(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Top Comments: Work Event Weekend Edition [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2025-08-18 It’s been a very travel-intense couple of weeks here at Casa Brillig. Last week I shared my recap of Netroots Nation 2025. I was in New Orleans from Tuesday August 5- Sunday 10th, but Mr. Brillig had left two days earlier to spend the first half of the week in Chicago for a work conference. We came home on the 10th exhilarated and also exhausted! No time to catch up on sleep, however, because more travel awaited! On Thursday morning we packed as much of K2’s belongings in the car as we could (primarily soccer necessities, bedding, and toiletries), added our two carry-ons and headed for K2’s college in NYC. He had to report for soccer pre-season and Mr. Brillig will head down later this week to help retrieve most of his things from the storage unit we rented. It was a milestone trip- K2 did all of the driving because we are leaving Mr. Brillig’s car with him for the fall ::yes, that is my teeth you hear grinding in the background::. Bright and early Friday morning we left K2 to go move himself onto campus while we caught a Lyft to LaGuardia airport. We were headed to Charleston SC for Mr. Brillig’s company retreat weekend. His company is entirely remote workers, with no bricks & mortar space. So once a year in the spring all employees travel from wherever in the country they’re located to San Francisco for a purely business meeting. Then in the late summer, all employees plus a guest are invited to a retreat weekend that (this year at least) was purely social. It’s always in a new location, is full of fantastic food and experiences, and lets all employees get to know each other a little better. It seems to work as their retention rate is almost 100% year to year. Part 2: I still cannot believe we made this beautiful dish and it tasted as good as it looked!! One of the traditions is that on Saturday during the morning-early afternoon, everyone gets to choose an ‘excursion’. Last year we went horseback riding in the Tetons, this year we had choices ranging from kayaking to aircraft carrier or plantation tours, a food trek to four different restaurants, or the option we chose… a private cooking lesson for 12 from a local top chef. The diary cover photo is what we prepped for lunch… asparagus, zucchini, fennel, shallots, tomatoes, basil, toasted almonds, roasted garlic and shrimp. Then in pairs we sauteed, deglazed, seared, and much more until at the last moment we added acini de pepe… little round pasta. Thanks to my mentioning to Chef Bob that I can’t eat pasta, he immediately had us split our portion into two pans and mine was the slightly more liquidy but non-pasta’d one in the front. A pea sprout garnish and we were sent to the beautifully set table for twelve to enjoy the delicious results of our lessons! During lunch we were all engaged in conversation with others at the table. There was a robust discussion on parent behaviour at soccer matches (I am firmly team “cheer for your team even if your child thinks you are too loud”), and as that wound down I heard the person to my right, a British citizen, mention immigration — specifically how back during the first Trump years they’d had their visa revoked. They continued they now had their green card and I asked “are you nervous, given what’s going on these days?” They replied “No, not really. I have my green card and in [however many they said they had to wait] years, and regular appointments with Immigration, I’ll be able to apply for citizenship”. I made the comment “Yeah, you don’t look much like the people with green cards who are being routinely deported.” I got a long response about how The Media gets it wrong and there’s truth on both sides and while yes many deportees are non-white it’s also true that the vast majority of them probably committed crimes and I think I bit a hole in my cheek NOT replying because this was Mr. Brillig’s company retreat and I was the +1. But dayyum, I was shocked at the utter naivete or willful denialism of what is glaringly obvious to anyone watching international media…. that there’s a war on immigrants, especially Black and brown ones, and that NO ONE is safe. I hope he’s at next year’s company retreat, I really do. I wouldn’t wish deportation on any family, including he and his wife/partner. But I hope he wakes up and realizes just what country he’s in right now, and how anti-immigrant this Administration is. I am very glad to be home for a while, with no major travel on the horizon. We have plans to get down to NYC from Boston to see K2 play a home game or two, and I want to make their away game at Bard College because my niece is an alum there and we’ll meet up to watch him play. For the other games we’ll watch on the livestream and pretend we’re watching Premier League!! How was your weekend? Any interesting conversations? Share in the comments, after a peek at tonight’s Tops!! 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