I cruised out to Seattle on Wednesday to have dinner with one of my oldest friend’s since high school Mountain. We caught a Sounders game at Kells Irish Pub at the Market and then went back out to West Seattle to make food at his place. I whipped up some quinoa with organic chili, onions, garlic, corn and plantain chips which was quite a hit. He’s a skilled brewer of wines and beer so the dinner was accompanied by a great homebrewed porter and some delicious honey stout.
He works at 6am so I headed back into Seattle proper after that to meet with my friend who works at Kells and play some FIFA 2012 (one of the few video games I love). The downside of this night was that at some point in my sleep I managed to cut my eye. I’ve done this at least two other times so instantly knew what had happened. Luckily it was a very superficial injury so healed pretty quickly and I didn’t have to sport an eye patch or anything. Today was Cinco de Mayo but the last place I really wanted to be was at some bar with a ton of people trying to find an excuse to drink way too much tequila on a Thursday night. As I get older I kinda wave started appreciating celebrating holidays a little more authentically. St Patty’s was celebrated at a good friends family house were they had a band playing fiddle, flute and Irish bagpipes (just mentioning a few) with traditional songs, lots of great conversations and a real family and celebration of heritage feel to it. That’s the way to do it.
I decided to go out to a friend’s show on Capitol Hill instead. You may not have heard of the Seattle band Smooth Sailing but they are really coming into their own and I highly recommend checking them out. Here’s a little sampler.
The show was great got some props for my dancing, new amiga Sam stated “I didn’t know that it was possible to dance to metalcore like that!” haha. Great times.
The following day (Friday) was the actual day of my going away and it was pretty booked. Snagged some tacos with my buddy Kev and little bro from Rancho Bravo and then made my way to Key Arena. I was recruited by a good friend to be on his Street Team for the Street League Skateboarding competition this weekend in Seattle and orientation was today. Street League is a project of Rob Dyrdeck’s and is an attempt to legitimize skateboarding to form leagues and become seen as just as professional a sport as futbol or baseball. You might recognize Rob from his MTV shows “Rob and Big” or “Fantasy Factory” or DC skateboarding company. The competition happened all weekend and was a great time. In honor of my upcoming departure our entire street team was “Team Savage” which brought an uberwatt smile to my face.
Once I got out of the orientation it was time to cruise back downtown and check into my hotel. My mom bought a hotel room for me as a going away party for this night. Since she is a GM (general manager) for this hotel chain she reserved a king-sized suite for a ridiculously good price. I checked into my room, dropped off my bag, changed into board shorts and threw on the bath robe before heading up to rooftop hot tub. The view was awesome and I could actually see parts of the Mariner’s game happening next door at Safeco field. The water was warm and the Spire Dark n Dry cider in my hand was crisp and delicious. Great way to start the evening.
After an hour in the jacuzzi I ran back down to my room, took a shower and hopped on the hotel shuttle taking me to the market to meet everyone at Kells. My game plan was to have the night start at Kells, have some great conversations, a few stiff drinks and enjoy a little of the band from Ireland playing that night (figure that might be a rare commodity in Seoul). Ten to midnight would be spent at Kells and then go finish off the night at the dance party at the Alibi Room a few blocks down. It was amazing. Tons of friends from many different times of my life made it out and I felt truly blessed to have so many make it out. Thanks again to all who made it! We even ran into Phoenix Jones the “real-life” Seattle superhero and leader of the Raincity Superhero Movement. My little brother gave him some respect and then was interviewed by the Seattle Weekly about his thoughts. My two favorite quotes “I’ve gotta a lot of respect for the guy, I mean that’s so dumb it’s stupid-cool” and “Just a shame he’ll probably get shot in the face”. Hope I got those right little bro, feel free to correct any misprint. I hope Mr. Jones avoids said bullet for a very long time, he does have a bulletproof rubber suit and a giant cattle-prodesque taser.
savagevantage 