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I took myself to see the Russian/Ukranian film
Two Prosecutors after work yesterday, even though it took me yet another $12 over budget when I was already very over budget. But, there were no other worthwhile movies to choose from at AMC, and this one has an incredible score of 85 on MetaCritic. I just wanted to have a movie to go see; it's already 10 days into April and I've only managed two in-theater movies so far this month. This is going to be a lean one, in the end, as my Birth Week never allows time for movie-going either. Based on what I currently have on my calendar, by the end of this month I'll have seen a whopping four movies in the theater in April. Hopefully I can add at least a couple of more as showtimes appear in future weeks on the AMC app.
This is also a very Laney-light month, by the way. We went to see
The Drama on Thursday the 2nd, and we did our double feature of
Nebraska and
Downsizing on Saturday the 4th. We have no other plans until she participates in my Birth Week on Thursday, May 1. There are two major reasons for this: she pulled back on twice-monthly Happy Hours in a need to save money after purchasing her new van; plus she's off on her annual trip to visit her sister and brother-in-law in Florida with Jessica between the 9th and the 18th. She's also had to decline other proposed hang-outs, particularly on weekends, because of time she needs to get moved out of her apartment, which she plans to do by the end of May. She'll live in her van after that, but will stay in Seattle through the summer and then head off to her next travel adventure in the fall.
I still have plenty of other things going on. Ivan asked to stay the night at our place tonight and tomorrow night, which solves the issue of us having to get off the freeway to pick him up in Edmonds tomorrow morning. And then we'll be a foursome for a day trip yet again, with Alexia driving us all up to Mount Vernon for the Tulip Festival. I'm pretty bummed that right now tomorrow is the only day in the forecast with rain and it says 90% chance, but whatever. So much for my idea of bringing a picnic lunch to Little Mountain. We'll still make do, and we can still go check it out. Neither Alexia nor Ivan have seen Little Mountain.
And I'll be taking the bus down to Tacoma to meet up with Tracy on Sunday, and we're finally going to go check out "Dune Peninsula" at Point Defiance Park, something we've been talking about doing for a while now.
As for next weekend, there's actually nothing major planned. But! I'm thinking that Saturday I might actually do a "Crosslake Connection Redux" and look for all the public art at the Light Rail stations that I missed the first time around. If Shobhit is available he can join us and get his steps in. I wonder if Alexia would be interested in that. She did a joyride on Light Rail with me for my train-themed Birth Week in 2022, after all.
And the weekend after that? Birth Week 2026 begins!
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Anyway, back to the movie I saw last night. I struggle to say what country it's from; the dialogue is in Russian and Ukranian, and the director is apparently originally from Ukraine. "Country of Origin" as an official metric tends to be whichever country funded the project, and for this one there are
seven countries listed: France, Germany, Netherlands, Latvia, Romania, Lithuania, Ukraine. I suppose it's not much of a surprise Russia is not among them, even though I think Russian is the predominant language spoken in the film—it's set in 1937 Soviet Russia.
It's also almost unbearably slow. Quite deliberately so. I gained an overall appreciation for it by the end, but I cannot imagine ever sitting through it again. I kept nodding off. One of the Letterboxd reviews said simply,
a test of patience (i failed). I kind of related, though I did rate the movie half a star higher than that person did.
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And, as I noted yesterday, I rode my bike to work for the first time yesterday. I rode from here to SIFF Cinema at the Uptown on Lower Queen Anne, taking my Maps app directions which had me going through the center of Seattle Center. Cutting through there had never occurred to me before, but just going straight up 4th Avenue until hitting Seattle Center, as it turns out, is a lot closer to level than riding around Seattle Center and up 1st Avenue, which is a much longer and a bit steeper hill. This route was far easier to ride, and I shall make note of it for future reference. Although in two different spots there was construction happening that forced me to detour but whatever.
I felt some irony as I rode home from there, as it's not that far from the old office. My first bike commute home, and it's basically the route I used to take from the old office. At least I didn't have to climb up the super-steep hill on Broad Street.
I really thought I might have to get off and walk for a bit before I reached the top of the hill coming home, but somehow I managed. I never did have to get off and walk. I had a kind of cramp under the front of my left foot for much of the rest of the evening, though.
I rode to work again today. I know I said yesterday that I was going to keep using the bike locker on the south side of the block for now, but I've already chucked that idea. It's just way,
way easier to ride down to the public bike racks down the ramp off of Union Street. It may become more cramped with other bikes as the year goes on and gets warmer, but this is located right by the elevators that go up and open next to the back entrance to the office, and I don't have to walk through the store. There isn't even really the security concern because there's the guy at a booth right there all day. Nobody's going to steal my bike. Plus, the locking apparatus in the bike locker is weirdly complicated, sort of like the bike holders on the front of a bus but not as easy to load onto.
The most annoying part about all this is that there is already
another secure bike locker room right by where the public bike racks are, this being beneath Rainier Square Tower and where the office is. It's just that the Rainier Square people only granted us access to the other locker, on the south end of the block. After using it yesterday I'm not sure what reason I'll have to bother, unless the public racks get too overcrowded over the coming weeks.
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In other news, I just had my biweekly Zoom lunch with Karen. My lunch was a
Whole Earth & Sea Organic Vegan Greens Protein Bar, snatched from the snacks area of the office kitchen. These aren't great, but they're decent; at least they are covered in a thin layer of chocolate. And they are very high in protein, which makes all the difference—I never bring lunch to work and haven't in a few years, but try to find a protein bar or equivalent to eat at lunch time. There have been a bunch of these particular bars lately, and I have systematically snatched enough of them this week to last me every day from now through the end of next week. Don't tell anyone.
Anyway. Zoom lunch with Karen. I updated her on the latest with Shobhit's blood pressure and heart stuff (he's on a new prscription meant to lower his cholesterol), she updated me on Dave (who is apparently doing much better now). We talked a lot about Shobhit's and my upcoming trip to Amsterdam, because Shobhit and I just booked the Eurostar train we'll take to Brussels for a three-day excursion. Apparently they offer a meal as included in your ticket, which was new to me. I'll need to research whether they have vegetarian options.
Also, she booked her Eurostar ticket for herself and her friend in December for a trip in January, and it was
way cheaper than what Shobhit and I just paid. Karen condeded that her cheaper ticket may have had to do with booking a companion fare with her accessible seat, though.
Okay now I need to get back to work.
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[posted 1:03pm]
