What happens in Seattle stays in Seattle

In a couple hours, SuperShuttle will be picking me up to take me to the airport for my trip to Seattle, where I will be attending a workshop on nonlinear waves followed by a conference on nonlinear waves. Both events are on the University of Washington campus and are being organized by the nonlinear waves group in the applied math department. The workshop is a lot smaller, so that may be especially useful when it comes to kissing up to people (I mean "networking").

I've only been in Washington one other time in my life --- for one hour in summer 1987. It was raining horribly, my family and I drove up from Oregon (we had a three-week driving trip up the California coast and into Oregon; this is the only big trip we've ever taken as a family) visited a relative or family friend (I can't remember which), and drove right back.

In addition to the science, I am very much looking forward to finally experiencing Seattle. I've heard so many good things about it, and I am also told that about now is when they typically get their best weather of the year. I looked up the current forecast, and it looks like I'll be escaping the miserable weather here (though it's supposed to cool down in a couple days) and have highs in the low to mid 70s and lows in the mid to high 50s. Awesome!

On Saturday night, I'll be seeing a Mariners game. We have seats in left field. (I tried to get right field seats but was unable to do so. Now that Ichiro is playing centerfield, it looks like it didn't matter so much.) I will be seeing Kin Chan '98 for the first time in almost 7.5 years. (Kin was one of the usual bastards, but he had dropped his membership in Lloyd, so a couple of you met him briefly, but that's about it.)

I know two other people my age who live in Seattle. (Well, I'm sure I know more but don't realize the others.) One of them is Eggplant '98, although that knowledge dates back to May 2003. I didn't bother looking her up. The other is a friend I met at a conference in January 2002; we got along really well and decided we were friends, although I haven't seen her since then. Unfortunately (well, for me---she wins), she'll be in Paris until the last couple days of my trip. She gave me her cell phone number, but I'll be surprised if this works out. She did give me good advice about how to get downtown from the university area and avoid traffic. (Apparently, the bus system there is good.)

It looks like Puyo Pop Fever will not have arrived before I leave. (I came to the office this morning because I needed to fax something, but I'll be going back to my apartment shortly.) I must learn patience (for that and other things). Naturally, the correct response is, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Patience. How long will that take?"