— पांच हजार पांच सौ छब्बीस —
Thankfully I don't have too much to update you on today, since I had the wherewithal yesterday morning to
post then about the many things I did on Saturday: a 43rd District Democrats holiday party in the afternoon with Shobhit; then, in the evening with both Shobhit and Alexia, a walk downtown to see Holiday Lights & Delights at Westlake Park; this year's "Fleurs de Villes" at Pacific Place; and this year's Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton Hotel (the
16th one I have now seen, since 2006—every single year except for the ones canceled by the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021).
What I haven't mentioned yet, about the weekend prior to that, is I took myself to see
Eileen after work on Friday. It wasn't the greatest, and now I really wish I had gone to see
Godzilla Minus One instead, after hearing a podcast about it being a surprise hit and how apparently surprisingly good it is, especially for its relatively low budget. Now I'm trying to figure out another evening into which to squeeze that one. Tomorrow evening is a possibility; Shobhit's hand surgery has now been rescheduled for earlier in the morning. I now plan to take my laptop and keyboard home tonight to just work from home tomorrow, something I have not done since I had covid in the spring of 2022.
— पांच हजार पांच सौ छब्बीस —
Oh! Speaking of covid, another thing I haven't mentioned: three different people in the sphere of my circle of friends have covid right now—all of them for the first time.
After I hung out with Gabriel and his brother and his friends for the suit fitting on Sunday last weekend, Gabriel texted this group chat on Monday (which he had created and titled "Mans," something that really confused me at first—basically it's Gabriel, his Best Man, and his groomsmen) that Tess had tested positive for covid. He wasn't super concerned about the rest of us, since he had worn a mask any time we were indoors—as had I—but, there was the fact that I got a ride with him from Seattle to Bellevue and back, although he and I had both tested that morning as a precaution and tested negative.
I did email him directly after that, to find out when he had previously been with Tess, and it had indeed been just that Saturday morning, the day before we all hung out, but she hadn't been displaying symptoms (not that that necessarily means anything). It's now been a full week since then, though, and I actually tested twice over the weekend, once Saturday morning and once yesterday morning, mostly because of that very-low-risk potential exposure and the plan to spend time indoors with Laney—which she had to cancel on Saturday anyway, but after I also attended that party Saturday afternoon (before which I used the "Covixyl" nasal spray Gabriel had told me about), and Laney did indeed make it to the double feature we had scheduled yesterday, I went ahead and tested again, just for our peace of mind. I keep testing negative—and, although I have not texted him to confirm, I literally told Laney, "I would bet a thousand dollars he's been testing every day this week," and so if he'd turned up positive he'd have told me immediately. And, Gabriel did just happen to mention on Saturday that "COVID is in the house, but most of us are -" (Tess is isolated in their basement level, which has been designated as the "isolation wing" from the start; this is just the first time they've needed it.)
Anyway! I had bought tickets to this year's Dina Martina Christmas Show to go with Laney, which is happening on Sunday the 17th, some time ago. But, with her back and knee problems, she emailed me on Friday asking if I could find someone else to give her ticket to—she had been thinking about it and decided that, even with a mask on, attending a sold-out theater show was not a risk she could take. Laney has also never had covid, and she's had a high-stakes reason why she's been so careful (indeed, more careful than anyone I know besides Gabriel): she's still on heart medication from the heart attacks she had in 2014, and they cannot be mixed with meds she would need if she got covid. This is also why we go out of our way to see early showtimes of movies we go to, when there's typically only a few other people in the theater.
I thought for a bit who I should offer the ticket to, and suddenly realized: Danielle! Perfect! Especially after I had to cancel going to the Festival of Trees with her the night before Shobhit and I left for L.A., due to my cold (which, holy shit thank god, was not covid). I texted her to ask if she wanted the ticket. She still hasn't answered that, actually, largely because she immediately pivoted: when I texted her on Friday, she was home sick with
her first bout of covid. As of Friday night, she also had lost her sense of taste—something which, thankfully, did not happen to me when I had it last year.
