— चार हजार सात सौ चालीस —

Friday was a big day for a lot of people. Big in a positive way for people in my extended family; big in a negative way for celebrities I was (and am) a fan of. Sort of big for me, just in that I had not one, but two virtual social engagements on Friday evening, and the second one lasted twice as long as originally intended—which was a good thing.

Normally I would want to get the bad news out of the way first, but that certainly doesn't feel appropriate here, since the bad stuff is far less personal or close to me. In this context, it's better to start with a bang! Or a birth, I guess.

I don't think I've even mentioned this here yet. Three of my sister, Angel's, children were expecting the arrival of a new baby, all at once. First came Brandi's third child, Enzo, born March 27; next came Alex's first child, Alaina—the second for Alex's girlfriend, Caitlin—on April 27; and finally came Ricky and Rachael's second child, Ruby Mae (a name I love), just this past Friday, May 15.

And, guess what? May 15 also happened to be Tristen's birthday. He's my nephew who is my brother's middle child (out of five), and it's the very reason we had a family Zoom Meetup on Friday—Tristen had asked on the family Facebook page if we were going to have one last week, and we did not, but Gina suggested we do the next one for his birthday. For Tristen's part, he's posted several times how many days it was until his birthday, as if anyone gives a shit, and I found it frankly obnoxious.

Now I have to make an aside about that observation, because I'm sure Gabriel would just love to read that, and find it incredibly rich, after the arguments we've had about how stupid he has always found it that I celebrate my "Birth Week." The way I see it, however, there are several distinctions to make there. First, I've never posted a literal countdown to my birthday, taking every opportunity possible to remind everyone regardless of their significance in my life when my birthday is. And yes, sometimes I do post on Facebook about plans I am making for my Birth Week, but always with the knowledge that the people I am making those plans with are nearly all there and thus have a personal stake in their relevance. That strikes me as being a different thing—and the most pertinent point is, I don't post about it obsessively. Only once or twice did I post anything about my Birth Week prior to it actually being underway. Also: Tristen had no actual plans to share or talk about. He just needed everyone to know the day was coming. I'd be far more interested in reading about his birthday if, say, it was in regards to any plans or some place he was going or something. Without any of that, again: who gives a shit?

Now, to be fair, I do give a shit, on the day itself. I post to his page every year with a photo from when he was a baby or a toddler, wishing him a happy birthday. And to be fair, he's still young—twenty is hardly a kid, but it's still young—and, he's pretty isolated out there in Wallace now, with Mom and Bill and Christopher, probably none of whom did a whole lot for his birthday. Christopher did order a pizza dinner for them from Pizza Factory in Wallace, Idaho, so that was nice and I'll give him credit for that. Also, with the pandemic and Katina being stuck in a closed shelter in Spokane with the boys, Tristen can't even see his brothers right now. So he really does deserve at least a little more empathy than usual at the moment.

Anyway! It was a nice Zoom hangout, even though it was a rare occasion when Nikki and TJ could not join, they apparently had a car-related appointment that conflicted. Any time they are home, they always join. Angel did not join either, but that was unsurprising, since her third grandchild within the past month and a half was born that very day. Three babies, born within a seven-week time span: in that time, the number of grandchildren Angel had doubled! (She already had another three, before March.) The number of great-grandchildren Dad and Sherri had went from 4 to 7. Ditto the number of grandnephews and grandnieces I have.

So Angel wasn't on the call, but Gina and Beth were, as they were kind enough to host the meeting for Tristen's birthday. We never did sing Happy Birthday to him, which I actually do feel slightly bad about; both Sherri and I got sung to for our birthdays. But, everyone in turn did wish him a Happy Birthday, at least. I even updated my virtual background to be an exterior shot of Mom and Bill's house, so it would feel more like I was actually with him! (See in the screenshot, above.) Tristen declared it "kind of creepy." Having seen that it was possible, Sherri changed hers and Dad's background too, to the ocean at the beach; Gina and Beth later updated theirs to a photo of their dachshund, Cooper. Tristen and Becca both attempted to use virtual backgrounds too, but they were both just on smartphones and evidently the app does not have the capability on that small a device screen. Either that or they were just unable to figure it out.

