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So, yesterday was Easter. But, you can read all about that in
the entry I posted last night.
Except, I have this tidbit to add to all the stuff I also shared about the plans for my 50th birthday party on May 2: there was also some discussion about Aunt Gloria, Uncle Garth's wife, who passed away last week, at the age of 73—I hadn't even realized both she and Uncle Garth were born in 1952. Although those two were never a big presence in my life, as they've lived in Cheyenne, Wyoming since before I was born, it still struck me because of the number of people in my life born that year, an unusually large number: Sherri was also born in 1952, as was Mom (who passed away in 2020), and Barbara, and Gail (Danielle's mom), and Janine (Gabriel's mom).
Anyway I'm digressing already: Dad told me Uncle Garth's first choice for the memorial service was Saturday, May 2. Dad apparently said to him, "I guarantee you if you have it that day, I can't make it"—because my birthday party is scheduled that day. Now, I'm not about to say that my party should be rescheduled—the date has been set for a long time, the invite has already been sent out, people have already blocked the day off on their calendars, etc. It still felt slightly odd to be prioritized over a memoral service.
There's a lot I could say about Aunt Gloria, but I won't, less out of respect for her than out of respect for people who care about her. I'll just say I un-friended her on Facebook several years ago, and I had a very good reason to do so. I genuinely hope Uncle Garth is doing all right. I even asked Dad about him, and Dad said, "He seems to be doing pretty well, all things considered." He noted that it could hit him harder later, as there's just a lot of logistical stuff to focus on first. In any event, when Dad told him he couldn't do May 2, Uncle Garth moved it to the next weekend.
Dad and Sheri have a lot going on over the next couple of months. They're going on a cruise from L.A. to Mexico next week, and I believe will be gone for about a week. When they get back they'll have less than two weeks until my party, which it sounds like they are feeling much better about being prepared for, now that they know the food will be a pasta bar, and now that I've sent out the Facebook invite and they have a pretty good sense of how many people will be coming. And then, less than a week after that party, they'll head to Wyoming for Gloria's memorial.
It's worth noting that Sherri is also 73, and taking a long time to get over RSV, which she was officially diagnosed with early last week. She was informed that she's not contagious, and she assured us all of that a couple of times yesterday, when she might cough here and there, or otherwise note that she continues to have breathing issues. The hope all around is that she'll be more recovered by the time they head out on that cruise.
And Dad, who is 70 (but will be 71 this August), commented while we visited at their house yesterday afternoon that they are getting to an age where he is eager to travel as much as he can
while he still can. He's also got this persistent back pain issue that pretty severely limits his abilities a lot of the time. Shobhit asked if he does any bike riding anymore, and Dad said he hasn't in a long time. He said he thought about it recently, thinking he might be able to, but thought better of it, that it might not be a good idea. He's probably right.
Another strange thing about all this is how young so many of the people in my family were when they became parents. It makes it feel a little like we're all getting old together. Dad was only 17 when Christopher was born; Christopher is 53 now and will be 54 in September. Dad was 20 when I was born, though he turned 21 three months later. Sherri was 17 when
Angel was born; Angel is 56 now and will be 57 in October. When Angel and Shobhit and I went for a walk yesterday, Angel kind of waddling but still doing far better than before she had several toes surgically removed, Angel herself marveled at the fact that I'll be turning 50. "You're the baby of the family, and
you're turning 50?" Yep. I am.
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So now I'll go back in time another day, to Saturday. Laney came over for a double feature, and this one we watched in the condo because this had to be rescheduled, and the theater was reserved on Saturday. After the technical difficulties at Action Movie Night on Monday, though, I'm not sure we even would have been able to play the movies down there—I may have still been able to figure it out, just like Tony did. Either way, the theater was taken.
We watched our final double feature in the Alexander Payne series:
Nebraska and
Downsizing.
I am constantly thinking I have seen
Downsizing one more time than I actually have, because I remember watching it at home with Shobhit and Ivan in 2017, and Ivan really enjoyed it. That naturally makes me think I saw it previously in the theater, but, I did not: the movie was
in theaters when I watched it, but Shobhit had a SAG Awards screener, and so I just reviewed it after watching it that way. So far as I can tell, this was only the second time I had seen either of these movies.
Shobhit actually hung out and watched
Nebraska with us. It's interesting how little actually happens in that movie, but it's still kind of great. Not even Shobhit was bored by it, though it took him a little while to understand the choice to shoot it in black & white. I think Laney's observation was astute that it would not work nearly as well in color, and removing the color really underscored the blandness of these characters' lives.
Much like Ivan back in 2017, Laney really enjoyed
Downsizing. I still have a lot of complaints about it, I find the movie very odd in all the questions it ignores. Laney conceded that the movie isn't great, but she really enjoyed it anyway. I'll admit it's pretty entertaining. It's also frutratingly odd to me.
We had scheduled that for 12:30, but Laney spent some time getting caught up on Shobhit's heart and blood pressure saga. He has his CT scan scheduled for this afternoon. Shobhit went for a walk during the second movie, but returned before it ended. And it was probably because immigrants were a big part of
Downsizing that the cobversation turned to immigration, and when Laney left she was very frustrated with Shobhit's deeply prejudicial assumptions about the education level of legal immigrants (which is to say, he thought they were "in the top 1%" of their countries of origin, because he was assuming all legal immigrants come for tech jobs, and somehow that means they'd all be able to find Kentucky on a map). Shobhit has this tendency to make these forceful claims for which he has no data to back them up, but he did look this up, found some numbers, and immediately conceded he was wrong. Laney was frustrated enough by that point though that it kind of felt like his concession wasn't making much difference. On the other hand, the topic changed and the three of us chatted more, in a far more friendly way, by the front door before Laney actually left.
Anyway, that basically covers the weekend on the whole. Shobhit and I spent Friday evening going around to Costco and PCC to do some shopping. We otherwise just watched TV when he has the time for it.
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[posted 12:33pm]
