It's my first day of Thanksgiving Week not working! It went pretty well I'd say. Already keeping myself quite busy. Shobhit is convinced he would not know how to fill his time if he retired, but that just shows a lack of imagination. And, come to think of it, maybe he thinks of that differently under the current circumstances, when he just finished a run of play performances and has another big part coming up in the late winter and early spring next year? After all, whether he gets paid or a stipend of some kind or not, if he's involved in theater, he probably won't feel retired even after he technically is. He should consider that, I think.
I suppose I should admit, though, that I spent way more time than usual thinking about work this past weekend. Why? Because we went grocery shopping on Saturday, and one of the places we went to was PCC, where I expected to be able to use a $1.50 off NCG coupon for Field Roast veggie corn dogs
while it was also on sale—but, only the veggie chicken wings were on sale. I could have sworn these were linked by Price Association. I would have keyed this promotion price myself. I thought maybe the POS person there just hadn't hung the shelf tag, but nope: the item scanned at regular price. At least I got $1.50 off with the coupon. Two of them, even: Shobhit and I split our stuff into two transactions, at first so we could use two different BOGO coupons for Painterland Sisters Yogurt that have fine print saying only one coupon per purchase. We actually had to ask a staff person to look into finding the coupons as well, as I was surprised to find them not hung on the freezer shelf were the Field Roast was stocked—in this case, though, the coupon was really happening. Why they were in the back room and not on the shelf, though, I have no idea.
Anyway! I need to check multiple things about this when I get back to work, next week: whether the veggie corn dogs were actually excluded from the submitted Field Roast contract for November, or if the item somehow randomly did not load a promotion price even though it
was on the contract, in which case I need to delete the scanback adjustment record so the broker does not get billed for movement on an item that was never actually on sale. Or, also: are these veggie appetizers not line priced through Price Association like I thought? So many questions!
This is really sticking in my craw. I even thought about messaging Amanda at work today to ask her about it, but I never did. I guess this can wait until next week. I mean, is it
that important, really? I'm only stuck on it because I was sure I'd be able to use a coupon on top of a sale price, and I was only able to use the coupon. Like Laney said at Happy Hour today, "I'm a first-world person, and I've got problems!"
That about sums up my Saturday, in any case. Shobhit and I went shopping at Costco and at PCC. Real exciting stuff. I did get a half gallon of Darigold Eggnog at Costco. That
was exciting.
And in other news, this past weekend was the final weekend, of two, in which Shobhit performed his short play
Rose Hill Memory Loss Center. He didn't write it, but he did direct it, and he played a part in it. When Alexia and I saw opening night two Fridays ago, it might not have been a stretch to call the evening, in the aggregate, disastrous—with Shobhit's play still being the best of the bunch. He reported later that the next night's show was even worse, but the Sunday that weekend was a bit better.
His general conclusion was that all the shows this past weekend were better. It sounds like yesterday's show, the final performance, was the best yet. I guess I'm glad that's the one Danielle chose to go to—I was really touched she went out of her way to come see it at all. She came with a friend, and brought Rylee and her boyfriend as well. That's four paid tickets right there! It's occurring to me only now that I think this was the first time Danielle
or Rylee had seen Shobhit acting live in a play.
Shobhit did see them all yesterday, but evidently did not hang out with them. It sounds like he came straight home and immediately shaved the beard he had grown for this part. That was another thing he had never done before. Neither he nor I will miss that beard. He found it itchy and irritating. He grew it to look older, and it very much worked; nearly all his beard hear under the chin was solid white. He shaved yesterday and took a good 10 years off his face. (Shobhit said 20. I'm trying to be more realistic.)
For my part, I might have hung out with them, except I already had other plans: I hung out with Tracy, for the first time since I went to hang out with her in Puyallup in September. She texted me last week that she wanted to get together before our planned Holiday Magic at the Fair (again in Puyallup) on December 20. We did a bit of back and forth until we settled on meeting in Tukwila yesterday, basically meeting in the middle: it took her about as long to drive up from Puyallup as it took me to ride down on Light Rail.
She picked me up at Tukwila International Blvd Station, and then we drove over to the AMC Southcenter Mall, where we saw
Sentimental Value. I liked it a lot, enough that it will be on my top 10 for the year. I got the sense that Tracy thought it was just all right. She didn't complain about it but she didn't rave about it either.
There was a point during the movie when she turned to me and said, "Is that the woman from
The Worst Person in the World? I said yes, and then added: "I'm surprised you're familiar with that movie." She took a brief beat, and then said, "We saw that together." Ha! I had no recollection of that whatsoever, but,
I guess we did. You can see how well I remember things, and why I write every fucking thing down.
After the movie, we decided to go into the mall food court to find some food. I figured we'd want to hang out a while, and I figured we'd find somewhere to eat. I didn't realize how easy it would be to eat right there. Also: it turns out malls are alive and well in the suburbs. It was pretty happening. I keep thinking malls are dead, just because there is no standard mall anywhere in Seattle proper anymore (Northgate Mall has been
significantly altered), but also it's not uncommon to find photos and footage of abandoned malls elsewhere in the country.
We found a Shake Shack, and I had one of the cheese-stuffed portobello mushroom burgers I love so much, and some onion rings. Tracy had fries, and a burger she couldn't eat and so she saved it for later, probably because of the nachos and mozzarella sticks she bought at the movie. We caught up over a two-person table in the Southcenter Mall food court, and we talked a lot about cysts, since I had not yet told her about my operation last Wednesday. "I'm very cyst-y," she said. I'll spare you the further details she gave me.
