— पांच हजार नौ सौ छप्पन —

There were three notable social events on my calendar over the weekend, but I will start with Friday, during which there were none: I left work an hour earlyt that day, so I could walk home and arrive by 4:00. Theoretically I had plenty of time to drive down to SeaTac and pick up Shobhit at the airport—his plane touched down basically on time at 5:09, but he still had to pick up luggage and go through customs. In the end he got through all that incredibly quickly, but that didn't change how theoretically unnecessarily early I was.

The thing is, even though the car has been starting reliably ever since I "fixed" it the previous weekend, this was always a concern. What if it wouldn't start and I needed to take Light Rail to go down and meet him? Not a likely scenario, but best to be cautious. So, I went down to the car shortly after 4:00, and it turned on. I was already in the car with it on, so why not just drive down?

Shobhit wanted me to pay for parking and come inside to meet him. This was fine, but parking is $8 an hour and I didn't want to pay for more than that if I didn't have to. So, I parked in the "Cell Phone Parking Lot" until several minutes after Shobhit texted me that he was at the gate. He texted me at 5:32 that he was off the plane, and I still waited for a bit. Seven minutes later I decided I would go park, for no real reason other than that by that point I was super bored and didn't want to be sitting in the car doing nothing in the dark anymore.

I killed several minutes just trying to find a place to park: what floor I should park on (I tried the 3rd floor and found no spaces; saw that 4th floor is where the skybridges are and tried that but the entrance from the spiral ramp was blocked; I finally found a spot on the 5th floor), how close to the far south end of the airport I should park. I parked just a few spaces away from the southernmost elevator banks, which opened on floor down right next to Skybridge 1, the southernmost of those; and I soon discovered this was actually perfect: International Departures and International Arrivals are at the south end of the airport now. They used to come out from a sort of tunnel entrance to the middle of Baggage Claim, but this change is evidently after a whole lot of construction happened in recent years.

I found the International Arrivals doors and rightly assumed Shobhit would come out of those; what I incorrectly assumed was that I'd be waiting a while. I meandered around, looking at the surprising number of art pieces in glass cases. I had just taken this photo of sculpted banana peels, and suddenly Shobhit walked up to me pushing a cart full of all his baggage. He immediately gave me a kiss and a hug, then I guided him right over to the nearby elevator up to Skybridge 1, crossed to the parking garage, went up one more floor and was just several parking spaces away from the car. I then drove us home, where I made us chai, and later also took the requisite photo of this year's haul of food and spice products Shobhit brought home from India. This year it included several pairs of shoes he found he could get cheaper there than in the U.S., including Hugh Puppies sandals for both of us that we look forward to taking along our summer trip to The Netherlands.

That took some time. Shobhit got very little sleep on either of his flights, the second of which had been a 12-hour flight from Istanbul to Seattle. Between the lack of sleep and jet lag, he was unsurprisingly in bed and asleep fairly early Friday evening. He told me all his clothes were clean because his mom washed them before he left, so while he slept I put all his clothes away, effectively unpacking everything in the suitcase and the large duffle bag for him.

— पांच हजार नौ सौ छप्पन —

Shobhit got a pretty solid, 8 hours of sleep that night, but how early he wakes up and how late he stays awake in the evenings has remained at least slightly unusual over the weekend. As of Friday evening he was iffy on whether we would go to the "Mensa Post-Holiday Party" we had on our calendar for a while on Saturday—if he was still super tired and wanting to sleep, he was going to skip it. But, he woke up plenty early Saturday morning, and we even cooked up a macaroni & cheese dish to bring.

So. I haven't mentioned this here yet: Shobhit joined Mensa last year, and this was the first Mensa event he attended. He had never even heard of this organization before last year, so he looked into it, even went to take the "international IQ test" required for membership (I can't remember what it said his IQ was, except that he definitely passed the threshold of being in the top 2% of the population), and paid the fee for just one year of membership. He'll decide later if he wants to stick with it.

This may be a good time to mention that IQ tests have long been known to be inaccurate markers of intelligence. In their defense, I suppose, if they want to have a club for "smart people," they have to start with some kind of standardized measure. But, whatever: any new extracurricular activity or way to meet new people that Shobhit finds, I fully support. If this group turns out to work for him, I'm thrilled. So far though, the jury is way out.

