— पाँच हजार चार सौ अड़तीस —
I had a rather eventful weekend, which of course is hardly out of the ordinary, except that it was a little bit more so than anticipated, mixing both social outings and political events with Shobhit. He had not one, but two candidate forums to attend, one each on Saturday and Sunday. I think this might be the first time that has happened, two in one weekend; it's certainly the first time I have come along for two in one weekend. Not only that, but in neither case was every District 3 candidate present—and in both cases Shobhit was one of only three District 3 candidates who were at both events (the others were Joy Hollingsworth and Andrew Ashiofu).
And I have to say: Shobhit did very well at both events, I thought—particularly compared to earlier events. If he ever runs for office again, he'll have learned such a massive amount through this process that he'll be starting incredibly far ahead of where he started at the beginning of this campaign.
Also: as much as I get ambivalent about feeling obligated by Shobhit, both overtly and subtly as his mood might dictate, to accompany him at all these events—and I have come to a lot; I just counted on my Google Calendar and I've attended nine in-person candidate forums so far—almost invariably, I find myself glad I went to the ones I did go to. On Saturday we went to a forum at a place in the Central District called Nickelsville, a "tiny house village" for the homeless, and to call it enlightening would be an understatement. This is what I wrote when
posting about it (including the photo above) on my socials:
Shobhit speaks at a candidate forum at Nickelsville, a Tiny House Village in Seattle’s Central District.
I have to tell you: if you want to learn a LOT about your city, just run for City Council. Especially if you want to learn actual facts in the face of oversimplified misinformation about marginalized communities. Just tagging along to this event, and plenty of others like it, has been deeply illuminating.
I think even Shobhit took this to heart after reading my post, because he would say things very much to the same effect when speaking to people the next day at the next event.
The one serious downside on Saturday was the heat: we got to 90° that day, or at least SeaTac Airport did; when I checked the weather app on my phone during the event, it said 85°. Either way, the chairs set up for attendees were largely directly in the sun, and I had chosen that side to sit in. Thankfully I had the wherewithal to put on sunscreen, as otherwise I'd have seriously baked to a crisp sitting directly in the sun for a solid two hours. Normally I could have handled this weather kind of okay, except that here I had no option but to just sit and take it.
I responded to a comment from Laney on the Facebook post I had shared, which included some details about this:
I should have gotten a photo of the chairs setup but never did: they were set up in the pathway between the 16 tiny houses, eight on each side facing each other. It was so fucking hot today, and I sat in direct sunlight to watch an allotted ten minutes each for about ten or so candidates (most from District 3, this district, but actually a few from other districts). I even overheard one of the candidates whispering to her brother who had accompanied her that the heat was overwhelming her. And you know me, I like to take every opportunity to bitch about the heat, but in this instance I very deliberately kept my mouth fucking shut about it. None of the people in these tiny homes have air conditioning. (I did learn later that among the donations given to the village there have been enough box fans supplied to each tiny home.) I did break at one point though and get a soda—a sugary one, even, and I don't ever drink those—out of one of the coolers of drinks provided for the event. Later someone came in with a case of bottled water and I took one of those too. Side note: Shobhit did incredibly well with his allotted time, and really seemed to engage this small audience with it. His speech (for lack of a better word; a lot of it was meant to provide answers to previously supplied questions) was easily in the top two, if not the best of them. The other best speech, in my opinion, came from the first candidate to be drawn by lottery from a hat, and she was actually one of the few from a different district.
The lady who was emceeing the event was one of the residents, and she had chatted extensively with Shobhit on the Saturday of Pride weekend, when he had a canopy set up for the Capitol Hill Pride Festival—a day that in the end left us unsure whether it had been worth the investment. But, considering even that one connection he made, I am realizing now that it could be argued it was indeed worth the investment. (Whether marching in the actual Pride Parade the next day was worth it, is maybe a little more up for debate. Except we sure did have a lot of fun doing it, and although Shobhit doesn't always look at things this way, that alone gave it value.) I can't remember her name. But, more than once she would tell the small, gathered crowd to please partake in the table of quite a few snacks set out for the event. I had a couple small things but felt a little bit weird about it; it was clearly intended for this event, but also whatever was left over could be used by the residents of the village.
There were also two coolers of cold drinks, and as already noted in the comments, I just got so hot that I couldn't take it anymore, and fished into the ice of one cooler and got an orange soda. It was like a godsend in that heat. Someone later came in through the gate with a case of bottled waters, and it was like the Hallelujah Choir began to sing. I grabbed one of those a few minutes after they were put into the coolers.
