"Puppet wrangler? There weren't any puppets in this movie!" – Crow T. Robot
More of the same today, mostly, with the most exciting thing being the new episode of Doctor Who that I watched. (And I thought Russell T. Davies threw everything and the kitchen sink into his last season finale.) I’m not 100%, still with the cough, but I am feeling a whole lot better today.
I stayed home sick today, which was about as much fun and as exciting as you might expect. Not really the three-day weekend I’ve always dreamed of, I spent most of the day asleep or lying around. There were the Jehovah’s Witnesses and guy offering to give an estimate on driveway resurfacing that I turned away, and the episodes of television I watched, and the plate I accidentally broke, but when you mostly just want to spend the day asleep, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about.
I’m pretty sure this isn’t just allergies anymore, though.
Today was a pretty decent, if not altogether exciting day, although I do seem to be fighting a summer cold or allergies that have kicked into higher gear suddenly. It’s been coming on the past couple of days, actually, and is now a fun mess of watery eyes, a sneezing and runny nose, and a tickle at the back of my throat that, if I’m not careful, turns into a lot of coughing. I’ve felt worse — and I don’t necessarily feel sick — but I’ve also felt better.
Then again, I had an amusing moment via Twitter this afternoon when Kurt Andersen, replying to my compliments on last night’s reading briefly mistook me for his fellow panelist Jeffrey Ford. It’s not like there’s no resemblance, but I think it’s pretty slight. Still, there are worse people to be mistaken for, and it was amusing.
Thinking of making an early night of it, to keep one step ahead of this nagging cough and runny nose.
I went to sleep last night at a somewhat sensible hour, which is actually kind of rare. Many is the Saturday night that I’ve spent late-night capping, acting snarky towards informercials and Darren McGavin long into the wee hours. It’s all a bit zany — you know, a bit madcap, funster. Frankly I don’t fully understand it myself, but the kids seem to like it.
Today was a pretty quiet day. I worked on the Sunday New York Times crossword, which for a change I really disliked, thanks to a theme that seemed way too clever by half and ultimately just hurt my brain. Lots of people seemed to love it, however, and the puzzle’s constructor had sense of humor enough to retweet my negative comments. But I still didn’t enjoy the puzzle, which is ultimately something of a curate’s egg: inventive in its construction but headache-inducing in its execution.
Afterward, I joined my writing group for a little free-writing, then came back home to watch television with the dog. My parents drove out to Port Jefferson to see my aunt, who’s been in the hospital since yesterday with an irregular heartbeat. She’s feeling well, and has been moved from the critical care unit, but the underlying problem hasn’t yet been diagnosed and/or fixed. So we’re all hoping for the best.
Then for dinner, Chinese food: “The fortune you seek is in another cookie.” Talk about too clever by half.
And somehow that filled a Sunday. Time, I think, for bed.
A German biologist says that efforts to clean oil-drenched birds in the Gulf of Mexico are in vain. For the birds’ sake, it would be faster and less painful if animal-rescue workers put them under, she says. Studies and other experts back her up.
Yes, it’s supposed to be fun. And over the years audiences have had the kind of fun that comes from easy immersion in someone else’s career, someone else’s sex life, someone else’s clothes. But “Sex and the City 2†is about someone else’s boredom, someone else’s vacation and ultimately someone else’s desire to exploit that vicarious pleasure for profit. Which isn’t much fun at all.