I was there merely as Shobhit's plus-one, which was allowed, at this event at least. I had no idea what to expect. Would there be any kind of smartypants games or activities? Would I find the people there to be stuck up about their own intelligence? It was basically a no to all of the above: somewhat disappointingly, the general vibe was exactly the same as any standard potluck hosted by any given organization. Also, although the invite had stated it was potluck, they also had countless heated trays of food from Buca di Beppo which would easily have fed us all on their own. Shobhit and I went home with more leftovers than food we actually brought, and we only filled two extra containers, one of pasta and one of another person's salad that Shobhit liked (and I wouldn't touch, as it contained both broccoli and raisins, barf).

We sat at a table where we did admittedly meet some interesting people. I should note that this was specifically hosted by Mensa of Western Washington, and the guy to my left was of South Asian descent, born in India and spent some childhood in Kenya but went to middle school and high school in Kansas and thus had a totally American accent, holds some position I forget on either the board or a committee or something. I asked a few people how long they have been members, and this guy said 14 years. The woman next to him, named Kimberley, said 16 years if I remember right; she also shared that she recently had weight loss surgery, as an explanation for how little she was eating. An older lady on the other side of her, whose name I forget, was very fascinating, as she told us about trips to took to India, as well as other places, in the seventies and eighties. She's been a member for 30 years, and at one point she said, "I'm probably older than you think I am." She had brown hair, and I'm not sure if she dyes it or not. But Shobhit and I were both very shocked when she said she was in her eighties.

There were two other guys at our table, and they were relatively quiet, unless someone like Shobhit asked what they do, or did, for a living. There were multiple Boeing engineers at our table.

There wasn't a lot of networking or schmoozing, really. Most tables kept to themselves, and people got up to get food and went back to the table they'd sat at. There was a gift exchange, which Shobhit and I had spaced and so we did not participate. Looking at the invite now, it specifically had a book theme: "We’re also having a gift exchange, but unlike previous years, this year there is a theme! Bring a book that you read/listened to and enjoyed to share with someone else. Books should be no more than $30 and in Excellent/New condition. Same rules as previous years, you will have a choice to open a new book or take one from someone else."

The event was scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Shobhit and I were there, at the Redmond Senior & Community Center (where multiple events were happening, it seemed to be a pretty hopping place on a Saturday afternoon), and we left roughly an hour later. Shobhit did chat a little with Felice, the local chapter President. The South Asian guy next to me did chat with me a fair bit. Both he and Kimberley did reference their own intelligence in one way or another: the guy talked about how he got in trouble for being disruptive because he constantly answered the teacher's questions in school; Kimberly mentioned high-level puzzles she likes to do and how she spends her time making clocks.

None of it was especially snooty in tone, I should mention; I could easily imagine someone sharing such things about themselves at any social event.

This one in particular was so bland and unremarkable, in fact, that when I told Shobhit I was surprised how quickly he wanted to leave, he said, "I was bored talking to those people." I actually hope he gives a few more things on their calendar a look and a chance, though; an event like this is not a good one to judge by, especially if you're new and don't already know anyone there. Surely if he goes to more events and gets to know some of the other members, even a potluck will be more engaging to him a year from now. But, we'll see.

— पांच हजार नौ सौ छप्पन —

— पांच हजार नौ सौ छप्पन —

Shobhit had another event, this one an all-night "play party" of some kind in Pioneer Square, Saturday night. He walked there, so I had access to the car, so I drove rather than taking transit to Federal Way to go watch a movie with Gabriel and Lea at their house.

Gabriel and I were on the phone several days before, and he noted that unlike most years, he just doesn't have the bandwidth to try and watch all of this year's Oscar contenders. But, he wanted to watch at least one with me. Knowing that Shobhit had other plans the same night, I suggested Saturday, and also pretty easily narrowed it down to the movie I figured was best suited for him: It Was Just an Accident, the Iranian film all but guaranteed to be among the five International Feature nominees this year. (The win is going to be The Secret Agent from Brazil, but I really did not want to sit through that one a second time. And although I bet Gabriel would like that one, I still think he'd agree that It Was Just an Accident is better.)

