— पांच हजार आठ सौ उनसठ —
I've got way too much shit going on at work today—too many fucking meetings—so I need to try and get through this quickly.
Yesterday was August 5. That means two things: it was my dad's birthday, and it was my work anniversary. Only with Dad was it a particular milestone; he turned 70, and I'll get back to that momentarily. It was my 23rd work anniversary, though, and for the second year in a row, Gabby took the "P3" (Pricing, Promotions and Project Management) team out to celebrate.
I should note that, before Gabby, I had parties at work for two milestone anniversaries: my 10th (in 2012) and my 20th (in 2022). I won't lie, I kind of expect one again for my 25th. That's also a milestone! I didn't have a party for my 15th, but Scott and Noah did take me out for lunch—in a similar vein to Gabby taking me out both last year and this year, although with Gabby the team has gone out. Before I was in the "pricing management" sub-team, though, I was more directly just connected to Scott (as the then-Grocery Merchandiser) and Noah (as the then-Associate Grocery Merchandiser).
2023 was the first work anniversary I had after Gabby started at PCC, and in retrospect, I suspect she didn't make as much of a big deal out of it for two reasons: she was still very new then; and August 5 itself not only landed on a Saturday that year, but in the middle of my trip to the Co+nvergence conference in Saint Paul—which I extended with Shobhit coming out to meet me that Saturday and then spending another three nights over in Minneapolis. I didn't even return to work until August 9, and as this was also well before Gabby was handed the reigns for largely managing the store POS team, she wasn't nearly as locked in then as she is now to acknowledging anniversaries.
As of last year, though, she really leaned in to doing something special for my anniversary—even though I tried to tell her there was no need; there's nothing special about 22. She argued that any anniversary above 20 should be celebrated, and so I acquiesced. I suggested the Smith Tower Observatory Bar, and after we did that, and Gabby insisted we should do something every year, it took little convincing for me to declare, okay, we'll make it a tradition: a rooftop bar every year!
I decided last year that we would go to
Mbar this year, and that's what we did. Now I need to start thinking about where I want to go next year. I may want to pivot to something different for the 25th anniversary in 2027, but, we'll see.
It's also worth noting that our team grew by 66% since last year: previously, it was just Gabby, Amy and me. Cathryn and Brandy have since been added to Gabby's team—but, although Amy made it last year, she was working a shift of the other part-time job she has last night and couldn't make it. So, last night's outing was just Gabby, Cathryn, Brandy and me. Between last year and this year though, I've had an anniversary outing at least once with all of them; twice with Gabby.
It's also worth noting that last year, the outing was actually on Wednesday, August 7. August 5 was on a Monday, but only on Wednesdays were everyone in Merchandising expected to work in-office, so that was the more convenient day to schedule it. Things are a bit different now because people are given more flexibility to choose which days they work in-office after the office move next month when most will be using "hotel desks," and in an effort to get people used to some changes as early as possible, this change in schedule has already occurred even though the office hasn't moved yet. I work in-office every day regardless; Cathryn now usually comes in on Thursdays; I think Amy is usually in on Tuesdays; Gabby and Brandy are still typically coming in on Wednesdays, with some flexibility. Because of this change, this year Gabby scheduled the outing on August 5 itself, and just stressed that attendance was optional.
I did wonder if this might result in few people coming. I won't deny that it was a slight bummer not having everyone together, but four out of five isn't bad. And I had a great time. Mbar is a great place, great views, and great ambiance—I actually liked it better than Altitude Lounge, which I went to with Karen and Diane
in 2022—it's only about two blocks from Mbar, and the views are still great. I just liked Mbar's embiance and their food better.
