Seattle – Day 1

Whew!  Today has been a long day…  After spending the whole night packing last night for my big trip to Seattle (finally wound up with FOUR bags, and that’s AFTER purging non-essentials!!),  I slept for about 2 hours then headed to the airport at 5:00am to board my flight to Toronto.  I arrived in Toronto at 8:00am, then rushed through cutoms to get on the flight to Seattle and settle in for a nap. 

Despite the turbulence, I was able to get about an hour’s shut-eye, then woke up with an urgent need to pee.  As I went to the front of the plane to use the facilities, I bumped into the HOT captain, who was headed in the same direction.  Although I have a wonderful man at home (who rescues baby birds in the nude – see previous post), the hunky captain reduced me to the state of a babbling teenage girl.  Seriously, the man was GORGEOUS - and who can resist a man in uniform?  I mean, just because I’m on a Gaby diet doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the dessert menu, right?  Anyway, he graciously offered to let me go first.  Now, keep in mind, I have had like 3 hours sleep at this point, so I cannot be faulted for not being able to find the flush button!  But how could I not flush, knowing that our captain was standing right outside, waiting to go next?  I searched and searched and pressed everything that resembled a flush button.  No dice.  Then I start getting stressed because surely he was out there wondering what the heck was TAKING me so long… Finally, I gave up, peeked my head out and sheepishly admitted that I could not figure out how to flush the toilet… what a marooon!!  The captain smiled (he had DIMPLES), leaned in and said, “It’s right here” and FLUSHED FOR ME!  Of course, the button was cleverly hidden right beside the toilet paper roll and identified with those confusing hieroglyphics that only aviation crew understand, but still… how mortifying!!

So that was how my trip started.  I clearly needed a little pick me up, so I booked a spa appointment at Frenchy’s Day Spa downtown.  It was just what I needed (especially the pedicure, because I just could NOT appear live on the internet with skanky feet!) and after having a relaxing facial with wonderful and friendly Tie, things started to look up.

Tie has just recently started working at Frenchy's Day Spa on Madison and I would definitely recommend asking for her if you're in the area and need a facial. My skin simply glowed when she was finished with me.

Next on the agenda was a meetup at Pike Street Market with Sachin, Nate, Audrey and Stephanie, the other five photographers who were chosen to participate in the CreativeLIVE workshop with Jasmine Star this week.  We thought it would be fun to get to know each other a little before we were officially thrust into the spotlight during tomorrow’s broadcast, so we walked along 1st street and had a delicious dinner at an eclectic little Polynesian restaurant called Ohana.  What a GREAT bunch of photographers.  I can’t wait to spend the next week hanging out with them!

Left to right: Audrey Smit, MOI, Nate Perks, Stephanie Miller, Sachin Khona (The pig is not with us).

Since it’s now 4:30am Montreal time (1:30 in Seattle), I will summarize a few other observations from day 1 before I crawl into bed:

• Nate is just as endearing in person as he is on his video, though he does have a competitive streak…
• The wireless internet connection at the Red Roof Inn is slower than the dial-up at my grandmother’s apartment in Cornwall… but the fact that they have free HBO with True Blood almost makes up for it
• Stephanie is super sweet and a champion Googler!
• Downtown Seattle is VERY hilly and I am sooooooooooooo glad that my rental is an automatic.
• Sachin is uber-cool in that way that only guys from the UK can pull off.
• If you ever have a problem with a lock on your luggage, a bolt-cutter at the hotel front desk sure comes in handy!
• Audrey makes me have travel envy – and is one of those fearless confident women that I always admire… maybe some of that will rub off on me this week?
• Even when you cheat at trivia and get disqualified for excessive use of an iPhone, you still get free OHANA t-shirts for being 5 people at a table from 4 different countries