Friday, September 22, 2006
Interesting thing about having a cold...
...I drop certain courteous pretenses which cause me to defer, regarding television programming, to my mother and decide to watch what I want to watch, come hell, high water or the possibility of offending or boring my mother.
Today's been one of those healing days during which I've experienced shallow pockets of energy (during one I actually attempted to mow the back lawn; big mistake) alternating with deep pockets of need to collapse, drink fluids and zone out on TV. I didn't even have the mental acuity to watch some good movies or episodes of Sex and the City. Mostly, I've been alternating between the comedy channel (today's been a particularly good day for senseless laughing) and the music video channels, both of which I hardly ever watch because, well, Mom shows no interest in them and will use my surfing to them as an excuse to plead for yet another nap. When I'm sick, though, I want to watch what I want to watch and I usually manage it. While Mom was taking a nap I was surfing, lining up programs for evening vegetating. I noticed the Chris Rock HBO comedy special Never Scared coming on at 1830, which I hadn't yet seen. Perfect, I thought, and, chances are, Mom will be napping through quite a bit of it. I'm sure you can imagine what my mother's reaction would be to Chris Rock's comedy; definitely not a reaction I was willing to negotiate, sick or well. So, you know, from 1730 on I lazed on the couch and flipped around between snippets of odd shows and music videos, pleasurably anticipating a good half hour to hour of Chris Rock before Mom awoke. The best laid plans...
Mom awoke at 1815. My spirits sunk even further than they were already. For this reason, though, I decided, hell, I need this break, I'm going to watch the show, anyway, the entire 90 minutes, regardless. So, I decided to set her up for it, seeing as how she wasn't going to be able to avoid it. I told her a little about his comedy. I mentioned that the show would probably be full of words with which she'd have a hard time. He'd probably talk about sex, too, very bluntly. I explained that he was incise, often brilliant, penetrating, inventive and often offended lots of people, and was an excellent comedian in that he plays to his audience and is an equal opportunity offender. I enjoy his comedy, I continued, and was determined to watch the show regardless of whether or not she liked it and, no she could not go back and take another nap, although, if she preferred, she could move to the dinette and read her new set of gossip tabloids. She needed to make a decision on this before the show started, though, I explained, because, being on HBO, there would be no commercials and once the show started I didn't want the flow interrupted by any of her needs or decisions.
As often happens when I take the trouble to prep her, she decided she wanted to "see what this is all about." Brave woman, although I wasn't thrilled with her response. I expected this would mean that my watching of the show would, indeed, be interrupted, regardless. I sighed internally and flipped to the appropriate channel.
The show was so good that I was distracted enough not to split my concentration by obsessively observing her reactions. Some of her reactions, though, were obvious and surprised me. Since I was laughing uproariously during a lot during the show, I think some of her acceptance was cued by my reactions and my introduction to the show. But she blew me away when she laughed out loud during his segment on married sex versus non-married sex and complained about how he hadn't "had pussy for seven years," rather, he'd had "vagina"; as well, he hadn't "had a blow job in seven years," he'd had "fellatio". She was, understandably, shocked during the abortion segment. Her head swiveled when I laughed aloud a couple of times at that one. I don't think she understood the rap segment at all, and appeared to be stunned by the segment on women with "daddy issues" and prostitutes. That segment, though, was one of the earliest ones and I think she was getting her bearings. I caught her nodding, though, and in some cases smiling, during the segments on wealth versus rich, slavery, affirmative action and especially the bit when he segued the affirmative action segment into a political criticism of all the white "C" students running the country, particularly the current President Bush. At this, in fact, she turned to me and asked, "Isn't this show in Washington, D.C.?"
I was surprised she remembered this. "Yeah," I said, "it is."
"Oh, my," she said.
When the show was over, she'd faired so well through it that I was thoroughly refreshed and decided I could handle rewarding her with programs I knew were her favorites. Luckily, Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor was staging a three hour round-up of past episodes from 2000 - 2300, so she was set for the rest of the evening. Anyway, I like that one, too. She and I never fail to comment to one another on how tame the meerkats are during one of the often played introductory segments that precedes some of the shows in which the viewer sees the biologists weighing and checking members of the meerkat clan they're studying. This usually leads, during the show, to back and forth comments between us concerning how the process of observation might change the character of that which is being observed. One of my mother's regular comments, in fact, spouted during the burrow segments when it's obvious one of the meerkats is examining an underground camera, goes like this, "You'd think, wouldn't you, that just them noticing the cameras like that would have some kind of effect on their behavior, wouldn't you."
The upshot of the evening is that, although I doubt that I'd ever take her to a live Chris Rock performance, I'm telling you, the woman never fails to amaze me. I guess I should get sick more often.
Which reminds me, can anyone tell me, are there any really good professional (I specify "professional" because there is, actually, a blogger out there, Bailey, author of My Mother's Journey, who writes some spot-on, hilariously sly, sardonic stuff about her journey with her mother...consider turning professional, Bailey, when you're in a place where you can; the intense needs caregiving effort could use your delightfully askew perspective) comedians doing incisive caregiver-to-the-Ancient-and-Infirm humor out there? I doubt it, frankly. It's still one of those untouchable subjects. But, you know, when we get to that place, intense needs caregiving will finally have come into its own, I think.
