The Rest of the Weekend
Friday was a very eventful day. Too bad it did not include any socializing: most people I know have no interest in dealing with the crowds downtown on Black Friday; and although Shobhit probably would have come down to meet me if he could, he was working until 5 p.m. that day. It still worked out well, though, because he drove down from work in Northgate to pick me up downtown after the Lighting of the Tree Ceremony was done, and then we drove on down to do some shopping at Costco.
Work was quite dead on Friday, as you can imagine, and even though Noah did come to work that day, he left sometime around 3:00. And although I usually leave at 4:30, by the time 4:00 rolled around I was like, "Fuck it," and I left too. I walked at a leisurely pace toward downtown, getting a couple pictures along the way. My photos and videos of the ceremony over the years has been from right across Pine Street in Westlake Park, looking back northward at both Macy's and Westlake Center with the "Holiday Tree" in front of it. This year I decided to get a new vantage point, for a couple of reasons. I found a spot that had the brand new Rainier Square Tower (which wasn't even standing last year) centered behind the tree to the south. This view also included more of downtown high-rises in its peripherals.
I was standing right by the entrance to the escalators up to Sak's Fifth Avenue on Westlake Center's fourth floor, but it was a spot where a small staircase was blocked off at the bottom with crowd barrier fencing. People kept coming to it, thinking they could get into the building that way, and then giving up and turning around. At the very top of that small set of steps, I could lean back against a low, glass wall. It was the perfect spot to stand and get a very good view of the tree from a few feet above ground level, and also no crowd could push me back any further.
It made for a nice video of the tree lighting up itself, and maybe not the best angle on the Macy's Star lighting up and their rooftop fireworks immediately after. Usually the star lights up in bits and pieces, but I think it light up all at once this year; you can see that my camera points at it totally dark, moves back to the tree for a second, and then when it moves back to Macy's the star is suddenly entirely lit. In any case, in all probability next year's Lighting of the Tree Ceremony won't include either that star or the Macy's rooftop fireworks, since Seattle's downtown Macy's closes in February, leaving only Nordstrom as a huge, flagship department store in our city. (It would be a super bad sign if that Nordstrom closed, given that Nordstrom is a Seattle based company.)
Anyway, I looked up my photos from last year, and concluded the Lighting of the Tree would likely occur around 5:15. And I was right: the video I took this year was time stamped 5:14. I had reached my spot to wait for the whole thing to start sometime around 4:55, as I had moseyed around downtown a bit on my way there, including getting some last photos of the Macy's building as Macy's—and their signature train set window display, of which I also got a video—for posterity.
So, I really only waited for about fifteen minutes once I found my spot in the crowd. The ceremony itself, once the tree was actually lit, lasted all of five minutes, after which I found the quickest way out of the crowd by heading back to 4th Avenue first, then walking back to Olive Way, and then making my way southeast through downtown, until Shobhit and I reconnected by phone as he came down from work. We finally decided he would take the Union Street exit and would pick me up there, and after I had to detour through Freeway Park to get back down there, he literally drove up the second I reached the sidewalk. It was perfect timing. So then we were off to Costco.
As for Saturday and Sunday, I saw movies both days: Honey Boy on Saturday (downtown, AMC Pacific Place) and Frozen II on Sunday (U District, AMC Seattle 10). Both were quite good, and I saw them both by myself. I did hitch a ride to the movie yesterday with Shobhit on his way to work, as his start time was the exact same time as my movie.
I did do some socializing on Saturday, though. It was with Evan, all of three days after the previous time I saw her—I'm pretty certain it's been a few years since we've managed to get together twice within the space of one month, let alone one week. But, when she had come up to see Knives Out with me on Wednesday evening, she had noticed the Ramen Danbo restaurant on Pine Street just a couple blocks from my place, and within minutes we were tentatively planning for her to come back to Capitol Hill after work for a late lunch there with me on Saturday.
So that's what happened. I had walked to the library after Honey Boy, and she got to Capitol Hill quicker than expected after getting off work on Mercer Island at 1:00. I guess she works at a grocery store there now (though she still lives with Elden in Renton) and has a very early shift, that starts at 5:00 a.m. or something. In any case, I was still walking home from the library when she arrived, and just as she had on Wednesday, she just waited in the 7-Eleven parking lot on Pine between 15th and Madison until I got there. Then, again, I got in the car and then she drove to our parking garage to park in our spot.
We walked down to Danbo, and I had theorized maybe the wait would not be so long mid-afternoon. But this place is insanely popular, regularly with people waiting out the door. We went in and the quoted wait time was 25 minutes. I don't know how long we actually waited but it had to have been that long at minimum. This place is slightly more expensive than I think is necessary, but then, hopefully it means their employees are paid well. Their food is very good and I found it to be a delicious and satisfying lunch. Evan and I caught up a bit before and after, but once our food arrived, we both spent most of our time actually eating in silence. Which was fine, there was nothing awkward about it.
Once we were done there, we walked back to my place, and I showed her what Disney+ looks like. And then we watched all four episodes that have been released thus far, of The Mandalorian, which she seemed to enjoy. I had a glass of the chocolate wine Sachin had brought for Thanksgiving and offered her a bit as well. It was probably near 6:00 when the shows were finally finished (this meant I re-watched episodes 1-3, but this was my first chance to see episode 4) and Evan got up to go home. She had to be up super early for work again Sunday morning.
Only then did I have time to write my movie review, and I also prepared some dinner; I made the salad from a bag we got at Costco long enough ago that we really needed to use it up. I added a few extra things, including fried veggie sausage, and it was very tasty. When Shobhit got home, we started watching this Spanish teen melodrama available on Netflix that we're both really liking called Elite, which I know about only because it had been mentioned as something good a guest was watching when asked about it on a podcast I was listening to while getting ready that morning. It's a murder mystery and features a gay couple. We watched two episodes.
Yesterday was slightly less eventful, although I got a lot done. Once I had yesterday's movie review written, I then set about gift wrapping the 16 calendars I ordered for Christmas gifts this year; I barely had enough gift wrap left to cover all sixteen of them, and now I'm out. Next year, I have to buy more gift wrap. Note to self! Actually come to think of it, I should really go to Bartell's or something the day after Christmas and get it at a massive discount.
Anyway, all that wrapping did take some time, and I finally got around to watching the back half (four episodes) of the debut season of The Politician on Netflix. I was pretty delighted to see Judith Light and Bette Midler suddenly show up in the last episode, which really suddenly propelled the story forward. With Gwyneth Paltrow as that guy's mother being off on international travels, presumably she won't return for season 2, but Judith Light and Bette Midler will, for a very different season. I find that prospect pretty exciting.
For two of the calendars, I had to tape several pieces of wrapping of varying sizes together in order to be able to wrap them completely. I now have just a few small pieces of wrapping left, for stocking stuffers.
Soon enough Shobhit was home from work, I had soup ready for him to have for dinner, and we watched another episode of Elite before I went to bed.
[posted 12:18 pm]