Sunday, December 8, 2002

AT A LOSS, PART ONE

 I know that it's been two days, and in order to be responsible or semi-responsible I have to post, but for the first time, I don't have anything in particular to say.

I think the lapse is due to the fact that I'm not doing anything: I'm going through a short break in my studies, so the last few days have been spent more or less in my pajamas. In about twenty-four hours it's going to pick up again, making me MISERABLE (this term has been the furthest possible point from "fun").

I've been having a good time since my last assignment wrapped (read all about it below!). I've been watching a lot of All in the Family - what a great show. It immersed me so much that I've actually cried a couple of times - pathetic, I know - and laughed out loud, which is something I don't usually bother with when I'm alone.(do you find that? That cues that would make you laugh in company just make your mind register "That's funny", eliminating the need to laugh when you're alone?). I often find myself double-taking at Rob Reiner, who is one of those people who just looks better fat - he's quite hideous on this show.

Curiously I found myself feeling a sort of back-handed affection for Archie, sometimes wishing that Meathead would just bloody leave him alone. This is probably because he reminded me some of my own maternal grandfather, God rest his soul. He lived in the family home in Kentucky, sitting eternally on his porch swing, and he had to holler everything because he positioned himself right in front of the air conditioner, and between that and the bug zapper hanging from the porch awning, no one could hear him. Poor guy: my mother married a Jewish man and moved to Canada, two very suspicious moves (like Archie, he associated Canada with draft-dodging).

He died, far away from me, when I was eighteen, so I never got to know him very well, but he was always very sweet to me, asking me to sit on his knee and giving me lots of hugs. It was owing to his generosity that I had my first and only run-in with Lucky Charms, for which I'm always grateful. I have no reason to judge him, and truthfully, in many ways I enjoyed him from the same distance that I now enjoy Archie Bunker.

It's just too bad that my grandfather never got his own show!

No comments:

Post a Comment