We then walked around the mall a little bit, going into a couple of stores with fun trinkets and stuff in them. Tracy observed how much more diverse the crowds are down there than in Seattle. It's true that south-end suburbs are far less White than Seattle proper, or probably north-end suburbs. I don't know what accounts for that. But there's no question we saw a lot more shades of brown yesterday than I typically do in Seattle, even around Downtown.
Tracy gave me a ride back to the Light Rail station, I rode the train back to Capitol Hill, and I wrote my movie review. It was great to see her.
That brings me to today. I should have updated earlier than this evening, but, whatever. Oh well.
I took myself to a movie this afternoon:
Sisu: Road to Revenge. Everyone who has seen both seems to feel this one is better, but I disagree. I liked the novelty of the first one better. But, I had fun watching it. I told Shobhit about it and he was convinced he had not seen the first one. I have since confirmed that we watched the first one together on the Fourth of July.
I did not write the review until much later, when I got home. First, though, I walked straight from Pacific Place to Laney's apartment building, where we met at 4:30. Then we walked over to Gemini Room, where we had Happy Hour for the second time. I'd have invited Shobhit to join us, but he had another one of his, let's say, "special interest events" to go to tonight. So, it was just Laney and me this time.
The Happy Hour deals at Gemini Room are almost too good to be true. They have $5 Happy Hour food dishes that are very large portions for that price. Laney and I both had two dishes and two drinks, and although in the past I have taken the $2 off house cocktails, I went with Laney's suggestion today when she reminded me that a well drink is also only $5 at Happy Hour. I had two vodka and pineapple juice drinks. Shobhit will be very happy, because I budgeted $50 for this and my total spend came to barely more than half that: $26.45. He shouldn't go thinking I'm going to do this every time, though. Still, right now in particular, that's going to be extremely helpful with my budgeting.
We already had Gemini Room scheduled for yet another Happy Hour in May of next year, and I'm really glad.
Laney and I had an interesting, unusual exchange during Happy Hour today. We each shared one thing the other does that annoys us, all while acknowledging that neither of us annoys each other in any way hardly ever. I noted that Danielle and especially Gabriel would have no trouble whatsoever coming up with things I do that really annoy them. She told me her last girlfriend and her used to play a game called "If I Could Change One Thing About You," which sounded like a dangerous game to me indeed. Anyway, eventually she got me to mention something that had annoyed me over the past few months, but I won't share it here. And I let her say something I do that annoys her, with the caveat "Then I'll decide if I care." And you know what? I won't share what she said either—even though I'll probably not remember it if I read this in the future and will be dying to know what it was; deal with it, Future Matthew!—but I will say I found it especially time. Like: that's it? To be fair, it was a kind of thing I could stand to be more conscientious of, but it just had to do with a pretty mild form of manners, I'd say. She could have dug deeper, maybe even cut deep, except Laney just isn't a cutter—physically, emotionally or otherwise.
Shobhit had probably left shortly before, but he was gone when I got home, even though Laney and I only stayed at Happy Hour maybe an hour and a half. We're getting together again at 11:30 tomorrow morning anyway, for the Seattle Festival of Trees—my first official "holiday event" of the season. I walked home, wrote my review of today's movie, and uploaded the couple of photos I took (or, as in the case of the shot of Laney and me, had taken) at Gemini Room. Then I realized I should probably update my blog, and here we are.
What else? The construction company is back this week to work on fixing the rotted wood around one of our balcony doors. We were given noticed that they would need access to our unit between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday this week, so I had to be sure to be out of bed by 7:30. And, guess what? They never came into the unit today. Presumably they will tomorrow.
I'm glad to have plans most of the day tomorrow, so I'll be gone while it's going on. I was afraid I'd be home during that work today. I'm still trying to decide how to handle the Christmas decorations this year, which I traditionally put up the day after Thanksgiving. I suspect I'll be fine putting lights around the windows since those are mostly done, except they mistakenly gave us a window that opens in the window that faces west, and will need to come back and redo it. And I have no idea when that will happen. I suppose it might be best to keep Christmas lights out of their way, though I have no idea whether that's going to happen in December at all. People won't be able to see the lights from the street through all the fucking scaffolding anyway. Granted, I still hang them more for myself than for people outside. Shobhit often tries to convince me to hang the lights and put up the tree in the bedroom and I've always refused. I'm kind of thinking about it this year though. I still haven't decided what I'll do.
Oh. Did I mention this yet? We did officially make the plan to go to Karen's house in Tulalip for Thanksgiving dinner. Assuming we leave early enough, we'll probably stop at "Tulalip Lights & Ice" at Tulalip Casino on the way home. Shobhit got very ambitious at first: he's decided to make samosas, and that's still a go. But, he also thought about bringing golgappas and chai, and Karen basically nixed both of those, because of limited counter space and the expectation of there already being a bunch of sides planned. Usually she's excited about chai, but I suppose with all that's already planned or 12 people (before us, their dinner was going to be 10—but, she assured me the table seats 12) she doesn't want to overdo it. I get it. We can have chai at home then! I mean, we do nearly every day anyway. It's the one Indian thing I have become very skilled at. Shobhit almost never makes it. If he ever gets hit by a bus, I won't get Indian food nearly as often, but I'll still get all the chai I want.
EDIT: Oh. I guess I should have double checked in the living room earlier after I got back home this evening—the workers did come into the unit after all. I don't have a clue
what's going on here, but it's definitely something!
[posted 9:25pm]
