big jump

— पांच हजार नौ सौ तैंतीस — I don't know why I do this to myself, but I do it every year—evidently more so this year than ever before, however: I am near completion of my "2025 in Ten Minutes" video. I was up working on it until 12:30 last night. Mind you, I worked on it almost non-stop from the time I got home from work at 5:00. I took a break from it once to prepare my dinner, and once to make myself hot chocolate. I melted a small candy cane into it. It was a rainbow colored candy cane so I'm not certain if it would have been quite as pepperminty as it would have been with a conventional candy cane, but it was pretty tasty. Shobhit FaceTimed me for a few minutes from India. I got kind of unfairly testy with him, as I was trying so hard to get as much as I could done on the video. I need to learn how to repeat myself due to his hearing difficulty without yelling. "Do you have to yell?" he asked, smartly without being testy himself (pretty impressive for him, to be honest). No, no I do not. He let me go shortly after that so I could focus. I discovered some new features in iMovie this year, which proved super helpful in cramming the massive amount of clips and photos I selected for the 2025 video. I can do picture-within-a-picture; I can overlap two images (either photo or video in either case) with one lessened to any level of opacity I want; I can do split screen (either vertical or horizontal). This year's video is going to feature a lot of all of these things. Has iMovie always had these features and I am only now discovering them? I just googled it: apparently it's had the split screen feature since 2010. Fifteen years! Jesus Christ. I should dig more into what features I've been missing all this time. I do know it still has annoying limitations when it comes to titles. Anyway, being able to double up in this way, effectively finding ways to show two clips concurrently, is kind of a mixed bag. It contributes to short attention span and over-stimulation in a way I'm not crazy about. But, it also saves a ton of time, especially when it's a challenge to edit down for time—because Flickr has a 10-minute limit, I always keep my annual videos at that length. I don't want to ask more of people's time than that anyway. In fact, when I had my first rough project with all the photos and video clips added before editing anything down, the video was at a solid 30 minutes. I needed to get it down to a third of that, and I was really afraid it would be difficult. But with all these tools and tricks I never used before, by the time I was done with the first round of edits, the length was all the way back down to 8 minutes and 30 seconds! I was like: well shit, I can expand some of this now! I never had that experience before. Anyway, the project still needs at least one last music track added, and then some final tweaks on certain photo-inset sizes, that kind of thing. I'm seeing a movie right after work today with Alexia, which is really going to cut into my available time tonight, but with all I managed to get done yesterday, with what amounted to at least six solid hours of work, what I have left shouldn't take nearly as much time. I think I should still be able to share the video tomorrow morning, on schedule. I do need to learn to take the same approach with this video as I do my Book Log, though, and contribute to the project throughout the year as opposed to doing it all at once over just a few days at the end of the year, against a tight deadline. This will allow me to make something much better and more satisfying anyway. — पांच हजार नौ सौ तैंतीस — — पांच हजार नौ सौ तैंतीस — In other news, I am kind of deliberately buring the lede here. Gabby scheduled a kind of impromptu 1:1 meeting this morning, even though we had already canceled what had originally been scheduled for Friday because she's going to be in Costa Rica for a couple of weeks. She gave me a heads up a month or so ago that she was working on getting me a promotion—critically, in name only (but also with an accompanying raise), reflecting the work I am already doing. She wanted to make sure I didn't feel like she wasn't listening to her, because I have said from the start that I don't want a promotion. But, if you offer one that does not require new major responsibilities, and comes with a raise to boot? I'm not going to complain about that. She told me she wouldn't know for sure if it was official until the end of the year. There has been a fair amount of talk recently about tightening of budget, so I did ask her in a meeting a couple of months ago if I should maybe not get my hopes up about this. I hadn't brought it up since she first told me, but this seemed worth asking. She told me she was afraid I might wonder about that after all the budget-talk, and she said: "I still can't say anything, but you should not lower your hopes." When she scheduled our meeting this morning, she suggested we take the meeting at Fonté Bar out on the second level, upstairs here in the Rainier Square lobby. She said she was craving a peppermint hot chocolate. Some mildly amusing serendipity there. I knew then that