lunches and munches
I already posted about the Fourth of July itself yesterday, mostly because I like to have dedicated posts for a holiday so they can be self-contained in the feed for that particular tag. I haven't told you anything about the rest of my weekend, though!
Aside from Sunday, which was the Fourth, the most significant day was Saturday: Tracy from work came over, for the first post-COVID Braeburn Condos Double Feature. We came up with a list of my favorite movies she has never seen, and an astonishing number of them qualified—including Batman Returns! By some miracle she was interested, and so we watched a double feature of the Tim Burton films Batman and Batman Returns (also my favorite Christmas movie!).
That was scheduled to start at 11 a.m., and Tracy was only a few minutes late. I made the reservation through 5:00, but we wound up hanging out for another few hours, clear until about 9:00, really only finally heading back to the condo because she was parked in Shobhit's spot in our building's garage and he was going to get home from work soon. After the movies, I gave her a tour of the condo complex, and then, when she seemed interested in continuing to chat indefinitely, I suggested we go somewhere and get a drink. She doesn't drink alcohol, though, so we wound up at Caffe Vita on Pike Street.
We first tried Cupcake Royale, only to find out: what the hell? It's closed! Evidently the owner is looking for an alternate, smaller space for Cupcake Royale on the Hill but is turning that Pike location into . . . a startup mushroom coffee company?? I only figured that part out while I was watching this.
So anyway, we hung out at Caffe Vita until they closed at 7:00, and then meandered over to Cal Anderson Park and just chatted the evening away on a bench in the shade. When she got into work this morning, she joked that she'd usually ask how my weekend was, but she was actually with me all day Saturday, and has already seen my Independence Day photo digest email. "What did you do yesterday?" she asked.
Well, I watched and reviewed The Tomorrow War on Prime Video, after Shobhit went to work. It's honestly not that great. B-minus. A while after I wrote the review, I also watched an episode of Sweet Tooth on Netflix.
I had actually hoped that Gabriel, Lea and I could watch the next movie in the Fast and the Furious franchise yesterday, but it didn't work out. My thinking was that perhaps I could drive Shobhit to work and take the car to Federal Way so I could finally watch one of these movies at their place, and then drive back to pick up Shobhit when he got off work at 8:30 (which, clearly, was too late for him to have time to join us, were this an option). We already had plans to hang out with Danielle Sunday evening and I already had the plans with Tracy on Saturday; theoretically we could have made the plans with Gabriel and Lea for Friday evening as Shobhit got off work at 5:30 that day, but I didn't bother to propose it because Gabriel tends to be reliably unavailable on Fridays. I suppose that's not fair, though—I went to his house the first Friday of my Birth Week, after all, and I would never have known for sure without asking, which I never did. Mostly because I had hoped we could make Monday, when I would otherwise just be on my own all day, work, but, they had other things they needed to do. Maybe next weekend! I'm hoping.
I also spent some time last night captioning photos from the trip to Portland. That was now four weekends ago, and I have lots of photo caption catching up to do: trip to Idaho the next weekend; Pride the weekend after that; Independence Day this past weekend. The fullest day, honestly, was Saturday when I was hanging out with Tracy. We had a lot of fun, stimulating conversation.
Including something I had never realized in thirty years of watching the original 1989 Batman. I always though the character himself, the Joker, put on white makeup to be "The Joker," and the skin colored face he had on occasion was supposed to be his real face without makeup. Tracy made me realize that it was the other way around: falling into the vat of chemicals turned his face white (why it would turn his lips so red, I've no clue), and when he had flesh colored skin on his face, that was makeup he had put on. My brain made all these default loops of logic about this every single time I saw the film for the past 32 years! Finally seeing it correctly, several scenes actually make way more sense now.
I also ate too much on Saturday. And I blame Tracy! I did make popcorn from the poccorn machine in the condo theater room, and then we both had a sandwich when we broke for lunch—being able to eat in the Community Kitchen because currently the complex makes you reserve both rooms at once, whereas in the past you could reserve them separately. We'll see how long that lasts; if nothing else it's nice for once not to have to worry about passing through someone else's event in the kitchen happening at the same time, with no other option the way the entrances are located, if anyone in the theater, say, needs to go use the bathroom. Anyway, Tracy also brought two pretty large bags of Peanut Butter Chocolate Chex Mix to share during the movies; ditto a bag of Cheddar and Sour Cream Ruffles potato chips; then when we went to Caffe Vita I not only had a chai but half a large chocolate chip cookie. Junk, junk, junk! I was astonished my weight was not up the next morning. I guess I still have to take responsibility for whatever I myself shoved into my own mouth. Okay, fine!
What did I actually do on Friday evening, anyway? I can't remember. Maybe Shobhit and I watched an episode of The Larry Sanders Show. We basically just chilled at home all evening. We did have some ice cream, something I have also been eating too much of lately. I mean, Molly Moon pints are a dollar off at PCC this month and I have an employee discount, what am I supposed to do!
. . . Woops! I had my lunch all heated and was sitting out on the balcony, my library book on the Kindle app all ready to do some reading through my lunch break, and I got a text from Karen: Are you still up for meeting today briefly for lunch?
Shit! How did I look at my Google Maps for this week multiple times this morning and it still never registered that the calendar event was right there that FaceTime lunch with Karen had been moved from Thursday to Tuesday this week? The only logical reason for it that I can think of is the fact that yesterday was a holiday, so even though today is Tuesday, it feels very much like a Monday . . . but the calendar item is on Tuesday. But today is Tuesday!
Anyway, I was like Yes! Shit hold on, and I gathered my stuff and came into one of the phone rooms inside the office where I could close the door and talk to her with my AirPods in my ears. I had totally intended to bring the iPad into the office for this, since it would be our first virtual lunch while I am back at the office, but again, I totally spaced it. I had to use my phone instead. But whatever, I propped my phone up against the side of the bowl I had used for lunch, and it all worked out.
She asked about any new travel plans, of which I have none for at least the rest of the summer (at least not presently anyway), unless you count the day Gina and her friend Jennifer and I will go to the Washington State Fair sometime in September. We've all three of us gone twice before, but I have always insisted we go every three years, just because going every year is too much for me: we went in 2015 and then in 2018; I always said 2021 would be the next time. Much to Jennifer's chagrin, as she always wants to go sooner—but of course, the fair was canceled in 2020 anyway, and right now we can only hope it can stay on course to go on as usual this year. In any case, I have no need for another traveling trip any time soon, after the last four weekends in a row that I've had.
But right now I just need to get back to work. My lunch breaks are by default half an hour, but I always go for an hour when lunching with Karen. She had an appointment and had to leave at 12:50 this time though, which honestly worked in my benefit so I could write up this last little bit here.
[posted 1:00 pm]