Shobhit, Ivan and I all went out for pho' for dinner Friday night, basically our last "traditional" dinner type with Ivan for who knows how long—he flew out to Philadelphia on the red eye late last night. Back when Ivan lived with us, both of the last two times he did actually, he would often suggest pho' for going out for dinner. Pho' was just one of his things. I rarely think to get pho' on my own, but I do like it and was nearly always down when Ivan suggested it, just as he did for Friday. In fact I kept my calendar free Friday evening with the full expectation that he would suggest going out for dinner, and it's not at all surprising that he suggested pho'.
Shobhit did say he'd like to join for pho;, texting me from work on Friday, clarifying that it was fine if I wanted to get my last dinner alone with Ivan. I saw no particular need for that, though, so when Ivan messaged me asking if we could do dinner at 6:30, I told him we needed to wait for Shobhit and so he shifted it to 6:45. That gave us basically just enough time for Shobhit to get home, change is clothes, and then for us to walk over there and meet Ivan, although we were about five minutes late. We actually ran into him on a corner on Broadway a couple of blocks from the restaurant we were aiming for, so we walked the rest of the way there.
Ivan always liked going to this place across the street from Broadway Market on Broadway called "The Pho'." We got there, only to discover the place has been converted into a new, Korean restaurant—even though the "The Pho" sign was still on the wall above the entrance. I had no idea The Pho' had closed, or when; it appears to have been
just recently, albeit with the same owners who took over The Pho' in early 2020. But, they are Koren and apparently always wanted to make and sell Korean food, so now that's what they're doing.
That's not what Ivan (and I) wanted, though, and none of us really wanted Koren. Ivan and I both whipped out our phones to find another pho' place, and found another one just a couple of blocks further north. It's called Pho' Than Brothers, and guess what? Their pho' was excellent, notably better than The Pho's ever was.
That said, that block on Broadway was striking how much had changed. We noticed for the first time that Wedgewood II Vegetarian Thai has also closed,
as of May 1; and we were fairly shocked to see even that blocks' Pagliacci Pizza closed, although I must have already known that and forgot, because that location's planned closure was
covered in 2019 and they have a new location on Pike Street. Nevertheless, it was striking to see three storefronts in succession on the same block, no longer looking like they all did for many years.
Once we got over to Pho' Than Brothers, we all got different sizes, making me think of us as the Three Bears, just in sizes instead of temperature: I got the small vegetarian pho' (which is frankly already in a plenty-big bowl); Ivan got the medium; and Shobhit got the large. They even have an extra large, but Shobhit wound up putting half of his in a container to bring home as it was.
At Shobhit's suggestion, we then walked over to Pie Bar on Olive Way off Bellevue, for dessert. "I always have room for dessert," Ivan said, and so off we went, walking in the very light rain. Ivan got the mud pie, which he let me have a bite of; it was delicious—but, even though it's exactly what Shobhit and I had the last time we were there, I was almost unprepared for how spectacular the slice of multi-berry "Desserted Island Crumble." Holy fuck, it was good. Neither of us really needed to order cocktails along with it (Ivan didn't have a drink), but we did. Shobhit's, a chocolate concoction, was much tastier than my "apple pie toddy." I think these might also have been the same drinks he and I ordered the last time we were there.
Anyway, it rained only slightly heavier, but still lightly, as we walked home from there, and then spent the rest of the evening watching the new Hulu film release
Fire Island, which I then
reviewed and posted (solid B) yesterday morning.
I didn't expect to see much of Ivan yesterday, even though he was going to be around all day before his red eye; he had initially booked a winery tour that included a stop at Snoqualmie Falls, which apparently he'd never been to, yesterday. But, he fell behind on his last-minute errands Friday and so he called them to rebook for yesterday instead. That made for quite a busy last day for him, I'm sure. His tour didn't leave until 10 a.m., though, so I got a bit of quiet time with him after Shobhit left for work but before Ivan left for his tour, which was nice.
There was a brief period there when I thought I might actually be attending Seattle Pride's first "Pride in the Park" since 2019 (excluding the very similar event they held there last October) with Alexia, Shobhit
and Ivan. Shobhit really went back and forth, but after his tire replacement could not happen until Tuesday which meant not even being able to leave work on the bus until 5:30, he wound up not coming, especially after he texted to ask me if it was worth it and I said it was the same as October, just more people.
Ivan really just followed a typical trajectory here: telling me he was interested in joining for something, continuing to say so, until bailing at the last minute. He messaged me later yesterday that he was running behind and suggesting Alexia and I go on without him and he "may stop by briefly," and I knew then that was not going to happen. But, whatever. At least I had Alexia to go with, and she seemed to have a pleasant enough time
I'm just glad we're back to holding traditional in-person Pride events this year. Pride's website has a great resource list for Pride events all over the region all summer, actually, so my Pride collection of photo albums this year may wind up being of record size. I've already got my "Seattle Pride in the Park" photo album, anyway (in the past they called it "
Volunteer Park Pride Festival," but whatever), although it only yielded
25 shots. These 'Pride Picnic" photo albums never wind up being very big anyway.
