Working the Days Away...

Last week I went down to Portland for a few days to attend a sort of conference for work. My division has all the staff from all 4 states (Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and Washington) come together once a year. This year a few coworkers and I decided to take the train and stay in the hotel the night before the conference. Usually we have to get up early the day the conference begins and drive for 3 hours or so to then sit in meetings all day which is quite exhausting.

The train ride down was not the greatest due to many factors, but I won't go into that. It was really nice to go a day early this time and relax the night before. Most of us had dinner together at this wonderful Wine Bar & Bistro called Thirst. We decided to be experimental and I tried a lot of things I don't normally. Afterwards, we went back to my suite and met up with some other coworkers. The entire night was very fun and relaxing which was much needed after the last few weeks we've had at work with pressure deadlines.

The next day we met up with the rest of our coworkers who drove up that day and the staff from the other states at our Portland office. That night we all went to dinner which is usually arranged so that we can all get to know eachother better and network. This year it was arranged that we go to a place called Brazil Grill. It was a very unique experience! The restaurant had roaming gauchos that came to your table offerring different types of Brazilian grilled meats off their swords. They would serve it or slice it right off their swords. There were things like bacon wrapped chicken, sausage, prawns, and grilled pineapple with brown sugar. It was a very fun atmosphere!

After eating an all meat meal, we needed some exercise so a group of about 10 of us decided to walk to Powell's Bookstore which is always a must anyway when in Portland. We got to witness an interesting car chase that came up the sidewalk near where we were standing.. Kinda scary! Then we all decided to walk back to the hotel afterwards even though it was hella far. It was fun walking through the city and the waterfront at night with everyone though. I realized during this trip that I am very fortunate to have a wonderful group of coworkers who I really enjoy spending time with.

Anyway...it's nice to be back home. It was a fabulous few days away in a wonderful hotel suite, but there's nothing like being home.

Summer Days Drifting Away...

I knew summer was quickly coming to an end when I received ads in the mail for Back to School sales. I was wondering how on earth that could have happened since I swear they JUST let kids out of school for the summer. I guess it's true what they say...time flies as you get older. Anywho...life has been like a blur of motion. It's especially been a jam packed last couple weeks.

Spent time with my friend Heather who was out here for a visit from Illinois. She is one of my closest friends from highschool. We don't keep in touch as much as we'd like to so it's always nice that we get to spend time together whenever she's here visiting her family. She's one of those people I always forget how much I miss until I see her.

I've also been keeping myself busy applying for a Graduate Program. I've had a nice year off, but I think it's time for me to go back to school. I am giving myself one last trip before cracking down with school again though. I'm heading to the Big Apple for a few days near the end of September to visit my friend Gina.

This last weekend I took my first Argosy theme cruise with some friends from work. It was the Movin 92.5 Party Cruise or whatever. I didn't know quite what to expect, but it was pretty fun. Then again I do love the music. They have awesome 80's and 90's music as well as current songs you can dance to. There was a huge age range of people there, too. You had your older older people all the way down to the just over 21 youngins. We sailed from Kirkland City Dock around Lake Washington and stopped near Mercer Island for a fireworks show. The only problem with the fireworks show was that it was on one side of the boat. I swear that I could almost see the boat tipping when everyone ran to one side of the boat to watch the fireworks. Haha!

Other than that I've been busy catching up with people, movies, and reading. I think I've started to overdose on movies actually. In the last couple weeks I've been to the movies 5 times. The sad thing is that I'm not even caught up on all the movies I want to see. That's how far behind I was.

Welp...hopefully this week will be quiet because next week will be crazy busy. We are going to Portland for our annual All-Staff Divisional Meeting with people from all 4 states next week. A small group of coworkers and I were planning on going via Amtrak so hopefully they have that train and/or train track situation sorted out and have service so we can go.