I thought a lot about the kind of oppressive heat the residents of this village must have to endure through the summer. The aforementioned emcee lady did show Shobhit around for just a couple of minutes after we arrived; we learned that there are sixteen residents currently. There's a single building that houses two communal bathrooms, and one single shower that they all share. They also have a small kitchen and even a donated washer and dryer. I don't remember how they get their electricity, but they do have it.
One of the better things about this whole setup is that they have neighbors who are not just fine with, but supportive of its existence. That was a breath of fresh air in a city full of NIMBYism. One neighbor had even come to attend the event, and was slightly confrontational: during Alex Cooley's speech she hollered out, "How are you going to win?" And frankly, I don't think that's a particularly fair question, and only invites disingenuous platitudes. (I know that it could easily be argued that it's a totally fair question, but it's fairer during the general than it is during the primary, when there can be, as in this case,
eight candidates running.) Perhaps he shouldn't have been, but this same lady kind of caught Shobhit off guard after the event when he attempted to do some door knocking, and she came out of her place while he was talking to someone else to ask the same question. When you ask that of someone who is clearly not the frontrunner, it can kind of knock them off their feet, and I don't really see the utility in it.
Anyway, the heat notwithstanding, I was
really happy to have gone to that event, at which I learned a lot. Shobhit certainly did too, just as he has at event after event, teaching him a pretty holistic view of how countless facets of city government work (or don't work, as the case may be). Admittedly I don't spend a lot of time with personal enagement with people at this events (while it's basically all Shobhit does), but a ton can be gleaned from mere observation alone.
— पाँच हजार चार सौ अड़तीस —
I'll shift backward one day now for a bit, to note that on Friday, I left work half an hour early to meet Tracy at AMC Pacific Place to see
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, which I had been genuinely psyched to see because I love those movies. And? It was . . . fine. Too long. Some very gripping action scenes that were also a bit too reminiscent of scenes in other movies of recent years. I hoped for and even expected something a bit better, but, I'll still take it I guess. I told Alexia that I was sure I'd be happy to see it again when she gets back from her vacation with cousins in North Carolina this week (I'm looking after Cassie, her cat), and that's still the case. Actually since it won't be able to disappoint me I'm sure I'll actually enjoy it more the second time around. Even with it being too long, it's still kind of amazing that it doesn't
feel like two hours and forty minutes.
Before the movie, Tracy and I had to take our picture in front of the movie poster with Tom Cruise, just like we had last year for
Top Gun Maverick. I hate how old I look in this picture, and my weak chin is on full display there, but the photo also really cracked us both up.
After the movie Tracy said she was having to constantly clear her throat, and was afraid she might be getting sick. I was immediate glad that I had stuck with my habit, unlike nearly anyone else anymore, of wearing a face mask at movies. I had just sat right next to her in a mostly unventilated room for three hours. And now, she was concerned about risk of infecting me with whatever she might have if we went out for dinner. We briefly even thought we might just go home without doing the planned after-movie dinner.
But then I suggested we find a place with outdoor seating, and she was good with that. She wasn't huge on the idea of walking up the hill on Pine, though. She had the idea of seeing if we could get dinner to go from Nordstrom Grill, which was where I had hoped to eat to begin with; I loved that idea and so we crossed the skyway over to the Nordstrom building—only to discover the restaurant closed at 7:00. I suggested we just walk a few blocks to see if we could find anything, which she was down with. As we walked toward Westlake Park, I suggested we get something from Veggie Grill and then bring it to eat in the park. So, that's what we did.
It was quite nice and pleasant, and would have been a great idea even without the concern about Tracy's health.
— पाँच हजार चार सौ अड़तीस —
Yesterday, I had an afternoon Happy Hour with Laney planned, and we bumped it back a little so that I could accompany Shobhit to another candidate forum, which apparently was set up somewhat last minute. There were candidates invited from multiple districts, actually, but in the end only three showed up from any, and the other two were Joy and Andrew.
At Saturday's event, multiple candidates from other districts showed up, but District 3 had the most: Joy and Andrew were also at that one, as were Alex Cooley and Bobby Goodwin, plus Shobhit, which made five of the eight candidates. I was honestly kind of surprised
not to see the three who were not there, whatever the reasons were.
