— पांच हजार छह सौ चौवन —
I guess you could say I've had an extended celebration of my work anniversary this week, which you could argue was a bit much given that, while certainly a long time, it's not even a milestone number. Gabby kind of cracks me up with her insistence on making a big deal out of it, but I still appreciate it. Honestly, I have deep doubts that Gabby's tenure here will be anywhere near as long as mine—there's a multitude of reasons for this, not least of which is her being a Millennial and far more conditioned to changing jobs once every several years—so I suppose I could just sit back, and enjoy it while it lasts. Beyond that, I will continue making my own big deal out of it every five years.
I suppose one might wonder why I'm so inclined to celebrate my birthday for
ten days (minimum!) every single year, but am less inclined to make a big deal out of a work anniversary any more often than once ever five years. I suppose it's a sense of scale, even when it comes to celebration of self. My Birth Week is much more personal, after all. A work anniversary is not generally regarded as significant as a relationship anniversary, either: although the scale of it varies by year, Shobhit and I usually take a trip every year for our anniversary, after all. My job isn't nearly as personal a thing. Besides, there's also the steady shift in my perception of what I mean to PCC versus what PCC means to me: it's crystal clear to me that my loyalty to this company means far less to the leadership here than it did even ten years ago. Which seems a tad ironic, no?
So, anyway. Yesterday was the Pricing & Promotions Team Celebration of my 22nd anniversary, at the Smith Tower. The only reason we went yesterday rather than Monday was because Wednesday is the only day of the week that the entire Merchandising Department (within reasonable capability) is asked to be in the office, and thus was the soonest after the 5th that both Gabby and Amy would actually be here.
Smith Tower was suggested by Gabby, when she was throwing out ideas of something special we could do. I had been pretty resistant to making any big deal out of 22 years up to that point, but then—an observatory bar? Count me in! Yes! And going forward! A different rooftop bar for my work anniversary lunch every year! (I see this continuing for the next, say, 2-5 years, until Gabby likely moves on to some other company.)
And here is where we get to the latest of countless examples of how the pandemic has warped all of our senses of time: I thought it hadn't been that long since I was last up there at the Smith Tower Observatory Bar, except I
was last there just one month shy of
five years ago! Half a decade!
Curiously, prior to 2019, I had not been up the Smith Tower in seven years—but, they remodeled it to the bar rather than just the observatory back in 2016 (eight years ago now, sheesh). Once I caught wind of that, three years after the fact, Danielle and I went up there at sunset (a very good choice) in March of 2019. Then I just happened to get invited to an event happening up there the following September, by the woman I know from the Seattle Public Library (I talk to her when I make my annual donation to the Foundation) and who was perforning a music gig; Shobhit and Sachin both came along that time.
But, I hadn't been up there since. This made my eighth time up the tower, over the past 32 years. There's a
very good chance I will go up again as soon as next year, when my Birth Week theme will be observatories & viewpoints, and presumably Shauna will still be working in the building.
Yesterday, Any told us she had been up there before, but it had been a long time, ten years maybe, and she was working a catering event of some kind. This was Gabby's first time. But, she had thrown out the idea to me because she knows I love skyscrapers, which was very thoughtful of her.
In fact, yesterday afternoon I decided to whip up what would be my top ten favorite buildings in Seattle. I think I have settled on the Smith Tower being my second-favorite building in this city:
1. The Space Needle (1962, 605 ft)
2. Smith Tower (1914, 462 ft, 38 floors)
3. Seattle Central Library (2004, 196 ft, 11 floors)
4. Amazon Spheres (2018, 95 ft)
5. Rainier Square Tower (2020, 850 ft, 58 floors)
6. 1201 Third Avenue [Washington Mutual Tower] (1988, 772 ft, 55
7. floors)
8. Hyatt Regency Seattle (2018, 520 ft, 45 floors)
9. Rainier Tower (1977, 514 ft, 31 floors)
10. Seattle Tower (1929, 347 ft, 27 floors)
I know, Space Needle at #1 is so obvious it's a cliché, but I don't care! It's an objectively beautiful building, an absolute icon of Seattle, with an architectural design that far surpasses its legion of imitators around the world—in spite of many of them being far taller. (The CN Tower in Toronto, while offering spectacular views from its observatory, looks like a concrete toothpick with a concrete tapioca pearl at its center. The Space Needle, more than sixty years after construction, still looks futuristic, like a flying saucer ascending.)
