Wednesday, December 31, 2025
10:30 a.m., Pacific Time: this was when India rang in the New Year (even though India's geographical width is 2/3 that of the contiguous United States, they still only observe
one time zone as a country). I was at work, and I went into a phone room at about 10:20 to call Shobhit on FaceTime and ring in the New Year with him. I had to call a couple of times before he answered, but we made it: I could even hear the countdown on the program he and his mom had on their TV. (Which, apparently, was giving no indication that it was live: Shobhit said it was a special indoors featuring a bunch of famous Bollywood actors, and was likely recorded ahead of time, which I found very odd.) Anyway, this was the extent to which Shobhit and I were able to celebrate the New Year together, although he did text me "Happy New Year" later when midnight was closer in my time zone. He's not back from India until January 16.
The
Holiday Inn Seattle Downtown, where my sister and her wife stayed last night: I did not stay there, but I visited more than enough the past couple of days. I can't say it has much to recommend it. Except, perhaps, that it was probably cheaper than other hotels in the area.
Gina had hoped that they might have a view of the Space Needle out the window, which would theoretically allow us to see the fireworks and drone show from their room (we'll get to
that in a minute), but, no such luck. This hotel is east of the Space Needle and it faces east: another hotel slightly taller stands right behind it, blocking any possible view.
When Shobhit and I drove home from Olympia on Christmas afternoon, we packed up the small baked potatoes he made without realizing we were stealing Dad and Sherri's serving spoon. I gave the spoon back to Gina and Beth yesterday so they could return it to them for us.
But not before I put it on their hotel bed, so they could, you know . . . spoon.
Dinner with my sisters, at the restaurant at the Holiday Inn, called
Toast to Toast. I had found a restaurant that probably would have been way better, but after they arrived at about 5:00 and we had a show at McCaw Hall at Seattle Center at 7:00, we realized our time was too tight, so we ate here instead. We happened to be there for Happy Hour, where they had great prices that made their food that was merely fine worth it: $5 starters and $7 cocktails. This was much better than their breakfast, as we returned right here again this morning (because Gina and Beth got complimentary breakfasts with their hotel stay), and
that was the blandest breakfast food any of us had ever eaten, combined with some glacial service (Angel and I got our plates as Gina and Beth finished theirs). I suppose it's worth noting that Toast to Toast has an average
2.7 out of 5 star rating on Yelp.
So who did we all see at McCaw Hall at 7:00, then? Southern-lesbian comedian
Fortune Feimster! Gina all asked us later how we'd rate the show. Angel, who has seen very few comedy shows in major theaters, seemed to like it best. Beth and I rated it about 7.5 out of 10, and Gina gave it a 7. A lot of it was very funny—a bit ironically, especially a bit where she did some crowd work—but I've seen shows with far better arcs and polish to their writing, which, when combined with being really funny, always works better.
Anyway this photo was Beth's idea, out in the lobby of McCaw Hall. That's a huge art piece hanging from the ceiling, made of a bunch of construction equipment (measuring tape, a ladder, etc), which seemed pretty serendipitous with a lesbian-comedian show.
The piece is called
An Equal and Opposite Reaction, by artist New York artist Sarah Sze (in 2005).
So. Seattle had crazy fog last night. It really affected the typical view of the Space Needle fireworks, and especially the drone show, which was what I had hyped the most with my sisters, and we didn't see that at all—we thought maybe they hadn't even launched the drones at all due to fog. I found one source online this morning that said the drones had launched, making me think we couldn't see them; I just found
this King 5 news story that noted "A drone show that was previously scheduled was canceled due to poor visibility brought on by fog." Okay, that makes much more sense.
On the upside, the dense fog did result in some very cool photos of the Space Needle, especially up close. Here it looks even more like a UFO than usual.
I loved this view, from right under the Space Needle, the moon visible through its rings.
Headed back toward the Armory, when we decided just to go back deeper into Seattle Center, realizing this area where I took the previous couple of photos was going to be closed to crowd traffic. It was just before 10:00 p.m. at this point, and we thought at first we would head back to the hotel—half a mile away—to kill time before coming back. But, because of Angel's foot surgeries, she can't walk very fast, and if we wanted to be back by the ideal time of 11 p.m., we'd need to turn right back around from the hotel as soon as we got there. So, we turned back from right here instead, and as this was also the time they were blocking the area from crowds, multiple event staff told us we needed to go one direction or another. Angel was doing the best she could! But also, Beth had bought some fudge previously in the Armory, and a couple of times she stopped to take bites. "I'm just stopping to have some fudge!" she'd say.
