— छह हज़ार अठारह —
Did I do something yesterday? What did I do yesterday?
I can tell you what I did this morning: I woke up with a bit of a crick in the center of my back. At least my neck feels better; a couple of days ago I woke up having slept so wrong on my neck that it hurt to turn my head all the way to the right. I honestly think the five stretches I do religiously every other evening helped with that. I've been doing those ever since seeing a physical therapist about the nerve pain in my arm, which also would go up to my neck. When was that physical therapy appointment, anyway? Oh: August 2024. I've been doing these stretches that guy gave me for almost two years now. I have no plan to stop, ever, because I have never had the same kind of nerve pain again.
The pain in my neck was different from that, in any case. But, if it was also a nerve issue, presumably the continued stretching helped. I feel better now, anyway.
I feel less great about turning 50. I am on PTO all next week for my Birth Week, and Gabby has significant overlap with her own PTO: today is her first day off and she's out through Wednesday next week. She's going to Tokyo with her husband Nick, because Nick's mom is attending a doula conference of some sort and they decided to tag along. Anyway, when Gabby left yesterday she texted the team over Microsoft Teams, leaving three short messages about who we can lean on in her absence, etc. She ended it with,
Happy 5-0 to Matthew on 4/30! Enjoy your birth week! And that was sweet but also seeing it written like that, "5-0," made me want to throw up a little bit.
Anyway. I rode my bike home, something I won't be able to do today because it was
quite raininy this morning and so I walked. But! The spectacular forecast for my Birth Week is holding so far—indeed the extended forecast has rain today only, and straight-up sunshine the next four days, with highs in the mid-sixties. It's showing some clouds the next few days, but as of this morning the forecast on Friday next week is partly sunny and 71°. If we can get that same weather the very next day then conditions will be perfect for my party at Dad and Sherri's house.
— छह हज़ार अठारह —
So what
did I do last night, once I got home? Shobhit and I made flatbread pizzas for dinner, and mine turned out to be quite delicious. I cut mine in half and will have the rest of it for dinner tonight. I ate while finishing the latest Bill Burr comedy special on Hulu, which was all right, except that it was released last year but clearly recorded before the election in 2024, so some of it was both quickly and strikingly dated.
Shobhit was listening to more of his news programs, but then we watched about two and a half episodes of season 2 of
Patriot. I had felt after the first episode or two that this season was kind of weak conpared to season 1—boy was I wrong about that. We're now halfway through this eight-episode season and it's amazing. One scene was done in a single shot and follows John, the main character, from a subway to a grocery store where a shooting takes place (and both he and a friend lose some fingers, which they carry with them), and back into the subway station and onto the train. I was really impressed with how well they pulled it off. Having the soundtrack be one of John's folk songs in which he sings all about exactly what we're watching him do was just icing on the cake.
— छह हज़ार अठारह —
— छह हज़ार अठारह —
I had a bit of an unusual work event today: a broker too me out for lunch. This is not exactly unheard of; brokers have taken me out a handful of times over my many years at PCC. This was the first time it's happened since we moved to our Downtown location, though, and that was just under eight months ago.
The main woman in the group, her name is Ayn and that's pronounced "Anne," had asked me for recommendations of where to go, and I kept drawing a blank. There are tons of places all around here, but I've only gone out to lunch a couple of times at all since we moved to this location. But, then Ayn recommended Mendocino Farms right at the end of this block, and I was like—perfect! I had never eaten there before either, but I knew they have sandwiches and that sounded great to me. I had a vegan banh mi sandwich and it was delicious.
I had met Ayn several times before when she has visited Grocery Merchandisers for meetings over the years. There were three other woman from her brokerage who I have exchanged many an email with, though: Tonja ("Tonya"), Nia, and Trisha. Trisha is the only relatively recent hire, she's been with them since last year I think. But I've been emailing Tonja and Nia for years. It was my first time meeting any of those three in person, and when I went to meet them all up by the front desk when they arrived at 11:30, they all but cheered when I showed up. I felt like a celebrity. I mean, brokers
have been treating me like a celebrity for years.
We had lots to talk about, and actually hung out for a good ninety minutes. I learned a lot about all of them, and they brought up fairly early on that they'd like to do a lunch like this again. Apparently Ayn and Tonja had been talking for some years about taking me to lunch but only this year finally got around to actually doing it. It sounds like maybe next time we'll go out for drinks at the end of a work day. Tonja talked about how this lunch was kind of to feel me out, since they didn't even know if I drink, for example. (I said I very much do, although I have to be a lot more careful about it now than I used to.)
Anyway it was a lovely lunch, but now I need to get the work done that I need to get done, because as I noted to the four of them, I am out of the office all next week! Actually they all even expressed interest in getting onto the distribution list for my email photo travelogues. I need to email them all about that now. So I'm actually going to post this now and get to it then. No, really!
— छह हज़ार अठारह —
[posted 1:10pm]
