Pacific Northwest

This past Wednesday and Thursday I was in the Pacific Northwest for work. Wednesday began at 3:30 am. [Note to self: 4.5 hours is not enough sleep in preparation for an all-day supplier visit.] Although my manager has a reputation for missing flights, I got us to the airport in time for the 6am flight to the "other Portland" - Portland, Oregon. There were seven us from Boston Scientific visiting this particular supplier and it was a full, worthwhile day. Most everyone had to fly back to California that night, but Ryan, Sonny, and I stayed in Portland to have dinner with the supplier at Jake's. We finally left a little after 9pm...and made the 3-hour drive to Seattle that night. We arrived in Seattle in one piece, despite some horrendous rain, and I think I got to my room around 12:30. And then I took care of my email, finally getting to sleep at 1:45. Yes, I was more or less awake for 22 hours. Have I mentioned that endurance is required for our business trips?

I slept as much as I could Thursday morning, meaning I had two straight days of not going to the gym. We departed for our supplier visit, which took us to a rural area of Washington state. This visit was to a tier two supplier, and marked the most frightening facility I have ever seen. Between the fumes and the lack of safety precautions, I am amazed we all made it out in one piece. When I blew my nose Thursday night, it came out black.

After this visit, we headed to the Seattle airport, and finally ate lunch somewhere around 3:30. We each ordered a giant margarita to celebrate making it through those two marathon days. I finally arrived home around 9pm that night.

Conor was delighted to see me, but kept with his standard "Rebecca is traveling" routine:

1. No matter how much food I leave him, he devours it in one day. For this trip, I had left him three days worth of food. McKenzie said it was gone by Wednesday night.

2. When I get home, I immediately clean his litter box. 30 minutes after that, he "forgets" how to use the litter box and poops on his litter box tray. It never fails. Every trip I go on, this is his way of giving me the finger for having left him alone.

Ah, the glamour of business travel.