my eyes have seen...

So, where have I been?

Nowhere and everywhere.

I have finally gotten my new progressive lens glasses and believe you me, they take some getting used to. I took them to the movies with me while I gazed at George Clooney staring at goats and dispensing advice of air travel. I took them off and replaced them with cool 3D glasses for A Christmas Carol and Avatar. I have been practising with them by watching tv and reading at the same time. Reading a new Grisham and the first Steig Larsson. I can't put either one down just yet. Watching marathons where I went to The Office in Pennsylvania and Florida with The Golden Girls. Then I discovered a way to watch almost anything from television on the internet (ninjavideo) so I caught up with the dark side of Florida with Dexter and balanced it out with a bit of Glee. There was another charming bit of Dickens with a rather young Derek Jacobi in Little Dorrit for eight straight hours. Then some more time travel with Mad Men and finally with the End of the Time Lord himself with Dr Who.

At least my eyes muscles got some exercise.

I am exhausted.

Even though it is still rather cold here, it has warmed up enough for me to venture out for a coffee. Where there is a fireplace, to finish my book. Where I may practice writing while wearing my new glasses.

having coffee and dreaming

These past few days it has been all about TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) and the appearance of Himself - George Clooney.

No, I have not seen him, except on numerous news reports and on the front page of all the newspapers, because, who wouldn't want to see George Clooney on the front page?

But, I discovered today, that while I was sitting at one of my coffee haunts last weekend, the owner was setting to prepare a meal of a lifetime for ... yes, Clooney. He wanted a special Italian meal to take out. Okay, for his plane trip home. Airline food that isn't anywhere near airline food. Unfortunately, owner Mr Albanese wasn't allowed to meet Mr Clooney in person. But it was two degrees of excitement to that 6 degrees of separation to Himself. I lunched at the bakery where the owner (who, okay, I've also never met, still...) made lunch for Clooney (who he also didn't actually meet, still...)

I bet it is crowded in there today. Sigh.

day one

Rearranging the bedroom and changing the linens from my sickbed seemed like a good idea for a New Year's Day housekeeping chore.

The books I pile up beside the bed, but haven't read, were lined up on the bookshelf. The tops of dressers and tables cleared of useless detritus. The bed was stripped of the old linens and and new flannel sheets put in place. The duvet was finally stuffed into its fresh cover. The cat was dragged out of the duvet cover. I was standing on the foot of the bed to give the duvet a good shake to straighten it out, then another good shake to drape it over the whole bed.

It was the second shake that did it.

That knocked against the lamp, that toppled onto the poinsettia that fell, knocking over the newly placed tumbler of water. The lamp is one of those tall skinny rod shaped ones with a small shade that clips on to the light bulb. Somehow, the shade managed to pop off the bulb, which was good because I like the shade, but not so good because it may have saved the bulb from shattering as it hit the windowsill.

Abby and I peered over the edge of the bed, looked at each other, sighed. Then she settled down to watch me clean up the by now muddy rivulets snaking a path under the bed.

So began my first day of the new year.

Later, a friend and I continued our tradition of going to a movie on New Year's and this year's choice was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It is a visually stunning film to watch. Leisurely rambling and blessedly unsentimental, it is a tale covering the reversing life of Benjamin who is born an old man as a baby and regresses to a baby as a baby as he "ages". The CGI effects of Brad Pitt's expressions put on the face attached to the various actors who play Benjamin are arresting (it is amazing that you can see Brad in the face of the 10 year old old-man-child). Humorous moments like when the true Brad Pitt appears and his childhood sweetheart, who meets up with him after a long absence, says to him: look at you, you're perfect, stop you dead as you watch him grow younger and younger. If you enjoy a plot less fantasy of life, and don't mind a melancholic, fatalistic moral, I urge you to see this film.