Shobhit and Laney Weekend
Well, Shobhit managed to maneuver through the weekend so he got a point on the next social Review for all three days. Laney gets points for two.
I got paid on Friday, which meant we did a bunch of shopping that evening: Big 5 Sporting Goods for hiking shoes on clearance (I spent $71 or so, getting two pairs of shoes for myself and one for Shobhit, with both sales and Shobhit's discount combined to get around half off); walk over to the next door QFC for insane weekend deals getting us 5 boxes of Ritz Crackers for 99¢ each and 5 bags of Popchips potato chips for the same price; quick trip to the Northgate Target; PCC Greenlake Village for a very few things I needed. But before all that, Shobhit and I walked the few blocks down to Poké Bar on 12th and Pine so we could finally try that place. We split a large dish. Although I could definitely have done without the pickled ginger, I quite liked it; Shobhit didn't hate it but was also not especially impressed. I'd go back, though. I'd like a poke dish without the pickled ginger.
We did more shopping fairly early Saturday morning: Costco for gas and just a few other things; MacPherson's Produce on First Hill for the massive haul of fruits and especially vegetables Shobhit likes to get there. Once we discovered that place he finally compromised and moved away from the nasty Asian grocery stores he liked to frequent in the International District, just because of how cheap they are (one of which closed recently anyway -- I will admit I was as fond of the lady who ran that place as Shobhit was). He'll never go for the organic produce sold at places like PCC because he basically thinks of organics as a racket, but, the produce quality at MacPherson's is a significant step up; it's only slightly more expensive, so I can live with it. He still gets certain things at Trader Joe's so we often wind up stopping there as well from wherever we go shopping otherwise.
Anyway, we got back home just in time for Laney to arrive for our scheduled 11 a.m. viewing of the original Sicario, which Laney and I wanted to watch before seeing the sequel yesterday (hence the two days in which I spent time with her).
I had thought I had seen Sicario more than once before, but I only saw it once in the theatre when it was first released in 2015 -- even though it was my #2 movie of that year (because it's also when Inside Out was released, and I can't overstate how much I love that movie).
I've been using Google Calendar so long now -- well over ten years; I think I started in 2006, maybe? -- that it can be pretty easy for me to track things I have had scheduled. Thus it was easy to bring up that I saw Sicario the first time on Monday, September 28, 2015. That was before President Fuckwit was elected. Ah, simpler times!
I had taken myself to see that, but I guess Laney watched it at some point as well. She remembered liking it but did not remember much about it otherwise. She commented a lot while watching this time how "intense" it was. We pretty much all agreed on its stellar cinematography. Shobhit, who had not seen it before, kept on leaping on perceived plot holes -- not always fairly, in my view. For example, he couldn't believe the streets would be so well-paved in Mexico. As if as soon as you get across the border, every single thing you see will be crumbling like a battle scarred landscape. I'm cure the country has plenty of well-paved roads.
For example, highways outside of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico -- which is right across the border from El Paso, Texas. Benicio Del Toro's Alejandro carjacks a Mexican police officer and they're driving out of town in the middle of the night. Presumably they're going south, so let's assume they're on Highway 45. Looks okay to me -- dusty, sure, but pretty well paved if you look closely. Shobhit has a longstanding bias against all things Mexican, and it's pretty ridiculous.
On the upside, Shobhit made us French Toast for brunch to eat while watching the movie, completely with strawberries I sliced to put on top, and it was delicious. Laney declined Frensh toast -- she's not eating super sweet stuff or any bread, so no part of that works -- but she helped slice up the pineapple we'd also gotten and helped herself to some of that. She also had some of the Popchips we shared.
A huge portion of the rest of the weekend was spent by Shobhit and me watching several episodes of the Showtime TV show Billions. We finished season two on Saturday; by the end of the evening last night, we were halfway through season three. Six episodes more to go, which I think we'll pretty easily get through before my trial subscription expires on July 7. We won't be able to watch any tonight though because Shobhit works an evening shift today. Perhaps I will finally get to catch up on The Handmaid's Tale, which I haven't watched since before our Yellowstone trip. If that show doesn't let up on its relentless bleakness, however, I am apt to forego any future seasons. I'm losing my stomach for it.
Anyway, back to Billions. The second season introduces a gender-neutral character who uses "they/them/theirs" as preferred pronouns. This is the first -- and, to my knowledge, so far the only -- major network (albeit cable) to have such a character as part of their principal cast. I had to text Gabriel last night about how fascinating it was to me that this show about stock traders, of all things, is the thing that first gets me practiced at using gender neutral pronouns -- because Shobhit and I discuss Taylor frequently. Gabriel texted back, "Same!" And then I mentioned Taylor is fucking Mike Birbiglia, one of my favorite comedians, on the show.
