"Booktoberfest Banned Books Speakeasy at Smith Tower" 2019
As of last night, to my knowledge I have now visited the Smith Tower observatory seven times since first being taken up by Grandma and Grandpa McQuilkin and Auntie Rose when I was 16, in the summer of 1992. So with seven visits over 27 years that's an average of once every four years or so, but with a massive eight-year gaps between both the first and second and between the second and third visits, and the most recent two being in just the past six months. This was, indeed, my second time visiting the Smith Tower since checking out the renovated "speakeasy" style Observatory Bar with Danielle just last March.
As it happens, this morning I went through and listed who I visited the Smith Tower observatory with all those times, and to my surprise, I have never had a repeat companion. I went up with Grandma and Grandpa McQuilkin and Auntie Rose in 1992; with my then-work-friend Julie in 2000; with Nikki in 2008; with Becca in 2011; with Dad and Tristen in 2012; then with Danielle last March and now with Shobhit and Sachin just last night. I asked Shobhit if he had ever gone up there before, and he said he had, many years ago -- I assumed it had been with me, but, apparently not. Before this year, the only visit I ever had up the Smith Tower both after I met Shobhit and before he moved to New York was with Nikki in 2008, and Shobhit was apparently busy with rehearsals for a local play he was in at the time and did not join us.
Besides all that, it would never have occurred to me to visit the Smith Tower again so soon after just being there last March, except for two key things: this was an event that happened to combine two otherwise very unrelated things I love, skyscrapers and the Seattle Public Library; and, it was free! It was called "Booktoberfest Banned Books Speakeasy at Smith Tower." It was ticketed and you had to sign up for them, and because I get Facebook notifications every time the Seattle Public Library adds events to its Facebook calendar, I happened to see it in time and managed to sign up for three tickets within the two hours it apparently took before it booked up completely. And that was like a month or two ago.
I didn't even have any idea who I would take with me when I signed up for those three tickets. My first thought, as a matter of fact, was Danielle. She had such a great time when we went there at sunset last March, I thought she might find it fund to go again where it was a rather different kind of event. The event description said there would be live music and readings from books that have been banned by different states over the years. I later changed my mind and, since Danielle had already been up there once with me and Laney hadn’t, I thought I would first see if Laney wanted to go. Laney declined, and so I went back to asking Danielle after all. But, by this point Danielle's and my trip to Las Vegas was already booked for next weekend, Sunday through Tuesday, and Danielle said she would feel too guilty spending time away from her kids two weekends in a row, even though last night would have been just one evening but I still kind of get it.
No matter which friend I found to join me, I always knew there was a fair chance Shobhit would be available and want to come along if he could. That's the only reason I signed up for three tickets instead of two, just in case I actually had two people, including him, who might want to come. And as it happened, he had no work shift last night, so he was open to coming along -- especially since he either had never been to that observatory or, if he had, it had been ages and was not with me. I still had a third ticket, though, and so I suggested to Shobhit that we invite Sachin to come along. Sachin has wanted to hang out with Shobhit recently and then been unable to, and he was available now and was even more enthusiastic about coming along than I anticipated. Shobhit asked me to invite Sachin and, after trying to text him the link to the Facebook event via regular text twice and it kept not going through, I finally created a group chat for the three of us on Skype, and that finally worked. We all decided Shobhit and I would meet him there at 5:00, Shobhit walking from home; me coming straight from work; Sachin coming from work after he confirmed a meeting he had scheduled was rescheduled to another day so he could do this.
And then, it nearly didn't happen with Sachin: yesterday was wetter than anticipated, and he rode his motorcycle to work. He messaged us on Skype that he was nervous about coming to this event soaking wet. The forecast progressively got better through the day, though, and in the end we just shifted the meeting time to 5:30, by which time the rain did indeed stop for the rest of the day, so it all worked out. I left work only about five minutes later than usual, and took my time walking instead of taking the bus since I now had an hour to get down there rather than the half hour I initially thought I'd have. Shobhit had a glass of wine before he left home and took a cocktail to drink along his walk, so he was nice and relaxed when he arrived and felt no need to buy anything at the bar. Sachin, evidently grateful for the invite, actually bought himself and me a drink, and had me order for both of us, so I got us something called a Scorpion, which the bartender said was the sweetest specialty cocktail they had. They were apparently prettier looking than Sachin would usually go for, but he still liked it okay. Mine had a strong alcohol taste to it but did not really give me any kind of buzz.
