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Shobhit's friend Sachin is in town this week. Shobhit texted me to ask if it was okay for Sachin to visit either Wednesday or Thursday, and I said of course—although Wednesday was far better, as Shobhit, Laney, Alexia and I all have tickets to see
Jurassic World Rebirth after work today.
So, when I got home after riding my bike from work yesterday (I remembered my helmet this time!), I was not at all surprised to see Sachin already there, holding a glass of wine while Shobhit was in the kitchen cooking dinner.
Sachin sure had a peculiar way of greeting me, though. As soon as I walked in the door and he laid eyes on me, he said: "Five-eight, one-forty-five!" Before I could even respond he added: "You've gained some weight."
This was a little fucked up, no? On the upside, he
really underestimated my weight. What a dream it would be to be at 145 lbs! I told him I was about 161 lbs, actually. I was remembering that wrong, though, and even that was too low. I weighed in yesterday morning at 163.6 lbs. I was delighted to be down to 162.9 on Monday, but it's slightly been creeping back up since then. Anyway, Sachin actually gave me a hug, and said it was good to see me. I said, "It's good to see you too, though it wasn't great to walk in and have you immediately comment on how fat I am."
He laughed and said, "I'm fatter than you are!" He rubbed his belly as he said this, which is, admittedly, notably larger than mine—at least, proportionally speaking. Sachin is quite short, maybe 5'6" at most, perhaps even as short as 5'4". I feel like he's about as tall as my mom was. I would bet anything this contributes to his inability to guess how much someone else weights, because other men are typically taller and height alone adds weight.
When was the last time I saw Sachin, anyway? I really don't feel like it was that long ago. Let me check my trusty Social Review! Ah: it was actually
last summer. At the end of the summer rather than at the beginning;
September 9, to be exact. So: ten months ago. We talked then about the idea of taking a day trip to Nashville and visiting him, maybe even staying the night at his place, if and when I next went to visit Barbara in Louisville. The idea of visiting her out there has been postponed indefinitely yet again, for two reasons: by far most significantly, my tight budgeting for the 2026 trip to Amsterdam and the 2027 trip to Australia. But also, Shobhit keeps talking about flying her out here yet again, this time for my 50th birthday party I expect to have at Dad and Sherri's in Olympia next year. That's kind of iffy, especially considering how much I would then need to integrate her into the rest of my Birth Week activities, but I must admit being compelled by the idea. Maybe I can take a week and a half off work rather than the usual week, and have Barbara overlap only with the last weekend of my Birth Week and then take a few days for a visit more Barbara-focused. I do love the idea of getting her out here for her first Birth Week participation
since 2011. And that was just a lucky overlap with Easter Weekend, which was actually the reason we flew her out here then, taking her with us along with Dad and Sherri to Spokane for the holiday. We have done that one more time since, also for Easter, and that was
just last year.
Boy, am I digressing! Back to Sachin. Shobhit noted that both Sachin
and I are turning 50 next year. Sachin asked what my theme will be next year and maybe I should do some of it with him, if he's back in Seattle by then. I don't know why I would start any of my Birth Week stuff in February, though. Although, being my 50th birthday, maybe there is something to spreading my "50-year-old landmarks" theme throughout the year. An idea! Probably not, though. I'll still be taking the week off work for my Birth Week and will want to concentrate the activities then.
I learned a lot of new stuff about how Sachin's life has been going over the past year. Shobhit never told me Sachin was living in New York City—Brooklyn, specifically—for three months. He's been between contracts and only just got a job he can work remotely from wherever he wants, which means he can move away from Nashville again for good—he had gone back there after finishing the job in New York, and is now trying to decide whether to go back to New York or come back to Seattle.
When I said he should move to New York so Shobhit and I can come visit, he said, "That's a
great idea!" Then he told us about all these real estate people he's connected with and insane deals for places to stay he could hook us up with, even if he isn't living there. "Insane deal" is sort of relative, though; one place was a basement space with its own kitchenette, but in central Brooklyn and nearly an hour subway ride to some of the places I'd want to go see in Manhattan. Shobhit basically stayed firm on the idea that if we visit New York, he wants to stay in Manhattan. On the one hand I feel the same way. On the other hand, we haven't visted New York together since 2013, and without a cheap place to stay, at least for the next three years it's never going to happen. I mean, unless Shobhit wins the lottery. Which is also never going to happen.
