Mostly I just hunkered down, working from home, and enjoying the company of my bipolar bears. I'm still working from home. The commute is wonderful. All of fifteen seconds from my bed to my work desk, which is set up in the living room.
I drew a lot last year, until I didn't. When the pre-election anxiety got too strong, I started binge-watching British TV via Amazon Prime. Victoria. Poldark. Sherlock. Elementary. Good Omens. This year I've joined a Jane Austen reading club on Facebook, in addition to the local(ish) group I joined last year. (It wasn't all TV. I read Bolton's expose, and Woodward's first one, but not his second, and not the niece's book. Interspersed with lighter reading. I particularly enjoyed Becoming Duchess Goldblatt.)
I have a Kindle edition of Austen's six finished novels plus The Watsons and Sanditon. I've read the latter two works. Sanditon was blown up into an eight episode mini-series that bears little resemblance to the original. (The guy who plays Sidney ~ Theo James ~ is drop-dead gorgeous. His character, along with Tom's wife Mary and the ingenue, Charlotte, are the most sympathetic characters. The costuming is lovely, the seacoast makes me want to travel, and the idiocy of most of the characters makes me want to spit.) We are going to begin reading Persuasion on February 1. I love the movie featuring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds. I've also watched five versions of Pride and Prejudice, and my favorite modern adaptation is the one set in Utah with lots and lots and lots of little Austen-esque digs at Utah/Idaho church culture.
Because when I'm watching some movies, I tell myself, this would turn out a whole lot differently if they had cell phones. Romeo and Juliet. Burner phones. Nobody dies.
Tonight I finished season 1 of Grantchester. It's set near Cambridge in the early 50s. So I'm loving the costumes. The final episode has two exceedingly brave and strong women in it. One refuses to continue a romance in which the man she loves has been unfaithful, telling him that while her husband was unfaithful, she is not going to put up with that now, or in the future. And the second very publicly outs her husband as an abuser, without saying a word. You'll remember that my husbands were neither adulterers nor abusers. And in real life, the second woman's actions would likely get her killed offscreen and make her the subject of episode one of season 2.
If we are friends on FB, you'll know that 2020 was not only the year of the pandemic, it was the year that I became outspokenly political. I was cautiously optimistic when Biden was declared the apparent winner in November. I felt better still when the Electoral College confirmed the popular vote. I was appalled and heartbroken, but not surprised, at the insurrection fomented by the former President on January 6. And when the Inauguration came and went without further chaos, and with dignity and grace on the part of our new President and Vice President and their spouses, I finally began sleeping better and longer.
It's late. I really should be in bed. There are clean sheets piled on a corner of the bed, and the cotton blanket to retrieve from the dryer. (Oh, we have a new washer and dryer, and they are nothing short of mechanical miracles. I'm researching a new stovetop and oven for 2021. We shall see.)
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