Today's March for Our Lives yielded the most photos-- fifty-five -- out of the eight marches I've now participated in since the inauguration of President Fuckwit fourteen months ago. It's a record number of shots by a rather wide margin: fifteen, or 38%.

Protesting the insane sexism of the incoming Administration is one thing -- as is protesting its tax secrecy, or ignorance of science, or rejection of truth itself, or protesting homophobia or racism.

There was something much more visceral about the feelings behind the march today, a feeling of much greater immediacy. Literally the lives of countless children at stake. (Though it should be noted that plenty of black Americans have been feeling this very thing for as long as they can remember.) The Women's Marches had a spiritedness to them that made them fun; nearly all these marches have featured signs that were often hilarious, if still underscoring the seriousness of the issues at hand.

Today, people didn't seem to be having as good a time. Sure, there were some smiles. But the signs, on average, were far more serious -- and, quite understandably, angry. We've gone far too long with mass shootings resulting in no serious actions of any kind by this nation's elected leadership, at nearly all levels of government, from the local to the federal. People are pissed, and the kids themselves are now spearheading the actions being taken. To say I am proud of them -- even if they are from as far away as Florida and I don't know them at all -- and am proud to stand with them, and to march for their cause (which is also my cause), is a massive understatement. This is serious shit. Kids are dying, and Congress literally does nothing. It's time for something to happen, for fuck's sake.

To be clear, I still had a fun day. Shobhit even seemed more invested in this than he has been in the now-many other marches he's gone on with me. Today he even participated in some of the crowd chants today (things like What do we want! GUN CONTROL! When do we want it? NOW!).

As has now happened with every march since last year's March for Science -- six marches now -- today's began at Cal Anderson Park, evidently the default starting point for all Seattle protest marches. They always go from there down Pine Street, to Fourth Avenue where it turns north downtown, until ending at Seattle Center. That alone was 2.4 miles; adding the brief detour to the US Bank on Braodway before the march started, and going to the Regal Meridian 16 theatre after it before walking back home, today Shobhit and I walked a total of 5.5 miles.

We didn't stay for any of the speeches and entertainment offered at Seattle Center after the march, as we decided to go to the 12:30 showing of Black Panther at the Meridian theatre. Further rendering live ticket takers obsolete, we learned today that the Costco ticket vouchers can now be scanned at the kiosks. I used one of those for Shobhit while using the MoviePass for myself; we did have to use separate kiosks but it was still easy to get seats next to each other. This was my third time seeing that movie, which I am eager to support and be a part of its massive success as much as possible. I was happy to hear Shobhit declare he also thought it was a good movie, and he's sure it will wind up being one of the ten movies nominated for Best Picture next year.

After that we did our Payday Weekend Shipping, making the rounds to no less than five different stores, all of which we drove to: Costco first; then Macpherson's Produce Stand; then PCC Columbia City, where I spent $132 getting extra stuff using the monthly extra 10% off; then a QFC on Rainier Avenue just to get 6 two-packs of naan because they were all on sale for $1.99; and finally to Trader Joe's for just a few things we could only get there.

I've been on the computer since, editing photos, uploading photos, captioning photos, writing this blog post. It was while I was writing this that Shobhit declared he was chatting with someone online and should he go and play with him. I was like, sure, why not? He's already gone. It's not like I was paying him much attention through the rest of this evening, and we had just spent the whole day together otherwise. What I find most interesting about this is how truly indifferent I am to it -- I'm not even compelled to go out and play with someone else myself. Shobhit and I did our own playing before getting out of bed this morning, which frankly has me feeling set for a while. If Shobhit can get into it with someone else so soon after that, well, good for him. For me it's too soon. So maybe I'll go back to Steamworks next weekend. It's been four and a half weeks since I've gone, after all. So when I'm done with this I'll just go make myself some dinner. I've been in my pajama pants since 6:00. I don't want to go anywhere else today.

I think I blacked out a bit last night, by the way. I had a bit too much to drink. Sachin came over, and although at first Shobhit was just going to make dinner for us all, Sachin suggested we all go out to eat. We wound up at Bar Cotto, the restaurant on 15th Avenue half a block from here, to split two six-slice pizzas between the three of us. While I was there I looked up how many times I had eaten there before: three times, once in 2013 (with Evan); twice in 2014 (once with Gabriel and Kornelija and once with Laney). Shobhit had actually never been there.

--Well, this just in: Shobhit's little tryst isn't working out. Let's just say certain needed tools were not at hand. I suspect the other guy was open to playing without protection, and Shobhit was not. That's a very good thing, even if it meant the guy was a disappointment to him. Hell, now he might be back before I finish writing this.

Anyway! I had a Moscow Mule at Bar Cotto. When we got back home, I realized we had four pizzas in our freezer and we could have fucking just had pizza at home. Instead I paid $42 for dinner. Jesus Christ. Oh well. And then I made Tamarind Mules for all three of us. I put two shots of vodka and one shot of tamarind liqueur in mine. I had a good buzz going after that, and had gone to the bedroom to watch Netflix comedy specials while Shobhit and Sachin talked about money and investments and shit that bores me. Then I decided to go make myself a White Russian. I really should have done without that last drink.

I had already taken two Aleve, but I don't know what point it was that I pretty much passed out, still dressed, on the bed with season two of Netflix's The Standups still playing on my computer. Shobhit came in sometime around 11 pm and placed a pillow under my head, or something. He moved me somehow, and woke me up. He had turned off the Netflix comedy specials, which I saw this morning had run through the entire six episodes and even circled back around to last year's first season. When I woke up, I went to use the bathroom and undressed and got into bed. I only woke up a couple of times to drink some water through the night, and woke up this morning feeling slightly dehydrated but not too hungover -- just the vaguest of headaches. I felt better once I'd had a bit of sex and then showered and had a couple pancakes we made for brunch before leaving for the march this morning.

I guess Shobhit went over to Diesel, the bear bar he likes to go to because they have super cheap drinks. So maybe he'll be home soon and maybe he won't. For real: whatever. I'm going to have a late dinner now.

[posted 9:08 pm]