You remember being fourteen and hanging out with the neighborhood kids until all hours, right? I had it in mind to be cool uncle - Kat reminded me that Third Degree was an all ages friendly environment so I thought it would be cool to take T down there to see the glass blowers and the fire workers, thanks for the reminder Kat, but one of the girls in this complex was having a slumber party last night and T‘s new girlfriend was to be in attendance - it turned out to be first kiss night - which suddenly meant in the style of Happy Days that we were having a slumber party for the boys. My role was to occasionally call T on his cell and tell the group on behalf of the neighborhood to quiet down. There is a small pond behind the house that serves as the backyard for several units so all the kids were just gathered on the shoreline basking in the radiant energy of the moon and the complex’s halogens.

After the neighborhood curfew was in effect the boys retired to the upstairs to play X-box while I lit a fire in the fireplace and watched Moonstruck, About a Boy, and Return to Me. I think of the county as being in part about the valorization of sameness - all the houses look the same etc - the business repeat on a grid as though dropped into place by someone playing Sims St. Louis.

Part of that gestalt is to watch sappy movies that you’ve seen multiple times so you can repeat ad infinitum a mildly pleasant experience. Actually, since I’ve been staying here I’ve watched the updated Thomas Crown Affair four times so I think I am getting into the aesthetic. V and Camilla won’t be back until tomorrow night and neighbor girl is having another slumber party tonight so I can only assume that in the local spirit of repetition my evening will involve another three romantic comedies from the late eighties or early nineties. If I get an early start on it I might be able to get four in.