I Drank A Lot
Okay. It really is time to get my shit together. Like for real this time. I'm serious. No, I mean it! God damn it, this is for real!
I realize my header for this post might make you think I'm talking about drinking. And I am, only partly. It's not like I'm an alcoholic. I don't have an alcohol problem. I have an over-consumption problem. I just can't stop shoving stuff into my pie hole. I've been hovering at 159 lbs for three days. This is unacceptable. I do not want to have to buy new pants just because I fucking got fat!
Now, to be fair, there was something unusual about this weekend, so, kind of extenuating circumstances: I went out for drinks not just once but twice this weekend, and in both cases that was combined with eating dinner out. Eating out is dangerous enough on its own, when it comes to over-eating. And also in my defense, I really did quite well with the self-control earlier in those days leading up to dinner out, so the fact that I am not even heavier than I already am is something I consider an achievement. Well, for Saturday and yesterday, anyway. Yesterday I managed something I hadn't managed in several weeks: reasonably portioned meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and no snacking in between of any kind whatsoever. I did have a glass of wine with dinner.
I was similarly successful on Saturday, until I had a cumulative four shots of vodka by the end of the evening. I'll get back to that. I should go back to Friday first.
That was January Happy Hour, and this time neither Shobhit (who was working) or Jessica (who was visiting friends in Eureka, CA) were able to join us. This meant a monthly Happy Hour that was just the two of us, for the first time since October. In the past, this has meant pretty compelling, intellectually stimulating discussion that lasted upwards of four hours. Even that hasn't happened in some time, though, and this time around, Laney was really tired and was starting to crash by around 7:00, which was barely about 90 minutes after we got there.
I had walked direct from work to meet her at her apartment, and then we walked the rest of the way together, to a new place on Broadway called Olmstead—in the old location of the once-beloved Broadway Grill, which we ate at as my Birth Week outing with Laney in 2013, on their very last day of business. I had forgotten that was the day Laney gave me my "Let Your Freak Flag Fly!" coaster, which I still use in my living room to this day.
Anyway, I rather liked three of the photos I had taken on that last day of Broadway Grill being open for business (after 22 years), and so I decided to recreate them for Laney's and my first time back at this new place in the same location nearly seven years later, called Olmstead (open about three weeks, our waitress told us): instead of the 2013 shot I got of Shobhit and Laney sadly waving goodbye at the Broadway Hill sign from outside on the sidewalk, I took the shot you see above, of Laney and me under the chalkboard sign just inside the entrance—because they do not (yet?) have a new large sign on the outside of the building. They only had their menu posted, and I first tried a selfie with that, but when I saw the large chalk drawing of the sign inside I realized that would make a better companion photo. Then, there was a 2013 photo of Laney and me (both of us with much shorter hair! and me definitely thinner) from across the table, taken by Shobhit, I asked our waitress to take this new photo of us, again with my arm around Laney's shoulder, and the waitress even humored me by sitting in the chair across the table to take it from an equivalent angle. And lastly, in 2013 I took a photo of the receipt, on which Laney had written the note, Goodbye forever, very sad! So this time, I took a photo of the receipt with my note reading, "Grilled" to be back! So happy! 😃 That "Grilled" pun on the old Broadway Grill name was Laney's ingenious idea.
And: both Laney and I had a hard time deciding between the veggie burger or the very tasty sounding grilled cheese, so we went for my suggestion of doing what Shobhit and I often do, and we each ordered one and then we split the sandwiches.
I also had just one cocktail, thereby managing to come in under the $40 I had budgeted for this outing. To augment only getting one drink, I had packed a three-shot rum cocktail (with mango La Croix sparkling water and a splash of mango nectar) into a thermos that I brought with me to work and then drank along my walk from work to Laney's place. I chose rum because I already knew I wanted one of the rum based drinks they had on their menu, and I ordered the "Dax That Snaps Back"—and by the time I had that second, much less strong cocktail, I had precisely the right amount of minor buzz going, so it proved to be both a broadly effective and a cost effective plan.
Both our dishes did come with fries, which Laney asked them to cook "extra crispy," and they actually did! They also had tartar sauce, which we both had. And we both all but licked our plates clean. In other words, it was absolutely a huge amount of calories. And this was Friday, so I did have a few snacks at work that day, which did not help my weight maintenance.
I might have been able to mitigate that through the rest of the weekend, except for Lynn's mostly-annual birthday party on Saturday night, at which I went through the same cycle: I bussed up to Everett for this (because Shobhit had to work, and I wanted to be able to drink), and had about a mile to walk from Everett Station to AFK Tavern where these birthday parties always happen, and I drank a thermos cocktail on that walk which also had three shots in it. And then I ordered one drink during my rather long time at AFK Tavern, but this way I had no compulsion to buy any more than just the one. So, once again, I managed to come in a few dollars under the $40 I also had budgeted for that outing.
