"Thank you for binging with me" I said to Heinz. He looked at me and replied "What is binging?"
How could I possibly assume that my husband would be familiar with this word.
It made me think that it really is such a girls' word usually employed in a dramatic but also kind of apologetic way. It's not that men don't binge, God everyone does, but if and when they do "overindulge" they hardly call it binging. Am I wrong?
The only time I've heard a man call out he was binging was in a recent article called House of Cards -the binge review-
That is exactly what Heinz and I were binging on by the way.
I don't know how it is that we got into House of Cards and although I really enjoy watching one episode after the next, my life was certainly happier before I met the Underwoods. I'm constantly plotting and looking for hidden agendas in everything. Politics and non-politics related.
I binge on Netflix every other weekend (which is code for every weekend)
Put to good use Netflix, I believe, is a great source of knowledge.
There was one weekend when I binged on Nora Ephron. There was also a Jane Austen binge and don't even get me started with the documentaries divided by subjects, authors, themes...
Netflix, is my new emotional support system.
On January I started reading Pride and Prejudice by mid February I was completely lost. Between an all girls' family, the fact that one of the characters has the writer's name -which was for some reason very confusing to me- and finally adding the generous use of the prefixes Mr. and Miss ended by the same surnames, it all became unclear. I confused the characters and lost the thread of the plot.
I'm not a big Kiera Knightly fan so I had been reluctant to watch Pride and Prejudice until I got stuck halfway in the book. Going against my habitual way I watched the film before I read the book.
Netflix provided me with the necessary tools to build an outlined map of the story. Thank you Netflix you proved resourceful.
It was only as a polite courtesy that I did not decline Netflix's suggestion to watch other movies like this.
Sense and Sensibility I have to say 1. I really liked it and 2. I don't know why! The movie's great but the story...I'm torn. I'm undecided about Jane Austen. I don't know if she was trying to portray an accurate snapshot of social dynamics or if her tone was intended to be sarcastic.
Not Netflix related I also binged on Lena Dunham recently. I watched a whole lot of Girls and two of her films -Creative nonfiction and Tiny Furniture- all while taking a break from reading her book. I could either call this deepening my research or plain obsession.
I used to feel guilty about binging so I stopped. Not binging of course but the guilt.
I, Ruth, binge on Netflix. I also stopped washing my hair everyday, I switched my beauty products to essential oils, embraced my own version of #capsulewardrobe and nowadays I rarely wear a bra.
I am an introvert in big groups but an extrovert with my closest. I am both proud and nervous to have detached myself from social conditions and religious beliefs I used to think were unquestionable. I'm questionably emotional and undoubtedly dubious of anything that reclaims certainty.
All guilt free. Just plain free.
I won't lie, I was really scared to turn thirty. Maybe it was the fact that it is a round number or it could also be the fact that it offered me a time frame to look back into my life. I felt like this when I was about to turn fifteen, twenty and twenty five. Thirty seemed like a good amount of time to carry out a life study. My goals as a teenager and 20-year-old had -in most part- been achieved. I'd even manage to find me a good husband. Totally unintended but highly appreciated. Why then did I still feel unfulfilled?
I decided to make an inventory of me, a list that included both my gratifying and my embarrassing habits, my public and private mistakes, identifiable pre-conceived ideals, conditioning experiences and any relevant lesson learned.
When I was done I did not look at me with guilt, looking at all the things that had brought me to that moment right then, and also to this moment right now I just can't help to feel but pride.
I decided back then that this is what my thirties are for. I would stop carrying with me the heavy weight of unnecessary things. I would shed any layers of apologies for being myself.
It is with joy that I have to admit the undeniable truth. My skin has never been clearer and my hair has never been shinier than in my thirties.
