— पांच हजार चार सौ चौबीस —
Never in my life have I been so eager for Pride Weekend to just be over.
I mean, don't get me wrong: I'm sure I'll make some very cool memories, and get lots of photos I will treasure. It's only that the difference this time is I have far longer time commitments over the weekend, thanks to Shobhit's campaigning, than I ever have before. He's going to have a booth at the Capitol Hill Pride Festival tomorrow for a solid twelve hours tomorrow, unless he decides to break down early; at the very least it wil be ten hours. And with the exception of a lunch break with Laney, I will be with him that whole time. I will need to be there to help set up the booth, table and chairs in the morning; and to help him break it down at the end of the day.
This is what makes me look forward to the weekend with trepidation, because it's going to be exhausting.
I have Trans Pride tonight to go to, and as of right now I'm just going alone; I actually have no idea whether Gabriel and Tess will be there and whether they can make it tends to vary by the year. I suppose I should text him anyway. Either way, that at least will be fun, although Shobhit is hoping I can come home half an hour early today to help him load supplies for tomorrow into the car. I don't know yet if I can even do that.
And I haven't even mentioned Sunday, when we will march in the parade, and we still have no clue exactly how many people will march with us. Shobhit has talked about wanting 100-200 people, and even the low end of that is likely a pipe dream. We have all of three people absolutely confirmed to be coming so far, although I'm sure there will be plenty more than that, in the end. It's actually pretty exciting that he's the first political contingent in the parade, and the 18th overall. For a parade that lasts a solid four hours every year, that's actually quite close to the front. I hope to be able to walk back and see others in the parade behind us, but that's also very up in the air as I'll probably be needed for putting all the stuff back into the car when we're done. After that, at least, we can hang out at PrideFest at Seattle Center.
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When I
posted yesterday about Lynn and Zephyr's wedding, I mentioned how exhausted I was at the end of
that day, having done several errands on the way up to Everett and more on the way back.
Our first stop was Karen and Dave's house, as I had texted her to ask if they had any kind of pull-wagon we could borrow. And they did! Not only that, but it's a fantastic one, with cloth lining and it collapses for very easy carrying and transport—it fit into our trunk with plenty of space to spare.
Neither of them were home mid-day yesterday, so they just left it on their back patio in Magnolia for us to pick up.
From there we went to the Greenlake Aurora PCC, since we were going to be passing it anyway, and stopped there to get the next two weeks' worth of cat food; some eyeliner the Central District store no longer carries; and some cheeses that caught Shobhit's eye.
Then, it was off to what we had hoped would be just one Home Depot store, but in the end was the first of three for the day: we didn't buy anything at the first one we stopped at, off Aurora a bit further north. They were able to tell us the one in Shoreline had what we wanted, though, and we went there, where Shobhit got some sign boards cut to desired dimensions and some lumber for holding signs.
I had no idea when the hell there would be any time to help with making those things. I got the answer when I got home for the evening later last night: his friend Glynis's husband spent something like five or six hours yesterday gluing them together for him. They were all set into a bucket, standing on their sticks, ready to be written on. I was genuinely impressed.
He also wanted to buy a table, and we stopped at Home Depot again on the way home from Everett after the wedding, to look at them at a location that had the black ones Shobhit wanted in stock. In the end we decided not to get it, because we already have access to one we can borrow from our condo building.
I was super tired and kind of irritated at stopping at yet another place on the way home, but made a very conscious choice not to bitch about it: Shobhit would have had a far easier time running all these errands if he'd had the whole day free without going to this wedding, and he did drive us both up to the wedding. To me, this was a more than fair trade-off. It did mean, however, that I slept like the dead on Wednesday night, it had been such a long day.
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— पांच हजार चार सौ चौबीस —
As for yesterday, I rode my bike home first, and had some leftover vegetable lasagna from work that had been from the "summer office barbecue" I had been unable to attend on Wednesday due to the wedding. And then I walked back downtown to meet Tracy for the 7pm showing of
Asteroid City, which I really liked a lot.
Mind you, this was the evening prior to the film's published release date, and I was really stuck by how full the house was—probably around 75% capacity. I had not worn a mask at Blade and Timber on Monday, rationalizing that I'd be snacking so, you know, whatever. I did wear one to the movie last night, though, as I always do to all movies I go to—I was not the only one, but I was one of only a handful of people wearing one.
Tracy has stopped bothering. I did take my mask off long enough to eat one of the mozzarella sticks she offered me.
After the movie, as per usual, Tracy drove me home, giving us a few minutes to chat. We didn't spend as much time chatting in her car across the street from my building as we usually do, though—both probably because we had already just hung out on Monday and there would not be a whole lot new to discuss beyond the movie; and Tracy said she was getting tired anyway.
I had thought I would write my review last night, but once I got inside, I decided I wasn't up for it. I whipped it up this morning instead, something I don't do much anymore. There are always exceptions, I guess.
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And finally, I just finished with virtual lunch with Karen—my first time seeing her since she and Dave got back from their vacation to Scandinavia, so we talked a lot about that. It sounds like they had a really great time, as they visited Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki, if I remember right. I'm thinking Helsinki was one because they took an overnight ferry to one of their destinations. And I'm pretty sure Stockholm was where a friend she's met at other international conferences for people with OI (
steogenesis Imperfecta) lives. But, they were traveling together for the first time, and she said they made very good travel companions.
She also asked me about both our anniversary weekend getaway and how that went; what the plans are for Pride Weekend and Shobhit's campaign; and also the pull wagon they have that we're borrowing for use in the parade. She said she was surprised Shobhit and I don't already have one. Well, I'm thinking now we may just have one of our own soon enough! Anyway now I need to get back to work.
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[posted 1:07 pm]
