— पांच हजार छह सौ पांच —
I haven't had a weekend this low key since the weekend before Barbara came to visit—taking us back to March 23, a solid month ago (four weeks). And after this past weekend, I won't have another one this low key for three weeks—because this coming weekend, and the one after, are the start and end of this year's Birth Week. And
that will include two days of events for Gabriel and Lea's wedding, both Thursday next week (for the rehearsal) and Saturday May the Fourth (for the wedding itself).
I'm really not regarding any of those wedding events as part of my "Birth Week" this year, but my plans have already shaped up to include nearly all the same people who participated in my Birth Week last year—the only exceptions being Mimi and Steve; and probably Jennifer's kids, Hope at the very least, as she recently moved to Portland. So I had 20 participants total last year, and this year will likely have between 16 and 18, depending on which kids wind up hanging around for some things.
As for what I did this past weekend, it was all movies, movies, movies—all in the theater, one each day, with Laney on two of them. Friday I took myself to a movie, riding my bike up to the AMC 10 in the U District to see a queer blended family drama out of North Macedonia called
Housekeeping for Beginners, which was easily my favorite movie of the three.
Cycling up there was a slight challenge, being so soon after I started cycling to work again for the spring and summer. I kind of dreaded cycling home from there as it would involve far steeper hills, and then I thought: people take their bikes on Light Rail, why don't I try that? I was interested in seeing how much faster it got me home as well.
Well, between the cycling from the theater to U District Station; the six-minute wait for the next train; and then the ride home from Capitol Hill Station—it would have taken me a pretty solid half hour to ride all the way home, and taking the train got me home in 24 minutes. I saved a whopping six minutes. I'd have gotten a hell of a lot more health benefit out of just riding the whole way, which I might as well have done. If it saved me, say, at least 10 minutes, I might gave found the time savings more worth it. So: note to self for next time.
— पांच हजार छह सौ पांच —
— पांच हजार छह सौ पांच —
The other two movies were both at AMC Pacific Place downtown, and Laney and I walked there and back together both times—she's still using her two canes to walk with, but is recovered enough from her foot sprain now that she can do it. She just has to walk slower, so I have to be conscientious of avoiding making her feel rushed.
The movie we saw on Saturday was
Abigail, which was a solid-B blast of a movie. That one was at 1:40 pm so we met at her building at 1:00, walked a leisurely pace down Pike, then stopped at the Starbucks on 7th between Pike and Pine for her to get a $7 coffee that she later decided wasn't worth that price. She had even budgeted to do that again yesterday (Sunday) but then decided to save herself the money, when she realized it was costing about three quarters the price she pays for a senior ticket to a movie (and is almost the entire price of the discounted Tuesday tickets).
The movie we saw yesterday was much more polarizing, but we found ourselves surprisingly engaged by it:
Sasquatch Sunset. This movie has become well known for walk-outs, and one of the very few people at the 12:35 screening we went to yesterday also walked out in the middle of it. Laney and I were both glad we stuck with it, as it got better as it went along. That movie really walks a fine line between meditation and absurdism. Laney has already indicated she's still thinking about it: we've exchanged multiple emails about it today already, furthering our discussion about it.
We walked home from the movie again yesterday. Last night, I had some new TV to watch and so that's how I spent much of the evening: I finished the four-episode series
Conan O'Brian Must Go, which I had started Saturday evening; then I watched episode 2 of HBO's
The Sympathizer on Max; then followed that up with this week's episode of
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
— पांच हजार छह सौ पांच —
Shobhit is officially on his way back from India now. As I type this, he's on his 7-hour flight from Delhi to Tokyo, where he has a 10-hour layover. He may go out into the city to see a couple of sights while he's there, which I'm really hoping still happens because I want him to take lots of pictures! The other night I looked up transit schedules on Google Maps for getting him from the airport to one particular Buddhist temple and then to Tokyo Tower.
He's scheduled to fly about 9 hours early tomorrow morning (he leaves Tokyo 4:25 pm local time in Tokyo, but at 12:25 am Pacific Time), then has a roughly two-and-a-half-hour layover in San Francisco, before being scheduled to land at SeaTac at 2:38 pm. I'm taking the afternoon off of work to go pick him up. It will be nice to have him home, four weeks was more than enough.
— पांच हजार छह सौ पांच —
[posted 4:22 pm]
