My Day

Sunday, My Day, was uneventful. We just stayed home all day while the rain fell. Her Highness is back to being barely able to walk, but this morning we will go to the vet’s place to fetch her meds and get her started. I’m not exactly thrilled to have a dog on prednisone because she will be hungry all the time and will want gallons of water to drink, and that threatens to lead to frustration for both of us. But she will be irritation-free in her feet.

I had two long Zoom calls on Sunday: my BC stutterers support group and Dianne. It was wonderful to have these events because my days of complete idleness sometimes pass rather slowly, but not yesterday. Jay, Eoin and François responded to my invitation to come here for pizza; Eoin and François offered an alternative, so we’re having pizza, but homemade pizza at their house instead of here.

This morning, I awoke and feared the apocalypse had arrived. It was so blisteringly black outside I thought the sun has died. I guess it’s just the change in the time that has me waking in the thick of night. By 7:30 the sky was a beautiful light blue and brilliantly clear. Today will be a gorgeous day, if not for the entire day, at least for a while. We’re getting a lovely break from the rain.

Beth and I Zoomed on Saturday and I told her about some great movies I had seen, and she asked me to write about the movies I love here on the blog. I am a huge fan of Olivia Coleman, so I’ll mention two films that I watched in which she plays the lead: Joyride and Empire of Light. Both were released in 2022.

Before I say more about the movies, a caveat: My condition precludes my watching many, many movies. I must choose the films I watch carefully to avoid triggers in the films. I’m not entirely successful, but I celebrate the movies that move and thrill me. I often watch them again after a good long period of time that allows me to forget much of the detail. 

Joyride was wonderful largely because of Olivia Coleman. She is an acting god to me. She plays a middle-aged new mother who’s decided to give her daughter to her sister, but fate intervenes in the form of thirteen-year old Mully, who’s just lost his mother and seen failure in his father. The film concerns how their meeting plays out and changes them both. It’s a wonderfully gentle movie about forgiveness, love, and learning to cope with unplanned disruptions in someone’s life.

Empire of Light is written and directed by Sam Mendes. Olivia Coleman plays an assistant manager of the Empire Cinema situated on the Margate seafront in 1981 when the U.K. was sliding into a recession and there was widespread unemployment and racism. I loved this movie! The drama inside the cinema involves the staff (including the incredible Toby Jones as the projectionist, and Colin Firth and the manager), while outside the doors of the cinema we see the social chaos erupting as gangs of skinheads roam the roads looking to cause trouble. At the heart of the movie is the relationship that develops between Coleman’s character and the new hire, a handsome young black man who becomes the cinema’s ticket taker. It’s movie perfection for me. I’ve watched this film twice.

Now that I know that the apocalypse is not happening, Sheba and I will get on with our day, starting the new medicine, and taking it easy as her foot heals. I’m hoping this is the end of her foot issues.