— पांच हजार दो सौ अस्सी —
Well this has been an unusually mellow weekend: not one day of it yielded any Social Review points for anyone. I spent the weekend either doing things by myself (a movie each on Friday and on Saturday) or spending time with Shobhit. We were going to drive the West Seattle Bridge, which finally
reopened with finished repairs Saturday night, after being closed for two and a half years—they closed it due to rapidly spreading cracks in March 23. That was right after shutdowns for the pandemic began, and I thought many times about how that bridge closure would have dominated the news in a relentless way had it happened at any other time, but a global pandemic stole its thunder.
The pandemic continues with its ripple effects today, but we are now far from where we were in the genuinely terrifying days of March 2020, and this time, the reopening of the bridge is getting the bigger headlines.
But, the pandemic still has its direct effects: Shobhit and I both got our Omicron covid booster vaccine shots yesterday, and it left us feeling just barely icky, and we were no longer really up for a day trip anywhere after that. We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home instead. The plan now is to go drive the bridge after work today.
We went back to Harborview Medical Center for the vaccine shot yesterday; I had an appointment at 11:45. Shobhit had booked an appointment for the 22nd, but since he was there, he asked if he could just get his ahead of time with me. I was skeptical that they would, but they were totally accommodating, and actually brought us both into that back room together. A very nice woman wearing cool silver earrings in the shape of elephant heads administered our shots.
When we went in to get our second monkeypox vaccine shots—mine having been on Tuesday, August 30—we went up to the Sexual Health Clinic on the 11th floor of the main hospital building. This Covid Vaccine Clinic is in
its own little annex building, though, connected to another, smaller building of the hospital. Clearly that clinic had been set up for a while; they have a testing site set up there as well.
I was thinking about this, and between all the different things I've gotten vaccine shots for this year, this was my fourth one in 2022. I got my third of three shots for HPV vaccination in January; I got my first monkeypox shot in late July and then a second in late August; now I've gotten my
fourth covid vaccine shot in September—all of the first three had been in 2021, even the first booster, which had been in October. It's actually been 11 months since my last covid vaccine. I think there's a broad consensus that covid shots will become as common as annual flu shots, keeping up with mutations and changes each year.
For a hot minute I thought maybe I'd had more vaccine shots this year than last. But, nope: in 2021 I had the first two covid shots in the spring; the first two HPV shots in June and in September; and then of course my first covid booster in October. That's five on its own, and that doesn't even count the regular flu shot I also got in October. Which I also need to get again soon.
Anyway. I never felt truly ill yesterday, just a slight feeling that was one or two steps away from being ill. There's also real tenderness in the injection site; I get a little bit of pain when I just try to raise my left arm.
I saw from an epidemiologist on TikTok that it's recommended we wait four weeks after the monkeypox vaccine before getting the new covid booster—they don't recommend getting these two at the same time or with overlapping time frames. Well, yesterday was just shy of three weeks since my
second, much-smaller-dose monkeypox shot; that itself had been four weeks since the first monkeypox shit. I decided it was close enough. I had the appointment and certainly didn't want to reschedule it. Also, even though the covid booster is not considered fully effective for two weeks, I still feel better having had it before heading to Idaho this weekend and then Leavenworth next week.
Shobhit and I spent the rest of the day yesterday hanging out and watching TV. We watched several episodes of
Night Court, which we are binging on Prime Video; then in the evening we watched this week's episode of
House of the Dragon.
— पांच हजार दो सौ अस्सी —
— पांच हजार दो सौ अस्सी —
Prior to Sunday, my days were mostly marked by going to movies. I went to the 4:45 showing of
Moonage Daydream, the "immersive" documentary about David Bowie, on Friday right after work. I had never before gone to an IMAX movie there right after work, but it worked out very well, and is just a ten-minute walk or so from work. I chose not to ride my bike that day. And instead of taking the Monorail downtown to catch Light Rail, I just barely managed to get over to Denny Way after the movie to hop on a #8 bus—thanks to it being eight minutes late. That way I didn't have to do any transfers, and just walked the five blocks home from the stop on 15th Avenue.
The movie was pretty good. I'm not convinced I needed to pay $21 to see it in IMAX, but whatever. It also wasn't playing in any Seattle AMC theaters, so my only other option was to take Light Rail to Northgate to see it at Regal Thornton Place. It would have been cheaper there, but the time savings by seeing it at the IMAX did make it worth it.
Then, while Shobhit was at work on Saturday, I took myself to see
The Woman King at the AMC at Pacific Place downtown. This movie was wonderful.
I had some errands to do beforehand, and I decided to do them by bike. I had hoped I could pick up the new David Sedaris book from the "Peak Picks" table at the Central Library, since the library says it's checked in there, so I rode there first. Unfortunately the book was not there. The library lied! So, knowing my hold on it otherwise won't get the book to me by Thursday, I just reactivated a hold on another book so I'll have something to read on my travels next week.
Then, I rode my bike from the library to the office, because I knew there were leftover sandwiches in the refrigerator that would never be fresh enough still on Monday. I figured this was a perfect way to get a free, light lunch I could eat during the movie—and I got some exercise while going to get it! The veggie sandwiches were actually cut into quarters; I took the last five. Okay, I ate one while still at the office. I wrapped the other four into plastic wrap, making a total of one full sandwich, and had a lovely lunch of it while in the movie theater.
I rode home afterward, wrote the review, and again the rest of the day was mostly spent just watching TV. We did go to PCC Central District to do a bit of grocery shopping. Also, I took care of Cassie next door while Alexia was on a trip with family. She's the cat pictured in the center photo of this post. I did get a break from feeding Cassie for dinner Thursday and breakfast Friday, because Alexia's mom passed away on Thursday. I guess she flew back briefly from Spokane (I believe her family getaway had been in Idaho) and was there with her mom when she passed. And then, she flew back again on Friday, thereafter driving the whole gang—including multiple elderly aunts, if I recall—back in her car yesterday. They got a late start back so I did have one more meal than planned to feed Cassie, going over to feed her one last time last night. That was when I took the picture, Cassie hiding under Alexia's bed as always.
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I did have a FaceTime lunch with Karen today though, so that's the next Social Review item!
Our next meeting will actually be for drinks again, after work, at a new rooftop bar she found, called
Altitude Sky Lounge in the South Lake Union neighborhood. She was the one who heard about it and suggested it, before they were even open. We had our lunch today rescheduled from this coming Friday because I'm traveling to Idaho with Dad and Sherri on Friday; doing second- and fourth-Fridays meant our next lunch was not scheduled until October 14, but we rescheduled that for the 7th so we could best schedule the after-work drinks. Also Shobhit can join us that day; he leaves for India on the 8th.
Anyway, otherwise we just kind of shot the shit, catching up and such. I did tell her Shobhit and I both got our Omicron booster shots yesterday, and she wondered how we managed it. But, she was under the impression that she needed to get a Moderna shot because that's what all her previous ones were, but there's no problem with switching the manufacturer between shots. She then got right into looking for available appointments for Pfizer shots while we were talking, which had her very distracted while we were talking for a bit. But, that's okay. I'm actually glad she's getting her shot soon now. She should have gotten hers before Shobhit and I did anyway. Granted, she's already had a second booster, which she apparently got in April, but that one was not Omicron-specific and this one was.
— पांच हजार दो सौ अस्सी —
[posted 1:15 pm]
