Since I started late in journaling my quarantine experience, let’s do a highlight review in verbal timelapse: Watch. Pray. Sleep. Feel. Cook. Eat. Think. Worry. REPEAT. On certain days, something extraordinary would come up, like a virtual meeting or an announcement for which there is a deadline looming over. But mostly, I just watch. Watch the news. Watch the statistics. And yes, to keep me sane, watch movies. Thank God for technology, and for little sisters who are generous with their Netflix.
Barely three months ago, I couldn’t wait for school to be over and the summer break to start. I didn’t have any special summer travel plans made, but I had wanted to indulge in late-night movie marathons and luxuriate in the sheer satisfaction of not having to wake up to an alarm and eat breakfast while it was still dark. Fast forward to April 2020, and indeed Netflix has me (and my husband) up late at night. Some days we do binge-watch on action-adventure and heist movies, but on most nights, we end up wide awake late at night, mulling over which movie to ACTUALLY watch.
Decisions, decisions. 
“Freedom of choice is also freedom to decide when you do not want to choose.”
– Simona Botti
And with Netflix I have found, yet again, that with too many options, the most difficult part is making one choice. So, through most of my adult life, I’ve been taught that sound decision making requires factors for consideration. In deciding which movies to watch, my husband and I strictly adhere to the following factors:
- There are no acts of cruelty and violence against animals as determined using DoesTheDogDie.com;
- The ending should leave us full of hope before we sleep;
- It should be a thinking film as much as it is entertaining, but should also not endanger our mental health;
- Subtitle reading should not be a requisite for appreciation of the film, which is why I have shied away from CLOY after Season 1 Episode 1 (at least, for now); and on account of Fryan I add…
- There should be at least one of the following in the cast: Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson, Donnie Yen, and Michael Jai White.
Any suggestions for tonight?
Gone Gaga in the City 