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I had a very eventful weekend, much of it already written about in a fair amount of detail in a dedicated post I shared yesterday, about attending the Fremont Solstice Parade and Fair on Saturday, for the first time in four years. And this time, Shobhit was unable to join me, but my sister Gina and her friend Jennifer came up to experience the event for the first time themselves.

That wasn't the only notable thing to happen on Saturday, though. Danielle came over for drinks, quite late, and she stayed the night.

To be fair to Danielle, I should mention that we all already knew beforehand that she would be coming over quite late: she had ordered for purchase through Facebook Marketplace, a "barely used" mattress for her van so she could take it camping without needing a tent, and she needed to pick it up from a place near Seattle Center. Danielle's shift ended at Valley Medical Center in Renton yesterday at 9:00, though, so that's why she was unable to come over any earlier. And, she likely would not have come over at all, but since she would be this close, she contacted me to see if she could come by for a drink after.

Now, if this had been me, and the roles were reversed, I wouldn't even have bothered—I mean, in a same scenario where my next shift was the next morning at 9:00. I'd just run the errand, come back home, and get some sleep. Not Danielle! And as the friend she was visiting, I actually appreciated that she wanted to come by, even though I knew it would mean being up late.

Exactly how late, I wasn't really prepared for. Neither was I prepared for the amount I would be drinking. In the end, I had two full, large mugs of hot chocolate with a cumulative five shots of peanut butter whiskey between them.

Danielle quickly lost her patience with trying to find parking when she got to our neighborhood, and in the end she decided to just pay for parking in the pay lot in the garage of the apartment building cross the street on Pine. Shobhit actually saw her drive into the garage through our living room window, and so I went down to the lobby to wait for her. She really was taking a while, and I went outside to see if I could find her. I saw her standing in the middle of the garage, looking at her phone, and so I snuck up all the way to behind a pillar just inside the garage door. I peeked around its corner and she glanced up, and although she didn't jump, she did say I fucking freaked her out, and was about to murder me, or something to that effect.

I then had to help her figure out how the hell to pay the ridiculous $25 overnight fee for parking by phone. This was partly a challenge because her phone screen is incredibly cracked and I was barely able to make out the text more easily than her tired eyes, after a long shift at work, could. Also the stupid system kept doubling up on the charge before going to checkout, due to back-paging in attempts to correct whatever was wrong. At one point the subtotal was quadrupled. I finally got it figured out, though, we got the right amount paid, and we walked inside.

On our way in, I told her I was going to make myself hot chocolate with peanut butter whiskey. I asked if she'd like that and she said, "No thanks, although that sounds right up your alley." Indeed! Once we got upstairs, I asked Shobhit if he wanted any, and he also said no. We put a bottle of rosé in the freezer to chill, which actually eventually never got opened (it did get taken back out of the freezer). Danielle was a little indecisive about her drink of choice, and in the end just made herself a vodka mixed with juice. I think Shobhit may have just gotten himself some whiskey, but I can't remember for sure.

And: I had my mug of hot chocolate, with three shots of peanut butter whiskey, thinking that would be it for the evening and very contented with that idea. A while later, Danielle suddenly said, "Can I have some hot chocolate?" I was like, "Are you serious?"

She said she would just make it herself, and I was like, fine. I really should have made it myself: Shobhit then also decided he wanted some, and I would have known what quantity to make so that we only needed to serve it to the two of them. Danielle, however, used the same small-ish pot that I typically do, which I think holds more volume than it appears, and really overestimated the quantity need: she filled the pot full, first with far more water than Shobhit felt was needed ("Will you trust me?" Danielle said—in her defense, it did still taste good) and then with milk the rest of the way. Shobhit wanted her to make it with the "Spicy Aztec" flavor, and Danielle, who usually loves spicy stuff, decided she wanted to make it mixed with the regular, non-spicy kind.

Figuring that should cut the spice a bit, I took out three large mugs, and told her she could pour hers and Shobhit's, and I would just take the rest, thinking it might amount to, say, half a cup. Well, it still completely filled my mug, or nearly did. I added abother two shots of peanut butter whiskey to it. I really didn't need to do the extra whiskey, which really fucked me up nearly all day yesterday—well, that combined with my lack of sleep did—but maybe I was thinking the others were still drinking, I might as well too.

It must have been around 10:30 when Danielle and I first got back inside. We all visited for a few hours, during which, after being very cagey about joining us for Pride because she insists she gets filled with anxiety to plan that far in advance (we bought tickets to the Madonna concert next month, months ago, but whatever), she suddenly got very excited when she found out Shobhit's contingent is signed up to include as many as two vehicles. Her van she's been driving for eons she calls "Felicia," so she was like, "Can Felicia be in Pride!" Now she's all about the idea.

Anyway. Danielle and Shobhit were both asleep before me, and I don't know how or why I was able to stay up as late as I did, although I did go to bed only a few minutes after they did. I was in bed at 1:30 a.m. I can't remember the last time I was up that late.

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— पांच हजार चार सौ बाईस —

I had stated on Saturday night, even as Shobhit said he would get up and make breakfast for Danielle who would need to wake up around 7:00, that I would probably stay in bed and sleep until she left.

This proved truly impossible, as when Danielle and Shobhit were up, and he was busy making breakfast, they both chatted and carried on as though no one else were there, or at least as though everyone were awake. They chatted quite loudly. It was truly impossible to sleep through.

So, slightly hungover and sleep deprived, I got out of bed. When Danielle saw me, she seemed slightly surprised: "Are you up for the day." I could have said, "I had no choice!" or some shit like that, but instead I just said, "Yeah."