We killed some time in the grassy area right in front of Fisher Pavilion, where crowds had not concentrated as they were too close to trees that obscured the view of the Space Needle. Not that it really mattered, in the end: it was kind of nuts how thick the fog was right there in front of us.
As I noted previously, I usually stake a spot near the International Fountain, as it provides the best angle on both the Space Needle and its fireworks, and the drone show that flies right near it. But the Space Needle was all but invisible from over there, and so I suggested we get closer. We got to this spot and stayed there until the show. I measured on Google Maps and this was all of 500 feet from the base of the Space Needle—the closest I have ever stood to it for the fireworks, and still it was one of the least-visible I had ever experienced.
With tens of thousands crammed into the relatively small space of Seattle Center's 74 acres, I suppose it was inevitable to see some people doing some truly stupid shit.
Thursday, January 1
And so
the show begins! With no drones, and fireworks and lights only intermittently visible, the structure of the Space Needle itself all but completely obscured.
This shot was actually taken by Gabriel, who happened to be at another end of Seattle Center with Lea (I'm actually having a hard time figuring out from this photo exactly where they were). And this is arguably a better shot than any of the ones I got, so I'm a bit jealous.
I really wanted a group selfie with the fireworks happening behind us. I'd have much preferred that the Space Needle structure have been actually visible, but this is still a pretty cool, fun shot. (Left to right: my sister Gina; me; my sister Angel; and Gina's wife, Beth.)
I mean. Why not get a little bit meta about it all?
Where we had stood, only 500 feet from the Space Needle, of course it got nutso-crowded by the time midnight struck. Shuffling out of there took quite a while, and the four of us literally locked arms so impatient dipshits could not try barrelling their way through us. Angel turned the flashlight on her phone so she could see better where she was stepping, and so I took a photo of our feet.
Hey, look—it's the drones! The path that had been blocked off at 10 p.m. was still not open, so we had to make our way around the Armory and over to Harrison St. The horizontal, white lights in the middle-distance here are the Monorail Station at Seattle Center. Seeing these here also made us think maybe there had been a drone show after all—but, apparently not.
Gina and Beth had booked a room at the Holiday Inn, but there was no room there for Angel. I had an available spare room, so she came home and stayed the night with me—apparently seeing our condo for the very first time, 18 years after Shobhit and I moved into it(!). Getting home was a bit arduous, but still better, arguably, than if I had tried to drive through insane traffic that lasted a solid two hours after midnight: first we tried to wait for a #8 to ride up Denny Way, which I should have known better. The One Bus Away app kept saying a bus was on the way: 17 minutes, then 11 minutes . . . we waited at the stop for several minutes, then the app refreshed and said the next bus was in . . . 302 minutes.
So, we walked from there to Westlake Center, a 0.7-mile walk from the Holiday Inn, and pretty slowly thanks to Angel's recent foot surgeries, but we made it! The crowds on the platform at the Westlake Light Rail Station were bonkers, but I made sure we got right in one of the doors of the train once it arrived about ten minutes later, and we packed against the door on the other side, where it let us out at the next stop on Capitol Hill Station. Yes, we rode the train only one stop, but this saved Angel's feet nearly a full mile of hill climbing.
We still had to walk half a mile home from Capitol Hill Station, and this was an especially challenging stretch for Angel. We crossed paths with a young man walking a bulldog he had clearly walked downtown earlier and was now taking back home, and the dog was about as done as Angel was: it kept stopping and resting. More than once, we would stop, the man and his dog would pass us; then the dog would stop, and we would pass them. Two different times the guy said to us, "Have a good one, guys!" Angel was pretty enamored with that dog; I should have taken a picture but didn't think to. I also should have asked the guy how the dog had handled all the loud noises.
Anyway, having started our journey from the hotel probably around 1 a.m., we reached my place at 2 a.m. This was to go a distance of 1.4 miles as the crow flies; what would have been a 1.2-mile walk had we done that the entire way, but we walked about a mile and a half and rode a train in between to spare Angel's feet a lot of hill climbing—and the last three blocks were very challenging hill climbing anyway. But, had she walked the entire way, it would have been way worse for her. In retrospect, though, I probably should have just sucked it up and driven down there to find parking.
Anyway! We were up in time to get back down to the hotel by 9:30 this morning—and this time, I
did drive—and meet up with Gina and Beth for the blandest breakfast ever. As seen in the photo above, Angel took a photo of the Space Needle shortly after we got out of the car, she was so excited that now she could actually see it.
I was sorry so much about this year's New Year was disappointing, but all three of them still sincerely had a good time, and I sure had a great time having them here. Quality time with loved ones is what makes any of these holidays special anyway, right?
[posted 4:49pm]
