the fruitcake enterprises social review — summer 2020
In the summer of 2020, I engaged in in-person* social interaction with the following people on the indicated number of days:
1. Shobhit—11
2. Alexia—7
3. Laney—6
4. Karen—6
5. Rebecca—7
6. Brent—6
7. Gabriel—4
8. Danielle—2
9. Christopher—2
10. Tristen—2
11. Andrew—4
12. Teresa—4
13. Sara—3
14. Brenna—3
15. Zaira—3
16. Adrienne—3
17. Lea—2
18. Dad—1
19. Sherri—1
20. Tracy—1
21. Mary—2
22. Aimee—2
23. Molly—2
24. Morgan—1
25. Rylee—1
26. Claudia—1
27. Noah—1
28. Michelle—1
29. Bill—1
30. Bill—1
31. David—1
Okay, so I did something a little bit different with the social rankings this time around—something I previously insisted I would not do, but 2020 is extraordinary circumstances, okay! The thing is, fully sixteen of the people ranked this quarter are from one or more of the new, weekly Zoom social "Friday Office Lunch Meetup," of which there have been seven to date. And those are always pretty strictly one hour, which makes the time far more easily quantifiable than in the past. In the past, it was too difficult to compare cumulative hours socializing rather than merely counting the days in which I socialized with a given person. But here, I feel a lot more comfortable, for instance, ranking Laney an Karen above Rebecca, even though the former two have only six points and Rebecca has seven. But literally every single time I am with Laney, whether via Skype or at a park, we spend at mininum two and a half hours together, and usually more. Not only that, but time with Laney is always one-on-one, whereas Rebecca, a woman I barely know from work, has always just been one of between five and ten other people in a virtual Zoom meetup. There is just absolutely no question that I have socialized with Laney far more than with Rebecca over the past three months, and ranking Rebecca over Laney would be just plain dumb. Laney deserves that #3 spot.
Sunday, June 21: with Shobhit, Dad and Sherri, visit in Dad and Sherri's backyard
[*Includes extended FaceTime, Zoom or Skype, due to of COVID-19]
1. Shobhit—11
2. Alexia—7
3. Laney—6
4. Karen—6
5. Rebecca—7
6. Brent—6
7. Gabriel—4
8. Danielle—2
9. Christopher—2
10. Tristen—2
11. Andrew—4
12. Teresa—4
13. Sara—3
14. Brenna—3
15. Zaira—3
16. Adrienne—3
17. Lea—2
18. Dad—1
19. Sherri—1
20. Tracy—1
21. Mary—2
22. Aimee—2
23. Molly—2
24. Morgan—1
25. Rylee—1
26. Claudia—1
27. Noah—1
28. Michelle—1
29. Bill—1
30. Bill—1
31. David—1
Total days in the winter with in-person social interaction: 37 (40.2%, a -3.3 percentage point change from spring)
Okay, so I did something a little bit different with the social rankings this time around—something I previously insisted I would not do, but 2020 is extraordinary circumstances, okay! The thing is, fully sixteen of the people ranked this quarter are from one or more of the new, weekly Zoom social "Friday Office Lunch Meetup," of which there have been seven to date. And those are always pretty strictly one hour, which makes the time far more easily quantifiable than in the past. In the past, it was too difficult to compare cumulative hours socializing rather than merely counting the days in which I socialized with a given person. But here, I feel a lot more comfortable, for instance, ranking Laney an Karen above Rebecca, even though the former two have only six points and Rebecca has seven. But literally every single time I am with Laney, whether via Skype or at a park, we spend at mininum two and a half hours together, and usually more. Not only that, but time with Laney is always one-on-one, whereas Rebecca, a woman I barely know from work, has always just been one of between five and ten other people in a virtual Zoom meetup. There is just absolutely no question that I have socialized with Laney far more than with Rebecca over the past three months, and ranking Rebecca over Laney would be just plain dumb. Laney deserves that #3 spot.
It's a similar deal with Karen also being ranked above Rebecca, although slightly different, in that I can quantify my time with Karen to exactly the same degree: all time spent with Karen has also been virtual, via FaceTime, and each time has been pretty strictly an hour. Well, if that was the case with both Karen and Rebecca, then why still rank Karen above her? Well, for some of the same reasons already stated: literally all time spent with Karen has been one-on-one; and time with Rebecca has been virtual as well, but always in group settings. Thus, direct interaction with her has been comparatively minimal. Rebecca should be grateful she's even still ranking #5!
Thus, I also ranked Danielle, Christopher and Tristen, all with 2 points, higher than six other people below them who all have either 4 or 3 points. This is because all of those six people were from the Office Zoom Meetups, so I know that means cumulative time with any of those people amounted to either three or four hours. When Shobhit and I traveled to Idaho to visit with my brother and nephew, we spent at least a couple of hours with them the first night and then fully four hours the next day. That's just way too much more cumulative time than all these coworkers who, though I am getting to know them better, I don't even really know that well. (I almost certainly technically spent more cumulative time with Christopher and Tristen than I did with Danielle, but I still ranked her above them because I am far closer to Danielle and she thus takes seniority. This, actually, is something I have long done with people who otherwise have tying point numbers.)
So it goes, again, with Dad, Sherri, and Tracy all ranking higher with one point than three people below them all with two points. Only one of those three people is from the Zoom metups; the other two are Danielle's daughters, Danielle and Morgan. But let's face it, I still spent far more time visiting directly with Dad or Sherri or Tracy when I was hanging out with them.
