How I Spent My Summer Vacation, Part II

Sunday that night, something happened. It happened so fast, I didn't really know how to react. I was surprised, scared, confused, grateful and emotional. Apparently, the boredom I suffered all day was supposed to be made up in one night.

I remember telling my brother to wait for a couple of moments as I called my mom. She won't get my dad up for my call. To this day, I still don't know WHY she thought my news wasn't worth waking my dad up. It was almost akin to, "Uhm, I am having a heart attack." "That's nice dear. Now be a good girl and wait for it to happen in the morning."

So at this point, I lay in bed, contemplative. Things are going to change.

The following day, we were supposed to head out to Vancouver. But since my brother asked us so nicely to take care of his car so that we could use it later in the week, we obliged. Two hours later, my cousin drove us to Bellvue to meet none other than Ickle buddy Amy.

Nilly and I hatched this plan that we were going to have her paged, have Nilly direct her to a certain section of the magazine section and give her heck for it.

Sadly, the BN store we went to was the main one. I had to call her and ruin my surprise since I wasn't going to start going to all of the BN stores in Bellvue. Her store was about another 80 blocks or so (trust me, it felt like it) down the street. So, when we got there, I saw their store manager, ask him where Amy was (who was conveniently tucked at the cashier counter) so I could meet up with her. She waved to me as she passed by since there was a little "problem" when we walked in.

So I waited... And waited... And waited.

Finally, crisis averted, I was able to talk to Ames. (This just post staring at Amy's CB. Little cutie she has tucked in the back room.)

I gave her the Dixie Chicks CD (like it was such an incognito act), and told her the news.

It's so cute trying to see someone hold back a squeal. Definitely, if it weren't a work environment, I think we would've broke everyone's eardrum at this point.

We talked, we hung out. Until Amy had to get magazines and do some work.

So Nilly and I looked around the store. I picked out a book for me to read on the flight back. Then I asked Nilly to purchase the book for me. Of course, this time, Amy was back behind the counter. Of course Nilly had to give her a hard time.

I have to give Amy this, she can roll with the likes of Nilly. She gets mega points for that.

Then we decided we were all going to have dinner tonight.

OH MY GOD...

I didn't know it was going to be an act of Congress just to get moving.

First and foremost, the drive between Bellvue and Lynnwood is a good 30-50 minutes depending on traffic and the number of people in your car. So when I told Amy we'd shoot for 6 pm at a restaurant close to her work area, I thought we were pretty set.

WRONG.

At 6 pm, all my relatives were still scrambling to get shoes on, fighting on who was going to drive what.

Then the WHERE changed. So I got on the phone, apologized to Amy that there was a change of venue.

Only to find out when we got to the place that the venue we were supposed to rendezvous at had been closed.

So we headed to another sushi joint.

It was supposed to be great. It was supposed to be cool.

It wasn't supposed to be super crowded at a Monday night.

Seeing that seating 18 people would've been a problem, venue changed ONE MORE TIME. Other than the fact that I was mortified that I had to embarrassingly call Amy for the thousandth time to tell her that we're going to a place none of us ever tried (finally got to tell Andrew that when I pretty much threw myself over the hood of their car so that the won't get into the parking lot), we ended up in this chi-chi sushi spot.

Amy and Andrew got to meet at least a part of my nutzoid family. I was happy I was able to sit next to Amy during the meal discussing anything and everything as we pretended to read Katakane menus. Honestly, I just looked at the photos, pointed out the sushi I recognized and wanted to eat and then moved on.

The dinner was long (which meant we got to talking a lot more). After the meal, I finally announced to the table our big surprise. As I told Amy, I didn't want anyone to stop me from eating sushi at this point.

Later that evening, we went to the less inhabited part of Alki Point (as Andrew pointed out, we weren't really at the Point which was partially the reason why we were there. So that we won't get annoyed by the teenagers dotting the Point itself). We took pictures and talked a little more before Amy and Andrew had to bid us adieu.

Of course I had to ask Amy to join us in viewing Superman Returns.

That Monday was probably one of the most memorable Mondays I might have forever engraved in my head.

Tuesday, we went to Vancouver. As much as I've heard everyone hype up the Canadian city, Nilly and I found it disappointing.

Maybe it was because we really didn't have an agenda.

Maybe it was because we really don't shop or club hop (you sort of give that up when you're in Podunk Town).

Maybe it was because we were surprised that a large section of the city closed at 7pm and there was nothing left to do but patronize smoking and drinking establishments.

Sadly, by 10, we decided to head back.

On our way home, it seemed like the only interesting thing that really happened to us was the boarder patrol guy holding us up for 10 minutes to give us an update on the rain drenched North Eastern part of the country.

How sad can that be?

Wednesday and Thursday, we finally slowed down a bit. I got to visit my other cousin and her family. Got to run downtown for some Cow Chip cookies and visit the Pike for some comic books, posters and buttons. We went to this leftist second hand bookstore around the same area.

Got to see Amy for one last time when we met up to watch Superman Returns. I think by that point, Ames was too overwhelmed to meet my brother, Chicken Scratch, and my other cousin and his girlfriend. (Ask Ames, she'll tell you that I have a TON of relatives... and she has only seen the "regular gang"!)

I won't spoil this for you all but ask Amy about the "joke" Nilly had about watching Spiderman III. You'd get a kick out of it.

Friday, we visited the Seahawk store for some Seahawk jerseys before flying back home.

Home again, home again... At 2:23 AM.

At this point, I was jonesing for some pizza.

At this point, I should've been thinking about sleep.

At this point, I didn't want to go to work at 3 pm.

But then I realized that the time spent in Seattle was enough for me to see things in a different light.

I guess my batteries are recharged once more for another crazy stretch of work in the land of pee, blood and poop.

And that's how I spent my summer vacation.

Pictures to follow when I download them from the camera.