Around a table at the Relish Burger Bistro on the first floor of the Westin, Darin, Maral and I solved the worlds problems. Maral had come to town to show us the shoe samples we have been working on for the past six months. She flew into Seattle on Saturday but then flew up to Vancouver and rode the train back down to Seattle with her husband, Jason.
Maral and Jason arrived in Seattle Sunday morning at about 11:30 AM. That was right when Seahawks fans were congregating for today's game versus the Cleveland Browns. Darin and I wanted to watch the game so we coordinated with Maral to meet up with her afterwards. Because the Westin is less than a mile from my condo, Darin met me out at the condo, bringing tables to show the shoes, and we watched the game. The table he brought out was huge so he needed to borrow his father's truck. Hillary purchased some black tablecloths yesterday from bed Bath and beyond that made a nice added touch.
Following the game, Darin and I jumped in the van and drove to the Westin to meet up with Maral and to meet Jason.
Parking on Stewart St. near 7th, we went the remaining distance on foot. Arriving at the ground level off of Westlake, we took the elevator up to the main lobby. In the distance we saw arms waving. It was Maral. And she was wearing her stylish BILLY Trucker hat that Darin had made limited quantities of. The only other person that has one at the moment is Hillary.
After some pleasantries, Jason left the three of us and we went to the hotel restaurant (Relish) to catch up and talk business.
We had been working with Maral for the past six months but had only been face-to-face one other time and that was from the focus group on 6/4/15. We reminisced on the craziness of that day but also vented about how some of it went down.
Maral spoke of how moved our manufacturer has been by our project. Taiwanese men do not often show emotion - especially in business. And our project has broken that barrier. Tearing down walls one at a time. Apparently our shoe samples are being made in a separate room at the manufacturer, isolated and locked from other spaces to secure our secret design.
We told Maral we wanted her as a partner and officially asked if she was interested in being a member of the team. Up until this point, Maral has been hired as a contract designer but we want to change that and make her role more official. Maral thanked us for the offer and asked for a night to sleep on it, of which we totally agreed. There is now rush.
As we called it an evening, we exchanged hugs and then parted ways. Darin and I went back to the van, Maral back to her room.
Our morning starts at 10am tomorrow morning. We are very anxious to see the shoes!