Getting to Everett by bus is a little involved, and so even though the party was announced to be starting at 6:00 p.m., I did my transit planner to arrive at 6:30 instead. I have finally retained that Lynn and Zephyr are really never on time, and there would be no sense in getting to this early, or even on time. And even aiming for a 6:30 arrival, I caught the #11 bus toward downtown just outside my building at 4:38. It was a few minutes delayed, which was fine as that cut down the amount of time I had to wait outside in the cold for the Sound Transit express 512 to arrive and pick me up—surprisingly, on time, as One Bus Away was listing it as ten minutes delayed; thank God I didn't wander into any nearby stores or anything—at 5:02.
So that #512 leaving at 5:02 was meant to arrive at Everett Station at 5:57. The Metro Trip Planner suggested transferring there to another bus leaving at 6:15 that would arrive near AFK Tavern at 6:22. But instead, I got off the bus at the one stop after getting off the freeway but one stop before Everett Station, and from there I just walked the roughly one mile. And that gave me time to steadily down the three-shot vodka cocktail (again with sparkling water and mango juice, but this time with raspberry and pear vodka shots from the flavored vodka sampler Shobhit got me for Christmas. Turns out raspberry and mango don't mix quite as well as I thought they would, but it still served its purpose.
I said this party was "mostly annual" because Lynn did not bother to do it last year. I asked her about it later that evening and she said that last year, for whatever reason, she just wasn't feeling it, so they didn't do it. I had not managed to remember this, but I have met her and Zephyr there far more times than I realized: I searched "AFK Tavern" on my Google Calendar account and, counting this year, five different events came up, dating back to 2013. And 2013 was the only one of those that was not for Lynn's birthday; I bussed up there that year to meet them for a gaming night in August. After that, I went to birthday parties for Lynn there three years in a row in 2016, 2017 and 2018; as I just mentioned, she opted to skip it last year.
Anyway. It was roughly 6:20 when I arrived at the restaurant, a long-established "nerd hangout" that is the reason Lynn and Zephyr love it, and although it was no surprise that Lynn and Zephyr still weren't there, the area they had reserved was still empty. There was one guy I recognized from previous years standing at the bar, who spotted me and pointed to the area and let me know what was indeed where we were sitting. I was in there by myself for several minutes during which I had to let the waiter know I was indeed with the "Zephyr party." Lynn actually texted me at 6:25 to let me know they were on their way and she got delayed with the cake. She told us later that she had gone to pick it up at Fred Meyer (who, as it happens, actually make very good cakes; this one was a delicious carrot cake), and finding no one whatsoever in either the bakery or the meat sections, she had to wander back to the entrance to ask a greeter for assistance. She did also admit, though, that it took some time to get her hair to do something interesting. I thought she looked very nice.
Shobhit had been initially somewhat skeptical that the party would keep going from 6:00 clear until 10:15 which would be about when he could come pick me up after getting off work at Big 5 in Northgate; I assumed it would be no challenge at all, and it wasn't. I texted him at 9:42 and said the party was still going strong, and so he said he would come and pick me up.
The most notable thing at the party was the new person I met, named Samantha, who sat at the table next to mine, and she essentially talked my ear off for the rest of the party. I'm not complaining at all! First off, it precluded any expectation of "mingling" on my part; I never even had to move, aside from the few times I used the bathroom. At different times, both Zephyr and then later Lynn made their own way to my table, and there was a couple of times I actually found it slightly challenging splitting my attention between Samantha and Lynn. I suppose that's still better than ever feeling like I was just sitting off in the corner by myself. I always feel compelled to mention how different these scenarios are for me now than they used to be; even as far back as the 2016 party, I'd say I was at least slightly more socially awkward than I was this time. I hardly even need mention such a thing anymore, though, as it's been years now since social situations gave me any kind of anxiety, even if it did result in some level of social awkwardness on my part. And now even that really never happens.
Even though Lynn is my second-oldest friend, second only to Danielle—Danielle and I met at the age of 11 in 1989; Lynn and I met in person for the first time at the age of 18 in 1994 but we had been writing as Spanish class pen-pals between two different Spokane high schools for at least a year and a half prior to that, so we have known each other in at least some way since the age of 17 in 1993—Lynn and I never got especially close, and never achieved the same kind of emotional intimacy that I have long had with other close friends like Danielle, Gabriel, or Laney. The extent of our long history has its own special meaning, though, and I now feel more at ease and comfortable with her than ever. We're even finally starting to manage getting together slightly more often than just the requisite twice a year, for each other's birthdays. We met with them for dinner last October, and are likely to meet for dinner again next month, at Saffron Grill, Northgate being an ideal middle-point for meeting each other, as they live in Lynnwood.
