— पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि त्रयोनवति च —
I came back to work today with 187 unanswered emails since I was last year, on Tuesday last week. To tell you the truth, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I still have about half of them to sift through as I write this, but am feeling pretty good about my time management so far. I felt good about it last Tuesday too, with an unusual ease of getting all my ducks in a row before being on PTO for four weekdays.
In the meantime, I kind of would have liked to post regular updates each day of Barbara's visit, from Wednesday last week through yesterday, but as usual there just really wasn't time for that—anything I worked on as the days went along had to be limited to my email photo digest / travelogue, which I sent out last night, and
posted a version of to this blog as well (identical to the email, just with a few added video clips embedded). That provides a very broad overview of Barbara's entire visit, including Easter in Olympia, with plenty of details in captions under the photos and videos.
I will say this: having yesterday be a fairly low key day for Barbara's last day here really worked out well for me. Our only outing was Happy Hour with Laney at 4:00, and before that, at Barbara's request, we went to Pride Place so she could see Laney's apartment.
I was honestly somewhat surprised Laney was open to this, as I had already texted Laney about Barbara having shared with me that, while she is not in any way anti-vaxx, she would not at all be considered up to date: she's never gotten a single booster. Back in the days of the initial vaccinations, she got the one that was only one shot (I realize now this means she got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine). And when she got that, it made her very ill, laying her out for a full day. That experience has dissuaded her from getting any more covid vaccines thereafter, thus she's not gotten any booster shots.
She also told me she's "pretty sure" she's had covid, as it has gone through her building back in Louisville a couple of times, and one of them, she got really sick. She did not test at the time though. In any case, there is no definitive confirmation of her having gotten it. She started talking about how she has "a really good immune system," which made me bristle a bit because so many people who
had refused to get any vaccine at all used that as a completely misguided excuse; having a strong immune system offers no reliable protection against covid whatsoever, especially without vaccination. Barbara did get that first shot, at least.
In any case, this kind of information definitely made Laney more inclined to find a place with outdoor seating for Happy Hour. At first, we were all going to meet at A Pizza Part on Thursday last week, but Laney changed her mind on the location. Lany also tripped and sprained her ankle early last week, and she was still far less mobile on Thursday; that day was really wet and rainy and the weather was far better Friday through yesterday anyway, so we rescheduled for Happy Hour on Monday. So on Thursday, Barbara and I went to a movie, and then on Friday we did our picnic lunch at Green Lake with Danielle and then I took Barbara on the Seattle Great Wheel Friday evening. I'll get back to that momentarily.
Anyway, after all that, when Laney texted me that Barbara wanted to see her apartment and suggested we meet at her place about half an hour before we were to go to Saint John's Bar & Eatery, I was somewhat surprised. I guess Laney kind of made an exception. In the past, Laney has asked me to take a covid test before coming over. She did not ask Barbara to, nor did she ask me to this time around.
Side note on covid testing: I did take a test myself on Saturday morning—the second one I've taken during the course of this most recent cold, the worst I've had since before the pandemic. After having given Dad and Sherri covid over Easter (and Sherri's 70th birthday) in 2022, I have religiously tested before coming to any family gathering ever since. That will likely die down soon, but I mostly did it again on Saturday for peace of mind given I was still having slight symptoms from my cold.
I could have asked Barbara to test to, but I didn't bother. I'm not inclined to think it was especially important, and I would bet a large amount of money I was the single person to test before attending the Easter family gathering. I suppose there's a slight chance Dad and Sherri did, but even that I doubt; Dad did on Christmas Eve last year and even he only did after I had mentioned that I had tested before coming over then.
On the subject of covid risks and their steadily declining relevance (not to discount that they very much still exist): I do continue putting on a mask on any mode of mass transit, or inside any store. Shobhit stopped this ages ago, so Barbara actually asked me last week why I wore a mask in all stores. "For protection," I said. Sometimes your mind blanks on what's a better response to a question. I realized later it would have been better to say, "To mitigate risk." That's far nore accurate, because nothing is fully protective and never has been. But! Layers of mitigation! That's always been the key.
