Goals 2019 -- February Recap

So, this was closet clean-out month.

I made a bit of progress, but I would not qualify it as a success.  I got through about half my closet.  I have a handful of things each to give away, throw away, and repair/polish.  Not nearly as many as I had hoped, so I might need another run-through.  I guess the positive takeaway of this is that I don't have a lot of superfluous clothing.  (Although, looking at how much I have, that hardly seems possible.)

The other half of my closet, though, never got touched.  In truth, I don't think there will be much there to get rid of, because that's where my suits and work clothes live, so I have a pretty good idea of what's there.

And I haven't done anything in the direction of getting clothes in for repairs, etc.  There just wasn't enough time this month.  S and I ended up being out of town for two of the weekends in Feb, plus a handful of weekdays, and that really cut down on my at-home recreational time, not that I'm complaining!

K says:

When M proposed that we try to clean out our closets for February, I thought, “I can certainly handle that.” And, to some extent, I could. On February 1, I found myself with nothing to do and a long, empty, quiet evening ahead of me. So, I put on the Hamilton soundtrack and got to it. I finished going through my closet by the time I went to bed that night, and I fancied myself something of a superhero. Here I was, on Day 1 of the month, done.

I decided to wind down by reading the latest post on M’s blog, where I found that I was not done! Now, I had to follow through the with get rid of, send for tailoring, send for damage repair part of this agreement. How hard could that be? I wouldn’t be a superhero, but I’d be something of a star.

And, here I am, 27 days later surrounded by a bag for donation that I’m hoping my mom will drop off before Thursday comes and another bag that it’s possible I mightcould get rid of by then and another stack that has to make it to the “big city” of West Palm in order to find the way into a good luggage repair shop and a quality dry cleaner, so that’s probably not going to happen by the end of the month, but maybe by March 2 if I’m lucky! And, to top it all off, I came home from dinner tonight to find that the heels on my sandals are peeling off, so I need to add a super gluing project to the “to do” list too. No longer am I the hero I once was. I was brought down by the vast 27 days of possibility that I left myself by finishing this project so early. And, now I remember why I don’t clean out my closet that often. It’s really just the process of moving one stack of things in one direction and then back in another until I can actually manage to get them out of the house!

What I Watched -- Mowgli

S and I were trolling for Netflix movies and found Mowgli recently.  It was obvious it was a version of The Jungle Book, but looked more adult and interesting.

And it certainly was not meant for children.  It's dark.  But I like dark.  It's the classic Jungle Book story.  The original Kipling works (which I have not read) apparently were themselves quite dark.  Much darker, in fact, than Walt Disney wanted for his happy, family-friendly movie when he made the animated version, so he lightened it up a bit.  Having not read the originals, I can't say how true this version is to the book. 

Bottom line: I liked it, for what it was.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency -- Take 2

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency was a quick, easy, and fun read -- which was exactly what I was looking for when I went hunting through my bookshelf.

Precious Ramotswe inherited a sum of money when her father passed away, and used it to open her business -- the first and only ladies' private detective agency in Botswana.  She sets about solving mysteries, helping her neighbors, and navigating her own troubles.

This is not an intellectual read.  It's not high literature.  But it is entertaining.  It's easy and breezy in the same way the Harry Potter books are.  If you feel the need for a lightweight mystery (though even that might be overstating it), this is a good pick.

What I Watched -- The Master

I wanted to see The Master.  The cast is impressive: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Laura Dern, Rami Malek (who broke through this year starring as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody).  To be fair, I did not know what to expect when this movie started.  I was watching it mostly on the strength of the cast.  I didn't know it was a reference to L. Ron Hubbard and the start of Scientology.

With or without that knowledge, I hated it.  It was weird and confusing and not in one of those "well that's an interesting move that I'll think about for days" ways.  Just weird.

Bottom line: skip it.

What I Watched -- Cold War

S and I had an impromptu date night and went to see Cold War at Frontenac.  We had hoped to eat at Canyon Cafe (did you know Cardwell's closed?), but the wait was too long.  Instead we dined on (surprisingly good) hot dogs and a bottle of wine from the theater.  Not sure if it was cheaper than Canyon Cafe would have been, but it was a more amusing meal. 

Now, about the movie.  Visually stunning shots pepper the film, and those should not be ignored.  They are as much a part of the story as the love story itself.  This movie doesn't have a score.  It has an interesting soundtrack -- a combination of Polish peasant music, jazz, and a bit of rock 'n roll -- but no score.  It is an unusual choice for a movie that is so stunningly shot, with lots of big, sweeping vistas and close-up contemplative shots.  It seems odd, at first, that there is no background music.  But then you begin to hear the other sounds.  The wind whistling, or the rustle of tree leaves, and the decision not to score those shots makes a lot of sense.

