— पांच हजार दो सौ ग्यारह —
My weekend wound up even more eventful than anticipated. Social Review points for people on all three days! Shobhit only gets one for Friday, though, when he opted to join for dinner with Evan and Elden in SeaTac.
Evan had suggested a Thai place right next to their hotel, which I was totally fine with. We had it decided and settled. Then Shobhit came in saying he was "craving" fries and onion rings from The Cheesecake Factory, and asking me to ask them if they minded if we picked them up and took them there at Southcenter Mall. Even and Elden were predictably very chill and agreeable, something Shobhit could not be if his life depended on it. I usually can be, if it doesn't involve Shobhit, whose impatience and penchant for lashing out gets on my last nerve on a regular basis.
By the time we were driving through the mall parking lot to The Cheesecake Factory on the far side of it, even though it was clearly faster to take the regular streets around it but Shobhit totally ignored that fact, he was bitching about all the drivers in front of us—again, going through the mall parking lot—and asking "Why are they going so slow?" I said something along the lines of, "Because they're driving safely." Shobhit's response to that was literally to say—with Evan and Elden in the backseat—"Do you want to walk home? Should I let you out here and you can walk?" Seriously, sometimes it's truly jaw dropping what an asshole he can be. I truly don't know what to do about it, except one day finally just up and move out. He's never going to change this behavior, that much is crystal clear. I've been tolerating it for nearly two decades, and I just keep tolerating it, which only emboldens him to take my continued presence for granted. It remains increasingly possible that one day he will be in for a deeply rude awakening. The bigger issue is that I still feel like leaving would upend my life to such a degree that I'm not sure it would be a net improvement, and I would be even less happy. Aside from his irrationally angry outbursts, I still love my life, and even my life with him. I spend a lot of time thinking about what will be the last straw, though.
They didn't even have the onion rings Shobhit so much wanted. The fries were good, though, and I was surprised by how much I liked the Impossible Burger we shared. We also shared a side of stuffed mushrooms I found delicious, and which Shobhit declared "bland" (not true at all; they just weren't spicy). He did love the fresh bread they brought us before dinner. Overall, though, he sure went out of his way to get us all to dinner at a different place that he did not ultimately find that satisfactory.
All that aside, it was great to see Evan and Elden, having not seen them since we had dinner in Portland during Shobhit's and my anniversary visit last year in June. I possibly could have seen them last month, if it had even occurred to me to mention to them I would be in Portland for the afternoon on May 5, but for some reason it didn't. It's fairly likely their jobs would have prevented them from being able to meet up anyway.
They were in town for a horror convention at the SeaTac Airport DoubleTree Hotel, a convention they apparently used to go to every year, and would stay at the hotel all weekend even when they still lived in Seattle. As with many annual events, it was canceled the previous two years and reinstated this year; they decided to drive up from Portland now that they live down there. We talked a little bit about that, after we picked them up at the hotel entrance; Evan noted that there was a person dressed up as a bloody bunny in the lobby on their way out to our car.
And, as is typical, over dinner we spent a lot of time talking about movies, even though Evan and I have long had very different tastes. We used to see movies frequently together but that was just when we happened to find something we were both interested in. Once we were done with dinner, we drove them back to their hotel before driving back into Seattle again.
They had actually stayed two nights in Seattle proper first, and I had even told Evan the week before last that we could meet up on Thursday when they were in town. But, I forgot about that and made plans to see
Downton Abbey: A New Era with Tracy on Thursday. I felt bad about that, which was why I suggested we come down to SeaTac for dinner on Friday. I was actually somewhat surprised that Shobhit even wanted to join; I would have just taken Light Rail otherwise. He also had skipped breakfast and lunch that day, leaving him very hungry and, clearly, irritable. Not that that's any excuse.
— पांच हजार दो सौ ग्यारह —
The rest of my weekend was largely tied to Alexia, with whom I did something on both Saturday and Sunday, although I was with her for far longer on Saturday: we did our Braeburn Condos Theater double feature of
The Lost World: Jurassic Park and
Jurassic Park III. We had gone so long without getting to the next installment that we decided to save some time by making these two a double feature, something made a little easier by the fact that
Jurassic Park III is all of 92 minutes (compared to
The Lost World at 129 minutes).
A lot of people really dislike
The Lost World but I have a special place in my heart for it; especially the T-Rex-in-San-Diego sequence.
Jurassic Park III is actually more entertaining than I remembered, at least when it came to the dinosaurs themselves; the plot is still stupid, and Tea Leoni's character is such a dumb, annoyingly idiotic woman (an annoying trope itself) that much of her screen time is a bit of a challenge to tolerate.
Now we have only two more weekends before the release of
Jurassic World: Dominion and we still have two more movies to watch before then. Alexia made a passing reference to doing another double feature, which I kind of dismissed, but am thinking now that we may have to do that, depending on our respective schedules. If she's free this Friday then we'll watch
Jurassic World then.
Anyway, we brought picnic lunches and ate between the movies, down in the Community Kitchen, which is still being tied into all reservations (and makes things a lot easier for people using the theater anyway, as you can only access it by walking through the kitchen).
Shobhit worked on Saturday until 6:30, and once he got home we went down to the Amazon Fresh grocery store on South Jackson Street, to take advantage of our second newspaper coupon for $20 off $40. That's just way too good a deal to pass up, although it does result in us buying ice cream we really don't need.