I also learned on Friday night that Danielle was not the only one in her family to get it: apparently she and the girls and Gail (her mom) all took a trip to Mexico, and both Danielle and Morgan came back with covid—Gail and Rylee, apparently, are both fine, neither testing positive or sick. Morgan doesn't live with Danielle and hasn't for a while anyway, so at Danielle's house it's just her. Anyway, I did ask if Danielle was up to date on boosters, and she said no—she hadn't gotten the last two—and, I would bet money they did not mask up on the plane (most people don't anymore). Whether Gail, who is 71, is up to date is an open question, given her open (and inexplicable) support for Trump, but there are even Trump supporters who stay current on vaccines, especially if they are elderly. So, who knows. Gail has always been a bit of a wild mistery of a woman.
In any case, I'm still hoping Danielle comes to the show with me. By then enough time will have passed she can go out safely again. Otherwise I'll have to see if I can give the ticket to Alexia, and I truly don't have a clue what Alexia would make of Dina Martina. (Shobhit has already gone to a show of hers with me once, in L.A., and it didn't really go well.)
— पांच हजार पांच सौ छब्बीस —
— पांच हजार पांच सौ छब्बीस —
Well, there we go again. I just wrote way more than I intended to! I have a realy problem. I just can't control my fingers. Slow your roll, fingers!
Now I can tell you about
yesterday, which was the first day I had plans with Laney that she did
not need to cancel since we went to see
Napoleon a solid two weeks prior—a pretty wide gap for us these days. (She had to cancel three things in the meantime: The Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition on Friday December 1; Holiday in the Park this past Thursday, December 7; and even after feeling confident on Friday that she would make it, the Happy Hour at The Cheesecake Factory on Saturday—which we have now rescheduled for after a movie we plan to see on Sunday this next coming weekend.)
And, I was sure happy she actually made it yesterday, for several reasons. First, I had the Braeburn Condos theater reserved for the day, and trying to reschedule, particularly with these movies we wanted to see in December, would have become complicated. And second, it was the movies themselves, which became movies #4 and #5 of this year's
Christmas Movie Watchlist:
Carol (which Laney and I went to see in the theater
on New Year's Day 2016) and the Hulu original movie from 2020,
Happiest Season with Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis. It was a
Lesbian Christmas Movie Double Feature!
Laney did walk very carefully, the six blocks from her building to mine yesterday, arriving just a few minutes before 12:30, and telling me she was amazed she made it on time. She walked a bit stiffly, and with her terkking poles. She seems to be pretty self-conscious about using those in public, and I don't think she needs to be at all. Whatever works is whatever works, and I don't think strangers are paying that much attention anyway. Everyone's looking at their phone anyway! And she wouldn't be doing anything interesting enough for anyone to, for instance, shift their focus and then take her picture or something. She'd have to be beating someone with a trekking pole. I should suggest that to her.
She did bring a blow-up pillow as kind of a contingency, so she could lay on the floor of the theater for a bit, which she did do for a little while. She also realized she could use it as a foot rest when she was sitting in one of the seats. More than once, when she was getting out of or back into her chair, I asked if she was doing okay. She consistently said yes. She also said that, after spending all day Saturday alternately heating and icing her back, she was steadily getting better, and was much better than she had been on Saturday. Hopefully she's okay next weekend—I told her that whether we do Happy Hour on Saturday depends entirely on how she's feeling. I can fit it into my schedule with relative ease, although it will mean three rather than two outings scheduled that day. Which is fine.
I briefly considered going downtown to catch a screening of
Godzilla Minus One when we were done, but, by then none of the showtimes left for the day were all that attractive, and two movies in one day was enough anyway. As I said, now I'm thinking about tomorrow night for that, and even with that, it depends. If Shobhit really needs me, I'll stay home.
So, Laney and I said our goodbyes, and I went upstairs and made dinner: at Shobhit's suggestion, a pizza with the leftover butternut squash ravioli topped on it, with added sprinkles of gorgonzola cheese. I had been skeptical of this idea but it
turned out fantastic. And actually, I had forgot that the suggestion was to put it on one of the pizza crusts we had in the fridge, and I put it atop a five-cheese pizza from the freezer. That added base of cheese made it better anyway, and freed up some much-needed space in the freezer after a bunch of frozen samples I brought home from work last week.
Shobhit's work shift ended at 8:00, and he was home maybe 45 minutes later. We spent the rest of the evening watching this week's Sunday night TV:
The Gilded Age and
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
— पांच हजार पांच सौ छब्बीस —
[posted 12:37 pm]
