— पांच हजार दो सौ अस्सी-नौ —
I've got a ton of shit going on going forward, but because Shobhit left for India yesterday, I went out of my way
not to make plans over the weekend, so I would be available to help Shobhit with whatever he needed as he prepared to leave. I did
watch and review a movie on Saturday, but that was while he was at his last work shift before his trip, and conveniently, it was a movie I watched streaming at SIFF.net so I didn't even have to leave home. I actually would have gone out to see a movie, but as it happens, among the movies in theaters this week that I haven't already seen, the choices are garbage.
But! I did have plans made for a long time on Friday, and it was at Karen's suggestion: we replaced next week's FaceTime Lunch with an after-work drinks outing to the brand new rooftop bar, which just opened like a month ago, in South Lake Union: Altitude Sky Lounge, on the 16th and top floor of the Astra Hotel. I took enough photos there to
fill out a Flickr photo album with 27 shots, thereby adding to my "
All Observatories" and my "
Seattle Skyscraper Views (No Official Observatory)" collections. Come to think of it, I really should create a collection just for rooftop bars, since those are ally their own specific category—not just a random "skyscraper view," nor an official observatory, but certainly a rooftop establishment where you go to get drinks (or food) with a view.
Well, what the hell, I went ahead and did it! Here's my
rooftop bars collection, so far with eleven albums: it lists the date, place, and who I went with. This is not limited to Seattle, either, as it includes bars and restaurants at the top floors of buildings in Denver, Las Vegas, and Louisville, in addition to Seattle. I actually had it at seven albums, and kept thinking of ones to add, including the most recent two trips up the Smith Tower, which used to be just a ticketed observatory but as of 2018 is actually an Observatory Bar. I also nearly spaced going to that Vooodoo Steakhouse restaurant with Danielle in Las Vegas in 2019 at The Rio; that one is probably barely the highest rooftop bar or restaurant I have been to, if not inside the tallest building (the Smith Tower is 462 ft tall but the bar is on floor 35, about four floors from the top, placing it at a height of about 414 ft; the Voodoo Steakhouse at the Rip is on the 41st and top floor of a building that is 423 ft tall).
Anyway, I'm really digressing here, and just spent an inordinate amount of time on all that. Suffice it to say that I got some great photos at Altitude Sky Lounge on Friday, if not the greatest experience.
I made the reservation initially for three people, thinking Shobhit would want to join. But, Shobhit has actually started being careful in a way he hasn’t been for months, trying to lessen his risk of covid exposure leading up to his trip to India. He even wore a mask to work the past couple of weeks, which he hasn't bothered to do in a long time—mostly, I think, just because of the staff culture at his job: no one else was wearing one unless they were just back from having
had covid, and so neither did he. But, over the past week, he also avoided going out on social outings, skipping the movie
Bros with Tracy and me on Monday even though he wanted to see it; and, ultimately, skipping this Happy Hour outing with Karen as well.
I use the phrase "Happy Hour" very loosely here. They had no discounted anything on their very limited menu; the one cocktail I had cost $16. Karen asked her friend Diane, the one she had brought as her plus-one to Shobhit's and my wedding in 2013, to replace Shobhit, since we had a reservation for three. Karen ordered a cheese plate for us to share, and I will give them this: the cheeses were excellent.
The service, and the ambiance, however, were not. I walked there from home after riding my bike back to the condo first; that took me about half an hour. Karen and Diane arrived first, and were taken up the elevator by a host surprisingly quickly—I was three blocks away when Karen texted that they had been seated. When I arrived, though, there were already at least six or seven other people waiting to be taken up, and that number must have gone up to ten by the time they took me up. And they only took me up with one other party because in both of our cases other people in our party had already been seated. The lady taking us up the elevator told us this was the first day they started taking walk-ins instead of just reservations, which was why it was so busy. I was certainly glad I had a reservation.
The average age of the crowd was roughly half that of the average age at my table—and mind you, I'm 46, and was by a fair margin the youngest at my table. No one else there seemed much to mind the music that was playing—most of it pop music I actually like, but it was
really loud, with one of the speakers directly over our table. It made visiting with my table mates very difficult, and Karen is already so hard of hearing she wears hearing aids (she has for as long as I've known her, now 17 years). I know places actually do that to keep turnover going, but I much prefer a place where I can relax and have a casual conversation with the people I'm with, instead of having to blow out my throat for an hour just to be heard.
And the service did not make this any better. To be fair to our waiter, it was very busy and he had a lot going on. Still, Karen had ordered her cocktail without the bitters ingredient; it came with the bitters; she asked for a new one without it; the waiter acted as though he had run out of patience with whoever hadn't brought her the replacement even though it was clearly his responsibility; the replacement came without bitters but actually didn't taste nearly as good. I'd have drank the first one but the waiter took it away.
