catching up
My weekend was pleasant enough. Far less eventful, obviously, than the previous weekend, which was extended to four days with a trip to Las Vegas starting on Saturday. This sort of sequence from one weekend to the next is kind of ideal for me, actually; I don't want a very next weekend to be as packed with activity as one involving out-of-state travel. That said, I'm still thrilled I'm at a point where I can do travel like that again.
Anyway. The most eventful thing of the weekend was Friday so I'll start with that. I met up with Claudia and Dylan for dinner and drinks, at a Ravenna Mexican restaurant called Casa Patron, just a couple of blocks from the new Roosevelt Station for Light Rail. What a delight, being able to take Light Rail up there, have drinks, and not have to worry about driving. I would have come with Shobhit, but he has his PMP exam scheduled for November 13 and is behind on his studying, so he's kind of cramming now. I was so impressed with the place, though, I want to suggest to Claudia that we go again sometime after the 13th so Shobhit can go there too. I will have to confirm first that they do not cook their rice or beans with any meat stock, though, as many Mexican restaurants do, and I did not bother to ask on Friday.
Back to Claudia: I had not seen her since her last day at PCC, back on August 11, which somehow I managed not to write about in my blog at the time, apparently letting my social media post about it suffice. I actually had intended to, and still have a note about it in my email drafts: right before she left the office that day, she came to my desk and gave me a big hug. I turned more in my chair to make the hug easier, and we hugged even tighter, and kept the embrace longer than a normal, sort of "regular hug" might be. Because this was goodbye, of a sort, although we both agreed we would keep in touch and keep hanging out.
Anyway, I was rather struck by one of the things she said that day: “I respect you so much, and I love the way you celebrate your birthday for a week.”
I mean, I already knew she loved my approach to my Birth Week—although her ability to participate has always been spotty, our planned time together this year scrapped by her need to visit her ailing mother in Colorado. In fact, there has only ever been one exception to the near-universal appeal among people regarding my insistence on celebrating my birthday for a week. (I'll give you one guess! It's Gabriel.) But that "I respect you so much" part, kind of took me aback. In any case, the feeling is mutual.
Claudia had three weeks off between jobs, before she started her position over at the Farmland Trust, which has thus far made her far, far happier and more comfortable than she was at PCC. This is now my own editorial comment as I don't want to speak on behalf of Claudia, who can make her own choices as to what to say about these things: but PCC has a long way to go when it comes not just to equity and representation—far more than, unfortunately, I ever recognized in my early years working here—and in particular, creating a welcoming and comfortable work space for people of color. A lot of the conversations I now have even with Tracy (whose heritage is white-Peruvian and Filipino) make me fear that even she will wind up moving on from here sooner than I would like her to.
But okay, that was a slight digression. Claudia has worked at the Farmland Trust (which also has a staff count that's a fraction of PCC's, another key factor) since September, and has a little time to settle in. She does fundraising for them, which makes her position relatively similar to what she had been doing here. That was thus two months ago, and finally, a couple of weeks ago, we settled on a day for meeting up that worked for both of us: Friday, November 5. I had looked up bars near Roosevelt Station after discovering she and Dylan live all of half a mile from there, and found Casa Patron on Yelp; they had never been there, but were pretty impressed with it on Friday, as was I. They sell several flavored margaritas, and I had two of their "blackberry mango" margarita, one of the most delicious (if somewhat weak in alcohol content, but whatever, I wasn't there to get drunk) margaritas I have ever had.
I also ordered a fajita burrito and it was truly delicious. I will be most disappointed if I find out they do any cooking with chicken stock. Claudia and Dylan were both pretty impressed with the place too, although they did mention one other Mexican place they apparently like a little better.
My only complaint about the place would be that, in spite of signs on the door saying proof of vaccination was required, they did not check vaccine status of anyone coming in the door. All the staff wore masks, at least. And in fact Claudia and Dylan were both more conscientious about their mask wearing than I was, always putting their masks back up to their faces when the waitress was close enough to take their order. I took my mask off at the table and did not put it back on again until we left. I also got there quite a lot earlier than Claudia and Dylan did; I went straight from work, thinking I'd have maybe twenty minutes to walk around the area before meeting them there at 6:00—but, after getting a text that traffic was making them fifteen minutes delayed, they really didn't arrive until just before 6:30. By then I was quite cold and had just gone inside to get a table in the bar. I should have noticed the nice looking booths up on an upper level, but by then it was too late. Next time.
It was great to see Claudia again, in any case, and also great to see her so much happier with her job.
Claudia and Dylan walked with me over to the Light Rail station, as they had not yet taken a look at it. They were kind of bemused by the forty-foot "Building Blocks" sculpture, but, as a fellow cyclist, I knew she'd appreciate the abstract bicycles piece coming off the wall just inside the entrance to the station.
It was about a quarter to 9:00 when I caught a southbound Light Rail train back to Capitol Hill, from which I went straight to the Steamworks bathhouse, my first time back since going in August. There's a lot I could tell about the four hours or so I spent there, but it would be too much for readers of a public post like this. I'll just make a note of my first experience with a trans man, and leave it at that.
I didn't really do anything in the way of socializing over the rest of the weekend. Most of Saturday afternoon was taken up by my taking myself to see Eternals at AMC Pacific Place downtown; Shobhit would have come along but, again, he needed to stay home and study. I walked to the Central Library after the movie to drop off a DVD and a book, then caught a #2 bus back home and spent the next hour writing my solid-B review. The showtime had been at 12:15; the run time is two hours and 37 minutes; by the time I got home it was close to 4:00 and it was past 5:30 by the time I was posting links to the review on social media.
I spent a good portion of the evening finishing up the last two episodes of Y: The Last Man on Hulu, watching in the bedroom and seeing Shobhit distracted by it from his studying after he tried to move back into the bedroom just to be with me.
Yesterday, midmorning, Ivan and I finally got around to watching Tuesday's episode of American Crime Story: Impeachment. Only one episode of that one left. Ivan has every other weekend off of work, and this weekend was one, but he was still spending an astonishing amount of time apparently sleeping. Watching that episode together was the only notable time he and I spent together. Shobhit and I went out to PCC and to Mud Bay for some brief shopping after that.
Last night, Shobhit and I watched this week's episodes of both Succession and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Over the course of the afternoon, while Shobhit was studying, I spent a few hours getting a lot of photo-prep work done on this year's calendars. There's still a lot to get done, but this was my first time making any real headway on it, after a few weeks of Shobhit regularly telling me I need to start working on them, because the mail is officially slower now—and, apparently, USPS no longer delivers to Australia?? What the fuck? I'm sure there's some other service I can find to get a calendar out to Uncle David and Mary Ann, though. Surely it will be staggeringly more expensive, but I will pay for it anyway. They're worth it! The USPS still needs to get its shit together.
[posted 12:38 pm]