— चार हजार नौ सौ अस्सी —

I had a fairly sociable weekend, although that didn't really begin until Saturday. I had the most going on yesterday (Sunday) so I think I'll start there.

Gabriel and Lea and I finally had our next Movie Draft! So, as per usual, let's run through the history:

Movie Draft #1, on 10/4/2020: 1999 (winner: Lea)
Movie Draft #2, on 10/18/2020: 1984 (winner: Lea)
Movie Draft #3, on 11/8/2020: 2007 (winner: Matthew)
Movie Draft #4, on 11/22/2020: 2000 (winner: Lea)
Movie Draft #5, on 12/13/2020: 2014 (winner: Lea)
Movie Draft #6, on 1/10/2021: 1970s (winner: Lea)
Movie Draft #7, on 1/30/2021: 2020 (winner: Gabriel)
Movie Draft #8, on 2/14/2021: 1993 (winner: Gabriel)
Movie Draft #9, on 3/14/2021: 2003 (winner: Matthew)
Movie Draft #10, on 4/4/2021: 1990 (winner: Lea)
Movie Draft #11, on 5/23/2021: Best Screenplay Oscar Winners (winner: Lea)

As you can see, this is the longest break since we started, between #10 and #11, for various reasons—the primary reason likely being just that they are busy. The same was the case this weekend, and although I have texted them maybe three different weekends leading up to this to see if the coming weekend could work, had they needed to postpone further, I could have lived with it. I got the distinct feeling that they were just barely managing to cram this into their weekend schedule. Even yesterday Gabriel had earlier in the day suggested we connect at 4:30, and the call didn't actually start until 5:30.

Sundays are always the most ideal day for this on their end, because he has Tess between Wednesday and Saturday every week. Having a kid makes people very busy; the same happens with Danielle, who has two. By all accounts, one is more than enough. How the fuck do people who have three or four or five cope? Do those people even think about that before they have more children? Sheesh!

Anyway, the call even started yesterday with Gabriel suggesting that our time spent on this game has perhaps "run its course." I would dispute that—however! It did later occur to me that, if I want to have any hope whatsoever of actually watching all of the Fast and the Furious films as we had discussed, we'll need to place Movie Drafts on hold indefinitely. I'm going to suggest to him that, for the foreseeable future, we pivot to that instead. Gabriel already said he was thinking it might be a good idea to start doing something that doesn't involve advance "homework," and doing virtual "Party Watches" of big dumb action movies certainly qualifies. It does mean two-hour commitments (and probably longer) rather than the average one hour we've spent FaceTiming for Movie Drafts, but at least it would eliminate the need for advance preparation.

As for yesterday's Draft, we still haven't gotten the ratings from Mandy, but Barbara responded swiftly, as did Lea's friend, both of whom rated Lea's list first and mine last. It's very unlikely that Mandy's ratings will change Lea's lead. If by some miracle it does, then I guess I'll edit this post.

— चार हजार नौ सौ अस्सी —

After that, at Shobhit's request I made him a margarita to drink once he got home, first meeting him in our condo complex's p-patch where he was going to water his vegetables. That proved unnecessary, as it started to rain. He was glad to find his eggplant leaves perked up rather than wilting, though.

We then went out for dinner with Alexia, our neighbor. Like normal people! In normal times! Okay, not totally normal; the restaurant still had limited capacity, the staff all wore masks, and even patron shad masks on when not eating. It's still a huge step toward returning to some semblance of normalcy, however; Alexia is the first friend I have gone out to eat with, at a restaurant, since February of last year. I actually just looked this up: the last friend I went out to eat with was Laney, on February 14, 2020, for that month's Happy Hour. (Shobhit and I went out for Valentine's Day that day too, just for breakfast, to work around his work schedule.) Ah, such innocent times: I guarantee you now, local and national authorities already well knew what kind of threat we were likely facing then, but the rest of us were just obliviously going about our regular daily lives. Many of us probably infecting each other.

Now, of course we went out to eat several times with Uncle David and Mary Ann in Australia early the following month. After that, I did not eat out at a restaurant with anyone until just last month, April 2021, with Dad and Sherri in Long Beach during my Birth Week. But now I'm talking specifically about eating out with friends, and also specifically about eating out in Seattle. Shobhit and I did also eat out on my birthday, on April 30, deliberately dining in outside seating. Yesterday though, we went to Poquito's for Mexican food, down on Pike. They actually have both a makeshift outdoor seating area on 10th Avenue, their cross street; but also an open-air patio area on the opposite side of their space, facing a parking lot: large window-all sections that go up and down like garage doors. It was rather chilly yesterday evening so Alexia and I both went in jackets (Shobhit refused: "I'll just complain" he said), but we still wanted the open-air section. They had seating available, and their concrete booth seats are actually heated! That was pretty awesome.

Exactly how "open air" the section was is sort of up for debate. A lot of the wall-sections were pulled down to cut out some of the chill, although they still had open windowpanes in sections along the top. They also had flowers set on certain tables so there was no spot where parties were seated at tables right next to each other. For us, it was perfectly comfortable, in terms of the density of people there.

I kind of assumed I would be paying, as these days I usually do (with some exceptions) when we eat out. Shobhit immediately told Alexia the dinner was "on us," though, which she "graciously accepted" (her words); and when Shobhit went to the bar to place the order—they were not doing traditional table waiting—he ordered for all of us and paid as well.

