annihilating macaroni
Last night I took myself to see Annihilation, even though I was completely unsurprised that it was not that great (good enough, I guess: solid B), for three reasons:
1. I wanted to go to the movies and it was the best option at the moment.
2. Its MetaCritic score is surprisingly high, at 79 (still in their "generally favorable reviews" category, but only two points shy of the top-level "universal acclaim" category they start at 81)
3. It was my first chance to use my MoviePass, which I finally got in the mail earlier this week, after ordering it at a 10% deal through Costco's website. I only know about the deal thanks to Evan, so props to her. Anyway, it cost me ninety bucks and it covers a full year, so all I have to do is see a single movie at full price seven times before I start saving costs. I should see at least that many at downtown theatres within three or four months, and of course I'll now be going out of my way to see movies there more often. Although the Meridian will still have its $1.58 surcharge for the reserved seating, but whatever.
It was surprisingly simple and easy, once I finally had the card to use. I could have been using MoviePass since last fall, except I signed up for the per-month plan and then wrote customer service to cancel when I realized I should use up my Costco passes first -- in retrospect a backward choice, since it's still good to have the Costco discounted tickets at the same time, just using them far less often: I can only use the MoviePass for myself once a day, so any companion (such as Shobhit) would still have to pay separately. I can also only use the MoviePass within half an hour of showtime, so it can't be use for any ticket purchased days or more in advance.
So, it's really too bad I didn't just keep the original account, because when I later tried to write to Customer Service to get my card reactivated, literally after writing them four times no one got back to me. Their customer service is pure shit. I really would have preferred to keep the email I was initially using, but the app still said "processing" when I was logged in, and I could not reach any live human to help. So when I purchased through the Costco deal I just signed out and then signed up again using a different email address -- one I did not want to use but whatever. At least this way I ultimately got the 10% discount, and otherwise would have had to stick with the monthly plan instead of the annual one, which they don't currently offer otherwise.
So that's that. I walked home, fed the cats and made myself a veggie dog for dinner, walked back to Pacific Place, and on the way checked into the movie and just gave them the MoviePass card. It was ridiculously quick and easy, which alone makes me want to recommend it to others, even if their customer service is shit. I walked back home and instead of writing the review immediately -- I did that this morning -- I watched the season two finale and then the season three premier of Roseanne with Shobhit. The former was uncommonly unfunny though kind of sweet; the latter was also not the funniest but a little better. Hopefully, as with season two, it gets much better.
I just got back from lunch with Karen down at the Six-Seven Restaurant at the Edgewater Hotel. We went back to sharing the Truffle Macaroni and Cheese -- it's expensive ($20), but just so fucking good! We split it, but because she is a little person (and I don’t mean that generally but quite literally in the sense of preferred terminology of little people), she hardly eats half of it -- and I typically wind up eating most or all of what she leaves behind. I probably ate three quarters of that incredibly reach and creamy, cheesy macaroni. All things being fair I should have paid for $15 of it. Instead I paid for $12 before tip, thus getting to $14.40 with a 20% tip, which was fine since I had budgeted $15 for my share of today's lunch anyway.
Karen, more often than not, gets valet parking there. That alone costs her another ten bucks. It's amazing to me when people who are still relatively cognizant of their spending think nothing of adding ten bucks to their lunch cost just to park. I should stress how much I do appreciate it; she basically does it for me -- she's the one with a car and she works too far away for me to come near where she works. So, twice a month she drives to have lunch at a place near enough for me to walk to from work. She also got an iced tea. I don't have any idea how much that costs but I would guess at least, four bucks? Let's pretend it's four bucks. In that case, her share before tip and including valet parking was $24 -- double what I spent. Honestly even her share is super-low, I'm certain, compared to what the average person spends there. But! We're such recognizable regulars, cumulatively we've surely both spent far more than the average person ever spends there in total.
Speaking of being recognizable regulars, the truffle macaroni today was brought out with astonishing swiftness. Like, they had to have already been making it when we ordered -- and perhaps they were, since it's on the "specials" menu (which evidently goes on indefinitely)? I joked that they must have seen Karen coming when she came in before me. "Karen's here, start up the macaroni!"
Anyway we had a lovely visit as always, and I'm so glad we keep up these bimonthly lunches with no signs of stopping any time soon. Amazingly, Anita, her and Dave's daughter, is a Junior in college, just turned 21 in January. I met Karen in Hindi class in 2005, which means Anita was eight years old then. She was likely nine or ten when I finally first met her in person; Another year and a half and Anita will be graduated and ready to start teaching an elementary school class.
My earliest photo of her is from March 2007, when Shobhit participated with an acting group at NW iChild Heritage Day. She would have been 10 there. We were talking about how little she would have been when I first met her, and . . . well: pretty little.
[posted 1:37 pm]