Ever Fallen In Love...

Y'know how when you fall in love, suddenly every pathetic, nauseating pointless little pop song becomes deep and meaningful, and even years down the line will prick your eyes with sweet tears every time you hear it as it takes you back to that golden time?

Yeah, well I'm here to tell you that the context-engine in the human brain doesn't only work in nice, fun, gooey situations like that.

Yesterday, as you know, we got the news that Rita, d's mom, had passed away. We turned on the TV for some distraction, and found an old favourite - Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That sounded great, cos nothing blows grief out of the water like some high-octane slayage. Yeah, well when you turn on to a random episode and it turns out to be the one where Buffy's mom is suddenly, unexpectedly, stone dead on the couch, that doesn't exactly work. We changed channels and found re-runs of Saturday Night Live from 1976. Madeline Kahn came on and said "Oh, what are we gonna do, in about half an hour it's gonna be Mother's Day..." and then sang a song where every letter int he word MOTHER was "for all the things she gaaaaaaaave me....".
Click.
Friends. Phew. Nothing remotely serious in Friends, right? No, just a long riff on Bambi, and how tragic it was when his mother died!
CLICK!
Annette Crosbie, popular Scottish actress, wandered across the screen, saying how she was getting on, and how, the older you get, the more you start thinking about what you're going to leave behind you when you DIE!

FREAKING CLICK!!!
Desperate Housewives, one of d's favourite TV shows of all times...just happened to be on an episode where Lynette  Scavo, pretty much the 'supermom' of the housewives, having a rant to one of her kids about how 'one day, I'm not gonna be here!"

CLICK!
Sleepless in Seattle - nauseating child propelling the story on, whinging endlessly about how he "missed mommy" - yep, another freaking dead mother...

Blip! Time to turn off the TV. I plugged in my iPod and started pedalling. At random, I ended up in a compilation of 'heavy rock' Queen songs - which means I had Keep Yourself Alive, followed by Tie Your Mother Down, followed by Another One Bites The Dust, followed by Dead On Time...I mean seriously? Are you freaking kidding me? Ten miles of songs, and each and every one was unexpectedly meaningful - Guns and Roses? Mama Kin and Paradise City. 60s classics? Only The Lonely and Since I Don't Have You...

Just went back to the TV on day two. Love Actually - one of 'Our' movies, but we turned on to the story of - guess what? - the kid whose mom died, and had "Bye Bye Baby" by the Bay City Rollers (d's favourite band as a kid) at her funeral...oh and incidentally, whose dad in the movie was played by Liam Neeson...who shortly afterwards had his own tragedy when his wife died on a skiing trip!

I think at this point, it's time to put on shades, screw in earplugs and sleep for a fortnight, cos clearly the world of entertainment just hates us right now.

In other news, Day 3, Salad 3, found myself out and about at one point today, thinking "Mmm...salad tonight..."
Seriously, think I might have been replaced by a changeling or a flesh avatar or somesuch thing, cos this just isn't me.

ADDENDUM: 9PM, Sunday - Re-runs of last week's Desperate Housewives. Open with Andrew Van Der Kamp making amends to Carlos Solis...for 'kinda killing his mother...'

QED.