Well, shit. I should have posted an update this morning, before I went through the rest of my day today! But, I didn't. So now I have not one, not two, but
three holiday events or social engagements to catch you up on. In a way, actually, four of them, albeit one of them very brief (but super impactful). And three of them were not even planned until the very day they happened!
I suppose I should start with the one that was the least spontaneous: at which the above shot was taken. I left work early yesterday, as did Gabby and Amy—we all left the office, right after I turned on my out-of-office reply and shut down my computer, at 3:45. Amy apparently had something else to do last night and so she offered to drive all of us over to our little Pricing & Promotions Team holiday outing: to "
Miracle on 2nd," at
Rob Roy.
This was my
third year going to this, with Rob Roy turned into the "holiday pop-up bar," plastered with Christmas decorations all over the walls and ceiling and with super fun cocktails in specialty mugs. In 2023 and in 2022 (and, I hear, in 2021, but I was not invited that year), several of us at PCC were taken out here by Katy from UNFI, our biggest distributor. She shared the news last year that she was leaving UNFI after several years, and I even said then that we should keep up this tradition anyway.
Until just last week, I never heard anything regarding a follow-up to this suggestion. And when Gabby suggested our three-person team do something special, some kind of outing, for the holiday season, I brought up Miracle on 2nd. Gabby and Amy both loved the sound of it, and we marked our calendars for December 18, as it was long enough after Thanksgiving and it was on a Wednesday, the only day of the week we are all at the office on the same day.
We made this plan sometime last month. And then? On Monday last week, Noah send out a calendar invite for the usual people from last year for drinks with Katie at Miracle on 2nd—on Tuesday last week, the very next day! Had I really been thinking, I could have proposed to Laney that we postpone the movie plans we had on Tuesday to Thursday, which I had free. But instead, I told Noah I could have planned for this, if only I had known about it earlier. Noah countered that he only knew about it on Monday himself.
I'd have been perfectly happy to go to Miracle on 2nd twice this year, even though surely this would have been the first year with Katie that we all had to pay for our own drinks (in previous years, she expensed it with UNFI). On the upside, last night, Gabby sprang for our drinks. So it all worked out!
I have to pause for a moment to talk about the photo I asked the server to take of the three of us. I really think both Amy and Gabby look fantastic in it, both perfectly photogenic. I often am very photogenic myself, but I'm not feeling that way about this one. I've been gaining weight relatively steadily over the holiday season this year and I really need to get my shit together on that. To me, my face just looks too rounded and bloated in that photo; the fit of my shirt makes me look unusually plump; and my hair isn't the greatest either—that, at least, I can blame on the wind while I was walking from my downtown bus stop to the office yesterday morning, which blew my hair all over the place and fucked it up. When I got to the office I wet it using faucet water in the men's room and re-curled some of the strands around my fingers, but it also flattened my hair a bit, giving it less body than usual. All I can do when I look at that photo is pick apart my appearance. It's really stupid, I know. For all I know, the other two do the same, although I can't see one thing either of them could pick apart in that photo. But me? To me, I look weighty-haired, old, and fat. Even though it's a great picture! I can even imagine other people would say I look great in it. This inability to let go of conditioning to be self-critical like this is a cultural sickness.
Anyway, I really enjoyed myself, as always. Last year our group sat in the outside patio seating, but this year we were seated about halfway into the bar, in the high chairs at a three-person table against the wall. I had the
hot buttered rum I always get, and it was amazing. We all had a second round, and this time I made a mistake in getting the "Jingle Balls Nog." Yet another note I need to make to myself for next year: do not order the Jingle Balls Nog! It's made with nondairy milk and that really makes it subpar. It hardly tastes like eggnog at all, and I love me some eggnog. (Gabby revealed she's not a an of eggnog, and I said, "I would fucking mainline it if I could.")
I get the feeling that, had I accepted the idea of a third round, we all would have gotten one. But I was like: I'm cut off. I didn't actually say that, but it was the gist. After two cocktails I was feeling a buzz, and I could just tell that a third would have set me slightly over the edge. Nobody wants that.
This brings me to the first of the much more spontaneous things I've done—which applies to everything else I'll tell you about in this post. Gabby was going to go meet her husband, Nick, when she got off work, and he works in a law firm at the U.S. Bank Center building, formerly known as City Centre. Gabby was going to walk, and I said I would totally walk with her. I'd have kind of preferred to walk, honestly. But, I was also fine with accepting a ride, even though it meant squeezing into the back seat of Amy's two-door car. That wasn't a huge deal, except for how it complicated trying to get out of the car quickly in the middle of rush hour traffic: we had gotten to Rob Roy right when they opened at 4:00, and it was now about 5:30. Lucky for us, we were able to pull up behind a fire truck with flashing lights that clearly wasn't going anywhere soon, and that gave Amy enough time to get out and pull the seat forward so I could get out.
