weekend rundown
All right, how about just a quick rundown of my weekend, then!
I went to two movies Friday evening, the first being my inaugural SIFF movie of this year's festival, Good Kisser, a local production that was very well written and beautifully shot and really exceeded my expectations. Also, now that I'm spending a lot of time waiting in line for SIFF movies, I'm making a little more headway on my library book, An Atlas of Cities, which I am taking so long to get through that I have had to return it after renewing it twice and then checked it out again.
It's a short movie, like eighty minutes, so I figured I could barely make it between that 7pm showing and the 8:45 pm showing of Pokémon Detective Pikachu downtown at the Meridian, which I saw with Gabriel and Tess. I mean, I sort of saw it with Gabriel and Tess: we were unable to sit together, because, much to my genuine surprise, the screening sold out -- even though the movie opened last Friday. But, I guess I should have still considered it was now a Friday night and lots of people go out to see lots of movies on Friday nights.
I actually wanted to see it with them the previous weekend but Gabriel was unavailable, and so he suggested we go on Saturday this weekend. And so, I booked all my SIFF movies while consciously keeping Saturday open, only to find out on Friday that Gabriel was unavailable that day as well: he had a nephew's birthday party, and a graduation party to attend. I figured out on social media later that Mandy's husband David was being given a surprise party for his college graduation, and I get the feeling that was put together somewhat last-minute. I won't blame Gabriel for not knowing about that one too far in advance. Still, it sure would have been nice to know beforehand -- I could have booked Good Kisser for its next screening, which was actually on Saturday! But, whatever.
The SIFF film started with talks with a producer and the director and also had trailers, though, so I got a little nervous about how long it took to get it started. Then I figured out Detective Pikachu was actually playing at 8:50 rather than 8:45, so that bought me some time. Under normal circumstances I would have loved to stay after for the Q&A with the director, but in this case I just had no time. Shobhit had texted me earlier trying to convince me to take the Monorail because it's so quick, rather than biking as I had originally planned, but I did some comparisons while I was at work and it turned out, even taking the Monorail, that would have taken the longest -- because, even though the Monorail ride itself is all of two minutes, I still had a half-mile walk from the Uptown Theatre to the Seattle Center Monorail station; and a quarter-mile walk from the Westlake Center Monorail station to the theatre. Google Maps estimated 17 minutes for all that, and that would be assuming a Monorail departure as soon as I arrived at the station, whereas it estimated 15 minutes each for either biking or bussing.
In retrospect, I should have biked. I had no idea if we would go anywhere after, maybe even over to Lea's apartment, in which case having my bike would have complicated things too much. But, we parted ways right after the movie, so if I had had my bike, I could have biked straight home. Oh well.
In any case, I bussed, and Gabriel and Tess had reached there before I had, and he texted me right after I got on the bus that the place was almost sold out and they purchased two seats together and could not find any open seating for three together. Really afraid of it selling out completely, I got on my phone and purchased a ticket at full price, now preventing myself from being able to use my discounted ticket purchased at Costco for Regal Cinemas as planned. Oh well again!
Gabriel was at the concessions on the second floor when I got up there, arriving literally the moment Gabriel said to Tess, "Keep a look out for Matthew" and she instantly said, "There he is!" So, outside of the movie run time itself, we all had very little time together -- but it still counts! Social Media points for both of them!
Gabriel had hoped maybe someone next to one of us wouldn't show up (uh, keep dreaming) or we could convince someone to switch around seating. Neither happened, but that was fine; they were in the front row and honestly I far preferred the angle viewing the screen from my seat in row E (five rows back) anyway. I did go to sit next to them after the theatre otherwise emptied out during the end credits, when I learned that apparently Tess refuses to leave any movie theatre until everyone else has left first -- including anyone she has come with. "Gee I wonder where she get those OCD tendencies from?" I said. Gabriel just chuckled.
I though about tricking her into thinking I had left and hiding behind some chairs, but then decided that would take too much effort and I'm too lazy. So, after the credits finished, Gabriel and I left. Gabriel did wait a bit just to press the issue a little, and Tess really cracked us both up when she said, "I hear they're giving out free bourbon outside!"
