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2001-12-25 / 2:28 p.m. ~Brunch With Anna and Guenter, "Lord of the Rings", etc.~ This is the first time I've worn my glasses in a couple days. I can't even remember the last time I had them on....maybe Saturday? Yes, I think I stayed up late catching up on Moby's journal Saturday night. I'm just not dedicated to this diary anymore. Sunday was truly uneventful. I had a hard time recollecting it for my real journal, my paper journal. I mostly sat on the sofa watching movies. But I think I washed dishes and vacuumed as well. Very satisfying, vacuuming. I actually saw the portion of "Logan's Run" I never see. And it was on cable, one of the Cinemaxes I think, so they showed major nudity, non-sexual nudity, just taking off clothes nudity, very unashamed nudity. Very interesting. In fact, I think I've only ever seen the very beginning of this movie before, on network TV. Anyway, it was good. And "Valmont", another version of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", much better than "Dangerous Liaisons", I think, because of the casting....Annette Bening plays the Glenn Close character, and Colin Firth the John Malkovich, the Comte de Valmont. Much better to have more attractive people in those roles. No true offense to Glenn and John, but, well, you know what I mean. I didn't leave my apartment all weekend. I planned to go out on Sunday, I really did, but it was raining and cold, and I knew there would be horrid traffic jams, horrid drivers, horrid situations in which I did not want to immerse myself. But I came very close to getting completely dressed and leaving. To see a movie. On the other hand....I had made a commitment to have brunch at Anna and Guenter's, yesterday, Monday, so, knowing that, I was less likely to push myself Sunday. I fell asleep after watching "Kurt and Courtney" on Sundance Channel, Sunday night, and that was a creepy little documentary, and re-set my alarm maybe four times Monday morning, between 9:00 and 10:30, which turns out to really be 10:15. I had plenty of time to get ready, and got to Anna and Guenter's new apartment in Midtown just after noon. They are renting a one bedroom in an old house on a very historic old street in Midtown. It's really right in the heart of things, but already they've been burglarized. Anna told me they were standing in the apartment, by the back door, when someone walked in and took Guenter's laptop, his business laptop, not personal, and his wallet. His wallet with everything in it, EVERYTHING, cash, social security card, driver's license, and green card! While we were enjoying brunch he received his new Social Security card in the mail. That, is fast service. The apartment is charming, filled with character, and crooked floors. Hardwoods, recently refinished, high ceilings, crown moldings, plaster walls, a screened porch overlooking the city, large rooms, a bathroom with an old claw foot tub. And huge windows which look directly into the house next door! Directly. Luckily, the sun shines between the houses, and the rooms fill with a tremendous amount of light, semi-blinding sunlight depending on where you sit, through most of the day. Anna remarked that she could use some sunglasses. She made us a wonderful frittata with bacon and onions and cheese. She told me she was going to make it, began to tell me what a frittata is, and I couldn't believe someone else was making one, someone besides me - I love to make them! A less snobby version of an omelet. An earthy version. And it was so good! We had earthy herbed bread from the Farmer's Market and several different cheeses, and I had a whole pot of Earl Grey tea to myself, with cranberry honey, and orange juice, and huge, plump, red strawberries at the center of the table, Florida strawberries. Guenter was hungover from a dinner with the boss the night before, the boss and friends staying 'til very late, maybe 3:00 or so. He left the table to smoke cigarettes. Finally, for some reason, Anna got online, the computer in the same room as the green dining table sitting at a diagonal under a new version of a very fancy old chandelier, and I got to see what a DSL connection is like. It blew me away! Faster than the T-1 at work, truly. I had to get online too. And since I had on my Dr. Seuss shirt and they didn't know who Dr. Seuss is, I did a search and found web sites about him, a biography, and the complete text to The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, in a few seconds really. It was fantastic to be on someone else's computer, especially one so fast. And it has one of those ergonomically correct chairs, the kind without a back, where you rest your knees on a pad and there's one for your butt. And the mouse was cordless, no roller ball. We checked news headlines from BBC and CNN, Antiwar.com, I read my email, Anna read hers, then Guenter began playing with an MP3 player, Sonic-something. All the Windows text is in German too. They have it set that way. Windows '98, in German. We listened to some Italian rapper, and it was really good. Anna served me some of the beef stew Guenter had made the night before. It was filled with red wine, vegetables, and very tender chunks of beef. More tea, warmed in the microwave, more sunlight, lower and lower through the windows looking into the house next door. I took them to wavcentral.com and downloaded some .wav files. I kept saying, "You can delete this later", but they didn't mind at all. We listened to the theme song from the old cartoon "Topcat", and some sound bytes from movies. Finally, we decided to see a movie, which had been my plan to leave, assuming I would want to, but it turned out I didn't really want to. So, we went together, Anna reserving tickets over the phone, me having to force my $5 on her to pay my own way. We walked, as they are not far at