Taste

Friday, August 8, 1997

I set off after work for the Clarion West Wine Tasting and Meet the Authors event, which was being held as a fundraiser for the writers' workshop. I had the flyer/ticket which had directions on it. The tasting was being held in the Bermuda Triangle, er, um, I mean, south of Seattle.

I don't drink nowadays. During the eighties, I worked at a bar and enjoyed a few tasty beverages after work, but somewhere during that time I developed an allergy to alcohol! It makes me have sneezing fits. I know it's the alcohol, because I switched from beer, to wine, to vodka, to various things, and the sneezing always happened. But when I drank non-alcoholic beer, no sneezing! So out of courtesy to others, I gave up alcohol. Which made it rather ironic that I was going to a wine tasting, but I wanted to support Clarion.

So I set off, following the directions written on the flyer. I first ran into a bunch of folks going to the Mariners (baseball) game. I got past there, and was heading south on 99, which ran into 509. I was now beyond my familiar territory. The road was under construction which added to my confusion. It switched from 30 mph speed limit to 60 mph in a random fashion. I never saw an exit with the sign I was looking for. So I just kept driving on 509. When I got to the end of 509, and it petered out into local roads, I knew I had gone too far.

So I hunted around in the industrial parks and country bars, and found a mini-market with a pay phone. I called the winery, and got directions back. But I must have misunderstood, because when I turned around, got back on the highway, drove north, and got off at the specified exit, the rest of the directions still didn't work. When the cross streets I was seeing were 7th, 8th, 10th, instead of 4th and 5th that I wanted, I turned around, went to the other side of the highway, and found 4th and 5th, thinking that I had heard "right" when the winery person had said "left." But there was no winery, and no industrial park, just residential streets with lots of RVs, run-down houses, pickup trucks, and dusty lawns. So -- try the next exit.

This time things seemed to be working out. Unfortunately, construction had blocked off the street that I was to turn into, and the next street turned into a dead end with horses grazing behind an electric wire. I finally found the circuitous route past the recycle center and pulled into the industrial park where the winery was located, about an hour after I intended to be there. Did I mention that the sun was in my eyes the entire time I was driving? I was a little stressed.

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There was a moderate crowd, listening to the authors (Vonda McIntyre, F.M. Busby, Astrid Bear subbing for Greg Bear, Eileen Gunn) saying a few words about workshops, writing, and publishing. The food was great! Smoked salmon, carpaccio, walnut torte, and more. The winery people were very nice. I don't know how much wine they sold out of the deal, but I hope it was worthwhile for them. I had decided to make a special effort to speak to people I didn't already know, since part of the purpose of the event was to expand the Clarion West support base. Small groups are too endangered by the burnout factor. You can't always be asking the same group for donations and volunteer work over and over. So I wanted to do my part to ensure that any new people were made welcome, and suck them in to the Clarion West sphere. It's too easy to just chat with those you know at any party; I need to remind myself to speak to new folks.

I was chatting with one man, who was also a Microsoft worker, when a woman came over and joined the conversation with "Hi, I'm ----. He's mine!" said half-jokingly. Sheesh! I really wasn't exercising my full power of flirtation on this guy, but maybe she had some issues in this area.

Eileen had tried a few days ago to get me to agree to volunteer on the Clarion West website. So I told her that I would, starting in September. There may be another volunteer as well.

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I left, and again got lost in the maze of this South Park neighborhood of drawbridges, railroads, roads under construction, signs that aren't visible till too late, and sucker lanes that pull you off in the direction you don't want to go before you know it. Compounding my worry was the fact that I was low on gas. I finally found my way back to 1st Avenue South, and thought my problems were over. But I was just in time for the Mariners game to be over, so first traffic was atrocious in the neighborhood of the stadium, then we were all directed on to the elevated highway that runs along the waterfront in downtown Seattle. This wasn't where I wanted to go! So I took an exit that dumped me out in Belltown, on the other side of downtown. This neighborhood is very lively on a Friday evening. I stopped for gas just across the street from Seattle Center. The station actually had people to pump your gas! I was surprised by this.

I finally made my way home with no further disasters.