The director also had a wonderful way of glossing over what might be immense plot points in a different film -- for example (and I will try to share this without being too spoiler-y), the male lead was at one time a phenomenal piano player, which is huge because it is music that brought this couple together.  Something happens to him and he can no longer play, but rather than making the event that terminated his playing a central focus, you see none of it and only get a passing reference to what happened later in the film when someone asks him to play a piece.  No explanation, no further mention, just a casual, "eh, sh** happens," sort of bypassing.  Why this matters, in my opinion, is that it gives scale to everything else in the movie.  If his inability to play the piano, which was such a central part of who he was, doesn't deserve any further explanation, the things that do deserve explanation - the love story - begin to loom even larger.

On the subject of the love story, though, I found immensely frustrating.  It was more of a love-hate story.  It had a bit of Romeo and Juliet about it, but unlike that play, where circumstances, mistakes, and oversights get in the lovers' way, in Cold War, they get in their own way.  And that made them very unlikable for me.

Bottom line: I'm not surprised it was nominated for an Oscar on account of all the good directing choices, but at the end of the day I didn't really like it.

Our Mini-Moon

Shortly after S and I got married, but before our official honeymoon, S and I went on a mini-moon to Wildwood Springs Lodge down near Steelville.

The initial draw for the weekend was one of the shows in the fall concert series, the Arianna Quartet.  We had a string trio play for our wedding and cocktail hour, and I was very into strings music at the time, so it seemed like a perfect post-wedding activity.  There was a bit of a snag, because the version of their website that I had seen indicated that the concert was on Saturday night.  Turns out, that was wrong, and I should have relied on the other part of their website (which I didn't see) indicating that the show was on Friday night.

Nevertheless, we left work a little early and made it to dinner and the show, and it was great!  (Fun fact: bar is cash only.  Luckily I had a little.)  The show was lovely and intimate, and the set list was well chosen:
- Beethoven: Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6
- Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 1 in C Major, Op. 49
- Ravel: Quartet in F Major

We stayed for the weekend at The Cottage, which is actually bigger (and mustier-smelling) than it looks in the pictures.  It was nice to have our own space, including our own kitchen, where we could relax and enjoy ourselves.

Saturday morning we headed into "downtown" Steelville to check out the shops, enjoy a few mimosas at one of the art galleries, and have a delicious cup of coffee at Art & Joe. 

 

All over town are half-canoes, painted in different scenes.

This one is an old lady outside Art & Joe.

We spent the afternoon fishing at Meramec Spring Park, where I got skunked but S caught the elusive Missouri pincher.  We read our books, had some cocktails, and made ourselves a chicken dinner.

We had the dining room almost entirely to ourselves Sunday morning, explored the grounds a bit, then headed home.

What I Watched -- Hell or High Water

S and I stumbled across Hell or High Water a few weeks back.  I had heard of it and wanted to see it at the time it came out, but it fell off my radar a while back.  So when it popped up again, I was on board.

It's the story of two brothers who, for their own reasons, go on a spree of bank robberies.  It's dark, and a little bit funny (most Jeff Bridges's character), and sweet in its own odd way.  It's a modern-day western, with the good guy chasing the bad guys, with a few more ounces of consideration given to the bad guys' motives.  Everyone, after all, is human.

Bottom line: I'm sorry it fell off the radar for as long as it did; it was worth the time.

Happy Valentine's Day!

R.I.P., Little Friend

Opportunity: "My battery is low and it is getting dark."

The whole world:

"I'll be seeing you

In every lovely summer's day,

In everything that's light and gay,

I'll always think of you that way.

 

I'll find you in the morning sun

And when the night is new.

I'll be looking at the moon,

But I'll be seeing you."

 

It was fun while it lasted.

Happy Birthday, E!

What I'm Reading Now -- The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

I had a day near the end of January that had potential to be either great or terrible.  Oddly, the whole day was sort of meh.

It started out with a wind child of -40 degrees.  We left the house to head to work (S) and my workout (me), and had to stop for gas.  That all seemed to go fine.  About two miles down the road from the gas station, the engine started to sputter like we were running out of gas.  This isn't good.  We made it off the highway and to the top of the exit ramp before we lost momentum.  (Reminder, it was very cold.)  Potential to be terrible.

Luckily, the tow truck came quickly (though not without a couple of arguments about whether our AAA membership was current and whether AAA would to a truck that didn't have...well...never you mind that part.

In any case, it didn't look like we were going to make it to work.  Potential to be great.  I did have a fair amount of work that needed to get done (terrible), but I had my laptop with me, so I could work from home (not great, but at least acceptable).

I got to watch a lot of my current favorite, The Great British Baking Show (great).  I got to hang out with S (great).  I had to work, and was feeling especially unmotivated (terrible).

As I said, though, the whole day was just meh.  Maybe the combination of all the great and terrible just cancelled each other out, and left me feeling very mediocre.

