oral histories
I came back to work yesterday and my website has been blocked at work. What the shit? The only way I can view it is if I get off the work network and, say, get on Comcast Xfinity wifi on my desktop computer. Or, as with my phone, I have to get off the work wifi there too, and get onto LTE or 3G to be able to load it. Curiously, squarespace.com still loads, which means I still have no problem logging in and updating my journal -- a sharp contrast to whenever this happened with LiveJournal. I wonder how fruitcakeenterprises.com got caught up in this, though? It seems weird to me.
That said, as in the past with LiveJournal, I suspect this is temporary and fruitcakeenterprises.com will start loading fine again between a few days and a few weeks from now. I like to be able to load my posts using the domain itself so I can be sure of how it looks to others looking at it. For now I just have to get off wifi on my phone and check it that way. As I said, I have the Xfinity wifi workaround on my computer as well, but that gets complicated as every time I do that, Outlook stops responding and I have to close both that and Skype before getting back onto work wifi and re-opening those two programs for them to work again.
Anyway! I finally got to see another movie last night -- my first since seeing the rather disappointing Final Portrait on April 24 -- two weeks ago today! So yesterday's movie was my first in 13 days. That's a pretty fucking huge stretch for me. Anyway, last night I went to the 5 p.m. showing of Tully at Pacific Place. Using my MoviePass card worked perfectly this time; no hitches, thankfully. The movie had a part that really disappointed me in the moment but the more I think about it, the more I like the movie.
I'd say that it allowed me not to spend any money yesterday, except that I was texted by Old School Frozen Custard that the "free gift" this week was a snickerdoodle cookie, and I thought I'd get one for Shobhit. And when I looked up their flavors, I saw that the previous day's had been banana peanut butter, and they usually have leftovers of their "flavor of the day" for two or three days. Yum! So, I got some frozen custard. But I did wait until after I ate a very light dinner of one of Shobhit's surprisingly delicious bell peppers from Sunday, stuffed with radishes, radish leaves and mushrooms. I think Shobhit was surprised later that I did not have any kind of bread with it. It was delicious all on its own. Anyway, I also waited until after I wrote the movie review.
So then I finished up my frozen custard while finally getting around to watching the season 2 premiere of The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu, which has already aired three episodes (a fourth coming tomorrow) and which I have hesitated to watch just because it's so bleak -- but it was very good and very compelling, in spite of some scenes that kind of went on and on with nothing much happening, except for the dread of the characters.
Shobhit had a late shift yesterday and worked until 9:45, so I had most of the evening to myself. Another part of my not getting to The Handmaid's Tale sooner is that Shobhit has no interest; he regularly complained about it when Ivan and I watched it together when the first season aired last year. He thinks it's too realistic and plausible; I would call that a stretch. Maybe not broadly speaking in terms of misogynist ideas, but certainly literally, considering its concept similar to Children of Men where most of the world's women are barren. I won't deny that the President Fuckwit administration is genuinely frightening, but wholesale change of our entire society to this kind of extreme is never happening within our lifetimes. This is a cautionary tale, not a premonition.
On the other hand, Elizabeth Moss is also a fucking Scientologist, which does make it harder even for me to support her. But, whatever. I like the show and I'll just keep watching on my own.
I almost forgot to mention I had a dentist appointment this morning! Oh god, can you imagine having to miss out on that news?
I rode my bike there for an 8 a.m. appointment. They did this full-mouth X-ray thing that is apparently needed only every five years. Did they even have this contraption a year ago? It was very weird, this scanner thing with two parts whirring horizontally around my head, as I bit down on a little mouth-plank thing and stared at myself in a mirror. That very last part I didn’t mind so much.
The dental hygienist was a woman of Asian descent who was very short. I could stare straight above her head without having to stand on my toes. Hell, I could probably look down on the top of her head. This made several things awkward, such as her helping me put the X-ray protective covering over my shoulders. I accidentally stepped on her foot two different times.
And: she asked me to take my earrings off. The hell? I have no recollection of ever having to do this at the dentist, but who the fuck knows? If I can remember two hours ago sometimes it's a miracle. That said, this was the kind of thing you'd think would make an impression. I'm pretty sure it's been several years since I have taken off my earrings at all. I should buy a new pair with more easily clasp-able ends. These have thin metal bars that bend into the hole of the other side of the silver loop, and it's very difficult to do by feel. The young woman must have spent ten minutes helping me get them both re-clasped in my ears correctly, the first one while we were both standing, so I had to hunch over a bit so she could see my ear closer to her eye level. We thought my right earring had been put back in correctly and she discovered it actually hadn't been when I sat in the chair, and she spent a couple more minutes fixing that one for me too.
I keep thinking about getting other pair of earrings that I can switch out depending on my day or mood, which I have really never done, in the 22 years I've been wearing them. Maybe now is the time. It shouldn't be this much of an ordeal to take them in and out of my ears.
My teeth are otherwise fine -- no cavities, yay! -- but they seem still be under the impression that I have a "treatment plan" for the skin graft on the gums of four teeth, which they've been bringing up every check-up and cleaning the last three times I've been in. The thing is, when I contacted Aetna for an estimate, the out-of-pocket expense was way too high, and since the guy at my consultation said I could wait a few years, that’s what I decided to do. Although if this is happening eventually no matter what, I'd much rather just get it over with, on the financial side of things, it's probably best to wait at least until Shobhit gets a better paying job.
I wasted a bunch of time today mocking up a tentative plan for my Birth Week next year. Don't tell anyone. And tentative is a particularly key word, there -- it's very much predicated on the desire to go visit Ivan in Vancouver as part of it. I discovered this morning that although the vehicle fare does not get waived, passenger fare on the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles is free on your birthday. So, I've marked my calendar to be returning from Vancouver on the day of my birthday, just to save that money. Hopefully I can get up to Vancouver either in the evening on Sunday, April 28 or by late morning Monday April 29, 2019; then spend the day there on the 29th, before heading on B.C. Ferry to Victoria at like 8 a.m. April 30. That's a 95-minute crossing; 55 minutes to get from that ferry terminal to the Victoria terminal, then a 90-minute crossing to Port Angeles. It's about an hour drive from there to Port Townsend, where I would then spend lunch and a bit more time with Auntie Rose, who declared this year I should come see her in her town starting next year; and then drive the hour and 40 minutes due south to Shelton to stay overnight with Jennifer. Hopefully I could then have my annual Birth Week Bike Ride with Dad the next day, Wednesday, May 1. This is all rearrangeable and there's a whole lot of time -- as in, an entire year -- to finalize things, but that's what's on my calendar at the moment.
Those two ferries already account for two boats for next year's nautical theme. I might also go kayaking with Gabriel (a prospect that scares me, maybe irrationally); there are the paddle boats at Green Lake; the West Seattle Water Taxi; an Argosy Cruise, preferably through the Ballard Locks; the Clipper to San Juan Island that I want to take a day trip doing with Shobhit (I usually try to make the "Birth Week Day with Shobhit" on my actual birthday, but this time of year that boat only operates on weekends); and the Sunday Public Sail at the Center for Wooden Boats. So that already accounts for eight boats for next year's "Nautical Birth Week," which is plenty.
I guess I'll try and get some actual work done now.
[posted 12:43 pm]