— छह हज़ार छियासठ —
The only major socializing I did over the weekend was Saturday, making this past weekend a comparatively low-key weekend in the context of my summer so far. My days are going to be so packed for the 18 following this coming Saturday, I was kind of good with that.
What I did Saturday this past weekend was see
The Odyssey with Tracy, at the AMC Southcenter in Tukwila. This was at Southcenter Mall, and I recognized it as having been a place she and I had met for a movie before, and I could not place it at first. Eventually Tracy nailed it: we
saw Sentimental Value there last November, and hung out at the mall for a bit, including having dinner at Shake Shack in the food court.
I did want to get dinner again after the movie, but didn't feel like doing the food court again, so we went to the Mexican restaurant called Moctezuma's instead. I won't be doing this again. Shake Shack would have been far more delicious and far cheaper, and even less food. I was also hungry as hell after that incredibly long movie and having basically had chai for lunch at home, after an otherwise filling breakfast of hash browns and eggs in the morning with Shobhit. Anyway, I ordered enchiladas verdes, taking the option of adding Impossible veggie meat, but not realizing that added a whopping $5 to my bill. Christ! And I didn't even get a drink, which I had been thinking about doing until I looked at the stunning prices on their menu. I might have been okay with the $20 margaritas and $22 entrees if the food was actually delicious, but, while not exactly
bad, it was otherwise kind of bland, and did not in any way justify the prices. (I know that these days those prices are pretty standard, but Shake Shack is still a far better value. I'll opt to go back there again next time.)
They're generous with their portions, I'll give them that. We has complimentary chips and salsa, and the chips were high quality; and my plate included rice and black beans. I was so hungry that I ate every last bite, mixing the beans and rice after I was done with the enchiladas, and adding the last bits of broken chips from the tortilla chips bowl. I was actually a bit stuffed when I was done.
As for the movie, Tracy seemed to like it fine, but I kind of loved it. I was unsure for the first two hours or so, thinking it was basically fine, but everything clicked together in the end in ways that were deeply satisfying. I'm now eager to see it again, which works out fine because there's nothing else for me to see this week anyway. I might have gone to see
Jurassic Park with Alexia at Central Cinema, but she's in Boise until tomorrow, which would be the last chance to see it there. Now it looks like Shobhit may go see
The Odyssey with me tomorrow instead. Now that Tracy's ticket from Saturday has been redeemed (which I paid for and then she Venmoed me back, giving me AMC Stubbs A-List points), I have two different $5 rewards to use; since Tuesdays and Wednesdays are half off at AMC, I can cover Shobhit's ticket completely, which is basically what has convinced him to consider seeing it with me, even though he will likely get an eventual Actor Awards screener. But I'll be perfectly happy to watch it a third time at that point, but I want to see it at least a second time in the theater.
And this time I think I'll take ear plugs. Seriously. I thought maybe it was just an issue with my screening on Saturday, or with IMAX formatted screenings. I've heard that the loudness is an issue with others as well. I literally had to plug my ears several times, and I don't want to blow out my fucking ear drums. Shobhit and I have trouble hearing each other often enough as it is.
Anyway, I had taken light rail and had Tracy pick me up at Tukwila International Boulevard Station last November, but I discovered this time that there are frequent express buses from downtown straight to Southcenter, like a surprisingly frequent amount. So I walked down to 9th and Stewart, just like I always do to take the Sound Transit #594 to Tacoma, but this time I got the King County Transit #150. It worked out great. Plus I got a good chunk of my library copy of
Stand on Zanzibar read, and I'm now on track to have it finished this week before we head off to Amsterdam. I'm going to download an ebook, the super thick 2023 biography of Madonna, to read while traveling, so I won't be lugging around a thick book and adding to our weight unnecessarily.
— छह हज़ार छियासठ —
— छह हज़ार छियासठ —
So, what about the rest of the weekend? I did nothing of note, that I can remember, on Friday after work; I rode my bike home, made chai. Shobhit and I watched last week's episode of
Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Happiness and then a few episodes of
Curb Your Enthusiasm, which miraculously seems to have gotten better as it went along—at least up to season 7 in 2009, anyway.
