loopers
Two semi-spontaneous interactions happened yesterday. The first was in the afternoon, when Alicia emailed several of us to ask if we wanted to join her to "walk the loop" -- and if you click that link, you'll see what I spent 10 minutes creating in Paint on my work desktop computer, because neither Google Maps nor Google Maps Pedometer would do it correctly. Alicia found that shortcut behind the P-I Globe building as well as the one to the north of it, to avoid much of the loud traffic on Elliott Avenue, a very industrial-looking stretch of basically "back alley" between those buildings and the railroad tracks, which the online maps would not recognize as places one can walk. Neither would recognize the staircase we use to get up to the pedestrian overpass at the north end of the loop either, really fucking up the truth of the distance of the walk.
The walk is about one mile. It takes us twenty minutes.
Anyway, this time around Arvin joined us. That officially puts him on my next Social Review for the first time, I think. I have a weird sort of vibe with him and have for some time, like I feel like he doesn't quite like me and vice versa, the sort of scenario that makes it difficult to circle around and connect with someone. He made an effort once not long ago, asking me in the kitchen if I watch RuPaul's Drag Race. Thing is -- I don't. So that sort of put a halt on the conversation. Aside from being gay, I don't feel like he and I have a whole lot in common; his being a lot younger may be part of it too. I've never actively disliked him, though. And, well, now we've taken a walk together. With Alicia.
It was a little chillier than expected. Next time I'll bring a jacket.
Second was hanging out for a couple of hours with Gabriel, right after work. He has a new job, temporary and with very flexible hours, only about a mile from my work. Yesterday was his second day there and he got off at 3:30. He met at my office at 4:30 and we walked down to Uptown Espresso at the north end of the waterfront, on the other side of the Olympic Sculpture Park from here; he got a latte and I got a chai, and then we walked into Myrtle Edwards Park. Sat on a bench facing the water for a little while.
The sun had started to come out for a bit -- the second day in a row the weather forecast duped me into taking an umbrella to work and not riding my bike, but then never raining at all. I swear if I come tomorrow without my umbrella, then it will rain. Anyway, the weather was markedly better than it was when Google Street View took its pictures -- although even that is pretty. Still, it felt like a standard late-summer Seattle day, a crispness in the air, the feeling of fall approaching, but sun shining, neither too hot nor too cold. I looked around and said, "I gotta say, I'm loving everything about this moment, right now." I'm not really sure Gabriel quite got that the observation included hanging out with him for a little while. It was a nice surprise and, for me at least, perfectly timed: I still had time at home for most of the evening.
It turned out Gabriel was meeting Stephanie and Tess for dinner in Georgetown, which is in South Seattle, so that made it easier for him to kill some time in Seattle. I had been thinking he'd probably rather get the hell out of town before traffic got worse. He drove in yesterday, but the day before, Monday, his first day on that job, he attempted to take the Sounder Commuter Train -- only to have it canceled, seconds after purchasing his ticket, due to a death on the tracks. Jesus Christ -- I swear, Gabriel is a human magnet for bad luck. I'm really the exact opposite, so maybe we complement each other?
Anyway, we caught up a little, and he drove me a little ways up Elliott Avenue before I got out at the last intersection before his onramp to Highway 99. I decided to hop on a #11 bus instead of walking the rest of the way, just so I'd get home to Shobhit a little earlier than I would otherwise. I had the replacement DVD of Orlando from Netflix in the mail yesterday, after having to report the previous one as visibly damaged . . . and this fucking disc was cracked as well! What the fuck are the odds of that, I wonder? I don't believe I have ever gotten two cracked DVDs in the mail in a row in the entire 14 years I've been a Netflix subscriber, and the first time it happens, it happens twice with the exact same movie!
So Shobhit continued watching Father Brown on Netflix and I retired to the bedroom to watch the last episode of season 1 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime Video. I did read my book a little bit too, before going to bed. I tried to read after getting into bed, but, no surprise, by that point I could not stay awake.
[posted 12:44 pm]