second day in Seattle
so today we had a Tichu And Pizza party out at Drew and Jason's apartment on the east side. it started at 11am or so, though Carl and I didn't get there until around 11:30. I woke up relatively on time, and walked to Bartell's to get soap and deodorant before showering (and oh man, it was weird just kind of wanting to buy the entire damn store and bring it back to Japan with me). But somehow we didn't get out the door until 10:40 or so, and then had to pull over at one point because the gas cap had come off and I had to check it. And things like that. I think it's just my luck to never be on time to get to that place.
But, lots of neat people were there -- Drew, Jason,![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zml, ketsugami, harinezumi (wearing my old Hysteric Blue t-shirt that I gave him which looks better on him than it ever did on me), my best puzzle buddy kamendae, another Liboncatipu friend Andy, and eventually bpr came as well. I showed up with omiyage sweets and did the formal "tsumaranai mono desu ga, douzo" thing, which was pretty silly. And I got to talk to people, and there was pizza, and there was Tichu, and that's good. I also got to finally hear some stories of Liboncatipu escapades at the last Puzzle Hunt from Mike and Andy! (Mike, you owe me email...)
Andy is visiting Japan in the beginning of June so I totally hope I get to see him sometime when he's there! He had to leave fairly early since he's playing in the orchestra for the Second Story Rep theater's production of Urinetown, but Brian showed up around when he left, so we still had parity for Tichu. One table ended up being Jason, Brian, Mike and Konstantin (the newbie table as it were since we had to teach Mike and Konstantin -- resulting in Drew shouting over at one point, "You can't pass anything to Konst, it's static" or something like that), and the other table was me and Carl and Drew and Django. Considering I have not played in 8 months I actually played really well; my partner Drew called a lot of Tichus and I played into them, basically.
Afterwards there ended up being a game of Tigris and Euphrates between Drew, Carl, me, and Brian -- but I find myself very frustrated that I've forgotten the strategy so much and can't think quickly, so I just sort of played brute force. I did ok, but I sort of lost track of the game halfway through and talked to Jason about stuff. Whoops. Brian won, IIRC.
Hung out talking to Jason and Drew for an hour or two and then Carl and I headed back west-side. It was raining. It's cold and raining. Go figure, I'm in Seattle.
Mindy and Zach and Oren were watching movies when we got here... and eventually Carl and Oren and I decided to go get dinner at Pasta Bella. And as we were walking there I noticed I had a call fromrupes and rehana -- Adam had just gotten back to town from the Gathering of Friends gamefest in Ohio. So we got a table for 5 instead of 3, and A&R joined us at the restaurant. Seems these guys have become regulars there while I've been gone. Carl and I split a pesto tortellini dinner and tiramisu dessert, and they were good.
Adam started a discussion on luck-free games, which led me to showing him Ido, a game whichzyrain got me for my birthday so long ago I can't even remember which birthday it was. Crazy.
I dunno, afterwards was just kinda after-dinner hanging out like. I gave a bunch of the clothes I brought back here to Mindy since maybe she can wear some of them. The rest will go to Goodwill shortly. I'm thinking tomorrow morning/afternoon I will head up to Alderwood Mall and buy some new work clothes, and shoes and whatnot... hopefully. Ugh, shopping under pressure is going to suck. I wish I had a lot more time in Seattle :( I'm already freaking out that I won't see Carl much tomorrow. Maybe I am supposed to come back to America instead of being in Japan... I really don't know anymore. Ugh. It's nice to not feel so lonely and to have people and doggies and all around. ("Sherlock puppydog, do you want to come back with me to Japan? You can eat all of the other tiny dogs that live near me!")
But, lots of neat people were there -- Drew, Jason,
zml, ketsugami, harinezumi (wearing my old Hysteric Blue t-shirt that I gave him which looks better on him than it ever did on me), my best puzzle buddy kamendae, another Liboncatipu friend Andy, and eventually bpr came as well. I showed up with omiyage sweets and did the formal "tsumaranai mono desu ga, douzo" thing, which was pretty silly. And I got to talk to people, and there was pizza, and there was Tichu, and that's good. I also got to finally hear some stories of Liboncatipu escapades at the last Puzzle Hunt from Mike and Andy! (Mike, you owe me email...)Andy is visiting Japan in the beginning of June so I totally hope I get to see him sometime when he's there! He had to leave fairly early since he's playing in the orchestra for the Second Story Rep theater's production of Urinetown, but Brian showed up around when he left, so we still had parity for Tichu. One table ended up being Jason, Brian, Mike and Konstantin (the newbie table as it were since we had to teach Mike and Konstantin -- resulting in Drew shouting over at one point, "You can't pass anything to Konst, it's static" or something like that), and the other table was me and Carl and Drew and Django. Considering I have not played in 8 months I actually played really well; my partner Drew called a lot of Tichus and I played into them, basically.
Afterwards there ended up being a game of Tigris and Euphrates between Drew, Carl, me, and Brian -- but I find myself very frustrated that I've forgotten the strategy so much and can't think quickly, so I just sort of played brute force. I did ok, but I sort of lost track of the game halfway through and talked to Jason about stuff. Whoops. Brian won, IIRC.
Hung out talking to Jason and Drew for an hour or two and then Carl and I headed back west-side. It was raining. It's cold and raining. Go figure, I'm in Seattle.
Mindy and Zach and Oren were watching movies when we got here... and eventually Carl and Oren and I decided to go get dinner at Pasta Bella. And as we were walking there I noticed I had a call from
rupes and rehana -- Adam had just gotten back to town from the Gathering of Friends gamefest in Ohio. So we got a table for 5 instead of 3, and A&R joined us at the restaurant. Seems these guys have become regulars there while I've been gone. Carl and I split a pesto tortellini dinner and tiramisu dessert, and they were good.Adam started a discussion on luck-free games, which led me to showing him Ido, a game which
zyrain got me for my birthday so long ago I can't even remember which birthday it was. Crazy.I dunno, afterwards was just kinda after-dinner hanging out like. I gave a bunch of the clothes I brought back here to Mindy since maybe she can wear some of them. The rest will go to Goodwill shortly. I'm thinking tomorrow morning/afternoon I will head up to Alderwood Mall and buy some new work clothes, and shoes and whatnot... hopefully. Ugh, shopping under pressure is going to suck. I wish I had a lot more time in Seattle :( I'm already freaking out that I won't see Carl much tomorrow. Maybe I am supposed to come back to America instead of being in Japan... I really don't know anymore. Ugh. It's nice to not feel so lonely and to have people and doggies and all around. ("Sherlock puppydog, do you want to come back with me to Japan? You can eat all of the other tiny dogs that live near me!")
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I remember feeling the same way when I came home in the summer of 2006, and I didn't leave Japan until Nov. 2007. I now think I should've left a little earlier. I won't advise you to do so, but I will suggest thinking about it seriously.
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As for the email, I've spent the last half hour trying to find the durn thing - I remember I hosted the files on Rapidshare, but can't find *any* emails from, to, or about them, other than
(Side note: I has a picture now! :D )