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I had a kind of Alexia Weekend this weekend, as I hung out with her two days. The same can kind of be said of Laney, who I also hung out with two different days, as she and I went to see a movie on Friday:
Blink Twice, which honestly . . .
wasn't the best.
The three of us hung out on Saturday, though, to finally watch
Dune and
Dune Part Two as a double feature, in the Braeburn Condos theater. Or really, as just one contiguous movie, with a run time of 5 hours and 21 minutes. These two movies are very much like the
Lord of the Rings trilogy in that sense.
And, indeed, I haven't gone this gaga over movies in the two decades
since the
Lord of the Rings trilogy was released, each year for three years between 2001 and 2003. I saw each of them four times in the theater, three times each in their theatrical run and a fourth when the extended cuts were released.
I have actually broken new personal records with the
Dune movies, though. Not only are they already ranked #16 and #16 in my "
most watched" of all time as listed on my Letterboxd account (a list very much skewed toward my most intricate movie-watching record keeping since 2003; the titles at the top of that list have actually been seen many more times than noted there), but
Dune Part Two sets itself apart in one key way: never before have I seen a movie five times not only within one calendar year, but within the space of merely six months. And even after five times, I never tire of watching that movie.
I may wait a few months to watch it a sixth time, though. I think five times is kind of enough to hold me over for a while now.
I probably should have noted to Alexia that Shobhit would have dinner ready for me to eat when we were done, and I felt kind of bad when she commented on how hungry she'd gotten by mid-afternoon. She was rather grateful when I declared I would make some popcorn, in the free popcorn machine we have right outside the Braeburn Condos theater. Tall plastic popcorn cup sare provided for use as well; I made the popcorn in time for the second movie, during which time I had three cupfulls, Alexia had two, and Laney had one. With six of them filled between the three of us, there was
still quite a bit left, which I took in one of the larger tubs up to Shobhit in the condo, at his request.
Shobhit worked at 5:00 that day, so he wouldn't have been able to finish the second movie but could have watched the first one with us. Knowing he's currently well ahead of Laney with Social Review points, though, he opted instead to go on a long walk, and otherwise watched TV and then got ready for work.
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— पांच हजार छह सौ बासठ —
So that brings us to dinner, with Alexia, at her new apartment in Issaquah—you can see us sitting at the dinner she prepared, at her convertible coffee table, in her new kitchen, in the photo at the top of this post. She moved in May, but wanted to be unpacked and settled in before she had us over, and then it was a matter of us all being available withour respective schedules. It finally happened last night.
She lives in a complex right by downtown Issaquah, and I did figure out that I could get within blocks of her complex by bus in about 50 minutes and only two buses, one of them the Sound Transit express #554. Once Light Rail is finally running across the I-90 bridge, she says she can easily come pick me up at the Bellevue Light Rail station as well. That would be particularly convenient for me, as then I could just hop on at the Capitol Hill Light Rail Station. I just figured out that South Bellevue Station is all of 10 miles from Alexia's and right off the freeway; she already told me she can pick me up from there if I ever visit this way. But, I also figured out that the Sound Transit Express #554 takes all of 37 minutes from downtown Seattle and has a stop 0.4 miles from her place, a ridiculously easy walk.
She made gratin with eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes with cheese and bread crumbs on top; a quiche; and a sourdough bread from scratch. She said the gratin and quiche were two of the three vegetarian dishes she knows how to make—I forgot she made cheese and spinach quesadillas when she had Shobhit and Ivan and me over for dinner next door once.
After we were finished with dinner, she asked if we'd like to go for a walk, which both Shobhit and I were delighted to do. We walked around the grounds of her apartment complex, which is much bigger than it seems at first glance: each building with maybe 9 units, but I couldn't even tell you the number of such buildings—at the very least 10 or 15, most of them below but some of them above a kind of lush, greenery-covered clif. That greenery is what Alexia's second-story apartment faces on the living room and kitchen side, complete with a small balcony Alexia has furnished with two adirondack chairs. She said she sits out there with her cat, Cassie, to drink her coffee every morning, and will continue to until the weather turns.
We walked a trail up that cliff / hill, where it was still steep but not quite so much so a bit set off from her building. Then we went back down a hill on a street from up there, crossed a bridge over Issaquah Creek, and then found ourselves at the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery, which was built in 1936 and rather fascinating. It has long been used to promote salmon runs up the creek, with salmon traveling all the way in from the ocean, through the Ballard Locks to Lake Union, through the Montlake Cut, through Lake Washington, from there to Lake Sammamish via the Sammamish River, and then to Issaquah Creek. It's quite a journey. We found a ranger lady who is one of the many volunteers who work for Friends of Issaquah Fish Hatchery (FISH) and she was all too eager to expound in great detail in response to our several questions.
Alexia asked if we wanted to walk to the Giant Troll Issaquah has, the one called "
Jakob Two Trees," and again: absolutely: It's barely a mile from Alexia's place so it really wasn't that bad of a walk at all. It's alongside the Rainier Square, which is paved with old-school street lamps lining it, but still through some very lush forested areas, tree canopy overhead.
Between dinner and the two notable stops on our walk, I got
a 14-shot photo album out of the evening.
When we walked back, we then had the truly delicious dessert of vanilla bean ice cream with fresh chopped (but slightly sweetened) peaches and strawberries for topping.
I have long been all-too eager to shit on suburban sprawl, but I must say it was lovely experiencing Issaquah for the first time in a way other than just stopping at the Costco or the Issaquah PCC. I never actually hung out in the town before, that I can remember anyway. I think unchecked growth is still a problem in suburbia overall, but there's a key thing about this area of Issaquah that I never knew: the many trees there are all second-growth, and the creek was restored nearly a century ago after the creek and surrounding area was all clear cut and used for logging. It's actually a significant improvement over the horrible treatment of the land by industry a century ago. So I should give them credit for that, not unlike how much California has actually cleaned up the far worse pollution they had 50 years ago.
Issaquah is rather close to the Cascades, so even from town you can see tree covered mountains quite close by. It's fairly similar to Wallace, Idaho in that way. It's beautiful out there, and it was a lovely time getting to go out there and visit for a bit. We'll surely do it again sooner than later, or perhaps I will, via public transit while Shobhit is working.
— पांच हजार छह सौ बासठ —
[posted 12:17 pm]
