Flatstick Square

It's been quite an eventful couple of days, specifically related to work—and the very reason I never had time to share a regular blog post yesterday. But, I need to go back to Wednesday for a moment, as that was when the Office Relocation Committee spent our regular Wednesday meeting time to have our first site visit since we went on Halloween Day, October 31, last fall. A lot of work has been done, and I took a lot of photos. Most significantly, I took 13 photos going up to the 12th-floor Rainier Tower Conference Center, which is the space we can rent for larger meetings we cannot accommodate in our ground-floor office space. It's also where the photo I took of the view above was taken. As noted in my draft email I sent to the committee this morning, and will hopefully soon send out to the whole Merchandising team, though, there will be an important distinction to be made: the PCC Corner Market and PCC Office are located at the base of the 58-floor Rainier Square Tower (built 2020; otherwise known as The Residences at Rainier Square), but the Conference Center is located in the 41-floor Rainier Tower (built 1977, the one with the distinctive, golf-tee-like tapered base). These are two separate skyscrapers on the same block, the entirety of which is Rainier Square—they have a connected lobby space, but separate elevator banks leading up separate towers. To access the Rainier Tower Conference Center (see p. 3 here), you must go to the Rainier Tower elevators and not those of the Residences at Rainier Square, the latter being the tower directly above the PCC spaces. I forgot to mention in my draft, by the way—and I'm unsure now whether I will yet bother to add it—that there is also a "Board Room" space on the 40th "Sky Lobby" in the Rainier Square Tower building, apparently with much more restricted access but a possibility for very special events. Normally this space is reserved for resident amenity access. And I came this close to getting to see that space on Wednesday—there was a lot of confusion at first, because we went to the elevators in the residential tower when looking for the 12th-floor Conference Center, which turned out to be in the older, shorter Rainier Tower building. On that 12th floor, though, a property management lady, who was clearly one of Lori's contacts as she guided our group through the buildings, was in an office whose door is right next to that of the Conference Center. Just before we were all about to leave, the lady actually offered, "Would you like me to show you the board room?" I was dying to say, "Yes! Please!"—but Lori immediately said, "No, that's okay." Sara later came to my desk Wednesday afternoon and contemplated the idea of maybe getting an escort up there to see it another day. Depending on the size of the space, it could be perfect for something like an all-office holiday event, such as our "Foraged Feast" we do annually for Thanksgiving. There will be no space whatsoever for such a thing in the ground-level office space now, and although we could probably make it work in the 12th-floor Conference Center of the other building—it does have a full kitchen—we'd have to break up in between two different conference rooms, which would be weird. And the view would, obviously, be much better from the 40th-floor Sky Lobby of the Residences tower. Anyway. I also got lots of photos of the current state of construction progress in the main new office space, as well as the new, "small format" PCC Corner Market store. I've now got a collection of photo albums on Flickr that I'm calling "The Saga of PCC Downtown / Office 2022 - 2025." It has four albums so far, and will get at least a fifth once we actually move. I suspect it will in the end have at least six, assuming at least one more site visit before the move. Whether more photos will be in one or two separate albums will depend on how different things look between the two visits, presuming it will happen that way. — पांच हजार आठ सौ दस — — पांच हजार आठ सौ दस — So that brings us to yesterday, and the reason I never shared a DLU (Daily Lunch Update): we had our Quarterly All-Merchandising Team Meeting in the morning, 9:00 - 12:00; then what I'll call our Spring Social: we all went to Flatstick Pub—something Merchandising has already done once before, in January 2019. When it was decided we would start doing regular social outings with the Merchandising Department, this was the first one we did—I believe the original intent was to do something like this quarterly. We managed three events in 2019, but have never managed more than two in a given calendar year since. To be fair, covid really threw a monkey wrench into things there for a couple of years. Noah noted that when we went to Flatstick Pub the first time, there was a lot of people here who aren't anymore. In the photos from that time, I count at least seven people who have since left PCC. This time around, we had two new staff members here who started just within the past few weeks, one of whom (much like Cathryn, who was also not at the previous Flatstic Pub event) was once a regular contact for me with one of our brokers. