Victorian 221b

Took the leftover marshmallows to work and was prompted to put them with the snack table that's been prepared for us for lab week. Didn't look like a lot had been taken when I check but that's fine. Anything left at the end of the week, I'll take home again for the kiddos.

Outside of work... I have a lot of feelings about the passing of the pope. I don't have a lot of love to lose for Francis. He covered up heinous acts just like everyone else at the Vatican and he certainly wasn't free of ignorance or prejudice. But he also made the Church a more welcoming, even safer place for many queer/LGBT+ people and led their families along a path of understanding and acceptance. He offered apologies to indigenous people for the crimes committed against them by the Church. He spoke up for immigrants. He called out the Palestinian genocide for what it is and was on the phone almost nightly with a Christian parish there, to offer solidarity and comfort. And his stance on the matter did not go unnoticed by Catholics or other Christian communities in the West.

More than anything, I'm concerned for what his replacement might bring. No matter what any of us have to say about Francis as a person, his role as a figure of authority carried a great weight and, for all his most significant flaws, he was moving the Church down a more progressive road. There's a reason the most noxious-- and obnoxious-- right-wingers railed so hard against him. The significance of having even a relatively leftist pope in power in the current political and social climate should not be understated. And the potential fallout of the Church taking a hard right turn should not be dismissed. I've seen the list of papal candidates and, uh. I'm largely not favorably impressed, lemme tell ya. Over one hundred of the one hundred and thirty-five cardinals who will vote to confirm the new pope were appointed by Francis, so there is some hope, but I'll be doing my own praying on the matter until we see that white smoke.

T'was a nice, low-key day. Didn't end up seeing most of my neighbors to offer marshmallows-- didn't occur to me that so many would be out for quite so much of the day-- so that was a shame. Kids liked them, though! I'll probably take the leftovers to work with me tomorrow.

As for the movie. I didn't catch that Hailee Steinfeld or I would've thought twice before supporting it. And I'm torn now because its success in light of the contract Ryan Coogler negotiated is making studio execs nervous and I do, as a general rule like making studio execs nervous. Also good to see a Black film doing well in the current climate. Idk.

But as for the movie itself, it was incredible. It looked gorgeous, to begin with. The costumes were a visual treat and I especially liked how Michael B Jordan's characters were differentiated by their personal styles. The effects were good to great for the most part, though the blood was a tad schlocky and I really wish they'd gone practical for one scene involving a snake. Granted, I think having the snake stand out like it did might've been intentional, given what snakes tend to represent, but I found it more distracting than ominous, personally. There's this one long shot that had me on the edge of my seat, not least because of the music.

The characters were all full-fleshed, for good and ill. I appreciated that no one seemed to "get what they deserved" but there were also no perfect victims. There was a real sense that they had lived eventful lives off the screen. I almost wish we could've seen their story without the supernatural horror elements, as the core story was strong enough to stand on its own. On the other hand, the characters and their stories truly were elevated by those elements, so I do need to emphasize the "almost" there.

I'm not actually sure how much I can say about the story while sticking to my usual avoidance of spoilers, as I'm not sure if I misunderstood the marketing-- only saw one trailer, tbh-- or if something in particular is supposed to be a twist. Certainly, I'm struggling to verbalize the cons without specific examples. I guess I'll just say that it's well-paced, has a good weight to it and makes excellent use of the time and place. It takes its time when it needs to, then the hits start coming and they don't stop coming. It's heartfelt and tense and even funny in all the right places.

Work was good today until it wasn't. Tbh, I'd be alright with how it ended if it wasn't Friday. I hate leaving cases over the weekend. Still, shouldn't take more than an hour to wrap them up on Monday and at that point, I'll probably be getting them on the table just in time to be read by the doctors anyway. At least that's my guess.

Trying not to worry too much over it, honestly, because I'd rather be excited that NEXT WEEK IS LAB WEEK! Buuut it's a little hard to be all that excited for the simple reason that we didn't get the usual hype sheet for the event. Which makes me think maybe we're not doing any spirit days or activities this years. Then again, no hype sheet means no information about lunch for the week either and I know they're getting us lunch as usual because the resources lady made sure to tell everyone to have the break room fridges cleared out. Idk, I don't mean to seem ungrateful. I appreciate the free food and I know I'm not entitled to the effort that goes into the planning. It's just that the whole experience was the highlight of my first few years working this job and I miss it, y'know? Still, makes sense. Fun stuff inevitably takes people away from their work and we have a lot more work to do now than we did when I started.

But, hey, that's next week-- this is the weekend! My sister and I (and maybe my mom) are taking the kids to a big Easter egg hunt festival thing downtown tomorrow and then we might get ice cream. I'm gonna check in on my marshmallow ingredients before then so I know if I have to pick anything up while I'm out, then I'll probably get them started as soon as I get home so they'll be good and ready for handing out on Sunday. Also on Sunday, I'm going to see Sinners and have lunch with my sister. And in between all that, there's a book to read, some sudoku puzzles to solve-- finally did one today with no mistakes!-- and some creative mojo that I'll be finding at least one outlet for.