Yesterday was a bit different, as we actually watched the World Cup Final. Or more accurately, Shobhit watched the World Cup Final while I hung out with him in the living room, mostly looking at my laptop. I did pay attention during the half-time performances though, the first time a World Cup match has done this, apparently. It began with Madonna, who only sang a version of "Music." I really liked it, except that her performance was the only one to occur almost entirely indoors, until she and her dancers went out a tunnel out onto the field. The other performers all performed on the field, including the Kpop group BTS (Shobhit's niece Shivy is desperately trying to get tickets to one of their concerts); a surprisingly old-looking—I mean, he's 32 now—Justin Bieber; Shakira, who had easily the best performance of the group; and a chorus of children who sang about believing in love with rainbow streamers exploding all around the stadium, a welcome thing to no-doubt irritate President Fuckwit who was actually there, unfortunately. I refused to watch any time that heinous man was onscreen, so I have nothing further to comment on that.
The match was mostly played with no goals made. Near the end of the second half, Shobhit insisted we could get over to Trader Joe's two blocks away to get some onions and lime for the dinner he was making, and back within the space of a five-minute commercial break, which I knew was never going to happen. It took us eight minutes. And guess what? That was when the one goal either team ever managed actually happened. And it was Spain, the team Shobhit was rooting for, for no reason other than President fuckwit
hates them right now. Spain is just standing up to his bullshit, and good for them; Argentina, on the other hand, currently has a President Fuckwit-like president so of course President Fuckwit likes them.
Shobhit's takeaway was merely superstitious: that it took him leaving for the team he was rooting for to make a goal. My takeaway was that he could have actually witnessed it in realy time if he'd listened to my insistence that we did not have time to get to Trader Joe's and back in merely five minutes.
I had asked Danielle if she would be interested and coming over to watch with us. She said it sounded fun, but of course also said she has trouble committing, a longstanding thing with her these days. I was just trying to find a way to get together with her before we left for Amsterdam and this was the only idea I had. But, kind of unsurprisingly, we never connected again about it, and she never did come over. She's off for a birthday cruise soon after we return, so it'll be many weeks, if not months, before I see her again. Oh well. Danielle is much closer to Gabriel these days when it comes to planning any socializing: neither of them will commit to long-term planning (unless, of course, it;s something like taking an actual trip;
then they're perfectly able), while my calendar fills up quickly. What are you going to do?
— छह हज़ार छियासठ —
. . . And that about does it for my weekend, I think. To use a sports metaphor I'm not even really qualified to use, we're now in the home stretch! Five days until we fly out for Amsterdam. I'm more and more excited with each passing day, and actually think I've done a pretty solid job of preparing and planning. I should print out a bunch of itineraries and tickets though just as backups, just like I had for our last trip to Australia.
Oh, something about Australia did just hit me this morning. Were it not for the Amsterdam trip, we might very well have been going back to Australia at the end of December this year. And that was postponed to the end of 2027 for a while, and is now bumped yet againto the end of 2028—which will put it at nearly six years since our last visit there. World Pride Sydney was the perfect thing to lock it in back in 2023, but I have no such event to lock it in now, but I really don't want to delay it any further as Uncle David and Mary Ann get further into their eighties.
But! Even though it's not Australia, this Amsterdam trip does make it every three years now since 2020 that we have taken a major international trip: Australia in 2020; Australia again in 2023; Amsterdam in 2026. The difference going forward is that we won't even be waiting three years for the
next major international trips, which in 2027
might be Hong Kong and Singapore, especially if Shobhit's sister still lives in Singapore; and then World Pride Cape Town happens in early 2028. That is precisely why Australia was bumped to the end of 2028, because Cape Town in February 2028 would have been way too soon after returning from Australia only a month before that (we intend to take the next trip to Australia so we can experience the New Year's fireworks at Sydney Harbour, so we are kind of locked into the time of year, whichever year we do it). So we're likely to head to Australia in December 2028 and return in January 2029. And then World Pride, maybe in Barcelona (this is not finalized yet), in 2030.
I'm genuinely becoming a "world traveler" in a way I'm not sure I ever would have expected when I was younger. But. I'm loving it. Based on these plans, I'll visit Europe for the first time this year; Asia for the first time maybe in 2027; and Africa for the first time in 2028. I need to come up with somewhere in South America to visit one of these days, so I'll have visited all of the habitable continents. (I know you can visit Antarctica, but I have no need or particular to go there.)
— छह हज़ार छियासठ —
[posted 12:33pm]