That said, when Laney and Barbara and I were hanging out for a few minutes in Laney's studio apartment yesterday, Barbara shared that she hasn't worn a mask anywhere for a really long time. She said she might if she were to visit a hospital, but that was about it. And I do have to confess something myself, regarding masks: now that I've had three colds in the past 13 months, it feels like I am getting colds just as often as I did pre-pandemic whether I have a mask on or not. It's making me start to wonder what the point is.
If I have a cold myself, it certainly protects others from me. This was one of the major talking points from the beginning, actually. I am far more protected from others if
they have masks on than if I have one on, although there is some research that wearing one yourself offers at least a degree of protection for you. So, it can't hurt to keep wearing them on transit, for instance. I am increasingly less inclined, however, to think it makes any real difference if I wear one in a store that I'm only inside for a few minutes.
— पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि त्रयोनवति च —
— पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि त्रयोनवति च —
Anyway. There's a few more details about Barbara's visit that I can share now, which I didn't bother to put in the photo digest / travelogue email.
For instance: the Seattle Great Wheel. Barbara didn't especially enjoy it. I think she just went along with it because she knew I loved it and wanted to take her on it. In retrospect, though, had she just told me she was too afraid of heights I would have quite easily pivoted to something else; it wasn't
that important to go on it.
Shobhit and I were driving by the Seattle Great Wheel on Saturday, February 24, when I snapped a picture of it, texted it to her and asked,
Are you going to let me take you on the Seattle Great Wheel?
And she replied,
Okay, but we can't eat until afterwards, followed by a smiling-cat emoji.
I suppose it could be argued there are some nuances and slight subtexts to that exchange, but she could still have just said "I'd rather not" or something like that. And to be honest, even though Barbara
said she was just as terrified up there as Laney had been when she and Shobhit and I went on it in 2016, Laney
really freaked out, and spent a lot of the time breathing heavily and with her eyes closed. Barbara commented on it being easier if she looked out instead of town, but otherwise really handled it just fine. She was noticeably relieved when we were done, though. I'll never ask either of them to do something like that again.
The Seattle Great Wheel has to be the only Seattle attraction I've been to ten times without ever repeating the person I went to it with, with the exception of Shobhit, whose has gone on it with me twice. But, the second time was with Laney, who was another new person: so I've gone on it with a new person
each of the 10 times I've gone. This is kind of amazing to me.
— पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि त्रयोनवति च —
So. How about Easter, then? Oh my god. I totally forgot to inclue the Easter Roll Call in yesterday's post! Let's do that:
1. Dad
2. Sherri
3. Angel
4. Lorine [Angel's friend]
5. Brandi
6. Nick
7. Jaycee
8. Gianni
9. Enzo
10. Britni
11. Ricky
12. Raiden
13. Ruby
14. Gina
15. Beth
16. Nikki
17. TJ
18. Cheyanna
19. Elijah
20. Matthew [me]
21. Wendy
22. Brad
23. Jennifer
24. Matthew [Jennifer's boyfriend]
25. Barbara
Compare this to
last year, when there were only 16.
The previous year was much bigger—30 people—because it doubled as Sherri's 70th birthday party.
Oh what the hell, I do this for Christmas: let's do a history, at least as far back as I posted roll call counts for Easter:
2024: 25
2023: 16
2022: 30
2021: 21
2020 [virtual]: 12
2019: 19
2018: 13
2017: 20
2016: 19
2015: 22 (22.5 if you count Shobhit on FaceTime for a bit)
2014: 14
2013: 9 / 3 (Dad and Sherri spent with Christopher & family in Spokane; I took day trip to Wallace to spend with Mom & Bill; Shobhit was in L.A.)
