{"id":1329,"date":"2021-06-04T21:17:06","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T01:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/?p=1329"},"modified":"2021-06-05T00:37:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-05T04:37:02","slug":"little-by-little-and-bit-by-bit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/little-by-little-and-bit-by-bit\/","title":{"rendered":"Little by Little and Bit by Bit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I’m not ready\u00a0to go back into the world either, Homer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After all the false starts and false hope of the last year and a half, it looks like this might be it: COVID-19 is on its uppers. It’s not gone quite yet, but it’s in the rearview mirror in my area. Everything is reopening. When Bill and I drove out to get dinner tonight, the streets were full of traffic, kids were playing in the opened community pools, and there were very few masks to be seen.<\/p>\n

Last weekend we went to Second Story Books, an enormous warehouse of used books out in Rockville. I’d say “We haven’t been there in a while,” but that pretty much goes without\u00a0saying unless I’m talking about Baltimore. You still had to wear masks inside the store. I overheard one guy announce to his wife that he couldn’t stand it anymore<\/em> and huff\u00a0out\u00a0due to the masking requirement, but y’know, at least he just\u00a0left<\/em> instead of throwing a massive tantrum in the middle of the store.<\/p>\n

It’s very, very strange to be around people again. It’s especially nerve-wracking in a place that has extremely narrow aisles and a lot of “chokepoint” spots. Any time too many people started clustering in one area, I’d get really edgy and flee for a section\u00a0that wasn’t attracting customer interest. I’d been having a lot of issues with crowds making me anxious and squirrely even before COVID-19 hit, and this long exile has not helped that. Intellectually I know the people around me aren’t likely to be carrying the virus and even if they are, I’m protected. Somehow I can’t make the emotional side of me buy into that.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, though, should be a fun thing: We’re going to the Alamo Drafthouse to see The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It.<\/em>\u00a0Yes, I know the Conjuring movies are really cheesy. Yes, I know they present a very Christian-centric view of horror. This was apparently news to the New York Times<\/em> critic who reviewed the movie today:<\/p>\n

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(The relevant part of this quote says “the franchise demands viewers invest in a worldview ruled by Christian dogma, where Godly good must battle satanic evil.”)<\/p>\n

…OK? I’m an atheist and a secular Buddhist, but that comment made me think “You just described like half of the horror genre.” If I were only allowed to eat on days when I could name a horror movie, book, or TV show that this applies to, I’d be very well-fed. Rattling off any vampire story where crosses, holy water, and other Christian-identified items fend off the bloodsuckers would keep me going for a long time before I got to genre stalwarts like The Exorcist, The Omen<\/em>, and The Amityville Horror<\/em>. Remember how Angel gave Buffy a crucifix on the very first episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer?<\/em> Remember where she was unceremoniously pulled\u00a0from during the dreaded sixth season? OK, that series never had the overt Christianity of the Warrens\u00a0as depicted in The Conjuring<\/em>, but still: God saved the world a lot in the Buffyverse.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, I duly reported this shocking news to Bill, and we decided we’d still like to see the movie. The second Conjuring<\/em>\u00a0gave me some legitimate creeps, and I can’t help it: I just love Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren. While I believe that the real Warrens were probably fuller of shit than a Thanksgiving turkey, I’m completely ready for their movie counterparts to usher me out of the darkness of this last year and a half.<\/p>\n

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(This better not suck.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After all the false starts and false hope of the last year and a half, it looks like this might…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[45,48,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1329"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1336,"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions\/1336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}