Laney Days
So, after posting all about Jennifer's visit, and the St. Patrick's Day Dash, yesterday, today's post will mostly work backward from there and fill you in on the rest of the weekend -- prior to Jennifer, very Laney-focused -- but! Briefly, I have to share the big news of the day. This might not seem like big news to most people, but it's big news to me. I mean, shit. Shobhit and I have been together fifteen years. And just this morning his brother sent me a Facebook friend request.
Now, as far as I know, this is still a delicate thing -- or at the very least, Shobhit is likely to characterize it as such; I have only ever had his point of view to rely on, and I do suspect that in certain respects he has exaggerated certain things over the years, as he is wont to do. So, it's probably best that I still don't even say what his brother's name is. I will say that I did speak to him on the phone once, in July 2016, during an acutely volatile Fourth of July Weekend visit with Shobhit in Los Angeles -- the issue going on at the time was too personal even for me to share anything about it in my post about that visit, which made it sound far more pleasant than it really was (although, it must be said, I still had a lot of fun that trip, which included the then-brand-new observation deck at US Bank Tower).
Suffice it to say that what was going on at the time -- something that's basically ancient history now -- was bad enough that Shobhit's brother was legitimately worried about him, and during one phone call with Shobhit he literally asked to talk to me, basically just to get some reassurance that someone rational was around to look out for him. It was the first and only phone conversation I ever had with him, and in spite of the circumstances, it was remarkably pleasant -- and featured none of the family-wide paranoid homophobia Shobhit always characterized as existing. The thing is, it's Shobhit who has the biggest problem being paranoid, and what was going on with him in 2016 exacerbated it exponentially.
That said, I still have to defend Shobhit a little bit on that front, because I was at least one time witness to the cultural homophobia Shobhit always warned me about. I will never forget looking over Shobhit's shoulder the first year we were together, and he was chatting online with his sister, who was talking about the prospect of word getting out about her brother being gay, and she said, "This could ruin my life." And I came to understand that, within the context of Indian/Hindu culture, she quite literally was right.
But! Shobhit has always liked to say that, culturally, India is about thirty years behind the United States. But even they are slowly moving along -- they finally decriminalized homosexuality, after all (not without its own protracted complications, but hey, it's still happened!). And things can change even within the decade and a half since I witnessed that online chat session between Shobhit and his sister. Now, I can't really speak to the existence (or non-existence) of any evolution in attitude on the part of his sister -- only that, twelve years into my relationship with Shobhit, I had my first phone conversation with his brother (granted, due to truly unique circumstances); and today, three years after that, his brother sent me a friend request on Facebook. That may seem pretty innocuous to most people, but trust me, in context, it's anything but innocuous.
And I feel really good about it. It makes me feel like there has been some progress on the road to acceptance, at the very least of the fact that Shobhit is gay. I mean, shit. It's been fifteen years (he officially came out to his family the summer after we first met), and clearly people have finally come to grips with the fact that this is not a phase he's going through. They may not have even thought about this specifically, but it did just occur to me: if nothing else, at least Shobhit hasn't been jumping from one relationship to another in all that time. We've had our issues to be sure, but perhaps the proof is in the pudding here, with his relationship proving to be surprisingly stable in all that time. (Hell, Shobhit's mother was so averse to his trying to be an actor in L.A. that he was finally telling him he should "go back to Matthew in Seattle." And her acknowledgment of the stabilizing factor of me in Shobhit's life was no small thing.)
Anyway, this just feels like one step closer to actually meeting one of Shobhit's siblings in person, which has yet to happen. He has a niece who is now looking at attending a university in the U.S., which would mean his brother visiting the States more often. That will probably finally heighten the likelihood that I would at least meet him for once.
So, anyway! Getting back to the rest of my weekend. Our chosen location for Happy Hour with Laney this month was Belmont Lounge, for no reason other than I had walked past it on my way home one day going up Pike St; it looked nice and cozy in there with its couches and coffee tables; and their Happy Hour lasts an hour longer than most places typically do, ending at 7:00. Laney looked at their menu online and was up for it.
Jessica, Laney's daughter, was around and opted to join us. They were sitting at a regular table when I arrived, because they said the couches had all had people around, but when I arrived there was a lounge area that was empty so I suggested we move. We sat on a long leather couch that had plenty of room for three people, but Laney preferred to sit in one of the twin chairs along the wall that were next to the end of the couch, situated perpendicularly from it.
