this is just a drill
Two fire alarms in one week! What fun! Okay to be fair there still has only been one fire alarm; today at work we had a fire drill, and we've known to expect it at 10:30 this morning for over a week. Also, this actually was much more fun: a chance to get outside in the fresh air for a bit, under mostly sunny skies; the advanced notice allowed many of us to exit the building before the alarm even went off, so I actually didn't even hear the alarm itself.
There wasn't even a whole lot of people to exit the building today, as it's Thursday and that's the day many office staff -- including Scott and Noah -- usually do store tours. On most Thursdays I don't see Scott or Noah at all, although maybe half the time Scott does come in up to an hour before I leave for the day.
On the way back, to avoid the ridiculous lines of people waiting to catch crowded elevators back up to the fifth floor, Helen and I walked down Elliott Avenue to take the concrete stairs up to the garage just off Western Avenue into the building across the street, going into the level of that building where we can access the skywalk back across the street into our building, and then walk only two flights of stairs to our floor. Most other office staff beat us by just waiting for the elevators, but I would argue Helen and I still had the more pleasant route returning.
Helen's title is "Associate Center Store Merchandiser," just as is Noah's; instead of the Grocery items Noah works on in tandem with Scott, though, Helen works on Beer & Wine items in tandem with Jeff, the Beer & Wine Merchandiser, and she has also for some time been effectively the Grocery Mercantile and the Floral Merchandiser -- both of which are being handed off to Noah next month, which he must be "thrilled" by. Helen is retiring at the start of July. She insisted she didn't want "a big to do," and so she compromised and is allowing Scott to take a select few, of her choosing, out for lunch tomorrow. I don't know yet how many are actually coming, but the people on the Outlook invite Scott send out included himself, Justine (Center Store Director -- Scott, Noah, Helen and Jeff's boss, among others), Noah, Kibby, Kevin, Jeff, me, and of course Helen herself. So lunch tomorrow may include as many as eight people at Boat Street Kitchen across the street. It will slightly surprise me if all eight make it, but we'll see.
As for last night, Shobhit and I made ravioli we bought at Costco, and used leftover sambar made the night before as the pasta sauce. It was . . . different, but also pretty good. I packed a lunch out of it for today as well, instead of just having sambar and rice like I did yesterday (which itself was delicious).
Shobhit then had a callback audition to go to, and so I watched the first two episodes of the new Netflix iteration of Tales of the City, which I enjoyed, while he was gone. He had watched the first three episodes the night before without me! -- so he suggested I start catching up while he was gone. So now I'm only one episode behind him instead of three.
I was making chai when he got back, and it was probably the best chai I ever made. I think it's because I deliberately doubled the mount of ginger I usually put in it. And I usually don't like ginger, but this was very good. I may have used more tea than I have in the past too, so I'm not sure how precisely I'll be able to replicate it again. I guess I just need to keep in mind: stronger is better -- but not too strong!
We had chai with biscuit cookies while watching another episode of Cheers before I went to get ready for bed. I did not get to sleep until fairly late, though, both because I was still awake when Shobhit got into bed, and right after that, Guru jumped to the floor to hack up a hairball for the third time that day. I couldn't stand to just leave it and so I got out of bed to clean it up. Those fucking hairballs are very annoying, but I feel worse for the cat himself, as the physiological process is so clearly somewhere on the spectrum between uncomfortable and downright painful. He's always pretty calm and chill after it's done, at least.
[posted 12:20 pm]