Because they were in a meeting when the above group photo was taken, I later had to take individual shots of
Leon and
Robin, whose additions to the group would make seventeen total "ugly holiday sweaters" for the Ugly Sweater Brunch we had on Friday—which, now that it's over, I'm sure Office Manager Mel is relieved they won't have to organize an event like this for months to come. I also just realized at least one guy with a holiday sweater was neither in this group shot nor did I manage to get a shot of him later. Dammit!
This now makes
five ugly sweater group shots, now spanning the seven holiday seasons we've had since moving to this office location in 2016—it got gleaned over in 2019 due to the calendar proximity of multiple store openings forcing the postponement of the annual Thanksgiving "Harvest Potluck" into December, thereby precluding a separate holiday event that year; then 2020, of course, was the pandemic, during which everything in-person was canceled—though we did still have the much-appreciated "PCC Virtrual Holiday Happy Hour" that year. Last year's ugky sweater group shot had just a few people more than this year's, but I feel good that both last year and this year still beat the merely 13 people in the group photo in 2018.
So what about photos, then?
This year's photo album contains 25 shots, a far cry from the record 44 shots for last year's Ugly Sweater Brunch—although to be fair, only 29 shots were taken on the day itself. The rest of the album was filled out by other holiday decor seen around the office, and a few more photos may yet be added to this year's album.
Anyway. I am way too obsessed with these statistical details. Who gives a shit! Well I do, obviously. Anyway, back to this year's Ugly Sweater Brunch. More people did attend than just the 17 who wore holiday sweaters—16 if you discount Andrew, who merely wore a solid burgundy sweater. (I almost asked him whatever happened to his fantastic
holly suit, then realized it's entirely possible the suit he wore once six years ago might not longer fit him, so I decided to keep my mouth shut.)
How many people total were there, then? Well,
this shot of everyone eating features at least two people who had been there but were not wearing holiday sweaters and thus were not in the group shot. That makes a minimum of 19, and I know Marie stopped by too, so that makes at least 20. That was a nice, comfortable number, really.
It was technically a potluck, but once again I didn't bring any food. Mel seems perfectly content for my contribution to be taking pictures, this time actually adding that as a section on the RSVP page. Mel allowed for two such slots but I was the only one who signed up for it. As for the rest of the food, as expected it was very sweets-centric (Erik brought a box of Mighty-O Doughnuts), but at least Emma made a vegan egg quiche thing I totally would have believed was real egg; and Andrew brought a seasoned nut mix. I also had some of Mel's French toast casserole, and Jennifer B actually made little gingerbread pancakes—kind of hilariously, using a tiny waffle maker that created
a skull in it.
I was much relieved to have had the wherewithal to skip breakfast at home in the morning, the meal I had at that party was so rich. It began at 11:30, and then about an hour later a good 17 of us gathered for the White Elephant gift exchange—to which I had brought
Japanese Kit Kats from Cost Plus World Market as my gift contribution. I really thought at least a couple of people might steal those, but they only got stolen once: Mac opened them first; then Andrew later snatched them. Poor Mac, who clearly had no real use for it, wound up stuck with an olive oil dispenser bottle.
As for me, my penchant for leading a charmed life continues: we all drew numbers, and I drew #1. I learned this is the most coveted position to be in, because the person who goes first gets a chance to steal any other gift at the end of the game—which means there was no mystery when I had my chance to steal, and knew what every single gift was and could just take the one I wanted most. Well, with two or three exceptions: one of the rules was that after a given gift was stolen twice, it was then "frozen" and could not be stolen any more. No matter for me: the thing I got at the end was a perfect gift for another friend of mine, so I really lucked out.
It was about 1:00 when the whole event wound down and it was time for me to return to my desk—and post an entry into this blog written beforehand, as I wanted to wait to write about this event until I had the photos edited and uploaded, hence this entry. I usually take only half an hour for lunch, but on Friday I took 90 minutes, which really cut into the time I had to get work done otherwise, when I am taking PTO this coming week starting on Tuesday. Then, the same thing happened when we had an All Staff Town Hall, which I had thought I could plug into on Teams at my desk and therefore do work through it. But, everyone who was at the office was asked to gather in the conference room to attend the hybrid event, store staff up on Teams screens mounted to the wall.