I had no idea whether we'd go out or get takeout like we did the last time I went down there, so I budgeted $40 for dinner, figuring even takeout would likely be far less than that. But, Lea just made a simple but delicious meal of beans with fantastic seasonings and cream mixed in, along with slices of fresh bread, so I didn't have to spend anything at all. If I had been coming earlier I would have brought chai, but instead I brought ginger beer so I could have a Moscow Mule, which Gabriel used to make me two of them over the course of the evening. He even offered a third, but I knew that would be a bad idea before driving home.

I was there a good five hours or so, arriving at roughly 5:15 and leaving around 10:15. The movie's run time is 103 minutes, but we must have taken at least two and a half hours to finish because it kept getting paused so we could talk about things—sometimes related to the movie, sometimes not. I thought I was going to see Stephanie and Tess because Gabriel was going to take them to the train station, but I guess their plan to go to Yakima to pick up a car Tess thought she'd be buying fell through, and they just went with alternate plans for the evening.

I also got another half dozen fresh eggs from their chickens.

I hung out in their kitchen while Lea made the dinner and Gabriel put away dishes and such, then we spent the rest of the time in the living room, first in front of the movie and then just chatting. Lea went to bed shortly after the movie finished, giving me a hug goodbye, although at one point Gabriel hollered up at her to ask a question, which she answered via text. (It was the unoficial motto of Reed, where Lea went to college in Portland: "Communism, Atheism, Free Love". Which I find absolutely delightful.)

I think we're pretty close to deciding to spend a weekend in May on Lummi Island. I have never been there, and in fact had never heard of it until I decided I wanted to do an island three years in a row and I just went lookinhg up islands to stay overnight at. This one is about eight miles across Bellingham Bay from Bellingham, but a roughly one-mile ferry ride from the end of the peninsula jutting out to the southwest in the Lummi Reservation. At 9.25 square miles, it's Washington State's 12th-largest island, the 11th-largest island in Puget Sound—10th if you exclude Fir Island, which is only an island created by a fork in rivers on the mainland side of the Sound. It's about 9 miles long and has an average width of around a mile and a half. I found an AirBnB there that looks pretty ideal, much as I hate AirBnB but in secluded areas on Puget Sound islands it's really the only option we have.

— पांच हजार नौ सौ छप्पन —

Anyway, I drove home and arrived around 11:00, and was in bed not long after that. I couldn't even tell you what time Shobhit got home; I know it was early morning. But his sleep patterns have been pretty erratic regardless.

He spent most of the day in the living room, catching up on TV while Laney and I were downstairs in the Braeburn Condos Theater, finally having the second in our Alexander Payne Double Feature Series. This was an especially great pair of movies: About Schmidt, which features arguably Jack Nicholson's most underrated (because it's so effectively understated) performances; and Sideways, which I have now seen at least four times—twice in its original theatrical run in late 2004 and early 2005; once (and a second time) with Gabriel in 2024; and now with Laney in 2026. Laney had thought she had seen About Schmidt but realized she was confusing it with As Good As It Gets. She had definitely seen Sideways before but it was many years ago.

There's not a lot more to say about them, except that we had a delightful time watching both movies. You technically reserve the Community Kitchen and the theater concurrently, which has been the case ever since they reopened it after covid, but Laney and I only ever use it on days like this to debrief after using the bathroom after the movie ends. There was a lady in the kitchen seating area reading something on her phone through basically the entire second movie though, and she was still there when it ended, so we stuck around for a bit to chat inside the theater. There was another reservation at 6:00 so we got out of there by about 5:50.

Then, I went upstairs, had the last of the leftover pasta (both from Buca di Beppo and the last of our macaroni & cheese, which is why my weight was up this morning), and Shobhit was already on episode 5 of the current season of Fallout on Prime Video—the one episode I still hadn't watched. So, I took my dinner to the bedroom to watch it from the start of the episode on my laptop. After that, Shobhit and I watched the series premiere of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on HBO Max. I thought it was fine; Shobhit, as he often does, almost immediately declared it wasn't going to take off (it's far too early to tell that—I do know it's already in production on season two); Joanna and Mallory at The Ringer were on the Talk the Thrones podcast afterwards just raving about how well they did adapting from the source novel of the same name.

I guess that's all the news that's fit to print from my weekend. Way more than that, even.

— पांच हजार नौ सौ छप्पन —

[posted 12:52pm]