Due to that mediocre feeling, I was really struggling to get motivated to work out.  I had a couple of options, but nothing was getting me jazzed up.  What I needed, I decided, was a not-too-serious page-turner book.  When I initially had that thought, I was hoping for some real trash.  I took one look at my bookshelf and realized I was shopping in the wrong place if I wanted disposable mass market junk.  I stopped at the closest thing I could find, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which at least got me on my bike for 45 minutes.

What I Watched -- Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes

On a lazy Saturday, S and I Netflix-binged Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes.

To be honest, I didn't know much about Ted Bundy other than that he was a serial killer.  For all my love of crime shows, my knowledge of actual killers is pretty limited.

I'll spare you, my dear readers, of the recounting of what I learned.  You're either interested (in which case you will probably watch it yourselves) or you're not.

Bottom line: not a lot of insight, but creepily interesting.

What I Watched -- Mutiny on the Bounty

Mutiny on the Bounty bears one of the more recognizable titles in film, and a descriptive one, but I had never seen it.  (Actually, I had never seen either of them -- there is an earlier version.  Maybe that's why it's so recognizable.)

It's an old school film, with a long instrumental overture, an intermission (where you have to change DVDs), and simple characters.  Everyone is exactly who they seem; no one is complicated; personalities are fairly static.

A ship sets out from Portsmouth, England, bound for Tahiti.  The ship's tyrannical Captain Bligh makes no friends along the way, nor during their time on the island.  The local ladies, though, make lots of friends.  On the way home, the titular mutiny takes shape.

I know I should have been paying more attention to the film, but I couldn't get the Beach Boys' song Island Girl out of my head.  And that's too bad, not because it isn't a fun song, but because I'm foregoing a discussion about the British Empire's patronizing behavior vis a vis just about every other culture.

Bottom line: a classic film, to be sure, but not one I'm going to watch again.  Maybe I'll try the other version.

What I Watched -- Battle of the Sexes

Another true life sports story, S and I watched Battle of the Sexes, which we stumbled across on a recent trip to the library.  I was on board right away, because I adore Emma Stone, who played Billie Jean King.

Billie, in 1973, reluctantly accepted an invitation to play a tennis match against Bobby Riggs, and former champion nearly twice her age, but a misogynistic braggart who was certain that a woman could never beat a man.  The match was played in Houston and broadcast in prime time.  By all accounts, there was exactly as much circus pageantry around the real match as there was in the movie.

There is also the issue of Billie's girlfriend.  Though she was married to a (very understanding) man, she met a woman while she was traveling on the tennis circuit, and they nurtured their relationship when they could.  It was still several years before same-sex relationships were publicly acceptable, especially for someone representing women as a whole in such an open and notorious way.

Bottom line: an interesting historical moment, captured in an entertaining film.

What I Watched -- Miracle

Anyone with a moderate knowledge of US sporting history is familiar with the 1980 US Olympic men's hockey team, and their epic (albeit bronze-medal) game against the USSR's juggernaut of a team.

That didn't stop me from watching Miracle when the opportunity presented itself.  What's not to love about an underdog story, especially one involving hockey?  It's like the cult favorite The Mighty Ducks, only in real life.

Kurt Russell owned the movie as the team's coach, Herb Brooks.  Against all odds, and pushing the players harder than they had been pushed before, he turned a bunch of talented but egotistic college students into a top notch hockey team.

Bottom line: a classic feel-good tale.

Goals 2019 -- February Edition

February will see K and me with emptier closets.

We will each go through our clothes with an eye towards paring down our collections.  Here are the guidelines (which I came up with totally on my own, so K may have different plans):
- Send damaged items for repair;
- Get rid of anything too damaged to repair;
- Send for tailoring or get rid of anything which is not properly fitting;
- Send for tailoring or get rid of anything which makes you ask "Why do I keep wearing this?" any time you put it on;
- Repurpose or get rid of anything which is out of style;
- Donate anything not worn in over a year (with an exception for items which serve a specific albeit rare purpose -- such as heavy duty winter clothing or formalwear).

What will we do with the things we aren't keeping?  K found an article from the New York Times recently, which an extensive collections of resources and tips for getting rid of stuff you no longer want.  The article was spurred by the new Marie Kondo show on Netflix.

(A brief aside from M: Let me just take a moment to say that I got as far as "your socks need to lay flat so they're not stressed out" before I chucked Ms. Kondo right in the bin with all the other loony crackpots and things not worth donating.  Nevertheless, whatever gets people off the consumption train I suppose is good, stressed-out socks or not.)

My university career services department has a stash of business attire they make available to students going through job interviews, so anything that fits the bill, I will donate there.  Anything not formal enough for that but in good condition will be donated elsewhere.  Anything too damaged to donate will probably become scrap fabric for miscellaneous future sewing projects.

And, as motivation and a reward for our hard work, K and I can restock as necessary at a rate of 1:2 -- we can get one new thing to replace every two items we've gotten rid of.

Here's to more spacious and fashionable closets!