— पांच हजार दो सौ बारह —
For some reason it didn't even register to me that Shobhit will get a Social Review point for last night. Not even he mentioned it, which he usually does. Maybe he didn't think about it because he was so buzzed when I met up with him at Diesel, shortly after getting home on my bike and feeding the cats. He was visibly buzzed, after apparently getting a beer at another bar and then coming here for one cocktail. He loves to talk about what a lightweight he is. He also introduced me to the bartender shortly after I sat down: "This is my husband." This was a wholly unnecessary introduction, but kind of sweet: Shobhit does this a lot, and it's almost like he wants to show me off.
Diesel is a bear bar, which is really not Shobhit's or my scene at all—he doesn't care for really hairy guys, and I don’t tend to be all that attracted to "larger" guys in general. The one thing that sort of put the crowd into our wheelhouse is the average age of the clientele, which was clearly mostly our age or older.
I use the word "crowd" loosely. Shobhit was one of maybe six or seven people in the bar when I got there. Another two couples later came and had their snacks and drinks in the seating outside, which I would have preferred sitting at, but I think Shobhit likes to feel like he's part of a group of customers in a place, which is hard to get when just sitting on our own outside.
One thing that is very much in this place's favor is how stiff they make their drinks. I can put three shots of vodka in a cocktail I make at home and have it not affect me beyond later giving me a headache. This drink had me buzzed when I was not yet even halfway through it, and all I ordered once I got there was a White Russian with Bailey's instead of Kahlua (a substitution that jacked the Happy Hour price of $5 up to $7).
A fascinating thing I noticed about the bartender, who was a predictably large man, the standard "gay bear" shape, huge belly, kind of young though. I wouldn't say I found him
hot, but I did think he was kind of cute, something I don't usually think of men his size. Part of it was his physical confidence, his clear comfort with his own body, something I still kind of wish I could have. This is a guy who wears his weight well, and I probably could too, if I just found some way to change my attitude about it. I just took advantage of a Levi's sale and still insisted on getting 30-inch waist jeans, when I probably should have at least gone up to 31. I remain obsessed with the idea that I can shed another 10 lbs at least. I shed around 25 lbs over a decade ago, why can't I do it again? Well, being around Shobhit makes it practically impossible, for one. I know it's unfair to blame him, but the trick is to remove temptation, and Shobhit constantly wants desserts and snacks in the house.
Shobhit also wanted either onion rings, or mozzarella stocks, or both. I convinced him just to get the onion rings. Then he decided he wants to come back today for the mozzarella sticks (he had yesterday and today off of work). I guess we'll see. Those onion rings were excellent, I must note: straight out of the fryer, I can't remember the last time I had such good ones.
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— पांच हजार दो सौ बारह —
I was astonished by how buzzed even I was, for at least five minutes or so after we left Diesel and walked the two blocks back home. I only had that one cocktail.
We then had dinner, a lentil dish Shobhit made with rice that was suitably light after the onion rings. I convinced Shobhit to let me watch
The Staircase on HBO and he said, "I sacrifice," several times, also referencing how I "complain" about him in my journal. Well, I need an outlet somewhere, don't I? Shobhit feeling bad about his occasional, clearly horrible behavior doesn't change the expectation that he'll never change it. Thus, it's still a big problem.
I then remembered I had a library DVD of
The Three Amigos and suggested we watch that instead. I'm not sure what I was thinking checking that movie out. I couldn't get more than ten or fifteen minutes in before wanting to turn it off, it was so deeply lame. So, I switched over to, again,
The Staircase. So far I've got kind of mixed feelings about it, although I did read that it gets better after the first episode. That said, Colin Firth's American accent seriously needs work.
Shobhit almost immediately fell asleep. I just went ahead and shifted to the bedroom to watch it on my own. And after that episode I watched episode six of another, far better series on HBO Max that Gabriel convinced me to watch,
Winning Time. I decided to go to bed early after that. It was maybe 9:20 when I got into bed, thinking I would read a bit and only getting like one page read before I zonked out. There was still a little bit of daylight outside when I got into bed, which never feels natural to me. This is why I don't like Daylight Saving Time.
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[posted 12:27 pm]