So, a lot of the experience at Altitude Sky Lounge was frustrating. But, I'm still very glad I went, for the view alone, and the great photos I got, several of which were legitimately spectacular. I got a really great one of the Space Needle with the sun setting behind the Olympic Mountains beyond (see photo above); Karen was super impressed with the Portrait Mode shot I got of my very tasty (if unjustifiably expensive) cocktail with the Space Needle in the background (see photo below); and I'm quite fond of the sunset photo I got later of the Seattle skyline beyond minglers on the outside terrace (see photo at bottom below).
I actually got up to walk around the terrace twice to get pictures, once before the sun set and once just after. I took a few exterior shots of the building after we left, which was how I got to an album of 27 shots—the same number I have in the album for The Fog Room, also on the 16th floor of another building, when I went there with Laney in 2019.
Unlike when I went to The Mountaineering Club with Karen and Anita this past summer, Karen and Diane did not come and explore the terrace with me this time, and instead just admired the view from our table. We had a direct view of the Space Needle anyway, which was very cool. I had specified "inside" on my reservation just because I had no idea whether it would be rainy (who knew we'd basically have summer last well into October?—I didn't even need my hoodie riding my bike into work in the mornings last week, although I finally did this morning, this time being 51°). They had all their wall-height windows open, though, so we were mere feet away from the open-air section and had virtually the same amount of open air circulation, which was kind of a relief.
Karen actually sprang for all of us, which was a surprise, as I had budgeted about fifty bucks for that—hoping I would come in under, but I certainly didn't expect it to be $0. I don't think any of us regretted that outing per se, but having been there once, I don't think any of us will be eager to return again either.
— पांच हजार दो सौ अस्सी-नौ —
— पांच हजार दो सौ अस्सी-नौ —
So that brings us to Saturday, when I already noted I watched and reviewed a movie while Shobhit was at work. Much of the rest of the day was spent doing laundry, and with Shobhit packing for his trip. He actually managed to pack only one large suitcase in addition to the backpack in which he took his laptop; he plans to come back with a lot of extra stuff as usual, but he took the duffle bag and barely managed to pack that
inside the suitcase for the trip there. When he comes back with his mom, there will be at least three checked luggage bags: Shobhit's suitcase; the duffle bag likely full of spices and Indian cookies and snacks (I should note to him that those things will be safer in the actual suitcase; they will likely get a lot more beat up inside a duffle bag); and Shobhit's mom's suitcase.
Right after he got home from work on Saturday, I met him down at the p-patch to go over what I'll do for him while he's gone. In ten days I need to spray rabbit repellent around the perimeter of his three plots, and every three days I need to go down and water, as well as water his plants up in the condo.
Aside from all of that, much of the weekend was kind of just waiting for Shobhit's departure—even on Shobhit's part. With little else to do, he spent a lot of Saturday night and Sunday morning kind of aimlessly channel surfing. We did finish season four of
Night Court on Prime Video, but he didn't want to move forward until after he gets back.
We did occupy some of our time yesterday morning by getting some more things taken care of for our Australia trip early next year: we've booked our hotels now in both downtown Adelaide and our second stint in Sydney. All we have left to book now are the flights from Sydney to Adelaide and back, and Shobhit decided he wanted to wait until after he gets back from India to do that. I feel good just having all of our lodging taken care of now, though; I didn't even realize this until we finished booking these final hotels, but overall on our trip to Australia next year, we'll be staying in
six different hotels. (In 2020, we stayed in only three: one in Sydney and one in Melbourne, plus the two nights on Kangaroo Island with Uncle David and Mary Ann—but in Adelaide, we stayed at their house, but this time we opted for a hotel).
In fact, although we will be visiting three Australian states next year (New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia), we will be staying in four different locations, or five if you count Sydney twice (Brisbane to Sydney to Kangaroo Island to Adelaide and back to Sydney), but six separate hotels because of a different place the two nights on Kangaroo Island. Shobhit noted that in most stops on that stint of travel, we have three nights each: three nights in Brisbane; three nights in Sydney;
two nights in Kangaroo Island (a different hotel each night); and then another three nights in Sydney before we head back to Seattle again.
All six hotels have been booked on Hotels.com, which means by the end of that trip, I'll not only have earned another Reward Night, but will be two bookings away from a second. And we actually managed to cover one night in the second stay in Sydney with a Reward Night, so that was a nice bit of a roughly 30% discount on that specific leg of the trip.
In any case, we are not quite finished but quite close to having the most important stuff fully booked for Australia. All of the hotels are now booked, and most of the flights. As I said, we still just need to book the flights from Sydney to Adelaide and back. I really enjoy this part of it, although admittedly I have a lot more fun doing the research on local things to do and points of interest than comparison shopping for hotels. It's always a relieve when that is done, though, and I feel good about all the hotels we've booked. The second hotel in Sydney is much closer to the Harbor Bridge, which is ideal since that weekend is when the World Pride March across the bridge happens—they're closing the bridge to traffic for this, and they haven't closed the bridge for anything like this in over twenty years.
