I had planned writing two posts this weekend. One about what I’m giving up (or not giving up) for Lent this year and one about my status of health and future medical treatment and all. The one which I wanted to write ever since I made up my mind to start this treatment as making up my mind took me long enough.
But then the earthquake hit Japan and all the terrible things that happened, are happening and will happen keep my mind too occupied to sit down and write long and detailed posts about my ordinary life. It feels so insignificant. The magnitude of the events in Japan is almost impossbile to grasp. It seems impossible to fully understand what happened there and how the Japanese people must feel right now. It seems too unreal even though we see the footage of the wave tearing down everything and even though we see the explosion at the nuclear plant over and over again, because every news station is showing it over and over again. As if running it on repeat would make it even more real. I don’t know… I’m at loss for words.
I’m in this weird state of mind where on the one hand I want to stay up-to-date with the latest news all day long and on the other hand feel the need to escape the grim reality by reading a novel or watching a DVD. That worked pretty well for a couple of hours last night, when my friend came over and we watched the “Same Same, But Different” and “The Jane Austen Book Club”. The latter almost makes me want to grab my “Pride & Prejudice” DVD and watch that movie again. I’ve decided to give “Downton Abbey” a try first though.
My inner tv/movie junkie seems to be drawn to stories from those centuries, where machines were powered by steam or coal or oil at the most. No wonder, is it?
Just for the record: I used to give up choclate for Lent since 2004, but this year I need all the chocolate I can get to keep me sane. Not because of recent events in Japan, but because of stress at work and other crap and big stuff on my mind (health, treatment and all). There is no way I can give up chocolate this year.
I will try to cut back on my internet time in the late evenings during the week instead. I tend to spend too much time online being unproductive, just passing time with rather random and useless stuff. I don’t have a distinct rule like which hour I want to turn off the computer, but I’m determined to turn it off earlier than usual. It’s not like the blogs, news sites, mails, tweets will all have disappeared the next day, because they won’t. The internet will still be here in the morning… but sometimes I know I act like it wouldn’t be.