Excuses, Excuses

What I was doing when I should have been watching The Dark Knight:

• I made a socially distanced trip to see my mother for the first time in months in early July. I probably won’t see her again until Christmas even though I moved to New Mexico expressly to see her more often than I could when living on the other side of the country. ¹
• I had to organize a series of virtual outreach events for my job.
• I started feeling dizzy for no reason frequently.
• I thought I might have Covid-19.
• I got tested for Covid-19 and waited an agonizingly long time to receive a negative result, which did not ultimately make me feel any better about the dizziness thing.
• I “celebrated” my 40^th birthday neither in Europe nor a tropical beach.
• I experienced a midlife crisis somewhat related to turning 40 during isolation for a global pandemic.
• I rode my bike a fair amount.
• Since I couldn’t make new friends in a new city during lockdown, I decided just to buy one. Her name is Zelda.

• I delighted in my first dog ever even as I despaired of my woefully inadequate pet parenting skills.
• I risked my life to take my dog to obedience classes. ²
• I had to deal with a bed bug infestation in my apartment.
• I had to deal with plumbing issues in my apartment that took my only bathroom out of commission for a while.
• I thought a lot about moving apartments. I daydreamed a little about buying a house even though I genuinely feel that would be a terrible idea under the circumstances.
• I had virtual movie dates with one of my best friends who still lives in the DC area, including a mini-Halloween marathon of witch movies. ³
• In spite of everything, I actually did end up making some new friends in Albuquerque through Zoom-facilitated game nights.
• I freaked out about politics every single day as the U.S. presidential election got closer.
• I procrastinated on several important work assignments to the detriment of my burgeoning career as an academic.
• School started, forcing me to actually pay attention to my job.
• I eventually wrote a draft of my first scholarly article.
• I made a plan and voted early. ⁴

 

¹ Coronavirus is nothing if not a vehicle for irony.

² Yes, I was that desperate.

³ More on this later.

⁴ BetterKnowABallot.com

“When I disagree with someone about a movie, I want to know in excruciating detail why they think the way they think. Few things are more boring than hearing someone echo my thoughts, yet too many people seek only the comfort of like opinions and are frightened and intimidated by those who think otherwise.”

James Berardinelli, Reelviews.net (2009)