Also: three of the buildings on my list aren't even skyscrapers! Although two of those are still very large buildings. Some might be surprised that I did not put the EMP Museum on my list, but I honestly feel fairly neutral about a building that looks like a giant wad of steel chewing gum.
— पांच हजार छह सौ चौवन —
— पांच हजार छह सौ चौवन —
So, anyway. Amy offered to drive us all down to the Smith Tower from the office, rather than Gabby taking me in an Uber. We left the office at 2:30. Amy assumed she'd be leaving at 4:00 so that's what she planned, and she did leave around that time. Thus, we had about an hour with the three of us, then another hour with just Gabby and me, during which she asked me more questions, searching for wisdom based on my 22 years here so she can perhaps get a better understanding of certain ways things are done here that she doesn't quite understand. My capacity to give her that was relatively limited, especially since, quite by choice, I have never taken on a role at a manager level.
Gabby sprang for all of us, as she is wont to do. It's very generous and I appreciate it, although I am arguable getting too used to it—I don't want to default to expecting that kind of thing, but I did not bother budgeting for that outing. None of us ordered a whole lot anyway: we shared a cheese board (which I ate from even though there were meat slices on one side; Shobhit would not have touched anything on it) and we each had one cocktail. I might have ordered a second, when Gabby even kind of suggested it, but we also had Action Movie Night last night and I knew I'd be making myself another cocktail then.
Once Amy left and Gabby and I hung out for a bit, we chatted for maybe another half hour, and then we made our way around the outdoor observatory that surrounds the 35th floor level—something Amy never had time to do. I have done this so many times, my final
photo album for this visit was the smallest I've had for a Smith Tower visit since I was there in 2000. Not by a wide margin, though; yesterday's photo album has 31 shots in it, and the September 2019 album has 33. Bear in mind, however, that I had gone twice in 2019, and the album with Danielle from March of that year contained 69 shots.
We made our way downstairs and back outside, and Gabby's husband, Nick, drove down from his work building from the heart of downtown, and then they gave me a ride home. I had just enough time to edit, tag and upload the day's photos before we needed to head downstairs for the movie.
— पांच हजार छह सौ चौवन —
I actually nearly forgot about Action Movie Night last night, only remembering when it came to me while writing the rest of this post above. Will I even be able to remember who all was there? It was not a huge crowd. In addition to Shobhit and me, there were Tony, Jake, Chris G, Chris B, Joe, Derek, and Daniel. Nine people sounds about right.
It was Shobhit's choice last night. And now that we've been going for a couple of years, I think Shobhit's individual history of choices is among the most odd and eclectic:
January 25, 2023:
Mojave (2015)
September 6, 2023:
Awaara (1951)
January 24, 2024:
Casablanca (1942)
August 7, 2024:
School Ties (1992)
To Shobhit's credit, I guess, he's chosen a different decade every time so far. Less to his credit, the only reason he chose
School Ties—which is far from an "action movie," as have all of his past three choices; but, the rule is whosever turn it is can choose whatever they want—is because he heard about a fight scene in a shower where a bunch of young men are nude, including Matt Damon and Brendan Fraser.
To be perfectly frank, the scene itself was hardly all that titillating. It's about a fight borne of antisemitism, it's hardly anything to make you horny. Not as long as you aren't a wild bigot, anyway.
As for the movie overall, I'd say it was all right. Solid B. Kind of annoying obtrusive score very typical of mainstream nineties dramas.
The food we brought was palak paneer with rice, leftover from the dinner with Alexia last Saturday. It all got eaten, which was nice. No one else brought anything vegetarian this time, except for a bag of popcorn and a tub of PCC shortbread cookies, so it's a good thing we always bring food. It's the only way to guarantee we'll have something substantive to eat for ourselves. And to be fair, this scenario is unusual; most of the time one or two other dishes brought have no meat. We just can't expect that every time.
— पांच हजार छह सौ चौवन —
