Like a Mountain Goat in a Tuxedo

That was a snippet of a commercial I heard during my ridiculously long drive to Yakima valley today.

By the way, it's pronounced: Yak-i-mau. Just in case you were wondering. The "locals" made a lot of fun of us New Yorkers trying to pronounce all the names out here. I'd like to hear them try "Houston Street" on for size. Unfortunately, that's the only one I can think of at the moment. I'm spent.

There's another interesting town I passed earlier today called Pullyaup. Try that one. Apprently, they can tell if you're from around these parts if you can pronounce it correctly. Try it out and let me know. I'll give you the correct pronunciation in a later post. Tricky, I know.

So I am definitely feeling the effects of jet lag, not to mention the confusion I feel when I want to chat with someone from home. I have to keep trying to mentally remind myself that I'm three hours behind, not to mention that my body is trying to keep up. Eating times are definitely interesting. I was so hungry at 8am, I thought I was going to eat my hand.

But I didn't.

So today has been fairly interesting, a lot of travel. I traveled to Olympia this morning, but first, stopped by the Kerry/Edwards office in Seattle. They might possibly have the best view of any campaign office I've ever seen, hands down. Looks right over the water - I would be happy as a pig in poop working there everyday. Doesn't matter what I would be doing, just happy as hell knowing that the view was awesome.

Spent a considerable amount of time in Olympia today, preparing for the trip to Yakima, map making, walk-sheets, flyers, sign-up sheets. Oh, and a good amount of time trying to figure out why there was suddenly a ridiculously large amount of money missing from my bank account - only to find out that they definitely screwed up at the hotel and now I'm patiently waiting for my ridiculously large amount of money to get back to my account.

Oh, and why is it that I cannot speak to someone directly at my bank? I end up having to call 1-800 numbers, listening to the same messages, only to hit zero over and over again and then get hung up on. Usually, the fourth time is the charm, but what the hell kind of annoyance is that? Especially when I'm on the other coast with no chance of going to my bank. Argh. Something I definitely did not anticipate before coming out here. Naive maybe, but whatever, I'm annoyed.

So we finally leave Olympia for the lovely valley of Yakima. By the way, every time that I mention to people from around here that I'm going to Yakima, this is what it looks like:

Me: Yeah, I'm headed off to Yakima today.
Them: (registers an immediate horrified/sympathetic/confused look) Oh. Ummm.... (pregnant pause) Oh.
Me: (suddenly worried look) Okay. That doesn't make me feel too confident.
Them: (head cocked to one side, slight smile) Have you ever been to Yakima?

So far, I've heard a few things about Yakima, such as: it's very desert-like, it's hot as hell, it's an "interesting" place, or there's NOTHING there.

And after a three to four hour drive, stuck in some traffic, some slight rain, and the most beautiful scenery I've seen in a long time (check out the picture up top, it was absolutely gorgeous), we finally got a glimpse of what we'd be seeing.

Based on looks alone, they were absolutely right.

It was like a wholly different world.

The green mountains were replaced by brown spotty ones. The lush scenery was replaced with prarie grass and bushes. We were definitely heading into Yakima.

So after getting a little lost here, we finally found our hotel, and after some issues with payment, finally got to move our bags in. We ended up at a diner for some dinner and then back to the hotel for some r & r. Of course, I've been forcing myself to stay awake so that I can get used to it here, and I think I'm succeeding, considering that it's 2am and it would be 5am back home. Speaking of which...

I'm going to head off to bed. But I have arrived in a place the likes of which I have never seen before. And it excites me a makes me slightly nervous for the task ahead this week (pure campaign and field work in a completely unknown area). But I will certainly let you know more about that tomorrow.

In the meantime, sweet dreams and good days.