Before we even left Miracle on 2nd, when Gabby mentioned going to Nick's work, I decided to be a little brazen: "Selfishly, I'm kind of hoping I can go see Nick's office and see the view." The U.S. Bank Center building has
44 floors, you see, and the firm Nick works for is on the 42nd. I've always had a certain affection for this building—I like its architectural design, and I like the fact that its height is all of one foot taller than the Space Needle. It's the eighth-tallest building in Seattle.
I did make it up to the 42nd floor, but the whole endeavor was almost like an amateur heist, with a kind of stealth element to it. First, Gabby and I went into the building lobby, making this my first time in there since the massive renovation, completely changing it from how it looked for many years. (I still miss the Palomino restaurant that used to be on the second floor, and specifically the potatoes gorgonzola dish that was cheesy waffle fries they had on their menu. I also still remember the two-screen Cineplex Odeon theater that was also on the second floor there when I moved to Seattle in 1998—it's where I saw
Saving Private Ryan—but which closed in 2001.) Anyway, Gabby had to call Nick a few times before he even responded.
I had told her if my request was at all a hassle I was fine with just going home. She had this kind of "Don't be ridiculous" attitude, assuring me multiple times that it was fine. She even asked the security guard on duty, who she said she knows a little bit, if there was any public floor we could take the elevator to so we could see any views. That particular moment was a little bit reminiscent of when Auntie Rose took me—and Grandma and Grandpa McQuilkin—to lunch at the top of the Columbia Center when I was 16, and Grandma asked the hostess if it was okay for her grandson to use a camcorder in the restaurant. (At that time, the hostess said—I've never forgotten it—"I don't think that would be appropriate," in clearly the friendliest tone she could muster.)
Gabby and I sat at some lovely seating in the second-floor building lobby area that now exists in there, waiting for a few minutes after Nick finally called her back and said he was on his way down. He told us it would be slightly tricky because there was a "little soiree" happening at his office at that time. Gabby mentioned the small balcony their office has, clearly hoping I could go out there to see it, and he said the small party was using it. Still, he took us all up the elevator, though not before the aforementioned security guard quickly walked him through adding us as building guests in an app on his phone. When he saw Nick using his fob card to scan us both through the turnstiles to the elevator bank, that security guard was
on it. But, we weren't held up any more than a minute.
So. We went up to the 42nd floor. We went to the empty reception desk, and Nick guided us quickly to a west-facing, small conference room that was empty and dark.
The view was absolutely stunning, not just in spite of but
because it was now after dark: the few blocks of shorter buildings between us and the waterfront; Elliott Bay at night; and, to the north, an
unbelievable view of the Space Needle beyond the northern third or so of downtown Seattle.
I managed to get seven shots through those windows. I took 10 shots total while inside the building—the only reason my
photo album for last night has 23 photos in it instead of only 13: I put these shots in the same photo album as the ones taken at Miracle on 2nd. I put them in a combined album because It was all part of the same evening out with Gabby (even if Amy was only there for half of it).
We were in and out of there very quickly. Nick saw one guy sort of shuffling through the office as we left, and said hi to him. Even before we left the dark conference room, Nick went out to make sure the coast was clear. I deeply appreciated being taken, especially as this was likely my one and only chance: just like PCC, this law firm is soon moving to a new location; apparently they are moving just a few blocks west and into the Russell Investments Center building. I sure loved that northward view in particular, which made my heart skip a beat when I first saw it. It was also very cool to get angles from way above, on Westlake Center, the Seattle Star, and the building it's hung on—what I learned last night while researching it for photo tagging is now called the "Bon Marche Collective," because it had been the Bon Marche before it was Macy's. And now it is neither. Last I heard, Amazon owns it.
So that
finally brings us to today. My first day of pre-Christmas PTO, and
until this morning, I had no idea what I would be doing with it.
Last night at 9:34, I sent what I thought was a long shot text to Danielle, asking if she works today or Friday because I would not be working. She responded that she was
not working, but that she was getting a root canal this morning. I took this to mean she would not be available for hanging out.
But then! She called me this morning, to see what I had in mind. She told me her dentist appointment was at 10:00 but we could regroup after, and I said I would come up with some ideas. I already had one, which I had run by Alexia over email: the Issaquah Reindeer Festival at Cougar Mountain Zoo. Danielle was surprisingly into this idea, and said Cougar Mountain Zoo actually isn't far from where she lives in Renton.
Well, I heard back from Alexia surprisingly quickly, and we'll have to save the Reindeer Festival idea for next year: their latest timed-entry tickets were at 3:30 today and 2:00 tomorrow; Alexia wasn't getting back from a work trip to Portland until 6:00 tonight and she would not be able to get away tomorrow afternoon. I still ran this as one of my three ideas to Danielle later, though. The other two were to see the "Tulalip Lights & Ice" that Alexia and Shobhit and I all went to last year, or to check out the festive city decorations in Renton where Danielle said they look pretty nice.
