2006-10-05 - 2:41 p.m.
Six Numasawas and a Lofting
Season One (Disk III)
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-Erin Freaks Out
The apartment wasn't ready for October 1st, and the rental agency can only start new contracts on the 1st and 16th of each month. Therefore, six Numasawas and a Lofting will all be living together for at least another two weeks. At first, Erin takes the news with a sense of humour. Then she spends an hour crying, ever so quietly, in a miserable little ball on Shuhei's bed. (Shuhei knows that Erin is crying, but Erin doesn't want any of the other five Numasawas to hear her.) Though Erin's freak-out is triggered by the further delayed acquisition of the apartment, Erin suspects that, in reality, the apartment has very little to do with it. Having nothing to do all day is surprisingly stressful, and Erin hasn't been dealing with this stress very well. Furthermore, and much closer to the root of Erin's freak-out, is the fact that (thanks largely to extraordinarily useless parents) Erin has accepted and exercised full responsibility for her own life for a very long time. (Many people, most importantly Michael, have helped Erin many times, but that's different from responsibility.) The whole experience with the rental agency - and their usage of vocabulary outside the realm of everyday use - forces Erin to realize what is probably already obvious to everyone else, that Erin and Shuhei now have shared responsibility for each other's lives, and Erin is having a very hard time with this indeed... Once Erin has calmed down a little, Shuhei and her walk to the supermarket for candy and alcohol, then go to a nearby park. Picnics of this sort please Erin greatly and she is mighty happy with Shuhei for recognizing the necessity of one... Perhaps shared responsibility will be alright after all?
-Learning to be Lazy
Erin still faces the issue of what to do with all her free time. Michael advises her, via email, that laziness, like all things, requires some effort. It is clear that Erin needs to expand her repertoire of sloth. She begins regularily sleeping in until noon. She spends exorbitant amounts of time elaborately French braiding her own hair. She tailors a pair of pants for Shuhei. Because Erin had to leave her sewing machine in Canada, she accomplished this sewing entirely by hand, which takes her all day, which is exactly as she hoped it would. She takes up drawing dragons on plywood with oil pastels. (Actually, it's more like tracing dragons onto plywood with oil pastels... The method is time consuming, but requires very little artistic skill.) She prepares mail to send to Lucie, paints her nails for the first time since she-can't-remember-when, takes long daily walks with no real destination (Sonoko makes Erin carry with her a little piece of paper with their address written on it, so that strangers can take Erin home if she gets lost, on her walks)... Being lazy is hard work.
-Working, Sort Of
Erin offered to help Shuhei, Keita, and Akira Numasawa at work after Akira's visit to the hospital. The working Numasawas declined, which was no surprise, because their work is difficult, and dirty, and very un-ladylike. But Erin is, Shuhei already knows that Erin is, of the special sort of lady who like to both look pretty and feel useful... Erin grew up with a dad, and an uncle, but no brothers or nearby nephews or male-cousins. As such, Erin has helped her uncle and her dad with all sorts of uncle-y and dad-ly jobs... One afternoon the working Numasawas come home from a completed job, and are to spend the rest of the day preparing for their next one. This time, Erin doesn't bother herself with the formality of asking if they'd help. The easiest-looking and most tedious of their preparations seems to be the scraping off of dried-up bits of concrete from wood which has been used, and will be used again, for setting concrete. Erin takes over this task, gets all the little bits of concrete off without dishevelling her French braid or breaking a sweat, and, truth be told, quite enjoys herself.
