— पांच हजार एक सौ पच्चीस —
So, the above photo is what I took right after leaving Tanoor Seattle, an excellent new Lebanese restaurant on Dexter & Aloha, on Friday evening, with Scott, Noah and Tracy. Tanoor is the same brand, and the same people, whose six hummuses and dips we sell at PCC stores and have been for nearly a year—I added them to our system on February 18, last year. Scott noted that they opened this restaurant mid-pandemic, which is kind of amazing; the place is very nice and the food was so delicious I really want to go back. Their menu is very meat-heavy, but they still have several vegetarian options. I had the
falafel sandwich just because I wanted to spend $12 rather than $18 for the Falafel Plate that is one of the four vegetarian entrees they offer.
Anyway. Their original restaurant is apparently in Sammamish. That's where Scott lives, incidentally. As of today, also incidentally, he no longer has to commute into the office from there, ever. He was scheduled to fly down to the Bay Area for orientation at his new job this morning, and he'll be there for four days. So, he's not working from home most of this week. But, he will be most of the time.
It was a very nice dinner, anyway. Since we had a reservation for 5:00 and drove there from the office (Tracy gave me a ride; Scott and Noah drove separately), the restaurant was mostly empty nearly the entire time we were there. It was about 6:30 by the time we were winding down, and by then an almost unsettling number of people were coming in, and so by then we all put our masks back on. I got an exposure notification last night, this now being my fourth, referencing "2 days ago"—which pinpoints Friday. If I was "potentially" exposed anywhere on Friday, it had to be at that restaurant. Now what I need to decide is when and how I should get tested. We did get our government box of free rapid tests over the weekend, which contained five of them. I'm basically operating under the assumption that I am not infected, but it's still best to know for sure; however, this being the quickest I ever got a notification after the date of possible exposure, the CDC says to test 5-7 days after—if I go by, say, 6 days, then I should test on Thursday.
. . . You know what? Fuck it: with numbers dropping rapidly, testing center booking times are far more wide open and accessible right now, which means I can easily book a test now when and where I want it. So I just took a brief break from writing and did exactly that. Now I have a 5pm appointment for a test at the Paramount Theater on Thursday. I can get tested right there on my way home from work, which will be nice. I genuinely feel the odds are low that I am infected, but I'd still rather do this since it remains the official recommendation and will give me peace of mind. And this is still a more reliable PCR test and I don't want to burn through one of those home tests for this already, especially when it's so easy right now to get the PCR test done.
I did have to spend several minutes filling out a bunch of online forms, upload my insurance card images, etc. But this one is Curative which is officially affiliated with the city, in contrast to GS Labs which did my last two tests.
I did know I was taking a calculated risk going out to dinner with Scott and Noah and Tracy on Friday. I still think it was worth the risk. It was the one day we could go out to dinner just the four of us, on Scott's last day. It's a little annoying that this exposure notification references the very first day I shifted back to the office, but, whatever. There are very few people at the office right now; I must be at least 30 feet from the closest person. If I test positive or start developing symptoms, obviously I'll have to make some other choices.
So anyway. Back to the dinner itself, setting aside the issue of risk. I had told Tracy, when she first suggested this, that maybe Noah could get a company credit card to use to pay for us all. That's what Beth had done when she took Scott, Noah, Kevin and me out for lunch for Kevin's work anniversary. I have a feeling Tracy never broached the subject with Noah, though. And there was a somewhat awkward moment near the end of the dinner, after I had come back from using the bathroom—where, side note, both toilet stalls had what looked like tea pots filled with a bit of water, what the fuck are those for? A makeshift kind of "bidet tool"? Like, if that's what they're for, I don't know how anyone would use them without splattering water everywhere. I don't get it. Anyway, the bill had just come when I got back to the table, and Scott, the guest of honor himself, just took it and paid for all of our dinner. Neither Tracy or Norah said anything but I had no idea if any conversation about it had happened while I was in the bathroom or what. According to Tracy later in the car, there hadn't been. Scott just picked up the tab and none of us said anything about it at any time. And
after that, Scott actually said, "Thanks for taking me out." Like, what?
