I used to dread going on business trips by myself. It meant that I needed to talk for an entire work day and then either sit alone at a restaurant ("Party of one? Come this way!") or grab food from the grocery store and eat it back at the hotel. Actually, come to think of it, those things haven't changed at all. But lately I've come to appreciate the fact that business tripping by myself means that I have the evenings (after catching up on work) to do whatever the heck sounds like fun without worrying about whether someone else might find it entertaining.

On this particular trip, that meant wandering around downtown Seattle while ignoring all hunger pangs and the urge to find a restroom in favor of taking pictures.

It was a beautiful night; who needs food when you can wander? I mean...eventually, I did...but I was glad no one else was around because I didn't eat until 9:30 pm. And I got my dinner at Target in the form of microwaveable chicken tiki masala. Super high class over here...

In addition, without Chaz around to tell me to go to sleep at a normal hour, I typically stay up until I feel like I don't have anything else I could possibly do. That usually means that I binge watch TV shows (ahem...Parenthood, I'm looking at you...) until I can't keep my eyes open.

Given the fact that I have zero bedtime self control, I wind up heading home with a significant sleep deficit. And then I feel old, because in college, I did that on the daily for a full semester - went to bed at midnight, woke up at 6:30. And I was fine! Now if I try to do that for more than one to two days, I can barely function.

So I guess I'll never learn, because here I sit at 11:47pm blogging instead of sleeping despite the fact that I need to be up at 6:00 tomorrow. But hey...at least you got to see what Seattle looks like when it's not raining, right?

Woodstock Writings