The mice will play ... again

It's happening again.

My wife woke up at the crack of dawn this morning to go to the airport, and that can mean only one thing:

Cat's Away 2.

If you recall, back in late July-early August I participated in a film series while my wife was overseas in America. By day I was a single dad heroically clothing, feeding and getting my kids to school; by night I watched movies. Ten straight nights I watched at least one film while she was gone, a freedom she would mostly allot me anyway, but in this situation I had sole choice of the movie and could watch something that pushed or surpassed the three-hour mark. It was a rare period of absolute viewing freedom, and you must cherish such moments when they come.

And so I cheekily referred to the series I wrote about it on my blog as Cat's Away, as though most of the time I were laboring under some kind of dictatorial viewing tyranny by my wife, and this was my rare chance to rid myself of my shackles. It's only the mice "playing," really, because it's as pure a form of watching movies as they come -- just choose what you want and press play. No fuss no muss.

And now, for the next nine nights, my wife is out of the country again. No reason not to do the same thing again.

Hence, Cat's Away 2.

The difference between the last one and this one is all about my preparedness. This time, I have almost none. Maybe because I just came back from a week out of town, I haven't been thinking about Cat's Away 2 all that much. In fact, I'm not even 100% sure what I'm watching on opening night.

As much as I wanted to be spontaneous last time -- and at certain points, I certainly was -- I couldn't help my mind getting carried away with what I was going to watch, when. I had a lot of stuff out from the library that gave me a more intimate selection set, so it was easier to start mentally plugging them in to available time slots. And even though I have only three movies out from the library right now, at least two of which will probably get watched, I have a different kind of "intimate select set" by virtue of making up a custom list on Letterboxd, with choices also culled from streaming services and our own collection.

This time, though, it's much more foggy. I've thought about possibilities for the opening two nights, though opening night keeps shifting, but from there it's pretty unplanned. I really can rock up and just find something and press play.

And so yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

So if you need me for the next nine days, here's where I'll be: