Movie Night: O Brother, Where Are Thou?

 

Today I worked from home, and it was such a gloomy day out that at noon I was able to shine the blacklight on our stuffed parrot Jose and get this photo.

It rained on and off today, so Travalon and I could walk outside in the morning but had to walk around the house at noon. I took a walk outside at three, and another at five, when it was very foggy. I'd heard the train horn outside and hurried to where I could see the tracks. The engine was huffing and puffing as if it were pulling a very heavy load, but when it came into view, it was just a normal length for a train in our neighborhood, nothing too long. It was going very slowly. Then I prayed a rosary while walking outside.

When Travalon came home, we watched O Brother, Where Art Thou, a movie I have waited twenty-six years to see. This was the ideal time to see it, after spending some time in Mississippi on our trip, since the movie was set (and mostly filmed) in Mississippi and really captured the eerie, surreal vibe of the place. The soundtrack also had a lot of the songs we listened to while driving through the state, so I understood a lot more about this movie than if I'd seen it when it came out in 2000, and I hadn't been to Mississippi at all. I have been to almost every state (not Texas, Oklahoma, most of New England, and I don't really count Idaho since I went through the panhandle at night while asleep), and no other state has the same eerie feeling like Mississippi does. Alabama does a little bit, but not to the same extent. I freaked out the first time I entered the state because the sign saying "Welcome to Mississippi" scared me, specifically the S's, but it took me a bit to realize that it's because they look like nooses. Other people have noticed this too, but the state maintains it used an old font. Nice try, Mississippi. We know your history. I even found a story online by a guy who was driving north on the very eerie Highway 45 and found himself in a creepy town that he could never find again. I kind of believe it.

My one coworker believes it too. We have signs that a previous coworker made for us to put on our doors, like "In a meeting," "At lunch," "On vacation," and "Working from home." A couple of weeks ago my "At lunch" sign disappeared, and I searched high and low for it, but it was gone. I asked this coworker if I could use hers, since she never puts her signs up, so she lent it to me. Then on Wednesday as I was getting ready to take a walk with Seabird, the sign seemed to fall from the ceiling. I brought the borrowed sign (which frankly was in rough shape) back to my coworker, and she asked where my sign had been, so I told her the story, and she said, "Sounds like a poltergeist!" I said there had to be some logical explanation, but she just said, "I like to believe there are things we cannot explain." Fair enough - I think so too.

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