The one thing that kind of gets to me, is that only 31 people are even on the list this quarter, a whole bunch of those ones newbies from the Friday Office Lunch Meetups. That's a minor bummer, given that the past three months represents slow reopening of socializing as COVID-19 transmissions slowly go down—granted, by far most of that still being done virtually. But, even virtually, spring quarter managed to get bumped numbers with all the people I connected with for my Birth Week; and the previous quarter included those many family Zoom meetups that disappeared after Thurston county moved to Phase 3. Just a couple of those family Zoom meetups still happened over the spring, so that in addition to my Birth Week bumped the rankings list up to 42 people, up from 36 over winter. As it is, the 31 people I've got now is actually the lowest number since the pandemic started.
The only other thing to note is that, although she had managed to rank #1 last quarter and so Shobhit was bumped to #2 for the first time in ages, thanks largely to two diffeent weekend trips we took, Shobhit is finally back on top. He likely would be regardless, but even Alexia's 7 points at #2 are lower than they otherwise would have been, but for the trip she just took to visit friends on Long Beach in New York—which she even extended a few days to avoid the smoke here in Seattle.
But, whatever! I'm still having a good time whenever and however I can. So let's move on to the who did what with whom where and when!
Sunday, June 21: with Shobhit, Dad and Sherri, visit in Dad and Sherri's backyard
Sunday, June 21: with Shobhit, out for lunch (Shipwreck Café, first time there after Dad and Sherri sold it), and then anniversary trip to Long Beach, WA
Monday, June 22: with Shobhit, in Long Beach: to the beach; drive up and down Long Beach Peninsula; drive to Astoria, Oregon; sunset on the beach boardwalk
Tuesday, June 23: with Shobhit, morning in Long Beach
Tuesday, June 23: with Shobhit and Gabriel, visit in Gabriel and Lea's new backyard in Federal Way
Thursday, June 25: with Karen, lunch over FaceTime
Saturday, June 27: with Gabriel, Capitol Hill Pride Festival Virtual Hangout on FaceTime and text
Sunday, June 28: with Alexia, walking to Volunteer Park and back
Sunday, June 28: with Shobhit, Pride Sunday Movie Watch (I Am Divine)
Wednesday, July 1: with Danielle, commiserating FaceTime hangout
Friday, July 3: with Shobhit, day trip to Bellingham
Saturday, July 4: with Shobhit, Danielle, Morgan and Rylee, Independence Day dinner and fireworks outside Danielle's house and in her neighborhood
Sunday, July 5: with Alexia, walking to Volunteer Park and back
Wednesday, July 8: with Karen, lunch over FaceTime
Wednesday, July 8: with Shobhit, takeout pizza at Seward Park (Pizzeria Pulcinella)
Friday, July 10: with Laney, Virtual Happy Hour on Skype
Saturday, July 11: with Alexia, walking to my office and back
Thursday, July 23: with Karen, lunch over FaceTime
Friday, July 24: with Alexia, walking to my office and back
Saturday, August 1: with Shobhit, Lake Easton State Park and Potholes State Park
Saturday, August 1: with Shobhit, Christopher, Tristen and Bill, Costco pizza dinner on the grass outside the house
Sunday, August 2: with Shobhit, Christopher and Tristen, sandwiches lunch outside Hercules Inn in Wallace, Idaho
Sunday, August 2: wth Shobhit, walking the Pulaski Trail just outside Wallace
Monday, August 3: with Shobhit, Mount Spokane State Park and brief stop at Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail, Army East Trailhead
Friday, August 7: with Sara J, Brenna, Brent, Mary, Rebecca, Zaira, Adrienne, Molly, Aimee, and Tereas, Friday Office Lunch Meetup #1 [via Zoom]
Sunday, August 9: with Alexia, walking to my office and back
Monday, August 10: with Gabriel and Lea, 42-minute hangout on FaceTime
Thursday, August 13: with Karen, lunch over FaceTime
Friday, August 14: with Sara J, Brent, Mary, Rebecca, Zaira, Teresa and Andrew, Friday Office Lunch Meetup #2 [via Zoom]
Friday, August 14: with Laney, Happy Hour at Cal Anderson Park (with takeout from La Cocina Oaxaqueña)
Saturday, August 15: with Alexia, Seattle Great Wheel
Friday, August 21: with Claudia, Sara J, Brenna, Brent, Rebecca and Teresa, Friday Office Lunch Meetup #3 [via Zoom]
Thursday, August 27: with Karen, lunch over FaceTime
Friday, August 28: with Brent, Rebecca, Andrew, Michelle and Andrew, Friday Office Lunch Meetup #4 [via Zoom]
Friday, August 28: with Tracy, socially distanced picnic/hangout (Streissguth Gardens)
Saturday, August 29: with Laney, watching a movie over Skype (Uncut Gems)
Sunday, August 30: with Alexia, walk to my office and back
Friday, September 4: with Brent, Rebecca, Adrienne, Aimee and Bill, Friday Office Lunch Meetup #5 [via Zoom]
Sunday, September 6: with Gabriel and Lea, perusing old photos of Pullman living (over the phone)
Thursday, September 10: with Karen, lunch over FaceTime
Friday, September 11: with Brent, Rebecca, Zaira, Teresa and David, Friday Office Lunch Meetup #6 [via Zoom]
Friday, September 11: with Laney, Virtual Happy Hour on Skype
Saturday, September 12: with Laney, watching a movie virtually over Skype (Sister Act on Disney+)
Sunday, September 13: with Shobhit, out for a walk to Volunteer Park and back
Friday, September 18: with Rebecca, Adrienne, Molly, Brenna, Andrew and Noah, Friday Office Lunch Meetup #7 [via Zoom]
Sunday, September 20: with Laney, afternoon Happy Hour at Volunteer Park