Last week on the day of the big hurricane, Thomas and I were
walking the dogs before the rain deluge started. We were chivvying the dogs
along as fast as we could, and watching the sky. On the home stretch, we saw
something strange and wonderful. A child’s beach ball, the kind that you blow up, was rolling down the center of the road towards us. It
was like a scene from a French absurdist film, where the hero meet the ball,
driven by the wind – and that symbolizes the general futility of life or how
unseen forces are driving us through a senseless world. In our particular case,
I believe it meant that somewhere there is a child missing a beach ball, and
that strong winds can present you with unexpected moments of whimsy.
The Days sans Electricite were not so much the fun, but it
was just an inconvenience. No water damage, a little food lost, no big deal
altogether. I did my share of whining, but I am very aware that compared to
many others, our Irene experience was a non-event.
Ivica (Ee-vee-tsa, rhymes with pizza), a friend of Thomas
from his Gymnasium days, was with us from last Thursday (the day we got power
back) until today. He is on Sabbatical with Thomas’ company, and stayed with us
for these first days. He moves into a cute little apartment down in Kensington,
MD today.
Yesterday he and I went to Ikea and bought the basics for the
apartment. It was fun; I enjoy helping people spend their money. We were in
Ikea with billyuns and billyuns of new college students (with apologies to Carl
Sagan) all buying furniture with names like Tönsil and Fåhrtling. All over the US, dorm rooms
are being decorated with badly put-together flat-pack furniture that will look
like hell by Senior year, which is fine. For those prices, four years is a
reasonable lifespan.
We saw Captain America on Monday (Happy Labor
Day!). I enjoyed it, but was aware that
the plot and characterizations were paper-thin.
What kind of a moviegoer have I become? I’ll tell you what kind. I’m the
person who after the movie says, “I found it unlikely that when Captain Gordon
snuck into Hydra’s fortress looking for the captured soldiers, that he would
have been able to go straight to where they were caged. That place was HUGE; he
should have been wandering around for hours. Instead, he was there in like 20
minutes, most of which was spent beating up Hydra’s minions. I don’t buy it.”
And that’s the problem isn’t it? I don’t buy it. I enjoy the bright, shiny fun
of it, but the minute I put any thought into a movie’s plot, it’s over for me.
I try not to overshare these thoughts with Thomas, I think that my
over-analysis of movie plots harshes his mellow.
Saturday night we went to dinner and drinking with some
friends. It was delightful. It is so nice to have friends with whom you can be
outrageous – I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. One of the fellows is so funny
that he practically kills me…I laugh so much that breathing is difficult. It
sounds like “whoop, whoop, whoop, silence, GASP,” as I get my breath back. Good times!
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