cocktail that David prepares for me.- Andrew
1 comment:
Andrew good luck with the new job! I'll be focusing positive energy west out your way and north to somehow persuade your soon-to-be employer to let you know today that you got the job.
Ok, I'm doing a Google Maps project here at work and just learned a new feature that made me immediately think about y'alls' adventure. This is so cool, you can select an origin and destination and have Google plot out a map for you. You can then click & drag the path to customize your route, if you want to avoid highways, it's great for that. I also learned that Google Maps also considers the speed of the road posted to give you very accurate trip time estimations, perhaps this well help to avoid $163 tickets then!
Pictures and recounting're great, thanks for posting!
Post a Comment