October 23, 1997
Dear Everyone:
This will most likely be the last Letter until I’m
settled into my new place.
Next week I will be much too busy trying to maintain my sanity to have
any time left over for Letter-writing.
Today, I will go to the
title company
at lunch time and sign many, many documents.
And my
real estate agent in
San Ramon
keeps faxing me important
papers that she actually expects me to read.
Does anyone ever really read the
CC&R’s?
Next Wednesday (everyone still have their fingers
crossed?), the escrow
should close on my
Concord
place. On Thursday, the
escrow on the townhouse closes (be the Good Lord willing and the creek
don’t rise). And, as soon as
I have the keys in my hot little hand, I’ll start moving things.
I’m taking next Thursday and Friday as vacation
days (thus dodging the bullet on the inevitable “to-dress-for-Halloween-at-work-or-not?”
decision). I’ll start moving
small things, like clothes, clocks, and everything in the blue bathroom,
to the townhouse. On Friday,
the movers will come and move all the furniture and whatever boxes I’ve
managed to pack up. Then
I’ll still have Saturday to finish moving the rest of the little stuff
and clean the condo before dropping the keys off at the real estate
office.
And I continue to look in cupboards and closets and
ask myself things like, “Why do I have a dozen
champagne flutes” When
have I ever needed a dozen champagne flutes?
When was the last time I needed
one champagne flute?
There’s a charity drive going on at work, in conjunction with
United Way
Month. I think I’ll drag a
few boxes worth of stuff to Company Park before the end of this week.
Take, for instance, an angel food cake pan.
When was the last time I baked an angel food cake?
If I ever need an angel food cake (for whatever reason), I’ll go
to Safeway.
This is why Zeus
put bakeries upon the earth.
And bundt cakes.
Do people still bake bundt cakes, or was that just a
fad, like
hula-hoops?
In any case, I have all these baking pans taking up space in the
cupboard over the refrigerator.
(As a general rule of thumb, if it’s over the refrigerator,
there’s a good chance you really don’t need it.)
Also, this would be a good opportunity to toss out
that box of mashed potato mix from two Christmases ago.
Not to mention an unopened bottle of Apple Cinnamon Sauce and
where the heck did that come from, anyway?
It will probably be a while before I have time to
take in a movie again, so it’s a lucky thing that the last one we went
to turned out to be such a good one.
This is the time of year that the studios start trotting out
their Oscar
hopefuls and this could be one of them.
Devil’s
Advocate stars
Al Pacino as (guess who?) the head of a big New York law firm.
Keanu Reeves
puts in a surprisingly good performance as a young defense attorney from
a small Southern town. He
has a gift for picking juries and getting guilty clients acquitted.
He gets invited to join the New York firm, with an
astronomical salary and fabulous perks.
He doesn’t ask what the catch is; as far as he’s concerned, he
is the catch.
Little does he know how true this is.
This is
Rosemary’s Baby meets
The Firm,
only it’s much better than either.
Pacino’s character, calling himself
John Milton, is
already over the top just in concept alone.
But Pacino keeps himself reined in.
You spend a lot of time trying to guess who’s in the know and
who’s just being used. There
are some nice casting touches, such as
Craig T. Nelson,
of TV’s
Coach,
as a defendant charged with murder.
However, a word of warning:
This is definitely an adult film.
There’s a bit too much flaunting of flesh for younger viewers.
And don’t go anywhere near it if you’re the slightest bit
acrophobic.
There’s a scene in which two characters go for a stroll on the
top of a high rise building that will curl your toes for a week.
And just when you think you have everything figured
out, there’s a twist that turns into another twist.
Really makes you wonder about the concept of “free
will”.
I’ll be back after I get Oberon and Company set up
in our new home.
Love, as always,
Pete
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