low_delta

Posted by Matthew McQuilkin

https://www.fruitcakeenterprises.com/blog/2026/1/12/cedar-hall-birthday-party-double-feature-and-the-big-news

— पांच हजार नौ सौ इक्यावन —

I actually had hoped to post an update over the weekend rather than waiting to go over everything today, but there ended up not being a lot of time for that. And the Big Announcement went out at work this morning, but I'll get to that momentarily.

Maybe I'll start with Saturday afternoon, since that's when the above photo of Laney and me was taken. We had already been in the City Center building lobby two hours when I took it; we went there for our Saturday "Happy Hour" for the month—a BYOB edition, at Laney's suggestion, specifically citing the Olympia Coffee that's located there. You can order from one side off the sidewalk, and from the other side in the lobby.

This is a lobby space that got a massive, two-year, $70 million renovation, which opened in 2023. Prior to this—and this is to say, pre-andemic, as immediately prior the entire public space was closed for a couple of years—it had long been a shopping center, including a restaurant called Palomino that had long been a favorite place of mine to get "potatoes gorgonzola" which were waffle fries topped with gorgonzola cheese. Decades even before that, there used to be a two-screen cinema up on the second floor, which was where I went to see Saving Private Ryan in 1998, the year I moved to Seattle. That theater closed not long after that, though.

Anyway, the space, now called Cedar Hall, is not so much a shopping center now, though I get the sense they will inch back toward it over time. It's mostly kind of public lounge seating space, though I will say it was quite well-used on a Saturday afternoon with only Olympia Coffee open to it.

I was somewhat surprised Laney didn't even partake in anything from Olympia Coffee, given it was the place she suggested. But, the appeal for her was more just the lobby space, which is very nice and spacious. She didn't bring any food and just brough her own bottle of wine.

I, on the other hand, bought 16oz hot chocolate, and even an egg wrap thing that was decent for coffee shop food. I also took a page out of Laney's book and brought a tumbler bottle with booze already in it, into which I could just pour my hot chocolate. This is a way to not look conspicious at all, and is much easier than bringing shot bottles to open and pour into the hot chocolate cup, which is what I have done in the past.

Now, I found a cheap 200ml bottle of whiskey at the liquor store on 12th on my way home from the movie I saw on Friday. I guess I can say as an aside real quick now, this was how I spent my Friday evening: I took myself to SIFF Cinema at the Uptown on Lower Queen Anne, to see The Secret Agent, the Brazilian film that is widely critically acclaimed and which I found to be certainly well-made but also objectively overlong and slightly overrated.

Anyway, I bought the cheap whiskey on the way home from that, and I put nearly three shots' worth into the tumbler. These were both mistakes, I think: getting a cheap kind just so I'd only have to spend $7; and putting three shots in it. I did drink a full glass of water and take two Aleve after getting home, but I had to go out again that evening and I had a splitting headache by the end of it, which was not gone until I woke up again yesterday morning. That sucked. I suspect it would not have been nearly as bad if I had gotten a higher quality whiskey, even with as much volume. I suspect the quality was more of a factor than how much I drank, but there was really no good reason to do three shots rather than two at most. I should get some peppermint schnapps and just do that for my BYOB hot chocolates from now on, really.

Getting back to the selfie, I might have taken it earlier, but I was waiting for this 34-year-old straight guy with an English bulldog who sat near us to leave first. I had gone to the bathroom, and when I got back, this guy and his dog, in a stylish gray rain jacket (the dog, not the guy), were at the small table next to the one Laney and I had sat at.

The guy was actually sweet, but very talkative. He's getting a divorce and moved to Seattle from California last summer. He and his dog live on the 21st floor of Museum House, which is at or near the top of my list of dream homes in Seattle. So, I didn't mind so much when he showed us photos of his apartment, the views, and the skybrigde open to residents between the two buildings. But, he showed us a ton of other photos, many of them of Mochi, his dog Laney was very enamored with, but some of the 22-year-old girlfriend he's dating. One was of her in a fairly revealing club outfit, taken in a bathroom somewhere. It kind of had "rebound" written all over it, but whatever. Laney and I both openly appreciated (with each other, after he left) how he fully engaged with discussion even when Laney mentioned being a lesbian or I mentioned my husband; clearly queerness is a very normal part of his world.

