chaos and skywalker
Pretty exciting day today at PCC HQ, and not just because there's a very big-deal retirement party for Nancy in HR happening at 3:00. She's maybe the last of the "old-timers" in the highest levels of management to retire, so it feels kind of like the last bit of the "old guard" heading out. There are others still here who have been here for a comparable amount of time, but no one at her level of management, which is only one level down from CEO.
But another major thing happened this morning, which resulted in a huge swirl of energy and activity all around me for probably an hour or more: a bunch of people moved desk locations. I sit in a section of 24 desks between two different sets of small conference rooms and phone rooms, and every single one of the people at these desks are having to move—except me.
With the exception of Scott, Noah and myself, all the rest of the Merchandising Department sits on the other side of the phone rooms and conference rooms to my right; the three of us sit over here only because there isn't enough space over there. Well, at least not after a sub-department of Merchandising, "Category Management" (Beth, Kibby and Kevin), moved over there from where Scott and Noah and I sit now. Why? Because Beth sat in the desk I now sit in, and she was literally nauseated by the shaking of the floor when trains passed on the tracks outside our building—five floors down. The floor does shake more over here, and sometimes it's distracting, but I always kind of rolled my eyes at that reasoning. It's not that bad.
And before today, everyone else in this 24-desk section was with the IT department, or in a few cases, Store Operations. For reasons no one has ever shared with me (or Scott or Noah, by the sounds of it; they didn't even know until Monday this week that they were going to have to move by the end of this week), those entire departments are being swapped with Finance and Social & Environmental Responsibility (S&ER), who previously were all on the other side of the conference rooms to my left. This actually is more convenient for me, as I have more common interaction with Finance than I do with IT. Also I won't have to walk even half as far now to pick up the stacks of receiver reports for which I have to reconcile cost differences. So, that part works.
What really baffles me is why Scott and Noah had to move. Before, Noah sat in the desk facing mine; Scott in the desk to his back and facing the east windows. But, Krish, current Chief Financial Officer, is now in the desk Noah had occupied; Chris J, now Senior Business Analyst, sits in the desk Scott had occupied. Matt S with Operations used to sit in the desk to my left and now that's where Scott is; Brandy with Operations used to be behind me and that's now where Noah is (diagonally behind me now). Why couldn't Krish and Chris just move to those desks, so Noah and Scott wouldn't have to move either? You got me! I guess they just had to be in those two desks for some reason.
Katherine, "Facilities Manager" who is also part of Store Operations, sat behind me, and she has moved too; as far as I can tell, for now at least, this desk behind me is being left vacant.
Oh right, okay I guess I should mention I went to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker last night. For the detailed analysis of why I give it merely a solid B, you can read my review, which I wrote and posted this morning. I actually had the first couple of paragraphs worked out in my head before I even went to bed last night—which was not until just past midnight, so there was no time to write—and I wrote about four paragraphs in the Notes app on my phone both while walking and while bussing to work this morning. I missed the 6:56 bus from my building again, so I walked a few blocks past Broadway until the next #11 caught up with me and then I bussed the entire rest of the way, thanks to a #33 coming right in the nick of time for me to transfer on 3rd Avenue. So, I had maybe a third of the review written already and just copied and pasted it once I got my work computer turned on. Then I wrote the rest. I think I did a pretty damned good job, actually, of expressing how I felt about it without revealing any spoilers.
Over here on my personal blog, I can just write more about how the overall evening was. This time around, I was with not just Gabriel and Tess—the only two people I've seen every single one of the last five Star Wars movies with on opening night—but also with Lea, and Gabriel's brother Garret. Garret was sure he had joined us for one of these movies, but maybe he just joined Gabriel for one of his return visits to a theater to re-watch one, which he has a long history of doing with only Star Wars movies.
Hey! How about I make a rundown of everyone present at opening night of all Star Wars movies?
The Force Awakens (December 17, 2015): Gabriel, Tess, Kornelija
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (December 15, 2016): Gabriel, Tess, Kornelija and Mike (Gabriel's high school friend)
The Last Jedi (December 14, 2017): Gabriel, Tess and Shell
Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 25, 2018): Gabriel and Tess
The Rise of Skywalker (December 19, 2019): Gabriel, Tess, Lea and Garret
So, there you have it! Garret may not be mistaken that he saw a Star Wars movie in the past with Gabriel—surely he did, given how many repeat viewings Gabriel does—but he never saw one with me before this.
