Now She Was In

 

Ambiguity.  We’d paid for this New York Times summer camp for our younger daughter.  The topic concerns theatre and food, which augers for something once-over-lightly, but we let her choose and choose she did.    They acknowledged the payment.  But the sign-in information was still forthcoming. Last night, Sunday, July 4^th,.  I wrote the relevant people and when I went to bed my wife asked me to be sure to check if there was a response before the beginning of the course, at 9:00AM this morning.

I’d been up with calls from 4:00AM as 9:00AM rolled around we still had no way to commence things.  I gave the switchboard that was supposed to open at 9:00AM a ring.  Without too much hassle I was connected with a human being, who gave off the strong impression that this was not the first time he’d stared down this problem.  He agreed to send off the login credentials for my daughter immediately.  They came as promised. And now she was in and waiting for it to begin. 

 

Not too long after my wife arose, slowly.  Yes, it's Monday.  Yes, there is plenty of work to be caught up on after our long road trip the week before.  But it’s a national holiday and last night we got awfully close.  We’ve “only” three more episodes to go.  Let’s finish viewing this damned, “Game of Thorne’s” series. This battle with the night walkers has been building for eight seasons and nearly one hundred episodes.  Finally, one hopes the ghouls with the blue eyes, will finally mount their inevitable assault, over the wall that is there to protect against them.

My younger daughter can’t believe it.  My older one is in disbelief.  But here I am on a Monday mid- morning watching television with my wife.  Not just considering television but binge-watching an entire season to closure, as if I had nothing better to do.  And I feel compelled to finish the damned thing precisely because it is cutting into things I should otherwise be doing.   Three long episodes, the first of which was the most satisfying.  Everyone cheers for Arya . But the last two episodes stretch on implausibly.   Binge watching is a lot less satisfying than binge reading.

Monday, 07/05/21