Too Early On A Sunday

Over the past few days I've been finding it harder and harder to sleep. I'm averaging about five hours a night, which is better than nothing but still means I'm not getting any better in terms of the cold that seems to be hanging on for dear life. I've now been sick since the week my mother died and it's like trying to live through a constant, pressing hard wind. The more I push myself forward, the more it presses against me. The cough rattles through like turbulence and it shakes me around in its wake at all hours. The wakefulness is one thing: I know what to do with it. But my body seems unable to rest no matter how many hours I spend at home.

Last night, after spending the afternoon with my husband's family for our niece's third birthday (and what fun that was despite the above), I came home, did some work, and then settled down to watch HBO's Recount. The film stars Kevin Spacey, Denis Leary and a whole host of other people, and dramatizes the events surrounding the Florida voting fiasco from the 2000 presidential election. Knowing now what a complete and utter mess W.'s made of it, the film almost feels a bit self-congratulatory in a way, as it's told from the point of view of the Democrats (who obviously lost the court battle to finish the Florida recount), who have the advantage of the moral high ground. Regardless, like so much of modern history, the truth will consistently be bifurcated by the teller (sue me; I'm still a post-modernist!), but that sure makes for solid entertainment even if the film feels more like a Michael Moore picture than a feature film (again, I'm not saying that's a bad thing). And the performances were stellar (Denis Leary, Tom Wilkinson, Laura Dern in particular). All in all watching Recount was a perfectly good way to spend a lonely Saturday night coughing and crumpled up on the couch.