As you can imagine, I have
a full photo album for this outing—22 shots. It's been placed in two key collections: "
Rooftoo Bars and Restaurants," and a new one I just created last night: "
PCC Anniversaries (Matthew)." That now includes five albums: the parties for 10th and 20th anniversaries; the lunch for my 15th (when Scott sent out the call co-op wide for people to send me cat memes, which was utterly delightful); and now the two rooftop bars visited last year and this year. In all likelihood, this collection will now get a new album every year going forward.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ उनसठ —
— पांच हजार आठ सौ उनसठ —
We wound up all ordering mostly off the
Happy Hour menu, which was pretty reasonably priced given the location and the type of place it is: we shared three different shareable dishes, the "mezze platter," the "arnabeit makl" (fried cauliflower); and off the main menu Gabby ordered the "halloumi cheese." The cauliflower was okay, and the rest was truly delicious.
We had two rounds of cocktails. I had the "fire libre," which is just rum and coke with a slight spice kick to it.
This was all more than enough for all four of us, so there was no need for anyone to order any entrees otherwise. Gabby treated us all, as she always does at these things—it's a bit excessive, I think, and kind of dangerous for me to take it for granted, but I will admit this time around I didn't even bother budgeting for it.
The reservation was made for 4:30, and we spent roughly two hours there. I had a great time and would absolutely go back—sooner than I'd go back to Altitude Lounge, in fact. We all rode in Gabby's car and left the office at 4:00, and this was after Cathryn and I had already ridden the bus together down to the new office location and back, for the tour for interesting people in Merchandising: Lori led the tour inside the office space; I led a tour around the public spaces in Rainier Square. Counting Lori and me, there were nine of us: the others being Cathryn, Shelby, Adrienne, Erik, Steven, Tracy, and Justine. Justine, Tracy and Erik peeled off for the public spaces tour so the group I led was just six. I took just three new photos during that tour, as I had already taken a bunch during previous visits; I did decide to split that album out into its own "
New PCC Office Building: Preview 2025," though; "PCC Central Office Move" will be its own album once the move actually happens.
Anyway, the tour was scheduled 1 to 2 p.m.; Cathryn and I got back to the office at about 2:30; we had to leave again for our anniversary outing at 4:00. I didn't have a huge amount of time for actual work yesterday. Nor do I today, but here I am writing about all this anyway. But this stuff is important!
— पांच हजार आठ सौ उनसठ —
Anyway. About my dad's birthday. He's 70 years old! I had sat down in the living room with my laptop to start processing the day's photos, uploading and tagging them on Flickr—and then I remembered: oh right, I should call Dad. Shobhit had even texted me a reminder to do that in the morning, he seemed genuinely worried I would forget. I almost never forget, whatever!
Earlier this year I was around for a couple of initial conversations about what to do about Dad's 70th birthday. When Sherri turned 70, we made a big deal out of it, but it was also pretty easy as in 2022 her bithday landed on Easter Sunday, when the family was going to be getting together anyway. With Dad's 70th, he wasn't all that interested in making a huge deal of it. I need to ask about this—I should have on the phone last night!—but I suspect Sherri just convinced him to let her throw a party. There will be a catered event at a rented space in Olympia on Sunday this coming weekend.
I suppose it may have been more logical to schedule that on Sunday
last weekend, when Dad's birthday was only two days away. Next Sunday is 5 days after it, but still, close enough I guess. When Sherri threw Dad
a surprise birthday party for his 60th in 2015, that one was on August 9. Maybe she's trying to maintain a pattern. Ha! I would do that, Sherri would not likely be paying much attention to something that arbitrary.
Dad told me they did go out for dinner last night, but that was about the extent of their day-of celebrating. We actually chatted for a good 50 minutes, which we don't really do that often (maybe because we still see each other every couple of months on average anyway), and it was quite nice. He asked for a movie recommendation and I recommended
The Naked Gun, which he already said he was thinking of going to see.
After that I watched some TV with Shobhit. I'll see Dad again this weekend. We'll even be picking up Becca and her toddler Kayvaan, who apparently just moved to Olympia themselves. I'm glad both she and Nikki will be there. I'm bummed Christopher isn't making it—he did come in 2022—but I guess you can't have everything. He'll be there in spirit though, largely thanks to me! More on that later.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ उनसठ —
[posted 12:02pm]
