ballooning

— पांच हजार नौ सौ अट्ठावन — We had so little to discuss during my 1x1 meeting with Gabby last Friday that we hopped off the Teams call maybe halfway through the scheduled half hour. This even included her asking what I had going on over the weekend, and I found myself realizing I had less than usual going on. Except I totally forgot I had plans Saturday night! Thankfully I was reminded well enough in time. I'm going to start with the big news from over the weekend, though, which isn't even related to any social engagements from the weekend—we finalized our trip plans for going to Albuquerque in October. I'm finally—finally—going to see the International Balloon Fiesta! (This is hot air balloons, just to be clear. Not, like, party balloons. Can you imagine?) Also, I've never been to New Mexico, so I'll get to check off another on my visited-states list. that one will be my 26th. I thought a lot about this after adding Minnesota in 2023: among the rest of the states I haven't been to, I couldn't care less about visiting them. I don't need to visit them all. Most of the Southern states can go fuck themselves. But, there are still several I would jump at the chance to visit: Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island. I hope to visit Nashville in Tennessee whenever I get out to visit Barbara in Louisville again. I'd even visit Missouri for St. Louis, or Utah for the national parks it contains. I'd jump at a chance to visit Atlanta in Georgia, but the rest of the Southwest I'm happy to ignore. Still, that leaves abother 10 states I'd take the opportunity to visit. Anyway. Albuquerque. This trip is proving to be far more expensive than I anticipated, partly because Shobhit decided he would go, which I did not necessarily expect. I'm glad he's going, to be clear; his abrasive personality notwithstanding, I'd kind of rather have the numbers evened out as two couples rather than me just being the third wheel with Jennifer and Matthew, who we are going there with. Side note: it was Danielle I started talking about going to this event with maybe three years ago, but each year she would be unable to commit. I've kicked this trip down the road several times, but then when Jennifer expressed interest, we nailed down the year we should do it—2026. Other trips this same year wound up getting planned that made Shobhit balk a bit at the Albuquerque idea, and he got really annoyed when I booked a hotel before getting his input—even though I hadn't actually spent a cent, and the booking is refundable until September. He never wants to acknowledge how much flexibility we still have when I don't do things exactly the way he thinks we should. This concerns me a little about traveling with other people, and I'm going to need to remind him that he needs to chill out. Jennifer did make a mistake and click the "pay now" option when she booked her room at the same hotel on Hotels.com, which maybe locked her into the choice. I still maintain it was the best choice; it's located only a mile from Balloon Fiesta Park and will allow us to walk there for the Mass Ascension. Now granted, we still wound up reserving a car rental, because it turns out Albuquerque leaves more to be desired when it comes to their public transit than arguably any major city Shobhit and I have ever visited (including Phoenix and Los Angeles!). In any case, I've been saving $39 per paycheck for this trip, since I first thought it would be for a trip to Las Vegas for Jennifer and Matthew's wedding (which they postponed to next year, and now may decide on a different plan). I've saved up $858 so far, and not only is that less than the airfaire alone, but even with $39 per paycheck between now and the end of the year, I'm going to fall far short of what we already spent or have earmarked for spending, between the flights, the hotel, and the car rental. I'll figure it out, though; I just need to get creative with my budgeting. I expect to come in far under budget for this year's Birth Week, and between that and my raise, I think I can still cover it without having to pull anything out of savings. I just need to find out what my take-home pay will be on Friday's paycheck first, as it's my first one where every day is at my new salary. So, beyond all that, I'm very excited. We already plan to do a day trip to Santa Fe, which is only an hour drive from our hotel, and since it's the State Capitol I can get a new State Capitol tour under my belt. They also have a "Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway," which makes it #2 on my list of must-see items for that trip. Jennifer and Matthew are already hoping to do the "Ride and Dine" package which is expensive, but we don't know yet if they even do it during the festival, which they may not. The tram itself should still be running though, and we'll want to buy advance tickets to that. This now settles the five notable trips I have planned for 2026: May 22-24, hopefully Lummi Island, with Gabriel; this is the only thing that still needs to get booked.
June 13-15: anniversary trip to Whistler, British Columbia, with Shobhit.
July 25 - August 11: World Pride Amsterdam, trip to both The Netherlands and Belgium.
August 27-29: Fourth Biannual Family Vacation, Tokeland on the Washington Coast.
