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Seattle skedaddle
Mar. 2nd, 2025 11:27 amThis time of year has usually been when we take a vacation, but not this year thanks to our employment status. We still decided to go ahead and get tickets for a couple of shows in Seattle, the first of which was last night. Kathy Griffin played the Moore again, just like the last time we saw her on the Laugh Your Head Off tour. That show dealt directly with the immediate aftermath of when she posed for a photo with a fake severed head of someone who doesn't have a sense of humor and who had a lot of power at the time to do something about it. If you didn't know, she ended up being investigated for conspiracy to assassinate, which carries a life sentence if there's a conviction.
That show was an incredible response, but unfortunately she's been through even more since then, including the death of her mother, another divorce, losing half a lung to cancer, and losing the use of one of her vocal cords. Her current tour is her first in six and a half years, and she bravely shared that she ended up abusing pills and even tried to take her own life. It takes a real genius to be so vulnerable about all of that and still manage to turn her attempted suicide into an incredibly funny story.
And it's a story you'll be able to watch! She hired a camera crew to tape last night's show and it'll be her 22nd stand-up comedy special. She already holds the world record for most specials and isn't stopping yet. She explained that nobody has offered to buy it or fund the taping, so she did it herself and if nobody wants to distribute it, she'll probably just sell it via YouTube. When that happens, I can't recommend it highly enough. I'm interested to hear the recorded version because I couldn't tell if her very recognizable voice has changed a lot since getting a vocal cord implant, or if it was just the volume and the acoustics. If you know her at all, you know what I mean about her voice.
The rest of the trip really wasn't that great. We didn't do our research and lunch and dinner yesterday were pretty disappointing. I really wanted to have lunch at Gordon Biersch at Pacific Place, but we got there and learned that being one of the swankiest malls around hasn't saved it from the fate of most malls. Most of the stores and restaurants were gone, including Gordon Biersch, and it's so empty now that they reprogrammed the escalators so they no longer force you to walk past the shops as you go from floor to floor.
Our cocktails were ok at a place nearby, but they have strange ideas about what the bread should be like on a sandwich. Tall and overly chewy really doesn't work. But at least it was better than dinner, where we were told it'd be a half hour for food that ended up taking an hour, and the food wasn't worth the wait. And if a place makes a vodka soda that Garrett can't drink more than a sip of? That's bad news.
Thankfully breakfast at the hotel this morning was good. We'll be back for another show in June and I already declared that we need to go somewhere nice for dinner and have a reservation, too.
The dogs are in good hands until tomorrow morning because the place we use for boarding doesn't do pickups or dropoffs on Sundays. The cool thing about boarding two of them is that they can share a deluxe suite and that comes with perks like emailed photos and a bath! I'll pick them up on my way back from teaching tomorrow. Here's one of the very cute pictures they sent, four more are over at flickr.
Weather-wise, it was kind of gross as we drove into Seattle yesterday. At first it looked foggy but then it became clear (haha) that it was haze. There was some fog on the water though, and the views were pretty neat when we walked down to get a look at the new promenade that leads from Pike Place Market to the waterfront. I didn't take any photos, though. Going to Seattle is just weird. I moved there in 1999 when it was booming and had amazing times and amazingly terrible ones. I met Garrett there and married him twice there (before it was legal and the first day we were allowed to) but we also left when we no longer felt we needed to be there.
That's a decision I'm very proud of us for making. A lot of people won't change their surroundings, even when they're miserable. It can be tough to move to a new city, but I think it's a lot harder to try being happy somewhere that just isn't a good fit any more. I can see why a lot of people like the new, even more crowded, and much more urban place Seattle has become. I just don't like constantly being in a sea of people, though. We picked a great time to leave and I've never regretted it.
There was one photo opportunity I had to jump on, though.
That show was an incredible response, but unfortunately she's been through even more since then, including the death of her mother, another divorce, losing half a lung to cancer, and losing the use of one of her vocal cords. Her current tour is her first in six and a half years, and she bravely shared that she ended up abusing pills and even tried to take her own life. It takes a real genius to be so vulnerable about all of that and still manage to turn her attempted suicide into an incredibly funny story.
And it's a story you'll be able to watch! She hired a camera crew to tape last night's show and it'll be her 22nd stand-up comedy special. She already holds the world record for most specials and isn't stopping yet. She explained that nobody has offered to buy it or fund the taping, so she did it herself and if nobody wants to distribute it, she'll probably just sell it via YouTube. When that happens, I can't recommend it highly enough. I'm interested to hear the recorded version because I couldn't tell if her very recognizable voice has changed a lot since getting a vocal cord implant, or if it was just the volume and the acoustics. If you know her at all, you know what I mean about her voice.
The rest of the trip really wasn't that great. We didn't do our research and lunch and dinner yesterday were pretty disappointing. I really wanted to have lunch at Gordon Biersch at Pacific Place, but we got there and learned that being one of the swankiest malls around hasn't saved it from the fate of most malls. Most of the stores and restaurants were gone, including Gordon Biersch, and it's so empty now that they reprogrammed the escalators so they no longer force you to walk past the shops as you go from floor to floor.
Our cocktails were ok at a place nearby, but they have strange ideas about what the bread should be like on a sandwich. Tall and overly chewy really doesn't work. But at least it was better than dinner, where we were told it'd be a half hour for food that ended up taking an hour, and the food wasn't worth the wait. And if a place makes a vodka soda that Garrett can't drink more than a sip of? That's bad news.
Thankfully breakfast at the hotel this morning was good. We'll be back for another show in June and I already declared that we need to go somewhere nice for dinner and have a reservation, too.
The dogs are in good hands until tomorrow morning because the place we use for boarding doesn't do pickups or dropoffs on Sundays. The cool thing about boarding two of them is that they can share a deluxe suite and that comes with perks like emailed photos and a bath! I'll pick them up on my way back from teaching tomorrow. Here's one of the very cute pictures they sent, four more are over at flickr.
Weather-wise, it was kind of gross as we drove into Seattle yesterday. At first it looked foggy but then it became clear (haha) that it was haze. There was some fog on the water though, and the views were pretty neat when we walked down to get a look at the new promenade that leads from Pike Place Market to the waterfront. I didn't take any photos, though. Going to Seattle is just weird. I moved there in 1999 when it was booming and had amazing times and amazingly terrible ones. I met Garrett there and married him twice there (before it was legal and the first day we were allowed to) but we also left when we no longer felt we needed to be there.
That's a decision I'm very proud of us for making. A lot of people won't change their surroundings, even when they're miserable. It can be tough to move to a new city, but I think it's a lot harder to try being happy somewhere that just isn't a good fit any more. I can see why a lot of people like the new, even more crowded, and much more urban place Seattle has become. I just don't like constantly being in a sea of people, though. We picked a great time to leave and I've never regretted it.
There was one photo opportunity I had to jump on, though.