Now, this place is kind of pricey. Laney even commented on it when we all sat down to start looking at the menu. At first we basically agreed we'd all have just one cocktail, and if they were spectacular then we'd stay and have another, and get something off their small plates menu -- which is basically the extent of their food options. If they weren't spectacular, we'd go over to La Cocina Oaxaqueña for dinner even though it would be after their Happy Hour ended at 6:00.
And, this is the thing. The pricey-ness of the place was already one strike against them. But then the server, a young woman, came over and asked Laney to move out of one of those two chairs, because they are typically used for parties of two. She offered to bring a hard chair for Laney to sit in on the other side of the coffee table in front of the couch (hence this photo, with Laney too the left -- and illustrating that the section we were sitting in was otherwise empty). After this, though, I declared that a second strike, and basically "fuck this place." There was no particularly good reason for that lady to do that, unless or until the place got busier -- and, to be fair, it did indeed get busier before we left. But, to ask Laney to get out of a chair that not only no one else was using, but in an entire section (with two other chairs and another couch) no one else was using, we all basically agreed was bullshit. It suddenly occurred to me to wonder just now: what if Jessica had not joined us, and Laney and I were a party of only two, and we sat on the couch -- would that server have asked us to get out of the couch and use the chairs instead?
But, then came the most annoying part. We were unable to write off this place completely because, guess what? The cocktails we got -- three different ones, one for each of us, but every single one of them -- actually were spectacular. I'd venture to say mine was even worth the $14 price tag. I did not want to order any more of them at that price, but still -- after I actually had that drink, I did not regret going there. Granted, we all basically agreed we'd probably never go there again. But I'm not sorry I went there just this once, and it was just because of that cocktail.
It was, admittedly, also fun to drink while lounging on a leather couch. And eventually, I scooted over to the middle and Jessica and I finally convinced Laney actually to sit on the couch with us instead of on that hard folding chair that had been brought out for us. That's the couch we were all sitting on in the photo at the top of this entry.
The middle photo is of the metal pineapple stirrer that came with Laney's Manhattan, which was the subject of much speculation as to whether Jessica could get away with making off with it. She really loved that thing. But, it was taken away with the finished drink before we all paid, so that answered that.
So then, we all walked over to La Cocina Oaxaqueña, where their quite-good House Margarita is something like ten bucks ($5 when it is Happy Hour). I got a flavored one, strawberry. And Laney and I both got the Quesadillas Fritas that we usually also get for five bucks at Happy Hour, but now was only about two and a half bucks more. Far better value at even regular price than anything even at Happy Hour at Belmont Lounge would have been.
So, I had only two cocktails on Friday night. The first one was pretty strong, actually. And that was just a prologue to the four drinks I had while hanging out with Jennifer on Friday night.
So then I saw Laney again on Saturday morning, meeting her at the Capitol Hill Light Rail Station at 10:50 to go downtown and see the 11:30 a.m. showing of Captain Marvel, my second time seeing it within the space of five days. I don't usually re-watch movies in the theatre that I give all of a solid B to, but I knew Laney would like this one, and I was right. She even liked it maybe a little more than I was expecting her to.
That wended a little after 1:30, meaning it was around 2:00 by the time I got back home, which gave me only a couple of hours before it was time to go pick up Jennifer at the ferry terminal. I took the time to vacuum, among other things. I even washed the guest room bed sheets last night, so I'm all squared away when it comes to Jennifer's visit. I find I always get those sheets washed pretty much within a day or two after a guest stays -- I don't like to leave stuff like that unfinished, and to be ready for the next time as quickly as possible. I'm Captain Efficiency!
In other news, we have a forecast high of 70° today -- 72° both tomorrow and the next day. This is what I'll be biking home from work in today, and it's not yet even March. We had snow earlier this very month! Jesus Christ.
I mean, it's pleasant on the surface at the moment, but it's weirdly whiplash-inducing, and I fear does not bode well for the summer to come. Or virtually any summer thereafter, actually.
That said, it was sunny and 60° when I just sat out on the patio to eat my lunch for the first time this year -- and I was the only one to do so. In the past, Alicia would often come join me when she saw I was the only one sitting out there. It made me miss her already. But, no more lunches with Alicia and no more "loop walks" with her either, as she's off to become a flower farmer.
[posted 12:19 pm]