Well: we didn't manage my first social engagement putting Laney and Alexia together last night after all. The rest of us still went—and I am so, so glad—but, Laney sent me this text yesterday afternoon while I was still at work, at 3:05 p.m.:

Hi, I've been in lots of pain this morning with my knee and my sciatica. I just walked over to the grocery store and instead of getting better it got worse so I'm not going to come tonight. I was thinking I could take the bus but then it just means a lot of standing around. Sorry to miss it but there's always next year!

I didn't notice this message untik the follow-up came 12 minutes later:

PS. I try not to be negative about body aches but I fucking hate this! I was fine until I took a shower and then I twisted something or some stupid thing. Anyway just needed to vent, have fun tonight!

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. But, what can you do? Her knee is regularly an issue, and given the massive amount of time we spend hanging out these days, it's inevitably going to interfere with some of our plans. I was just bummed it happened with this particular plan. But, pain is pain and she needs to take care of herself. It's not like I have any reason to resent her for it, and I don't.

Besides, it's great to have backup! Plus, Alexia is almost stunningly punctual, will show up at any agreed time to the minute, and rarely has any reason to cancel or change plans. I was thinking about this a bit, though, as she and Laney aren't that far apart in age—they're both in their sixties, but, Laney is five years old, had he heart attack about a decade ago, and although she doesn't smoke now, she has a long history of it that I don't think Alexia has. Alexia works out regularly, particularly yoga, and is very fit for a person her age. One thing they both really have going for them is having parents who lived well into their nineties. Laney and I talk a lot about how she probably still has decades to go, but I'm starting to wonder how swiftly her capabilities of mobility might change in the coming years.

At least she only lives six blocks away. That second text gave me a sense that she was probably way more bummed out about having to cancel than I was. It's got to be incredibly frustrating. Hell, I'm just in my late forties and keep pulling a muscle in my arm and shoulder that causes aches for weeks. It's frustrating for me!

Anyway. I took the Monorail and then Light Rail home from work, although I wound up waiting for both trains longer than I'd have preferred, getting me home with only about fifteen minutes before Alexia and I were set to walk downtown. Ultimately I bumped the time of our meeting out in the hallway to 5:35. I ate the last bowl of leftover pasta from Action Movie Night on Wednesday like a total pig, trying to get it inhaled quickly. I fed the cats. And I made two apple cider whiskey hot toddies to go, for Shobhit and me.

Shobhit had an acupuncture appointment at Stephanie's practice in the Medical Dental Building between 5 and 6, and he met Alexia and me at Pike Place Market after. He lost a glove somewhere along the way.

He's decided acupuncture isn't doing anything for his tendonitis. I could have predicted that, but, sometimes you'll try anything. He still has surgery scheduled for the 12th.

On the walk down, Alexia filled me on her her wild week, everything that's happened since she told me about the previous two wild weeks when we got together for the Seattle Festival of Trees on Monday. She's got so much going on at once, things that don't have to do with each other but are occuring at the same time, it's amazing. Apparently one of her direct reports tried to insist on a raise for a lateral move that had already been arranged, tried to back out of it when she wouldn't give the requested raise, threatened to go to HR, Alexia said go ahead and so he did, and now he is getting investigated by HR. Alexia is confident it's not going to end well for him, but that hasn't made it all any less of a pain in the ass for her. On top of that, a good friend of hers, apparently a former coworker she's stayed in touch with for two decades, went missing on Tuesday, then was found dead of a heart attack a couple of days later.

I was like, "Are you sure you're okay to go out?" Alexia said, as we walked toward downtown on Pine, that she's prepared to just head back home if she needs to at any point. But, she wanted some Christmas cheer.

I had no particular need for it any more than I ever do during the holiday season (when I always love it), but I am sure glad I finally went back to The Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition at Pike Place Market. I now have a collection of photo albums on Flickr going! The only other one, so far, is from 2014, but I have a feeling this may become an annual tradition in the coming years. That is, unless we see too many of the same groups singing the same songs every year.

For instance: The Beaconettes, the beehive-wearing group of older ladies that we saw this year, and I saw in 2014, and who also perform pretty much every year at Holiday in the Park. I have to say, I don't think they're the greatest singers in the world—they're okay—but they sure have a handle on showmanship, and people quite understandably love them. There were mainstage performances of the top three fundraising earners at 7:30, the crowd really gathering around to get thick, and The Beaconettes came in second.

The first-place fundraisers were already the choral group Alexia and I agreed we liked the best, called Emerald City Voices, and Alexia and I also decided we should see if they have a show of their own sometime we could go see—they were that good.

How much talent there was among the other groups, spread at different spots all over Pike Place Market and covering maybe three or four blocks, really ran the gamut. No matter what, though, it was a delight. It did rain lightly for much of the walk down and then much of the event, but, somewhat miraculously, by the time the mainstage show started, the rain stopped. Shobhit had wanted to suggest we head back home before the mainstage show began, but I really wanted to stay and check out at least some of it. I was so, so glad we did.

Those top-three winners all got up and sang a song, and accepted an award. Then when the show shifted to speeches by organizers and recipients of the fundraising, all of which I don't deny was important, it was just too cold to keep standing around and not actually seeing performances. So, we then headed home, walking all the way only because there wasn't a bus coming by soon enough. But whatever, I got in 14,672 steps yesterday.

When we got home I changed into pajamas, made some tea, and processed photos while Shobhit and I watched the last three episodes of the Swedish show Tore on Netflix.

[posted 11:34 am]