Wow, does Beth like to talk! We were on FaceTime from about 4:45 to 7:24 last night, which is precisely two hours and 39 minutes. Not the longest video chat I've had this week, and maybe even arguably kind of short given that it was our first real, true, legitimate conversation since she last visited Seattle, which would have been at our condo housewarming in December 2007. Over twelve years ago!

Now, yes, we have seen each other occasionally at Christmas on FaceTime, but those were always very brief calls, on family holidays, with lots of people around both on my end and hers. Barbara was on those calls as well, and she was not on the call yesterday. In fact, when I woke up on the morning of my birthday, Thursday, I had a text from Beth tellig me, I'm going to do my best to have mamma FaceTime you today. I loved that she was going to make the effort, but was not surprised when Barbara never did call. According to Beth last night, Barbara always says "I hate seeing people through screens!" or something to that effect. She just doesn't like the way video chat works and prefers in-person interaction.

We really need to fly her out for a visit again, as soon as it's okay to do so. Shobhit and I had actually talked about doing that for Easter this year, but that idea clearly flew out the window long ago.

So anyway, Beth's two children, now both in their late teens (18 and 19, I think she said), were spending their week at their dad's; they switch beack and forth by week, Beth told me. So the only other person around during Beth's call was her grandmother she helps take cover overnight, as opposed to daytime hours when she has in-home care workers come.

In any case, Beth and I did a lot of catching up. When we talked about how long it had been since we last had a real conversation, she literally put it on her calendar to call me again next Wednesday. So I guess I have that to look forward to. Our conversation really ran the gamut, from Tiger King to race (her dad is black) to politics to her online boyfriend who lives in Korea (not Korean though, a black man stationed there) and apparently had suggested they meet in person in Seattle . . . whaaat! Again: another plan that flew out the window.

Beth lives in Arlington, Virginia, a city that's across the river from Washington, D.C. So when we started the call at 4:45 my time, it was 7:45 Eastern where she was. She and her grandma were watching Jeopardy!—and Beth was actually pretty good at it. Some of the categories were movie related so even I got some of the questions right.

The drink I made myself was my "natural foods" version of a Rum and Coke: a rum and Zevia Cherry Cola. So that's why I poured it into the martini glass I've been using all week and called it a "Rum and Cherry Colatini." Beth had a drink too, but very different: Lime juice, seltzer water, honey and Tito’s vodka. What made it yellow then, I wonder?

The only reason I started off by saying Beth likes to talk s that she was talking about needing to switch to FaceTime with her boyfriend, at least half an hour before she actually hung up with me. She would say she needed to go, and then keep talking about stuff. Lynn tends to do that as well.

We got offline in just enough time for me to bake some frozen parathas and reheat Indian food leftovers from both Saffron Grill from Thursday's dinner and food Shobhit had otherwise made recently, and it was ready to eat very soon after he got home from work.

So, I got a good 18 photos out of the Friday photo album on Flickr for my Birth Week, tying with the album from Thursday evening focused on the family Zoom call for my birthday, for the smallest photo set (so far) for Birth Week 2020—at least for new photos, so excluding the 16-shot retrospective of Birth Week with Auntie Rose over the years.

11 of those shots were taking during the FaceTime call. So, another 7 shots kind of served as filler, although a couple of those certainly justify their own existence, as you can see with their inclusion here in this post: both the center photo and the one below. The one above features me with the birthday gift Gabriel had sent to me in the mail for my birthday—it arrived midmorning while I was working. I actually got called to my phone via the intercom; I buzzed him in; I heard a knock on my door and when I opened it, no one was there but the package was on the floor.

At first I thought it was alcohol. Coming from Gabriel, who had texted me on Thursday that something was on the way but he didn't know when it would arrive, that still would have made sense. But, he had also told me about this local distillery that had begun manufacturing hand sanitizer, and he apparently orders it regularly for his and Lea's apartment. So, he had a bottle sent to me.

I actually really appreciated it. I may even order more myself when this runs out, although I don't know that we'll burn through this one that quickly. When I texted Gabriel to thank him, along with that photo—which, I must say, exceeded my expeccations; I kind of love the picture—he asked if we have a spray nozzle. I can't find one that will fit that glass bottle, but I'm sure I can find a spray bottle that I can just pour that into. I'm thinking once that's done we should just keep that hand sanitizer in the car, because where else would we need it? At home, we have soap.

I took the photo below, of the Seattle skyline, with the Hyatt Regency Hotel and it's heart visitible from our living room window, to send to Beth so she could see it. I have already taken several photos of that hotel heart, of course, but never with this wide an angle from the point of view of our living room windows. This shot also exceeded my expectations; I really love it. I love that you can also see into the living room of one of our Braeburn West building neighbors—the wider angle just contextualizes it perfectly for the day the Washington State stay-home order was officially exteded to May 31.

We'll be dealing with this shit in one way or another for the rest of the year at a bare minimum. The people trying to beat down state capitol doors and force governors to "reopen the economy" are absolute morons. Thankfully, so far at least, they seem to be in the minority. And I am so, so grateful I live in one of the states with a government that makes these decisions based on data rather than emotions or politics.

Even in a global health crisis, I still love my city.

[posted 2:37 pm]