Saturday, November 23, 2019
I attempted to watch my first cheesy, holiday romance of the season last night. I am not sure why, but I find the ridiculous Hallmark and Lifetime holiday movies very relaxing. The plots are the same, the acting is decent enough, and I would not ever want to be in the lead actress’ shoes (which is what I think the point of romances is), yet for the past few years, I like to fill my pre-holiday days with 24-7 cheesy, holiday romances. (Thank you, Dish-Hallmark free promotions.)
Until this year. I have not been in the mood for these silly movies this year. The cancer diagnosis is not the issue. I happily watched hours of movies last year while I was on bed rest. I do not think it is the change to a terminal diagnosis (I could be wrong). The early start this year might be an issue. I get Hallmark Movies and Mysteries in my cable package and they switched to 24-7 holiday movies a few days before Halloween. I think Lifetime has been running holiday movies on the weekends for about the same time.
My mood may be affected by repetition. Since I was on bed rest last winter, I watched way more movies than an average year. When I check the channel guide, I remember watching the movie several times already, so I move on. I do not have the original Hallmark channel in my cable package and that is the channel that gets all the new movies. The couple of times I looked at the Lifetime movies, I remembered them too.
Last night was different. The steroids were kicking in, so I did not fall asleep before ten. At 10:00 p.m. Lifetime was running a movie I thought I had seen based on the title, but the channel guide said it was a 2019 release (I thought), so I tried it out. It featured an actress I loved from a series I had watched in the past and had a completely ridiculous plot line. I was in! Until I fell asleep at 11:00 p.m. Obviously I can still sleep on steroids.
I have discovered, today, that movie must have been a 2018 release (I was not wearing my glasses in bed last night) because I can watch the movie on the Lifetime website and after I finish writing this journal entry I am going to watch the second half. I am finally in the mood for stupid movies!
I think (since I started writing this today) the romances take me back to my childhood. All my brothers and sisters were fairly prolific readers and we visited the library most days it was open. My sister next older than me loved reading Harlequin romance and she bought several at yard sales. I read Trixie Belden, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Gone with the Wind (simply because it was more than 1,000 pages in a small font). I read everything… except romances.
I do not feel a connection to romances. I am not a romantic. Flowers die, I do not want them. For my birthday and Valentine’s Day, my significant other, Donald, used to get me mild Buffalo Wild Wings each year. (It is past tense because even mild wings burn my tongue too much to eat now.) That is all the romance I want. I asked Donald to marry me and did not make a production of it. I am not a secret romantic at heart. A couple of wild gestures that were made my way many years ago were rejected.
However, approximately once a year when I was a child, I would get bored with same books read yet again from the library and grab my sister’s stack of Harlequins and spend two weeks reading 100 silly romance novels.
My piece of advice to you is to accept connection when you find it. I started watching the cheesy movies a few years ago. I never realized why until today. I am not about to pick up a Harlequin (author Janet Dailey was one of my favorites) novel now, but those silly movies are a connection to that yearly break from my world I used to take as a child. I plan to enjoy it!
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.
I attempted to watch my first cheesy, holiday romance of the season last night. I am not sure why, but I find the ridiculous Hallmark and Lifetime holiday movies very relaxing. The plots are the same, the acting is decent enough, and I would not ever want to be in the lead actress’ shoes (which is what I think the point of romances is), yet for the past few years, I like to fill my pre-holiday days with 24-7 cheesy, holiday romances. (Thank you, Dish-Hallmark free promotions.)
Until this year. I have not been in the mood for these silly movies this year. The cancer diagnosis is not the issue. I happily watched hours of movies last year while I was on bed rest. I do not think it is the change to a terminal diagnosis (I could be wrong). The early start this year might be an issue. I get Hallmark Movies and Mysteries in my cable package and they switched to 24-7 holiday movies a few days before Halloween. I think Lifetime has been running holiday movies on the weekends for about the same time.
My mood may be affected by repetition. Since I was on bed rest last winter, I watched way more movies than an average year. When I check the channel guide, I remember watching the movie several times already, so I move on. I do not have the original Hallmark channel in my cable package and that is the channel that gets all the new movies. The couple of times I looked at the Lifetime movies, I remembered them too.
Last night was different. The steroids were kicking in, so I did not fall asleep before ten. At 10:00 p.m. Lifetime was running a movie I thought I had seen based on the title, but the channel guide said it was a 2019 release (I thought), so I tried it out. It featured an actress I loved from a series I had watched in the past and had a completely ridiculous plot line. I was in! Until I fell asleep at 11:00 p.m. Obviously I can still sleep on steroids.
I have discovered, today, that movie must have been a 2018 release (I was not wearing my glasses in bed last night) because I can watch the movie on the Lifetime website and after I finish writing this journal entry I am going to watch the second half. I am finally in the mood for stupid movies!
I think (since I started writing this today) the romances take me back to my childhood. All my brothers and sisters were fairly prolific readers and we visited the library most days it was open. My sister next older than me loved reading Harlequin romance and she bought several at yard sales. I read Trixie Belden, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Gone with the Wind (simply because it was more than 1,000 pages in a small font). I read everything… except romances.
I do not feel a connection to romances. I am not a romantic. Flowers die, I do not want them. For my birthday and Valentine’s Day, my significant other, Donald, used to get me mild Buffalo Wild Wings each year. (It is past tense because even mild wings burn my tongue too much to eat now.) That is all the romance I want. I asked Donald to marry me and did not make a production of it. I am not a secret romantic at heart. A couple of wild gestures that were made my way many years ago were rejected.
However, approximately once a year when I was a child, I would get bored with same books read yet again from the library and grab my sister’s stack of Harlequins and spend two weeks reading 100 silly romance novels.
My piece of advice to you is to accept connection when you find it. I started watching the cheesy movies a few years ago. I never realized why until today. I am not about to pick up a Harlequin (author Janet Dailey was one of my favorites) novel now, but those silly movies are a connection to that yearly break from my world I used to take as a child. I plan to enjoy it!
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.