Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: February 2020

  • Gary and the Dow

    The MSNBC crawl said, “Dow has biggest one-day point drop in history.” I said to Gary, “That’s misleading. I would prefer to know the percentage of the drop, not the raw number of points.” “NO NO DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND THIS IS AWFUL.” “It’s awful, but it’s not the most awful -“ “IT’S THE BIGGEST POINT…

  • Contagion

    I’ve been on a tear, watching all the classic 1930s movies I should have seen and never did. I started with Pygmalion (Leslie Howard, yum), then Leslie brought me to Of Human Bondage, then Bette Davis took my hand and I watched Jezebel. Three films in a row with puzzling endings. Pygmalion, of course, had…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 2/27

    I say the zebra is done. Last week it was this: … Now it is this (some of the white molding is stronger) … when it was originally this: Next week my small project will be something from Teach Yourself to Oil Paint. I said I was going to have an easy project that doesn’t…

  • Review: The Gentlemen

    We were scoping out what movie to see when Gary read a review of The Gentlemen. “This reviewer says you’ll like it if you like Guy Ritchie movies.” Then, of course, we had to look up Guy Ritchie movies. I hadn’t seen any of them. Gary had seen some bits and scenes, usually while waiting…

  • The Big дом Dream

    Last Friday, Gary had another of his recurrent Big House dreams. The last one was almost exactly one year ago to the day. (Previous visits to the Big House weren’t on any schedule, though, so I think it’s coincidence.) As it happens so often in the Big House, it was being invaded. This time the…

  • Writing Class

    My community college writing class has started. I was apprehensive that I would be the odd duck, older than everyone else, writing the wrong type of book, but as it turns out everyone one of us is atypical. There are seven of us. Gender: 5 women, 2 men. Age: 2 in their 20s, 1 in…

  • Concern 2020

    “Are you okay?” A young man asked me that last week. I was entering a building at the community college, he was exiting. I was completely fine, so I was taken aback by his concern. I had only a second to think of a reason he might have asked. “Oh, I’m just cold,” I said,…

  • News Drama

    The news has latched on to this case of the “Doomsday Mom” and her missing children. Why is this case being presented as if the children have died? I think those kids are fine. I think the 17-year-old daughter recognized her Mom is mentally ill and is drawn to a man who is probably mentally…

  • Night Visitor

    The other night we backed out of the garage and saw a deer on our corner. It froze (yes, like a deer in the headlights). “Deer!” Gary gasped. He then adopted the special tone we reserve for the deer. “Hello, sweetie! Are you here to visit us?” The deer, as if it could hear, bounded…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 2/20

    This week the zebra went from this … to this.. I felt like the zebra is close to done. I need to fuzz up the tips of the mane and do some more molding. The lamp went from this … …to this … The lamp is a challenge. I feel like I want to pitch…