Anyway. Shobhit called me from the road to ask me to order something for him to go, and I ordered him the same thing I had had: the burger with a hazelnut patty veggie substitute (which is delicious), sautéed mushrooms and onions, and swiss cheese; with tater tots as the side. When Shobhit arrived, his to go box was ready pretty quickly, and he actually sat and ate his burger, before he then had two slices of the cake. (I only had one slice, but that's no real achievement given how much I had drank already, and Shobhit had no drinks.) They even provided a side of tartar sauce at his request at no extra cost and in a shockingly large container. He took the tots home to eat later.
Side note: talking to him on the phone was a real pain in the ass. He really acted like I should just be able to understand everything he said, and I kept having to have him repeat himself. For some reason it did not occur to him that I was in a place surrounded by lots of loud chatter already; plus, he was talking to me on speaker phone, with the phone set in the dashboard mount, the noise from driving on the freeway competing with his talking. Oh, but that's not all! Turns out, when you talk to someone on the phone like that, there is also an incessant rattling sound. To be fair, this was the most safe way for Shobhit to use the phone while driving, so I should appreciate that at least. Still, I feel bad for anyone who ever has to talk to him while he's driving, as I'm sure every single person is dealing with that stupid rattling—especially his mother, and she's talking to him from India! He would do better to make these phone calls before getting into the car to begin with. And in my case, had he done that, I could have placed the order for him earlier and it would have just been waiting for him when he arrived.
I did just realize, though, that this does mean Shobhit gets a point for this on the next Social Review, so that should make him happy. Lynn and Zephyr were both happy to see him, and even Samantha had stayed just long enough with her husband so she could meet him before they left. Zephyr hat cut about half the length of his hair off, so still shoulder length but even that was the shortest I had ever seen it—ditto his beard, which apparently had gotten so unruly Lynn didn't like it much anymore, so he went and had it trimmed down pretty dramatically, by comparison, at a salon. He complained that the beard trim cost eight dollars, and I was like: my last haircut cost literally ten times that. (That said, $80 is way too fucking much for a haircut; the previous cost of $70 was seriously pushing it; and when I get it cut again in April, I'm going to travel down to Renton to go to the woman Danielle keeps raving about. That will save me a lot of money.)
A lot of the party left before I did, actually; probably only half the peak number were still there when Lynn finally got around to cutting the cake. She asked if I wanted to cut it and I said, "I think you should cut it!" And so she did.
I did make a new friend out of Samantha, though; she asked if she could friend me on Facebook and I said of course she could. (We'll see if I still remember how the hell I know her when I see her name on Facebook in another several months.) She even asked for the URL of my movie reviews—from which it's only a single click away to this very blog. I don't know that very many people navigate to these posts from there, but who knows!
Yesterday was far less eventful than Friday or Saturday. I didn't even eat very much! I did finally burn through two of my library copies of DVDs, though: on Saturday, before going to Lynn's party, I watched a 1970s "whodunnit" called The Last of Sheila that Rian Johnson had cited more than once as a major influence on his great script for Knives Out. It was all right. And then yesterday I watched Goodfellas, which is way better than The Irishman in my opinion, but still not necessarily worth the "great film" designation many people give it—that was one of the movies I had to watch in film class in college, and we were required to watch every movie a minimum of three times.
Turns out I had exaggerated the length of Goodfellas in my head, though. For years I thought I remembered it being three hours long; it's actually two hours and 26 minutes. After all the incredibly long movies I have happily sat through in recent years, that hardly seems like much at all. Back in 1990, it felt like a really long movie. But, that movie came out when I was all of fourteen years old. In any case, both movies were due back to the library so I was able to return them, and pick up the book on Carrie Fisher that I had to return and check out again (and that took two weeks to become available to me again), on my way to the movie I took myself to at SIFF Film Center yesterday: Varda by Agnès, which I really did not like as much as I wanted to. I kept falling asleep.
I got home just as Shobhit got home from work, running into him in the garage when I went to see if he had arrived as I had left my umbrella in the car on Saturday night. We went upstairs and I wrote up my review, during which Shobhit called out to me, "Sachin's coming!" He said it in a weirdly urgent tone, but he was just informing me. I thought he was just visiting, but apparently he was coming to stay the night. Now I get to wash a set of sheets, how wonderful. I guess it's just as well; the sheets on Shobhit's and my bed could use a washing as well anyway, and I plan to be home tonight to write up my annual analysis of the Academy Award nominations.
I made spaghetti using the marinara sauce Gina gifted us for Christmas. We added a metric ton of sautéed vegetables but the marinara still had its down distinct flavor and was delicious. It yielded four lunches for Shobhit and me this week, and there was still enough leftover for both Shobhit and Sachin to have some for dinner last night. I guess this gives Shobhit another Social Review point, now that I think about it, since I did sit and visit with the two of them for a while in the living room, until the nature of political discussion got to be unbearably annoying. Those two love to get into it with their discussions, and I mean really get into it. I could hear a lot of their continued discussion just fine even as I went to sleep. Lucky for me, I was too tired for it to keep me awake.
[posted 12:19 pm]