ending an off week
. . . What was I talking about?
I don't know if you realized my DLU photos this week have been rather heavy with Tulip Festival photos. I already warned you earlier this week that all of last week's garden photos will result in weeks, maybe months, of floral photos. I'm really trying to burn through the Tulip Festival photos specifically because it was a pretty cloudy and drizzly day, and the later we get into spring, the less of those days we will have, and I actually try to make my photos match the weather, or at least the season. Also, I feel like the Tulip Festival photos should be posted as close as they can be to the actual Tulip Festival, which technically ended on April 30.
I know it was keeping you up nights wondering about this.
There's not much to tell about last night, as I had no plans, and was in my fleece pajama bottoms within about an hour of getting home from work. Incidentally, Shobhit gifted me two such pajama bottoms for Christmas, and I must admit, at first I was a little skeptical that I would use them much. I've never been much of a clothes-changer. But then I tried them out, and discovered they are seriously comfortable -- and a minor miracle happened. Someone as rigid in their habits as I am actually changed a rigid habit! Or I suppose, started a new one. I change into one of those pants before bed nearly every night. I don't ever sleep in them; I'm still by far most comfortable sleeping nude and have been since I was a teenager. But, it sure is comfortable hanging out in those fleece pants in the evenings. I love them.
Anyway, I took a Spin Cycle home from work, after busing to work in the morning because it was drizzly and I didn't want to bike in the rain. I'm baking to using my own bike today, and will be biking straight to Rooster's on Broadway to meet with Laney for this month's Happy Hour after work.
Shobhit took a little while to get home from work, and I spent most of that time making pasta for dinner. We watched two episodes of Modern Family and then he went back to old episodes of Reba that I had no interest in, which was just as well because I had other things to do on the computer in the bedroom anyway, like put Shobhit's work schedule for the next two weeks into my Google calendar, and process a few photos from the past couple of days.
Speaking of photos, Ivan sent no fewer than 16 photos to me this morning via Facebook Messenger, all of them selfies, taken on a trail around a beautiful river and waterfalls in Plitvice, where he is currently, in Croatia. Actually he sent me one other shot the other day, just calling it "Plitvice" -- a Google search just now reveals he must actually be at Plifvice Lakes National Park, which is about 80 miles southwest of Zagreb. Somewhat extraordinarily, given how gorgeous I think Ivan is, I'm honestly a little bummed that not one of the photos he sent at this park was not a selfie, because with his face in all of them, I'm not going to use any for DLU photos, which I would have loved to be able to do. The place actually does look stunning.
As it happens, he was asking for my feedback on which one I thought he should use as a new profile pic. He wound up choosing the one I said was my second favorite, actually saying "Fine, you win" -- even though he felt he looked "a little old" in it. I said, "You look the same age in all of them! Also you look hot as hell so enough with this 'old' shit," which seemed to amuse him. Anyway, this is maybe the third time he's done this on his European travels, actually, sending me several selfies and asking which he should use as his new profile pic. I don't think he ever sent this many to choose from, though. I usually keep all the shots he sends me, but I may not keep all of these. How many pictures of his face do I need, really? That said, most are still worth keeping just for the scenery. I just wish he'd send some of just the scenery -- and maybe later he'll post a few of those direct to Facebook so I can download from there, as I have done with maybe 10% of the shots I organized into photo sets for him. (But, in most of those cases, it was so I could get some great DLU photos.) Honestly some of the selfies themselves aren't as flattering as they could be; perhaps as part of his Aspergers, he can tend to look like he's trying a little too hard when smiling for the camera, which brings with it vague shades of looking somewhere between distracted and psychotic. When he gets it right, particularly if someone manages to get a candid rather than posed shot, then he's very photogenic.
He returns for one night this Sunday, by the way. I was almost surprised he intended to stick with that plan, he changes plans so often (and has even lost money by canceling booked travel during these past three months), but it's become increasingly clear in communications with him over the past week or so that he's feeling ready to head back. I texted him the other day, I'm getting the feeling three months was enough to give you your fill of constant travel, and he replied, Yes, it really has been enough lol. Honestly I think that may be partly why he hasn't kept up with sending me photos of just the scenery in Slovenia and Croatia as he did previously in other countries, because he's just not quite as into it. That said, he did send me lots of selfies throughout, maybe partly just because he figures I'd like that -- which, relatively speaking, I do. It's interesting having a fairly close friendship with someone that will clearly always be strictly platonic, even though he knows full well how hot I think he is, but is somehow immaterial to him.
Shobhit is assuming we may go out for pho' on Sunday night. Maybe, maybe not. Ivan's plane is expected to land at 6:30 or so, which makes me expect him to get to our place around 8:30. But there remains a lot of mitigating factors, such as whether the flight is on schedule, and how jet lagged he might be. And he already has an Air B&B booked for the rest of May in Vancouver, B.C., and his plan is to head up there on Monday, after running a few errands. He has no intention of biding his time in Seattle at all.
Anyway, his visit will launch a pretty eventful week, actually. Nothing even remotely close to my Birth Week, of course (what would be?), but much more eventful than average, for sure. There's nothing especially major planned for the beginning of the week, but this weekend does have Happy Hour with Laney tonight, and a movie with Laney tomorrow afternoon; Ivan arriving Sunday and leaving Monday; a Braeburn Condos community event to attend on Wednesday. I may go to Steamworks to redeem a coupon that expires the next week but I won't have time to use the next week. And Uncle David and Mary Ann arrive for a two-night stay next Saturday and Sunday, which will include the tour of the Amazon Spheres on Sunday May 19 with them as well as Claudia and Dylan, before yet another movie with Laney that same evening. We'll hang out with Uncle David and Mary Ann that Sunday, when I believe they intend to take Shobhit and me out for dinner. Basically, we've got out of town overnight guests two weekends in a row.
And after that? A pretty insane month of June! I totally forgot that I bought a Black Friday deal for SIFF last November, a 10-pack of movie tickets for the price of 6 -- the best ticket deal I've ever gotten out of them. So that's another thing I did last night, going through the schedule, and my calendar, to find movies I both wanted to see and could work into whatever else I've got going on. I managed it, and redeemed ten tickets to eight movies, with the hopes of Gabriel joining me for the one about local transgender activism, and Shobhit joining me for a fun one about cat shows in Canada.
And that's not even to mention the two otherwise most notable parts of June: a nine-day trip between the 9th and the 16th to Wallace to visit Mom and then to Yellowstone National Park; and then annual Pride events at the end of the month. We'll actually miss one or two Pride events that we managed last year, because we'll be out of town. In any case, I've got a lot to look forward to.
[posted 12:47 pm]