When we have our weekly "P3" (Pricing, Promotions & Project management) meetings, Gabby starts each one with an ice breaker question. A week or two ago, the question was whether we were a morning person or a night person. I declared I was very much a morning person and said that I typically sleep until around 7 a.m. when I'm not working (I get up at 5:30 a.m. on work days). Everyone else on the team proceeded to say they wake up earlier than that even on their days off.
I'm taking the entire week of Thanksgiving off work, which I have now done four years running. I'm going to keep doing it as long as I can get away with it. And here's the biggest surprise: I keep going to bed well after 11 p.m., often close to or just after midnight. And I have been consistently getting out of bed around 8 a.m., sometimes shortly before but usually after. When I looked at the clock on my phone this morning after getting up and using the bathroom, it was 8:25.
What is happening to me?
It's a change I seem to be okay with, for the record. I feel rested. I guess that's what's happening to me.
I have two days to catch you up on now, but one major event: the Seattle Festival of Trees, which Laney and I went to check out on Tuesday. I have now gone to this event
five years running, and at first I was thinking: am I developing a better eye as a photographer, or am I just getting more slaphappy with picture taking as time goes on? By the end of our time at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel on Tuesday, I had something like 98 photos. But, that included 22 shots of the signs posted next to each tree, identifying their name and the Seattle Children's Hospital sponsor for it. I always take photos of those just for reference later, so I know what to tag each tree, as they also get their own name—but then I don't bother uploading them to Flickr, although this year I did
miss just one and upload it by accident. Oh well; it gives a sense of the type of information that tends to be posted next to each tree.
Anyway, I had some photos from our subsequent BYOB Happy Hour as well, so in the end,
this year's photo album for the Seattle Festival of Trees contains 76 shots: 73 photos and 3 video clips. This is still a record, but not by much: last year's album had 70 shots. That said, more is sure to get added to this year's album, when Gina and Beth come to Seattle for a day visit on Sunday and I take them to see it. Having already taken a bunch of photos, though, I won't likely take a ton more there that day.
On Tuesday, I met with Laney at her place at 11:30, as we aimed to get down to the Fairmont at noon. As it was a weekday, I led her though the Convention Center and then through Union Square and the Skinner Concourse underground tunnel, a route she had never taken before. When we got to Rainier Square, I showed her the bike storage room I now have access to, though I won't likely use it until I start biking to work again in the spring. We then went up the escalator to the 2nd-level main lobby area for Rainier Square, though which we went to the south entrance—which is right across the street from the Fairmont Olympic Hotel.
I don't think I'll ever tire of the Seattle Festival of Trees. I love Christmas Trees, after all, and these are different every year. Until I started going to this in 2021, I was pretty strict about not starting "the Christmas season" until the day after Thanksgiving—but, this even has a gala fundraiser event that kicks it off on the Saturday
before Thanksgiving. This makes sense logistically and pragmatically, as it is a fundraiser where each designed or themed tree cost $4500 to buy and presumably whoever buys it wants to maximize the time they can have it on display in their home. And the trees tend to be on display in the Fairmont Hotel lobby (both the main floor and the balcony area surrounding the second level) from the Saturday before Thanksgiving until around the Monday after.
It's possible some of them will already be getting packed up on Sunday. But hopefully they don't start with that until Sunday, and Gina and Beth are able to see the displays in their full splendor.
Laney and I spent about 45 minutes in the Fairmont Olympic Hotel lobby looking at Christmas Trees, and then we walked the six blocks south to Café Hitchcock, which is in the
Exchange Building, constructed in 1930. We were surprised to find the main doors to the building lobby locked, but once we got our drinks at Café Hitchcock, they had a door open to the lobby which then made it accessible to us—and, the spot Laney actually wanted to share with me here: an open space with
large, cushy chairs (and plenty of other
plush furniture) in it. The space actually had a sink and faucet in it, which made me wonder if perhaps once it was another business tenant, and when they closed they just turned it into this public space. Well, quasi-public space. You have to make your way through one of the actually-open businesses to get back there.
Laney brought her own watered wine from home, and she bought the one vegetarian sandwich option Café Hitchcock had, which did not appeal to me as it was squash based. I ordered a caramel apple cider, only to be told after I paid for it that they were out of cider. I went with the hot cocoa instead, which actually costs a dollar less but I decided I would just let it go. And then the cocoa was barely warmer than room temperature. The two shots of rum I brought and later added to it made it a little better, I guess. I also ordered a piece of pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting on it, and
that was $4 well spent.
Laney and I left there at about 2:45, which means we spent about an hour and 45 minutes hanging out at the Exchange Building. We scheduled this Café Hitchcock outing ages ago, scheduling it this week because they are only open weekdays until 3 p.m. and I would be taking this week off. That's the only reason, really, that we added as an extra "Happy Hour" this month, the very next day after our regularly scheduled Monday Happy Hour.
We took the RapidRide G line back to Capitol Hill together, and that was the last I saw her, or will see her, until we see another movie on Saturday.
I spent the rest of the day on Tuesday editing and uploading all my Seattle Festival of Trees photos, and then Shobhit and I spent some time watching episodes of season two of
Wednesday on Netflix. Yesterday, I took myself to a movie I quite enjoyed even though I gave it a solid B, only that low because of how little of it makes sense under scrutiny:
Eternity. Shobhit stayed home and got a few hours of work in, as I came home after and spent some time writing the review.
We did go for a walk, though. He asked if I wanted to come with him to pick up a prescription at Walgreens, and then when we were already down at Broadway, he asked if I wanted to walk up to the north end of Broadway and back. I said sure. We walked as far as Highland, then turned to cut through Volunteer Park. At my suggestion, we
climbed the Volunteer Park Water Tower, which was exhausting, and I got a beautiful nighttime shot of the Seattle skyline.
Last night was Action Movie Night, and it was surprisingly well attended for the night before Thanksgiving: nine people—Tony, Jake, Ryan, Chris B, Derek, Derek's visiting brother-in-law who was also named Tony, Daniel, Shobhit, and me. It was Chris B's choice this time, and we watched
Attack the Block, which is a decent British alien-invasion action movie I saw once in theaters in 2011. I could have sworn it was also chosen once for Action Movie Night, but, evidently not. There have been other, similar movies set in the same types of area of London, so I must have been confusing them.
Shobhit fell asleep through some of it. He does that at almost every movie though.
Shobhit and I are bringing samosas as our contribution to Thanksgiving Dinner at Karen and Dave's house in Tulalip today, and since Shobhit had already started working on them, we fried up 16 of them to bring to Action Movie Night last night. No effusive compliments this time around, but they all got eaten, which is arguably compliment enough. I think Shobhit and I each ate three of them, which would mean 10 were consumed by others. It was a rare occasion in which our dish was brought back home empty, though.
Shobhit and I just spent late this morning and early this afternoon frying up another 30 samosas to take to Tulalip. I needed to get this blog post knocked out, though, as otherwise I'd be having to write about the past two days
and Thanksgiving all in one go. I need to keep up with even myself!
[posted 1:25pm]