I must be getting the news now. I won't lie, it did cross my mind, very briefly, that it could be a "condolence hot chocolate," but I know that was not at all likely. They apparently cannot officially announce promotions until after the new year, and since Gabby is on her trip from the 2nd until the 12th, she told me I can't go around telling everyone about this now—though she did say it would not be big deal if there were a few individuals I shared it with. But, for this reason, I won't yet get into the specifics of how much the raise is, except to say this: it will be the largest raise I have gotten in 16 years. I really thought it was going to be the largest raise I've ever had, but I just checked the spreadsheet I have that details my wage increases by year. And actually, this is only the third-largest raise I've gotten. I'm not going to be disappointed by that, though. Those two raises that were higher (I once got a 16.55% raise, in 2008) date from well before Cate the CEO changed everything about how PCC works, and gave all the proceedings a much more corpratized kind of bureaucracy to it. I knew that I would never, ever get a raise like that in this new reality without a promotion—and this is the first promotion I have ever gotten, at any job. I've had three job title changes already over my 23 years here, but none of those coincided with raises and none were actually promotions. All of this is to say: ever since PCC sort of hardened and clarified its policies on personnel matters, within that context, this is by a gigantic margin the largest raise I've gotten—I have only gotten cost-of-living, or slightly higher than cost-of-living, increases every years since 2013. I got a quite-significant raise in 2012, and this will be a bit larger than that, percentage-wise (0.7% larger, to be specific). Since then, the largest wage increase I have gotten was in 2023, and next year's raise will be 8.29% higher than that. Anyway. I suppose I can share my new title. Right now it's "Center Store Support Specialist," what I've been officially since 2016, and by a pretty wide margin my least favorite of the four titles I've had here. As of next year, it will be "Pricing Analyst." This is very similar to the title Amy has had for a couple of years now, which is "Pricing & Promotions Analyst." I don't have a clue how much she makes but I can probably assume I already made more just by virtue of my longevity here, which has always been a major factor in how much I make relative to the actual work I do. Although I suppose I should probably not sell myself short in terms of the value of my institutional knowledge, which I am tasked with sharing quite regularly anymore. I did surprise myself to have discovered this will be my third-highest raise and not the highest one ever, but after years of smaller increases, it will result in by far the most extra actual dollars in my paycheck. The new wage kicks in as of the 2nd, which means my second paycheck in January will cover one week with the old wage and one week with the new; I won't be able to fully finalize my 2026 budget until getting my 1/30 paycheck and then also my 2/13 paycheck, as the checks are also different between two each month due to only one of them getting a monthly deduction for my Orca Card. But I'm not complaining! I'm thrilled. I thanked Gabby multiple times, and she said a lot about how valuable I am here. This is my favorite thing about this job, how valued I have felt for decades. That kind of thing means a lot. — पांच हजार नौ सौ तैंतीस — [posted 12:35pm]

2025 at PCC

Thursday, January 9 And so it began, the most momentous year for the PCC Central Office in nearly a decade: in preparation for the move later in the summer, we started getting the lengths of our sit-stand sections of our desks cut, by one foot. Each of these desks got the mobile two-drawer unit brought along, but the side-desk with drawers were denied the chance to continue on the same journey. It was desk families, torn apart all over the place! This was actually an early staging area, to show us all what all our desks would eventually look like, as the cutting was done weekly, by department, over several weeks later in the year.
Monday, March 31 It's the Madison Valley PCC! Or, what will eventually be the Madison Valley PCC, anyway . . . let's say: "sometime in 2026." I'd say I'll believe it when I see it, but at least construction is actually happening, so there's that! (When I was very first told there would be a store in this location, the announcement had come in 2015. The very first projected opening date was 2017. We have Madison Park NIMBYs to thank for the protracted delays.) Shobhit and I had just gone for a walk that evening last March, headed up Madison just as a walking route we hadn't already done. I didn't even realize this much had been done on the building when we got to it, past 29th Avenue E.
Thursday, April 24 At the April in-person POS meeting, in the PCC Bothell classroom: Gabby assists <>a href="https://wildlybelovedfoods.com/">Wildly Beloved Foods founder Aurora Echo, as she prepares delicious fresh pasta for us all to eat.
