Sunday, 04 February 2018
i slept in until almost 9a. my usual day begins at 5a or 6a but sometimes even earlier. the amount i sleep is decreasing as i get older. not that i was ever one to sleep 8 hours a night. the plan was to make biscuits and gravy but we had NO cow’s milk and we did NOT want to get out before we needed to. so, i made the biscuits and ate them with honey, butter, and strawberry preserves. my wife used them to make herself some sausage (vegetarian, ie meatless), egg, and cheese biscuits.
we changed into clothing appropriate for being seen in public then headed out for a major grocery run. we use an app that syncs to the web so we can share the same list so we can both track our groceries and even shop in different aisles if needed. it usually doesn’t sync fast enough though over the store wifi -but we manage.
the store was nearly empty when we got there around 10:15a but by the time we left it was busy. i’m guessing Superb Owl parties and what-not were motivating people because sunday mornings are usually pretty slow. maybe the first of the month is a motivator, too. i’ve always preferred shopping in the early morning on sundays because the stores are nearly peopleless. since we slept in this morning, we straddled the time line between empty and busy but usually the crowds don’t start until after noon once most get out of church. again, i think the superbowl was at play.
we put the groceries away, returned to our comfy clothes, then i ate some lunch. my wife did not eat since her breakfast was considerably more substantial than mine. i ended up having a toasted chicken sandwich.
then we settled into our second day of what i think of as “down time.” it was a weekend when we had no obligations to the outside world (ie no work or social engagements) and no children (i have three from previous relationships), just us and the quiet house. and our three cats.
of course, part of my mind knew that my sports/martial arts club was having a practice sometime that day. i really could have used the practice but i wasn’t going because of recent trouble within our ranks. people have begun behaving in ways that i am not sure i want to be around. so, i did not attend.
later in the afternoon, we had some riesling (and i also indulged with guinness) and vegged out, her poking around a daily/monthly planner website and later cheap eyeglasses website and me reading, facebooking (for me, that’s mostly scrolling and lurking, although i did comment on a couple of friends’ posts), and playing with the cats. we did chores (folding laundry – a loathsome task, staining a pair of shelf brackets and then remounting the shelf, dishes, changing the sheets on the beds, etc.). i puttered around the kitchen, too. we just enjoyed each other’s company in the quiet of our own home. solitude (even if it’s just the two of us) is something we need as introverts every so often to replenish our minds.
around 5p, we cobbled together a dinner of fajitas from leftover pizza ingredients. i sauteed some red onions, green peppers, and black olives with taco seasoning in olive oil and a splash of guinness. i also made fricos- fried cheese “chips.” we added some pickled cactus to them. i had never had cactus before and she only once but bought some the last time she went to the store by herself, it was entirely edible.
i had had two netflix DVDs on our entertainment center for a couple of months now that needed watching. we had begun one once but did not make it through. well, tonight, we were going to watch it no matter what (at least, I was going to…). i had waited 10 years to see this movie and i was going to watch it.
The Class ( Entre les Murs ) i had come across this movie years ago while investigating the indie movie scene. i consider myself something of a film connoisseur at this point having begun serious research into film about 15-18 years ago. i had always loved movie-making, especially the behind-the-scenes stuff with SFX and stunt work and foley walkers, etc. i have also always been interest in storytelling and see film as one of the best ways to impart knowledge and evoke the gamut of human reactions. The Class was a film that had been on my radar for a long time and i was going to watch it tonight, by the gods.
it was an interesting piece since the protagonist was actually the teacher to whom this story happened. the most interesting part was the glimpse we got into the urban school setting in france and what they perceive to be tough teens. by American standards of inner urban schools with gang problems, the kids portrayed in the movie were pussycats.
anyway, it was a long film at just over 2 hours and good for what it was- part documentary, part biopic but my wife was asking at just over the hour mark “how long IS this thing?”
the other movie will have to continue to wait. i can’t even recall what it is now.
after The Class , we migrated back into the living room (the bluray player is in our family room) where my wife resumed her perusal of eyewear online. she loved playing with the “try them on” feature which allows you to see the glasses on an uploaded photo of your face. i had taken a photo of her earlier for her for just this purpose.
again, we just chilled- me reading, her choosing eyeglasses…
i put on netflix and watched a couple episodes of The End of the F***ing World and then an episode of the original series Star Trek just as “comfort food” background noise kind of stuff as the day’s denouement.
bedtime finally called us and my wife revelled in the clean sheets. just after midnight.
epilogue
part of the seduction for this weekend was that it was SuperBowl weekend and neither of us could care less which meant that we could probably enjoy much quietude since most people would be anchored to their houses and not out and about- not that we were out and about but it just felt cozier for some reason.
i am also mildly surprised that we did not play any games. we usually play some games even when we’re alone. games like carcasonne or skip-bo. she also crochets. this sunday was a bit odd for us in that we did a LOT of watching of tv. had the diary day been on saturday, it would have been entirely different. i think we needed a day to just zone out since we hadn’t had one for several weeks.
you know, we didn’t even turn on the puppy bowl or the kitten bowl this year…