Lake Erie Rainfall

Well hello.

Honestly, there hasnt been a whole lot to report on lately. Things have calmed down quite a bit, in some respects. I worked from home all week, and I stayed close to home for most of last weekend. Jennifer Love Hewitt was doing a book signing at The Grove last Saturday, so my mild interest paired with the knowledge of a much stronger interest on the part of my friend Victor was enough motivation to get me over to the Barnes and Noble to check it out. She wasnt very personable. Just my experience of her. The next day, it hit up Reality LA for church and then spent the rest of the day up the Pacific Coast Highway on a small section of beach in Malibu. It was delightful. I read, and didnt get sunburned. Yes, that's right, I remembered sunscreen. This is no small thing.

 Hmm. This week I located a few other Trader Joe locations. Received a package of Easter candy (thanks parents!).. paid lots of bills. On Thursday, I went to my first game at Dodger Stadium. They played an exhibition game vs Cleveland, and I was first and foremost hopeful that I would come across Justin Masterson. No such luck- he was nowhere to be seen. This was, frankly, a huge disappointment. And in all honesty, my first Dodgers game was not a great experience. I sat in the Left Field Pavilion- think left field, bleachers- as in one long concrete plank to sit on, and a similarly-sized concrete plank as a back rest. I was in agony for most of the game, and i'm only exaggerating a little bit when i say that. I could NOT get comfortable, and had to shift every 5-10 minutes once the position I was in became unbearable. I'm talking pain here. I wont sit in that section again. Strange, but I noticed, from that vantage point, that much of the seating behind the plate and baselines was not very well-lit. Some downright dark sections, including an area that ranged at least 15 sections left to right in the Top Deck (I think that's what it's called.. the top-most level). By comparison, every place in Fenway is right in the lights. Hmm, what else? The bullpens are inconveniently wedged into either corner of the outfield, so unless you're seated in the very right-most or very left-most seats in right or left field respectively, you dont see anything that's happening in the pen. The seats directly behind the Sox pen became my favorite places to sit last season, so I had hoped for a similar sort of view at Dodger Stadium. Alas. And I'll end my complaints by saying that finding my car at the end of it all was next to impossible. The parking around this place stretches much farther than the eye can see, on different levels of the hill that the Stadium sits on. A concrete wasteland. However, the nighttime view of downtown LA from one particular side of the parking expanse is incredible. I had to stop and gaze for a few minutes.

All in all, I'm both pleased and distraught that Dodger Stadium doesnt hold a candle to Fenway. It was baseball- and granted, the game wasnt even a regular season game- but it held none of the beautiful intensity that I had become so accustomed to at Red Sox games. I'm not giving up, and I'll surely go back... but I left the park that night feeling  emptier and more sorrowful than I had in months.

...Didnt mean to bring such a depressing tone to this entry. Last night I took Nadine to Yogurtland, which was a nice little excursion. We had a good time but it was a chilly night, not the best for frozen yogurt consumption. Today I spent my morning and early afternoon on Skype drafting players for my rotisserie league team. It's a keepers league, so I only had 7 open spots on my roster to fill. I think things went very well, and I'm pretty excited about this team for 2010. Last year I heavily favored my other two fantasy teams, which were both Head To Head format. This year, we'll have to see. I'm in one other league, a Head to Head league. Not extremely fond of my team, nor am I satisfied with how they were drafted (automatically, by the computer... which landed me with some strange results, one of them being that I received NO reserve pitching (many people DID get reserve pitchers, some people got 3 1st basemen drafted to their team, and there were some other weird phenomenons)). Anyhow, the draft was a lot of fun even though I couldnt physically be there in CT with everyone. I didnt realize until later on how good it felt to interact with familiar faces. Sometimes I'll go into a store here, and get lost looking at clothes or books, etc, and forget where I am until I head back out to the street and find myself in the thick of this place they call Los Angeles. I felt that way today when I left my room after the draft- reentering my LA existence- as well as when I left the thrift store I visited today. Speaking of which... well, here are a couple new acquisitions. The dress was purchased at a nice clothing store in the mall... was on a rack of similarly pretty dresses and shirts that were "last call" kind of items, all $9.99. What a steal! And I found the Dodgers shirt at "Out of the Closet", the aforementioned thrift store. Awesome, because I've been looking for a Dodgers shirt when I visit thrift stores, but it's tough to find ones that arent tacky and that ARE my size. This was exactly what I wanted- simple Dodgers T with a decent player's name on it. BONUS: Furcal as #15. Dustin Pedroia is THE #15 in my life. Anyhow, some lazily-taken pics:

Like the coat? I loved it, over the top though it may be. My phone doesnt capture detail very well, but the coat was a likeable shade of crimson with gold trim. I wish I was brave enough to buy it, and then brave enough to wear it. Actually, I AM brave enough to buy it... I'm just not sure how long I would continue to think the coat was cool.

Ok, one more section and then off to bed. Sorry, this isnt going to end on a happy note. Baseball's Opening Day is tomorrow. More importantly, Easter is also tomorrow. I have to say that I feel like I'm being robbed of the amount of celebration I should be experiencing in light of the fact that 1) it is Opening Day! and 2) it is Easter! Another way of putting it- I'm experiencing what it's like to have December 25 as my birthday. Not exactly the same, but you see what I'm getting at I hope. I suppose that the problem REALLY only exists in the fact that, on the West Coast, Beckett will throw his first pitch from the mound at Fenway to Yankees batter #1 (Jeter?) at around 5pm.
Which is Easter dinnertime.
It's still a weird thing to have Opening Day on Easter, no question, but if I was back home... well, at least the game would start at 8pm. Church, fellowship, dinner, family.. there would be more than enough time to devote to these things. And once the day was through, it would be completely acceptable for the family to sit down together and tune in to NESN.
I dont mean to whine, I really dont. I know that most people wont understand why it's so important, and consequently so devastating, this Easter day start of the 2010 regular season- the fact that this commencement has an added bit of epic flair with the Red Sox and Yankees being pitted against each other makes it that much more exciting. This is not a problem with Easter- it's a problem with whoever was in charge of putting baseball in the midst of Easter and creating this conflict!! Honestly! I'm not the only one in this boat... there are millions of people in non ESTzones who will be celebrating Easter and spending time with family when their teams start playing- there's really no choice to be made, the priority is clear, but why on earth should we have to choose at all?? After diehard baseball fans everywhere have waited since November for this day (not a long time, but it can feel like an abyss when you're waiting for something) shouldnt we be able to enjoy Easter as Easter, and Opening Day as Opening day- the two being separate occasions as well as separate reasons on very different scales for celebration. Unfortunately, I will come away from tomorrow having participated in no real baseball game viewing- text updates re the game from friends and family would be nice, but I'll be having dinner at Bel Air Country Club starting at 5, and will be driving someone home before arriving home myself after the fact, so watching is not a possibility. April 4 2010 is Easter, and Easter alone. And that's enough- Easter is MORE than enough. I just wish that in a couple days, I'd also get an Opening Day.

Thankfully, there are thousands of baseball games to be played over the next 6 months.

But it doesnt feel good to put it into perspective like that, so I'll just assume that this will pass in about 2 days' time.

I didnt write about LOST. That's probably ok, because maybe 2 of you, if that, watch the show anyhow! I've heard that "next week, the conversation changes" and that has me very very excited. Still clueless, but loving the intrigue more than ever, still riding off of Richard's and Ben's respective episodes from the past month.

Reality LA tomorrow! Thank you Jesus for what You're doing in this city and for what You've done for everyone everywhere.

Parting thought... someday I'd love to have a grand piano. or a baby grand. do i ever see myself having that much $$? no. but the dream remains.........