spontaneermezzo
I wound up going out for dinner last night, somewhat unexpectedly, with Shobhit. His shift was extended again, like it had been on Tuesday, from 8:30 to 1:00, to 8:30 to 5:00. He had a job fair in Pioneer Square he wanted to go to, which ended at 7:00, and he still wanted to go even though traffic would keep him from getting there from work in Northgate before 6:00.
He had me print ten of his resumes out at work yesterday, and I was home briefly after walking from work yesterday, and stapled them all together for him -- they were all three pages long, on two sheets of paper. I fed the cats and met him outside when he came to pick me up. He had the radio on as we made our way down to Pioneer Square, with regular traffic reports that included phrases like "it's just gross." Streets everywhere were completely jammed last night. We made it to Pioneer Square -- maybe two miles away -- in twenty minutes. It took a little while to find parking, until we just went into a Century Link Field parking lot and paid $7 to mark there for a couple of hours. Shobhit mentioned more than once as he looked at the building across the street, "That's where Susan lives, right?" Yep!
This was a couple of blocks from the place on Jackson where the job fair was happening. I walked three blocks further north to the Starbucks on 1st and Yeslter, bought a chai tea latte -- because it was way cheaper than getting a cocktail and waiting at a bar -- and read my library book for about twenty minutes. Shobhit finished a lot quicker than expected, having given out five of the ten resumes that had been printed out for him, but giving up on a line to meet potential recruiters (I think?) because he knew it would take at least half an hour to wait in it, and it was already a quarter till 7:00, when the event was scheduled to end. It was also when that Starbucks was set to close.
So I packed up, finished my chai, and headed south again; I met Shobhit on the sidewalk, he turned around and we headed right back to the same block of 1st Avenue that Jackson met with, and tried out this Italian place I found highly rated on Yelp, called Intermezzo Carmine. There's actually two separate Yelp listings for it, one much higher-scale and the other in a separate room with the bar and much more lounge-like seating. We sat at a table where one side was a long plush bench and I even had a large pillow to lean against.
We split the $9 potato leek soup (average) and the $13 "Mezzalunas" half-moon ravioli with ricotta and spinach and creamy tomato sauce (very good). The latter included all of four raviolis, but between the soup and the entrée, splitting both was a perfectly light dinner for me -- I'd be consistently losing weight again if I could make all my meals that light, as I once did (and had a lot easier time managing when Shobhit did not live at home).
Shobhit was just happy because this meant he would get a Social Review point.
We drove back home after that, and, now that we could finally log into Hulu again, watched another two episodes of season two of Fargo before I went to bed.
What else can I tell you today? I can't think of much, really. I spent the morning working on a loaner computer at work because I finally got too tired of constant pop-up windows telling me I needed to run updates that I can't actually run, and I emailed IT about it, and Andrew said he could take my computer and run all the updates needed but it would take several hours. I've got access to all the same programs, just without the same things bookmarked everywhere (and I fear when I get my own computer back I will have to re-do all bookmarks even there, but, whatever), but it all looks slightly different -- fonts a barely perceptible different size and thickness, that kind of thing. It's making me feel vaguely like I'm in a different dimension.
Andrew asked me about a recent post in which I mentioned people here at the office who still consistently look like they don't quite know what to make of me. He asked if one was the new-ish Director of IT -- I didn't actually have him in mind when I tweeted that, but he would qualify. That guy is pretty radically different from his predecessor, Gary, who unfortunately passed away last year. I only learned from Shauna on Facebook last week that a woman who used to work here, named Kim, also passed away -- she was married to John, who also works in IT. Shauna was incredibly fond of both these people, and I was actually the one to inform her about Gary, via text. I think she was closer friends with Kim, though.
Kim's an interesting one -- several years ago, at the old office, I overheard her getting the news over the phone of her stepmother passing away unexpectedly, as her cubicle at the time was like three away from mine. She was devastated, and although it was very sad, I was touched by her affection for a stepparent, and it made me think of how much I love Sherri and would also be devastated if I were to lose her unexpectedly. I even emailed Kim, to tell her about that, and she seemed to appreciate it. I never spent a lot of time talking to Kim otherwise, though. It's just a strange feeling -- I suppose it's largely tied just to getting older, and being at the same place for so long. Enough time passes by, and people you know, or even just work with, start passing away. I can't imagine what it's like when you're elderly and this kind of thing becomes constant. I'm not looking forward to that.
[posted 12:19 pm]