Work trip to WA

Ugh! OK so my work trip went well except for the fact I got in basically no training. Sat either on a plane or in meetings the whole week and ate like there was no tomorrow. We had some really great food catered in for us and went out on a few group dinners so these super nice restaurants. I couldn't help but stuff myself stupid. Loved it but man am I paying for it. That's it, I'm starting to eat better...today damn it! :) I figure I want to lose 10 lbs before next summer. That will get me back to just a few pounds lighter than I was last year when I felt much better about myself. So if I'm ever out to eat with any of you, please slap my hand if I try to order a monster burger or a pasta dish bigger than my head!
It was quite the experience being around all my co-workers. They are a great group of people and if you get them drunk I've learned it's like being around a bunch of college kids again. But during the meetings and even a lot of the social stuff, I really felt like the odd duck. I'm not around them barely at all to feel comfortable just hanging out and I spent a lot of uncomfortable time just sitting by myself. The meetings were REALLY long, but informative, but also was very weird to be in a real meeting again since I'm so used to just conference calls all the time. No face to face stuff. (ps- for those of you that don't know, I work from home).
Wednesday night we went out for dinner to this Benihana type place and I sat on the end of the table trying to actively listen in while everyone else talked. The food was really good and the cook was fun to watch although he did almost spill my glass of red wine on me!
Thursday we only had half day of meetings then we had an afternoon of fun. The whole group went on this party bus that reminded me of something a bunch of college kids would rent with kegs of beer. Neon lights, leopard print seats and blaring music. Of course we did have beer and wine on that trip but the whole night I only had a few glasses of wine. It was an hour ride before we got to downtown Seattle and started our Duck tour. Our Duck driver was this hilarious bald guy who wore a really bad mullet wig and gave us a tour of the city. Oh and we all got these duckbill shaped noise makers to blow at people that we drove by. After we went through downtown, we drove into the lake for a tour from the water. I didn't realize how many people live in houses on pontoons. Even the little crappy looking ones I was told probably cost 300k. Yikes! A few seaplanes landed in the lake near us so that was cool. After the tour we had a private dinner at the Wild Ginger. Super fancy restaurant where we had like a 7 course dinner served by an ever patient, humorous Irish waiter. Much of our group had plenty to drink by then so he had to have a sense of humor or I don't think he would have survived! We had the most hilarious conversation late in the evening about things like "what would you rather do? Slide down a cheese grater naked into a bucket of alcohol or run through downtown naked? Stupid stuff, but funny nonetheless. Most questions coming from our VP Tony. He's uber smart but still parties like a 21 year old.
So I got home Friday mid-day and now to jump to today. Dana and I got together for a long run. We did 10 miles at a fairly easy pace but I was horribly sluggish since I haven't really ran for a week. One highlight I'll note is that we saw a bald eagle fly in and land on a tree just off the path. Very cool! Then we had to pick up our packets for IronGirl tomorrow. Considering I haven't been on my bike for nearly a month it's not going to be a fast race for me at all. TNT has a team there so I'll just enjoy being with them and racing an easy pace to finish without injury. My focus is still on the TC marathon more than anything.
OK I think that's enough for now. I'll fill you in on how the race goes tomorrow :)