Now. Given the context of this dinner, the subject of payment was always tricky. And as Tracy noted, Scott likely thinks of himself as "senior" to the rest of us no matter what—he was literally Noah's boss, and would have been shifting back to being my boss were he staying on at PCC. I always knew Scott would probably not be comfortable with any one of us covering his dinner, which was why I actually kind of thought PCC itself should. Of course, we did have the option of us all just paying for ourselves, except that also would have felt weird after we had already presented this as a special "goodbye dinner" for Scott. Well, whatever: Scott has mentioned more than once how this new job is paying him a fair amount more than PCC did. So, frankly, he can afford it. I may have written about it here but I also didn't lose any sleep over it.
I also learned something interesting about pay structure in the co-op overall. Noah's partner, Renee, who is Assistant Store Director at Greenlake Village, apparently makes more than Noah does: and this is normal. I would have long assumed it to be the other way around, but all of store management apparently makes more per year than the Merchandisers who work from the office. Whether this is the same as compared to middle management (Department directors) or "Leadership Team" staff at the office, I have no idea. Presumably people like the CEO or the CFO make more than top-level store staff. I just didn't realize there was that discrepancy between merchandisers and store management. Scott even once made a quip about
me making more than Noah, which I refused to believe, but now that my assumptions have been challenged, who knows? I have worked at the office way longer than Noah has (20 years vs. 7) so maybe that makes a difference, I have no idea. But even as Associate Merchandiser (one step below Scott) I really think he should be making more than I do. If he gets the now-open Grocery Merchandiser position, which he absolutely deserves, he definitely will be.
Scott also ordered us a French fries appetizer that was one of the best I ever had, with a delicious garlic sauce. Shobhit loves the fries at Aviv on 15th, and that's an Israeli restaurant. I have no doubt he'd love these fries too. I also messaged Ivan about the place later that evening. We should all go back there sometime.
When we were all done and we left the place, first I got the above group selfie right outside the door; I posted it to
all the socials, where it proved unusually popular, particularly on Instagram (22 likes, 1 comment) and on Facebook (26 reactions, 4 comments).
Tracy had parked across the street and on the next block north; it turned out we parked directly in front of Noah and two cars behind Scott (both of whom had arrived before we did, as I held us up a bit before Tracy and I could leave the office). Tracy, who had earlier given Scott a gift bag with a bottle of wine and a very nice card—neither Noah or I gave him anything, although I did send out that historical email photo digest in the morning, which people loved—gave Scott a hug, and a couple of minutes later he gave me a hug too, which was sweet and I believe may have been a first. And then, probably just because these kinds of goodbyes are hard, we all stood there on the sidewalk chatting, for probably well over twenty minutes. Actually I can fairly well figure this out, now that I think about it: the photo was taken at 7:02, and when I finally managed to text Shobhit back about when I'd be heading back, just to say "soon," it was 7:42. Damn! And it was still several more minutes before we finally broke out and went our separate ways—I got home at about 8:10 and it's a roughly ten-minute drive. We stood outside talking for
an hour. I had no idea.
I keep thinking about when Stephanie left, in 2011. She and I met for drinks once, in 2012. I haven't hung out with her since. Even though I had ultimately a more successful relationship with Scott (although to be clear, I had long had a great relationship with Stephanie too by the time she left), it's even less likely that I'll see him again, unless maybe we invite him over for dinner again sometime. He lives a lot further away than Stephanie did. They both remain on my distribution list for my regular "travelogue" emails, though, so he'll be continuing to hear from me in some form for probably the rest of our lives, or until my emails wind up getting dumped into his junk folder or something.