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit. My photo album for all that went down yesterday has 28 shots, but 10 of them are from the skin care demo during the three-hour meeting in the morning—four of those swiped from shots Gabby took (which were much better than any shots I got; I'm very jealous). She also took a "P3" [Pricing, Promotions & Project Management] team selfie, which is really fun except for whatever the hell I'm doing with my mouth in that shot. I was wary of putting any of the facial stuff on my face. It probably would have been fine, but the last time I had a facial of any kind, well over twenty years ago, I had a painful skin reaction. It just seemed more prudent to put the skin care stuff on the back of my hand—which everyone else sitting at my table did as well: Gabby, Amanda, Cathryn. Gabby took the fantastically candid shot above, though, with Tracy getting misted with liquid to keep the clay on his face moist. I really love that shot; Steven and Adrienne are looking on, on either side of him. I did pretty well with my cold yesterday, I think, except that nothing gets past Gabby. I got back from the bathroom during our first break, and Gabby said, "Matthew? Are you feeling a little sicky-sick?" I said, "I just have a mild cold," I said, which was the truth. She did not seemed concerned about anything other than whether I should be working, but I did not want to miss any of the stuff happening yesterday. "I would fully support you if you wanted to take a sick day," she said. "I'm not sick," I said, which was also true. "Okay," she said. I should note that she still came and sat next to me at Flatstick Pub when I was sitting at a table on my own in the miniature golf section later in our time there, and by then I was no longer even noticeably congested. This ebbs and flows, and I get congested for a short time after sneezing a couple of times, and then it clears up. I'm coughing here and there, but really not a lot. I went through far fewer cough drops yesterday than I expected to, and haven't even needed one so far today. There's not much else of note to share about the meeting, and shortly after, Gabby gave Cathryn and me a ride in her car to Flatstick Pub. I wound up skipping dinner last night, there was so much delightful junk food to eat for lunch, in a buffet paid for by PCC: I had two slices of vegetable pizza; one slice of cheese; several onion rings; several little quarters of cut soft pretzels; and I also had some salad! Some of it I ate for no reason other than that it was there—such as my third slice of pizza. We even basically had an open bar for lunch, and I had a "Sassy Peach" hard cider. I could have had another, but I spent a fair amount of time nursing the one glass of cider that I got. Once it was time to start playing mini golf, I was part of a six-person team, with Noah, Steven, Benny, Adrienne, and Peter. We actually kept score, and I came iin last. "Matthew, you're too honest," Kevin said to me. Well I'm not going to cheat! The time at Flatstick Pub was scheduled 1:00 to 4:00, but people were making their "Irish Goodbyes" (as Noah noted them as) by around 2:30. I kind of hung out myself with the few stragglers left until close to 3:00. I had brought my backpack and shut down my computer before leaving, reasoning that if I would be there until 4:00, there was no sense in going back to the office. Leaving around 3:00, though, I could even have walked back to the office and had a solid hour of work before leaving as usual at 4:30. I really contemplated it, and even got half a block in that direction. But then I thought: fuck it. I have this week's three episodes of Andor to watch! So, I walked home. — पांच हजार आठ सौ दस — I guess I will also mention real quick, since I did not share a post yesterday in which to do it, that Shobhit met me at Pacific Place after work on Wednesday, to see The Accountant 2. Strange how it got slightly better reviews than the first one; Shobhit and I both felt the first was a lot better. Certainly more enjoyable. I did a rare thing and actually gave this one a C-plus. We almost went for a walk to Salt & Straw for dessert late last night. We decided to make hot chocolate at home instead. So, now we're all caught up. I had considered going to Steamworks tonight, but that was a tentatively scheduled idea from weeks ago, bumped at least to next weekend because I don't want to go with my cold still lingering, however mild. I still have plenty scheduled for the weekend, though: Happy Hour with Laney tomorrow, then Shobhit and I will meet up with Lynn and Zephyr in Everett early Sunday afternoon, for a picnic at Grand Park, a belated "viewpoint" for this year's Birth Week theme because they were unavailable last weekend. I'm glad I'm still meeting up with them soon after though. — पांच हजार आठ सौ दस — [posted 12:34pm]

2024 at PCC

Thursday, January 11 You'd think the people in Finance had never seen hail before!