It's still kind of fun to fantasize about, though.
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— पांच हजार आठ सौ चालीस —
Shobhit and Sachin spent the requisite amount of time arguing about countless different things, political, financial, or otherwise. Sachin continues to have a bit of a problem reigning in his alcohol intake, and at one point he made a comment about staying the night, which I could have lived with but would have preferred not happen. He was staying with a cousin in Renton and had taken the 101 bus into Seattle, and when I figured out when the next ones southbound would be leaving, I was relieved when we all decided to walk downtown to get him to the bus stop.
By then, Sachin was visibly inedbriated. Not sloppy-drunk or anything, but still a shift that was easy to clock. He started asking after my other friends, including Laney, Danielle, and Gabriel, in every case making "observations" that reflected his ability to comment on things and people he knows almost nothing about. He was shocked to hear Tess is 17 years old, he clearly thought she was still a little girl. And, remembering she was trans, he babbled on, somewhat drunkenly, in a way that, while it was totally devoid of malice, also reflected an utter ignorance of what being trans even truly means. I was ready for him to shut up about it as soon as he started talking about it. Thankfully, he fairly quickly moved on—at that point to making ignorant judgments about Danielle's children.
He had slightly sobered up by the time we got downtown. We missed a 101 bus by about two minutes, giving us roughly 25 minutes until the next one. Sachin wanted some kind of dessert, and Shobhit used Yelp to find Baxter & Frost on 1st Avenue right by Pike Place Market, the place that used to be Rocky Mountain Chocolate. When the hell did that change? Google says Rocky Mountain closed there in January; the first Baxter & Frost review on Yelp was posted March 2.
Shobhit expressed some interest in the brownies, but Sachin and I were more interested in ice cream. Sachin said he'd pay for it, and asked what flavor I'd like, so I answered honestly: the peaut butter cup flavor. Sachin got a second scoop, the strawberry flavor, but had the guy put them both in the same cup. Shobhit was clearly annoyed that I chose a peanut butter flavor, which he hates, and so he declared he would not even have any of the strawberry because it was
touching the peanut butter.
Um. Okay.
Sachin, quite rightly, declared: "Juvenile. You're being juvenile." Shobhit just short of shrugged. I kind of love it, though, when Shobhit gets feedback about his childish behavior from someone other than me, as it moves it closer to being a clearly objective truth.
That said, I remain kind of two minds about this. On the one hand, it was undeniably juvenile behavior. On the other hand, it was as way for him to refrain from eating a high-calorie dessert when he's counting points for Weight Watchers. Whatever works, I guess. (And here I am, my weight having crept up since the beginning of the week, as I already noted.)
I had kept my eye on the next bus using One Bus Away on my phone, and noted when the bus was seven minutes away. We all walked back over to the bus stop on 2nd, Sachin hugged both of us goodbye when the bus came, and then Shobhit and I walked home together without any further incident or even tension. So that's good.
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I just finished with my biweekly Zoom lunch with Karen. Except, we discovered she is overbooked the rest of the month, and I think maybe she even said she is out of town when our next lunch was scheduled on the 18th, so we had to cancel that. I'll see her next four weeks from now, on August 1.
But! We also finally nailed down a date for Shobhit and me to come visit their house in Tulalip, finally finished! We last finished when it was hardly more than just a plot of land, and that was in
September 2021. We'll be returning four years later, to the month. Damn. I think we thought then that it would be sooner, something like half that time. Oh well, it's happening soon now! I'm very excited. She wants to make fondue for dinner. Anyway that's now on our calendars for Saturday, August 30. I'm very excited.
Speaking of plans of that nature, it looks like Dad and Sherri will come to Seattle for a day visit in late August as well—they're looking at Tuesday August 26. They refuse to actually drive in Seattle anymore, so they were looking at taking the train and then staying overnight at a Best Western in Pioneer Square. Dad texted me this morning that now they're thinking they will drive to Bremerton and then take the ferry over for a day visit. It's a beautiful ferry ride across the sound, so that would be an added bonus anyway. I should tell him about the Kitsap Fast Ferry if they won't be taking the car across, though, as that takes half the time (half an hour versus an hour).
I'm already doing tons of research on stuff we can do along the waterfront, which was their basic destination for this visit all along. Anyway I'm looking forward to that too. And now I need to post this and get back to work!
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[posted 1:09pm]
