— पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि एकनवतिः —
Between yesterday and tomorrow, I
had two movies at SIFF cinemas on my schedule, which would have set me back $10.50 each—I'm so far over budget at the moment, I was planning to scratch them both even before it became clear that I caught Shobhit's cold.
Shobhit had called out sick from work on Sunday
last weekend, and had come home early Saturday that weekend. He did go back to working his scheduled shifts through last week, althoug we did leave halfway through the wine class we attended at Total Wine last Thursday because he was coughing.
Through all this, I felt totally fine. The last couple of colds both he
and I had, we actually did not catch each other's crud. We seem to go back and forth. But, this one hit Shobhit pretty hard at first, and he still just coughs staight into the middle of the room at home, so it's not that surprising that I caught it.
We both could tell it wasn't covid, but with Shobhit not feeling great for several days, we finally tested him early last week. Predictably, it came back negative. But, because a coworker told him when we checked out all the wines he bought on Thursday that there had been something spread around their staff that turned out to be a bacterial infection, Shobhit really got it into his head that it was probably that and that he would need antibiotics, which he wanted to get on sooner than later before he flies out for India this coming Thursday. On Saturday morning he asked me to make an appointment for him at ZoomCare on Broadway (it took me a minute to realize what he was talking about, the same place I first made an appointment for him a year ago when it turned out he had appendicitis: "Zoom Care"? what? since when was any of this done on Zoom?—very confusing), and I managed to book him there at 9 a.m.
The nurse we saw examined him, listened to him breathe, etc. And she was basically like: "It's not a bacterial infection, you have a cold." But, she was still willing to prescibe him antibiotics, just because he's about to go to India. That seemed to make a difference: just in case.
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I felt fine, really, until Saturday evening. On Friday, I had a Movie Night with Alexia—I sure hope I didn't pass on Shobhit's cold to her that night. I went over to her place, and we watched the next title in our Harrison Ford-athon. The last one, just a week prior, had been
K-19: The Widowmaker, from 2002. Because I made a deliberate choice to skip the many poorly reviewed movies Harrison Ford has done in the 21st century, anything much below at least a 55 score on MetaCritic, this week's choice was the comedy
Morning Glory, from 2010—eight years later.
Now, granted, had we been stricter about the chronology of viewing here, we'd have next watched the 2008 film
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (MetaScore 65), six rather than eight years later. But, we had already skipped ahead to that one last year, so we'd be caufht up on that series before we went to the theater to see
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the end of June.
I have decided, however, that we'll jump ahead just one year next time, to the next in his filmography after
Morning Glory—which, by the way, had a pretty crappy script but was still adequately entertaining, and Alexia rather enjoyed it—which was
Cowboys & Aliens. I went to see that in 2011 with Dad, and with both thought it was dumb. This one has a MetaScore of 50, which isn't great. But, the whole point is just dumb fun, and since it can't disappoint me when watching it a second time, it'll probably be more fun watching it with Alexia. That is, whenever we can schedule another Movie Night, which is usually Fridays and most of my Fridays are booked up for the foreseeable future.
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— पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि एकनवतिः —
Saturday was my next double feature at the Braeburn Condos theater with Laney, and which I also invited Alexia to: this one one of two double features planed in preparation for
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes coming out in May, this one the 1968 original
Planet of the Apes, and the first of the current series of films,
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011).
Because I had told Lany recently that Alexia is proving to be a bit closer to "moderate conservative" than she is to "moderate liberal," I think that may have spooked her slightly, and she asked if Alexia is fully vaccinated and boosted. I assured her that Alexia is no anti-vaxxer and she is definitely vaccinated, although I don't recall (and am not sure if I have ever known) whether she's gotten every single booster. Laney said she would probably wear a mask and hoped that it wouldn't seem weird.