Oh hey, you know what? I just realized: I don't think I learned of this event just from regular Seattle Public Library event notices on Facebook. Elizabeth sent me an invite! I probably actually have her to thank not just that I attended this event, but that I learned about it within the two hours it took for it to book up completely. Regardless, I was still thrilled at the prospect of meeting her. I told Shobhit that the lady I usually talk to when making Seattle Public Library Foundation donations would be there and I would want to introduce myself.
Elizabeth, who is a professional musician, was a performer at this Seattle Public Library "Booktoberfest Banned Books Speakeasy" event, and also works as Donor Relations Specialist at the library. I make a $110 donation annually to the Seattle Public Library Foundation, and have done so every year since 2009. It's always Elizabeth who calls me back each year to ask if I want to make the donation. (I actually raised it from $100 to $110 in 2012 to account for inflation so the actual value of my donation would stay constant; I'm only realizing now that it's been seven years since I did that. I just went to my trusty online inflation calculator and it says $100 in 2009 is actually worth $119.59 in 2019, so I guess it is indeed time to raise my annual donation to $120.)
Anyway, we have always chatted for quite a while when she calls me to ask about my annual donation, and finally just last year we friended each other on Facebook, where I discovered her many talents to include also being a great photographer, with regularly spectacular photos of Seattle skyscrapers being posted by her. I had jumped at the chance to attend this Booktoberfest event before I had any idea she would be there, and then was delighted to learn that she would be. She and her neighbor friend (whose name she told me twice and now I can't remember it) wound up sitting at our table with us, convenient for Elizabeth as it was right next to the performance spot, and I was not about to miss the chance to get a photo with her.
When we first sat down, Sachin had grabbed a table for us while our drinks were being made, that being one of only two tables left unoccupied -- there were three of us but it had five seats. We set our drinks down and immediately the three of us went outside to explore the outdoor area of the observatory for a bit. I was about to take a photo of the host's script papers through the window when I suddenly saw Elizabeth. She recognized me, we waved at each other and I immediately came inside -- where she was pretty distracted already with discussions about setup and whatnot. After a couple minutes, I managed a formal introduction, and introduced her to Shobhit and Sachin. (Sachin actually pronounced his own name "Such-een," which I had never heard before; he must just do that for white people so they don't mangle it any more than they would otherwise. The pronunciation is actually just "Such-in.") Elizabeth then introduced a friend she had with her as well, apparently her upstairs neighbor whose name I could not remember again until Elizabeth reminded me via Facebook Messenger: Caroline.
At first I was sitting in between Sachin and Shobhit, but I wound up chatting with Caroline so much -- largely because she told me she once worked in the Columbia Center, decades ago -- that I switched seats to the other side of Shobhit so I could hear her better. Sachin moved one seat into the one I had been sitting in, and Elizabeth put her stuff in the seat Sachin just vacated, which suited her well as that chair happened to be closest to where she would be performing anyway. Elizabeth later apologized for being unable to visit much but I totally understood her need to preserve her voice beforehand in a loud venue and then being tired after performing.
Shobhit had noticed a Happy Hour at an Irish Pub at the ground level next door to the Smith Tower that he thought maybe we could go take advantage of before it ended at 7:00, but the live music was scheduled for that time and, somewhat to my surprise, Shobhit suggested on his own that we stay at least for the music. Elizabeth and her accompanying guitarist performed three songs, including "Why Don't You Do Right?", a song I like enough that I immediately went to get that performance captured on video almost in its entirety.
We did leave shortly after that, though, and did not stay long enough to hear any of the readings from banned books. I'm not sure how interesting that would have been anyway, to be perfectly honest. So, we were there roughly ninety minutes, from 5:30 to 7:00 or so, for an event scheduled for open drop-ins between 5:00 and 8:00. Sachin highly recommended a nearby Indian restaurant called Nirmal's for dinner, even though he opted not to join us as he wanted to get back home as he goes to bed early these days apparently. But, Shobhit and I still went over to Nirmal's and we shared a paneer dish with some rice. The two together cost $23 which was definitely too much, but still fine; the more I ate it the more I did like it. It just wasn't worth that price -- which I was more okay with paying since we did not add to the cost with any other dish or drinks or anything. And I had already budgeted $20 for the evening, assuming at least one or two drinks at the Smith Tower bar, but Sachin took care of that by buying my drink.
After that, Shobhit and I walked over to catch the #12 up Madison straight to within a couple of blocks of home. I spent nearly an hour just editing and then uploading the photos, before I then joined Shobhit finish watching Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on Hulu, which we had started on Saturday night; and then finally getting to see this week's episode of Succession before I went to bed.
Anyway! You can peruse the 33-shot full photo album on Flickr, with pretty detailed captions on all the photos which I wrote up this morning, offering a lot more information about the evening than I even managed to share here in this post.
[posted 12:31 pm]