Seattle 4: Evidence suggests I am still in Seattle (The Loss of Normalcy)

This morning is a rinse & repeat of yesterday, but overall less glorious. I sleep 7 hours, wake up by 4, ride the gym bike for 90 minutes, watch Patriot (s1e5, s1e6), shower, then grab breakfast. I had a phone call with Chicago Tommy (boss) this morning to discuss the future of things. We’re trying to line up how January will shake out, but right now it’s hard to say. We’ll worry about it more on January 2nd. Turns out I may go to Boston for a day in January. After breakfast I walk to the coffee shop that was closed last night for an espresso. Slate Coffee Roasters. It was ok. The other place was better.

I’ve reached the point on this trip where I’m starting to lose my sense of normalcy. This has happened before and I’m sure will happen again. In time I may do a travel essay on it, because I think it’s a real phenomenon. It’s a sort of vague lack of structure where you wake up and don’t know where you are, nor what day it is. I was severely disappointed to find it was only Wednesday this morning. The trip is ok, but I’d rather be home. The novelty of work sending me somewhere is pretty much a thing of the past. Today was that first day of not entirely remembering what “normal” means in a day-to-day context. This in itself isn’t bad, per se. It’s just a weird feeling.

In any event, the people at Seattle Children’s are here to make sure we are all on the same page:

Just in case you were unsure.

And again, they are here to be helpful:

Again, in the event you had any doubt.

I renewed my USAC license today. I guess the Nationals experience didn’t soil me too much on racing. I also realized today that I have 3 different USAC licenses. This is too many. Racer. Promoter. Official.

Got out of the workshop at 3:30 (ish) again today, and Austin Meggan, Austin Sean, and I went to an outdoor mall to look for Christmas presents while Pittsburgh Glenn went back to the hotel room to work, or to get away from us. I picked up a few token items, then we ate dinner at this absolutely lights out Chinese place, Din Tai Fung. It had been recommended by one of the Seattle People, and it was every inch of amazing. This was 100% deserving of the tag: Glorious.

An army of workers make an army of great food.

Soup buns being made, above. And ready to eat, below:

So good, almost worth the trip across the country.

And these spicy dumplings. Holy shit, so good:

Nothing short of amazing.

So yeah, I’ll need to ride the gym bike again tomorrow morning to cover for this meal. Strava has me at 494 hours and 47 minutes for the year, just 5:13 from 500 which is certainly doable. And another day is wrapped up.