October 2-6: Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, with Shobhit, Jennifer and Matthew. I know that's a lot. And it's how I like it to be! Now, Alexia and I have discussed doing a holiday season visit to Vancouver B.C., and after looking at this list, even I'm thinking we should perhaps kick this one down the road to 2027, if even then—my aim is to be in Australia for Christmas that year, specifically Adelaide, with hopefully bookended trips to Darwin for the train from there to Adelaide; and then Sydney for New Year's. We'll see about how we schedule that one, though; we have time. I really love the idea of spending Christmas with Uncle David and Mary Ann, but if we can also do the train trip, the only logical way to make that happen is to make Syndey the last stop and that would mean heading down there possibly as much as a week before Christmas, which would be mid-December. I could probably live with that, but it also makes a December trip to Vancouver far less likely. Scheduling-wise, going this year would be much easier, but I don't think I have the budget for it after the expense of Albuquerque. Side note: the above list doesn't even account for the vacation time I always take for my Birth Week, which this year will be April 25 to May 3 (the actual PTO taken April 27 - May 1). I actually got on the phone with Dad briefly yesterday, while I was riding the RapidRide Orange Line from Lynnwood City Center Light Rail Station to Alderwood Mall so I could take myself to see H Is for Hawk—which I really, really liked, the dumb title notwithstanding—and we officially nailed down Saturday May 2 as the date for my 50th birthday party. Dad, I think, was somewhat assuming I would choose the previous weekend, but I explained that any time I have had actual parties during my Birth Week it was always at the end of it, so this makes more logical sense to me. He even told me they have a vegetarian caterer in mind, which makes it sound like perhaps Shobhit and I won't have to be as involved in planning as we kind of assumed, and Shobhit would certainly have liked (not because he wants to take control per se, but because he—and I—would like to take any pressure off Dad and Sherri if we can). Dad and Sherri have lots of experience with putting together events like this, though. — पांच हजार नौ सौ अट्ठावन — — पांच हजार नौ सौ अट्ठावन — As for the rest of my weekend, the aforementioned Saturday night plans were with Danielle, and I was reminded when she called me Friday evening to tell me her oral surgery had gone well enough, and she felt well enough, to accompany me to the Amy Miller comedy show Saturday night. At first I was like: what? I have no idea why I never put this on my calendar; I had even bought the tickets and already gotten Venmoed by Danielle to cover hers. When we last discussed it, she suggested I have a "plan B" in place in case she was in too much pain, though she was pretty sure she would be all right. She just wanted to give me the heads up of the slight possibility she won't make it. But, she felt well enough, and after telling Gabby I had nothing notable going on, I was reminded that I had tickets to see Amy Miller, my favorite touring comedian, on Saturday. I told Danielle this was the third time I've seen her, and I saw her with a different person each time—I just checked my records, and this was actually the fourth time I've seen her life, still with a different person each time: I went with Gabriel on March 10, 2018; I went back a year later with Shobhit (which I had hoped to do again with Gabriel but when he couldn't go, Shobhit came along so I wouldn't have to go alone), on March 30, 2019; I had intentions to see her in March 2020 but we all know what happened there; I next saw her two years ago, February 23, 2024, and that time Alexia came with me. This time, it was with Danielle. I think Danielle really liked her, took. I would say I laughed more overall, but there were several jokes Danielle really identified with, especially as a "perimenopausal" woman in her forties, where Danielle literally doubled over in laughter. It was funny too, because Danielle was talking about perimenopause on the way there—and lo and behold, Amy Miller, who revealed her age to be 45 (Danielle, like me, is currently 49), also talked about perimenopause, and the litany of bizarre symptoms associated with it. I did learn from Danielle over the weekend that you are not technically in menopause until you have not had your period for one year. "And this bitch is still bleeding," Danielle said. I really laughed when she said that. Danielle should be a comedian. Before going to the show, we invited Danielle to come up to Seattle earlier and have dinner with us in our condo. Shobhit already made three dishes Friday night with lots leftover, so why not? Laughs Comedy Club has a two-order minimum, but it can be just two drinks, which is what both Danielle and I did; this allowed me to get in and out of there for $10.50 less than I had originally budgeted. At home, Shobhit made aloo parathas from scratch to have with the three dishes he made, including a beets dish I would not touch because I hate beets and which Danielle loved because Shobhit therefore made it very spicy; a beans dish using one of the many bags Alexia gave us; and my favorite, a tofu and bell pepper dish. I had the latter two with rice and it was all super tasty. I told Danielle to get to our place at 4:30, knowing full well she'd probably arrive at 5:00. That's exactly when she got there. I went and parked our car on the street so Danielle could use our parking space, and later she drove us up to the comedy club. I'm kind of glad we stuck to drinks and not food; comedy club food is never all that great. — पांच हजार नौ सौ अट्ठावन — So, what about the rest of the weekend? I left work a bit early on Friday to take myself to see The Testament of Ann Lee at the AMC Pacific Place; I didn't connect to that one nearly as much. I had hoped Laney might want to see that one with me, but her instincts turned out to be right when she passed on it. I mean, it's a good movie, very well done, a great lead performance. I just couldn't connect much to the story. Being a relatively early showtime, though allowed me to get some TV epsidoes in that evening. Shobhit and I watched a fair amount of TV over the weekend, when we were both home. On Saturday, we went out and did some shopping, QFC and PCC to take advantage of coupons and deals, as always. Oh, right, I forgot to mention last week that Shobhit met me at work on Thursday and we walked home together. Can't forget that, as it's a Social Review point for him! Now, we did also walk to the Capitol Hill Light Rail station together yesterday afternoon, but that one doesn't count as we were both headed different places—he boarded a southbound train for an event he went to in SeaTac I think it was; I boarded a northbound train for my movie in Lynnwood. On Thursday, the walking together was itself the point. Yesterday, we were just on our way to different destinations. It's somewhat slim pickings for new movie releases this week, which is why I had to go all the way to Lynnwood yesterday to see one. I have no plans tonight, but I do have a Happy Hour with Laney tomorrow. No social engagements otherwise until Thursday which is Laney's and my next scheduled movie. Danielle and I plan to hang out again on Sunday next weekend, to celebrate the 26th anniversary of her move to Seattle—which is actually February 7, but Danielle is working that weekend, so we'll get together on the 1st. She complained that we don't get together often enough to celebrate this anniversary—we really should have last year when it was the 25th, but I'm not sure either of us even though about it then. We did commemmorate it in 2020 though, when it was the 20th anniversary. I mean, whatever. Any excuse to hang out! We don't get together often enough these days. — पांच हजार नौ सौ अट्ठावन — [posted 12:32pm]