— पांच हजार दो सौ नब्बे-पांच —
So last night was indeed the
fourth monthly Watch Party movie on Prime Video with Kwanteria, me in Seattle and her in Houston. We started this in July, and I even noted to her in the chat how much I appreciate her reliability when it comes to these scheduled movies—it never, ever slips her mind and she is always enthusiastic and excited about it. I tend to text a reminder of some kind as a matter of course just because so many other friends are too busy to reliably remember on their own, but Kwanteria has literally not once needed the reminder.
I often think about how much younger than me she is; as I recall she was born in 1991, which makes her 31 years old. I was 15 the year she was born, which means three of the four movies we've watched thus far were easy for me to remember but released when she was barely even born: July was
Groundhog Day (1993, when she was 2); last month was
The Addams Family (1991, the year she was born); last night was the sequel
Addams Family Values (1993, again when she was 2). The only exception so far has been the August movie which was
Booksmart, a movie that came out in 2019. But, last night in our chat I discovered she has never seen
The Birdcage, which came out in 1996 when she was five, so I said we need to watch that one next time.
I did make sure to note that I am open to suggestions too though. She has assured me she's had a blast with every movie I recommended, but still all the movies thus far have been my recommendations, and I noted that I'm a tiny bit self-conscious about how very white the movies have been so far. (I did ask if she had seen
Girls Trip, which I would have insisted be next on our list if she hadn't, but unsurprisingly, she had already seen it.) She said she would try to come up with some suggestions of her own.
Being in Houston, Kwanteria is two hours ahead of me, so when I start at 6 p.m., she's starting at 8 p.m. and by the time a two-hour movie is finishing it's 10:00 for her. She usually signs off fairly quickly, saying she needs to put her young son to bed. I know the kid's name, I've even met him, but I'm blanking on it right now.
When Tracy and I had dinner on Monday, she said she was thinking she might track flight deals and if any cheap ones to Houston come up we can maybe go to Houston together sometime to visit Kwanteria. I had already been thinking earlier just this week that she qualifies now as a friend I could hang out there so maybe one day I will take a short trip there, but I wasn't thinking especially soon. Tracy's idea could change that, depending on price and budgeting. I also like the idea of making it a group outing and not just two of us; I think it would help us all relax a little more on a trip like this done for the first time—Kwanteria and I only became friends just last year. It might even have been earlier this year.
I haven't mentioned it to Kwanteria yet, though. She misses Seattle so much, even mentioned it again last night, I think it would make her wildly excited, and I don't want to do that well before I have any idea when a trip could actually be possible.
— पांच हजार दो सौ नब्बे-पांच —
— पांच हजार दो सौ नब्बे-पांच —
So that took a couple of hours of my evening last night. I made myself chai for the first time since Shobhit left, so it had been well over a week since I last had it—quite an unusual stretch. I had already eaten leftover salad for dinner, then had chai with Biscoff cookies for dessert while the movie started.
After the movie ended, I finished the last 10 of the daily 32 pages I needed to read from my current library book,
This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollen, also the first book for the nonfiction Book Club at work. I'm already almost finished! Only 64 pages to go, 32 today and 32 tomorrow, and I'll be all set for our next meeting after work on Friday.
I've kind of got a hankering to read another novel. I selected a hold to take off pause at the library yesterday. The challenge going forward will be to read two books a month if I want to stay on top of Book Club books. Or, I could start doing what other people do and just read two books concurrently, allowing for more time to finish the non-Book Club book. I really don't want to do that but it may prove to be the only way. I guess we'll see. I'm honestly kind of amazed by how great a choice
This Is Your Mind on Plants has turned out to be. I'm really loving it and getting through 30+ pages a day is not nearly as much of a challenge as it would be with other books.
I got on Skype with Shobhit in Delhi briefly. The latest news now is that he may not need to be back in India by December 15 after all. Then again, he may want to be just to help his mom through the shares transfer process. He'll still have to go back again either way, but if he can get out of the December 15 obligation it sounds like he may not have to go back until January. This is getting sort of frustrating; I hate it when something this consequential is up in the air. It's not his fault though so I'm not blaming Shobhit for that.
— पांच हजार दो सौ नब्बे-पांच —
[posted 12:28 pm]