The weird thing is, work today is not functionally all that different. Certain things I might ask Scott about now default to Noah, and I'm doing my best not to bother Noah with stuff if I can, as he was overwhelmed even before Scott put in his notice. I asked him on Friday if he's feeling a lot of anxiety about this, and he said his anxiety level was high every day by default anyway. Hmm. That was interesting to hear, and it's too bad. I still think he does a good job and is well suited to the position Scott left open. From PCC's perspective I guess the most important thing is that the job gets done, and Noah can likely be relied on for that. It's sad that his life is so stressful, but this is precisely why I have never gone for even an Associate Merchandiser position—besides the obvious need for a car which I refuse to get. I just have zero interest in inviting that much stress and pressure into my life.
— पांच हजार एक सौ पच्चीस —
I socialized in one way or another all weekend, but Saturday was the only day on which I did it remotely: having traveled from Arizona, where she spent a couple of weeks with her sister Lorrie and brother-in-law Richard, and also her daughter Jessica who flew down for a visit, to the Gulf Coast of Texas, Laney finally managed to schedule one of our virtual Happy Hours so it could still happen within the month of January. Our previously scheduled one on the 14th was canceled because she didn't want to take time away from spending it with her family, which was fine. I was happy we managed to keep one within January in the end, though.
She's now in a small coastal town called Magnolia Beach, Texas. With a population of 217 people, it's a coastal community a bit inland on Matagorda Bay, considered part of "metropolitan" Victoria, Texas, itself only a population of 116,000. It's about 89 miles northeast of Corpus Christi and 138 miles southwest of Houston. In other words, it's pretty isolated—but there are campgrounds apparently all along the Texas coast where she can stay for free, so she returned there just as she spent time there about a year ago. She was apparently in the exact same spot for our Virtual Happy Hour in February 2021, when she was barely more than a month out on her retirement camper-van travels.
Interestingly, even though she wasn't homesick last year, her return to Seattle this past summer, during which she could do very little because of a hip and knee injury, left her longing to come back to stay, at least for a while. She says she's very homesick for Seattle now, and could come back to the Seattle area as soon as April this year. She may find a place to live, or even sublet a room, on the outskirts of Seattle, maybe even across the bay on the Olympic Peninsula somewhere. Given her current traveler lifestyle, that would really still be fine for everyone involved, and in that case she would come further into town for our monthly Happy Hours.
It was fun to talk to her, seeing her sitting on the beach with the ocean right there, which she showed me at one point. It was sunny and blue skies there, but still very windy at only about fifty degrees she said. Or maybe it was sixty. So, although she saw other people running around in shorts, she was still bundled up in a coat. But thankfully, her data was giving her good reception on her phone and we talked quite easily via Facebook Messenger video, for much longer than usual thanks to her scheduling it earlier in the day: noon my time and 2:00 her time. We chatted for a good two and a half hours, probably the longest we've ever done it virtually. It was nice.
Also, I'm very excited by the idea of her being back in the area by April. If that happens, she can participate in my Birth Week,
during my Birth Week again!
— पांच हजार एक सौ पच्चीस —
Shobhit had full work shifts on both Saturday and Sunday, working 11:30 to 8 pm on Sunday and 12:45-9:15 yesterday. In fact, while I had considered reviewing two movies over the weekend, I wound up reviewing only one, and it was after watching one streaming at home: the new Asghar Farhadi Iranian film,
A Hero, is streaming on Prime Video. I went ahead and watched it early Saturday evening, and then reviewed it, while Shobhit was working. It was still good, but of the Farhadi films I have seen it's my least favorite. I gave it a solid B.
I had considered actually going to SIFF Film Center to see a documentary yesterday, but that got preempted by the plan to see
Airplane!, what I have long felt was the funniest movie ever made, over at Alexia's place with her, on her new 55" Samsung TV. She had never seen it all the way through, and seemed to have a pretty good time watching it. I had already seen that movie countless times before this log I have, but I have a log of every viewing of
Airplane! since 2003—and this was my 11th time watching it just since then! Now consider that it was originally released in 1980, I was first exposed to it in the late eighties, and I watched it over and over again in the nineties. It's probably one of about five films I have easily seen at least thirty times. The others would be
Batman Returns,
Jurassic Park,
Gremlins and
Jaws.