2012: 21
2011: 12 (with Dad and Sherri, Christopher & family in Spokane, + Shobhit, + Barbara)
2010: 10 (with Dad and Sherri, Christopher & family in Spokane; Shobhit was in New York)
2009: 20
2008: 12 (with Dad and Sherri, Christopher & family in Spokane, + Shobhit, + Barbara)
Easters previous to 2007 were
all in Olympia, but I wasn't doing roll calls back then; even the 20 I have listed for 2009 is an estimate based on photos on Flickr. You can see that attendance has really varied through the years, sometimes just affected by the age range of certain generations. This year, there were six children present who were young enough for the kids' Easter Egg hunt in the backyard, with seven out of Dad and Sherri's 12 great grandchildren present—Jaycee, being the oldest at 13, participated in the adult egg hunt in the front yard.
There was, in fact, a period there where we thought attendance at Easter this year would be unusually low. Gina and Beth have been hosting most holiday family gatherings at their house, taking the pressure off Dad and Sherri—but Dad and Sherri stepped up this year when we heard Gina and Beth were planning to be out of town for a basketball tournament in Portland. But, then they discovered last week that the star player they thought they were going there to see would not be there after all, so they sold the tickets and came to Easter after all.
Barbara was particularly happy about this, because Gina and Beth got married in 2016 and had met in 2015—four years after the last time Barbara was in Seattle. She's been Facebook friends with Gina all along, though, and so she's seen lots of photos of Beth (which is the same name as Barbara's daughter, coincidentally). So, Barbara and Beth finally got to meet this past weekend.
I suppose I should note that Jennifer, who spent Easter without any of her kids for the first time (Ian and Chase were with Eric; apparently Hope has moved to Portland), came by with Matthew in the late morning. They were invited to stay for dinner, but they left after a couple of hours, before food was served. Now that family gatherings at Dad and Sherri's house focus mostly on them and their own descendants, many of whom Jennifer doesn't know well, I think maybe she felt a little more out of place than she used to. I was really happy they came by, though, and Barbara got to see her. Barbara was pretty thrilled to see so many people she hasn't seen in 13 years, and the feeling was always mutual.
The other notable attendance this year, adding four to the count, was Nikki and TJ, who basically committed to returning for Easter from Spokane after we brought it up at Dad and Sherri's 40th anniversary party a month ago. This time, they committed yet again to the next family thing: the Biannual Family Vacation in Tokeland in August!
I wouldn't say the family on the east side of the mountains have been
excluded, per se, from previous Family Vacation events (in 2020 and in 2022, the previous two in Leavenworth). It's just a little tricky, as most of them have spent so little time on this side of the state that they don't know the Western Washington family all that well. Plus, in 2020 and 2022, the family rented a house in Leavenworth with limited space; there was no way to add more families to the mix.
The setup this year is a lot more workable, though, even for Western Washington family for whom their ability to come is a little more tentative, budgets depending: Gina and Brandi got together and booked several rooms at a hotel on the Washington coast, in a town called Tokeland, that Dad and Sherri had already stayed at and really liked. In this scenario, every family gets their own room, no shared bathrooms, and even their own kitchenette (something that particularly appeals to Shobhit). When the trip came up in conversation over Easter and Nikki and TJ naturally got brought in and up to speed, it was much easier to imagine them just calling the hotel to book their own room. (We've already booked so many, hopefully they have availability when they call; Nikki told me she intends to call this week.)
It's too bad Becca can't be as involved, given she actually does live in Western Washington now too—just outside of Everett, in Lake Stevens—but, she rarely comes down this way and may not as easily be able to afford it. We'd all love it if she were also able to join, of course. The same goes for Christopher and the boys, but they don't make it out this way nearly as often as Nikki and TJ are managing to.
In fact, Nikki and TJ seem to have kind of turned a corner on that front. Between the anniversary party, Easter, and now the Family Vacation—all within the same calendar year—they seem to be rapidly re-integrating themselves into this side of the family. We all couldn't be happier, but especially Sherri, who gets more time with those two great-grandchildren, Cheyanna and Elijah.
In short (after a typically long blog post), Easter was wonderful, and left me feeling really good about both the current state of my extended family, and its future.
— पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि त्रयोनवति च —
[posted 12:30 pm]
