— पांच हजार आठ सौ छब्बीस —
There is so much more I
could tell you about the trip to Washington, D.C., but I no longer have a lot of time, and I'm tired! Plus my schedule is basically packed through the rest of the month—it's still Pride month! And I'll be aiming to include lots of World Pride photos in these Daily Lunch Update (DLU) posts just to burn through the backlog.
Shobhit and I went out for a bit yesterday afternoon, to do grocery shopping. He's big on produce because of how much he cooks, and when we go on a trip this long, we do our best to consume anything perishable before we leave, and then we need to go grocery shopping when we get back. We went to Costco yesterday, and MacPherson's Produce on Beacon Hill, and Hau Hau Market in the International District. Shobhit walked up to Trader Joe's for garlic and bananas on his own after we got back.
I spent a good amount of time yesterday writing up the "PART TWO" travelogue email that I sent out shortly after 4:00, after which I spent about an hour formatting it for posting here on this blog: PART ONE, about all the regular Washington, D.C. sight seeing, was shared and posted
Tuesday evening. Then I shared and posted PART TWO, focusing on the weekend events for World Pride,
late yesterday afternoon.
I do this because it's the most efficient way of communicating about my trips, especially major ones, both via email and on my blog, without having to write out everything manually twice. I might have started the draft of the first travelogue during the trip, but literally any spare time I
ever had at the hotel during the trip was spent focused on editing and uploading the photos as I went along—I have slightly over a thousand of them for this trip.
Thus, I used the entirety of the five-hour flight home from D.C. on Tuesday writing up the PART ONE travelogue. Shobhit thought it was ridiculous that I brought my library book, knowing this would happen. I really thought I might only need a few hours on the flight and then have some time to read. Instead, I spent the entire flight, and even the hour or so taking Light Rail from the airport to downtown Seattle, working on it. Thank god we don't have to pay for wifi on Delta flights anymore. I probably would have paid for if it I'd had to—it was time I needed. (I used my phone as a personal hotspot in order to use my laptop on the Light Rail train, a very handy tool.) It made the flight pass quickly, at least; Shobhit watched two movies while I worked away,
Snowpiercer and then one of the
Twilight movies, I don't have any idea which one.
I might have gotten to work a bit earlier yesterday on PART TWO, except that I got a Facebook message from Renee, the current publisher at the
Seattle Gay News, on Thursday last week:
Feel free to share your World Pride travel photos and we'd welcome a short write-up as well. 🤣
I replied:
I can’t make any promises right now but if I can find the time, I will!
It would have been easier had I been able to get to it sooner, but I did write up a piece yesterday morning. I meant for it to be brief but it went to over 1,300 words. Oh well. I selected some photos to share. I learned later, after sending it all to her, that they go to press for the 6/13 issue today, so it was a bit late to include in this issue. That's fine, and I'm okay with it going into the 6/27 issue since that's our own Pride Weekend anyway. The vibe I got from her responses was that it would likely happen; I wasn't really sure whether it would get accepted. (Shobhit assumed it would, as soon as I brought it up.)
If and when this happens, it will be the first thing I've had published in the
Seattle Gay News in 25 years. I once attempted to organize a strike there, aimed at the late George Bakan, who was by many accounts a very good activist but he was terrible at running a business, which is what the paper was rather than just an activist tool. Renee did some writing for the paper at the time too, and maintained a relationship with George clear through his death in 2020 (at age 78; he'd have to have been 58, then, when I left the paper, with Mike B, to start the ill-fated
Seattle Gay Standard). Renee thought of him as a mentor, which is fine; I don't begrudge anyone else's good relationship with him. I did once write a poem inspired by him, though, that was called "When You Finally Drop Dead." I thought a lot about that when he passed in 2020. The lyrics can be easily applied to anyone you detest, though; I more readily apply them now to President Fuckwit.
Anyway, I did that in the morning. Too my shower and got ready afterward. I had barely started the PART TWO travelogue when Shobhit and I went out shopping.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ छब्बीस —
— पांच हजार आठ सौ छब्बीस —
Otherwise, it was back to business as usual last night: we had Action Movie Night, and the movie almost didn't get watched, for the first time in the group's 13-year history, because once again, the projector lamp wouldn't work. I've had issue after issue in this theater, and many times had to shift watching a movie up to the condo, but somehow at Action Movie Night it's always worked out.
Shobhit asked me if we should invite everyone up to watch in our condo. At first I was like, "I don't want to do that." And then, when it was clear how disappointed the group was if we couldn't see the movie, I decided to suggest it after all. But, then I remembered that a) we no longer have the large screen Alexia gave us in use because it died; and b) even on the smaller screen, the DVD player doesn't play correctly and in order to create a non-stretched image I have to make the image even smaller.
But, since I had broached the idea, Tony went upstairs to ask his wife if they could move the party up to their place. (Tony just happens to be our neighbor to the west on our floor). I figured their TV had a bigger screen and I was right. Tony's wife, Sarah, agreed to let the group upstairs—allowing drinks, but not food. This way, at least, we could keep the unbroken streak of screenings never getting canceled. (They did virtual watches during covid.)
It was Tom's choice this week, and we saw
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, which I really thought I had never seen. It turns out
I had! I saw it in the theater with Clarica in July of 2004. I apparently proceeded to block it from my memory. I looked it up on my old LiveJournal and it seems I thought it was a stupid movie even then.
Shobhit laughed a lot. I laughed a few times, I'll admit. Most of the time I thought it was just dumb.
We had a slightly lower turnout than usual too, which made it a bit easier to transfer to a condo. There was Tony, Jake, Ryan, Derek, Tom, Daniel, Shobhit, and myself. Up in their condo, Sarah actually watched the movie so I guess I'll say there were nine.
Shobhit and I made pasta. We both had multiple helpings, and by the time we were back home after the movie, between the two of us we finished it off.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ छब्बीस —
And speaking of back to business as usual: tonight
and tomorrow night I see movies with Laney—it'll be our first time hanging out since Monday, May 26—seventeen days ago!—thanks to the trip to Washington, D.C. and the weekend trip to Fox Island with Gabriel the weekend before that. What's more, it's been
eighteen days since the last time I went to a movie! Sheesh! Well, I have movies scheduled four days over the next week and three the week after, not even counting a double feature scheduled June 22 (will the projector even be working?) and the next Action Movie Night on June 25 (same question!). It's also Pride Month, as I said. I've got a lot of shit going on, but that's hardly new.
I will probably also join the
massive protests planned for Saturday. It'll be the first I've attended since openly recommitting to protesting
in February. I just have so much other stuff on my calendar! But I can probably make this one work.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ छब्बीस —
[posted 12:12pm]
