December 29, 2003
Decadence
Christmas, as it turned out, was all of the things I suggested in the previous post, and more. A good time was had by all -- and what more could one wish than that? I hope the same was true, to one degree or another, for you.Since which I have drifted, rudderless, in the absence of Ian, doing some things I perhaps would have been better advised not to; and re-visited The Return of the King in company and, strangely, found it less over-extended than the first time, though it could still do with losing 20 minutes or so, rather than gaining them as it undoubtedly will for the extended DVD; and spent a night and a day in bed with someone unnameable, who really has done wonders for my quality of life. All in all, a strange but splendid few days.
So now: is it back to reality? Ian is home, which should, I hope, serve to keep me a little more grounded. I am pledged to go to the gym tomorrow afternoon with "Max", which again may help reinforce the flimsy silver thread that connects my deranged fantasy universe to the grubby marvel that is our material world. And Tuesday is a family day, apparently to include ice skating at Somerset House and a dinner at home with not only the usual extended family but a friend so old she probably changed my nappies, who is visiting from Santa Fe; she provides strange glimpses of our ancient past that I may share here at some point if I can reconstruct them with anything approaching coherence.
On the other hand, it's the New Year. A time that to me is something like a secular Carnival, a time for wallowing in the grotesqueries and excesses of the flesh before facing the bitter privations of January. Afterward, a chance to begin again; before, the last chance not to.
