— छह हज़ार इक्कीस —
Even though it's Tuesday and I was back to work yesterday, I let the final post about my Birth Week activities from yesterday morning stand as the day's blog post—and that means only today are we back to the regular Daily Lunch Update (DLU) routine.
Still! I'm sure I have a few observations I can come up with, now that I'm not just mostly transferring what I wrote in the email travelogues into separate blog posts for each day of my Birth Week.
I don't think I've ever done this before: why don't I do a linked rundown of each day?
Day One: Friday, April 24
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #1:
1600 Seventh Avenue, 32-story skyscraper built in 1976
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #2:
Third Place Books, original site and building of PCC Ravenna, opened in 1976 (with Tracy)
Day Two: Saturday, April 25
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #3:
Bataan Park in Bremerton, comemmorating the dead Filipinos in the World War II Bataan Death March, dedicated in 1976. I visited here after
having lunch with Gabriel, Lea and Tess in Bremerton.
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #4:
Mason County Senior Activities Association, formed in 1976 (with Jennifer, before going out for dinner and then staying the night at her place in Union)
Day Three: Sunday, April 26
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #5:
Erector Set, downtown art installed in 1976; and
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #6:
Surf II, created for the Everett Waterfront in 1976 (with Lynn and Zephyr, before having lunch at Skuttlebut Brewing)
Day Four: Monday, April 27
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #7:
George's in
Kirkland, opened in 1976 (with Shobhit and Valerie)
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #8:
Starbucks at
Pike Place Market, opened 1976 (with Shobhit)
Day Five: Tuesday, April 28
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #9: Picnic at Central Park in the Issaquah Highlands, surrounded by the "
Issaquah Alps," phrase coined by hiking enthusiast and conservationist Harvey Manning in 1976 (with Alexia)
Day Six: Wednesday, April 29
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #10:
Ballard Avenue Landmark District (with Shobhit and Barbara)
Day Seven: Thursday, April 30
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #11:
Olallie State Park, 200 acres of which was added in 1976 (with Shobhit, Barbara, and Ivan)
Day Eight: Friday, May 1
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #12:
Freeway Park, opened July 4, 1976 (with Barbara and Laney, before moving to
coffee and tea at
Olympia Coffee in the US Bank Center lobby)
Day Nine: Saturday, May 2
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #13:
Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, hospital where I was born in 1976 (with Shobhit and Barbara)
—followed by
my 50th birthday celebration at Dad and Sherri's house in Olympia
Day Ten: Sunday, May 3
Birth Week 1976 Landmark #14:
Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve, Thurston County, established 1976 (with Shobhit, Dad, and Barbara)
Epilogue: Tuesday, May 5: "Cinco de Matthew" dinner at Gabby and Nick's house, Edmonds
—So was this Birth Week a special one, one that stands out? Well, they're all special; I'm pretty good at ensuring that they are every year. But still, yes! For two key reasons: 1) Barbara's return to Birth Week for the
first time in 15 years; and, of course, my 50th birthday party—the
final one of four between myself and my three siblings. (I also figured out that all four of us will be in our fifties for the next three and a half years. Then, the cycle starts anew, when Angel turns 60 in 2029.)
Shobhit did also make
a fantastic red velvet cake, modified slightly from a recipe provided by Valerie. It actually turned out fantastic, in spite of both Barbara's and my skepticism with some of his odder modification choices, but that's often how it goes with Shobhit's cooking. Sometimes it doesn't work quite as intended, but usually it does.
— छह हज़ार इक्कीस —
— छह हज़ार इक्कीस —
Getting back to Barbara, she flew out yesterday morning. I rode my bike to work yesterday, so I hugged her goodbye right before leaving for work in the morning. She gave me a long, tight hug, and thanked me for everything. She even called out to me, "Love you!" as I was shutting the door to the condo and leaving.
Shobhit dropped her off at the airport at about 8:30. Her first flight, Seattle to Chicago, took off at 11:16, and that one was on time. Shobhit only dropped her off as early as he did because he had a Weight Watchers meeting to get to.
In the original itinerary, she had a three and a half-hour layover in Chicago. Shobhit texted her an earlier flight from Chicago to Louisville and suggested she ask if she can get bumped back to that flight for free. He knew Barbara might not be comfortable with doing that, and even acknowledge that in his text; Barbara indicated she would just go with what had been booked.
