Tales from the Towers: Movies, a clean house and good weather

The last film which I took from Blockbuster back to the Elisha Towers was called "Love Actually". It should have been called "Disaster Actually". Once more I betrayed, although not intentionally, the trust of friends and neighbors and picked an objectionable movie for our Tuesday evening entertainment. At the Blockbuster studio, the young man had recommended the film saying:

"It's a romantic comedy, good-looking people, some misunderstandings, a happy end, what else could you want?"

Yes, really what else could I want? But as soon as the film started to roll I realized that this will go from bad to very bad! It was one huge and regrettable catastrophe. The action was not clear, too involved, events which were supposed to be connected were not connected at all, at least not to my simple mind. After the first few minutes people started to get up and leave, especially when a certain love scene was more than we bargained for. The lady next to me covered her eyes and whispered to me furiously:

"Why can't you bring something...educational?"

I kept from telling her:

"You go there. You get a closed box. You try to decide whether what's inside is educational or not!"

By the way, I greatly admire the people who at this stage in their lives still want to be educated, while I myself have long ago decided that my own education is all done, good or bad, and all I want is to be entertained!

However, some people stayed until the end of the picture, and the truth to be told, the film redeemed itself at a certain point. And it did have a happy end which is cheering. Nevertheless as soon as the lights came on I ran out, grabbed the first elevator up to my home and carefully locked the door. I was afraid of being lynched!

Next day one of the ladies who stayed until the end, told me:

"You know, instead of watching the movie, I watched the people who watched it! This was great, I saw one of the best performances of my life! What a pity that my video camera is with my son now, I could have used it and we could have had a really good comedy show!"

I approached Nizza, our entertainment coordinator, and told her:

" I need help! I can't carry this kind of tremendous responsibility on my shoulders alone, next time I go to Blockbuster's, I want someone along who will share the risk involved!"

Do you remember Nadya, my one and only best cleaning lady in the world? She left and I feel sad and abandoned. Her replacement, a nice girl whose name is Vicky, is so hopelessly silent! I sit in my corner and miss Nadya's cheerful chatter, her report on her little grandson's progress, what he says and what he does and what a grand future he will have thanks to his boundless intelligence. I miss her opinions on life and politics in the Ukraine, her ideas of what I should wear and what I should cook! Nadya never started to clean house before she sat with me for a while and we discussed world affairs in general and the Towers affairs in particular. Vicky arrives, greets me with a smile and gets down to work humming a Russian song to herself and I sit in a corner with my feet up in order not to be in the way of her vacuum cleaner. I long for Nadya. When Vicky leaves, my home is clean, but my brain lacks stimulation.

The weather undergoes changes every day. I remember during the years I spent in the tropics, I used to feel there was something extremely dull about constantly good weather, a complaint which is no longer valid in this here Holy Land. I just have to take an umbrella in order to make sure that we'll have a sunny day! The perfect order would be sun during the day and lots of rain at night. I am sure you agree! Hopefully!

Lucca.