Peaceful weekend
Story problem: A young couple is working remotely on a feel-good Friday. Both members of the couple are consultants but from different companies. One member is distracted calculating arbitrary statistics; the other is working vigorously. Assuming independence, model the last-survivor status until log-off. At the 95th percent confidence interval, what time will the couple be logged off of work?
We started our weekend at 6:30 PM on Friday. We drove into town and after fighting off two passive-aggressive Subarus for the world’s last remaining parking spot, we picked up our to-go burritos. In a previous post, I mentioned my free agency in regards to finding a new favorite Seattle restaurant. I’m proud to say that I’ve decided to sign with TNT Taqueria in Wallingford. They made me a chicken burrito and tortilla chips which I couldn’t refuse. Mainly because it was exactly what I ordered; however, my signing bonus included a gratuitous churro so I’m excited about the union.
Next we procured a nice Savigion Blanc using Drizzly and gathered all the equipment necessary for a Seattle picnic - two blankets, wine glasses, and raincoats. On a grassy hill overlooking the big city, after setting up camp, we sighed goodbye to the busy week and hello to the no-plans weekend. We enjoyed the amazing burritos, applauded the notekeep wine, complained about the high cost of living, Zillowed greener pastures, reflected on career trajectories, and talked about family. Then the sun disappeared and we huddled for warmth. We stayed for as long as the tradeoff between being cold and watching the city lights was net-positive.
The last paragraph wasn’t too comical, but I’m keeping it since it documents a good day and I want to remember that. The paragraph also served as a space to practice the style of writing called parataxis which I learned about recently. (Essentially simple sentence structures where you use conjunctions to add on to clauses rather than conjunctions to subordinate them. Neat stuff.)
I try to structure my Saturdays under the following model: half a day of something I’m passionate about, something active, something fun. Since I’m at the lifestage with little responsibilities and ample free time, it’s easy to stick with. For the first four hours of the day, I trekked through writing my book, but the effort dragged closer to an aimless wander. Ahuh, it’s coming along so slowly. For the something active, my girlfriend and I walked two miles at Marina Beach in Edmonds. I made the mistake of not eating beforehand, so I was a little woozy during the walk. It could have been half a mile or maybe the walk never happened. We course-corrected, snap back to reality, with Ezell’s chicken. For the something fun, we went on a WinCo date.
We hold a loose definition of “date” (essentially we tack on “date” to any activity that we jointly participate in, e.g., church date, paying taxes date, laundry date) but this specific date was premeditated. If you’ve never explored the WinCo bulk section, it probably means you’re paying too much for groceries. Especially spices. $20 of curry at Trader Joes will cost you 34¢ at WinCo. $10 of sesame seeds at TJs for 32¢ at WinCo. $5 of steel cut oats will cost you a measly 80¢. I’m being told by my sources that: steel cut oats aren’t a spice, which I respond with: then why does it taste so good? The trip into the wardrobe (reference to Narnia, since WinCo is magical as well) lived up to hype.
Afterwards, my girlfriend and I watched the first episode of Chernyol on HBO, and then the second episode because wow that was good, and then the third because gasp what happens next, and then the fourth because yes I’m emotionally invested, and then the fifth because whoa I’m blown away, and then... oh that’s all of them. What just happened; I think we got sucked into a tv vortex. In fairness to my girlfriend, she didn’t entirely melt into the couch. She read for a bit, left for a pedicure with a friend, and finished a few work tasks. In fairness to myself, the show won 73 awards.
On Sunday, we went to church and got our first Covid vaccine. The topic of the sermon was diversity. Ironically, the collection of people being vaccinated was much more diverse than the church congregation.
To round out our peaceful weekend, we watched the Oscars. I made a prediction for every category and for every two correct predictions, I rewarded myself with a malt ball; the giant ones you can buy in the WinCo bulk section, it’s my favorite candy. By the end of the night, not to pat myself on the back (but, the back that’s incredibly skilled at making predictions) I’d devoured nine of a possible eleven malt balls.
