Fall back

Always before, my rest and relaxation quotient has gotten such a boost from the reversion to Standard Time. But this time it seemed that the extra hour was no help at all. Instead, my flagging constitution simply absorbed it. My body woke up this morning and said, ‘Okay, that was nice. Need more sleep.’

We went out to catch a matinee on Saturday. Alas, we pressed our luck too long and The Village is no longer playing, even at the cheap theater. So we went to see The Bourne Identity instead, and fortunately got there in time for the previews. I am such a sucker for previews. I don’t feel as if I’m getting my money’s worth out of a movie if I don’t get a sufficient sampling of the other movies out there while I’m at it. When we rent a movie and there are no previews, I feel so ripped off. But there was one preview that is still bothering me. Well, first of all, I thought it said at the beginning that it had been approved for ALL audiences, so I wasn’t even in the mindset of closing my eyes until toward the end, when Michael leaned over and whispered, ‘You know, you can close your eyes.’ But I had still seen enough to puzzle me. I kept saying things later like, ‘Now, wait a minute. There were the zombies, and then there were the gargoyles that came alive, and then there was that creepy alien-like tentacle. How could a bio-chemical experiment gone awry give normal humans all of those properties?’ ‘Rose,’ Michael would say patiently, ‘it’s just a B-grade horror flick. I’m sure it doesn’t have a reasonable plot and it’s not supposed to make sense.’ ‘Oh.’ And then, a little later, ‘Why didn’t the man with the gun notice that alien tentacle curling around him? Don’t you think you’d notice something like that? And if you had a gun in your hand, wouldn’t you shoot it?’ ‘Rose! It’s just a movie! He stood there stupidly because he was scripted to do that!’ ‘Oh, that’s right.’ And then, later, ‘Hmm, well, since it said at the beginning that they sealed the vault, then all the action takes place in the sealed vault, so it’s a contained disaster, so the subtitle is really inaccurate right? I mean, apocalypse means total destruction of the whole world, not just a localised disaster.’ It was a very puzzling preview. Somewhat less puzzling in plot, but just as mysterious in premise, was the snake movie. Supposedly a team of explorers braved the wilds of the jungle and the wrath of mating anacondas in search of the Blood Orchid, a rare flower that was supposed to have healing, fountain-of-youth properties. ‘But,’ I told Michael, ‘why go off into a dangerous jungle for that? Why not just breed it from the comforts of the laboratory, as they did with the black tulip, or the blue tea rose?’

Much more satisfying is A & E’s Pride and Prejudice, which we are watching together for the third time. Once again, it was at Michael’s instigation. He remarked on Friday night, ‘I think it’s time to watch Pride and Prejudice again.’ With my current sleep requirements, we only get in one episode per night, but it’s such a good movie! When the ominous music played as Mr. Darcy rides through the woods - and you just know he’s going to come face-to-face with Elizabeth any minute - I patted Michael’s hand and said, ‘See, this is the kind of scary music I like! This is exactly my level of tension!’