Arrival
So I left home at 1:40 yesterday afternoon and drove straight to the "Cell Phone Parking Lot" at SeaTac Airport to pick up Shobhit coming back from India, and I wondered when was the last time I did this. His last trip to India was in October-November 2017, but the day he returned from that trip I had a Town Hall meeting to attend at work, so I would not have gone to pick him up. The last time he returned from Los Angeles was when he returned permanently, which meant he drove rather than flying as originally planned, in December 2016. And I just realized this: the five years prior to that, he had his car in L.A., so I would not have ever picked him up in the car. So far as I can tell, then, the last time I waited in the cell phone parking lot for him to get off his plane was the final time he visited me in Seattle while he lived in New York -- for my Birth Week in April 2011: April 20, to be exact.
That's a lot longer ago than I realized. Eight years. I texted Shobhit yesterday that there was airport WiFi in the cell phone parking lot and "That's new," but in all likelihood it's been available there for years.
Anyway the point is time goes by way too fast and we'll all be dead before we have any idea what hit us.
I got to the cell phone parking lot at about 2:11 and waited maybe twenty minutes before Shobhit texted me he was in the arrivals pick-up zone 3. When I headed out to get to him, I made a wrong turn because a sign just said "Terminal Parking" and I thought, I don't want parking so I went the other way -- and I wound up out at rental car pickups. I had to put the airport back into my GPS on my phone to map it and direct me back correctly. They should make their signage clearer. Shobhit was wondering what took me so long but, thankfully, he wasn't an asshole about it.
I drove us home, and the day felt much longer than usual since I had left work shortly after noon, which is rather unusual. I helped Shobhit unpack, which included an entire suitcase full of foods and items he brought back from India. He had taken two suitcases, and the one he had filled with gifts for family from the U.S., he came back with full of snacks, spices and a few cooking utensils from India.
We had leftover pasta from what I had made the night before for dinner. I didn't think either of us was eager to do any major cooking last night. Shobhit had said he was going to try to stay awake at least until 10:00, but he had pretty easily zonked out shortly after 6:00, while we were in the middle of the second episode of Will & Grace I saved to catch up on after he got home.
He eventually went to bed, and later I watched about half the fourth episode of the Watership Down miniseries on Netflix, which is just . . . all right. It's strange to see animated talking rabbits that are so realistically rendered. I always loved that book, although it's been decades now since I read it; the 1978 animated feature was always weirdly unsettling in its graphically violent depictions. I keep waiting for the same kind of animated gore in this series, and so far it hasn't happened.
I left this morning for work on my bike before checking to see if it truly wasn't raining. Why did I trust the "current conditions" of my weather app instead of, say, literally sticking my head outside? I don't know! At least it was only barely sprinkling as I rode to work, and it actually stopped completely before I even arrived.
And now, at lunch time, it's mostly sunny and 53° -- right around what is normal for this time of year. The temperature comfort level for eating out on the patio was thus really borderline, but since it was sunny and I have long sleeves on, it was barely workable. So I had a nice, pleasant few minutes eating more leftover pasta with the spectacular view we get from these fifth-floor offices.
[posted 12:16 pm]