— पांच हजार पांच सौ तेरह —
I had totally forgotten about this, even though I also
noted last year that that one had been my 19th: yesterday morning I counted
all the PCC Thanksgiving feasts I have attended, and realized this year was my 20th.
Had I attended one every year since I started this job, this year would actually be my 22nd. As in: this is my 22nd holiday season since I've had this job. But, I missed the office potluck in 2008 because Shobhit and I were in Las Vegas to see Madonna. And the entire office missed it in 2020 because covid disallowed gatherings and we were all working from home at the time. God, what an awful year. (Which, to be clear, I still managed to find ways to make the best of. Still need to look on the bright side!)
I'd say I've had a pretty impressive track record, all things considered.
I do have to say, though: the weight and import of this event as an annual tradition does not feel the same to me as it used to. Perhaps it does to others, whose working memory is mostly of the potlucks we've had here at the Belltown office, this now being our seventh held at this location. I, however, am falling victim to the nostalgia of tapping into a tradition that others had been engaging in long before me. Now, with tons of turnover and retirements in recent years, there are precious few people still here who have been attending these potlucks as long as I have, or longer.
Don't get me wrong—I still deeply appreciate that it still happens every year, especially after the Office Manager position that usually takes on its organization and scheduling has itself turned over multiple times, just in the time we've been at this location.
There's just something different about the experience for me, where so many people here have now got a far shorter history with it. In the past, people would hang out, socialize, connect, a fair amount of time even after most people were done eating. It used to feel like a family holiday, at work. Now it feels like a casual office potluck that happens to occur every November. People dispersed yesterday, for the most part, within about an hour.
There were also key people not here that I missed. Justine, who does have a history with PCC that predates mine (although she had a period away in the middle), was returning from a trip to Chicago yesterday. Gabby is fighting a cold and so stayed home, as she is also doing today (which is itself appreciated). I didn't see Steven or Amanda or Cathryn. A lot of my favorite people were unable to make it.
I still really enjoyed it, I really want to stress that. It just, somehow, doesn't feel as special as it used to. I'm sure it's just me, because a big part of it is how many people I missed who simply retired in the past five years. These were sort of the elders, who left their posts and, I guess, I am in a way slipping into that role. (This is an aside, but a few weeks ago we were talking about my knowledge of HQ, the item maintenance system we use, and Amadna actually said to me: "I look up to you.")
— पांच हजार पांच सौ तेरह —
— पांच हजार पांच सौ तेरह —
The one thing I traditionall do with this event, which in the early days was just referred to as the office Thanksgiving Feast, and then it was called the "Holiday Potluck," and as of the past few years has been labeled the "Foraged Feast Potluck," is I sign up to help with setup. Back when Janice still worked here, she went all out to make it like a special dining experience, setting out tablecloths and centerpieces and other accoutrement. That doesn't happen anymore—which I am not judging; my only point is that it gave me more to do and help with.
These days, I sign up to help with setup, but Mel and so many others are already so busy heating up food that they tend to have a whole lot of what needs to get done covered. Mel winds up just handing me random tasks here and there, like fetching platter plates for desserts, or putting extra turkey gravy boxes into the free bin. So, I think I made myself useful, but I didn't have a huge amount to do. In the past, with more to do, I would feel better about having at least helped out when I did not bring a dish (which I did not bring this year, or last year). Either way, I'll do whatever I can
not to sign up for cleanup duty, because fuck that, I hate cleaning.
This potluck also averages a lot fewer people each year than it used to, post-pandemic, which results in many people not making it simply because they are working from home. Ironically, this year there was New Staff Orientation booked in the conference room, which limited our space more than ever, confining it to just the kitchen. This resulted in more people than there were available seats at tables, if only by a small amount. Dana and Freya had to take their dishes over to the kitchen counter in order not to have to eat with their plates in their hands. So: many fewer people than we used to get, but still unusually crowded.
Here's the greatest upside: we still had some stupendous dishes that people brought. Lexis's macaroni & cheese was amazing, and there was a mushroom lasaga, I don't know who made it, that was deliciously mushroom-heavy. A woman named Avalon made apple spice cupcakes
with apple pie filling in their centers, a dessert addition for the ages. Another one made by someone whose name I don't know was a plate of salted chocolate chip cookies, which were spectacular.
In the end, I got a
27-shot photo album out of it, although I got too distracted by other things last night and did not think to save the photo files, rename them, and upload them to Flickr until this morning. I had really been hustling after that delayed me about five minutes, and if it weren't for three different piles of cat vomit I had to clean up, I would not have barely missed my bus this morning. Of course, I also would have made that bus had I thought to deal with the photos last night instead of this morning. Or had I not taken a piece of misdelivered mail to the west building first. Like, I missed that bus by seconds: I was maybe 20 feet from the stop when I saw it drive away. Fuck. Oh well: I barely managed to make it on a Light Rail, then got right on a 33 bus going up 3rd, and made it to the office at 7:28. It all worked out.
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I guess I'll also mention that, after having to shuffle my plans on Tuesday so I could go unlock Shobhit's keys from his car, last night I took transit back to the U District AMC 10 theater to see
The Persian Version, which was . . .
not that great. It won me over in the end, but it still wasn't that great.
I discovered while I was at the theater that some fuckers have already bought out the earliest showings on Saturday of
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which means I won't have time to see it then. It's just as well; I have plans to go to the Seattle Festival of Trees at 5:00 and I'm happy to have that be my only plan that day. I'll need to spend time packing that day too. We leave for Palm Springs on Sunday.
What this also means, is that if I want to see that movie—and I do, in spite of very mixed reviews—I have to see it tomorrow night. The showtimes available on Friday are later than I want, for a movie that's more than two and a half hours long. So, I'm sticking with the plan to see
Best Goal Wins on Friday. This is creating a super packed week for me: going to unlock Shobhit's keys on Monday, the same day we also watched
The Killer on Netflix which I also reviewed; I went to a movie and wrote a review last night; it's my choice for Action Movie Night at The Braeburn tonight (at least I don't have to go somewhere else); I'm going to and reviewing a movie both tomorrow night and the next night.
After that, I have no movie plans for another solid week. We'll be either traveling to, spending time in, or traveling back from Palm Springs from Sunday to Friday.
— पांच हजार पांच सौ तेरह —
[posted 12:19 pm]
