For some reason, this has been the weekend of people and situations popping up from the distant past and reasserting themselves in my mind. These have all been people I have missed and was thrilled to hear from, and/or situations that were never quite resolved and that I would be happy to see put to rest once and for all, so it’s not a bad thing. Just peculiar, the way these things happen all at once.

I’m not a believer in astrology, but occasionally when things happen like last week where a lot of my friends had deaths or serious injuries in the family, and this weekend when several unrelated bits of my past converged on me at once, do make me wonder briefly whether to give a bit more credence to such things. But only briefly, because I am a skeptic and disinclined to believe most things that I haven’t seen with my own eyes. Or that just feel deeply right on a gut level, even if they can’t be verified. Anyway, hopefully terrible things will soon stop happening to my friends’ loved ones, and if anyone else from my past resurfaces they will be people I’ll be happy to hear from.

In other news, I finished up my video game and now have my life back, which is nice. I was supposed to go a Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble concert last night but stayed home with an upset stomach, which is too bad because I’m told it was a very good concert. But apparently they’re also running a series of films relating to music all summer, so this afternoon we went and saw two of them. Satie and Suzanne, a story told mostly in dance about the composer Erik Satie and the lost love of his life, had some stunning individual scenes and images, but as a whole didn’t really hang together for me. I think, sadly, that I just don’t really get dance. I don’t dislike watching dance performances. If nothing else, the human body is just an amazing thing and I like watching dancers move. But the performances I’ve seen rarely engage me or evoke any real emotion other than that detached appreciation for the human body. Perhaps I should try seeking out some other forms of dance, since most of my exposure has been to ballet, and see if there’s something out there that would speak to me more.

Ravel’s Brain was about the composer Ravel and how he struggled with being unable to write music when he developed a degenerative neurological disorder that left him able to hear music, but not write it down or communicate it to someone else. Mostly I really liked this one, partly because my inner psychology major always likes studying neurological disorders. (And seeing lots of cool pictures of the brain. Mmmm, brain. Such an amazing structure, and beautiful in a weird squishy way.) But there was this whole thing with weird interludes with a singing neurosurgeon, that kept breaking the mood. I think I actually wouldn’t have minded the singing neurosurgeon if each of his appearances hadn’t caused the woman sitting behind me to cackle wildly and very, very loudly. And occasionally proclaim loudly “What the hell was that?” or “Gross!”

But overall the movies were entertaining and thought-provoking, and it was lovely to be in an air conditioned building for a few hours, so it was a good afternoon. Except that apparently all that refraining from smacking the person behind me was completely exhausting, since I came home and passed out for an hour and a half. Quite unusual for me, since I almost never take naps. They just make me grouchy. But we ordered Indian food when I woke up, which always makes me less grouchy, so it all worked out well enough. All of which is not terribly exciting, but it’s been a quiet weekend.