Under normal circumstances I could have worked late that day just to get ahead of tomorrow's work day—hahahaha! As if! Even if my evening had been entire free I never would have done that. Get real! Now, I may be facing that possibility tomorrow, but it's still doubtful. Admittedly, it is why I am writing about Friday now: so I won't have to spend a bunch of time on it tomorrow when I really should be working.
So anyway. Friday evening was rather packed with activity of its own, actually. First, I had to go to the Lower Queen Anne post office—this was at Shobhit's suggestion, so I wouldn't have to take up time yesterday morning going to the Capitol Hill Post Office. Well, even though Shobhit still felt it was worth it because it allowed me to dedicate yesterday morning to helping him with his audition tape, the post office visit Friday morning was absolutely far more time
and far more money than I would have spent had I gone right when the Capitol Hill post office opened at 8:30 yesterday morning. There woudn't have been a line, which means I could have found the cheaper boxes for the three calendars I was mailing, and even purchasing those first and having to get back into line after packing the calendars would have taken less time.
On Friday, I got to the post office at about 4:45. Predictably, 90% of the people there were mailing Christmas packages—as, of course, was I. For a good twenty minutes there was one person working the counter, and packages were stacked so high on both ends of the calendar that it was comical. When I first got there, only the flat-rate boxes were visible or even accessible out in the lobby. I did walk further into the lobby, closer to the front of the line, to see if I could find something cheaper. No such luck, or so I thought. Flat rate boxes it was, and unfortunately, the cheapest boxes that actually fit the dimensions of my calendars cost $17.05 each. For calendars that cost me roughly $20 each to have printed to begin with.
I went to the counter and packaged up my three calendars: one for Christopher and the boys in Wallace, Idaho; one for Nikki and TJ in Spokane; one for Becca and Tyler in Lake Stevens. (At least I didn't have a repeat of the $83 I had to spend on Uncle David and Mary Ann's calendar alone last year, only to have it not even each them in Australia until well after Christmas.) The three boxes together cost $51.51 with tax. I had budgeted about $15 for this trip to the post office, which in retrospect felt rather naive.
Anyway, I got in line, and was about 11th from the front. The guy at the counter took a solid ten minutes before he finished. It was probably another ten minutes before a second cashier came out, maybe after a break, I don't know. The line moved fairly steadily after that, and just as Shobhit had planned, he came and picked me up on his way home from work. I walked up and around the corner at Queen Anne Ave and Mercer, and Shobhit was there within minutes. We then drove the rest of the way home, my holiday post office obligations now taken care of, so that was a relief at least.
I was still so full from my brunch, I opted not to eat any dinner. We went home and we freshened ourselves up; Shobhit changed his pants and wore a suit jacket, wanting to be dressed nice for the theater. It was time for us to use the tickets to
Moulin Rouge! at The Paramount Theater that Gabriel and Lea could not use and so gifted to us.
I'm not sure the show itself quite justified the ridiculous amount of excitement I had leading up to it, but I still had a blast. The interior design of the theater for the show, both in the house and in the lobby, bathed in vivid reds just like the 2001 film, were so enchanting that I took far more photos than I ever would have assumed I would: ten shots was enough, in the end, I decided, to give the event
its own photo album. The space was so festive, including a huge Christmas Tree in the lobby, which, combined with the Santa hat I'm wearing in the two selfies I took with Shobhit, I decided might as well go into my
Christmas 2022 photo albums collection, which now contains 12 albums, with a minimum of four more to come before the month is out, maybe more. This year is getting nuts.
And
Moulin Rouge! was a late-breaking surprise, something I had no idea I was going to until I got that call from Gabriel and Lea on Wednesday. I took several photos after we arrived, and texted them maybe five of them after we took our seats.