all from a local multiplex intown. Of course, it seems not far, but really it was several blocks, several, and it was very cold, very. We saw "Lord of the Rings", and it was long, there is just so much to the story, it goes on and on and on. I've never read the trilogy, but I read The Hobbit years ago, when I was a teenager, and it all came back to me, Gandalf, Gollum, the Bagginses, the Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, Stryder (and that Led Zeppelin song where he sings, "And Gollum, the evil one, crept up and slipped away with her.....the Ring Wraiths ride in black"....what song is that? - *Addendum: listening to it now, I do have 8 Zeppelin albums after all...it's "The Battle of Evermore". Yes, what better to listen to on Christmas than Led Zeppelin? Also...I TOTALLY want to go read either The Hobbit or The Fellowship of the Ring now! And I DO own them. Um, the line about Gollum, that's not in this song, not yet anyway....I'll have to listen to more...). All of it was so familiar. I think I read recently that Tolkien wrote The Hobbit first, then wanted to open up the story a bit and wrote the trilogy following. I think that's what happened. So, really, reading the one and not the other three is fine and dandy. It was an amazing film, really. I mean I didn't think a lot about the effects as I was watching because it just seemed so real. The suspension of disbelief was in high gear, a high suspension wire. There was no disbelief. There was only one scene, where the camera tracks the action of a battle within the forest, the camera obviously on a trackline high above, and it was a long line, it moved a long distance almost at the height of the treetops. This, I noticed. I imagined the effort involved to rig it. It was amazing. But it was long, too long to sit still, too long to listen to the gay couple in front of us constantly talking, as if it were "MST3K" or something. And the woman behind me sniffling with her cold, after chewing her popcorn with her mouth open so she could breathe, and the woman next to her gasping and screaming at the Orcs, the monsters in the forests. I wanted a break, several times. Later, much later, I thought of all the scenes that could easily have been shortened. It needs editing. Seriously. But it's a great film, truly great. And if you haven't read the story, well, good luck. It's awfully complicated, all the characters, their odd names, to hear them and not see them in print, and their motivations, and the way Frodo holds the ring out in his hand so many times I was afraid he'd lose it! And he almost does. After the walk back, and Guenter wanted us to go to the pool hall in the shopping center, but I had to get back to Norma and Gladys, I was frozen. The temp was low 30s, the wind chill in the 20s, the air was biting, I had no hat, no ear muffs, no gloves, just my Dr. Seuss fleece shirt and my jacket, and jeans. I longed for long johns, gloves, mittens, ear muffs, knit cap, and it was blocks and blocks of longing. By the time we reached their house, my bowels were seizing on me, there is no other way to describe it. It felt like menstrual cramps, or pre-diarrhea cramps, or both, and I didn't know what to do. A quick trip to their bathroom to pee and I made my goodbyes, didn't stay for the homemade lemon ice cream with strawberry mousse Anna had planned to serve. I'd been with them for seven hours and it was time to head home. I didn't get Thai food takeout like I'd planned, I didn't come back into town for Midnight Mass like I'd planned, I felt my ears were going to fall off, and my bowels were going to explode, so I drove home. Once home I was fine, of course. No exploding, I think it was just gas from Guenter's Italian beef stew, and the cold. I know this is not Alaska, there is no snow on the ground, but when you're out walking around in a 28 degree windchill, well, it can get unbearable quickly. I'm no wuss, but that did me in. I watched "It's a Wonderful Life", again, on NBC, and at the end I almost cried. That really is a fantastic movie, you know? I took my Christmas cards out of their envelopes where I'd left them after looking at them, put them out on a table, almost called A., because she's called me twice in the past few weeks, and I have nothing to say so I've not returned her calls.....but I imagined her at home surrounded by her family, and didn't want to be the intruding phone call. I'd just gotten a card from her, in yesterday's mail, and felt guilty for not communicating with her. I fell asleep on the sofa, again, with both cats on my peonies throw. It's very lovely, it was once so lovely I wouldn't allow them on it, but life is too short, as they say, and all three of us crammed on to the sofa, and slept through the latter half of the news, and all the programming on CBS, waking up to shift, for me to push them down a bit, these big meatloaf hunks of cats, then finally up at 6:00 this morning, to brush teeth, wash face, and get in bed. Where I slept until 2:00 this afternoon, Norma curled up against my legs, Gladys curled against my torso, under covers, me dreaming, as usual. Dreaming of many things. I've told Anna and Guenter I'll attend their New Year's Eve party, so now it's definite, and Guenter is giving me an internal modem, 56K, and some memory, and I'll take my PC to the party so he can put them in, maybe before the others arrive. And Adam is going, supposedly bringing his banjo, and I said I'd bring champagne. I'm off work today, Christmas, and tomorrow, go in on Thursday, then half a day on Friday. Using up the last of my vacation and sick days. Wonderful. Hopefully today I'll do some laundry, catch up on my "Guiding Light"s, maybe see "Ali" or some other Christmas opener. The world is at my disposal, and it feels pretty good. Cost of the War in Iraq
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