But I also kinded wanted Laney to myself. I know, I see her constantly anyway, but I'm selfish! And this is our time. To be fair, we still found plenty of time to talk about all the things I wanted to talk about. Then she walked with me over to the Central Library so I could return Project Hail Mary, which was overdue long enough for them to suspend my account on Saturday, but they reactivated it as soon as I returned the book, and then I picked up the Alan Light book Don't Stop: Why We (Still) Love Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, which of course I am already devouring. After that we rode the RapidRide G Line bus back up to Capitol Hill together.

— पांच हजार नौ सौ इक्यावन —

And I got home, and within minutes was in Shobhit's car and headed to Everett to attend Lynn's 50th birthday party. (She actually turned 50 on Friday.) It was the first party she had, or at least that I had been invited to (which probably means there hasn't been one since), since 2020. Remember, her birthday is in January, so no one still had any idea what was about to hit us in January 2020. But, her previous four parties had all been at the Everett geek haven AFK Tavern, which covid cause to close by the end of 2020. She had no party in 2021, and I think that just created a sort of new momentum of no parties for her for the next few years. I suspect she might have started them back up earlier if AFK Tavern had still been open.

But: Lynn and I were born the same year, and 50 is a big one. So it makes sense she and Zephyr would have a party this year. I got a message some weeks ago from Zephyr that something would likely be planned for the 10th but details would come later. In the end, they decided just to host a party at their house. This worked fine as well; they didn't have this house in the AFK Tavern party days.

Lynn had told me, "Mid-afternoon start until whenever people leave." I told her I had afternoon plans but was sure I could get up there by late afternoon; it was about 5:00 by the time I got there. A whole lot of people were, of course, already there. Their front door opens to their kitchen with a small living room to the right, and no one was using these spaces; there's a small walkway down maybe two steps to a sort of den/family room space that also includes a large dining table, and this was where everyone was at. Just people sitting around, chilling, visiting. There must have beeb 10 or 12 down there.

There's something about Lynn's group of friends that kind of just works for me in a way lots of groups don't. Collectively they are a bunch of nerds, largely gamers but with other interests too, and with this comes a fairly specific range of social awkwardness. I suppose they might not think of it that way among themselves—I really can't speak for them—but it's how it comes across to me. Suffice it to say that I have never been the most socially adept person in the world, but among this group I have no reason to care, which sort of puts me at ease. Granted, I am generally at ease in any social scenario anymore (mostly because I plain don't give a shit), but it still feels kind of nice to be around these types.

Lynn did introduce me at one point as "my oldest friend," which I had not fully realized. Of course it makes sense: we first met as intra-high school Spanish class correspondents, so in writing we met when we were 17 years old; we met in person two years after that, and although we were never especially close, the friendship has held strong over the years. I was at both of her weddings, and she was at mine and Shobhit's wedding (Zephyr also came to the latter). Not a lot of people have known each other since they were 17. Lynn's an even older friend of mine than Gabriel, though not by a huge margin—but, Danielle and I have known each other since we were both 11, a fact that I really love. In any case, I have a lot of friends I've known forever, including Barbara, whom I've known 30 years as of this year; and I've even known Laney for 25 now, although we have "only" been legit-friends for going on 22.

There was a lot of vegetarian options, which was nice for me; Lynn had a vegan friend come too, and they only had maybe two salad options. Zephyr came back with several pizzas from Costco, and at first I thought I was going to have to pull cheese slices from a pie that was half-pepperoni, something Shobhit would never do. But then Zephyr noted they had a full-cheese pizza, and I said, "Oh, I'll take from that one." And he said he had done that deliberately so it would not be tainted with meat, and I appreciated that.

