(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Mother survived yet another surgery - this time around on her left knee. I think it's her left knee, the opposite knee from the hip that she had massive surgery on last year. She had to get a full knee replacement, the arthritis in the knee got so bad that it was bone on bone. The surgeon was amazed she made it this far on that knee, stating she really needed the surgery - and thought she was a real trooper.

Brother texted me that she was okay. He'd gone down to help her out. He's staying a week. (He drives (I do not) and he's retired for the most part, with not as many responsibilities or rather he's more flexible.

Bro: She's doing good, alert, chatty. Very chatty.
Me: LOL! Well, you'll get caught up on all of the gossip on Hilton Head and in the family.
Bro: Eesh.
Me: LOL!

Mother said he'd been very patient with her.

Niece is arriving home (back in the US) tomorrow - her mother switched her flight to Wed, because the teachers are on strike again in Britain, so they got out a week early for spring break. They get an entire month off.

Her mother is in the city tonight attending a British - African Hip Hop Concert that she couldn't get any of her friends to go to. So she's going by herself. My brother said it's going to be my tiny Jewish/Italian/Cherokee by way of Ireland sister-in-law in a room with a bunch of huge black men. (I doubt it - hip hop is fairly diverse.) I don't know which band it is - just that they aren't here very often and she couldn't pass up the chance to see them in person.

Meanwhile I can't even get myself to go out to eat with Wales, let alone a movie, or theater date. I'm also still wearing a mask everywhere. Most folks are, although quite a few aren't. A lot of my co-workers have stopped wearing them now. There's just a handful of us who refuse to stop. Everyone does on public transportation at least - except for a handful of folks who don't - there's always been a handful. I see more and more of them. Yesterday and this morning, I found myself sitting next to them.

It unnerves me, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to. My super's no longer wear them, and many of the folks in my building don't. I get it.
I know why - they don't. It's not simple, it's complicated. But I feel more comfortable wearing my KF94's and KN95's. I don't get sick when I wear them.

At work, I had a lengthy chat with Ali the lawyer/engineer. She's both. Double Trouble. Actually, I like her. We were chatting about Bridgerton and romance novels. She'd read the books, and was upset that the second season completely veered away from the books altogether. The lead female character was apparently ruined - in the book she's selfless and sacrifices herself for her sister, in this one - she doesn't, and is selfish, and there's a love triangle - when there wasn't one at all in the book.

In short they turned it into a soap opera.

My brother was watching it with my mother and asked what happened to all the sex scenes. He was lead to believe it had lots of raunchy sex.
So mother, being mother, felt the need to regale him with the details of the raunchy sex scenes in the previous season of Bridgerton. (Mother has no shame. Or filter in this regard.)

Mother: I think I gave him too much information.
ME: LOL! Poor thing.

I've not seen it yet - both Gabe and I are saving it for this weekend. I was in a pseudo-serious mood last weekend. Although I may watch Spiderman again. As Ali-the-lawyer pointed out, life is painful enough as it is - we need some joy, hence romance novels. (She also reads science fiction and fantasy, sigh, a woman after my own heart. Those are my fav's too. I told her that I couldn't read mysteries and horror any longer - there was too much murder, torture and mayhem in them for my current mood.) Apparently one of her former law professors is a well-known romance novelist in her spare time. (I should have gotten better at writing romance novels. I have one I'm working on, but it's a contemporary...and it still may not see the light of day or make it out of my hard drive/cloud alive.)

Ugh, off to bed. Nite.

Comments

[lizzybuffy2008]

Glad to hear that your mother did well in the surgery. Do they have her up and walking yet? Will she get in-home care again for a while?

[mefisto]

Raunchy sex scenes?! I guess it's all a matter of perspective. To me both last season and this were, well, Buffy/Riley. Some truly raunchy sex scenes would improve the show a lot.

I won't say more about the season until you've seen it. For now, I thought this season was a slight improvement over last season. But then I haven't read the books.

ETA: Ironically, today is the birthday of the actress who plays the character you mentioned.

[svgurl]

It's good that your mom's surgery went well and I hope the recovery process goes smoothly.

