Good Friday, 2014
Had my first Good Friday off from work in years: color me impressed. I went to St. Joseph's today, hoping to get there in time for the Stations of the Cross, but I missed it. Ah well.
There was a funny air in the church, an emptiness, a silence, even though a fair number of people still occupied the pews, praying quietly. The tabernacle stood open and empty: perhaps this emptiness draws more people, the way that, in the words of Benjamin Franklin (I think), people value the water when the well runs dry.
Attempted some shopping at Wal-Mart: Mum had found a coupon for the shampoo that I regularly use, so I thought to buy it there and get a little extra boost on savings, but they didn't seem to stock that brand. Ah well, I needed to get some vitamins and I did a little browsing. Likely, this came a bit ill-advised: I took a look around the toy department and... found a new My Little Pony plush unicorn, this time the fan less than favorite Trixie: I have a bit of a soft spot for her, though not for this reason. She's not a baddie, but she is a bit full of herself and too confident in her capabilities, so it's fun to see her fall off her own pedestal. She's a bit of a loser that way (and in an inverse way, she ties into one of the ways that Christianity used unicorns as a symbol, namely for the virtue of humility; medieval lore held that unicorns' horns eventually grew so long that they eventually had trouble lifting their heads too far). I have a feeling the other plush critters in my zoo will keep her in line, particularly Rhamph the dinosaur: he has a way of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable (yes, the plush critters have their own personalities, sometimes very active).
Got back home in time to pray the Chaplet of Mercy with my mother, then we headed out to the bank to straighten out the mess with the account. Fortunately, that went without a hitch, in fact, the lovely young manager was deeply grateful that we showed up: they had a cash transaction that they could not account for at the end of the day (due to a human error on the part of a new clerk) and they could not figure out why.
And this evening, as my mother tooled through the local movie channels, she found the 1968 British movie-musical version of "Oliver!", which we'd seen as live theater when I was seven or eight (when one of the cousins played a random member of Fagen's gang). The movie version occupies a very especial place in my childhood: one of the UHF channels used to run it every Thanksgiving night for several years and we watched it several years in succession. Utterly lovely film-making: great cinematography, score and choreography, though Fagen's gang would fail miserably at picking a pocket or two: they kept using their thumbs. Don't ask me how I learned (possibly from an episode of "White Collar"), but if you're picking a pocket, you use your index and middle finger to grab the object you're nicking.
Still dealing with the writing dry spell, still trying to find the time, energy, inspiration and space in which to write. Though I've been pecking away playing "Don't Starve": I actually kept a character alive for a record thirty days in succession.
There was a funny air in the church, an emptiness, a silence, even though a fair number of people still occupied the pews, praying quietly. The tabernacle stood open and empty: perhaps this emptiness draws more people, the way that, in the words of Benjamin Franklin (I think), people value the water when the well runs dry.
Attempted some shopping at Wal-Mart: Mum had found a coupon for the shampoo that I regularly use, so I thought to buy it there and get a little extra boost on savings, but they didn't seem to stock that brand. Ah well, I needed to get some vitamins and I did a little browsing. Likely, this came a bit ill-advised: I took a look around the toy department and... found a new My Little Pony plush unicorn, this time the fan less than favorite Trixie: I have a bit of a soft spot for her, though not for this reason. She's not a baddie, but she is a bit full of herself and too confident in her capabilities, so it's fun to see her fall off her own pedestal. She's a bit of a loser that way (and in an inverse way, she ties into one of the ways that Christianity used unicorns as a symbol, namely for the virtue of humility; medieval lore held that unicorns' horns eventually grew so long that they eventually had trouble lifting their heads too far). I have a feeling the other plush critters in my zoo will keep her in line, particularly Rhamph the dinosaur: he has a way of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable (yes, the plush critters have their own personalities, sometimes very active).
Got back home in time to pray the Chaplet of Mercy with my mother, then we headed out to the bank to straighten out the mess with the account. Fortunately, that went without a hitch, in fact, the lovely young manager was deeply grateful that we showed up: they had a cash transaction that they could not account for at the end of the day (due to a human error on the part of a new clerk) and they could not figure out why.
And this evening, as my mother tooled through the local movie channels, she found the 1968 British movie-musical version of "Oliver!", which we'd seen as live theater when I was seven or eight (when one of the cousins played a random member of Fagen's gang). The movie version occupies a very especial place in my childhood: one of the UHF channels used to run it every Thanksgiving night for several years and we watched it several years in succession. Utterly lovely film-making: great cinematography, score and choreography, though Fagen's gang would fail miserably at picking a pocket or two: they kept using their thumbs. Don't ask me how I learned (possibly from an episode of "White Collar"), but if you're picking a pocket, you use your index and middle finger to grab the object you're nicking.
Still dealing with the writing dry spell, still trying to find the time, energy, inspiration and space in which to write. Though I've been pecking away playing "Don't Starve": I actually kept a character alive for a record thirty days in succession.