Yesterday's event was at a restaurant in the Central District called
Taste of the Caribbean, hosted by the
Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, and there had been prepared questions that very much focused on Seattle's Black community. Considering that, there were some unfortunate optics on the part of the absent candidates—however last-minute the event may have been organized (I have no idea to what degree that was really the case, which seemed to have been said by one of the hosts to explain why so few candidates showed; to be fair, Shobhit only received his email invite last Wednesday, giving him four days notice). Whatever the case, not one of the White candidates made it to this event. Granted, even one of the three Black candidates had been unable to make it, so the three who came were
all three people of color, two of them Black and one of them (Shobhit) Brown. And to Shobhit's credit, he acknowledged that he is not Black and does not have or necessarily understand the Black experience. This was very much Joy's neighborhood and she was almost certainly the most popular candidate there, and all such things considered, Shobhit actually did well, and even held his own as a candidate rather well. How good a job he does at these events is noticeably improving as time goes on and he gets more experience with it.
Oh, I almost forgot: I had added the event to Shobhit's calendar as advertised, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., even though it noted that the forum was from 12 to 1 (in the end they didn't start it until closer to 1:00). We arrived even a few minutes earlier than 11, found that no one was really there and nothing was happening except for a bit of setup; Shobhit introduced himself to one of the hosts, at least, a young Black person whose name and demeanor actually prompted Shobhit to ask their preferred pronouns (which I didn't actually hear, so I don't actually know—but, having found multiple social accounts that don't bother to clarify, I'm assuming he/him).
Anyway, we had some time to kill, so we went next door for Shobhit to get some brunch, at the bike shop / restaurant called Peleton, where we met up with Angel for lunch once when she was in town in August of 2021. I had already had breakfast but I ordered a chocolate croissant anyway. That means we went out for brunch, and so he gets a Social Review point! He should be pleased by that.
We also met a woman named Nicole, later back at Taste of the Caribbean, who Shobhit found out used to live in Olympia, and said she used to eat almost weekly at the Shipwreck Cafe. She said she loved that restaurant, the Mud Bay location, where she ate regularly for nearly a decade. So that was really cool to hear.
— पाँच हजार चार सौ अड़तीस —
Finally, after the forum yesterday, I bused down to Renton to meet up with Laney for our July Happy Hour.
Shobhit even drove me to a bus stop less than a mile south of the restaurant, where my Trip Planner told me to get on the 106 bus to the Renton Transit Center. What I did not realize was that this was the local, and that was why it took more than an hour even from south of downtown—I figured out while waiting at that bus stop that the express 101 was leaving in 15 minutes from 2nd & Jackson. I was at 12th & Jackson and could walk over there in barely ten minutes. So I did that, and got on a bus that got me to the Renton Transit Center at 2:45 rather than 3:10 as would have happened on the other bus.
Laney picked me up in her van at the transit center, and drove us out to a restaurant called Santa Fe Mexican Grill. This place had been suggested to me a few months ago as excellent, and I can't remember now who, but I suggested to Laney that I come to Renton for one of our Happy Hours and check it out. We found it and she was surprised to find it on its corner, having never known about it before.
We enjoyed it so much we decided we'll go back once more for our Happy Hour in October, just before she hopefully winds up moving back into Seattle proper, at Pride Place. Time will tell on that one. In any case, we both had the vegetable quesadilla, we both found it delicious, and she had a couple of beers while I had one of their $15 margaritas. I thought that seemed a little steeply priced, until it arrived: it came with a steel martini glass, and he poured my first cup of it from the mixer at the table, then left the mixer with me. The mixer still had enough in it to fill the glass twice more. So, this was basically three margaritas for $15. Fifteen bucks each isn't bad! Even if compared to margaritas in a tall glass that take more volume, even $7.50 a margarita is cheap. I had thought I might buy a second, and there was no need; had I done so, I'd have gotten legit drunk, probably.
We didn't hang out as long as we often do—no four hours this time, maybe partly because of how much later than usual we got started. She offered to drive me to the Tukwila Light Rail Station, which was really nice; this way I wouldn't have to transfer busses downtown, and I could take the train straight to Capitol Hill Station and walk from there. I was even home by about 7:00 or so, which even left Shobhit and me enough time to watch a new documentary on HBO about Rock Hudson which was pretty good.
— पाँच हजार चार सौ अड़तीस —
[posted 12:31 pm]