Shobhit made some very tasty sauteed chopped potatoes with a few vegetables thrown in. I then helped make the eggs, and had mine over-easy on top of and then mixed in with my potatoes. They were delicious.

Danielle was out the door by maybe a quarter after 8 a.m. When she'd left home on Saturday, she grabbed a change of clothes just in case she would wind up staying the night, which was smart as none of us would have wanted her driving back to Renton right after drinking. She didn't think to bring a toothbrush or toothpaste though, and we found those things for her. She then went straight from our place to work, already dressed in her scrubs.

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I started writing my post about the Fremont Solstice Parade and Fair, but had to pull away from it when we decided to go do some shopping at Costco in the late morning, before I went to meet Laney for Happy Hour. Still hoping for a large turnout for his contingent—he literally wedged flyers into nearly every door in our condo complex; it includes my email address and no one has contacted me about it—he bought three pallets of bottled water, and five different boxes of snacks, things like chips or energy bars. If any of it doesn't get used, he can just return it.

This is going to be a very different Pride weekend, so much of it being focused on Shobhit's campaign. He'll get more exposure as a candidate there than probably everything he's done thus far combined. He's a little over-focused on the size of his contingent in the parade, but he's already got two huge banners printed, and the exposure he'll get is going to be the same regardless of the number of people marching with us. Right now there are three definite people (Shobhit, myself, Sachin); and at least two others who now seem probable: Valerie, and Danielle. Shobhit's old acting friend Glynis is in talks about working as a volunteer coordinator for him, so maybe she will too, although I'm not fully certain. Laney had considered it but has decided the parade will be too much for her; we will have lunch on Saturday during the Capitol Hill Pride Festival, though, and she said she'll come sit at our booth for a while after that.

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But, I digress! I spent most of the day yesterday feeling pretty fucked up. I wasn't in agony, exactly, just feeling generally icky, and particularly feeling exhausted on top of it. Normally I could function just fine on five and a half hours of sleep, but being dehydrated from drinking on top of it really kind of took me out. I drank as much water as I could, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference for most of the day.

It was for this reason, more than anything, that I only lasted about two hours at Happy Hour with Laney, which we did at Poquito's.

And actually, some months ago, we had marked our calendars for this date to go see the new movie Strays, a raunchy comedy about lost dogs. It was going to be our first outing to an actual movie theater together since before the pandemic. But, then the studio pushed the release date back to August, and Laney suggested, since we had already marked the date, that we just make it another Happy Hour.

We actually settled on an outdoor picnic Happy Hour at Cal Anderson Park, and had even decided on sitting on the eastern edge of the park, in case we beeded to go over to 12th Avenue Arts where she's done some volunteer work so she has access, in case we needed to use the bathroom. But, then there was rain in the forecast yesterday, so she suggested in the end that we pivot to Poquitos, which is only a block south of Cal Anderson Park.

For the first time, Laney actually made good on her idea of driving to Tukwila International Station and taking Light Rail into town, this time there not being any major crowd-inducing city event to change her mind. So, with barely enough time after Shobhit and I returned from Costco, I walked over to meet her at Capitol Hill Station, even seeing her, in her mask, riding on the train as it pulled up alonside the platform. We walked together over to Poquitos.

I had pre-gamed a bit by making a margarita to go, and deciding I would buy only one drink at Poquitos, and get it when Laney got her second beer. I also wound up saving money by doing the very same thing Laney did for food, and just getting the chips and jalapeno queso, which is only eight bucks. (An entree would have been twice that.) So, when I usually budget as much as fifty bucks for a Happy Hour outing at a restaurant, yesterday's actually cost me only about $28. And, also having spent far less than my budgeted $100 for Fremont on Saturday, my budget balance is now above rather than below $0. Technically it's at 59 cents, but we'll see whether or not I actually spend the $50 I also budgeted for dinner with Tracy tonight. We're going axe throwing! You'll read about that tomorrow.

Anyway, it was dry when I walked to the station to meet Laney, and it was dry when we left, but at least two different times there were very heavy downpoors. We sat in the extended section to the side with the plastic roofing, so it got pretty loud a couple of times.

And, I was so tired after just a couple of hours that I was about to zonk out. As always we chatted about lots of stuff, and the most pertinent thing I learned as that Laney is in very early in the process for applying to live at Pride Place right there on Broadway—in fact, all of one block from Poquitos. If all goes as desired, she could be moved in there by sometime in the fall. How awesome that would be!

Otherwise, though, I was at a point where I was like, "I'm not going to make it any longer." I was truly in desperate need for a nap, and after I walked with her as far as Broadway and Pine, and then broke away to walk up Pine to home, I did exactly that. I set my timer for an hour so I wouldn't sleep too long in the middle of the day, and actually woke up after about forty-five minutes, not feeling spectacular but still feeling much better. I had to stay on the bed for a bit because then Shanti jumped up to snuggle.

After that, I finished the Fremont post I shared yesterday. In the evening, Shobhit and I did about 75% of a test-assembly of the canopy he ordered for the Pride Festival on Saturday. And then, after hearing about it on podcasts and even getting a recommendation from Laney, we binge watched the first half (four episodes) of Jury Duty, in which one real guy has no idea every single person around him is an actor. It's a fascinating thing to watch, and surprisingly entertaining. Shobhit was very skeptical at first, and then was hooked within ten minutes. It's because of him that we kept moving to next episodes, and I was the one who said we shoudl stop to take a look at the canopy, as our time after last night until Saturda is limited.

— पांच हजार चार सौ बाईस —

The only other thing to mention from the weekend is that on Friday after work I took myself to see The Flash. And that really wasn't worth it.

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[posted 12:30 pm]