There were two birthday cakes, both homemade by another friend, and the slice I had was of the carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, which I got a great shot of two other friends lighting the birthday candles. (I'm considering insisting that my 50th birthday cake literally have 50 candles on it. That would be fun. Lynn's only had 26, counting the single-digit candles of "5" and "0".) I might have headed home earlier, but I thought: I'm not leaving until I get cake, dammit!

I sat at an open chair right around the corner when you first enter the family room from the short hallway, and pretty much stayed there the whole time I was there, which was roughly three hours. Honestly if it weren't for the headache I might have stayed longer, but even having taken the two Aleve at home, the glass of water at home, and I drank a LaCroix while I was there, it just wasn't getting better. Occasionally I would get into conversation that was engaging enough to make me forget about it.

Lynn actually sat right next to me for a while, which was nice and kind of unexpected, as she was the host so I figured she would need to move around a lot—this is my least favorite thing about being the guest of honor at a party, as it usually means little chance of quality time with any individuals, and quality time means a lot to me. And I don't really know any of her other friends, though I have met many of them at previous parties (and presumably at Lynn and Zephyr's wedding in 2023).

There was a moment, after Lynn did move to another end of the room, when everyone around me was talking video games. I observed with what interest I could, but because I had no way of contributing to the conversation, a guy two people over on the couch I was sitting near the end of noticed, and came over to sit on the chair Lynn had vacated and engage with me. He even noted that clearly I had no connection to video games, so he started to ask me about myself. We started by talking about my job at PCC, because he asked what I do. But if course it was not long before he asked what I was most interested in, and when I said movies, we talked about movies for quite a while, even though he hadn't actually watched any in several years. He did take down my suggestion of the recent Korean film No Other Choice, because I recommended it when he said he notices cinematography more than anything else in movies. And that movie has a lot of very cool shots in it.

I'm trying to remember his name, as it was a Biblical name so unusual that he said even he had never met anyone else with it. Uriah, I think? Pronounced like the first syllable of "Europe" and the second syllable of "Josiah." He has several brothers and one of them is named Noah. I suspect his parents gave all their kids Biblical names. I remember he said he was from Texas, though I don't remember what part.

The person he was with had an interesting name too: Enver. I can remember this because of the memorable explanation of "Denver without the D." Enver works with Lynn, and Lynn even noted at one point that Enver was in the process of legally changing his name when he started working there. I can't recall Lynn using any pronouns at all during this conversation, but Uriah used "he" many times. Given the name conversation I might have been inclined to use "they/them" just to be safe, but I think I can take my cue from the guy who was either Enver's partner or at the very least a close person he lives with. And Uriah made a real effort with me so I appreciate that. He also complimented my fingernails, which is always a pretty foolproof way to endear yourself to me.

Anyway, when I got up to leave, Zephyr was about to open a bottle of prosecco, and offered me some. I was like, "For the road?" which made a few people crack up. I declined the drink due to the ongoing headache, and Lynn offered me some Tylenol but I noted I had already taken some Aleve. I went out to the car in the rain, was relieved the car turned on when I turned the ignition (it's worked consistently ever since I baked down the clamp on the battery Friday night, but I still worry about it every time), and my headache actually improved slightly on the half-hour drive home. Still, maybe because of the headache, I was super tired when I got home, and I actually crawled into bed with my contacts and my T-shirt and underwear still on, and I actually snoozed there for like an hour starting at 9:30. I had learned Gabriel was actually in Seattle for an event and wasn't sure if he might ask to go out for a drink afterward, which I might have still done. But, that never happened (which was fine; actually better for me given the circumstances), and so I took out my contacts and undressed and just got into bed to completely zonk out. I felt right as rain yesterday morning, thankfully.

— पांच हजार नौ सौ इक्यावन —

— पांच हजार नौ सौ इक्यावन —

That brings me to yesterday, which also involved a half-hour drive, just in a different direction: Lynn is to the north; Alexia is to the east (slightly southeast).

