Nothing could induce me to say that I am feeling better. That would be an out-and-out jinx. Kathleen is almost certain to get much better soon, because the doctor has prescribed a powerful antibiotic. With nothing worse than a humble cold, I’ve nothing to fall back on besides prudent self-restraint. Feeling really lousy is simple: you just lie there an moan. It’s when you feel “okay” that things get tricky.

Yesterday, for instance, prudent self-restraint was imposed onluy after I had run three local errands, one of which involved buying a lampshade, which most observers would probably judge to be non-essential even if I beg to differ. I made the third trip to Agata & Valentina simply to buy applesauce for Kathleen; it turns out that Kathleen really likes the applesauce that they make there. Kathleen begged me not to make a special trip just for applesauce, but I was feeling better than “okay.” (I did take a cab back to the apartment.) Then I removed the Christmas tree. Like the lampshade, a non-essential, except for purposes of morale and will-to-live.

I had planned to make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner — I’ve been wanting to try Fairway’s meatballs since the store opened, in Julty — but once I’d cleaned up after the tree I no longer felt okay. What I felt was washed-out and liable to take a chill. So I bundled up and sat down in front of the old Nippon Electric television — more than twenty years old — and watched videos.

First, we watched At Bertram’s Hotel, one of my favorites of the old Jane Hickson series, in great part because of the bold performance of Caroline Blakiston. Ms Blakinson appeared in Woody Allen’s Scoop — I recognized her instantly, even if her name wasn’t on the tip of my tongue. She has of course also appeared in scads of British TV shows that I’ve never heard of. I wonder if she has worked much on stage.

Then we watched two movies that I’ve long associated but never watched back to back: Get Shorty and Big Trouble. The movies share the bright breezy tone of their ultimate authors, Elmore Leonard and Dave Barry respectively, and they also share Renée Russo and Dennis Farina. What they don’t share is the aame weight, as joint consideration of the shared actors’ roles makes very plain. Get Shorty is a giggling rumination on the improvisational opportunism of the movie business that shudders with hidden sordid backstories, the most sublime of which would be that of Harry Zimm’s — played by Gene Hackman as the ne plus ultra of assholes. Big Trouble is a delicious farce with a few mismatched seams (Jason Lee’s role, I’m thinking).

I took my Lunesta and went to bed, and slept well through most of the night. No NyQuil or other decongestants. Nothing could induce me to count on that happening again tonight, but I do hope. They say that summer colds are the worst, but they’re wrong; the worst colds are holidays colds, especially if you have a pretty Christmas tree in the middle of your foyer that reminds you, every time you go anywhere in your apartment, how out of kilter you feel.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 9:52 am.