Thursday, January 18 Shobhit and I browse the mostly empty aisles of the Downtown PCC store, which would permanently close the next day—coincidentally, on the two-year anniversary of its Grand Opening.
Sunday, February 18 When Shobhit, my friend Danielle, and I all went to the Madonna concert at Climate Pledge Arena, we parked at our office building, since it was easy free parking there, and then easily walked to the arena. First, we went up to the office to use the bathroom. I always liked the view of the Seattle Great Wheel from down the office hallway, and at night with all the lights off, I just thought it made for a lovely, colorful view.
Monday, February 19 Mark F emailed out a photo of this unprecedented sign program glitch and I was so astonished I had to save the image for posterity. And then, after I suggested to him that the sign program was haunted, he sent the actual tag to me in the courier.
Friday, February 23 It's not every day that you see a flood in your 5th floor office.
Thursday, April 18 Portrait of Jeff C at his retirement party. Which is, perhaps, the wrong term: he went on to embark on a different venture. I suppose it was more accurately a "Going Away Party." Earlier that month, I recorded a video of him and me greeting each other the way we'd been doing for a solid 20 years. And now I will share the very specific history behind that: it actually started with how he and Harvey, another beloved office staff person who left PCC in 2004(!), used to greet each other. They would say each other's names to each other, in an exaggeratedly deep voice: "Harvey Varga." "Jeff C*x." Then one day Jeff greeted me in the same deep-voiced enunciation of my full name, and I responded with a more high-pitched, nasal tone, just to switch it up, which cracked him up. And thus this oddball tradition was born.
Thursday, July 11 One of these cows suddenly leapt up and shouted "Haylent Green is Cattle!" I'm kidding! If any of these cows are inadvertent cannibals (cattlebals?), nobody said anything about it. Instead, they voluntarily walked right up to be milked by robots. Not creepy at all! This was on a tour of Styger Family Dairy, one of many Organic Valley farms in the Northwest.
Wednesday, July 24 A beautiful day for a Summer Office Barbecue.
Wednesday, August 7 Pricing & Promotions Team photo with Gabby, Amy and myself, at the Smith Tower Observatory Bar, celebrating my 22nd anniversary with PCC (which technically was on August 5).
Thursday, August 15 Amanda, myself, Amy and Gabby, in front of one of Wilc*x Family Farms' many mobile hen houses, on my second tour of Wilc*x Family Farms in as many years.
Thursday, August 29 I really, really love this shot. Tracy gave his phone to a staffer at Titanic: The Exhibition to take of us all right before we went in. After I asked Tracy to send it to me, I told him it's the kind of shot a whole lot of us will look at nostalgically decades from now. As of this date, there are 26 people in Merchandising. There are 21 in this photo, and two who came to the event but for some reason did not get in this shot: Benny, and Cathryn. Three people in Merchandising did not make it at all: Amy (who sat it out because she had already gone to this recently), Beth, and Stephen (not to be confused with Steven, who is in this shot). It would sure be great if we could one day get a shot this good with all 26 of us. It's too bad Tristan and Amanda are turned around here but whatever, you can't have everything.
Saturday, October 5 Big news! Probably the biggest news of 2024 for PCC: we are reopening our Downtown store, in late summer 2025. I took the above photo of the business tenant directory at Rainier Square Tower while showing my cousin and her boyfriend around on a Saturday in October. It's that large, unlabeled space in the center. That's what the Downtown store used to be, anyway—when it reopens, the unprecedented "small format store" will occupy only the lengthwise space to the right of it, with a width maybe 2/3 that of where it has a wall along the street. The rest of the space, to the left? That's going to be our new Central Office location.
Thursday, October 31 I joined the Office Relocation Project Team (perhaps we should start calling it Orpt), which is made up of one representative from each department, to be a liaison between this team and the respective departments. This meant I got to go with the team on a site visit to the old Downtown store, still locked up and filled with a lot of the furniture and fixtures that were there when the store closed in January. Here we stand in what used to be the store's public seating area and what will be the new office location's kitchen / break room, the only part of the office which will have natural light through windows to the outside. It's still a great location though, and that makes up for a lot!
