I hung out with Alexia this weekend for the first time since she moved to Issaquah two weeks ago—and then, I hung out with her two days in a row!
The first day was after work on Friday, she came over at about 6:30 for our first post-move Movie Night. We took a turn away from our Harrison Ford-athon so I could
finally get her to watch the 2015 Pixar Animation film
Inside Out. And damn,
does that movie hold up. It was my #1 movie in 2015, and I stand by that. I believe that was the last time a Pixar film actually took the #1 spot in a given year (prior to that it was
Toy Story 3 in 2010).
Alexia and I spent a few minutes catching up, and she happily had some of the pasta Shobhit had made for us to have for dinner before he left for his 5:00 work shift. But relatively soon we had the movie playing, and Alexia was locked into it pretty quickly, which really made me happy. I had been talking up that movie for so long as I was afraid I might have over hyped it. But, she lauughed pretty hard several times, and was as impressed as I'd hoped she be by the incredibly clever and imaginative the movie is in how it conceptualized a whole universe inside a single little girl's head.
On Saturday, though, Alexia joined Laney and me for Happy Hour for the first time! I had been trying to invite her to join us for a few months, always with the intent of having her join us at La Cocina Oaxaqueña, Laney's and my favorite Happy Hour spot. Alexia kept not being able to make it, though—indeed, one month she was going to join and then had to cancel—and even by Friday this past weekend she was telling me she'd text me on Saturday whether she'd make it. She's understandably still settling into her apartment in Issaquah, and had plans to go on an early morning hike with a new friend Saturday morning, but also thought she'd be better off socializing than stating at home where she'd be tempted to order furniture she doesn't need before other furniture that's still on the way has arrived.
I had a bit of a chaotic burst of texting right around 1:00 on Saturday afternoon. Laney texted me at 1:02 that La Cocina Oaxaqueña's Happy Hour actually started at 3:00 and wondered if we could go then, even though we'd had it on our calendars at 4:00—and that was also the time I had told Alexia. Alexia texted me at 1:06 to say she would be coming, but of course I then immediately had to ask whether 3:00 would be too early. This was resulting in several texts back and forth with both of them, and on top of
that, I had texted Aurelia, the neighbor from the 2nd floor who is set to look after Guru when Shobhit and I are in Toronto this week, if she could come up sometime over the weekend to get the lay of Guru's stuff around the condo. I had sent that text at 12:19, but she did not respond until . . . 1:04. So, right after 1:00, three different text threads started: Laney at 1:02; Aurelia at 1:04; Alexia at 1:06. Sheesh! Anyone who does this shit all the time, I truly don't know how they cope. I find it overwhelming when I'm having to text three different people simultaneously, especially when all of us are engaged in scheduling.
Thankfully, Alexia said she'd be able to make 3:00. She said it would be tight, so we said we would meet there. I left the condo at 2:35 to meet Laney at her building at 2:45, and then we walked together to La Cocina Oaxaqueña. Alexia found a place to park nearby, and hung out with us for a couple of hours before Laney and I hung out just a short while longer after Alexia's parking limit was up and she had to go back to her car.
Having this Happy Hour with Laney and Alexia together was pretty emblematic of the eclectic array of personalities I have among my friends. I have never had a so-called "friend group," unless you want to count Seattle Lesbian and Gay Chorus, which I was part of from 2000-2004. Aside from that, I'd say the closest I get these days is the group chat with Gabriel, Lea, Andy and Mandy. But even there, it's much more like I'm part of
Gabriel's friend group, as opposed to this being my friend group. Otherwise, I have a number of friends but their worlds rarely overlap, the only time that happens being, say, when I get married (that happened 11 years ago), or sometimes at one of my birthday parties.
Every once in a while, though, those worlds do collide. For instance, back in January, when Laney and I were walking home from a movie at the Uptown Theater, and then Gabriel called to tell me he was around and ask if I wanted to get a drink—completely coincidentally, Laney and I wound up meeting up with him for a drink at La Cocina Oaxaqueña, simply because it was a place I knew had outdoor seating options even in January. (Just a side note: Laney had not hung out with Gabriel since my 40th birthday party in 2016, at which there was an exchange between the two of them that left Laney a bit soured; she was really happy to have hung out with him again this year and have a much more positive last memory of having hung out with him.)
Hanging out with Laney and Alexia together was interesting. (And to clarify, Alexia has joined us for Double Features twice already, but that's obviously different as most of the time was spent watching movies, and this was far more time spent chatting.) Alexia is a wildly different person from either Laney
or Gabriel, and aside from both being among the most liberal people I know, they could hardly be more different. But, I would characterize Alexia as closer to "moderate conservative," at least by Seattle standards anyway (she has commented more than once on how liberal she'd be thought of if it were twenty or thirty years ago). This, inevitably, altered the group vibe, both compared to when I just hang out with Laney and when I just hang out with Alexia.
It's not like there was any contentiousness or anything. But, there were definitely moments, I think, when both Alexia
and Laney took a sort of "I'll just be polite" stance in the face of something the other clearly did not agree with. This definitely occurred when Seattle's homelessness and open air drug use problem came up in conversation. Interestingly, when it came to the trend of the U.S. losing standing in the world and how much grotesque global power we've had since the end of World War II, the two of them were
very much on the same page. So there was still a lot of perspective overlap there, in spite of the completely different worlds of their respective backgrounds.