One thing I love about MetaCritic's pages on television shows is that it offers MetaScores for each show by season. Their score for season 1 is 69/100; season 2 is down a notch at 67. Season 3? It takes a big jump up to 77. (Granted, the latter seasons only aggregate 6 and 5 critics respectively, compared to thirty-seven for season 1, so that last score would likely go down with more critics aggregated. But, whatever.)
Anyway, Shobhit and I went out for brunch at Rhine Haus yesterday late morning, after dealing with yet more bullshit with American Express, as I had signed up for a card that promised $200 cash back for the first $1000 spent, and now they're saying there's no such deal attached to the card I have. Once we pushed back in the online chat enough to make them realize there should have been, they're going to "investigate" why. It is expected to take six to eight weeks to resolve. How wonderful!
Once that was done, we walked over to a bagel place we wanted to try on Madison Street -- only to discover it did not hold that much appeal to us after all. I looked for brunch deals on my Chinook Book app, found a two-for-one brunch entrée at Rhine Haus, and we went there. They don't actually serve any breakfast foods and have few vegetarian options, but they do use great bread for their "veggie wurst" and their veggie burger, so those are the two dishes we split, each one getting sliced in half.
Walking back from there, Shobhit and I parted ways at Madison Street and I walked down to QFC at Pike and Broadway to get some m&m's for the movie. Protip: buy one bag of peanut m&m's, one bag of peanut butter m&m's, and voila!, you've got crunchy peanut butter m&m's, so long as you eat them mixed together in your mouth.
I walked the rest of the way up Broadway to meet Laney at the Light Rail station. We took the train downtown to see Sicario: Day of the Soldado, which was decent, but still disappointed us both. It's just falls so short in comparison to the first film, which had so much greater success with its nuanced themes and ideas. I'm not sorry I saw it, though.
We took the train back and then I walked with Laney to the Broadway Market QFC, behind which is the Capitol Hill branch library where I picked up an old Sia CD. Laney and I finished talking just outside the library, then she went across the street to her apartment as I went into the library. And who should be walking in ahead of me? Julie, who used to work with me at the Seattle Gay Standard in 2000. The thing I remember most about her is I did a "Tacky Tourist" cruise for GLBT people on Argusy Cruises to cover it for the paper once, and brought her with me -- and everyone there thought we were a lesbian couple.
I don't remember how old she was I 2000, but I want to say she was in her forties? I suppose it's possible she was in her late thirties, although I doubt it. I turned 24 that year. Let's be generous and say she was, say, 38. That would make her 56 now. I would guess she's older. She has visibly aged, in any case.
Anyway, she was looking at me in our reflection in the door to the library, and said, "Is that Matthew behind me?" I said, "It is! Is that Julie?" I guess she had passed Laney and me talking but did not want to interrupt our conversation. We chatted for a minute once inside. She commented on how odd it seemed that we crossed paths so often only in the past couple of years (I ran into her at Dilettante Chocolates in January 2017 when I was there with Laney; even got a picture). It was surprising to both of us that she has lived either on Capitol Hill or First Hill for, according to her, 19 years; and I have lived on Capitol Hill for ten and a half -- and only recently have we seen each other around. "I'm like, 'He lives!'" she said. Then, we parted sort of awkwardly inside the library.
I don't think it will ever develop past saying hi when we see each other around. Back in the day, you could say we kind of had a falling out. We hung out a lot there for a while, but she became one of the several friends I've had over the years where the light that shown twice as bright burned half as long -- an intense initial friendship that then took a sudden turn toward an end. For a while she was allowing me to use her car to practice driving when I finally got my driver's license in 2000. And then, although she had promised me I could borrow it to take my driver's test, when she suddenly decided I was not sufficiently appreciative of the use of her car, she revoked that promise. That wound up being a blessing in disguise, honestly -- because instead of taking the test in Seattle, I went to Olympia and borrowed Dad and Sherri's van they had at the time to take the test there, where the person administering the test was lenient in ways no one in Seattle ever would have been. Had I taken the test in Seattle using Julie's car, I almost certainly would have failed it. (The woman in Olympia allowed me to pull over three times during the test -- until it finally occurred to me I was supposed to use my turn signal.)
To be fair, this was eighteen years ago. I'm a different person now, as I'm sure Julie is too. But, as with several other former friends with whom we share no particular ill will now, nor is there any eagerness on either side to rekindle what we once had. I've got enough friends to fill my time.
[posted 12:19 pm]