Tuesday, May 6 It was like our office building on Elliott Avenue had caught wind of our plans to move and was encouraging us to get a move on: as if it weren't enough to have constantly malfunctioning elevators (our then-CFO was once stuck it one for a solid hour) and fifth-floor flooding one year and water turn-off the next, it almost felt like the inevitable next step that the key card-lock doors from the elevator bank to the front desk would stop working and thus be tied shut with a rope chain for a solid two weeks before getting repaired.
Wednesday, May 7 Office Relocation Downtown Site Visit time! First of 2025, but my second of three overall before the actual move, in my capacity as a member of the Office Relocation Committee, representing the Merchandising Department. In this shot, people are standing in front of what would later become the new entrance to the PCC Corner Market downtown store; and to their left would become the front entrance to the new PCC office.
Thursday, May 8 Don't Cry For Me South Lake Union: Cathryn surveys they lay of the miniature golf land at Flatstick Pub, during our spring social outing with Merchandising.
Wednesday, May 14 (L-R) Brandy; Cathryn; Amy; Gabby; Matthew; Marie from IT. The rest of us are the "P3" ("Pricing, Promotions, and Project Management") team, going on our own quarterly social outing—and our first since Brandy and Cathryn joined the team. I had asked to invite Marie along for one, in appreciation for all her hard work on all the technical problems that had plagued our system since a key upgrade earlier in the year.
Thursday, July 10 PCC Office preview! Mostly done by mid-July, ahead of moving all the furniture from the Elliott Avenue location in late August.
Tuesday, July 15 But, before that could happen: PCC Corner Market opens, on July 15. I didn't get down there in the morning on opening day, like I had when the original PCC Downtown store opened in January 2022, before closing exactly two years later in 2024, making way for this new split use of the original space (1/3 of it the new store, 2/3 of it the new office) in 2025. This shot, taken from the concourse level in Rainier Square and looking toward the back entrance to the store during the lunch rush aroud 1 p.m., was taken by Gabby's husband, Nick.
Tuesday, August 5 It's Matthew's 23rd PCC anniversary! Celebrating with the P3 Team, at Mbar. Because, after we went to the Smith Tower Observatory Bar to celebrate the year before, I decided every year for my anniversary we have to go to a rooftop bar. Hmm, maybe 2026 should be at Fogo de Chao's Next Level Lounge, which just opened right on the same block as our office at Rainier Square! 2027 will mark my 25th, so I'll have to start brainstorming something super special for that one, as an exercise to not think about my inexorable march toward death! Speaking of dearth: Mbar, unfortunately, closed permanently just this past November.
Friday, August 15 Two years after my first time at Co+nvergence, the conference staged bt NCG (National Cooperative Grocers) in Saint Paul, Minnesota, which I went to in 2023 with Noah and Steven (and about 19 other PCC store staff), this year I went back, and this time with Frank and Amanda. It was super fun—especially the social events they put on, the last of which included caricature services. That drawing now hangs on the pillar next to my desk at work.
Wednesday, August 20 Here we are at the Farewell 3131 Office Potluck, held just two days before our last day at that location. It might as well have been called the Farewell Janky Bullshit Building Potluck, as there was much about that place none of us will miss—but boy, those gorgeous views are among the few things we absolutely will miss.
Tuesday, September 2 First day at the new office! Gabby took this shot of Benny, Noah and me pretty early in the morning on that day, as we all came and sat at what are now "hotel desks"—although I, as the only one who works in-office every day except when taking PTO, have pretty well settled into this spot; I even brought in my plant that had been handed down to me by Lynne when she retired. (Noah and Frank generally work in-office three times a week, and also consistently sit at the same desks. Benny, who works in-office probably more than anyone except me, has settled into the desk at the end of the row to my right; I'm not sure I've ever seen him sit again at the desk he's at here.) This was on a Tuesday because it was the day after Labor Day; and no one at all worked in-office the week prior—the last week of August—because both old and new offices were needed that week for the movers making the transition with all the desks and furniture being moved. I hate working from home, though, so I decided: screw this, I'm taking that week as a stay-cation! More than one other person took my cue and did the same. I live to be an inspiration.
