samosas all around
So here we are in another one of those Tuesdays, where I have far less to update you on than Monday's massive weekend update. I suppose it's just as well, I have work to do!
I rode my bike home from work yesterday, and shortly afterward Shobhit and I went over to the Central District PCC to do some grocery shopping. Zeva sodas are on sale in July, the last date of the sale being today, so we bought a ton of six-packs. Even Shobhit has taken to rum-and-cherry-cola cocktails using that flavor, so we got four six-packs of that flavor while most other flavors I got two each.
We got back home, watched this week's episode of The White Lotus, and then spent a good portion of the rest of the evening frying up 20 more samosas. Four were for Alexia, our neighbor; four were for Shobhit and Ivan and me to share at home; the other 12 I brought to work today. Scott's on vacation for two weeks, so he's missing out!
I didn't see a whole lot of Ivan last night, actually, as he neither asked to watch anything last night (he must want a break from The Leftovers) nor did he spent a lot of time outside his bedroom. He did leave for his customary long walk, though, so he was gone for when we invited Alexia over for samosas we promised her last week she'd get after Shobhit made some. We tried to offer her some on Sunday but she was unavailable.
She said she was in her PJs, but that was fine. Her pajamas were actually rather stylish, with a zebra print bathrobe. I had put four samosas into a plastic container for her, and she actually came in and sat down on the love seat to eat one. We told her they were for her and for her son Bram, but she must not be seeing him within the next few days; she declared she was taking the other three to work for lunch today and Bram wasn't getting any. She had never had a samosa before and she was duly impressed.
She must have hung out somewhere between half an hour and forty-five minutes. Long enough to get a Social Review point, as far as I'm concerned! (That also affords Shobhit a point, which should make him happy.) We talked a fair amount about her position as a regional manager for chemical distribution company Univar Solutions, because Ivan had asked me not just what she does for a living but what "she does all day." I know that managing other employees takes a lot of time on its own; she told me this week she's been working a lot on powerpoint slides for a presentation she has to give to . . . I forget who. Anyway, one of her regional offices is in Alaska, which led to discussion of the curvature of the Earth, and then how latitudes were calculated and broadly the history of math, and the potential financial cost of the United States ever finally converting over to the metric system. It was actually far more nerdy than my conversations with Alexia usually tend to be, but that was fine.
Speaking of jobs, Shobhit seems to have settled into this idea that he just won't look for another retail job for the foreseeable future. Between the payments I had previously been giving to him for several years to pay against mortgage principal that he's now temporarily applying toward his expenses, and the fresh rent income from Ivan, and the half-time job he still has at Total Wine, I guess his expenses are basically just as well covered as they had been from the Big 5 job before Ivan moved back in. (I cannot stress how conveniently timed Ivan's return has been.) All this is not even to mention Shobhit's desire to travel back to India to liquidate some more money to bring back to the States, although Ivan and I both agree that this is a terrible time for Shobhit to be traveling around the world. He does usually see his mother at least once every couple of years, though, and Shobhit has not been back since the spring of 2019.
Shobhit's thinking right now is that if he gets another retail job, he'll just "get stuck" in it. Well, I don't know what to say to that; he has no idea yet how well his renewed effort to get back into Project Management might play out, now eleven years since he last did it—but, with a renewed accreditation coming soon. Who knows what kind of difference that will make. My concern, honestly, is that it means for an indefinite number of months to come, his hours at Total Wine will be nearly exclusively during my own work hours, and he will always be at home when I am. It's not that I don't want him there, exactly, but I do like getting some alone time outside of work. It's not like that's a huge deal or a deal breaker, though; at least not yet. It can be fine if I allow it to be.
Oh, shit. Oops! I reheated the 12 samosas I brought to work—Shobhit actually gave me a ride to work in order to make it easier for me to carry it here in a shallow plastic lidded container—and passed them around at about 11:30. I tred to wait until noon to eat the two I saved for myself, and then could not resist them at 11:45. Then I went about continuing to work, not bothering to take an official lunch break . . . the result being that I forgot to post this until now!
How about I tell you all the ten people I passed out samosas too though. Lynne was cooking stuff in the kitchen, even using the oven at a far higher temperature than I wanted (also there was chicken in there, I did not want to put the samosas in with them), so I reheated them for ten minutes at 350° in the toaster oven. It was barely big enough for me to fit all 12 samosas in there. Lynne thus got to be the first to get one. Then I walked over to Reception and gave one each to Kwanteria and Adrienne (Kwanteria even said it made me her "favorite person" today—whew; she's new-ish and I've never been friendly enough to her, and have long worried she thinks I don't like her). The fourth one went to Tracy P, as I happened to pass her on my way back to my desk; the fifth to Noah, who was duly excited. I happened to pass by Dave, the Meat Merchandiser, and spontaneously gave him one. I went over to find Tracy M, the Deli Merchandiser; when I gave the seventh one to him, I also gave one to Jared. I saved the last one for Justine, at Tracy M's suggestion. This means I'm missing someone, as I know I had 12 of the damned things, and I'm racking my brain trying to remember who I'm forgetting!
Well, whatever, I need to post this so I can go attend the monthly all-Merchandising Meeting.
2:26 EDIT: I just remembered! This guy named Peter C was standin in the kitchen when I handed the first samosa to Lynne, and he was very interested so I gave him one too. That makes ten. Whew, that means I can sleep well tonight. (Side note: between Peter and Dave, I had none left to share with Krish as I had hoped. And! I only learned during the meeting that Steven is no longer gluten intolerant so I could have brought him one after all, and had I known I totally would have! So now I definitely need to bring one for Steven, at the very least, the next time we fry up a batch.)
[posted 12:57 pm]