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Christmas Eve, SF year 2
Such a lovely day, wish we could do things like this more often. Does something count as a "tradition" if you've done it twice? (Last year Mike and I hung out for Christmas Eve since we were both orphanned for it, so we decided to get together again this year.)
I woke up a little later than I wanted, walked the dog, and then I walked to the Castro post office at 18th and whatever, to send some new year's cards to Japan. (I should also be sending some out to people in the US but don't need to do that for a few days.) No idea if they'll get there on new year's, and I may actually send one or two more on Wednesday anyway. Stopped at the supermarket Mollie Stone on the way back, it's a nice little market. Oh, and I stopped by bi-rite on my way home for some ice cream too. Yum :)
Mike showed up around 2pm and we went to Chow for lunch, which both of us love and I'd found out was open until 4 (it had been closed when we tried to go last year). He had one of his usuals and I had the salmon special for the day, with "caramelized broccoli", which was really just kinda weird spiced burnt-ish broccoli, but it was good, but we had been wondering WTF it was. We hung out there for a while talking about random stuff, anything from depression to sports to signing up for Jeopardy (online test signups are open!!) to "how big is a large blue whale?" to... I dunno. Walked back here after that and played Galaxy Trucker, since I told Mike about it and he said it sounded exciting. It's weird, because just as I realize it's not the kind of game I typically like, but I do like it, Mike had the same reaction, like "this game is so weird but AWESOME". It plays weirdly as 2-player but I think we enjoyed it anyway. Then, he had brought Netrunner but instead of playing that, we played Kingdom Builder, which is also pretty stupid with 2 players, but at least now I know how to play, I had been wondering about it since it got the Game of the Year award this year.
Hungry again, we set out into the Castro looking for somewhere to eat (I was like "I don't know what's open, but I have a hunch if we go towards 17th and Castro we'll find something". Bizarrely, we ended up at Fork, which I'd only been to once before with Charlie, and my impression of it then was "good food, lousy service". I was vaguely worried about it being a memory trigger, but instead now I have a great memory of hanging out there with Mike, since we had great food AND great service, just these delicious sandwiches and sweet potato fries that had cinnamon and stuff, and we talked about all kinds of interesting things. I posited that I think it's really amusing how when you're looking for a new job, 20 of your friends will offer to refer you at their company, but when you're looking for someone to date, 20 of your friends don't offer to fix you up with someone. Mike countered that the benefits of getting someone to work with you are a lot higher than getting someone to date one of your friends, plus the downsides of it not working out are so much less (you're unlikely to lose a friend over not getting a job). Hmm.
Anyway, we came back here and played Pokemon Puzzle League since that's another part of our Christmas Eve tradition now, and one of our matches seriously went 42 minutes. Pretty amazing. I'll say the same thing I did last year, which is that Mike is definitely slightly better than me, but we are close enough in skill level to make it a hell of a lot of fun to play together.
He borrowed Galaxy Trucker since I'm unlikely to play it in the next 2 weeks (I'm going to NYC on Friday night through New Year's and then going to Philly for a few days after that), so that's also good since more people will get to play it and maybe we'll play again sometime when I get back. Yay :)
I woke up a little later than I wanted, walked the dog, and then I walked to the Castro post office at 18th and whatever, to send some new year's cards to Japan. (I should also be sending some out to people in the US but don't need to do that for a few days.) No idea if they'll get there on new year's, and I may actually send one or two more on Wednesday anyway. Stopped at the supermarket Mollie Stone on the way back, it's a nice little market. Oh, and I stopped by bi-rite on my way home for some ice cream too. Yum :)
Mike showed up around 2pm and we went to Chow for lunch, which both of us love and I'd found out was open until 4 (it had been closed when we tried to go last year). He had one of his usuals and I had the salmon special for the day, with "caramelized broccoli", which was really just kinda weird spiced burnt-ish broccoli, but it was good, but we had been wondering WTF it was. We hung out there for a while talking about random stuff, anything from depression to sports to signing up for Jeopardy (online test signups are open!!) to "how big is a large blue whale?" to... I dunno. Walked back here after that and played Galaxy Trucker, since I told Mike about it and he said it sounded exciting. It's weird, because just as I realize it's not the kind of game I typically like, but I do like it, Mike had the same reaction, like "this game is so weird but AWESOME". It plays weirdly as 2-player but I think we enjoyed it anyway. Then, he had brought Netrunner but instead of playing that, we played Kingdom Builder, which is also pretty stupid with 2 players, but at least now I know how to play, I had been wondering about it since it got the Game of the Year award this year.
Hungry again, we set out into the Castro looking for somewhere to eat (I was like "I don't know what's open, but I have a hunch if we go towards 17th and Castro we'll find something". Bizarrely, we ended up at Fork, which I'd only been to once before with Charlie, and my impression of it then was "good food, lousy service". I was vaguely worried about it being a memory trigger, but instead now I have a great memory of hanging out there with Mike, since we had great food AND great service, just these delicious sandwiches and sweet potato fries that had cinnamon and stuff, and we talked about all kinds of interesting things. I posited that I think it's really amusing how when you're looking for a new job, 20 of your friends will offer to refer you at their company, but when you're looking for someone to date, 20 of your friends don't offer to fix you up with someone. Mike countered that the benefits of getting someone to work with you are a lot higher than getting someone to date one of your friends, plus the downsides of it not working out are so much less (you're unlikely to lose a friend over not getting a job). Hmm.
Anyway, we came back here and played Pokemon Puzzle League since that's another part of our Christmas Eve tradition now, and one of our matches seriously went 42 minutes. Pretty amazing. I'll say the same thing I did last year, which is that Mike is definitely slightly better than me, but we are close enough in skill level to make it a hell of a lot of fun to play together.
He borrowed Galaxy Trucker since I'm unlikely to play it in the next 2 weeks (I'm going to NYC on Friday night through New Year's and then going to Philly for a few days after that), so that's also good since more people will get to play it and maybe we'll play again sometime when I get back. Yay :)
no subject
Yay! Best phrase in the post. Go make more positive non-Charlie memories at Charlie-related places!
I posited that I think it's really amusing how when you're looking for a new job, 20 of your friends will offer to refer you at their company, but when you're looking for someone to date, 20 of your friends don't offer to fix you up with someone.
Setting people up is so particular. Suggesting to have someone work at your company is a decision you can vouch for since you are doing it yourself and you are currently still working there. That doesn't work with dating. Many of my single friends I wouldn't date myself, so how can I suggest that someone else should? And if they're an ex I enjoyed dating, well, there's some reason why I left that relationship. And if I'm currently dating them, well I wouldn't want to share. =) Whereas my employer is something I'd very much like to share!
no subject
I feel like in actuality, it's more that setting someone up is something of the generation before us, not so much our generation, or not so much in our social circles, maybe.
no subject
The other major factor is branching--companies are supposed to recruit lots of people, but recruiting lots of girl/boyfriends is not as well regarded.
But in your case it's just that all your friends are aware that you're actually part of the Jovian Pirates' Pre-Invasion Expedition.
no subject
Also, I think that with unemployed people, we have and expect mental images of them rapidly going destitute. Replace destitute with unhappy and you have the case for people who want to move on from their current jobs. In contrast, it's less socially acceptable to be desperate for a relationship. I think.