The view from my kitchen window this morning
The house across the street, the one I wanted originally
From the front porch - doesn't it look like a sleigh could go by at any moment?
The view from the front porchI was also feeling much better today, which was a good thing. I’ve been looking forward to Justin’s brunch tomorrow all week this week and really want to be up for it.
After some tasty brekkie, I lounged around and watched Cash In The Attic on BBC America. The Hunchback of Notre Dame was on TCM today and I had never seen it. The 1939 version is supposed to be one of the best (no surprise there to movie buffs). Charles Laughton was great, and Maureen O’Hara was heart-rendingly beautiful. I watched it with one eye while I breakfasted and started on the day.
I had plenty to do. The goal was for me to get all my chores done today so that I could play with a clear conscience for as long as I wanted tomorrow. After Hunchback went off, Mutiny on the Bounty came on – bleah – but that was fine. I turned off the TV and set to in earnest.
I did all the laundry, changed the sheets, dusted the bedroom, cleaned out the fridge, took out the trash, dust mopped the wood floors and vacuumed all the carpets and the furniture in the living room. The place looked pretty spiffy when I got done. As a reward, I turned on Jezebel (also on TCM today, and one of my favorites) while I finished that up.
After a pause for lunch, I put in an anime movie I had gotten from the library this week to watch as I started cooking. I had planned on maybe making Helen’s Christmas cake (at last) today, but I had forgotten to get butter last night. I was pretending to be ‘snowed in’ today to keep myself focused, even though the roads were mostly clear and dry by about 2pm. I made a big pot of smother-fried garlic vegetables for lunch next week, packed up the lunches, and cleaned up the kitchen. By the time I made tea and ate some leftovers for supper I was pretty much whooped. But it was all done, and I was free tomorrow, which was the goal.
After fielding a couple of calls from Justin about making strata (I was very flattered to be his go-to guy), I got caught up in a Jane Austen marathon on telly.
They showed the Keira Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice twice today. I had turned past it earlier in the day, and coincidentally I caught it tonight at just the place where I had left off earlier. After that, they showed Becoming Jane, which I had not yet seen. I watched it too. It was quite good, although I hadn’t realized that Jane Austen had such an unfulfilled love life prior to this. I suppose someone married wouldn’t have written so glowingly about love, and so longingly about marriage. It was interesting to pick out the characters that later wound up in her books from her life story (although I’m sure it had been ‘Hollywood-ized’). Unsurprisingly, I felt an affinity for Austen, always the one a day late and a dollar short, just missing happiness.
I haven’t thought as much about Valentine’s Day this year as I usually do. I don’t know if it’s the channels I’ve been watching, or if I’m just less sensitive, but I haven’t noticed the usual 8,000,000 jewelry commercials and the like this year. I haven’t been dreading it the way I usually do. Part of that may be that there is a prospect on the horizon as well. I heard from new Billy last week, and it seems that he’s getting settled back down, and hasn’t forgotten about me. It will be nice to meet him, although of course there is still a major hurdle to clear even if we hit things off. I wonder if I’ve been putting off meeting him to hold onto the sense of hope. Life has intervened of course, but if I’ve been doing that it’s hardly fair or productive.
Any melancholia I was courting was immediately banished by turning over to the Fran Dresher Valentines Schmalentines marathon while I got ready for bed. You just can’t hold onto a blue mood in the face of such utter vapidness.
Plus I am really looking forward to tomorrow!
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