Five things: The circle of life edition
1) Bad sleep: The end of last week was challenging and emotionally exhausting. I had plans for the weekend that I very much wanted to execute on and so I pushed through, but my sleep was poor and Ezekiel didn't help.
2) Road trip and party: On Saturday, I caught a lift with MD and JF south to Portland for a party celebrating the near-year anniversaries of the marriages of MD and JF, DD and WI, and calendulawitch and markjferrari. The party was at WI's parents house, which is situated on a low rise above a river, with beautiful gardens and lots of forest around them. The ranch-style house was gorgeous. We had a delicious potluck dinner on a table decorated with centerpieces from Mark and Shannon's wedding last year. We made s'mores over the firepit. We all talked a lot. I don't think I had nearly enough alcohol. But the company was good, the food quite fine, and the party a reminder that life goes on.
3) Closing the circle: I stayed the night at kateyule and davidlevine's place. We got up early to have breakfast with radiantlisa. I haven't seen her in a year and it was nice to catch up. She looked good; she looked happy, and she's clearly got a good start at starting over again. She returned to me a piece of art that I'd made for jaylake years ago, a collage inside a silver pocket watch case. When I opened the packaging to look at it for the first time in years, I discovered that he'd attached a chain and fob to it so that, apparently, he could wear it like a regular watch. For some reason, something about that discovery lent closure to a lot of things I've been feeling and thinking about Jay over the last year. I need to find the right place to display the watch in the house now.
4) Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell: D&K and I watched the first installment of BBC America's production of the eponymous novel. It's a handsome adaptation and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I'm delighted that it's on a cable channel I actually can watch, and I'm looking forward to the next episode. With something like Game of Thrones on HBO, to which I do not subscribe, my options are to wait a year to see the season, rely on the kindness of friends (and who has time for this?) or rely on less reputable means to see the series. I've done this last before but it has lost its appeal. I was glad to be able to watch it with D&K. Our impressions of the piece were similar: good production, good performances, and a nice, economical adaptation of a book with a reputation for being a little too long for its actual content.
5) Light!: After a hiccup in delivery, I've finally received the new light fixture for the kitchen. JF has kindly offered to install it for me next week. It's a pretty thing, and I'm looking forward to enjoying its light (and to not sitting under a bare bulb as though I were in an interrogation room anymore).
---------------------
Note to self: next things to post about:
--Ancestry.com and Grandpa Morris' letters to Grandma Sadie
--The Night Circus
2) Road trip and party: On Saturday, I caught a lift with MD and JF south to Portland for a party celebrating the near-year anniversaries of the marriages of MD and JF, DD and WI, and calendulawitch and markjferrari. The party was at WI's parents house, which is situated on a low rise above a river, with beautiful gardens and lots of forest around them. The ranch-style house was gorgeous. We had a delicious potluck dinner on a table decorated with centerpieces from Mark and Shannon's wedding last year. We made s'mores over the firepit. We all talked a lot. I don't think I had nearly enough alcohol. But the company was good, the food quite fine, and the party a reminder that life goes on.
3) Closing the circle: I stayed the night at kateyule and davidlevine's place. We got up early to have breakfast with radiantlisa. I haven't seen her in a year and it was nice to catch up. She looked good; she looked happy, and she's clearly got a good start at starting over again. She returned to me a piece of art that I'd made for jaylake years ago, a collage inside a silver pocket watch case. When I opened the packaging to look at it for the first time in years, I discovered that he'd attached a chain and fob to it so that, apparently, he could wear it like a regular watch. For some reason, something about that discovery lent closure to a lot of things I've been feeling and thinking about Jay over the last year. I need to find the right place to display the watch in the house now.
4) Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell: D&K and I watched the first installment of BBC America's production of the eponymous novel. It's a handsome adaptation and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I'm delighted that it's on a cable channel I actually can watch, and I'm looking forward to the next episode. With something like Game of Thrones on HBO, to which I do not subscribe, my options are to wait a year to see the season, rely on the kindness of friends (and who has time for this?) or rely on less reputable means to see the series. I've done this last before but it has lost its appeal. I was glad to be able to watch it with D&K. Our impressions of the piece were similar: good production, good performances, and a nice, economical adaptation of a book with a reputation for being a little too long for its actual content.
5) Light!: After a hiccup in delivery, I've finally received the new light fixture for the kitchen. JF has kindly offered to install it for me next week. It's a pretty thing, and I'm looking forward to enjoying its light (and to not sitting under a bare bulb as though I were in an interrogation room anymore).
---------------------
Note to self: next things to post about:
--Ancestry.com and Grandpa Morris' letters to Grandma Sadie
--The Night Circus