— पांच हजार छह सौ तीस —
I have to say, my evening last night with Laney at the "Seattle Pride Art Walk" in Pioneer Square exceeded my expectations in every way.
I rode my bike straight down to Pioneer Square from work, my first time riding that route since the streets were reconfigured where they are building an overpass from Pike Place Market down to the waterfront where the Seattle Aquarium is. When I got there, and Laney later said she thought the same thing, I totally expected a pretty standard Thursday Art Walk in or near Occidental Square, where the art just had more of a queer bent.
There was nothing in the bricked area that's closed to traffic on Occidental Avenue though, and I was a bit confused at first, actually riding down and back up and down a few blocks of Occidental Avenue. Finally I found Laney, standing right outside what turned out to be the entrance to the event, which turned out to be through an open entryway and inside a building on the corner of Occidental and King St.
I locked up my bike at a bike lock down near King Street, because Laney said a security guard told her it would be a little safer there than at the ones on the north end of the block. The even was scheduled from 5 to 10 p.m. and we met there at 5:00, going right in to the art gallery on the ground floor. There was an open air pathway into
a kind of courtyard between this and the building next door to the north, where a DJ was spinning amplified music, and then the entrance was to the left.
With a couple of
pointed exceptions, most of the art content was not explicitly queer—I think it was largely more of a showcase of queer artists.
Laney had been told there was a more "adult" space up on the seventh floor, which made us both assume it had more excplict content in the art. We later discovered that his reference to "adult" was only that ID was required and they were selling alcohol at a kind of makeshift bar (which, to its credit, was very well stocked). We were done with the ground floor gallery within about fifteen minutes though, and we found that the entrance to the 7th floor gallery wasn't opening until 6:00.
We killed some time sitting at a small, two-person table outside in the aforementioned courtyard. Shobhit went to speak at a Seattle City Council Committee meeting this morning, about electric vehicle charging stations in residential complexes—this had been one of his campaign issues when running for City Council last year—and he had sent me a copy of what he had prepared to say. We killed about ten minutes reading it over at Shobhit's request.
Then Laney suggested we walk up to Occidental Park to fill up some time, and so we did that. Once we got up to the north end of Occidental Square at S Washington St, Laney suddenly realized that Waterfall Garden Park, which she only recently discovered by I have been to several times (although my last photos of it are from 2008, so it's been a
long time since I was last in there), must have been close by. Indeed, it was around the corner and one block south again, over on 2nd and Main.
We went in there and took a few photos, the first of which was of her right after walking in, a shot I thought turned out fantastically well.
— पांच हजार छह सौ तीस —
On our way back to the art event, we wound up chatting for a few minutes with yet another person running for Seattle City Council—I had forgotten that although all of the district positions were up for election last year, there's
a special election for one of the at-large positions. And this woman, Saunatina Sanchez, turned out to be on the board at Community Roots Housing, which is the property management organization affiliated with Pride Place, where Laney lives.
Both Laney and I were very impressed with her, but wanted to take a look at the other candidates before probably deciding to support Sanchez. She and her partner were out collecting signatures and Democracy Vouchers—the very same process Shobhit had gone through—and I have a signature. I held off on giving the $10 I already knew was a lot more helpful, but if I decide she's who I want then I will donate.
By the time that was done, it was easily past 6:00 and we were able to go into the other entrance to the building and up to the 7th-floor gallery, which was
very cool, converting the entire floor into an open gallery space. The whole exhibit was identified to be called "
Another Day at the Orifice," which cracked me up.
I also immediately saw stairs that went up to an 8th floor open-air deck, and of course I got very excited. But first, we browsed all the art, most of which was amazing. Then we took the stairs up to the 8th floor, where we each bought a very reasonably priced drink. Laney got her beer with a lemon, and I got a Moscow Mule for $11 (before tip). The weather was also beautiful yesterday, making the whole evening even better. We hung out for a pretty good while on that deck, for a solid hour.
I was interested to discover the deck overlooked
Susan Dennis's condo building—or so I thought: I found an old text thread on which to send her this photo (we had not exchanged actual texts since 2013, so I was not identified by name on her end; I also DMed her on Instagram though, which we last did just last year). I had totally been assuming she still lived there, but this was how I found out that last October she moved to, as she put it, "a fancy senior place in Issaquah." This kind of cracked me up given that our condo neighbor for the past 17 years, Alexia, just moved to an apartment in Issaquah last week. Is Issaquah just where people go to retire?
Anyway, the evening was just absolutely lovely, top to bottom, the view from the top of that building nice in every direction. Between that and the many photos of the art itself, the evening yielded
a photo album with fully 50 shots in it, much more than I expected. Of course that rooftop deck alone yielded 11 shots.
At nearly 7:30, Laney and I left, and I fetched my bike which I walked with her over to the Pioneer Square Light Rail Station. We rode Light Rail together from there to Capitol Hill Station. I may have taken my bike on the train before but I can't remember. I told Laney it was a first but in retrospect, I'm probably wrong and just not remembering.
I rode home from Capitol Hill Station and pretty much spent the rest of the evening processing those photos.
— पांच हजार छह सौ तीस —
I got to work pretty late this morning and am feeling a little behind as a result; I didn't get here until around 10:00 because I had my quarterly doctor appointment to keep my prescription for PrEP.
But, I also brought up the pain I occasionally have in my shoulder and arm, such as I had, worse than ever, over my Birth Week and the week or so after. Somewhat to my surprise, Dr. Means seemed to have a good idea of what might be the problem—a pinched nerve—and referred me to a physical therapist: I have the PT appointment in August and my next doctor appointment in September.
He told me that two weeks is "actually pretty good" and people often have these paints go on for months. Yikes. He did ask if I got tingling in my fingers and I also had that, for the first time. The sense that I got is that this
could be two things: both a pinched nerve and some carpel tunnel syndrome going on. I suspect the physical therapist may better be able to determine a clarification there, but hopefully I don't have another episode like this between now and August. Although in a kind of bent way it would be usesul to have the pain actively going on during the appointment as that would make everything easier to diagnose.
Anyway, I was delighted by a moment during the appointment when Dr. Means referred to me as "on the younger side." I've had so many reasons to dwell on how much older I'm getting,
that completely
made my day. Granted, he was just talking basically about how people in much later years have more frequently have these sorts of problems. I think. It was what I inferred, anyway.
I still hate that I am only a year and a half away from fifty. Maybe I'll feel better once the inevitable is finally done and over with. If the world hasn't completely melted down by then, anyway.
Back to work now, and a beautiful weekend and week to come!
— पांच हजार छह सौ तीस —
[posed 12:42 pm]
