LDW
Let's see how quickly I can blow through the evens of my three-day weekend, the second such weekend in a row but this time relatively uneventful, save for seeing three different movies, one of them -- on Friday -- outside at Cal Anderson Park. It should not take me that long, actually.
Especially since the first part of the weekend involved me being kind of sick. As in, had Saturday been a work day, I would not have worked. I guess I could feel grateful for the timing, as it allowed me to avoid burning up PTO at work, and I spent pretty much half of Saturday sleeping.
I will admit to feeling a slight tickle in my throat as early as Thursday. I went ahead with the plans I had anyway, including meeting up with Laney Friday evening for the one outdoor movie Three Dollar Bill Cinema managed to present this summer, Kinky Boots. They had told me at their booth at Trans Pride in June that a funding source had fallen through and that was why I could not find any schedule for the summer; they informed me they still intended to present the one movie on Friday August 30, and they even told me which movie it would be. I actually made the plan to see it with Laney shortly thereafter.
At her suggestion, we met at 6:00, about an hour earlier than I usually get there, which itself is still about an hour before the movie usually screens at dusk. I always kind of barely managed to get a decent spot arriving around 7:00; arriving at 6:00 was clearly a good move. There is a slight hill at the back of the grassy area where the audience goes to sit and watch these movies, which they project onto an inflatable screen, and Laney had staked out a spot right atop that hill, which is maybe up about four feet, with a direct view of the screen. She brought a lawn chair and I laid my blanket tote on the ground next to her.
I had felt kind of crappy that morning, but as I plowed through the day, I felt progressively better as the day went on, honestly. So, I went ahead and stuck with the plan for the evening, and had a pleasant couple of hours with Laney before the movie. I made a Field Roast veggie burger to take with me as a picnic dinner, along with a thermos full of an experimental cocktail I will never do again, mixing vodka, a vanilla mixer, and Dr. Zevia soda -- it tasted very weird. I did have a few cough drops as well.
On Thursday, after realizing Kinky Boots, old as it seems now, was still released after I started posting movie reviews, I went and found my 2006 review, in which I gave it a C+ and after re-reading my very critical review that seemed generous. I figured I might enjoy the movie more this time, and although I still stand by a lot of my 2006 criticism, I did. I told Laney that if I were reviewing it now I would have at least given it a B-. There's a lot of real resentment evident in that review that I don't think I would have now.
Anyway. After the movie ended we packed up and walked to our homes in opposite directions, about half a mile in both cases. I took a dose of NyQuil and went to bed. And, when I woke up Saturday morning, I kind of felt like shit. Shobhit actually made breakfast for me, which was very sweet of him, but I slept in much later than usual at first, after getting up briefly to eat breakfast but then getting back into bed. Shobhit had to go to work at noon that day, and he left around 11:30 maybe; I went back to sleep a third time at that point, and slept pretty soundly, actually, until 1:37 in the afternoon.
I thought about taking a Sudafed, but looked at the symptoms listed on the box and found that I really had none of them -- by now I didn't even quite have the throat tickle. Whatever I had seemed to have been pretty minor, and just getting some extra sleep on Saturday, which I had no trouble doing even without any medicating on Saturday, apparently did the trick. I got up and showered Saturday afternoon, and actually felt well enough to walk to QFC to meet Shobhit for some coupon shopping; he stopped there on his drive back from Total Wine. I'm glad I never made any plan to see a movie on Saturday. Taking it easy most of the day was clearly the right thing to do, and another example now of many of how effective it is to stay home and rest all day when not feeling very well. It really makes a huge difference, a lesson a quite obstinately refused to learn for many years in my twenties and early thirties. Thank God I no longer work shitty jobs that expect you to work no matter how shitty you feel, which is kind of insane.
Shobhit worked again on Sunday (one swing shift, 1 to 9:15) and yesterday (two shifts, 8 am to 1 pm and then his other job 3:15 to 9:15), and I stuck with what had already been my plan to take myself to a movie on both days. I still decided it best not to overextend myself by walking or biking to the U District on Sunday and so I took the bus to see The Nightingale at the AMC 10 at 2:00. This allowed me to get some reading done of my library book as well.
Yesterday, I had originally planned to see One Child Nation, a documentary about China's One Child Policy, at 2:00 again at the same theatre, but later decided to postpone it to 5:15 since Shobhit would be home briefly between his shifts and this way I'd be home at the same time. I managed to convince him to go with me, after he ate his lunch, over to Old School Frozen Custard to redeem the free sundae I got for having 10 stars in the loyalty program. Social Review point for Shobhit! The deal was worth "up to $9," and even though I had intended to take advantage of a free dessert, Shobhit wanted a three-scoop Banana Split, which jacked the value up to nearly $13 with a full banana and then closer to $14 with the hot fudge topping I wanted with it, so I paid $5.13 for it -- about the same amount I usually pay for the single scoop of frozen custard with one topping that I usually buy for myself there.
Shobhit decided we should eat only half of it and save the rest for a dessert tonight. It's been pretty warm, with highs just around 80°, for several days now, so the bowl of ice cream melted a bit for even the block and a half walk home. It's in the freezer now though and will make for a nice dessert tonight too, I suppose, although nowhere near as it was fresh yesterday afternoon. That said, I guess five bucks for basically two days' worth of desserts is still a pretty good deal.
Anyway! The movies. The Nightingale and One Child Nation are very different movies, from very different genres, with one peculiar thing in common: one is a drama bordering on horror; the other a documentary bordering on horror; both force the viewer to confront geopolitical horrors not adequately examined by world history. In the former's case, it's the colonialism of the British specific to nineteenth-century Australia, and oppression of the Irish, the Australian Aboriginal natives, and women alike. In the latter case, it's the illogically female-specific oppression of the Chinese government in its "war against overpopulation" -- and that one within the past few decades. Suffice it to say that both movies force the viewer to confront severe brutality in equal measure, if in very different contexts.
The only problem I'm having now is a pretty steady stream of sneezes. It's not incessant, but it's much more frequent than usual. It feels like there's something microbial inside my right nostril that's causing it, and it's starting to get annoying. I feel fine otherwise, but the sneezes throw mucus out into my nose, making it feel slightly clogged for a few minutes each time. I've blown my nose several times but nothing has had any real effect on that weird tickle in my right nostril. I just hope this isn't any sort of omen regarding whether this brief cold was really as brief as it seemed to be.
[posted 12:19 pm]