— चार हजार सात सौ चालीस —

So we all got off the Zoom call at about 5:50 or so, having started it at 5:00; it was why I asked Laney if we could bump our scheduled Virtual Happy Hour at 5:30 back to 6:00. She said that was fine, but then asked if we could limit that Skype call to an hour, as she has been getting tired and wanted to get to bed kind of early.

But! First, her laptop's camera would not get recognized by her Skype program all of a sudden for some reason—she texted me that it "happens all the time," although it was a first for one of her calls with me—and so we then switched to having her download the app on her Samsung phone. That took a few minutes delay after 5:00 came and went, but not by too much; I just felt bad that she then had to look at a much smaller screen than her laptop, which I would have been rather disappointed by. On the other hand, her phone's screen quality was almost certainly way better than that of her clearly kind of old laptop.

And second, Laney had gone shopping earlier in the day and decided to get herself some wine. She usually doesn't drink as often anymore, though it's easier for her now that Jessica has quit smoking and that keeps Laney from smoking while drinking, which was always an issue in the past. So, we were both actually drinking this time . . . and the conversation wound up being lively enough that we stayed on the phone for nearly two hours, instead of the one hour she had originally requested we keep it to. Specifically, the call lasted an hour and 49 minutes, and we hung up at 8:06.

She even talked about maybe having a "social distanced" Happy Hour in person later this summer, meeting at the park. That will very much depend on what the state restrictions are at, at the time, but if she's up for it for either July or August, I will be too. We talked about how we want to avoid any dine-in situation at any restaurant for a long time to come, but being outside and several feet apart will really lessen the risk—especially, and I thought of this later, if we keep tabs on the direction the breeze is going, and make sure neither of us is downwind from the other. Even being able to see each other in person that way would be wonderful.

We also talked about the state of the world, and about TV shows we've been watching, as always. Plenty of other stuff I don't remember. The point is we hung out for a couple of hours and had a good time.

— चार हजार सात सौ चालीस —

— चार हजार सात सौ चालीस —

So now, the darker news: death in the world. Kind of amazingly, not COVID-related, though. Two notable celebrities died on Friday, the first being actor Fred Willard, of many many things but maybe most famously the announcer guy on Best in Show. And that news was sad, sure, but he was also 80 years old, so it would be a stretch to call it tragic.

Now the other one, that news broke my heart in a way the news of a celebrity death rarely does. I haven't been this bummed by a celebrity death since probably the passing of Prince: director Lynn Shelton, who was only 54, died Friday of a previously undiagnosed blood disorder. She was actually from Seattle, and her excellent 2012 film Your Sister's Sister was actually filmed on one of the San Juan Islands.

She did a lot of TV directing as well, in addition to films like 2009's Humpday (which I also loved), including episodes of shows like New Girl and The Mindy Project. Based on the social media reaction over the weekend, she was widely loved and respected.

What really broke my heart about the news, though, was her connection to Marc Maron, arguably my favorite podcast host. He interviewed Shelton for his WTF with Marc Maron podcast in 2015, which was the first time they met; instead of the usual Monday release of a new episode today, he re-released that recording, which the show always does for the passing of any celebrity at the time the news of their passing comes out. That's usually in addition to the regular new episodes, but today it was just that—because Marc was, understandably, devastated. Shelton went on to direct Marc Maron is many things, from episodes of his IFC show Maron, to his most recent two comedy specials (one of which just came out earlier this year), to the improv-heavy film from just last year, Sword of Trust. And somewhere in the middle of all that, the two became a couple. They were actually "sheltering in place" together at his house in Southern California, after having been together, officially, for about a year.