I know what you mean about the masks- I was relieved that so many people were still wearing them in the mall a few weeks ago, but at the same time, there are definitely people who aren't anymore. I'm keeping mine on and while I'm used to going out to dinner, there are still activities, such as going to the movies, that I'm still hesitant to do. My sister was suggesting we go see Hasan Minhaj who will be doing a show in the area next month but I was still like, "oh, I don't know." She understands, of course, but I think it might be another few months before I can get comfortable with just sitting in crowds.

[shadowkat]

She's at home recuperating. And my brother will be there until Monday, then she's back on the POD or "home health care" regime, and also get PT at home. She was up and walking - so not immobile. And they gave her pain blockers - so she's not taking a lot of pain pills yet.

[shadowkat]

Interesting. It depends on what you consider raunchy - if you're used to HBO, than no. Nothing is as raunchy as HBO - which almost crossed the line into exploitative soft core porn. IF you're comparing it to S6 Buffy and Spike - also no, because that too almost but not quite crossed the line into soft-core porn, much to the actors considerable aggravation and the British censors. (I'm still not sure how it got past the US censors - I'm guessing they didn't think UPN was an issue or were asleep at the wheel?)

If you are used to well, broadcast television standards and daytime soaps - then yes, raunchy.

I didn't think it was that raunchy. But that Duke was hot - so...it didn't matter. Daphne was not hot.

Someone posted on Twitter...

Simon > Anthony
Kate > Daphne
Athony/Kate > Simon/Daphne

Unless you read the books and aren't into soaps, I guess?

The problem is that their casting of the Bridgertons, with the possible exception of Benedict and Eloise, isn't stellar. I picked up on that in S1. The love interests are more interesting.
I want Colin to be recast, as does Mother.

I'm going to try it soon, and read the book after I see it. That's what I did with the Duke and I. Sandition was ruined because I read the book first and much preferred it to the series, I couldn't finish the series because it didn't follow the book and the book was excellent. The series went the way of Thomas Hardy as opposed to Jane Austen. I hate Thomas Hardy. I can't read him and I've yet to make it through any adaptations of his work.

[shadowkat]

Yeah, I'm struggling with the whole going to the theater or sitting in a crowd of people bit. I can't get myself to go to a restaurant.

My goal is to do it by May. Assuming we don't end up with another surge. The BA-1 variant is now loose in NYC, but the case numbers aren't as bad, nor are the hospitalizations. Also it is apparently a very mild variant, even milder than Omicron.

Of course work is pushing me to deal sooner. I have a site tour in two weeks - which requires me to get into a car with other people (who I don't live with and have only spoken to on the phone), speak in front of a bunch of people who won't be wearing masks outdoors, and wander about with them outdoors in small spaces. But I figure, it is outdoors and in April, so should be fine.

And my friend wants to go out to dinner/lunch soon. She's chomping at the bit.

I may throw caution to the winds and get tickets to a show for June. And I plan on seeing Doctor Strange in the movie theaters with a friend in May. Baby steps.

[mefisto]

I agree with the character ratings that person gave for Simon, Anthony, Daphne and Kate. I'm not sure I agree on the couple simply because I liked Simon so much. I agree with you on the Bridgertons.

The reason I think raunchy would be better is this: it's very hard to show passionate love given the restrictive conventions of the show's time frame and the actors can't pull it off. The way around that is for it to end in wild passionate sex. Whoever is choreographing and filming the scenes just isn't very good at that. Or maybe the actors aren't; hard to say.

All things considered, I think I liked S2 better than S1, not that that's a high bar. But that's mostly because they began to question some of the underlying premises in episode 6 (I think). Perhaps those who read the books and/or want a Hallmark version (nothing wrong with that, just not for me) would feel differently.

[shadowkat]

From what I've seen online it depends a great deal on whether you like soap operas or prefer rom-com or individual mini-series done of each book. The first season adhered to the book pretty closely (although I started reading the book - and there are major differences both in plot and characterization), while season 2 didn't at all - and went full on soap opera. Personally? I think soap works better - it pulls in more viewers. Also, I happen to like soap opera or emotional drama.

I'll probably watch it this weekend. There's so much to binge at the moment: Bridgerton, Moon Knight, Julia Child series on HBO, Obi Wan Kenobi, Picard, the rest of The Gilded Age, Euphoria...I'm losing track.