We did another double feature, this time at her place. She had clearly forgotten about this detail when she texted me in the morning to ask if we could push our start to 1:00 so she could attend an online class. I said that was fine, but noted that the plan was for a double feature of The Fugitive and Air Force One, which we had already watched a few years ago as part of the Harrison Ford-athon we did but which we both agreed we would be good to watch again. After that, she said she could revisit the class as a recording and suggested I come at noon as originally scheduled.

So here's what I'll say about the two movies. The Fugitive holds up astonishingly well, even after 32 years. We last watched this one together in August of 2023, and were both amazed at how little we actually remembered. There are key famous moments that are easy to remember, but a ton of details, including how the movie ends, that we totally forgot. Air Force One, on the other hand, is engaging but comparatively kind of trashy as blockbuster entertainment, and I am amazed I have now seen it four times. That's too many for this movie. I remember it being more entertaining than I remembered when we last watched this one, which was in November 2023, but not nearly enough time has elapsed in this case; I found it to be actually pretty dumb. Undeniably entertaining, but dumb. But, also a fascinating artifact from a geopolitical perspective, this having come out both pre-Putin (the movie treats Russia as a natural ally) and pre-9/11. My, how things have changed.

I read in the "trivia" section on IMDb that when Trump took the stage to accept his win in 2016, they played the theme music from this movie. Never mind that I was already finding the score stupidly bombastic even before reading that, but: barf.

At my suggestion, which I made when first planning this day, once we finished the movie, we went out for dinner at the Indian restaurant in downtown Issaquah that Alexia keeps raving about. It's called Maharaja Cuisine of India, and naturally I had Shahi Paneer. (Their menu spells it "Shai Paneer." Whatever!) It was decent; not the best I've ever had. The garlic naan was good, and the starter of pakoras that we shared was excellent. Alexia ordered a paneer dish of her own, which was relatively similar. She left for a work trip today so sent me home with her leftovers as well as mine. That's going to cover my dinners for at least the next two days.

She also sent me home with 13 bags of beans, all the same brand, apparently kind or horded by her late great-aunt at her house. I was happy to take them; it must have been only half, at most, of the bags she had for me to take from. All sorts of varieties, many of them types of black beans which I told her I like. I know Shobhit will find use for all of them eventually, even after buying a ton of canned beans at PCC during the 10/$10 promotion in November. We have a lot of beans. I suppose we're ready for an apocalypse. Bring it on! Just kidding, I want to be able to keep going to movies.

I drove home and the Golden Globes were halfway through. I could not go back to the beginning on the live stream I signed up for a week trial of Paramount+ to watch, but oh well. I found Nikki Glaser's opening monologue later. And then I had a long conversation with Gabriel about movies right after. I also brought up that I want to go to an island for a weekend again this year. He's apparently leaving it up to me to plan, and he'll just be on board with whatever I suggest. He doesn't have the energy or time to coordinate like he did last year, I guess, but I'm also happy to have been granted this power.

— पांच हजार नौ सौ इक्यावन —

Okay! Shall we get to the Big Announcement now, then?

The official email went out at work this morning, written and sent out by Gabby, announcing my promotion. So now I'll tell you a couple of more details about this that I was reticent to note when I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago.

First, my title is changing. For the past 10 years, it was the fourth title I've had at this job, and my least favorite: "Center Store Support Specialist." It turns out, if you work in the Grocery industry, you likely will know what that means. Anyone else? I think the general response would be: What the fuck does that mean? Well, now my title is "Pricing Analyst." I like it a lot. Much more specific in language, but broadly applicable. And people can at least guess at what that means, even if they are not in the industry.

Second, the raise I'm getting. It's 12.3%, as of January 1. This is actually stunning—even though I only realized after checking my spreadsheet detailing my wage history that it's the third-highest raise I've ever gotten. I have never been officially promoted, though. I do remember that when my title changed the last time, a couple of people noticed my new email signature and responded with a congratulations on my promotion. I had to be like: "No, not really." They just changed my title. For the third time.

