Crazy Rain and the Dangerous Drive

Yesterday, Friday, November 11th:

I left home around 9am for the Intel site in Hillsboro to meet my classmates at a 'site-visit' sponsored by the U of O Career Svcs Center. Events like these are just opportunities to get in front of company execs and/or middle managers to help determine our respective desired career paths. So, even though I had a successful internship there this past summer I decided to join the crew pretty much just-in-case of whatever. Also, a friend from Seattle was in town on business. We'd planned on meeting up and either getting dinner or hitting a couple of bars -both of which we did.

So, as I said, the day began fairly early with a drive up the I-5 corridor to Hillsboro. I am recovering from a head-cold and so was just dreading the length of day ahead. The site-visit went well enough, though it was long and fairly boring. I mean, its not like they were handing out jobs or anything. The best I got was some lunch, a cookie and a cup of coffee.

And then the fun really began. I left the campus at 4:30-ish and steered towards my mother's place in West Linn. Normally, it would take about 30 min to get there but this was no normal time: it was the start of rush hour on a rainy Friday evening. An hour rolled by and I realized that the growing discomfort in my gut was an overwhelming need to (how shall I put it?) unload my bladder. And that thought stayed with me for the next half hour as freeway traffic crawled, inch by inch, to my exit. So, when I arrived at the McDonalds to meet my mom, five minutes must have passed while I stood planted in front of the urinal. But it was five minutes of pure bliss.

From there, I saw my mom off back home. Then, through the rain and blazing headlights I drove into downtown Portland to meet up with my friend and his co-worker. Parking went reasonably well, for trying to find a spot downtown on Friday night, and I ended up only a block away from their hotel.

We headed to the Pearl district and had some Japanese food, then to a club called MeFadden's and then to Kells Irish Pub. The scene was laid-back, as is the style in Portland overall, and I had a good time hanging and not concerning with school work for a while. Only one quick story: At Kells, my friend's co-worker decided to arm wrestle me, my friend and a couple of other guys at the bar. I lost one, won one and ended up with a really sore arm this morning, while my friend lost one, tied one and then refereed the other matches. It was a fun, but exhausting day and night.

1:30am rolled around and I headed back for Eugene, dog tired. Got home, crashed and slept well. Now, here I am, getting stuff in order and relaxing on this fine, but rainy, Saturday afternoon.

And the end of the term is only a few short weeks away!!! Yeah!