dual personalities

— stop misquoting him now. As you know last Monday was my anniversary. So I thought I would at least mark the occasion with a card. Easier said than done; all the anniversary cards were either extremely sappy or overtly vulgar. Eventually I found an attractive “all occasion” card with a nice quote identified only as Shakespeare (the play was not mentioned):

…and we’ll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies…
And take upon’s the mystery of things,
As if we were God’s spies…

Well, thought I, that’s a nice sentiment and I can make an anniversary card out of it. My husband, who is less ignorant than I, recognized the passage and was rather bemused. Not only is it from King Lear (Act V, scene 3), but the card left out some important parts. In the original Lear speaks to Cordelia as follows:

No, no, no, no! Come, let’s away to prison.
We two alone will sing like birds i’ th’ cage.
When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down
And ask of thee forgiveness. So we’ll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too-
Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out-
And take upon’s the mystery of things,
As if we were God’s spies; and we’ll wear out,
In a wall’d prison, packs and sects of great ones
That ebb and flow by th’ moon.

Perfect. Let’s enjoy life imprisoned together — just the sentiment I wanted to share with my husband on our anniversary. The moral of the story? Never take a greeting card at face value and always check your sources!

A big kiss to my sweet sister for cheering me up with a phone call yesterday just when I needed it. She’s right, Jonathan Winters is hilarious!

Quiet on set, please!

On Monday Tim and I made our acting debuts as “background artists” (formerly known as extras) in a feature film. We spent an hour or so walking repeatedly down a hall while they filmed various takes of a one-minute scene. We were people on their way to a cello recital and then we got to be the audience. Alas, you’ll have to wait to see our two seconds of fame because I don’t have a picture. But here’s one that shows the director and crew getting ready for a shot. Note Chris, the stalwart PA, in the bottom right:

Our participation only took a couple of hours, but Chris was hard at work until 1:30 am. C’est la vie.

Monday not only marked the end of my acting career, but it was my 24th wedding anniversary.

I probably used this last year

For the first time since we had children we celebrated alone (usually we don’t celebrate at all): nice bottle of wine, cheese and crackers, veg and dip — very much a normal evening.
Of course, Monday was also the new royal baby’s birthday.

I can’t say I was in the least caught up in “royal baby fever” and I don’t care what they name him, but I’m a sucker for a cute infant. I love his little hands and squished up face, don’t you?

Note: movie pics taken from facebook.

not a week off. Unusually hot, humid weather (no kidding, we broke 90) and spotty air-conditioning slowed everything down, especially me. Nothing felt right or fun or productive, but we had a couple of good storms.

photo by Bruce Dana, northcountrynow.com

I started watching Jane Campion’s New Zealand missing person mystery, “Top of the Lake” on Netflix. The scenery is breath-taking

but the show is unrelentingly grim and just teetering on the “men are bad and women are victims” abyss. It’s also rather mesmerizing and has good people in it. I may try again when I’m feeling perkier.

I also started reading a fascinating book about William James (famous philosopher and brother of the novelist, Henry James) and his “search for scientific proof of life after death”. The title,Ghost Hunters is unfortunate, but the book is readable and gives a detailed account of the conflict between science, popular spiritualists, and religion during the 19th century. Honestly, I thought only modern scientists were narrow-minded and arrogant about such matters — who knew it went back that far? Poor James and his cohort were basically pilloried for even suggesting that supernatural phenomena and the possibility of immortality were worth scientific investigation. I’m only about half-way through, so I reserve judgment.

And work has been particularly unsatisfactory.

if only they dated their letters!

The two projects I’m working on are driving me nuts. The evidence is like one of William James’s wispy ghosts — I can’t pin it down. Consequently, (metaphor alert!) my arguments seem to me about as solid as a house of cards. I have no confidence in any of it and feel like a fraud writing as if I do. Humph.

But never mind! My husband bought me another air-conditioner, so at least I’m cooler. How did your week go?