Sunday Serenity #63

I don't know what got into me today. I did something I haven't done in a long time. Something I used to have a terrible habit of doing way to much of. I sat in front of a the TV for nine hours. I had had no plan to do so. I had been sitting in the living room reading in front of the fans. I was enjoying the quiet afternoon to myself while Ed and his folks were at the dirt track races. I turned the TV on while I was eating my dinner around 5PM. I meant to find a sitcom, a documentary, news even an old series rerun--something that would be over in 30 minutes, 60 tops. But while surfing through the menu I saw that E.T. was on. I couldn't resist. It was already nearly an hour into it so it wasn't going to last much more than another hour.

I don't know what it is about this film. I've watched it half a dozen times or more. Can't get enough of it. Am I the only 50 something who cries the ugly cry through the last thirty minutes of this movie?

Who can resist those big blue eyes?

After E.T. was over, I didn't turn off the TV even though I'd long finished eating my dinner. I started surfing the menu again and lo there was Misery. Also half over. I checked in just to see if my favorite scene had already gone by and discovered that it hadn't and that it was close. I thought I could watch this several time seen movie just long enough to see the scene where the James Caan character is typing his novel on the ancient typewriter with the missing 'n' key. That scene along with the similar scene in Irreconcilable Differences where the Shelly Long character sits down at a beat up old table with a clunky manual typewriter to start writing a novel are two of my all time favorite movie scenes. Not because they are of any significant quality as scenes, story, acting etc. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. My obsession with them has to do with the way they inspire me to start emulating--as in typing on my own stories.



Well I didn't turn off the TV after that scene. I watched to the end at which point I discovered they were replaying the movie from the beginning. I thought I would just watch to the point where I entered. Ha. And then during the second showing they were advertising the next movie and I got hooked into it too and it wasn't over until 2AM.

Like I said, I don't really know what got into me. Part of me is chiding the other part of me for wasting my entire 'home alone' day. I could have done so much with those nine hours. The other part of me is saying to that part of me to lighten up. After all it has been a stressful week what with the heat and the smoke from the California fires blanketing our valley for the first half and the last few days with the chaos of family get-togethers and the pops, sizzles and booms of the neighborhood fireworks. I was about as nervous as a cat with a knot in its tail.

Maybe I just needed to veg out in front of the boob tube for awhile. Maybe it was the best, the quickest and surest route to serenity for me today. Just for today. I mustn't allow myself to fall back into the old habit of mindless tube surfing.