But, she texted us later that she had gotten booked on the earlier flight! She apparently sat at the wrong gate for her own flight, and it sounded like it was the gate for the earlier one, and she said she realized she'd rather not wait another two hours. So, she asked and it paid off.
Or so she thought! She texted us she was boarded and everything, and then over an hour later she said they were still taxiing on the runway. Apparently they were unable to take off because of storms south of there. Eventually she was re-booked on her
original flight, which was itself delayed for the same reasons—she texted us at 7:39 p.m. (9:39 Central Time; the flight was scheduled for 9:16 Central) that she was on the original plane. She finally texted us at 10:10 Pacific that she finally made it to Louisville, which would have been 1:10 a.m. her time. I think that was just when she reached the Louisville airport, and she had already planned to take an Uber home from there.
Air travel can be such a crapshoot. I'm now recalling Shobhit's and my last trip to Australia, when we missed our connecting flight from L.A. to Brisbane because our Alaska flight out of Seattle was delayed more than two hours. I can only hope our flights to and from Amsterdam this summer will happen without incident. At least we have two and a half weeks for that trip so any delay, or even if (god forbid) a flight gets canceled and we have to rebook, won't be the end of the world. Barbara's two flights here last Wednesday went off without a hitch, so that was nice. At least she wasn't missing out on anything due to the delays going home.
I have no idea if or when Barbara will be back to Seattle again. I'd really like to visit her again in Louisville, either next year or the year after, and I'm leaning toward next year. That could very well be it for when we get to see each other, but you never know. It didn't even occur to us to fly her out for my 50th birthday until just a few months ago, after all. Things can change in unexpected ways.
— छह हज़ार इक्कीस —
As for last night, I rode my bike home, I made chai, I helped Shobhit with dinner a little bit. We continued working on the 3-D Seattle puzzle that I broke out and figured Barbara could help with while she's here. Shobhit has taken to it in a way I did not expect, and it seems to kind of calm him down. I found this place on Queen Anne that does
a used puzzle exchange on the last Sunday of every month, so I'm thinking once we have this one done, rather than just putting it away indefinitely, I'll take it there and exchange it for another one. I can keep doing that and not have a ton of space-taking puzzles at home. I haven't even done a puzzle since the one I took forever to put together that Mom gave me as a gift ages ago; that was
a Christmas gift in 2013, and I didn't finish it until several months later.
I do also now have
the puzzle Tracy bought me for my birthday at Third Place Books, and I have already scheduled a day to take that over to Alexia's in Issaquah (Saturday May 16) so we work on it together. Shobhit can come join us if he's available.
Anyway, Birth Week 2026 was a great one. I got to spend the time I wanted with all the people I wanted, largely because of the party itself: I almost got together with Danielle on Monday but she canceled at the last minute as she was too busy, noting that she was coming to the party on Saturday, which she switched shifts with someone so she could do. I did meet up with Gabriel in Bremerton but, to my delight and slight surprise, he and Lea still came to the party in Olympia—his first time, in fact, ever seeing Dad and Sherri's house. They got there a bit late, but not too late; I deliberately waited for both the cake and for
Laney's song performance until they arrived. In both cases it was worth the wait.
I was disappointed Valerie could not make it to the party after all, but Scott was feeling unwell and she needed to stay with him, which I understood. I was thrilled Christopher showed up, along with Christian and Braeden, and Becca came too; bummed that neither Nikki (who is coming to the Family Vacation in August) and Tristen (who had to work) could not make it. Brandi, my eldest niece, had RSVPed that she would be coming—she was the only one of Angel's kids who RSVPed at all, and Jackie, Gina's daughter-in-law, RSVPed that she and David could not make it, which I totally expected; they live in Vancouver, Washington and don't know me well. That said, it was interesting to me how many family members from Idaho did make it—and I was fairly convinced they wouldn't—but none of the nieces of nephews who actually live in Olympia bothered to show.
But, whatever. I am very grateful for the ones who did. There were 22 people at my party, and that was plenty. In fact, between the days of the week I spent with people and the party, I had 29 participants in my Birth Week overall this year, which
would be a record. I am delighted by and deeply thankful for that.
— छह हज़ार इक्कीस —
[posted 12:28pm]