I walked with them to their car on Pine and Bellevue, which was a few blocks already in the direction of my going home. We gave our hugs goodbye and I walked the rest of the way home, where Shobhit was already at home and asleep. I got to sleep at 12:02 am that night. It could have been 15 minutes earlier but I waited just so I could post a "Caturday" photo of Guru on the couch, as if he had been waiting up for me.
As for Saturday, Shobhit gets a Social Review point! After some back and forth deliberation regarding where to go for brunch, or whether to eat out for brunch at all, we settled on Café Pettiroso. He went along with my desire to split the vegan biscuits and mushroom gravy, which I found to be truly delicious, then he complained that it was nothing special and he didn't understand why I liked it. Maybe he shouldn't have gone along with just splitting that dish, then? I told him he could order the breakfast grilled cheese but he declined. I think Shobhit just likes to bitch.
We also stopped at Pacific Supply on 12th Avenue -- I do love having that hardware store so close, within walking distance of home -- and got a braided stainless steel water hose for our ice box in the refrigerator. There's going to be a systematic replacement of toilet parts in our building soon, and these hoses also need to be replaced because they started leaking in several units and causing water damage. Adding that to the scheduled parts replacement in all units would add over $100 to the cost to each unit. We decided to replace it ourselves, which was actually pretty easy to do, and do you know how much it cost me? Ten bucks.
I had written the review for Good Kisser in the morning before Shobhit and I went out; he then had a shift at Total Wine & More from 12:30 to 9 pm. I wrote the review for Pokémon Detective Pikachu after we got back home and Shobhit had gone off to work, so it was a rare case of sharing two movie reviews in one day -- a day after a rare case of seeing two movies in one day. I usually really try to avoid that just so I don't have the work of two reviews to write in one day.
But, I had no other movies to see on Saturday, so I had extra time. I spent the rest of the day basically just hanging out alone at home, although I did take a nap -- which I did on Sunday as well, because I kept being up until around midnight, then waking up too early the next day for how late I was up, and I would zonk out mid-afternoon. Otherwise, I started watching two new streaming series: Tuca & Bertie on Netflix because it's created by one of the animators on BoJack Horseman (first episode was too frenetic but, so far, I'm glad I stuck with it), and Letterkenny about Canadian hicks on Hulu, as recommended by Claudia.
I took the bus to meet Shobhit when he got off work at Total Wine & More at 8:00, so we could drive directly to PCC from there and do the week's grocery shopping. We also stopped at the PCC office on the way home, so I could pick up samples that would be too cumbersome to take in my shoulder bag later.
Yesterday had my second SIFF viewing, an 11 a.m. showing of a lovely animated feature from France (but with English language voice acting) called Pachamama that I liked a lot. That was at Pacific Place downtown, after which I went down to Target to get a few travel size toiletries for my trip to Canada and New York next week, as neither Danielle or I intend to check our luggage. I then rode the #10 bus to the Safeway up on 15th & John where I got a new bottle of mouthwash, and used the Safeway Monopoly coupon Jennifer gave me during my Birth Week visit at her house, for a free doughnut or bagel -- I chose a cheddar bagel which I shared with Shobhit.
Shobhit left for his next shift shortly after I got home, and again I wrote my review and then took another nap. I watched some more TV for much of the rest of the day, and also spent a fair amount of time finally cleaning up my inbox in my personal email, which backlogged a lot over the past couple of weeks. I listened to Like a Prayer while I did that. I cannot believe that album is thirty years old.
I was up much later than normal last night too, because I waited for Shobhit to get home to watch the series finale of Game of Thrones, and he was running late getting out of there so we didn't even get to start the 85-minute episode until about 9:50. I know many people hate this final season as a whole, but I was fine with how the ended it. Gabriel texted me, "I'm just sad it's over," and I'm kind of on the same page there.
Sometimes it was hard to hear, and I sure am glad I have closed captioning on all the time, because Shobhit was coughing to beat the band. He's developed this terrible cold and I am terrified of catching it just in time for next week's trip. So far I seem to be fine, but maybe I should knock on every bit of wood I see.
[posted 12:20 pm]