the fruitcake enterprises social review -- summer 2019

In the summer of 2019, I engaged in in-person social interaction with the following people on the indicated number of days: 1. Shobhit -- 29
2. Laney -- 10
3. Gabriel -- 7
4. Ivan -- 6
5. Lea -- 5
6. Tess -- 5
7. Josh -- 5
8. Puneet -- 4
9. Karen -- 4
10. Darren -- 4
11. Jennifer -- 3
12. Danielle -- 3
13. Sara -- 3
14. Matthew -- 3
15. Mandy -- 2
16. Noah -- 2
17. Jessica -- 2
18. David -- 2
19. Hope -- 2
20. Kevin -- 2
21. Jeff -- 2
22. Justine -- 2
23. Darrell -- 2
24. Josiah -- 2
25. Ryan -- 2
26. Julie -- 2
27. Gina -- 1
28. Beth -- 1
29. Heather -- 1
30. Tim -- 1
31. Evan -- 1
32. Elden -- 1
33. Scott -- 1
34. Stephanie -- 1
35. Lorrie -- 1
36. Richard -- 1
37. Morgan -- 1
38. Kibby -- 1
39. Lisa -- 1
40. Steven -- 1
41. Terry -- 1
42. Lynne -- 1
43. Helen -- 1
44. Julie -- 1
45. Ben -- 1
46. L -- 1
47. S -- 1 Total days in the spring with in-person social interaction: 47 (51.1%, a +4.38 percentage point change from spring, but a -3.2 percentage point change from the 50 days in summer 2018)
As I was drawing up the above list for 2019 Summer's Social Review standings, it made me realize in a way that had not quite registered before how much of a kind of explosion my social life took this summer. Not in terms of where certain regulars ranked or in terms of the total number of days in which I socialized, both of which are pretty consistent for the summer; but in terms of the sheer number of people included. Summer 2019 has 47 people with whom I socialized, up from 34 in the spring quarter immediately preceding, and also up from 33 last summer. There are several contributing factors to this, but one particularly major one: Gabriel, and his new relationship with Lea, which brought the meeting of several new people with it, most of whom I hang out with several times, all within the past three months. I hung out with Lea only twice this past spring, when I first met her, but five times this summer; all five of those times were in group settings: drinks at C.C. Attle's; Trans Pride; Seattle Pride; the 4th of July party at her apartment and her birthday party at her and Gabriel's new apartment. Her best friend Josh was at all of these events, giving him five points, same as her. Josh's partner Darren was at four of these events (so, four points for him); Lea's couple friends Julie and Ryan were at two of them; Josh and Darren's friend Ben was at the 4th of July party (I think he was even at C.C. Attle's but I didn't really talk to him there much so he doesn't get a point for that day). These are all new people -- five brand new additions to the rankings list. All of these people came into my life through Gabriel, making Gabriel the biggest conduit for new socializing, but, he wasn't even the only one to add new multiple-point additions to this quarter's list! There were also not one, but two social outings with coworkers, with significant overlap: Helen's going-away lunch, and the Merchandising Department Sail. These two events included several people who usually aren't on my Social Review at all, but ranked higher than they usually otherwise here because they each got two points: Noah, Kevin, Jeff, Justine, Darrell. So between Gabriel and work, that's a whopping people either new or rare on the Social Review. Shobhit and I even had dinner guests, just last weekend, an older gay couple who had never been on my Social Review before ("L" and "S," at the bottom of the rankings as one-point, anonymous newbies). So, another rare factor for this quarter's list is not just the number of new people, but the number of new people with multiple points. Typically the number of people with 3 points or more numbers under 10 and sometimes within 5; here there are fourteen. It's also rare to have seven people with 5 points or more. I haven't even mentioned Shobhit's brother Puneet, also a new addition, who stayed with us for four days and therefore gained that many points; or three friends returning from a several-month absence: Sara, with 3 points for that number of days we stayed with her in Denver; and Evan and Elden, both with one point each but returning after an absence in spring, and not having been seen since last December. The one person to tumble down the chart was Karen, who was going to be ranked #6, still unusually low for her but with 5 points, and had to be repositioned at #9 