Yesterday was the first day of my annual pre-Christmas PTO, and I've got so much shit going on, it hardly feels like I'm taking time off! Which I know is a ridiculous thing to say, because everything I'm doing is way more fun than going to work. To be fair, as a general rule I actually also enjoy being at work—the somewhat higher amount of stress than I've had there historically notwithstanding—but of course that's not the same thing at all.

In any case, I've got a tight schedule going on: all I did yesterday which I'll get to momentarily; "Holiday Magic at the Fair" with Tracy later this evening; Avatar: Fire and Ash with Laney and Shobhit tomorrow; the Victoria Clipper with Shobhit and Alexia to Victoria Monday; the ride back on Tuesday; Christmas Eve Wednesday; Christmas Day Thursday. That's not to mention Friday next week, which, although I do work that day, I'll also need to leave a bit early so I can drive Shobhit to the airport, as he leaves for this year's three-week trip to India that day.

And I had two notable social engagements yesterday, the first of which was lunch at Karen's house in Magnolia. Just as was the case when I took a day to burn through PTO on October 13, this had originally been scheduled as a Zoom lunch during a work day, but since I had the day off I went to her place to have lunch in-person. Sometimes in circumstances like this I'll meet her at her office on Westlake, but this was the second time I've needed to meet at her house because she had a morning appointment with a woman she hires to make adjustments to her wheelchair. I arrived yesterday and she had a brand new manual chair, with the bars of its main frame painted a light blue-green color. She was wearing a sweater with a very similar color so I asked if she had color coordinated on purpose (she hadn't). She later pulled out her phone with a light blue translucent case that was not quite the same shade but still matched the overall ensemble quite well.

Anyway, as soon as Karen answered the door she said, "The whole family's here," which meant Dave and Anita. They were having takeout chaat for lunch, and Karen even offered me some but I never did have any. She told me about ordering it the day before at an Indian place on the eastside where she was the only White person in the joint, and I think she had an exaggerated perception of them looking upon her as an outsider who surprisingly knew her way around their menu (just a quick reminder, Anita is actually of Indian descent, so Karen and Dave do have more knowledge of Indian culture than most White people—indeed, it was in a Hindi class in 2005 that Karen and I first met), but whatever.

I had brought chai that I made and did not realize I'd be offering to split it between four rather than two, but that was totally okay. Karen and Anita both took fairly small mugs of it, and Karen even asked me to top hers off a bit after she first asked for only a little, but this still left more than plenty for me; I even topped my own off. Shobhit might have come had he not had a work call of his own at noon, but again, this just left more chai for the rest of us.

I brought my own lunch, which was the last of some smoked mozzarella pasta I had from the Central District PCC Deli. God damn, I love that shit. I just bought another pint yesterday, using up the current $15 off $75 coupon.

I was there roughly ninety minutes, before Karen said she had a 2:00 appointment, so I left around 1:30. The whole time I was there, Anita worked on an early Christmas gift Karen had given her: an incredibly elaborate LEGO Christmas Tree with all sorts of compartments and figurs and details hidden in sections under its green plastic branches. I'd say she had maybe a fifth of it finished. It looked very cool, but I'd not sure I would ever have the patience for a project like that.

Shobhit and I did a very quick trip to PCC for the aforementioned grocery shopping, and we timed it with pretty incredible precision, so we were home and had the stuff put away just in time for me to walk down and meet Laney at Christmas Dive Bar—both of our second visits to this bar this season, but our first there together. In addition to the 14 photos I took there with Gabby and Brandy on the 10th, I took another 13 there with Laney yesterday, totaling 17 for this year's Christmas Dive Bar photo album. As of right now, this is one of 18 Christmas 2025 photo albums I now have done; by the time the month ends, I'll easily have a record 24 of them, if not one or two more than that, depending on how many different photo albums our trip to Victoria results in.

One of these days I'll actually check out Christmas Dive Bar's "Santa's Speakeasy," for which there are signs in the back hallway, but I asked the bartender yesterday and was told it was a separate bar that did not open until 7:00. And Laney and I met there right when they opened at 4:00, which was smart; by the time we left, just before 6:00, it was pretty packed in there.

Being such a special seasonal thing, their menu is unsurprisingly full of expensive, speciality stuff: my initial order was the "Mrs. Claus' Hot Chocolate" for $16 and the "Jingle Bell Pimento Dip" for $12. The hot chocolate was tasty but a little heavy on the Rumple Minze—not in terms of alcohol but in terms of flavor; it really kind of overwhelmed my mouth with peppermint. The pimento dip was amazing, though, worth every penny; it even came with more cheese than I had crackers for it, and another bartender kindly gave me extra crackers, and quite a few of them, at no extra cost. Laney was also able to use some of them or her own extra "Frosty's French Onion Dip."

Laney always gets beers which are cheaper than cocktails. We both did go get a second drink, but I just ordered a well drink: orange juice and tequila. Still, my one snack plate and two drinks altogether, including tax and tip, amounted to $48.23 in total spending. At least I had budgeted $50 for this, so I still technically came in under budget!

Anyway, it was worth it and it's a really fun to go every holiday season. Laney needed to go to the liquor store for something to bring to her building's Happy Hour today, so I went with her, and we parted ways after that; I had only a couple of blocks to walk home from there. Shobhit had gone out for a walk, and thought he might join us, but he was just to Broadway and Pine when Laney and I were leaving. I guess they did run into each other as Laney was walking home.

Once Shobhit got home, we watched my fourth "Christmas movie" of the year: Die Hard. The previous three Christmas movies I had watched had all been varying levels of fine but not great, so I wanted to watch something I already knew was good. And then, just because it was right there, we also watched Die Hard 2. And then, even though it was quite late, we watched the penultimate episode of Heated Rivalry on HBO Max, and thought it was an incredible episode. It has smartly moved away from the massive amount of sex in the first couple of episodes and is actually doing a great job at character development now. I was really moved by this episode, it even made me cry a little.

Now it's nearly 11 a.m. and I still need to get into the shower!

[posted 10:57am]