Friday, October 31 Halloween at PCC, and particularly at the office, was a pretty quiet affair this year, and alas, this seems likely to be the case for the foreseeable future: with most people working from home more days than not, and Mondays and Fridays in particular being the most empty, Halloween landed on Friday so there were very few people in-office at all, let alone in costume. But! There were a few select people in costume (including me!), and that's how I got this one truly spectacular shot, of Lauren as a butterfly, flying up against the floral mural over by the Executive desks. Over my 23 years at PCC, historically the Halloween tradition has been to have hot apple cider and popcorn, and a costume contest. The annual consistency of this changed post-pandemic, when hybrid work became the norm; the aforementioned weekly patterns actually started at the old office—Halloween on a Thursday or Friday, or when it landed on a weekend, has resulted in nothing of note happening at the office; we only had the traditional festivities in this period in 2022 and 2023, when Halloween landed on a Tuesday and a Wednesday, respectively. Halloween lands on a weekend the next two years, then on a Tuesday in 2028. Arguably we could revive something again that year, but by then, it will have been a solid five years since the office fully engaged with this holiday. That really bums me out, but I guess we all have to make sacrifices. Now if you'll excuse me I just need to take a moment to 😭😭😭😭
Tuesday, November 11 For the first time in years, we got wearable swag! The last time we got PCC T-shirts, it was closer to our 2017 rebrand, and to be honest I never wear them because the PCC NATURAL MARKETS lettering is so prominent that I feel like I look like I'm headed for a shift at vendor booth somewhere. These new shirts are much more subtle (they do have the company name on them, but in very small lettering), and have a really great design to boot. I've actually worn this one, both at and outside of work.
Wednesday, December 3 As of 2024, Dorie (center) had 25 years working at PCC. As of 2025, she is retired, and she had a retirement party, in the break room at her store, PCC Greenlake. Dorie is one of the very few staff at any of the stores that I have a minor but long history with (I even have a photo of her from 2007, in what was then the backyard of duplexes she and Shauna lived in next to each other), so I went out of my way to go to this party. She was surprised and delighted to see me: "Matthew! I can't believe we got you out of the office!" So there you have it, that's how you do it: you just need to retire. I'm here in this photo with Dorie and her daughter, and also the PCC HR Director, Sara, who started at PCC 25 years ago herself, working at the very same store as her mother, and unsurprisingly commonly mistaken for her.
Wednesday, December 10 Yes! At least the PCC Foraged Feast still lives! Traditionally this one has been held as an office Thanksgiving feast and potluck in mid-November, which is when I am constantly advocating for us to return to—but, over the past several years, between store openings and other scheduling conflicts it has proven difficult to stay consistent on that. This year was the latest it had ever been held, effectively supplanting any chance of a separate office holiday event, which used to happen annually as well; now the two things have basically merged. Honestly and truly, though: I am just grateful it's still happening at all. The limited space at our office posed a new challenge, with food staging back in the kitchen but tables set up along the wide path cutting through the desks area (we have no large dining space like at the old office). There was some concern about how well this would work, but it actually worked incredibly well.
Wednesday, December 10 A newer tradition that means a great deal to me: a holiday outing with the P3 Team—scheduled this year on 12/10 with the idea that we would all theoretically already be at the office for the Foraged Feast, as there is no single day each week in which all five of us work in-office. In the end, only three of us made it, but we still had a great time at the Christmas Dive Bar on Capitol Hill. This was especially convenient for me as it was all of a four-block walk home when we were done.
Wednesday, December 17 Three Wednesdays in a row with major work-related social events in a row: and on the third week, we had our Merchandising Department holiday party, organized pretty much entirely by Gabby: this was my favorite shot I took at the event, the exterior of Métier Brewing Co Cherry Street, the party going on full swing inside. Side note: co-founder Rodney Hines also happens to be on the PCC Board of Trustees. A fun little game you can do is look at the full-size image and see how many of the people you can identify inside!
Friday, December 26 And finally! Another ghosttown day at the office: I was literally the only person in-office the day after Christmas, the entire day. I did see one other person briefly that day, but it was our courier. Anyway, can you find me in this shot? And now I'll leave you to think about how I managed to take it!