So over the past few days I have had the great opportunity to get to travel to Seattle, Washington for business training though Microsoft and Xbox. I was really anticipating this trip and let me just tell you that the trip well surpassed all of my expectations.
I flew out on the morning of October 28th on a 7:30 flight (yawn) via US Airways (believe it or not, as many times as I’ve flown, first time flying with them) and my window seat was rather comfortable. Little did I know that some people who would become some awesome new friends over the next 48 hours were sitting right there in the terminal with me waiting on their flight too. But like I said, other than the fact that we got delayed sitting on the tarmac for 45 minutes, no complaints with the flight. 6 and a half hours later, we taxied into Sea/Tac International Airport in Seattle, Washington.
Shortly after getting off the plane, I made my way down and out of the terminal to meet with my contact and hitch a ride on a shuttle bus to where we were staying, the Bellevue Hyatt. The training had yet to start and already, from the moment I got off of the shuttle, I was already getting amped up. And that was mainly due to the level of enthusiasm coming from everyone already there waiting to greet us. Anyway, I checked in with Mosaic/Microsoft, got my free goodies, shirt, and name tag and I was all set. Now, time to check into my room…
WOW! That’s really all I can say about that. This hotel room was by far one of the nicest rooms I have ever stayed in, and that includes the few times I’ve stayed in Atlantic City. Those places have A LOT to learn. Decent Washington view, comfortable beds, and all is well. My only worry now was waiting to meet my roommate for the two nights I’ll be here and if we’ll get along. Knowing my luck, I’ll get stuck with a complete douche. Thankfully, my roommate Justin was one cool kid. We actually spent a lot of time hanging out over the rest of our time there, but more on that later.
I’m not going to go into too much detail on the training I went though and how long it lasted. All I will tell you to pretty much sum it all up in a paragraph was that it was VERY high energy, VERY enthusiastic, extremely professional, filled with great people, and most importantly, actually A LOT of fun. For those of you reading this who don’t know why I exactly went out there already or what my training was for, it was to not only promote the new Xbox Kinect coming out in November, but also to get the opportunity to use one and play with one before anyone else will get to. That alone was worth the trip because I’ll tell you, this thing is revolutionary when it comes to gaming. It’s going to change how people not only view gaming but also entertainment in general. And that’s not just me blowing smoke up your ass due to my training… this thing really is the shit! Long story short, I learned about it, played it, now I get paid to promote AND play with it. First time I can say I legitimately get paid to play video games. How cool is that.
This training was for over 400+ people from all different markets all over the country broken up into 2 separate training sessions. So around 200 were in my session. I didn’t get to meet them all, but I did meet a lot of them. And although I did meet some cool people from all over (my roommate was from St. Louis), I really connected with some of the people from the Philly market like myself (remember those people I mentioned earlier who were on the plane with me going there?). Let me tell you that made leaving Seattle much easier and much more fun knowing that we weren’t traveling home alone this time. Not only that, but we were all close enough that we could still keep in contact and even hang out from time to time. These people weren’t people I would never see again. I shared a lot of awesome times with these people, too many to mention but I’ll mention a few of the most fun ones. And although I made quite a few new friends, I’m sure I’ll I won’t be able to mention them all. The few that stand out the most though deserve the attention.
I already mentioned Justin, my roommate from St. Louis. We both had the same worry as to who we were going to get as roommates and once the idea came up of going out to drink the nights we had off came up within the first 5 minutes of meeting, we knew we’d hit it off. Then there’s Dan. This guy was the one guy I think I hung out with the most during my trip. Both of us from Philly, we both had common interests and meeting him made the trip a lot easier. Not to mention he was all about going out and having a good time just like the rest of us. More on that later though. A quick side note though, something I didn’t remember until midway though our training was that I interviewed for this job with Dan… technically. Next is Matt, another Philly boy like myself. Although he wasn’t on our flight out or on our flight home, he was still one of us during the trip. A true smart ass like me, he was a lot of fun to hang out with and party with too. Then there’s Natasha. From around the Allentown area, she’s energetic, cute, funny, quirky, and just from talking to her is someone I can tell has a great head on her shoulders and is really passionate about the things she believes are extremely important to her. A fellow film maker like myself, she is certainly someone I wouldn’t mind spending more time with and getting to know better. Bottom line, Natasha is pretty much one of the coolest chicks I’ve met in a long time. Finally there are Carolyn and Sherri. Every time I met either of them, it seemed they were always together but I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. It just means that I really didn’t get to know either of them on the individual basis that I did everyone else. Still both great people though. I didn’t really get to spend time with them until our last night when we hit the bar across the street, but that was certainly a fun night with them and they easily made the flight home more enjoyable as well. Again, I know that there were others and they were awesome people too (Maurice, Mike…) but maybe in a later blog posting I’ll be able to talk about them some more. Everyone I met, and especially the people I travelled home with are people I would enjoy hanging out with again. Hopefully we go to do that in the near future.
Ok I know this is going on and on and I promise I’ll wrap it up very soon, but for those of you who saw my Facebook postings about how we went out and hit the Seattle night life, I’ll explain that in a little bit more detail, but will try not to ramble on. Thursday night, a bunch of us (around 6) decided to head to a bar across the street to check out and grab a couple drinks. We didn’t know what to expect, we just wanted to hang out. We got there to find that from 10 to Midnight was Happy Hour with $4.00 beers and well drinks, as well as Karaoke and dancing in the back. That was all it took to start the party. In the beginning it started with just the 6 of us, but within the hour, our crew of 30 or so people had taken over the back room and the microphone. And yes, for those curious parties, I did sing and dance. How could I not? It was a new place so time to show a side of me that rarely gets seen… but honestly should more often. So Thursday was fun, but Friday night definitely takes the cake. Due to the fact of us taking over the room Thursday night, that certainly played into our advantage for Friday night. I don’t know how Dan did it, but he got us hooked up with a VIP section of the bar right next to the dance floor. And although we invited a lot of people from our Xbox training over to join us, Dan had pre-bought 4 bottles of champagne just for us original 6 who started the whole thing to enjoy. I did more dancing that night too and it was certainly one of the most fun times I’ve ever had.
So that about sums it all up. As usual, stay tuned for my next adventure…