— चार हजार नौ सौ अस्सी —

— चार हजार नौ सौ अस्सी —

Then, Shobhit suggested we go get ice cream. Not the greatest, warmest weather for ice cream, but somehow we all three still liked the idea. We went to Salt & Straw just a couple blocks further west from there, Shobhit and I returning after having just gone the Sunday prior. I finally got to try their "Chocolate Gooey Brownie" flavor, and guess what? The Salted Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor I'd had before was way better. Note to self, for future reference!

Anyway. Alexia sprang for all three of us for dessert. Shobhit got a double scoop waffle cone; Alexia got a single scoop sugar cone; I just got a single scoop in a cup. Shobhit tried to start eating while still waiting for Alexia to pay, and an employee politely asked him not to eat while still in the store. They're not doing seating at all right now, and Shobhit promptly pulled his mask back up over his face. We all ate while walking back home.

I clearly ate way too much. I weighed in at 162.5 lbs this morning, which nearly gave me a panic attack. I last weighed in that high on January 3. And I keep thinking to myself, I've got to get my shit together—and then proceeding to eat too much junk anyway. And I did exactly that yesterday, actually waiting to eat breakfast until around 11:00, thinking I would have just two meals as I knew dinner would be heavy. Unfortunately, I thought I could also get away with snacking on both the cheese balls and the pretzels Shobhit had brought home from Total Wine on clearance . . . and, naturally, I ate too much.

Also, there's this: I really need to stop thinking I can even be "strategic" in this way anymore. Because if I delay any meal for a reason like this, inevitably, I get a fucking headache. I then need to eat something, preferably high in protein, to help alleviate it. And that, of course, defeats the purpose of strategically trying to lower my day's intake of calories. What I need to get back to is regular three meals a day, but limiting the portion size of all of them. I should not even have eaten as much as I did at dinner last night.

I really do worry about this shit too much. It's almost a compulsive obsession. It may even be unhealthy. But I just cannot abide by letting my weight just continue gaining unchecked. I am not interested in ultimately have to buy an entirely new fucking wardrobe. There are economic concerns at play here as well!

My peak weight, just before I lost over 30 lbs in 2010, had been just above 170. I still haven't gotten back to that, but I am getting too close to comfort. I really loved being around 145 lbs and would love to get back to it again. I really want to blame Shobhit for this, as he constantly brings home snack foods and is eating portions literally three times what I eat, thereby having both extra food and the extra consumption of food around me in a way that was entirely absent when I managed to lose the weight before. Having the snacks and food around all the time really makes it difficult. But, I can't deflect all the blame: I brought home 10 chocolate bars that were on clearance from PCC just last week, and I regularly bring home samples from work. And I was around available snacks at work on a near-daily basis before and I still lost the weight. Getting on track with this shit is really the difficult part no matter what; staying on track can be surprisingly easy. You just have to get over that first threshold first.

— चार हजार नौ सौ अस्सी —

It was Alexia, again, that I spent some time with on Saturday. I got super tired for some reason in the afternoon and lay down for a nap, then proceeded to sleep a little too long and woke up kind of annoyingly groggy, the kind of state that is the opposite of what you want a nap to do for you. I then thought, I want to go somewhere. I just want to get out. Even a walk would be nice, and a change of scenery: instead of downtown to the library as usual, a walk north to Volunteer Park and back, which I hadn't done in some time.

I texted Alexia to ask if she was at home. She was out shopping on 15th Avenue she said, but would be back in the afternoon. I asked if she wanted to walk to Volunteer Park. She proposed that she start walking back toward me, and I could start walking toward her, then she would just turn around when we met up and we'd walk to Volunteer Park together.

So that's what we did. Although, she was already at the Safeway by the time I reached there, and she had gone inside because she needed to use the restroom. She was just leaving when I got to the doors, so, perfect timing. (As per local guidelines currently, we wear our masks inside any stores, but take them off when we're outside. Lots of other people still keep their masks on even outside still, but I tend to take mine off in that case.)

Volunteer Park was quite lovely. We discovered the Seattle Asian Art Museum, recently renovated with huge new modern sections, is finally reopened—but only for timed entry tickets, and sold out for the day. I am so eager to see the new building design, we immediately decided we need to make a plan to come back and go to that museum. I still need to text her about that, actually. Thanks for reminding me, me!

At my suggestion, we walked a bit further on, up to Louisa Boren Lookout, across the street from Lake View Cemetery. We were there when I found myself telling her the now-complicated history of our family fruitcake, which she was pretty amused by. Then we walked back home again. It was on that walk that we decided we should go out to eat somewhere soon, and I mentioned it to Shobhit as soon as he got home from work Saturday evening. He immediately asked if we wanted to eat out for dinner that very night, but I had actually accompanied Alexia back to Safeway on our way back, when she had already shopped for her dinner. But when I texted her about going on Sunday instead, she was all for it.

— चार हजार नौ सौ अस्सी —

I did watch two movies for review over the weekend, both in the late morning: Saint Maud on Saturday and Georgetown yesterday. Neither was terrible but neither was great; I was glad I didn't waste my time seeing either in a movie theater. I do have one slated to see in a theater Wednesday this week, though. It's a foreign film that looks violent and bleak, but still perhaps better seen on a big screen. And I am ready to see another movie in a theater.

Also on Saturday evening, Shobhit and I finally got back into The Expanse, starting season three. And this was precisely why Shobhit kept resisting: he knew he wouldn't be able to stop. We burned through five episodes straight that evening. We might have watched another last night after returning from dinner and dessert, but I wanted to watch this week's Mare of Easttown. Tonight will be Pose, so I'm not really sure when we'll move forward again on The Expanse. It probably still won't be too long.

— चार हजार नौ सौ अस्सी —

[posted 12:32 pm]