Alexia doesn't drink, but she was still happy to join us while Laney and I did; Alexia just had a virgin mojito. All three of us had the dish that is Laney's and my favorite and which I have been hyping up so much to Alexia that she was also eager to try it: the "quesadillas fritas"—you can see them on all three of our plates in the photo at the top of this post. Alexia was duly very impressed with it.
Laney had two beers, and I had two of the Happy Hour House Margaritas for $9. They were very good, and a little strong: I got right to the "sweet spot" of being buzzed and knew I'd be in sorry shape if I'd had a third. I think I might have mitigated this a bit had I drank a full glass of water between the two drinks—I really need to learn to do that more consistently—but even after drinking water at home and taking some Aleve, I once again got into feeling a bit icky with a slight headache within hours later in the evening. It really didn't go away until I had slept overnight and woke up again yesterday morning, at which time I thankfully had no hangover. It's kind of strange how I seem to be responding to alcohol lately, where I'm fine the next day but seem to get a version of a hangover within hours after drinking. This also seems to be very tied to the
quality of the alcohol I'm drinking, and obviously Happy Hour drinks are not going to be using top-shelf liquors.
— पांच हजार छह सौ इकतीस —
— पांच हजार छह सौ इकतीस —
Shobhit also worked 5-9 p.m. on Saturday, and then 4-8pm yesterday. Mid-morning, though, we went out for a walk. At first it was just going to be to QFC to buy his lottery ticket and then to the AT&T Store around the corner on Pike to ask a question about our service plan. But it was like 10:35 and it turned out they don't open until 11 a.m. on Sundays. I suggested we just kill time rather than going home, and walk around a bit. Shobhit could get some steps in. And it'll give him a point on the Social Review!
We walked up and over to Cal Anderson Park, where we walked around the park, and by the time we were back to Pine Street, we still had time to kill. Shobhit suggested walking down Pine to Boren, cutting over to Pike and then walking back up Pike to the AT&T Store. So that's what we did.
We got back to the store at 11:11 a.m. and . . . whoever was supposed to start working there at 11:00 clearly still wasn't there. The gates over their windows were still pulled down closed. What a pain in the ass. Get to work on time, people!
So, we just walked home, and as we walked, I found the AT&T customer service number for Shobhit to call. He went through the requisite annoying phone tree, but they did assure him that we won't incur any international fees using phone calls or data while in Canada. This did not used to be the case, but apparently
it is now.
Anyway, we came home and watched the second episode of season 3 of
Bridgerton, which even Shobhit was happy to have discovered was available even after he got annoyed that I spent the money to reup my membership for a month. Only the first four episodes are out and have been for a bit, but luckily the last four episodes come out later this week—while we'll be in Toronto, but I have until the 7th of July to catch up on all the backed up stuff I want to watch that has come out since I last canceled in January. In all likelihood I will reup again in the fall when they will probably have some other straight-to-streaming releases I want to watch.
This was why I reupped on Friday: the release of the new Richard Linklater movie
Hit Man, which I watched with Shobhit after he got home from work that night (a while after Alexia left), and then I
wrote my B+ review on Saturday morning.
I did write
another blog post yesterday afternoon, although that was about Shobhit's experience rather than mine, and it was about Friday morning, when he happened to be at the Seattle Pride Flag Raising Ceremony and he texted me a couple dozen pictures of it. I even managed to get some great clips out of a video I was able to download from The Seattle Channel.
All in all, a fairly eventful but relatively low-key weekend. This will be in stark contrast to the next three weekends at least: we'll be in Toronto next weekend (we fly out tomorrow night!); the following weekend will be the Fremont Solstice Parade as well as my next Double Feature with Laney; the weekend after that is Pride. Four days after
that is the Fourth of July, which is on a Thursday. I have tentative plans for the actual weekend after that but they aren't yet set in stone. I'm really hoping to go back to Everett to visit Jetty Island with Lynn and Zephyr, but this may depend on Shobhit's work schedule as I really want to go able to have him come too. But that's a bridge we'll have to cross when we get to it; I've still got to much June shit to get through!
— पांच हजार छह सौ इकतीस —
Oh, I guess I should mention my Zoom lunch with Karen today, which she asked to postpone from last Friday to today. And by the end of the hour, we decided we had to just cancel what had been our next scheduled Zoom lunch, on Friday the 23rd, because she and Dave will be driving back from Portland where she's going for a conference. That local trip is actually in between a trip they're taking to Massachusetts for her brother-in-law's funeral next weekend: they leave for that on Thursday; get back to Seattle Sunday; leave for Portland the next Wednesday; get back to Seattle Friday; and then leave the very next day for one-week cruise to the Alaskan Inside Passage. Sheesh! And I thought I was busy. I mean, I am. But at least I don't have that much travel back to back to back.
Aside from chatting all that out, we talked a bit about what I intend to do with Shobhit in Toronto this week. When we first got on she asked how I'm doing and I said, "I'm excited! We leave for Toronto tomorrow night." Shobhit and I have quite a lot of it hashed out, in terms of what we want to do and spend money on and how much, etc. And that still allows for some relaxing time, such as when we plan to go to the nude beach on the Toronto Islands.
Anyway I need to finish this up and get back to work now.
— पांच हजार छह सौ इकतीस —
[posted 1:04 pm]