Friday, November 8 I got tricked by an email phishing test. I am always so proud of myself when I catch them, and then I feel like such an idiot when I fall for one. And when that happens, I have to watch another stupid cyber safety training video. But guess what, while I watched all I could think about was this man's smoldering good looks. He deserves a better gig than this!
Friday, November 15 A tiny duck! Since sometime last year, someone has been placing these in odd little places around the office, just to be discovered. No one knows who is doing it. The mystery remains unsolved. Originally I had used this shot from June, but then I saw this duck in November and I really like this shot. I even started a photo album of these sightings, which now seem to be branching into new species.
Thursday, November 21 Oh and I also got selected as one of the three Q3 "Office Stars." No big deal! I suspect few people actually read these anyway. I mean, I almost never do. Some "Office Star" I am! Boy have I got all these people duped. BWAHAHAHAHA
Wednesday, December 4 Wonderful group shot out on our office balcony, at the annual "PCC Foraged Feast" holiday potluck—traditionally our "office Thanksgiving," but scheduled in December due to a variety of factors. I'd say let's play "Where's Matthew?" but I kind of stick out more than most in this group (or any group, really). This is a group of about 40 people, roughly a third of our total office staff, most of whom do not work in the office every day since returning to offices after the pandemic. I'm tempted to complain about this getting scheduled in December after Thanksgiving, rather than in November before Thanksgiving as has been done most years in the past, but I'm just grateful it still happened at all. This was our last one at the current office location, and how we can pull off anything similar at the new, much smaller office in the future is still very much an open question. Still, this did mean that we never got a separate, December holiday office event like usual, settling on this as a kind of hybrid of the two, and it bums me out a little not to get separate events in both November and December. But it's better than nothing!
Justine, Amanda and Cathryn hang out at Seattle Art Museum's "Joyce J. Scott: Walk a Mile in My Dreams" exhibit—still on display, through January 19, I highly recommend it! That said, this served as our Merchandising Department "holiday social" this year. It was so Christmasy! (It was not at all Christmasy.) I think I might have enjoyed it more than anyone else in our group, actually. Everyone was done and ready to go after about an hour, and I could have spent twice that much time there, if not more.
Look at this beautiful picture of us! We should start a band. Move over, Wilson Phillips! We are Taylor McBui. Anyway. Big day for Merchandising, December 4: all-office "Foraged Feast" in the late morning and early afternoon; department museum outing in the afternoon; and then, at my suggestion, out for Happy Hour at The Fonté Bar, so we could have some more directly social time on the day of our holiday outing. I even made the reservations myself, over my Thanksgiving break, I am so dedicated! I could have used this photo of the seven other coworkers who went up to Fonté Bar ahead of us and staked the seats around a marble coffee table by the fireplace, but, with all due respect to all those other wonderful people, it's just not as good a shot as this one. Also, we can't help it if we're the prettiest. Get over it! Fonté Bar is on the second floor, shared lobby space at Rainier Square by the way, beneath Rainier Square Tower, and directly above what will next year be our new office space.
Tuesday, December 24 Bonus! A little supplier anecdote for the end of your year: I was combing through my unread email messages after returning from PTO I took the four weekdays prior to Christmas (giving myself a full week off), and found one sent on Christmas Eve from Dale at our egg supplier W----- Family Farms, apologizing for having sent the wrong link in an email he had sent out the previous Friday, December 20. First I must tell you what he'd written in the original email: Hello everyone, All of us at W----- Family Farms wants to thank you for your support throughout 2024, and we wish you all a merry Christmas & New Year! See below link, to a special W----- Christmas video…it includes W-----’s from the 5th, 4th & 3rd generations. Then, in the follow-up email the following Tuesday (Christmas Eve), with a corrected link, he wrote, in part: This is the video that I thought I was sending out this past Friday. But instead, I sent the Christmas video with Santa enjoying a W----- hardboiled egg. I laughed so hard when I read this. It's a delightful note to end the year on.