— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ उनासी —
Last night was Happy Hour with Laney, the weekday Happy Hour that for some time had been scheduled on Mondays, is often now bumped to Tuesdays because of her biweekly ukulele lessons on Mondays, and was pushed further one day this week for reasons I can no longer recall. Maybe so she could invite Jessica? Because Jessica did join us, and so did Shobhit for a lot of the time, giving us a Happy Hour group
twice as big as usual yesterday.
We all got there by way of different routes, although Laney did go all the way down to the ferry terminal to meet Jessica, who had taken the pedestrian Fast Ferry over from Bremerton (where she lives, incidentally) and then came back up to Capitol Hill with her. I actually don't know if they walked or took a bus; if I had to guess I'd say they took a bus. Shobhit went out for a very long walk to catch up on his steps, and said he might "stop by." I walked directly there from work, leaving at about 4:20. Laney texted me right about that time that she and Jessica were already there—there being Poquitos, the Mexican restaurant on E Pike and 10th Ave.
Jessica was surprised by how quickly I got there. It probably took me, I don't know, 25 minutes? Laney and Jessica had already ordered drinks; I ordered a margarita and later we all ordered food, all of which was done before Shobhit arrived, and he also ordered a Espresso Martini. I'd have barely gotten in under my budgeted $53 if not for Shobhit's martini; admittedly I had two "Ocho Hour" (all items on that menu $8) margaritas and two of the food items—nachos, which were very tasty; and "seasonal veggie" tacos, of which I only ate one of the two because they were very sweet-potato-forward. I let Shobhit eat the other one. He also had some bites of my nachos. Anyway the total, with tax and tip, came to $53.04. It was fine.
Our server was a young Latino man who wore tight jeans and a tight T-shirt and I found him very hot. Shobhit really overstepped the bounds of social propriety, though, when he actually asked the guy, "Can I ask what size your pants are? They're very tight."
Laney was immediately like, "Shobhit!" I think I might have said, "Jesus." Jessica said something too I think; I don't remember what. The waiter was clearly uncomfortable with this question, said, "I don't know," and seemed to leave our table as quickly as he could after that. Laney later noted that if Shobhit had been a straight man who said something like that to a young woman, she'd have been infuriated, but wasn't sure if there's something different about how socially acceptable that might be considered between gay men. I think it's safe to say this was inappropriate no matter what. When Shobhit later left, which I kind of wanted him to do immediately after that, he actually did say "Sorry about that" to the guy, who said nothing more than "It's all good" in reply.
This really injected a weird, new vibe into what we were all otherwise talking about, which was Shobhit being let go from his play last Sunday. Danielle clearly finally saw my Facebook post, so I no longer have to alert her directly—she texted me while I was at Poquitos but before Shobhit arrived to ask what had happened. As I have now done with multiple people, I sent her the link to
Sunday's blog post, and then a screenshot of a relevant portion of the next day's post about the support he got from other people at TPS when he went there to volunteer at the Generals that morning.
Shobhit shared a kind of stunning new detail about all this last night, though. The director of the play, who is also Artistic Director of
its production company, is
also the Treasurer on
the Board at TPS (which must be a recent appointment, because he's not listed on the web page)—the very position Shobhit vacated to get hired part time as their Finance Manager! So, it's not like Shobhit can fully avoid the guy after all this. Shobhit is still thinking about what he'll say in the email asking for an explanation, which he wants me to read before he sends and even suggested Laney read before he sends too—that's a very smart idea, I think. He already mentioned a "post-script" he was thinking of including that Laney and I both agreed would be a mistake, so Shobhit abandoned that idea.
Laney did express interest in reading the contract Shobhit signed when he was cast, so he's also sending that to her. I don't know if he's sent it yet or not. I did learn that he's still getting paid the modest amount they were paying him for rehearsals—I had no idea there were two separate rates for rehearsals versus performances—so at least there's that, I guess.
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ उनासी —
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ उनासी —
Anyway, aside from that one deeply embarrassing moment when Shobhit also rather embarrassed himself, Happy Hour last night was fun and lovely—even with all the talk about the saga of Shobhit's play that is no longer his play. Jessica had to get brought up to speed on a lot of it. Laney expressed a lot of anger on Shobhit's behalf, which I think is at least validating in the sense that I was not the only one infuriated by how this was handled.
It was maybe thirty or forty minutes after Shobhit went home that the rest of us finished up at Poquitos. Jessica ordered an Uber to take her back to the ferry dock, and both Laney and I waited with her for the car to arrive, which it did within moments. Laney and I then walked in opposite directions to go home.
Shobhit had Rachel Maddow, and other similar shows playing—a side benefit of the trial month subscription I signed up for on YouTube TV. I did this just so we could watch the Super Bowl and also the Winter Olympics, both of which are over now; I just canceled the membership this morning, with one day before it would have auto-renewed tomorrow and charged me $52.99. That was a
discounted price, mind you: after apparently six months that would go up to $82.99!
To be fair, YouTube TV allows you to watch virtually anything you would otherwise watch with a cable package, with tons of channel options, including the regular networks. Shobhit was so enjoying his MS NOW shows that he even asked me how much it would cost to keep the subscription. I told him and it was clear it would not be worth that cost. But! I will probably sign up for another trial month shortly, so that we can watch the Oscars. I just have to create yet another new email address in order to do it, but that shouldn't be hard. The trickier part, really, is making damn sure you cancel the trial before it auto-renews and charges you. I had a reminder set in two places for Monday to make sure I canceled by the 27th, and I still procrastinated a couple of days just so Shobhit could still access his shows.
All the information I could find said that access ends immediately if you cancel long before the trial ends. Maybe it does if it's too long before, I don't know; I was informed today that access will remain until the end of the day though: "Access until Feb 27, 2026," the membership page now reads, to be more specific.
Shobhit watched his shows live until 9:00, and then we watched the third of the three episodes that dropped as part of the premiere of season 2 of
Paradise on Hulu this week. It's one episode a week from here on out, every Monday. Honestly these first three episodes are a mixed bag on the whole, but I remain compelled enough to want to keep watching, so there's that I guess.
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ उनासी —
This just in: Shobhit has sent out the draft of his email. I hope to find some time this afternoon to read it, but there's a lot going on at work today. This is Gabby's first day back after being stranded a few days in Puerto Vallarta (staying with her mom at her house, but still), and all the Annual Performance Reviews she's doing for her team were thus scheduled for today. Mine is last, just after our weekly team meeting we do Tuesday afternoons.
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ उनासी —
[posted 12:34pm]