So this is what's unprecedented about this change: it's a raise and an official promotion, at once. In fact, it's the first promotion I have gotten at this or any other job. Although given Gabby's rationale of a promotion recognizing responsibilities I have already taken on, one could argue I deserved the same kind of promotion at least once or twice before, as my role had evolved dramatically long ago. Granted, perhaps not with the switfness it has since Gabby has been around, as she slowly added more to my plate even as I was like: "I don't ever want a promotion." But, she came on with no experience with the item maintenance system we use and Eric had been very familiar with it; and I am now the resident expert that people come to with questions about regularly. There isbn't even anyone in IT anymore with longer experience with the system than I have. And now, this—and other things about my job—are being officially acknowledged.

I'm going to share Gabby's email announcement in full now. It would have been sent last week under normal circumstances, but Gabby was on a trip to Costa Rica last week, so she sent it out this morning, at 8:20 a.m.:

Subject: Promotion Announcement: Matthew McQuilkin, Pricing Analyst

[BCC: All Office, SD]

Hi all -

Please join me in celebrating Matthew McQuilkin's promotion to Pricing Analyst 🎉

Matthew joined the co-op over 23 years ago and during that time has developed strong expertise in the pricing and promotional space; supporting and coaching several Merchandisers, Associate Merchandisers, and Specialists along the way.

You might know him as our resident HQ expert, training others on the many nuances of HQ. He is also a strong partner in IT related projects (HQ Upgrades, Batching, PriceGen, Partner Portal).

Outside of his pricing and promotional work, Matthew is passionate about PCC Office culture and events; he also represented Merchandising via the Office Relocation Team 2024 - 2025.

If you work closely with Matthew, you know he demonstrates strong Collaboration and Kindness in all that he does. He has strong attention to detail, delivers high-quality results, and looks around corners to best support our stores and shoppers.

Please join me in wishing Matthew continued success in his career at PCC!

She did ask me at the end of the week before last, what photo she would like me to use. She clearly was working on a draft so she would have it at the ready when she returned to work this morning. Anyway, after a few back and forths, we landed on this shot I took of myself at my desk at the old office in September 2023, which cracks me up as I originally posted it to my socials with the caption, I’m wearing white after Labor Day muthafuckaaaas.

But, it is also the best recent(ish) shot of me at PCC, which was what I wanted to go with. Gabby said sometimes people use photos with their family or with their team, and if we had a good shot of all five of us on the "P3" team, I'd have gone with that. But one or two of us always isn't able to make it at our team Happy Hours, and I would want it to include all five of us. I did suggest this shot that does include all five of us plus Marie, at the Six-Seven Restaurant at the Edgewater Hotel and taken just last May—but because the announcement would CC all the Store Directors, she deemed it would be bad form to send an email to stores showing office staff out drinking cocktails. Okay, fine.

We get emails like this pretty regularly, announcing either new hires or promotions. Ever since Tracy worked here in 2020 and we kept talking about who was hired when, I started saving them in an Outlook folder I named "new staff / positions," so I could reference or search it when needed. Now I have an email announcement about myself to put there! I have another folder for "kudus" people have sent me over the years—I created this one at the suggestion of a friend I no longer even talk to, ages ago, as insurance in case it would help if I got into any trouble, which of course never happened—and that's where I've been putting congratulatory emails sent diretly to me from, at last count, 20 people. It's been quite the wave of congratulations this morning.

The funniest note came from Jack, who works in Graphics and has been at PCC almost as long as I have: I like how most people’s announcements have personal information but you have remained mysterious. This cracked me up because I have long been a notorious over-sharer, which I basically noted to him in my reply. I mean, anyone on my recipient list for the email photo travelogues knows far more details of my personal details than most of them ever asked for.

To be fair, it's usually the new hire announcemens that include details about partners, children, pets, and hobbies. I don't think that's as typical of promotion announcements, and I think maybe Jack was kind of conflating the two.