Confession time! Shobihit and I smuggled little shot bottles of booze inside. Shobhit had one filled with bourbon; mine was peanut butter whiskey. I nearly got caught with it when, for some reason, I set off the metal detector when we were coming in the front doors. I don't have any idea what set it off; it couldn't be the plastic shot bottle. Still, the guy asked me to show him what was in my pockets, and I kind of acted confused, just putting my hands in and out of my jacket pockets, saying, "Could it be my keys?" Then the guy just kind of waved me through. Shobhit followed behind me without incident. And then? I never drank the whiskey anyway! That was just because I had already had an eggnog with Maker's Mark in it at home before leaving, and that was enough for the evening, it turned out.
We walked through the beautifully decorated lobby, I took a few photos, and then we meandered through an open doorway into a combination art gallery and bar, something I don't recall ever seeing at the Paramount before, but then I haven't seen anything there since Ivan gave me
his ticket to
How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 2014(!), and for all I know they were using that room the same way then and I just never noticed it or I didn't remember it. (Side note: I have purchased tickets at the Paramount Box Office multiple times since then, but they have tended to be for shows at other venues, like the Neptune or the Moore.) Shobhit asked if I wanted a drink, and I declined even then; the eggnog had been more than enough. Shobhit paid $5 for a bottled water. That was the closest we got to buying a souvenir. I saw T-shirts for sale for like forty bucks.
Okay, I'm going to share a minor complaint about the show now. Hopefully Gabriel doesn't think I'm being an ingrate. The guy who played Christian was a stand-in that night, not the regular guy listed in the program. He was actually a good singer and legitimately hot—no complaints there. The minor issue was whenever he sang with his co-lead, the woman who played Satine, who was indeed the woman listed in the program: there was some real tonal dissonance there; their voices did not blend well. I'm sure that their backup performers rehearse just as much as the primary players, but presumably they do not really rehearse
with the primary actors. My guess is that was the real issue, and that perhaps they would indeed have blended better had they had more time rehearsing together than I am guessing they did.
Shobhit didn't like the woman who played Satine all that much, and thought she was out of tune. Bear in mind that Shobhit is tone deaf. The woman wasn't bad. She was fine.
The guy who played Harold Zidler was very good. Also, the cast was much diversified as compared to that of the 2001 film: The Duke was played by a Black man, as was one of Christian's two artist friends (the other character being, as in the film, an Argentinian). These were two principal characters played by probably the best two singers in the cast.
It should be noted that a live theater production of
Moulin Rouge! by definition could only be a very different experience from the film. A Broadway musical cannot be characterized by dizzyingly rapid-fire editing. It still had very good production numbers, though, and the rendition of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" that opened the second act was genuinely spectacular. That also gets us into what was probably my favorite thing about the show: the way it updates the "jukebox musical" nature of the show with a lot of more recent pop songs—but without sacrificing the classic choices from the film, including "Lady Marmalade," "Your Song" or "Come What May," or even "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (which they somehow successfully mashed up with "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"). The only track from the film I was really bummed not to be included was my favorite one: "Hindi Sad Diamonds." In fact, the whole Indian theme of the play-within-a-play was scrapped altogether here.
That said, I very much enjoyed a lot of the additions: Rihanna's "Only Girl in the World," Pink's "Raise Your Glass," Sia's "Chandelier" and more. My favorite was "Bad Romance."
Twice during the show, the guy playing Zidler popped confetti out over the crowd, which was really fun. And when the show ended, so much confetti falls onto the audience it felt like New Year's Eve in Times Square. I probably loved the stage design more than anything, though, which was the reason I took so many photos. In the house, on the sides where balcony box seats might otherwise have been, there was a working windmill just like the one in the movie to the left, and a giant blue elephant sticking out of the wall to the right. It was awesome.
We walked back home after, only because it was 17 minutes until the next bus. I have walked past The Paramount many times, even recently, when a show was either starting or ending, and it was fun also for once being among the throngs leaving the theater. (Incidentally, predictably Shobhit did not wear a mask, and neither did most of the people there. I kept mine on for the whole show, removing it only for the selfie we took, or to take a swig of the bottled water.) It was a memorable evening that I won't soon forget and that I truly, deeply appreciate. I think even Shobhit appreciated it, as evidenced by his asking me to take a photo of him in his outfit standing next to a second, smaller Christmas Tree closer to the entry doors.
[posted 9:45 pm]
