Friday morning things

* I watched part of the episode of "The Good Place" that was on last night (had never watched it, had heard about it) and now I am thinking that either I need to find where the old episodes are streaming (maybe THIS gets me to take out a Netflix subscription? Maybe with the supposed pay-raise I can afford a little more frivolous spending?) or buy dvds of the first two seasons because it seems like a really interesting show and also a show that....well, at least this particular episode....seemed to promote that There Is Value In Striving To Be a Good Person, and I like that, I *need* some redemption stories right now. And also it's more of a "fantasy" or "metaphysical" type story line than the grit and reality in many shows on right now.

(I could stream it on Amazon Prime but....buying the dvds is actually cheaper? Weird. And I went ahead and bought seasons 1 and 2 - $30 about for both, but if it gives me something interesting and entertaining - and yes, I've read enough about it to know Seasons 1 and 2 are different from 3 - it will be worth it)

also I may have a wee tiny little "thing" for Older Ted Danson. I never thought much of him when he was in his Sam Malone era, but his appearance has gotten more interesting with age.

I'm also slightly interested in seeing what "God Friended Me" is like. I'm hoping it will be like "Joan of Arcadia, 2.0" but am cautious. I might try watching it Sunday night (I think that's when it premieres).

I dunno. I tend to prefer shows with slightly offbeat premises rather than another "workplace ensemble cast comedy" or "crime drama" or "hospital drama with strong soap opera overtones."

It's kind of like how I prefer novels that are set in a different time and place than where I live: entertainment for me is an escape from the dreariness of everyday life, and sometimes watching a police procedural in a modern US city is too much like watching the news. (Now, a police procedural set in 1930s Hawaii, or in Nairobi, or in a small British village in the 1950s - that I might watch)

* Still reading "Miss Mackenzie" and wow did I miss reading Trollope:

- A dinner party, given as mostly an obligation/attempt to impress Important People, that fails horribly because the cook is angry about something and sabotages it. And just....wow, the whole idea of having to do stuff like give a tiresome dinner party for appearances and to impress people. My parents gave dinner parties when I was a kid but they were a lot less formal (for one thing: we didn't have "help") and they invited their friends and people enjoyed themselves. The whole upper-crust thing just doesn't look very appealing right now. (Cue chorus of "The Lady is a Tramp")

- Trollope may be more aware than some Victorian writers of the issues single women faced, based on stuff he's done in "dear reader" asides in this novel. And there's still the fundamental conflict between the "good and holy" (and bored) Miss Baker and the "wicked" (because she plays cards!) Miss Todd. And Miss Todd comments something along the lines that if she's going to the Bad Place because she plays cards, maybe she doesn't want to go to the Good Place, then.

- Yeah, the thing I said "NOOOOO DON'T DO IT, MARGARET" about that she did is probably coming back to bite her.

- It's in many ways a very funny book. Kind of arch humor, really not that different from some of Jane Austen's humor. Perhaps all comedies-of-manners are similar in that way. (And also: this is about what I can handle for fiction right now, where the biggest problems are questions of etiquette rather than issues of war or people getting killed)

* My arm is sore today from the flu shot and I woke up with a slightly scratchy throat (the throat is some better right now). I admit, I get these mainly for me - so I won't get sick - but they are trying to play up the "civic responsibility" issue because there are people on chemo and the like who CAN'T get it, and with some chronic illnesses, getting the flu can be very bad.

Though I wonder if the "civic responsibility" thing works much on people. I mean, we ask people not to litter and stuff, and still, our roadsides are a mess.

* Speaking of the upper-crust thing, given all the stuff discussed in the hearings yesterday and all: Wow, I guess I'm glad I never went to parties in college. I didn't go because I didn't drink, and I also felt like I would so so so so not fit in (I also was at a point in my life when I "felt ugly," and didn't want to go just to be an object of derision for some people there).

Yes, I had no social life. Having no social life in college is perhaps part of why I'm not married now and never dated much. But, I don't know....sometimes the only way to win a game is to play by your own rules, and I knew how entrenched "hook up" culture already was when I was a student, and I just kind of opted out of that and kept hoping for a nice, maybe slightly shy, guy, who wanted to do stuff like go on hikes and go to movies and just do that kind of fun platonic stuff for at least a while first....but it never really gelled. One or two people I dated, yeah, I think maybe one of them was questioning his orientation and he figured it out later and that's why we didn't stay together but....

As hard as it is going it alone as a middle-aged adult, I suspect it would have been worse to go through some of the abuse I've heard reported (by people I know, even) that happened at frat parties and the like.

More and more, I find myself thinking of the Monty Python "hermits" sketch, and even though it was totally intended as a joke, I honestly think it would be a nice way to live: have a small community of like-minded people around you, who left you alone when you wanted to be alone but who were also available to, I don't know, discuss cave-decorating tips when you wanted some company.