the perks of being a geezer
Not much to report today -- which I suppose is a nice change of pace.
After two wet and rainy days, I rode my bike to work again yesterday. It was like 48° in the morning and I put on my fingerless gloves. Although the weather is supposed to climb back into the seventies again by next week, the mornings took a quick turn for the cooler, and I don't think my regular biking is likely to last much longer before the bike is just left in the garage for the winter. But, we'll see. Sometimes I ride well into October.
So on my bike I got home not long after 5:00. I did stop at the Cinerama box office to get tickets for Laney and me to see the original Blade Runner on October 1 and then Blade Runner 2049 on October 13. I finally decided to follow Cinerama on Twitter and subscribe to their newsletter because I was tired of discovering too late that they were playing movies I really wanted to see there, only after they were sold out. This paid off because the newsletter is the only reason I knew they were playing the original for the week prior to the sequel's release (Laney can't see it until the 13th; I may see it another time before that, when it opens the weekend of the 6th), and their tweets are the only reason I knew tickets went on sale as of yesterday afternoon. Had I waited even a day, the showings I wanted could easily have sold out, or at least I would have lost out on the seats I prefer to sit in.
I hoped, but suspected I wouldn't be able, to use my AMC discounted tickets from Costco -- I thought it wasn't that long ago Cinerama was an AMC theatre. I got to the ticket window -- where to my surprise no one was already there buying tickets -- and asked, "This isn't an AMC theatre anymore is it?" The guy said, "It hasn't been for about ten years." Yeesh. My memory! And time goes by so fast! I guess it's independent now? Well, okay, that guy exaggerated, as it turns out -- AMC stopped operating it after a 2010 renovation. That's seven years, not quite ten. Still, it has been a while. I guess Paul Allen's Vulcan Real Estate owns it -- he was also the one who bought it in 1997. Anyway, that link also includes a nifty slide show of the theatre's 54-year history.
I got home and waited about an hour before Shobhit fried up some more parathas from scratch to have with more leftovers while watching last Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher, which somehow we had spaced for several days.
As soon as the show was over and we had watched the "Overtime" segment on YouTube (which I can do on the TV thanks to "mirroring" from the phone to the Apple TV box -- a nifty feature), I messaged Ivan that we were ready to watch the Netflix movie he had and which he suggested the night before we watch: The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
I had forgotten how much I liked that movie, and mentioned as much in the middle of it. I vaguely remembered enjoying it, but was not reminded until I looked up my 2012 review that I had given it an A-. And I found the movie nearly as deeply affecting this time around as I had the first time. Except Shobhit figured something out that the review I wrote makes explicitly clear that I missed: when Charlie says early on in the film that his best friend shot himself, he was actually making a veiled reference to his beloved aunt having died. She didn't shoot herself, but still.
Ivan mentioned that this had been the last movie he had ever gone to see "with my stupid husband." He said they both had really liked it, and that the book on which it was based was what lots of his peers were reading when he was in high school -- although he says the movie is actually better. That's unusual. I also found this sort of curious/fascinating because Tommy clearly has his own connection to and affection for this movie -- I remember him referencing it more than once on social media, and I realized last night that his declaration that David Bowie's "Heroes" is his "all-time favorite song" is probably because of its key element in the story.
Given what is ultimately revealed about Charlie's aunt, the deeper stuff in the story is kind of surprisingly dark, actually. But the overall story is alternately sweet and sad. I found it to be a wonderful film and would stand by that grade I gave it.
And then, Shobhit got a last-ditch last-minute point for the Social Review I just posted this morning -- giving him 26 points for the summer quarter rather than the 25 I thought he was going to have. It's because we shared a dessert at the PCC Greenlake Village store.
We went there for a free 500ml bottle of Field Day Olive Oil. A series of four ten-day coupons is being sent out both to residents of key neighborhoods as well as all existing members (and all PCC employees are members), and the first one is for this free bottle of olive oil. Not even I want to turn down free stuff! And this coupon expires tomorrow, and I don't know if we'll do our shopping tomorrow or not. Maybe. I should have thought yesterday about the fact that I get paid tomorrow so we could have killed two birds with one stone there. Oh well.
Shobhit's concern was that they would be sold out. They still had some on the endcap though, so it was all good. (Also, I learned today, they are offering other brands of the same size or comparable value at stores where they do sell out, until the expiration date. But I did not know that for certain last night.)
Shobhit was craving cake for some reason. I already ate a blueberry muffin and a super-delicious lemon bar at work, so I really should not have had more sweets. I told Shobhit I really like PCC's carrot cake and so he got one slice out of the bakery. It was denser than usual but still good. We sat at one of the tables in the Deli to share it, which I knew Shobhit chose to do just so he'd get a Social Review point: this was us having "gone out" for dessert. It's almost a technicality but it does fit into my rules! Not that it made any huge difference; he managed 45 points in the spring and compared to that, there's not a huge difference between getting 25 and 26 for summer. He still easily made it to the #1 ranking spot by a landslide, Laney coming in at #2 with 13 points.
Shobhit is working all day today, two separate shifts with about two hours off in between. He came home briefly and found a red car in our parking spot. He messaged both Ivan and me to ask if we knew who it might be. Of course not -- and I'm not sure how much Shobhit understands how truly unlikely it was Ivan would have any idea. Like, did he think Ivan had a guest and opened the garage for them to park, even when he had no idea when Shobhit would be back? Ivan doesn't even have an electric fob that opens the garage door; it only opens the regular doors to the building. The only way Ivan could ever open the garage for any car is if he put his building key in the lock on the wall just inside the garage door, and I've never even told him that's a thing that can be done because he never had his own car nor has ever had anyone he knows park there.
Shobhit kept sending follow-up messages in group message to both of us but Ivan had nothing to do with it.
I finally did get the email Shobhit sent to both our building manager and to me, so I could post a message to the bulletin board that we're about to get it towed. This way I could include the license number. Shobhit did not have time to wait for a tow truck to come so if the car is still there when I get home tonight, I'll have to take care of it myself.
