it's for me

— छह हज़ार चौबीस — My evening last night was pretty much used up by taking myself to see Mother Mary at AMC Pacific Place. The showtime was not until 7:05, though, so I rode my bike home first. Shobhit and I had the last of the leftover enchiladas and rice Gabby and Nick sent us home with after having dinner at their place in Edmonds on Tuesday, for dinner. It was fucking delicious. The rice in particular—it's a recipe from Nick's family, and it was always delicious, but it seems to get even more delicious by the day as leftovers. I could hardly get over how delicious it was. Shobhit watched old episodes of Malcolm in the Middle on Disney+ while we ate. In the meantime, I looked for a SIFF movie for us to watch. Through his connection to SAG-AFTRA, he got two voucher numbers for a free movie at the festival. I found one movie for us to use both vouchers and see together, on Sunday the 17th: Body Blow, an Austalian queer noir that looks like it could be fun. Honestly, it was somewhat of a challenge to find any SIFF movies this year that both had a workable showtime and I had all that much interest in. After doing some searches through the program this year, it seems just as well that I did not buy the "Cinematic Six Pack" of tickets that I used to buy every year. Honestly the movie selection in recent years just isn't as robust as it used to be, which is kind of disappointing. I still keep my membership current, though; I still think they're a vital local organization and I want to support them. — छह हज़ार चौबीस — — छह हज़ार चौबीस — It was too near 10:00 when I got home—I walked back downtown for the movie because I did not want to bike back home again in the dark, and I walked home again after—so there was not time last night to write the movie review. I wrote it after getting to work this morning. Don't tell anyone! — छह हज़ार चौबीस — I just had my biweekly virtual lunch with Karen—which we haven't done in four weeks because she had a conflict two weeks ago and could not reschedule. (This was also why I was happy to be able to drop by her house to pick up the cake dish she gave us on Wednesday last week, and thus get an in-person Birth Week photo with her.) She also had a sort-of conflict today, as she needed to visit a friend in the hospital. But, being unable to connect via Zoom, we just connected over FaceTime on our phones instead. She was sitting in the lobby of the hospital, waiting to speak to a neurologist because apparently her friend had some level of stroke and they don't know yet exactly how severe, and she apologized for being distracted because the people who passes through were so interesting. We talked a little about my Birth Week, and about how aging is affecting us both, though mostly the conversation revolved around the cake Shobhit baked for my party. I shared the modifications to Valerie's recipe that Shobhit made, and Shobhit should feel validated to hear Karen say that chocolate and cardamom actually complement each other really well. And especially once I mentioned the three layers and the strawberry jam spread between each, not only did she think it sounded amazing, she said she thinks Shobhit should make it again and share. Ha! She had to sign off about 15 minutes earlier than usual because she wanted to go find the aforementioned neurologist, but begore we ended I asked her what she was working on, as she had some kind of cross stitch thing in her hands the whole time. She called it a "bag charm," and it was a cute rocking horse type thing that she intends to hang from her own bag. I assumed it was going to be a gift for someone and she was like, "It's for me!" I've still got shit to do myself, though, so I guess I better get this posted and get back to it. — छह हज़ार चौबीस — [posted 1:02pm]