So it begins...

Wow, so, this is it!  Making a real stab at blogging, inspired by my witty and interesting friends and others that I don't even know in real life.  Why?  Because I have the memory of a trout and it would be cool to remember and eventually share the various goings-on that, well, go on.

Today was an interesting day.  First, we're on week two of no automatic drip coffee maker and I'm using a tiny French press.  My normal 2-3 cups per morning has been reduced to one cup.  One, luscious, bold, almost creamy, mug of black gold.  I'm feeling so much more connected with the coffee experience and may not turn back at this point.  The next bold maneuver will be buying a larger French press that allows me to have that "second cup at home" on those mornings that require a little something extra.

Off to work I went, fueled with a one cup of coffee, piece of flowerless toast, and one egg.  This has been my breakfast probably 300 days a year for the past 7 years.  Being a creature of habit, and not having a problem with having the same thing every morning, it's a nice morning routine that I quite enjoy.  I think it stems back to elementary school when my mom would make me one kind of lunch each year.  May seem weird, but I loved it and only wanted something different if we had some excellent leftovers from a summer BBQ, pizza party, or my sister's amazing fried chicken which we'd have every other Friday as part of our "Chicken Party" schedule.

Arrival at work was uneventful, other than the flaming inbox that is always there to greet me, but this quickly gave way to an international conference call with my counterpart, and good friend, Jason over in Ireland.  Having had only a briefest of business discussions, conversation quickly turned to his upcoming business trip to Seattle and the things we'd do which all seem to involve a glass (or two?  or three?) of wine and some good opportunities to talk about travels, scuba diving, family, etc.  Last time he came to town, he introduced me to Rugby (watching, not playing ) and we watched the Six Nations rugby championship matches on a couple of mornings down at this great Irish pub in the city.  It was absolutely electric there, eating breakfast along with a Guinness, and getting a crash course in the rules.  Once I sort-of had a basic understanding of the rules, I must admit that I was hugely into it even though I'm not much of a sports guy.  By the end of the championship, with Ireland victorious, I was yelling, clapping, and providing some high-fives to just about anyone available (perhaps the 3 beers between 9-10am had something to do with it).  Never expected that and I'm really glad I got that experience.

All of that and I'm not even at lunch yet?

Well, I'll quickly summarize and leave the rest to your imagination.

• Lunch at my favorite local restaurant/wine bar.
• Really friendly with the bar staff as I go there a lot (good people)
• Decided a glass of white wine would be a good idea before the meal
• Decided a glass of red wine would be an even better idea with my meal
• Decided to let the bartender (who is a lot closer to a sommelier than a bartender) provide me with a final taste of a sweet wine for dessert)
• Only charged for one glass despite my protests 
• Extreme tipping commenced and I returned to work (after four shots of espresso) a little bit more mellow than when I left

The afternoon was a warm, fuzzy experience that seemed to slip by effortlessly and I managed to actually be quite productive (at least in my own mind) but I'm now terrified to re-read the emails in my Sent Items folder.  

Speaking of sent items, I have some advice (from experience) regarding email.  I've traveled a lot for work, most of it was international, and all of it was to places where heavy after-work drinking is just part of the culture (Tokyo and Helsinki being the main offenders).  I have a hundred stories about these trips that I'll get to another time but I just remember getting back to my hotel on a number of occasions and realizing that it's morning back home and deciding to hop online to chat with my friends, co-workers, and also to check email.  Oh the responses I've sent.  Probably my favorite bad idea was the "good idea" I had to do a video conference with my vendor back in Seattle from my hotel in Tokyo at around 4am after being out all night drinking hard liquor and sake.  It was early afternoon back home, we had things to discuss, and I didn't want to have to wake-up early to have the meeting.  Oh how I wish I had a video capture of the video conference (handled on my MacBook in my hotel room) as my vendor could see the darkened Tokyo skyline in the background slowly turn to day.  

After that, I went to bed as I didn't have an early meeting that morning.  I slept until noon, then proceeded with "the ritual.  What is the ritual?

• Go to the ofuro area (traditional Japanese soaking tub - they are pretty standard at every hotel and house in Japan from what I can tell).
• Shower sitting down on the standard shower chair which is sort of like an upside-down bucket (I really want this in my house now actually as it's just awesome) in a large showing room.
• Descend into the boiling cauldron-like ofuro for some deep relaxation until you feel well-cooked.
• Proceed with standard grooming procedures, go back to the room, get properly dressed, then let the infusion of green tea and Japanese cuisine begin which usually (for me) includes a nice helping of natto which are fermented soy beans....Oishii!!!

Where was I?  Oh yes, the warm and fuzzy afternoon.  My day ended with some online training about what not to do at the office in order to not get in trouble with the various governments of the world and then I came home to enjoy some leftover turkey meatballs with crumbles of bleu cheese and half an avocado.  For dessert, French press coffee and a retreat to the studio area where I am staring at an arrange window of Logic 9 reviewing my mix of a new Basic Pleasure Model song (more on this later!) while going off on a completely random tangent here in this little text window.

How's that for a first post?  It will be a while before I develop a posting style.  Maybe I don't need to.  We'll see how it goes :-)

Caesar