on thursdays we watch movies. E in DC, J in New Orleans, K in Durham, D in Halifax, and me . We started in April 2020 with movies about american exceptionalism -- anxious to remember that the world was going to triumph over COVID, we watched Armageddon and Independence Day. We watched a bunch of outbreak-type movies to see what was going to happen to us. [Early pandemic is encapsulated by E and I, at home in DC sometime in early April 2020 when it still felt like we were locked in the house instead of normal. We were watching Contagion and as the CDC rode in with the solution to save the day, E kind of laughed and said: "welp. They got that wrong"].

We watched Groundhog Day, which felt very very real and way more dark than I remembered. Then we went into a kind of dystopian period... Escape from New York and Escape from LA (and all else John Carpenter). Bad Lieutenant:New Orleans, Robocop, Terminator (and T2), Alien (and Aliens), Running Man, Demolition Man, Total Recall. We watched Speed and Point Break. Road House. A lot of Die Hards. Face/Off and a million other Nic Cage movies. Goonies. Spaceballs. Caddyshack. That one from the 80s with those puppet pet things that go crazy... It's been going on for nearly 2 years now and we rarely miss a week.

The only rule in choosing the movie is that is has to be something we can talk over, because we have a zoom call going at the same time and mostly all we're doing is talking, and laughing, and cracking jokes. Also I can't handle knives or a lot of blood and so everyone is great about not putting horror in the mix (one week we tried Candyman and it triggered something terrible). I live in the country. I live with my parents. I don't see many friends at all, ever, anymore, and yet I rarely feel too isolated because this weekly thing fends off the malaise. I just need this little reminder of what it was like to be with my favourite people. It keeps us all connected so we can one day meet again. I'm so grateful. [Tonight was Rocky, which I'd never seen. It was a good night for some montages]

***

Finally, we have snow. I pushed myself to stop work and go out into the sunshine yesterday for an afternoon cross country ski. Round and around the cornfields again and I couldn't believe I'd thought about not going. I wanted to go again today but work. WORK. So much of it. I don't mind it while I'm doing it but I resent how much time it all takes when there are a million other things I could do with my time. Ugh. I think i'm going to be traveling again next month and ok fine, someone has to go but oh i wish i could push it to March because i am going to miss the best month of snow and snow is magic. Heading up north to a cabin this weekend and there's a magical ice path through the forest. Also it's going to be -29 celsius.

1:56 a.m. - 2022-01-28