trippin
So at first I thought the "Holiday in the Park" event at Volunteer Park was happening tonight, during the exact same two-hour window (6-8 p.m.) as the "SAM Lights" event I only just recently learned about. I emailed Laney to see if she was interested in one or both of them, figuring she probably would not have the time. I was right, but I wanted to ask anyway.
But in that exchange, she had looked at the web page for the Holiday in the Park event link I had provided, and she said, "That's actually tonight." According to the web page, she was right. It said, "December 4, 2019." I checked it again many, many times. Only this morning I emailed them through the website, as well as posting a comment on their Facebook event page, that they evidently had the date wrong on the website. It's actually fixed now.
It wasn't last night, though, and kind of strangely, we now live in a world where event details are more reliable on social media than on event organizer websites. I should have thought to check Facebook, actually. But I emailed Shobhit with just the link to the event page, telling him I'd like to go to it. He came with me last year and the year before, after all, and now he'd actually be available to do so. I did think it was odd that it was happening on Wednesday, though, as all other years it's been on a Thursday.
So, after getting the laundry started and waiting for the first load to finish in the washing machine so I could transfer it to the dryer, Shobhit and I drove down to Volunteer Park. He'd had a drink so I drove. I pulled into the driveway up to the Volunteer Park parking lot, and it seemed oddly dark and quiet. I was baffled. The Conservatory, which is always open for free during this event, was closed. I kept driving through the park, until we finally found a sandwich board by the Water Tower advertising the event—for Thursday, December 5. Well, shit.
I had thought this event might even suffice for my dinner, as for the first time the website said samples of grilled cheese sandwiches would be handed out. So much for that! (Until tonight, anyway.) The we decided to go out for dinner anyway. There's a new pho' place all of a block away from our place, called Pho' Huy, on Madison on the corner at 15th. So we just parked the car back in our spot in the garage and walked over there. We shared one large pho' with one banh mi sandwich that was quite delicious. I'd go back there just for the sandwich.
Ivan was always a big fan of pho' and he and I have eaten at The Pho' on Broadway many times. So I had to message him about this new place and tell him we'd have to go whenever he comes back from New Zealand. He just messaged back, Some day!! (He somewhat recently told me his current intention is to spend about one full year there, which would have him back probably late next summer. But, you really never know with him; his "plans" are kind of permanently amorphous.)
Shobhit declared the pho' itself even better than at The Pho'. I would submit they are both good, neither particularly better than the other. But if it's at least just as good, I might as well just return to the place that is far closer from now on. Dining options within just a one- or two-block radius of our condo building have really exploded since we first moved in there in October 2007.
Shobhit and I walked back home, and I spent some time cleaning up email I had been neglecting for nearly a month, while I did the laundry. Once I was satisfied with that, I came out to the living room so we could watch just one episode of Elite on Netflix before I started getting ready for bed, and also putting away the second and final load of laundry. Last night was just the best option for getting laundry done before the weekend when we'll be driving to Idaho; I have these holiday events to go to tonight (I'm hoping to hit both "Holiday in the Park" and "SAM Lights") and a movie to see tomorrow, as well as packing to get done. We intend to leave fairly early Saturday morning.
For the first time in over a decade, it's been a full year since I have visited Mom and Bill. For several years in the mid-2000s, I was just going over once every spring, and the Christmastime visit began when Mom suddenly decided she wanted to have a "Christmas Party" in December 2009, and Holly—who doesn't even live in Wallace anymore—really went out of her way to make sure I came. I've gone every December since. At this point, if I have to choose just one visit in a given year, it's going to be the Christmastime one.
Still, I am considering the skipping of the spring visit this year an anomaly. I only did it to placate Shobhit as he was hemming and hawing about all the other travel expenses I was incurring for 2019, between the trip to Toronto, Niagara Falls and Syracuse with Danielle and late May and early June; the two-night visit with Sara in Denver in August (the one flight-destination trip for which Shobhit joined); and the two-night trip to Las Vegas with Danielle in late September. I told him I would skip the usual trip to Wallace in the spring to save at least that much money, but I promised Mom I would not skip it next year—and I am not about to break any promises, so no matter how Shobhit feels about it, two trips to Wallace will happen in 2020. That said, those trips and our two-week whirlwind in Australia will be the only travel I do for 2020. Well, except for a couple local-regional overnights during my Birth Week (overnight with Jennifer in Shelton; Dad wants to stay a night at Cape Disappointent).
Anyway! So, I have a weekend of Holiday Feasts ahead of me. Tomorrow is the PCC Holiday Potluck. We'll make the now-traditional move of picking up pizzas at Costco on our way through Coeur d'Alene on Saturday, to provide dinner for us all Saturday night. And then we host a huge lunch buffet at our hotel room (with a full kitchen) in Wallace on Sunday, to which Nikki and TJ plan on driving down from Spokane to attend as usual. We'll see if Becca and Tyler make it; it would be awesome if they did but I don't have a huge amount of faith in that happening. They still haven't responded to the Facebook invite. Then we drive back home on Monday. We're prepared with tire chains handy just in case they're needed over Snoqualmie Pass, but I don't think they will be, even with snow in the forecast. I haven't heard anything about any massive snow dumps expected so I think it'll be all right.
[posted 12:22 pm]