— पांच हजार आठ सौ पंद्रह —
An amazing thing happened this weekend. I didn't go to any movies!
This, of course, doesn't mean I didn't
watch any movies over the weekend. I watched two, actually—both of them on Saturday. I'll get to that in a moment.
I had noted in my post on Friday that I was facing what will likely be my least-eventful weekend until at least July 4, at least in terms of what is currently scheduled (I would not be at all surprised to see much more get planned for 4th of July weekend between now and then). As is often typical, though, the weekend filled up just fine as it went along, and by the end of it I had five new Social Review points to put on the Spring Social Review, spread over three different people.
Admittedly, three of them will go to Shobhit, one for each day between Friday and Sunday, because I went for a walk with him each day, and I have always given him a Social Review point if we have gone for a walk and it was not just for the purposes of running errands. I suppose I could just run through those quickly now:
*Friday, we walked to Volunteer Park, then over to Broadway and back home, walking past Pine to Pike first just to get some extra steps in. We did this shortly after I got home from work. I will say this much: Volunteer Park is quite lush and beautiful this time of year, and a nice escape for anyone tiring of the urban environment surrounding it. It's the largest park on Capitol Hill, after all, covering just over 48 acres.
*Saturday, in the afternoon in between two different events or commitments Shobhit had that were actually outside of town (mid- to late-morning in Tacoma; later in the evening in Everett), we took a much shorter walk, just up 15th Avenue E up to the old QFC, which every third Saturday of the month is being converted into a "
Quality Flea Center" (still QFC!), a monthly flea market. Shobhit and I happened upon it walking by several weeks ago, discovered there was a small fee to get in (just a dollar), and decided to come back sometime. Shobhit went in last month, I think, but only Saturday this past weekend did we have a chance to both go in together. He paid our fees. It's just what it sounds like, a flea market, with many small vendors selling jewelry, clothes, trinkets, whatever. I had hoped I could find some fun earrings but didn't find anything I liked, but Shobhit did buy two $3 bracelets he liked. One was pretty similar to a bracelet of brown smooth rocks he wore a lot when we first got together in 2004, and which he had gotten at a clearance sale at Panache on Broadway.
*Sunday—yesterday—we walked to Volunteer Park again, again via 15th Avenue E. This time, though, after we cut down to Broadway on the way back, we stopped at the Capitol Hill Farmers Market that happens every Sunday at the Capitol Hill Light Rail Station and at the north end of Cal Anderson Park (second-best park on Capitol Hill!—7.37 acres). We cut through the park on our way home from there.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ पंद्रह —
Anyway, with Shobhit out for a few hours late morning and early afternoon on Saturday, I took that opportunity to rewatch the beautiful Pixar film
WALL-E on Disney+. I figured I'd find something great to rewatch before the month I subscribed to for
Andor expires on the 24th. I've seen that movie surprisingly few times (five, now) for how much I love it. Also, it's 17 years old now and holds up incredibly well.
And then, with Shobhit at a potluck in Everett for one of the several gay social groups he's now part of, I had this idea to call Gabriel and see if he'd be interested in a watch party with
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, now that we have both finished
Andor. I think he thought at first I was suggesting I come over, but I knew he was still isolating and I would never have suggested such a thing—I meant online, the way we used to during stay-home orders for everyone.
He surprised me a bit but suggesting 5:00, which was much earlier than I would expect from him. But, he wanted to be done by the time they would be making their dinner around 7:00. And indeed, we did get on FaceTime shortly after 5:00, but did not get the movie started until 5:50, because SharePlay on FaceTime would not work properly—it was clearly a copyright issue, at least with my Disney+ tier being the lower one with commercials. I think this likely would have worked if I had subscribed for the no-commercial tier, but that was like twice as much and I was willing to deal with ads to save money. In any case, he was able to get the screen to share, but all I could see was a black screen—although, amusingly, the subtitles were visible.
Gabriel attempted several things, but in the end we decided we would just press play at the same time, and text as the movie played. He would have to pause on his end while commercials played in mine, like four different times. He would then call me to chat while my ads played. He also later noted that he was sending twice as many texts as I did. Well, I was absorbed by this delightful movie! (Except for the digital versions of Tarkin and Lea, a thing they never should have done.)
It was actually quite fun to watch "with" him, even if we coldn't literally be together—I enjoyed it more this way than I would have just watching it on my own. This now made
four times I have seen this movie, and in spite of some clear flaws (chiefly the misguided digital face-recreation stuff), I find myself appreciating
Rogue One more each time I see it.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ पंद्रह —
And lastly, that brings us to yesterday, when I met up with Laney for our first May Happy Hour. We had long planned on going to Beaver Pond Natural Area in Northgate, something she had recommended ages ago, but came around late last week to thinking it wasn't the best idea for a BYOB Happy Hour—there are no places to sit really, just trails. She was also afraid it would be too cool and wet after the rain we had over the weekend, some of it quite heavy Saturday night. The weather turned out beautiful yesterday, actually, if not super warm—the high was about 60°. It's entirely possible the trails at Beaver Pond remained muddy. We decided we would just make a plan to go there sometime later this year when not doing a Happy Hour.
So, what we pivoted to yesterday was La Cocina Oaxaqueña, the Mexican Place on Pine at Melrose that, if we go by the record number of times we have done Happy Hour there, is perhaps our favorite place to go. I've now gone there
19 times since Laney and I first started doing regularly scheduled Happy Hours. (I should note that, in one case during covid, I got takeout from there to bring to the park but Laney did not, so she would have been there 18 times.)
We get the same meal every single time: the
Quesadillas Fritas. They're so fucking good! And, at Happy Hour, they are $9—as are the House Margaritas. Laney tends to get a beer with a shot of tequila anymore, though, so she no longer gets the margaritas with me. Still, we split the bill down the middle; I had a meal plus two margaritas, and with tax and tip I paid $33. This place may be the cheapest Happy Hour place we have around, especially for the quality. I got pretty buzzed on those margaritas—one more and I might have blacked out—but I didn't have any kind of hangover or anything later.
I did make chai when I got home afterward, though. I shouldn't have after already having had two cocktails. Oh well.
Anyway, we basically spent just a couple of hours there, and then walked back to Broadway before I walked the rest of the way home. Shobhit and I watched TV the rest of the evening: the series finale of
Overcompensating on Prime Video, which in the end I liked a lot more than Shobhit even though I didn't like the cliffhanger nature of how it ended;
The Last of Us was a spectaculat episode; and then
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, alternately deeply depressing and delightful as always.
[posted 12:29pm]