with 4 points, as the lunch we had scheduled just yesterday got postponed to next week because she was sick with a fever of over 100°. She also had to postpone or cancel more than one other regularly scheduled lunch due to her busy schedule and calendar conflicts. My guess is she will rise up the charts to #3 or #4 again by the Fall Social Review. Speaking of which, it would be hard to predict how all this will compare to the coming season. Fall is typically a pretty sociable time as it veers well into the holiday season, and often includes several parties, thereby adding to the total number of people on the list, albeit with most of them getting only one point. I don't expect to be part of quite as many social gatherings that include Lea's friends, though: there won't be another 4th of July and Lea won't have another birthday; Pride Weekend won't be for another nine months. So although there's a good chance most of these people will still be on the list, they will likely fall down it. The one notable, known absence will be Ivan, who, thanks to two weekend visits before he left the country has 6 points now and ranks #4 on the current standings (higher even than Karen, which is very unusual), barring a sudden return from New Zealand in the next few months -- which I do not expect -- Ivan will almost certainly be absent from the Social Review for the first time since he first appeared on it in 2015. Gabriel himself sure shot up the charts, which is nice. It's easy to see why; in a fairly new relationship, he's far happier than he has been in a long time, and is therefore far more inclined to socializing than he has been in a while. He also moved back to Columbia City in Seattle, making him a lot more accessible to me. Those things combined with the requisite multiple days over Pride Weekend made his higher-than-usual #3 ranking kind of inevitable. I'd say it would take a miracle for him to replace Laney at #2, but 10 points and 7 points aren't that far apart, especially if Laney has one of her off-seasons in terms of getting out to do things -- although that's rare and never particularly expected. Laney can probably still feel pretty confident of maintaining her position at #2; ditto Shobhit at #1, regardless of what number points he has (up 9 from spring, and even 2 more than he had for summer last year). The other thing that struck me looking at the social standings this year was how many of the one-pointers were people I still spent quite a lot of time with on the one day I saw them. Gina and Beth for the Blue Angels Air Show, which was several hours together. Same with Shobhit's and my boating day with Heather and Tim. I spent a few hours each even with Evan and Elden at the Hawaiian Cultural Festival; with coworkers on that sailing excursion; Laney's sister and brother-in-law Lorrie and Richard at our September Happy Hour; even "L" and "S" for dinner last weekend. No matter what angle you take when looking at my socializing over the past three months, even if the total number of days is nowhere far out of the ordinary, I spent a lot more time with the people I did spend time with than usual. It never really felt that way as I was living life through these three months, but it sure did strike me as I was collating the data. So now let's get to the who did what with whom where and when!
Friday, June 21: with Scott, Noah, Kevin, Helen, Jeff, Justine and Darrell, Helen's goodbye lunch (Boat Street Kitchen) Friday, June 21: with Laney, Happy Hour at Life on Mars, then hanging out at Cal Anderson Park Saturday, June 22: with Shobhit, Fremont Solstice Parade Saturday, June 22: with Gabriel, Lea, Joshua, Darren and more, out for drinks (C.C. Attle's) Saturday, June 22: with Shobhit, Gabriel and Lea, out for pizza (Pagliacci's) Monday, June 24: with Shobhit, out for dinner (Little Big Burger) Thursday, June 27: with Karen, out to lunch (Six-Seven at the Edgewater Hotel) Friday, June 28: with Gabriel, Tess, Stephanie, Lea, Joshua and Darren, Trans Pride Seattle 2019 Saturday, June 29: with Shobhit and Laney, Capitol Hill Pride Festival Saturday, June 29: with Laney, out for drinks (Boca), picnic lunch and watching the Doggie Costume Contest (Cal Anderson Park) Saturday, June 29: with Jennifer, Matthew, Hope and Josiah, return to Capitol Hill Pride Festival Sunday, June 30: with Shobhit, Jennifer, Matthew, Hope, Josiah, Danielle, Morgan, Gabriel, Lea