Shobhit and I did some grocery shopping in the meantime. Danielle and I exchanged several texts while we were at the PCC in Columbia City, taking advantage of two prints I had of the current $20 off $40 paper coupon for this week, one of four coupons of different value for each week this month. Danielle had said she wanted to text Rylee to see if she'd want to go to Tulalip. In the end she said she had a school project she needed to work on, and Danielle also remembered she had a meeting tonight at 6:00. So driving up to Tulalip was out.
She texted me a couple of ideas. The first I never even noticed until I looked back again while writing this post: a think called "
Kringle Family Filling Station," which happens to be here in North Seattle. The second, the one I actually saw, was for "Gingerbread Mania" at
Frosty Barrel in Newcastle. Danielle's link went straight to the menu, and I was very interested in one of their "Tipsy Hot Chocolates." After some initial resistance on Shobhit's part due to the unexpected expense, he finally got on board with going. Particularly after I agreed to suggest to Danielle that we meet at 3:30, which gave him the two hours he said he needed to prepare for an audition. (He only worked on it for about an hour, but.I guess we won't dwell on that).)
"Gingerbread Mania," as it happened, was a very similar concept to Miracle on 2nd. It just converted an ice cream parlor into a holiday wonderland rather than a straight up bar. But, they did have alcoholic beverages. And, after Shobhit and I very nearly each ordered a "Tipsy Hot Chocolate" each, which would have been $14 each, we settled instead on sharing one order of
"
Tasty Duet + Pairings," which was $19. And it included two small Tipsy Hot Chocolates—allowing us both still to get the flavor we wanted; I had the "Dad's Peanut Butter Cup" and it was delicious—paired with a small scoop of ice cream meant to go well with it. Shobhit's ice cream was more interesting, a chocolate ice cream with cookie chunks in it, either Oreo or something similar. Mine was just straight up chocolate ice cream, which was kind of a boring choice but I still enjoyed it.
Danielle did not want to have had booze before her meeting, so what she wanted was the
hot chocolate flight. She seemed to rather enjoy it, even if it put her on a bit of a sugar high.
I found the whole experience utterly delightful—some sad news about the state of life for Danielle's older daughter notwtithstanding—and it yielded an
18-shot photo album. Quite a lot more photos than I managed at Miracle on 2nd, actually. To be fair, Miracle on 2nd was far more crowded which made getting lots of pictures harder. "Gingerbread Mania" did have quite the line right after we got there—we sure timed our entrance perfectly—but its tables were never all full.
Near the end of our time there, there was a couple of younger couples with multiple small children there. Two of the little kids were kind of allowed to run a little too loose, and these little girls apparently tried to get a cup of water at the water bottle right around the corner from where I was sitting. I did not notice them doing this until one of them dropped a full glass of water on the floor, and some of it splattered on us. Even Shobhit felt it. I felt water drop on my head before I even know what was happening, and the kids' obviously twentysomething dad—okay I suppose it's possible he was thirty—saw me reacting. He apologized and asked if he could get me any napkins. I assured him I was fine. Still, a minute later he came to me with some napkins, and he actually said, "Don't have children." Ha! That made me laugh.
"Way ahead of you there," I said, more to my table than to that guy, who was away and out of ear shot by the time I said it. I think.
Now, before leaving this afternoon, I had also googled "holiday events in Renton." and happened upon a thing called "
Clam Lights," sponsored by Ivar's—hence the clams—and located at and near the Ivar's restaurant on the south Lake Washington shore at Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park—a park I remembered having been to already with Danielle before, a
couple of
times, actually—both for my Birth Weeks: once in 2007, and once in 2019.
I had never gone there just to see this holiday light display, though. I could see from the Ivar's web page today that there would be lights in the shape of running clams. I did not expect something as elaborate as we saw when we got there this evening. Shobhit did remember, though, seeing these lights from our Argosy Christmas Ship we went on
last year. This was a much better way to experience the lights, though.
Based on the time stamps of my photos, we were there just over half an hour. It had started raining lightly by the time we left Frosty Barrel ("Gingerbread Mania"), but we still all parked and got out to check out the light displays. Shobhit and Danielle both had hooded jackets on and all I had was my pea coat—I had not thought to bring my umbrella. It never did anything more than sprinkle, really, but being out in it for half an hour, I still got a bit wet. The photos I got out of it made it totally worth it. To be specific, I got
29 shots. So: three photo albums for this year's Christmas collection, from yesterday and today alone.
Shobhit and I drove home from there, after hugging Danielle goodbye, and I spent a fair amount of that drive thinking about what a fun day I had in the end.
Shobhit and I made dinner when we got home, and watched a couple episodes of
Fallout on Prime Video. I used my MacBook laptop to process photos while we did that, and now I've spent the last bit of my evening catching you up on the last day and a half.
[posted 11:59 pm]