— पांच हजार दो सौ ग्यारह —
— पांच हजार दो सौ ग्यारह —
As for yesterday, in the morning Alexia asked if I wanted to go for a walk "before it gets warm"—the forecast high was 71°—and I said we'd have to do it soon as I had a movie at 12:40. So, within 15 minutes she and I left, and we walked up to Volunteer Park and back. It was quite lovely and pleasant; I wore my red hoodie walking up there, and on the way back had to take it off as I had already gotten too warm.
While we circled through Volunteer Park, we passed a small hillside of purple flowers that we both found to be very pretty. It was the kind of day many Seattleites have been missing recently, as in sharp contrast to May last year, it's been unseasonably cool and rainy. I'm good with it, though, as it feels like an indicator that the summer will be much milder than last year, and we shouldn't be getting any record-setting heat waves. It may even cut down on potential wildfire smoke, although California remains a giant,
drought-stricken tinder box that may send smoke to us from even that far away. I guess we'll see.
— पांच हजार दो सौ ग्यारह —
We got back, and Shobhit was still home but just leaving for work. Soon after that, I walked downtown to Pacific Place to take myself to see the animated feature
The Bad Guys, which I found pretty entertaining.
After the movie and before coming back home, I actually took Shobhit's suggestion of going to the U District to check out the U District Street Fair, a street fair I didn't even know existed and which was
surprisingly huge, mostly on the Ave but stretching five blocks from Campus Parkway to NE 50th St, and stretching a block to one side or the other on several of the cross streets. And again, this event was back after two years of hiatus (the same will be the case with the Pride Parade this year, which I am very excited about). I actually marked my calendar for next year, though, to make it easier to plan and maybe actually return with Shobhit this time.
I actually spent more time there than I thought I would, mostly just strolling through, although I did spend a lot of time at a booth of really awesome 3D wood sculptures showing the depths of major bodies of water, including the Great Lakes and Puget Sound. I was actually there about an hour, and I took
six photos.
I thought also about how great it is to have Light Rail as a resource for transit to this event—something that was not the case the last time it was held, in 2019, as the Northgate Extension only opened just this past October. Now, U District Station opens right in the middle of the fair. In fact, leaving the station you ran right into a DJ booth, playing really fun dance music. I just love Light Rail so much.
I had ridden Light Rail there from Downtown, then rode back to Capitol Hill Station and walked home from there. I was busy for a while thereafter, for multiple reasons, but before getting to anything else I called Sara W to run by her my continued plan to come visit her again in Denver this summer. I had already conferred with Heather, the cousin I've never met who lives in Cheyenne, so I ultimately settled on July 16-19 for this trip. That's a three-night stay; confirmed Sara has the weekend off so I can spend Saturday afternoon and evening and all of Sunday with her; and then Monday I will take a rental car and drive the couple of hours to Cheyenne to meet Heather. (It's only another 45 minute drive from there to the state border with Nebraska. Should I drive there just to check Nebraska off my list? It's probably not that important. Besides, I want to go to Cheyenne on a weekday so I can tour their state capitol.)
I went and purchased the flights as soon as I got off the phone with Sara. I did this mostly because I had talked to Alexia about it and she said I should book them quickly as airfare will likely skyrocket if I wait. I found an itinerary on Expedia for about $425 that I can live with, flying Delta there and Frontier home, even though, much like my trip to Louisville in March, I will have to get up insanely early to catch a 7:48 a.m. flight. The upside this time though is that these are direct flights and I will land in Denver at 11:40 local time, whereas it was already evening by the time I finally reached Louisville on that trip.
So. Now, I have two trips all set and booked: Victoria for Shobhit's and my anniversary June 12-15; Denver (and Cheyenne) July 16-19. My flight home from Denver will be in the evening, just like it had to be when Shobhit and I flew there in 2019, this time landing in SeaTac on that Tuesday at 7:26. Any earlier flights were a lot more expensive, and just like back then, I guess I'll just find some stuff to do earlier in the day before heading to the airport.
As soon as I got to work this morning, I sent out calendar announcements for days off for three different trips now: June 13-15 for Victoria; July 18 & 19 for Denver; September 26-29 for the Second Biannual Family Vacation in Leavenworth. Pretty much all my travels for the rest of the year are all set, unless Shobhit and I decide to go to Canada yet again in August, for Vancouver Pride. That's iffy but it would be nice, and I'd even be open to making a single weekend of it and only staying one night, after staying for three in Victoria (and I've been to Vancouver
eleven times already—Shobhit has been seven times—although this would be our first time back specifically for Vancouver Pride, which I miss, in 14 years). We have some time to think and decide on that, though; there's no pressing need for really advance booking for anything there.
I made pasta for dinner, and I think I did a pretty good job. Shobhit got home from work just as I was finishing it. He poured us some wine, and we watched
Barry and
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Actually, before that, we had to wait a bit: another thing I did before he got home was proofread his answers to some questions from a potential employer. He did some revisions after reading my corrections and then sent that out. Although ultimately there's no difference because he hasn't actually been hired by anyone yet, I'm still heartened by how much more often he seems to be getting interviews lately. I feel like his finally getting another Project Manager (or Program Manager) position is now inevitable, the only question being of timing. He's not going to get an offer of a salary he thinks he deserves, but he does understand that, right now, he just needs to get his food in the door
somewhere, and get some genuinely recent experience on his resume, and that will help him a great deal in moving forward.
— पांच हजार दो सौ ग्यारह —
[posted 12:37 pm]
