plans in unindelible ink
Last night was dedicated to Laney, and watching two more episodes of the first season of Mad Men -- episodes six and seven, to be exact. And I have to say, ten years after its first season originally aired, that show really holds up. I'm not yet ready to change my mind about it being the best show ever produced. The writing, the acting, the production design -- all top notch. Its pacing is far from swift and yet every moment is riveting.
I walked straight there from work, stopping along the way to pick up cheese and crackers (which became my dinner) at QFC and dropping off a nine-days overdue library book that I finally just decided to move on from, and got to Laney's door at 5:20. Laney had some salad for herself for dinner, and she made us each one cocktail, made of apple vodka and tonic water, which wasn't half bad, even though the vodka was super cheap. Apparently she had gone into QFC and just asked what they had on sale, and shot bottles of this were the cheapest they had.
We both agreed that we were good with just two episodes for this time, and we scheduled when we will meet again to watch more in January (on Friday the 26th).
I walked home and hung out with Shobhit for a couple of hours before going to bed. We watched a couple episodes of The Golden Girls, which were very funny. Shobhit did some work on the samosas he'll be bringing to Olympia for Christmas, which he'll have no time to work on over this coming weekend since he works mid-afternoon until very late on Saturday and then the next day is Christmas Eve itself. I'll probably wind up assisting him with the final deep frying on Saturday morning.
Before watching the shows, Laney and I talked a bit about the big news -- sort of maybe -- of the day: Ivan telling Shobhit yesterday morning that he now plans to move out in February. Shobhit texted me first, and my response was, We'll see. He changes his tune constantly. Ivan himself messaged me about it later, and when I wrote, Why February all of a sudden? First fall, then spring, now winter. And he wrote, Because I need to get on with my life ASAP. I replied, I guess we all do. Still makes me sad. :*( -- and he replied, That's very touching, thank you.
I kind of forgot another key event from a couple of months ago, though, when Ivan had out of the blue told me he was thinking about leaving in another month, and then he changed his mind. Now, granted, he said "thinking about" at that time and now he's stating he's made a decision -- but, in our exchanges yesterday, he also said, I am not certain of the exact date yet though, because I haven't bought the plane ticket to Yugoslavia yet. Because I like to rib him about using the long-ago retired "Yugoslavia" (this is a country that no longer exists), I also said, There are no planes to Yugoslavia. But anyway, I also added later, changing one word compared to what I texted to Shobhit to be slightly more diplomatic, This won't really feel real to me until you've actually set your plans in stone anyway -- with all due respect, you change your tune regularly.
And that part is very true, and as a result right now I honestly feel like chances are at best 50/50 that he'll actually leave by February -- but odds are better than even that he will leave by the spring, and far more likely than ever before that he'll be gone well before fall 2018, which was when he said he planned to stay through when he moved back in back in November 2016. So, we'll see.
Shobhit and I had discussed raising the rent we charge him, which I was always uncomfortable with the idea of having to do -- although in the end, it is a reasonable thing to do: not only are we currently charging him the same rent we charged him in 2014, but he's been here more than a year this second round now, and our expenses have indeed gone up. The Association dues that I pay alone are increasing by $24 as of next month. That said, and I even mentioned this to Ivan once it came up, I did fear that asking him to pay higher rent might prompt him to leave sooner -- and according to Ivan, it was after Shobhit started talking about increasing the rent that he told him he'll be leaving in February anyway.
Also? According to Ivan, Shobhit sounded open to having another roommate after him, once Shobhit has his mom visit for three months. Shobhit and I have not discussed this and I'm pretty dead set against it. Eight years of roommates is more than enough, screening for decent people to live with you via Craigslist is a massive pain in the ass, and will be doubly complicated with Shobhit and me doing it together rather than my doing it on my own as I always did in the past. I know the rent revenue is nice, but I strongly feel the downsides of now outweigh any benefits, even financial ones. I love living with Ivan, but not one of the other roommates comes close to being as ideal a living companion -- not to mention as dependable -- as Ivan proved to be, and no one else is all that likely to either. Shobhit never liked living with Ivan as much as I did anyway, actually being more openly annoyed with associated obliged courtesies (like, say, staying completely dressed), and I would think he'd be even more relieved for us finally to have the place to ourselves again as I'll be. Hell, just the freedom to walk around undressed again will be nice even for me.
And if nothing else, Shobhit and I could really use an extended period of time in our own space with no one else getting in the way or serving as any kind of distraction. That scenario will make it a lot easier for us to work on us, if we can.
[posted 12:24 pm]