Early last evening, I had the urge to watch a Christmas movie as an excuse to begin doing some solitary drinking, correctly expecting that my younger brother would anon be coming home from the bar he was drinking at. His girlfriend Bev was scheduled to work in the bar that employs her yesterday and today, so I knew that it was unlikely that she would be partying, and thus equally unlikely then that he would be spending the night at her home with her.
Using the Cinema HD 'app' that I have downloaded into our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box, I decided that I would watch 2010's The Town Christmas Forgot. I liked it right from the start ─ the actress (Torri Webster) playing a young teen daughter was a home run as far as I was concerned.
Her T.V. mother was Lauren Holly. I will come back to her a little farther on.
The T.V. father was played by actor Rick Roberts. I had just watched him with another fatherly role the day before in the Christmas movie The Night Before the Night Before Christmas. The actor seems a fairly popular pick for this sort of movie.
Well, my brother showed up well before the movie was done, but at least he watched it, albeit with some annoying commentary. He was clearly drunk.
At the movie's conclusion, I tuned in a more mainstream Christmas movie ─ the 2007 feature Fred Claus starring the very physically imposing Vince Vaughn as the titular character, Santa Claus's older and very resentful brother.
Alas, not 40 minutes into the movie ─ right around 10:00 p.m. ─ I saw that my brother had passed out in his chair.
I was so afraid that this would happen, for I will not tolerate him when his consciousness slips away due to his drunkenness. When it occurs, I leave him for the evening so that he can wake up and drink alone as he watches whatever he can find on T.V., since he doesn't know how to operate the Android TV Box.
But it was New Year's Eve! I had wanted to take some photos just ahead of midnight featuring him and my two stepsons, aged 22 and 25; and then some more immediately after midnight.
Nevertheless, I resolutely remained inflexible about this drunkenness rule that I have set, and so I came upstairs. And by 10:15 p.m., I had retired to my bed ─ fully clothed, and covered with just a blanket.
Before coming upstairs, I did take this photo at 10:06 p.m. ─ my final photo of 2019:
I was not expecting that my wife would be coming home following her long day working at her friend's Thai restaurant. Rather, I fully anticipated that she would be partying with her friends without me, just as she did Christmas Eve. The families of her married friends matter more to her than does her own husband and our home scene.
And so in my self-imposed exile, I donned earplugs and blindfold, shut the bedroom window tight and turned on the ceiling fan to help further dampen outside sounds, and I even wrapped a towel about my head and sought to sink into sleep.
But I was so emotionally miserable and lonely, feeling utterly forsaken by family and God.
It is possible that I began to lapse into some sleep in due course, for midnight's approach was nearer than I expected when finally I checked the time. Then when midnight struck, all of the neighbourhoods hereabouts exploded into every imaginable type of fireworks.
I remained abed, though ─ feeling isolated and robbed of any chance to participate in celebration because of my brother's wretchedly weak alcohol-drenched brain.
As I lay there in my self-pitying and tearful anguish, pondering how best I should take my life ere another Christmas and New Year arrive ─ heck, I don't even want to have my next birthday in October when I am due to become 71 years of age ─ I heard a text arrive on my cellphone.
I knew that it was probably from my very much younger wife, but I never looked at it. In fact, I never did check it until around midday today, nor have I yet responded to it. This was her message to me at three minutes and 51 seconds into the New Year:
I felt guilty for abandoning my brother to drink in the New Year alone, but I learned today from my stepsons that he did not exactly do that. At midnight, he rounded the two of them up and had the three of them toast in the New Year with Irish whiskey shots.
Apparently my absence was discussed ─ i.e., whether to waken me to have inclusion. But the consensus was that I was undoubted sleeping, so I was left alone.
I wonder what I would have done had they come to me? I honestly cannot now say.
My misery continued as I lay in bed fully awake, just waiting for my brother to finally go to bed. The plan was that when he did, I would rise and go downstairs to watch some Christmas movies and drink alone.
It was not until about 1:20 a.m. when I heard my brother at last go into his bedroom and shut the door. I then quietly emerged from my own bedroom, and slipped downstairs. Only my youngest stepson was still up, but he was in the lads' den area on his computer, in communication with someone remotely as they probably played a video game.
He never realized that it was me watching T.V.
It was time for a Christmas movie. The movie I selected was 2010's Call Me Mrs. Miracle (also known as Miracle in Manhattan). I believe that it was within the past week that I had watched the prequel ─ 2009's Mrs. Miracle, and I definitely enjoyed it.
I've never been a big fan of the late actress Doris Roberts, but she certainly was good as the titular character ─ the angel in disguise more correctly named Emily Merkle. Actress Erin Karpluk was the big draw for me in the original movie ─ I find her so extremely attractive.
The lead actress in the sequel was Jewel Staite. I was not familiar with the name, but I recognized her from other roles she has had. And as I watched the incredibly pretty lass, I could not help but think how utterly heavenly it would have been as a younger man to have had her love and to be able to gaze into her lovely face and eyes for all the years of life that we might have had together.
The lead actor ─ Jewel's character's love interest ─ was unknown to me. However, Eric Johnson's character was so believable and likeable that I feel I have no choice but to applaud the young man ─ I rarely feel so strongly about the male lead. His and Jewel's characters belonged together, so I rooted for them all the way through the film.
A supporting actress in the movie was most coincidentally Lauren Holly ─ her character was a far, far cry from the easily likeable mother in The Town Christmas Forgot.
Anyway, at Call Me Mrs. Miracle's conclusion, I then decided to watch the rest of the movie Fred Claus ─ to blazes with my brother. He had been given his chance to see it.
My youngest stepson chose to have a shower before finally going to bed, so he hustled himself upstairs without looking my way. It was only afterward as he was coming downstairs that he at last realized that it had been me watching T.V. all along, and not my drunken brother.
So he wished me a "Happy New Year!" as he headed on into the lads' den area and his bed.
I think that I responded with something like, "Yeah, right. Happy New Year to you, too!"
As the movie played out, I noticed that my drinking was affecting my equilibrium somewhat, and I had lost the earlier desire to be continuing with the act.
Then when the movie was done, I put on my runners and went outside into the mild, barely raining night ─ it had lightly rained all the previous day and on throughout that evening. I wanted to see what other homes might still have their Christmas lights on display, for ours was lit up within and without.
There was not much to see ─ most nearby homes were in darkness. So while I stood on the streetside sidewalk, I took these two photos of our home at approximately 5:06 a.m.:
I probably was back in bed by 5:30 a.m., finally able to sleep.
My day commenced around 9:15 a.m. ─ or that's when I rose. My brother was downstairs watching T.V.
I came here to my computer before finally going downstairs to fix myself a hot caffeinated beverage and to join him at 10:00 a.m. when I put the Android TV Box to use to fetch up some episodes of T.V. series we follow.
Neither of us mentioned last evening ─ it might never have happened.
We watched T.V. until maybe 1:15 p.m., and then he returned to his bedroom to get some bed rest ere taking off for the afternoon to begin drinking somewhere again.
I wanted to catch some further sleep, but a few things delayed me. I was still up when my brother emerged from his bedroom and made ready to set off.
It was a little after 3:00 p.m. before I at last got back into bed for a short nap.
At rising thereafter, I was soon at work on this blog post.
I have no more to say. It is 6:23 p.m. right now, and believe it or not, I feel like watching another Christmas movie and doing some drinking again.
So I will wish you well ─ whomever may be reading this.
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