Dreaming of Jeanni: The Wendy Bird
Well, here it is: the video compilation tribute to Mom, all done. Or about as done as it's going to get. I kept thinking about how much longer I should tinker with it to perfect it, and then decided, well, I could get sucked into just doing that forever. Might as well just share it.
I wish I could embed it here, but not being able to embed is a compromise I was willing to make so I would not have to compromise the quality of the video itself: it features 10 different tracks, multiple of which are no doubt copyright protected. The algorithms and policy statements of sites like YouTube and Facebook are far more sophisticated now than, say, when I created and posted the Grandma McQuilkin tribute video in 2011 (which featured only one actual music track at the very end anyway, as I recall). I've already learned the hard way when trying to post my annual "Year in Ten Minutes' video to YouTube that sharing videos on those sites results in warnings on my accounts and the videos getting blocked, bullshit like that. I have a relative fix, for now at least, for those "Year in Ten Minutes" videos where I can upload them to Flickr, and still have the option of embedding—but Flickr has a ten-minute per-video length limit per upload.
This tribute video for Mom, which I have entitled, Dreaming of Jeanni: The Wendy Bird, is 83 minutes long, So, uploading to Flickr would only work if I broke it up into nine separate parts, and nobody wants that. I thought I might be able to load the file to DropBox and share it from there, but their memory limit for free accounts is too limited. I have far more memory space at Microsoft's OneDrive (and, I just realized, my 1TB amount of space there is probably because I now have an annual paid subscription to Microsoft Office apps), so that's where I uploaded it. So, if you just click that link, you should just be taken to a page that instantly shows the video.
I'm rather proud of it. I wanted to share the link here because I spent the vast majority of my entire weekend finishing it up—yesterday alone, while Shobhit worked a 9-6 shift, with the exception of breaking to watch two episodes of I May Destroy You on HBO, I spent pretty much the entire time working on it. I was going through one last review of the whole video, with ten minutes left, when Shobhit got home from work. I noted that I had gotten a little emotional a few times watching it, and I think people who cared about Mom the most who watch it will probably cry. People like her grandchildren, or her friends like Darcy, or Karen, or Kris, or Shelley. Maybe even Holly. As for Bill, who is more prominently featured in the video than anyone else besides Mom herself, I don't know if he's even ready to watch it. Maybe, maybe not. The same goes for Christopher, who to this say still has not watched the Grandma McQuilkin memorial video, because he's not sure he could handle it. And this one is of our mother, so who knows?
Anyway. I will probably share the link on social media later this evening. I just want to do a couple of other things first, including create a playlist on Spotify that serves as a "soundtrack album" for this video; and write up a Word document with some notes on the subtext of the tracks I used. In a majority of cases, there is certainly subtext.
I'm trying to remember . . . what else did I do over the weekend? On Saturday while Shobhit was working I rode my bike to the office and back to exchange paperwork. I also had to print out the pages of the taxes Shobhit finally finished filing, one day after he applied for and got yet another extension. It was nice to get out for some sun (not too hot, thankfully) and some exercise.
I did not walk with Alexia because we agreed not to walk again until she got her COVID-19 test results back. She texted them to me yesterday: "not detected." As I expected, but it's still a relief to us all to know for sure. She and I have gone on so many walks, had she tested positive I absolutely would have had to get tested immediately too, even though we never stood too close to each other, were always outside, and always had on masks. I had thought maybe we could take a walk somewhere else yesterday, but she's unavailable for at least a week, after having taken so much PTO to take her mother to (unrelated) medical appointments and now she is busy playing catch-up. We'll probably walk again this Saturday or Sunday.
I still hope to go to that same testing site with Shobhit sometime next weekend, to get a recent test done right before we head over to visit Bill, Christopher and Tristen in Wallace. Nikki and TJ might have planned to come join as well, but they have other plans that week to go to Washington. D.C. Although I can't imagine it's the most tourist friendly place right now (what city possibly could be?), so it'll be interesting to see if either they actually still take the trip, or how it actually goes for them. Honestly it's probably best to keep the group small this go-round anyway. I finally called to book the Hercules Inn on Saturday, and although I had no trouble doing so, I was surprised to learn both the ground units were taken and so we had to book one of the two units on the second floor. It's not as much of a concern anyway since Mom's dead and can't come over anyway; Bill will almost certainly still not leave the house; and we don't want to be hanging out with each other indoors as it is. I'm weirdly kind of looking forward to it, as I don't believe we ever booked an upper-level room before. Anything for a slight change of pace. I mean, not that Mom being dead won't be a pretty fucking massive change as of this visit.
Shobhit and I did go shopping at the PCC on 23rd & Union after he got home from work on Saturday, after being insufferably difficult about the idea of going Friday evening, when I got so annoyed I said we could just go another time. He balked at literally every single thing I said I wanted to buy, but then when we were there Saturday, because the Blue Diamond Almond Milk refrigerated half-gallons were on sale, even though he doesn't even drink them (and I use them exclusively for my cereal and for taking my morning pills), he put six of them into our cart. That was just one example of us winding up getting so many groceries that I spent $93—after he was so pissy about spending any money at all on Friday. My husband is fucking impossible.
Anyway. Aside from all that, I spent virtually the entirety of the rest of my weekend working on the memorial tribute video for Mom. I have to say, for me at least, that was some truly fulfilling work. I feel confident that plenty of people will be very, very pleased with it. I mean, the people who knew Mom and loved her, anyway. It'll bore the shit out of anyone else, I'm sure—even though I'm also in nearly all of it! Anyway, just once more for good measure: the link.
[posted 12:43 pm]