Anyway, I have to digress a bit about the TV. Because the Vizio TV she already had, which was striking large to me when I went and watched
Arthur Christmas on it with Alexia on New Year's Eve, was not significantly smaller than this new one: 49". She no longer needed it so she just gave it to Shobhit and me, along with the sound LG Soundbar and subwoofer.
Just because I have now so many times searched for old photos to see what older TVs in relation to our entertainment center looked like, I finally just created
a Flickr photo album called
History of TVs / Entertainment Center. We bought that entertainment center at Big Lots in 2004, less than two weeks after Shobhit and I first moved in together—I always loved that first shot, with Shobhit holding Peng while sitting inside the space where we put our first TV set. We had deliberately found an entertainment center with a space with just the right dimensions for that first TV, which barely fit right in there. And then, when that TV shorted out and stopped working in May 2010, when Shobhit was living in New York, I went to Costco and bought our first Samsung flat screen—for about $435, ironically more than we'd have had to pay for the far larger TV Alexia just gave us now. At the time I deliberately got a screen that, again, was barely small enough to fit into that square space in the entertainment center. That screen, which was the one I used as my home external monitor for work while working from home during most of this past month, was 27".
We had and used that TV for a good nine years, which I realized recently was quite a long time by current standards. The only reason we got the 31" TV, also a Samsung, in January 2019—three years ago this month—was because we had gone to the liquidation sale at Sears in Puyallup just to see what we could get. It was the one TV they had left, it was their display model and it had a small black dot that didn't render picture on the screen. It was only fifty bucks and so we bought it, brought it home and then set it on
top of the entertainment center as it was now slightly too big for the square space inside (I now put the stereo I used for its multiple speakers there). This Vizio TV, which Alexia said she had for maybe the past five years, now fit perfectly there, nearly the width of the entertainment center.
I finally threw away the stereo, as I now had the soundbar and subwoofer. I put the subwoofer where the stereo used to be. I feel kind of bad for throwing out the stereo, but to be fair, even though it long ago lost its use as a CD player (it had a 50-disc carousel in it!) or dual cassette player, it still worked well as a speaker system connected to the TV. I bought that thing right after moving to Seattle in 1998, so I literally had it for nearly 24 years. Who else does that? I bet anything I throw away shit like that far less often than most people do.
So: original Samsung flatscreen was 27". Replacement Samsung flatscreen was 31". The huge TV we just got as a hand-me-down from Alexia is 49". The new one Alexia has, ironically now another Samsung, is 55" and I barely could perceive a size difference—I wouldn't even realize it had I not been told. She said it had a lot more up to date technology in it, stuff that I don't necessarily care about. This Vizio itself is a massive upgrade from anything Shobhit and I have ever had, especially its LED screen picture quality. That alone is taking some getting used to. When I saw
Arthur Christmas on it, I assumed it was HD, but Alexia told me it wasn't.
Anyway, I put the new TV system together on Saturday night, connected it to my Apple TV box and Blu-Ray player and Xfinity box, and it was all set up and working great in no time. The biggest challenge was throwing away the stereo and its five speakers, which I had to carry down to the garbage room in three trips. I thought Alexia would need my help setting up her new TV but she got it all done on her own—she did help me carry the stuff over to my place though. Her condo is literally right next door on our floor.
So it was last night, both of our TVs all set up and ready to go, that Alexia rented
Airplane! from Prime Video for four bucks—it's not currently on any of the subscription streamers—and we also ordered a Pagliacci pizza for lunch. I Venmoed her $16 to cover my half, and when I wrote "pizza" in the note my phone suggested the pizza slice emoji, which really cracked me up. So now my Venmo history has the most recent transaction as just the $16 and a pizza slice emoji. Ha! I never had so much fun sending someone money.
Alexia talked a lot about references in the movie that reminded her of her high school years. I guess she was in high school in the late seventies. I don't remember when she graduated, except to say that I know she has mentioned she will turn 60 this year, which means she was born in 1962, so she turned 18 in 1980. She must have graduated the year
Airplane! came out.
— पांच हजार एक सौ पच्चीस —
[posted 12:26 pm]