Those of us who are huge fans of Maron know his romantic history pretty well: two ex-wives, a relatively recent girlfriend who ultimately was just too young for him. He and Shelton clearly fit well and it was easy to imagine them working out longer than any other relationship he had ever had. My heart breaks for him in particular, and I kept wondering what his Monday episode would look like, or if there would even be one at all. He's shared a lot of personal stuff on his show, but nothing so raw and tragic, not to mention shocking, nothing of this magnitude.

So, whatever interview had initially been scheduled for release today, clearly got postponed. Instead of the "Remembering Lynn Shelton" episode being merely a bonus episode, it was the episode today—with a much longer-than-usual introduction and ending commentary by Marc, much of which had him crying. I expected this episode to be rough, and it kind of was; I cried when he started to cry in his intro, while I was getting ready this morning in the bathroom. And I don't usually listen to these "Remembering" episode re-releases when someone dies, because I usually have already heard it when it was first released and feel no need to revisit it. I did this time, though, as there was just too much context, too much history with Marc on a personal level—I actually liked Lynn Shelton plenty as an individual independent of Marc, but I love March Maron. This news was really the biggest bummer of the weekend.

— चार हजार सात सौ चालीस —

As for the rest of the weekend, it was comparatively far less eventful, and while Shobhit worked more shifts that ended at 7:30 each day, I just watched movies and TV for the most part, interspersed with other errands and things I worked on like excel finances worksheet and the like.

Shobhit did drive me to the office on Saturday morning on his way to work, and after I swapped out receiving paperwork, I walked home. Then I watched the rest of The Matrix Reloaded and even The Matrix Revolutions after that. I still like Reloaded better of the two sequels, even though it's more dated now than the original film; but found Revolutions slightly less disappointing than I had found it in 2003.

And yesterday, I got into a new (well, released last fall) show on Amazon Prime I really like, with rotoscoping animation called Undone.

I also drove Shobhit to and from work yesterday, at his request, as he could not sleep all night Saturday night, thinks he got all of about half an hour of sleep, and asked me to drive him because he didn't want to have to drive. So I did, and at his suggestion, we went and got takeout once again from Saffron Grill. We actually did leave them a tip this time, and on a much larger bill; Shobhit said he left 20%.

In fact, I think I will stretch my "Social Review" rules a bit for this one and actually give Shobhit a point for this, even though we did not actually eat out as all restaurant dining rooms are closed (and I won't eat in one again until there are vaccines, or at least it is somehow otherwise truly safe, anyway). But! Although Mohammed was not there this time, his Number Two, Prospero, was there, and we had not seen him in ages. He actually worked with us far more extensively than Mohammed had when they catered our wedding in 2013, and he seemed genuinely thrilled to see us both. And he asked his staff to give Shobhit and me both a free cup of chai while we waited.

So, there you have it. Shobhit and I went out for chai. Social Review point! I felt a little uncomfortable, honestly, as we had to take our masks off to sip the tea. Granted, the other staff had masks on, except for one who was stupidly wearing hers pulled under her chin (pointless much?). On the upside, at least we weren't in there sharing the dining room with a bunch of other diners—and we still kept our distance from all the staff. We were probably fine.

Before long, our food was ready, and we took it home to eat it. Prospero actually comped us a dessert of gulab jamun, this time without Shobhit even mentioning any special occasion like he did last time with my birthday; we also had three different vegetable dishes (including my perennial favorite, shahi paneer, leftovers of which I just had for lunch); two kinds of naan; and way more rice than we could ever have needed—the takeout always includes one large container of rice per vegetable dish. Oh! Shobhit also ordered pakoras for an appetizer. I think he made a huge order because he felt bad about not leaving a tip last time—force of habit for takeout.

But, we remembered this time that they can take all they can get. They did get a relatively steady stream of other customers picking up orders, so that made me happy to see. So then we went home and sat down to eat while watching another episode of Hollywood on Netflix.

— चार हजार सात सौ चालीस —

[posted 12:49 pm]