Today being a Monday, there isn't a lot of people working in-office, although I did still have a couple of people come up to my desk and congratulate me in person. This means Gabby sent out the email while working from home; she only comes in Tuesdays or Wednesdays, sometimes both. She did ask me during our meeting on the 30th when she gave me the news personally, to hold off on spreading it around that I was promoted until she could get back and send out the official announcement.

She did say that I could tell individuals here and there if I wanted; that I didn't have to treat it like a strict secret. Before today, I told two people. There's another I probably would have told, except she was also out on PTO last week. In any event, I have to say that talking to people about having gotten a promotion, especially if "I hope that also came with a raise" is also uttered, can be slightly tricky business. Because it can bringh up clear feelings of why they have not also been recognized in the same way, even if only in subtext. I talked to Alexia, who manages something like six people at her job she's excited to be retiring from within the next few months, about this a fair bit yesterday.

I will say that I shared this with Noah on Friday, and he was very cool about it. He seemed genuinely excited for me. And so did the other person I told, I must say. That conversation was just also tinged with resentment—not at all toward me personally, but toward PCC. I even shared with him the percentage raise I am getting, which I did not share with the other person. I have now shared it here, but, while I have been very wrong about this in the past (at least in terms of specific individuals), I'm guessing few, if any, people from PCC read this blog. Plus I really buried the lede in this post which otherwise covers a ton of unrelated shit from over the weekend.

The one thing I do want to note about the raise, though: when Gabby told me that percentage in our meeting on the 30th, my immediate reaction was genuine shock. "Jesus," I said, in a somewhat quiet voice. I had eve googled what the standard raise was with a promotion, and the consensus seemed to be around 10%. Even an 8% raise would have been double what I've gotten in nearly a decade and a half, so to get quadruple any increase I have gotten since 2012? I was stunned.

In the moment, I thought it was the largest raise I ever got. But then I consulted my spreadsheet, and was reminded I got a stunning 16.55% raise in 2008, and a 12.75% raise in 2009. The last increase of any significance was 2012, and that one was 11.61%—so, actually pretty close to this one. But every year since, my increases have ranged from 1.98% (the lowest in that span, in 2024) to 4.01% (which I got in both 2023 and 2025).

And I never had any reason to expect any more than that in that time: when Cate was hired as the CEO we had for five years starting in 2015, she brought in a lot of policy and organizational changes, which mirrored a much more corporatized structure. I was officially no longer qualified for bonuses, ever, as those now can only go to people with direct reports (even though I got a smattering of bonuses spread over the previous years). And it quickly became clear that, under this new structure, there was no way I would get slightly more than a cost-of-living increase, at best, without getting a promotion. Since I had long been saying I didn't want a promotion, I had resigned myself to being at this level, quite possibly until I retired.

So there was a lot for me to be stunned by when I was told that number nearly two weeks ago now. It may be the third-highest raise I've ever gotten, but it'll be by far the biggest increase ever in straight dollars, and there hadn't been a notable increase since 2012—fourteen years ago.

I even keep a yearly average of the difference between my wage increase and cost of living increase. As of this year, that average over all my years here has been a wage increase 1.57% higher than the average cost of living increase. The fact that that average was at 1.21% just last year, and this is an average of 23 separate increases, is a real indicator of the change happening this year alone. I told Gabby at that 12/30 meeting, "This is going to change things for me," and that remains true.

Among my congratulatory emails this morning were messages from both Dave, who is Gabby's boss; and Krish, the CEO. In my replies to both of them, I went out of my way to credit Gabby for making this happen. I never would have asked for it, and she was the one who advocated for it. And as of right now, it doesn't change anything about the job I'm already doing, which is my favorite thing about it.

— पांच हजार नौ सौ इक्यावन —

[posted 12:33pm]

https://www.fruitcakeenterprises.com/blog/2026/1/12/cedar-hall-birthday-party-double-feature-and-the-big-news