I assured her that it would not. Still, I texted Alexia a heads up that Laney would likely be wearing a mask, and that I probably would too, just because Shobhit had a (not covid!) cold. Honestly, since Laney also knew that Shobhit had been sick, I knew Laney would be more comfortable if I wore a mask as well. This also gave me reason to tell Alexia it had a lot to do with protecting herself against that, but also that she's immunocompromised (which is true) and I did still mention that she sometimes does this in any indoor gathering with people she has not yet gotten to know well (which is also true).
Alexia, to her credit, took it in stride—and even texted me back that she would also wear a mask, to make Laney comfortable. When I told Laney that she said that was very sweet of her.
So: all three of us watched both movies in the Braeburn Condos theater with masks on, except for the few minutes when all three of us munched on snacks. I had chai and Biscoff Cookies, which I bought at Walgreens when I went to pick up Shobhit's antibiotics prescription.
That, in fact, was how it came up again to talk about how Shobhit was doing with Laney: I had texted her that I need to go to Walgreens, which is on the same block as her building, so I thought I would time it so I could just walk with her back to my building again. It turned out Shobhit also had two other prescriptions ready, so I had to wait about twenty minutes for it all to be ready. Laney came into the store (both of us masked) and waited with me for just a few minutes, until Shobhit texted me because they had contacted
him that the pickup was ready.
Okay. Quick side note about the movies. This was only the second time I had ever watched the 1968
Planet of the Apes, which is very slowly paced, but which I presume contributed to how effective the shocking twist at the end was at the time. I remained stunned that a movie with so much male nudity (from behind, when they all go swimming so it's far from sexual, but still) was rated G; that would never, ever happen today. Otherwise, I was struck by
how sophisticated and ahead of its time that movie is, jam packed with social commentary.
The 2011 film has very little social commentary to speak of, and akwardly jams several dialogue references to the 1968 film into its script. Nevertheless, the final act in particular was
one hell of a thrill—so much so, in fact, that it seems I enjoyed it a bit more on second viewing than I did when it first came out 13 years ago.
There's no time for another Braeburn Condos theater double feature until May 11, but which all three of us also have marked on our calendars:
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and
War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). Then Laney and I (and maybe Alexia, that part's iffy) will see
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes in theaters the following Tuesday, May 14.
— पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि एकनवतिः —
I walked Laney home after the movies Saturday, and she because we were still chatty, we agreed to stop at a coffee shop, settling on Caffe Vita on Pike, to sit outside and continue visiting for a bit.
I noticed I started to get congested near the end of our time at Caffe Vita.
I woke up
very congested yesterday morning. Shobhit was all about getting me to do all sorts of shit: put Vick's vapo rub on and below my nose and on my chest; take Sudafed; take Tylenol Cold; he made me tea with whiskey and Throat Coat.
I've never been so glad I wore a mask just in case, as we all did on Saturday. Unless Alexia caught it on Friday (here's hoping not), this almost certainly protected both of them from me on Saturday in that theater.
And indeed, I really did not feel well yesterday. I not only scrapped the movie I was going to scrap anyway, but I didn't leave home all day. I never got dressed, never even took a shower, didn't shave, or anything. I even got back into bed midmorning and mid-afternoon and got some extra sleep. I
really took it easy yesterday, and I hope I'm not jumping the gun here, but it seems to have made a gigantic difference: I feel a whole lot better today. Not super great, but well enough; I was really afraid I might feel worse. The difference even taking one day off (like, from everything—not just work) really cannot be overestimated.
I'm not even coughing today. I suppose I should knock on wood. I did take a covid test yesterday, just for peace of mind—and honestly, more for Laney's peace of mind than anything; I was able to tell her both that masking on Saturday was the right move, and that it's basically been double confirmed (first with Shobhit and now with me) that I do not have covid.
Laney recent recovered from covid, so even if I did, it would be extremely unlikely for her to get infected again. But, you still can't be too careful.
My hope is that I will be right as rain by the time I pick up Barbara at the airport on Wednesday. So far so good.
— पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि एकनवतिः —
[posted 12:34 pm]