The whole thing was, as I already noted, striking similar—virtually identical—to the event they put on last October, even with the live music stage in the same grassy area over by the Volunteer Park Conservatory. This is clearly because the remodeled Volunteer Park Amphitheater still isn't opened, due to the concrete workers strike. The latest I have found online is that, after an initially published opening date of 2021, they expect to open in June of this year! I'll be surprised if that actually happens, but I guess we'll see. No other Pride events are scheduled for this park, incidentally; all the "Capitol Hill Pride" events on Pride Weekend occur on Broadway or in Cal Anderson Park.
So, Alexia and I just made the rounds through all the booths—there were more booths this time, for sure, than there had been in October; but plenty less than in previous years—and grabbed freebies wherever we could. I got a couple packets of applesauce. Exciting! Shobhit would be a lot more aggressive with this stuff, but there still wasn't as great a loot on hand as there has been in the past either. Whatever, it was fine. In a couple of cases there were lines that were just too long for us to have time for, such as for the "Lovers" sex toys booth, where they were, I think, giving away masturbatory devices. I even got a
largely unreadable shot of that booth's hanging letters that spelled out MASTURBATE.
I actually went back into Flickr this morning and captioned
all the photos in the photo album. Most of my Birth Week photo albums remain uncaptioned, but at least this one is done. It's so hard to keep up with the captioning anymore.
The one long line Alexia and I did stand in was for dumplings at the Dumpling Tzar food truck. This was well worth it; my potato dumplings topped with melted cheese and shredded cheese were delicious. We sat at a semi-secluded picnic table to eat, and then we walked home, with the aim of getting back before Ivan would be headed out for the airport at about 7:00.
Ivan was still packing when I got home, which was kind of astonishing. He left with just three bags, all of them rollers, but two traditional suitcases and one he could carry as a backpack. It was still just around 7:10 when he was ready to go. Because it was raining more heavily then, he was going to get a Lyft, but Shobhit suggested I offer to give him a ride to the Light Rail station, so I did—even though once again I would be driving on the spare tire, but at least the station is only half a mile away.
Besides, quite unlike when he left for Victoria on May 1, this allowed for not just a proper goodbye, but a private one between just the two of us, which left me feeling very satisfied with his departure. He actually did also give Shobhit a hug when we left the condo, which was sweet. Shobhit was like, "Have a nice life!" Ivan just said thank you.
When I pulled up to the south entrance of the Capitol Hill Light Rail Station, pulling to the curb on the nearby side street between the station and Cal Anderson Park, I got out and helped take all of his bags out—one out of the backseat (set atop a bunch of the stuff that usually goes in the trunk but won't be put back until the tire is fixed), and two out of the trunk. With the slightly nervous laughter that he always accompanies his major goodbyes (and reuniting hellos) with, Ivan gave me one last hug, and said yet again, "Thank you, for everything." Then he also said something somewhat surprising and odd: "I'll see you in two years." He even held up two fingers when he said it, in a tone that suggested that was his current plan. He'll come back for a visit in two years.
I told him that as always, so long as there's no one else staying or living in the guest room when he visits, he always has a free place to stay. As for his "two years" declaration, though, take that with the tiniest of grains of salt. Ivan can change what his plans are by the hour, let alone by the day or by the month. How he envisions his 2024, which is far further off than anything he ever definitively plans, might very well be wildly different
next week than it is now. Based on his historic patterns, though, I do feel it unlikely he will go
more than two years before visiting again, but, you never know. He's spent so much time focusing his attentions on the West Coast, has for many years in fact, but now he has his sights on Upstate New York and New England. In all likelihood, he'll get a nursing job, feel okay with it for a few months, then get sick of it like he does all his jobs, and randomly choose some other place to go.
For all I know, he could visit again within the year. Probably not. But if I've hard-learned anything about Ivan, it's that there's no holding him to any of his plans for any extended period of time, at least not until he has actual tickets booked. It's for this reason that I feel less sad about this goodbye than previous ones: I am far more sure than ever that I will see him again. I just don't know when. I still think I am likely his longest-lasting close friend at this point, and he knows I can be relied upon as a friend. He would not go out of his way to say such a thing to me, ever, but that's fine. I'm content to know it to be true.
So, once I was back to the condo, I texted Alexia that we were ready for her to come over and watch
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. She and I basically made a plan for her to wait to come over until Ivan and I had said our goodbyes, just so we didn't add any stress or pressure to Ivan on his departure with yet another person present. I think this was a good and effective plan.
Alexia brought over goodies: a fruit salad she suggested I blend to make piña coladas for Shobhit and me, which I did indeed do and they were fucking delicious; and a box of many sugar cookies, which I ate too many of. I weighed in at 168.9 lbs this morning, which is about enough to give me a panic attack. I need to lay off the sweets
and the alcohol for a while. Jesus Christ.
Watching the movie was a lot of fun, as expected. We all already have tickets booked for opening night of
Jurassic Park: Dominion on Thursday evening after work. We're all looking forward to it. Alexia has delighted in all of these films, only the first one of which had she ever already seen. And, it has been a lot of fun rewatching them all with her.
[posted 12::08 pm]
