ON THURSDAY’S I POST FROM THE VAULT. THIS POST IS FROM MAY 2010.
– We got to hang out with the Livesays this weekend. They live in Haiti and we’ve gotten to know them over the past few years, and we experienced the earthquake together. They’ve also become dear friends. The last time I saw Tara was during a tearful goodbye as her kids and I pulled away from the Haitian embassy in an airport-bound SUV. It was nice to hang out under less stressful circumstances. They are speaking at a church here in Orange County tomorrow. If you are local, you should come.
– It’s been a while since I’ve found a book that totally sucked me in, that I wanted to read late into the night. I’m reading Little Bee right now, and it is that kind of book.
In your country, if you are not scared enough already, you can go to watch a horror film. Afterward you can go out of the cinema into the night and for a little while there is horror in everything. Perhaps there are murderers lying in wait for you at home. You think this because there is a light on in your house that your are certain you did not leave on. And when you remove your makeup in the mirror last thing, you see a strange look in your own eyes. It is not you. For one hour you are haunted, and you do not trust anybody, and then the feeling fades away. Horror in your country is something you take a dose of to remind yourself that you are not suffering from it.
For me and the girls from my village, horror is a disease and we are sick with it. It is not an illness you can cure yourself of by standing up and letting the big red cinema seat fold itself up behind you. That would be a good trick. If I could do that, please believe me, I would already be standing in the foyer. I would be laughing with the kiosk boy, and exchanging British one-pound coins for hot buttered popcorn, and saying, Phew, thank the Good Lord all that is over, that is the most frightening film I ever saw and I think next time I will go to see a comedy, or maybe a romantic film with kissing. But the film in your memory, you cannot walk out of so easily. Wherever you go it is always playing. So when I say that I am a refugee, you must understand that there is no refuge.
– We’ve attended some really fun weddings in the last month. Our friend Carlos is a hip-hop dancer, and he had a little surprise for his new bride to kick off the reception. (The groom comes out midway through). If you know me at all, you know that nothing makes me happier than choreographed dancing in any form(flashmobs, musicals, what have you). This made me very, very happy.
– I really enjoy the show Glee. I know it’s not for everyone, and the plot is ridiculous, but I still adore the singing and dancing and showchoir memories. I might have shed a tear or two during the Les Miz number, because:
1) Indina Menzel? my favorite broadway actress ever
2) the longing for birthparent connection
3) the reminder of the beauty of this song even after 1242 youtube links of Susan Boyle singing it
– Jafta watched Star Wars for the first time today. I was a crazy dork for Star Wars as a child. The entire wall of my bedroom was covered in Star Wars playing cards (with my favorite, the one of Hans Solo and Leia having their first kiss, in the middle right next to my bed). Jafta has been begging to watch it for over a year, and I was reluctant because I thought he would be having nightmares of red-eyed hooded desert people. But I have to confess, once we put it on, I was a little giddy at sharing it with him. If only I had kept all those action figures I used to have . . .