and Tess, Seattle Pride Parade Sunday, June 30: with Shobhit, Jennifer, Matthew, Hope and Josiah, PrideFest at Seattle Center Sunday, June 30: with Shobhit, Gabriel, Lea, Joshua and Darren, "Queer / Pride" beer garden at Queer / Bar Thursday, July 4: with Shobhit, Gabriel, Tess, Lea, Josh, Darren, Ben, Mandy, David, Julie and Ryan, Lake Union fireworks viewing from Lea's apartment Friday, July 5: with Shobhit and Ivan, Ivan spending the night at our place Saturday, July 6: with Ivan, to a movie (MidSommar) and out for dinner (Ramen Danbo) Saturday, July 6: with Shobhit and Ivan, Ivan spending the night at our place Sunday, July 7: with Ivan, out for dinner (Manao Thai Street Eats) Sunday, July 7: with Shobhit and Ivan, chai and watching Fleabag, Ivan spending the night at our place Monday, July 8: with Shobhit and Puneet, out for dessert (Salt & Straw) and walk to Volunteer Park Tuesday, July 9: with Shobhit and Puneet, Puneet spending the night at our place Wednesday, July 10: with Shobhit and Puneet, Puneet spending the night at our place Thursday, July 11: with Puneet, up the Space Needle Friday, July 12: with Laney, Kinsey Sicks concert at Rialto Theater in Tacoma; out for late-night snack at La Cocina Saturday, July 13: with Shobhit, out for dinner (Vacilando) Sunday, July 14: with Shobhit, Danielle and Lisa, dinner at our place Saturday, July 20: with Shobhit, Heather and Tim, boating from Des Moines to downtown Seattle Thursday, July 25: with Karen, out to lunch (Six-Seven at the Edgewater Hotel) Friday, July 26: with Laney, visiting outside her apartment building Sunday, July 28: with Shobhit, out for dinner (A-Pizza Mart) Monday, July 29: with Gabriel, seeing his new Columbia City apartment, and out for drinks Wedesday, July 31: with Shobhit and Ivan, Ivan spending the night at our place Thursday, August 1: with Ivan, out for dinner (The Marrakesh) and walking the waterfront Friday, August 2: with Laney, Happy Hour at SPIN Seattle Friday, August 2: with Ivan, Neko Cat Cafe Saturday, August 3: with Gina and Beth, Blue Angels Seafair Air Show at Mount Baker Beach Friday, August 9: with Shobhit, out for dinner and dessert (Cinnaholic) Saturday, August 10: with Shobhit, out for brunch (Poquito's) Sunday, August 11: with Danielle, out to lunch (Bai Tong) and watching a movie at my place (The Mustang) Sunday, August 11: with Shobhit and Danielle, wine and visiting at our place Friday, August 16: with Noah, Kibby, Steven, Terry, Jeff, Kevin, Lynne, Justine, Darrell and more, PCC sail on Elliott Bay Friday, August 16: with Laney and Julie, Happy Hour at Jude's Old Town Saturday, August 17: with Karen, to a movie (Where'd You Go, Burnadette) Saturday, August 17: with Jennifer and Matthew, staying the night at Jennifer's Sunday, August 18: with Shobhit, tasting at Batch 206 Distillery Thursday, August 22: with Karen, out to lunch (Six-Seven at the Edgewater Hotel) Friday, August 23: with Laney and Jessica, Happy Hour at Bill's Off Broadway Saturday, August 24: with Shobhit and Sara, out for drinks and out for dinner (Wynkoop Brewing Company, 54Thirty), and staying the night at her place Sunday, August 25: with Shobhit, out for brunch (The Goods), and roaming downtown Denver Sunday, August 25: with Shobhit and Sara, out for dinner (Cinzzetti's) and driving to Denver city viewpoints Monday, August 26: with Shobhit and Sara, morning visit before Sara went to work Monday, August 26: with Shobhit, out for brunch (City O'City), touring the Colorado State Capitol, and visiting the United States Mint Friday, August 30: with Laney, outdoor movie at Cal Anderson Park (Kinky Boots) Monday, September 2: with Shobhit, out for dessert (Old School Frozen Custard) Saturday, September 7: with Shobhit, Gabriel, Tess, Lea, Josh, Mandy, David, Julie, Ryan and more, Lea's 35th birthday party Sunday, September 8: with Evan and Elden, Live Aloha Hawaiian Cultural Festival at Seattle Center Thursday, September 12: with Shobhit, Sip & Mingle wine tasting at Total Wine & More Saturday, September 14: with Shobhit, Laney, Jessica, Lorrie and Richard, September Happy Hour at Maggie Bluffs Sunday, September 15: with Laney, to a movie (Hustlers) Sunday, September 15: with Shobhit, L and S, dinner at our place Wednesday, September 18: with Shobhit, to a movie (Downton Abbey) Friday, September 20: with Gabriel and Tess, 95-minute hangout at their place