Anyway! The trip down to Kent—where we still went to see the movie even though Gabriel now lives in Seattle proper, but he does still work in Tacoma and Tess goes to school at the middle school where he works—was actually kind of fun. I mean, the Rapid Ride D bus down to King Street Station was pretty standard, but then I caught a Sounder commuter train, something I had not done since riding one just for kicks with Susan and Barbara during my Birth Week in 2008. The station is constructed a bit differently now, 11 years later, and I actually would have gotten on the southbound train 25 minutes earlier had I known which one was going south. But I only figured that out when the train left the station literally seconds after I arrived at it. And, I had gotten to the station 10 minutes earlier than anticipated anyway, having taken a Rapid Ride bus through downtown instead of a regular #1 bus like the Trip Planner had suggested.
So, I just hung out at King Street Station for about 25 minutes. But nearly 15 of those were on the next train, which is a commuter train to Lakewood that stops at Seattle before heading back (the northbound trains are their own thing, also stopping at Seattle before returning). These trains can get very crowded, I hear—they only run at commute times on weekdays, with occasional weekends for game days or the Puyallup Fair—but I lucked out being able to board early, and got a nice comfortable seat by the window in a four-seat section with a little table on the upper level. The guy who sat across from me had a huge tupperware container of what he called "Oreo cake pops," and he offered them to me and the guy next to him; he said he had made forty of them and it looked like he still had maybe 8 or 10 left, I assume from a work potluck. I took one and it was fucking delicious.
Once I got to Kent Station, which is literally across the street from the AMC Theater where we saw the movie, Gabriel and Tess were already at the Mexican restaurant next door. We waited for just a few minutes for both Garret and Lea to arrive separately, and we all had dinner. Gabriel and I both ordered the taco salad, although only I had it without sour cream or guacamole. It was delicious and I even told the waiter so. He cracked back at me, "It would be more delicious with sour cream and guacamole!"
Garret walks with a cane now, and parks in handicapped parking. I kept meaning to ask Gabriel what the story is there and then forgetting. I still haven't gotten around to asking him. Funny thing is, he's probably already told me before and I just don't remember.
When dinner was winding down, Tess got very anxious about getting over to the theater, as though we might be late. We still had 50 minutes to go before showtime when it started, and the theater is literally adjacent to this restautant. It wasn't like we had far to go.
In the end, Gabriel is an outlier: he was nuts for this movie. He cried multiple times, he tried to say it was the "best Star Wars movie ever!" To his credit, he started it with, "Recency bias be damned." Indeed. He was just as thrilled the first time we saw The Force Awakens and now he's constantly shitting on it. Give it time! His love for this movie will temper. Gabriel was convinced my tepid response had been influenced by the reviews I had already read. Perhaps, to a degree, but I was already concerned about so-called "course correcting" The Last Jedi, which is the best of this trilogy. And I watched both that and The Force Awakens before it just last weekend; I really love both those movies, and both are much better than this one. I really think this is an objective comedown after those. It was still fun, though!
When the movie was over, Lea drove Tess home so Gabriel could drive me all the way home, which was very nice of him. I was willing to take Light Rail the rest of the way from Columbia City if he didn't want to drive all the way to Capitol Hill, but was sure relieved that he did, as he saved me a lot of time, it was late on a weeknight, and I really appreciated it. It also gave us more time to talk about the movie, which consisted of a lot of him presenting counter-arguments to my reasons for not loving the movie. I came close to getting really frustrated with the conversation itself, but I made a choice about it, and so I didn't get frustrated. Gabriel just loves to debate. So, I let him have this. I still told him how I felt and why and really didn't change my position, but I also didn't do anything like groan and thow my hands up in exasperation. This movie just did not excite me the way the other two did, plain and simple.
That said, as I said to Gabriel last night and as I noted in my review, I look forward to seeing it again. Because a second viewing can't disappoint in any way, I can re-watch it and just plain have a good time.
[posted 12:28 pm]