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I didn't watch a movie last night, but it was basically just a brief break from movies until my Birth Week begins on Friday. My hope is to watch and review a movie tonight, tomorrow night, and Thursday night. I'm all through with the six virtual SIFF movies I had purchased to watch, and now I have three more Oscar nominees I'd like to get watched before the Oscars on Sunday, and I sure as shit won't have time to watch any over the weekend.

So what did I do last night instead? First, I rode my bike to the office to swap out paperwork. I was there at about 5:00, the new receptionist was at the front desk and she said hi to me. I think I saw maybe three other people in the office at that time—how many people are there really seems to vary, but since it was only 5:00 I was honestly surprised it was that few. Maybe it's a Monday thing.

The weather was quite nice for riding again, though. Having delayed my usual Thursday visit to the office to Friday, and then having to take an extra trip on Sunday, this was my third time biking down there and back in the space of only four days.

As soon as I got back, locked up my bike in the garage and went up to the condo to leave my bike helmet and shoulder bag (having to take the stairs as the elevator is out of order—I always think about what a wheelchair user living in the building would do when that happens), I then walked to PCC Central District to pick up a couple of things. I discovered my Costco half-gallon of creamer had gone bad as of yesterday morning, and I needed more creamer. And I was also almost out of cereal.

Shobhit got home from work within minutes of my return, and we proceeded to eat the last of Saturday's pizza as a leftovers dinner, while watching three episodes of season four of The Larry Sanders Show.

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Oh, one other thing of note from yesterday afternoon: I got word from Lynn that she would not be able to take the day off of work on Thursday next week as originally hoped. She has a deadline project she can't get away from. At first she suggested "rescheduling" for another day, but when I asked if she could just go to a park near where she and Zephyr now live in Everett after she got off work, she said she could.

So: this means no long day trip to Dry Falls State Park in Eastern Washington, as we had originally considered. Honestly I'm okay with this. That was a bit more than three hours' drive one way, and would have been by far the longest day trip drive to any state park of the week. I love that park, but am not terribly disappointed that this plan had to change. I am bummed I won't get as much time with Lynn, but, I can live with it.

There are no state parks close enough to Everett to make a drive there after 6 p.m. feasible, unfortunately. She found a couple of other parks near them as suggestions, one a city park and one a county park, both of which still intrigued me. I chose the county park: Spencer Island Park, an island formed by tributaries of the Snohomish River. So, now I will first drive to their new house so I can see it for the first time, and then we will drive over to the park together.

This does mean I have the entire rest of the day before that free, though, so I figured, what the hell: I'll just go to the closest state park by myself before meeting up with them. That means going to Camano Island, where there are actually two state parks (Cama Beach Historical State Park and Camano Island State Park) seven minutes away from each other, and about an hour drive from there to Lynn and Zephyr's house in Everett. This way I still get to go to a park with them, but also still get a state park visit under my belt for that particular day. (Mukilteo Lighthouse Park, which I will visit with Shauna on Wednesday, is also not a state park, but it used to be one! So I still let that one qualify.)

I suppose this means, now, that the farthest I'll be going to visit a state park for my Birth Week will be Fort Worden in Port Townsend, on Sunday. That's 58 miles away. But! The farthest I'll have to drive will be to Jarrell Cove State Park, as I'll have to drive around the south end of Puget Sound and back up on the Olympic Peninsula side. No, wait! I forgot: I decided I would take the Bremerton Ferry across first, just to save myself some driving time. So, scratch that. Also, I just remembered Deception Pass State Park with Danielle on Monday, which is 84 miles away—but, Danielle will be driving. Oh, DUH—the farthest I'll go, by far, will be Cape Disappointment on the southwestern tip of the state, with Dad on Tuesday. That's 172 miles. (Dry Falls would have been 196 miles, so, not really the hugest difference—but still farther.) Well, that was a fun journey, wasn't it? When I first started this paragraph I clearly had no idea what the hell I was talking about.

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[posted 12:30 pm]