Matthew Goes North
I felt like it was slim pickings for movies to see this week, but it turns out Ingrid Goes West was well worth it. I saw it at the AMC "Dine-In" theatre up in the U District, or The Theater Formerly Known as Sundance Cinemas Which Was Itself Formerly Known as The Metro. Jesus, I'm old. Probably half the people going to this AMC theatre now don't even remember it being called Sundance Cinemas, or care. I will say this, though: its programming seems to be essentially the same as it was under Sundance rather than Landmark (which ran the Metro), with a large focus on indie and foreign films -- that makes me happy. In fact, it's the only theater in Seattle proper showing Ingrid Goes West.
Also: they have retained Sundance's deal of $6 tickets on Monday nights with the presentation of an Orca Card, which was why I deliberately saw it last night. I should have asked Sara W at work if she wanted to come with me; she might have been interested in that movie. But she also has kind of a habit lately of bailing on plans so whatever.
I rode my bike there right after work and saw the 5:10 showing. With a runtime of an hour and 37 minutes, and a half-hour bike ride home afterward, Shobhit was convinced I would get home by 7:20. That did not at all allow for time spent on trailers before the movie, which in retrospect was a little naïve. And they showed a bunch -- about half an hour's worth, apparently, because it was actually 7:50 when I got home. Shobhit even said, "Why are you late?" the moment I walked through the door, in an almost accusatory tone, which was a little annoying.
He had dinner ready though, and even had a cocktail made for me to have with it, so it was hard to stay annoyed. It was sitting there for half an hour, but that's not my fault. And at least he made cold sandwiches, so it's not like it was something hot that was getting too cold. He used the Proven Bread loaf of sourdough with olive that he bought at a table outside Meet the Moon when we were waiting to be seated for brunch on Sunday morning. I want to say he paid $6.99 for it? $6 and something, anyway. I didn't think to tell him we carry that bread at PCC until he bought it. I just looked it up and we sell that same loaf for $6.49, which means with my standard 15% discount it would go for $5.52. With the monthly coupon taking the discount up to 25% that price goes down to $4.87. So he definitely paid too much for that bread.
In my defense, I don't have immediate recollections of every brand we carry. I haven't even done any manual keying on any Proven Bread items since I added new items in 2015. So it's not like Proven Bread is a brand that is at the forefront of my mind. So there!
And here's another point: Whatever! It's a couple of dollars. It was very good bread and in my opinion worth the price to get it when we wanted it. And it made for very good sandwiches, I can tell you that. Shobhit was a little heavy on the mayo but that's the closest I can come to a complaint on a sandwich that was otherwise delicious. He sautéed several different vegetables to add, and also used veggie ham and mozzarella cheese and sliced tomatoes. This is the kind of sandwich I really love.
We ate and watched a couple of episodes of The Golden Girls before I finally went to the bedroom to write my movie review and then get ready for bed soon after that.
Oh. On my way back from the movie, I stopped at Safeway to get two single serve containers of Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream, to put on top of reheated slices of the peach pie Shobhit made on Sunday. God damn it was good. Worth waking up to a scale this morning declaring my weight as 147.3 lbs. To my credit, I've actually refrained from doing any snacking at all at work all morning! This qualifies as a personal triumph.
I'm not sure how much difference it will make by tomorrow, since lunch today was provided by Organic Valley hosting a barbecue for the entire office. These are the challenges of working at the central office of a high-quality grocery store chain. I think I did do pretty well with my portions, though. Just a few of the potato chips, and salad. I did have a cookie. Scott didn't think they would have veggie burgers but they did! I very much appreciated that. My burger was surprisingly delicious, too. Probably mostly because of the very good bun options they had. The patty was no Field Roast, but it was better than expected. In fact, when I asked, I found out the brand was Gardenburger, which is usually my least favorite! That really surprised me.
I have to share an odd thing I figured out this morning at work.
I was reading through an email from a woman in Accounting announcing that she intends to retire at the end of the year, after working for PCC for 22 years. In the email, she mentioned the several other people who have announced plans to retire this year, including our CFO, who has the record for length of employment, at 46 years. No one here has been with us longer, and that has been the case for all 15 years I have worked here.
It also reminded me that Mimi is planning to retire at the end of the year as well. Since she'll be 71 by then, I decided to figure out how many years I will have worked at PCC total, should I work here until retiring at the age of 71.
45 years!
I went to tell Scott this, and he had to point out that, actually, I'm in an age bracket that does not get full retirement benefits until age 72. Well, shit. I guess it'll have to be 46 years. Only 31 to go!
I'd have to work until age 73 to beat rather than tie with Randy's record, however.
. . . Now, wait a minute. No matter how much I push back on Scott on this, he insists he's right that the age of full benefit retirement for my age bracket is 72. I think he's confused, though. I can't find any confirmation of this online, and his response when I tell him the Social Security Administration's own website lists it as 67, is that "that's the government" and their data is outdated. Honestly I don't think so; if it were, it would be far easier for me to find confirmation of this age of 72 elsewhere. The closest I can find is a Congressional proposal from last year that would (and has not yet) raise retirement age to 69, and would extend delayed retirement benefits to age 72.
So as things stand right now, I can retire at age 71 if I want! I'd still have to wait until 73 to beat Randy's record though.
