what joy what bliss
I'd say that I had a relatively uneventful evening last night, aside from taking myself to see the best movie I've seen in months, a very heavy drama called Mass, about one couple, whose son was killed in a school mass shooting (hence the title), who meet with another couple, whose son was the killer. I cried a lot, and I have it an A-.
Except for me, the truly eventful part about it was that the only place in town to see it was at the AMC Seattle 10 in the U District (formerly known as Sundance Cinemas, formerly known as The Metro Cinemas), and my travel to and from was utterly delightful. Why? Because of the opening of U District Station on Light Rail! This is a serious game changer.
What a difference but one mile can make. If I took Light Rail from Capitol Hill Station and got off at University of Washington Station and then walked the rest of the way (which I did do a few times after U Link opened in 2016 before our office location moved later that same year), that walk alone tacks on twenty minutes. The Light Rail goes that distance in two minutes!
Better yet, consider this: to avoid having to transfer to a bus in the U District after taking Light Rail, before the Northgate Extension opened at the beginning of this month, taking transit from home to the AMC Seattle 10 in the U District would take about 36 minutes minimum—and that's assuming a 10-minute walk to Broadway & Pine to take the #49 bus. Now, I take a 10-minute walk to Capitol Hill Station, and the train ride from there to the new U District Station at NE 43rd St & Brooklyn Avenue NW takes all of six minutes. What joy, what bliss! Add another roughly 5 minute walk to the AMC theater from that station, and we're talking 21 minutes door to door—assuming the ability to board the train as soon as I get to Capitol Hill Station, anyway; if I just miss it then that does add another 8. It's still a far better experience than the bus—especially if there is heavy traffic that might otherwise delay it.
Even better was the time it took me to get to the movie from work, in spite of my office location being quite inconveniently located. When I looked up the trip planner, it estimated a 48-minute trip, starting with catching the Rapid Ride D bus line downtown at 4:38 and then getting on Light Rail at Westlake Station. Instead? A D bus came sooner than expected once I got to the stop; a train pulled up within two minutes of my arrival at Westlake Station; and I was at the U District AMC with 25 minutes to spare before showtime. I even spent some time in the upper level lounge area reading my library book before going to use the bathroom and then going into the theater.
The even more delightful part was my trip home, though, because I boarded the train at U District Station at 7:57 and was home within 17 minutes (that's 6 minutes on the train then 11 minutes walking home). I suppose I have to remember the 5 minutes it took to walk to the station from the theater, but that still totaled 22 minutes getting home. What a dream, shaving around 15 minutes (give or take a minute or two, depending on wait times etc) off the same transit route I had long been using.
I'm also already excited about the next Light Rail expansions, in a way I never have been about the next ones scheduled after previous expansions. Light Rail has never had notable expansions any fewer than five years apart, and yet we've got a massive one—East Link, adding a whopping ten stops—all of two years away; then added stops at all ends only the year after that, by which time the number of Light Rail stops we have as of today will have doubled. That remains amazing to me, and two years from now is not long at all; it will be here before we know it.
Granted, as of now, the current expansion Light Rail already goes to all the neighborhoods I already spend 95% of my time in (Capitol Hill, Downtown, U District) and goes to what are probably the next-two frequent destinations I might have (the airport to the south; Northgate to the north), so East Link will not make nearly as huge a difference to my regular daily living—although! Every once in a while a movie is playing in Bellevue and nowhere else, and East Link will make it far easier and accessible for me to go to such movies, occasional as they may be. The bigger difference will be in 2024 when Light Rail finally goes as far south as the Federal Way Transit Center, which will make it far easier for me to visit Gabriel without having to drive. (I do still have Shobhit's car so in most cases we'd still be driving, but every once in a while Shobhit is out of town or something, and this will still be easier for Gabriel to deal with than, say, driving me all the way home.)
I am also suddenly wondering: will the Light Rail expansion to Federal Way make taking transit all the way to Olympia easier? This is hard to say, as it really depends on whether any buses will be routed between the Federal Way Transit Center and Olympia, whereas currently the buses out of Olympia only go to the 512 Park and Ride for transfers with Sound Transit buses. But, presumably, bus systems across the region will realign a lot of routes around the expanded Light Rail. There's still another three years for agencies to figure that shit out.
I just got kind of disappointing holiday news at work—I really should have asked Adrienne earlier if anything special was planned for Halloween at the office on Friday, but did not think to do so until this morning. This was her reply:
I totally spaced a Halloween celebration this year until Monday when I was showing Kwanteria all the holiday flyer stuff I made last year. I think it’s too late to create a gathering and I’m running low on bandwidth given Kwanteria’s last day at reception is Friday and we don’t have a replacement for her yet.
I am helping her finalize communications for the Harvest Potluck Lunch and the Ugly Sweater Brunch Potluck though. They should be sent out by end of week!
. . . Well, if we must sacrifice Halloween at work this year (and honestly whether that's truly the case still remains to be seen), this new information actually more than makes up for it: I've got official confirmation, now, that we will have separate "Thanksgiving feast" and "holiday" events in November and December yet again, for the first time since 2018. The "Holiday potluck" that usually happens in November got pushed to December in 2019 due to the conflict of the Ballard and West Seattle store openings, effectively turning that and the usual December holiday event into one, combined holiday event. Then last year a basically online version of the same thing happened, with a Zoom "Holiday Happy Hour" happening in December (actually there were two: one for the whole office and one for the Merchandising Department, on December 3 and December 22, respectively), with a "PCC Office Wall of Thanks" online kudoboard happening in lieu of the "Holiday potluck" we obviously could not have while most people were still having to work from home.
So, I'm really glad Adrienne told Kwanteria to consult with me regarding these holiday events, as I feel like it's really because of me that we're getting back to the separate November and December traditions, which have not been truly delineated since 2018. This makes me very, very happy, and as such I suppose I can live with it if the office does truly nothing for Halloween for the first time in . . . well, the entire 19 years I've worked here, actually. That's still disappointing, but, we're still living in shifted, different times. Besides, I did not actively participate in Halloween at PCC for all of those years; in fact, my "Halloween at PCC photo albums collection has a pretty large, six-year gap between 2011 and 2016, mostly because all of those years I went to visit Shobhit out of town over Halloween weekend—2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016 being with him at the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval. In 2011, Halloween was on a Monday and I took the day off to go with Shobhit to Dad and Sherri's in Olympia; in 2013, Halloween was on a Thursday but I was in L.A. for Shobhit's birthday on the 30th and then flew home Halloween Day, busing directly to Dad and Sherri's from there—again taking the day off work.
So, I guess it's not the end of the world if I don't get a "Halloween at PCC" photo album this year. I may still have one regardless; we have some Halloween decorations, and I am still trying to decide whether I will come in a simple costume on Friday regardless of what official office decisions are made. I'm still contemplating.
Oh! And getting back to Adrienne's response: I love this term, never used for the November potluck before: Harvest Potluck Lunch. PCC has been deliberately avoiding the use of the word "Thanksgiving" for years now, which I never truly understood (I suppose I understand it slight more, now), but always hated the phrase ""Holiday Potluck" as a replacement. "Holiday Potluck" is too pointedly generic and, to my mind, actually connotes December more than it does November. "Harvest" is far more appropriate and relevant to November, or at least fall, and I'm much happier with that phrasing. I'm totally good with thinking of it as Harvest Potluck Lunch from here on out.
[posted 12:28 pm]