Pitch Black

Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of time and will, any marriage, happy or unhappy, is infinitely more interesting than any romance, however passionate.
-- W. H. Auden

Sunday, March 5, 2000
One year ago: Jack 'n' Jill
Two years ago: Animated

I'm so glad I decided to limit my Corflu involvement to Friday and Saturday! Today was such a nice, calm day, and I needed that.

I showed Jack the new Subhonker filter that opens in the search pane in IE (a weblog viewing device). This led to me seeing that Xeney had posted a new entry. From there, I was talking to Jack about all these journalers that were having relationship crises and romantic problems. I do find it sad and disturbing! The universe will be a lot different when I am in charge of it, is all I can say.

This led Jack to bring up something that had been on his mind. "I've been thinking about having this conversation with you, but I didn't know how to start it. You know, a couple of people have asked me lately if we are going to be getting married."

Well, I was a bit taken aback by that! I immediately left the computer and curled up next to him on the bed, his arm around me. If we are going to be discussing important topics, I want that physical contact. This discussion didn't include him asking me to marry him. Instead he mostly talked about the damage he took when his earlier marriage ended. He still has a ways to go to get over that. We did some relationship checking in -- are we both getting what we need and want? It's been about a year and three quarters that we've been dating, though Jack expressed it as "almost two years." I think we are making progress, getting closer all the time.

I was relieved that he didn't say that he'd sworn a sacred swear never to marry again. I'm sure we'll be revisiting the topic. To me, a committed relationship would include marriage, unless there was some external factor that made it impossible.

It was Jack's father, and a Bellingham friend (unknown to me) who asked Jack if we were going to be married. Jack's dad said, "It's not a good thing to be old and lonely!" which is hard to argue with. I laughed and told Jack that Chip had asked me when we were getting married, just after Jack left the first day he visited me at the office!

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I hadn't realized that the movie Jack wanted to see was starting so soon, or I'd have ended our relationship talk a bit sooner! We drove downtown and made it to the Pacific Place theater just in time, though. Jack had been wanting to see Pitch Black because it's one of the few science fiction/horror films out there right now, not because he expected it to be good. And it wasn't good! but it had some redeeming qualities, so I wasn't sitting there hating the whole thing.

It is too much like Aliens. But the ship crash was exciting, Vin Diesel as the bad guy was compelling, and I liked the look of it. It was too predictable in spots, and a bit too long. (And I'll confess, I filtered it by closing my eyes during several gory parts.)

We'd been thinking of getting something to eat after the movie, but Jack felt like a walk. We cruised from the north end of downtown to the south, stopping at a candle store (for me, but I bought nothing), and a guitar store (for Jack, who bought two dollars' worth of guitar picks). Jack's goal was the New Orleans restaurant in Pioneer Square. We forgot that this is the weekend before Mardi Gras! They were having a pub run all over the neighborhood. People run from bar to bar, chugging beers along the way. Lots of folks with multiple strings of beads around their necks -- the waitress even had some with blinking lights in them! The Seafair pirates (or another, rival band of pirates) were having lunch with their families.

We had a good lunch! Jack was craving red beans and rice, so he had steak creole and I had an oyster sandwich. We took a bus most of the way back, but we had to get off when the driver noticed a homeless man passed out on a seat. He'd apparently had the same guy passed out the day before. Bus driving can be a tough job, I think. I drove Jack back to the hotel where he'd left his car last night, and he headed back north to Bellingham.