— पांच हजार दो सौ अस्सी-नौ —
So that killed some time yesterday morning and early afternoon. We had lunch, and then we headed for the airport, not because there was any pressing need yet—Shobhit's flight out to Dubai, his layover, was not until 5:15—but because Shobhit had nothing better to do. Plus, he had heard horror stories of long wait times at the airport, particularly for international flights, and wanted to arrive at least three hours early. That would have meant getting there at 2:15, and we left home right around 1:00. He was at the airport by 1:30; through security by 1:48; in his seat by 4:26. Thankfully the flight was on time.
The flight is something like 14 and a half hours long, which was vividly demonstrated by a video Shobhit texted me this morning, which he recorded of the flight path demo in the seat TV screen on his flight. This should have occurred to me, but it did not: flights from Seattle to Dubai do not go
around the Earth, but
over it: his flight path passed very closely to the North Pole. It was pretty cool to watch.
So, I had the condo to myself last night, and with the exception of two days next weekend when Jennifer and Matthew will be visiting, will have it to myself for about three weeks. I got home from the airport yesterday to an empty condo, and in spite of how persistently Shobhit annoys me, I almost immediately missed him. There's something sort of off about coming home to an empty home that is not usually empty. I was trying to think of the last time I had the place entirely to myself (except, of course, for the cats) for this long—after all, his last trip to India, back in March, Ivan was still living with us. I think Ivan took a weekend trip to Portland sometime in there, but that was just for a couple of days. When did Shobhit last go to India when we did not have a roommate? Oh, well—it was more recently than I realized: March 2019, when Ivan was living for a year in Bellingham. I just looked back in my blog on the early days of that trip, which began with a full weekend during which I took not one, but
two visits to Steamworks bathhouse on the same weekend (which I learned was too much for one weekend). I wasn't all that immediately lonely that time.
Not to say that I am now either, per se, but I did think about what it would be like if he and I ever separated. There's a comfort in the knowledge that he will come back, even in the midst of some relief to get a break from each other, when he takes trips to India. Going back to living alone on a permanent basis, I think, would be awful.
Shobhit's last couple of trips to India, in 2019 and 2022, were a fair bit longer than this one, in both cases nearly a month: 25 days and 26 days, respectively. His current trip is one day shy of three weeks. But, he's already taken a trip there once this year, and it's clear that a part of his trip being shorter this time is that he is finally, for the first time in 14 years, bringing his mom back for another visit. (When Shashi Ji last visited, it was directly after Shobhit took a trip to both Kuala Lumpur for work and then to India, that trip being only 16 days; I can't find a record of how long he was there in 2006.)
Still, I pretty easily occupied my time last night. I finally got around to this week's episode of
Andor from Wednesday (after spending an inordinate amount of time getting properly logged back in on the Xfinity box, which does not make it easy); I watched this week's
House of the Dragon as soon as it was available on HBO Max at 6:00.
I also did some prepping of the guest room, "de-Ivaning" it in a way I haven't since he very first lived with me in 2014. Everything in there as of yesterday only dated back to his 2017 stint with us, but even that's five years ago. He had posters up that Shashi Ji would not appreciate, one with some naked boys in the details (which I didn't even notice until yesterday) and one with a full-frontal naked Black woman on it. A couple of the posters had sticker things on them in long strips, which left flecks of tiny torn-out paint pieces from the wall. That was a little irritating.
I even moved the dried red rose that's been hanging from a nail on the wall in there since
Tommy lived with me in 2015—Ivan liked it and so he never took it down, neither during his 2017 stint (technically late 2016 through early 2018) nor his 2021-22 stint. But, Shobhit didn't think his mom would even like that, so for now, the rose is hanging on the wall in our bedroom. I have always liked it, and even liked how long it has lasted, and I don't want to throw it away.
In any case, the room's walls are now completely bare for the first time in about, probably seven years. I also did a little bit of rearranging, with the bed and small dresser drawers that Ivan left behind. I moved the dresser to the other side of the bed, so it's against the south wall with the window in it, and by the cable outlet. I took our old TV from the bedroom work desk and moved it to place on top of that dresser, for Shashi Ji to have a TV to watch. I even plugged it into the cable outlet, but no channels work. I think we need to visit Xfinity to get another cable box for her to use. It's best for us to wait for Shobhit's return for that to happen.
I also did a fair bit of reading. Our work Book Club has its next meeting on the 21st, and I haven't even started the Book Club book. On Saturday I figured out how many pages I would need to read per day to get my current library book finished
and finish the Book Club book by then: 34. That will be a challenge for me, but not impossible. I managed it both Saturday and yesterday. It'll be harder on days to come when I have social plans, but I might still just make it. It'll sure as shit keep me occupied, if nothing else.
— पांच हजार दो सौ अस्सी-नौ —
[posted 12:30 pm]