Later.
Today's been one of those healing days during which I've experienced shallow pockets of energy (during one I actually attempted to mow the back lawn; big mistake) alternating with deep pockets of need to collapse, drink fluids and zone out on TV. I didn't even have the mental acuity to watch some good movies or episodes of Sex and the City. Mostly, I've been alternating between the comedy channel (today's been a particularly good day for senseless laughing) and the music video channels, both of which I hardly ever watch because, well, Mom shows no interest in them and will use my surfing to them as an excuse to plead for yet another nap. When I'm sick, though, I want to watch what I want to watch and I usually manage it. While Mom was taking a nap I was surfing, lining up programs for evening vegetating. I noticed the Chris Rock HBO comedy special Never Scared coming on at 1830, which I hadn't yet seen. Perfect, I thought, and, chances are, Mom will be napping through quite a bit of it. I'm sure you can imagine what my mother's reaction would be to Chris Rock's comedy; definitely not a reaction I was willing to negotiate, sick or well. So, you know, from 1730 on I lazed on the couch and flipped around between snippets of odd shows and music videos, pleasurably anticipating a good half hour to hour of Chris Rock before Mom awoke. The best laid plans...
Mom awoke at 1815. My spirits sunk even further than they were already. For this reason, though, I decided, hell, I need this break, I'm going to watch the show, anyway, the entire 90 minutes, regardless. So, I decided to set her up for it, seeing as how she wasn't going to be able to avoid it. I told her a little about his comedy. I mentioned that the show would probably be full of words with which she'd have a hard time. He'd probably talk about sex, too, very bluntly. I explained that he was incise, often brilliant, penetrating, inventive and often offended lots of people, and was an excellent comedian in that he plays to his audience and is an equal opportunity offender. I enjoy his comedy, I continued, and was determined to watch the show regardless of whether or not she liked it and, no she could not go back and take another nap, although, if she preferred, she could move to the dinette and read her new set of gossip tabloids. She needed to make a decision on this before the show started, though, I explained, because, being on HBO, there would be no commercials and once the show started I didn't want the flow interrupted by any of her needs or decisions.
As often happens when I take the trouble to prep her, she decided she wanted to "see what this is all about." Brave woman, although I wasn't thrilled with her response. I expected this would mean that my watching of the show would, indeed, be interrupted, regardless. I sighed internally and flipped to the appropriate channel.
The show was so good that I was distracted enough not to split my concentration by obsessively observing her reactions. Some of her reactions, though, were obvious and surprised me. Since I was laughing uproariously during a lot during the show, I think some of her acceptance was cued by my reactions and my introduction to the show. But she blew me away when she laughed out loud during his segment on married sex versus non-married sex and complained about how he hadn't "had pussy for seven years," rather, he'd had "vagina"; as well, he hadn't "had a blow job in seven years," he'd had "fellatio". She was, understandably, shocked during the abortion segment. Her head swiveled when I laughed aloud a couple of times at that one. I don't think she understood the rap segment at all, and appeared to be stunned by the segment on women with "daddy issues" and prostitutes. That segment, though, was one of the earliest ones and I think she was getting her bearings. I caught her nodding, though, and in some cases smiling, during the segments on wealth versus rich, slavery, affirmative action and especially the bit when he segued the affirmative action segment into a political criticism of all the white "C" students running the country, particularly the current President Bush. At this, in fact, she turned to me and asked, "Isn't this show in Washington, D.C.?"
I was surprised she remembered this. "Yeah," I said, "it is."
"Oh, my," she said.
When the show was over, she'd faired so well through it that I was thoroughly refreshed and decided I could handle rewarding her with programs I knew were her favorites. Luckily, Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor was staging a three hour round-up of past episodes from 2000 - 2300, so she was set for the rest of the evening. Anyway, I like that one, too. She and I never fail to comment to one another on how tame the meerkats are during one of the often played introductory segments that precedes some of the shows in which the viewer sees the biologists weighing and checking members of the meerkat clan they're studying. This usually leads, during the show, to back and forth comments between us concerning how the process of observation might change the character of that which is being observed. One of my mother's regular comments, in fact, spouted during the burrow segments when it's obvious one of the meerkats is examining an underground camera, goes like this, "You'd think, wouldn't you, that just them noticing the cameras like that would have some kind of effect on their behavior, wouldn't you."
The upshot of the evening is that, although I doubt that I'd ever take her to a live Chris Rock performance, I'm telling you, the woman never fails to amaze me. I guess I should get sick more often.
Which reminds me, can anyone tell me, are there any really good professional (I specify "professional" because there is, actually, a blogger out there, Bailey, author of My Mother's Journey, who writes some spot-on, hilariously sly, sardonic stuff about her journey with her mother...consider turning professional, Bailey, when you're in a place where you can; the intense needs caregiving effort could use your delightfully askew perspective) comedians doing incisive caregiver-to-the-Ancient-and-Infirm humor out there? I doubt it, frankly. It's still one of those untouchable subjects. But, you know, when we get to that place, intense needs caregiving will finally have come into its own, I think.
Later.
