Oh, lots of little things..

I've got plenty to write about today... let's see if I get to everything before running out of steam.

So first of all, yes, it's Friday night and I'm writing in my blog. The Quakes are away for the next week. I dont know if the Dodgers are home or away but I havent really had the heart to go back to Dodger Stadium since that one game I attended. Guess what! After searching my mind for the past week or so, I came up with a couple things that I'll miss about Los Angeles (besides the wonderful Acker family, and a very few friends that I've spent time with). First, I'll miss the Quakes. Of course. I dont remember if I posted this here or on my baseball blog, but I've come to love the Quakes somewhere between how I love the '09 Spinners and how I love the Paw Sox. I know all of the typical starters on the team, and have a general sense of how they've been performing in 2010. I like them enough to drive all that way (sometimes through horrendous traffic) so I will definitely miss them, but at least I have plenty of teams to fill that hole with back in New England. The other thing that I'll really miss is a bit more irreplaceable- they REALLY know how to do movie experiences in this town. I've never been to a movie theatre here that didnt really wow me- granted, I've only been to 3 or 4. The screens here are MASSIVE. The picture is so clear and so large. My friend Roxy and I had to sit in the front row as we were late to the premiere of Remember Me and place was packed- the screen was soooo big that my eyes and my mind literally couldnt take it all in at once. The sound is just about perfect. The seating is always staggered stadium seating so there's no chance that you wont be able to see because of the tall guy or the girl with the big hair in front of you. The seats are cushy and leather-like, and lean back as far as is necessary. There are a billion previews, which I actually like, because I dont watch TV and otherwise have no idea what's going on for new/upcoming releases (i realize that many people actually wouldnt like this); and before the previews, for people who get there extra early, they show inside/behind-the-scene peeks into tv shows, other movies, celebrities... none of this business about trivia that cycles back around after 10 slides. Even better... I have as many coupons and more that get me to different theatres around the area for $6, $7 a pop. Hours of entertainment are definitely worth the financial cost.



I saw Robin Hood today, as it just came out. I really enjoyed it for what it was, but was hoping for and am reading for the story of his outlaw adventures. The movie was about his road to being declared an outlaw. I need to read the true account again because every movie has a different take on Robin Hood and a different story to tell.. so I actually dont know the real deal. Anyhow, Russell Crowe was wonderful, intense, genuine as always. And Cate Blanchette wasn't the Marian I imagine being the love of Robin Hood's life but she was a lot better than I thought she'd be in the role. (I have nothing against her as an actress but NEVER would have singled her out to play Maid Marian.) Surprise appearance by the guy who plays Martin Keamy on LOST! WOah! He's Little John. And... wow, I really liked him! He was great. In LOST, of course, he plays the most despicable, contemptible character. As the movie was about Robin Hood and not his entire band, we didnt see much of Little John but he was a presence for sure, for the role that he did have. Alan-a-Dale and Will Scarlett were present as well. Makes me wonder if they might do a second installment. There's definitely room for it and the first was good enough in my book that I'd go back for more.



Aside from the movie, I've been searching for housing around Boston and putting my car on the market all day today. It's tiring, and a lot of it is a waiting game. Trying to put the information out there, and also find out who is searching for a car/roommate, and waiting for responses. Time goes very slowly, it seems, when I'm trying to make craigslist work for me. I also stuck my car up on cars.com so hopefully that will be a helpful tool. There's a place in Brighton Center, a handful of miles from my church and definitely in the right price range, that I'm waiting to hear back about. Prayers? That if this could be a good place for me, that there would be little resistance in working out the details. You know how these things go... back and forth, rollercoasterish, until they finally settle.



Last night I drove down to Temecula to meet and visit with the Sidders, who are to be the new pastor-family at my parents' and cousin's church. We hit it right off and it was fully worth the 2+hour drive down there. We chatted for a number of hours, had pizza and chocolate cake (oh, how long it had been since i had eaten pizza! mmmm), and got to know each other. I'm excited for their move and I'm excited that we'll all be a part of each others' futures. I know that everyone in Maine loves them already and cant wait for them to arrive, and I can assure you that they're all just as excited, if not a bit more stressed out with selling the house, packing everything up, and finding a new home in the next couple of months. For those of you who have met the Sidders, I'm happy to report that while Robin is definitely off her feet for the most part, she is in great spirits, or was when I was there! Greg is clearly being a great support to her and had the house actually SPARKLING-clean for a realtor/potential house-buyer that came by while I was there. The kids were very well-behaved as I rambled what was probably mostly-boring talk about life here and life in Maine. Their oldest, Sean, is a photographer and we talked about that for a while- he had some pics of Fenway from when they visited Boston a few years ago!! Beautiful.
Around bedtime, I headed to destination #2 of the night- the church that Greg used to pastor, where some friends were playing a show. It was great to see slices of home in Doug and Darren (didnt run across Karl, and Joe was back in Maine with his wife Adrienne who had child #4 that day!). Not only slices of home, but the encountering of something, someone who runs deeper than just the past few years of my life. We're not close now and havent been for a while but there was a time when I spent a lot of time with Doug and his wife Angie, and with The Kingpin Wrecking Crew as a unit. There's history there. It was good to be there with them, even for such a short period of time. In the process, Doug introduced me to a guy in one of the other bands on the tour who was childhood best friends with Clay Buchholz- was one of the people who rented a hotel room out of town with Clay, Clay's dad, Clay's agent around the draft because Clay needed to escape his friends' and family's excited "hounding"... this guy played ball with Clay when Clay was both a pitcher and a shortstop. He told me that Clay led their team in homeruns ( I guess for a season... we didnt get to when that was or with which team)! This guy (I'll have to ask Doug to remind me of his name but he was really nice) played 2nd base and loved meeting up with Petey at Clay's wedding. He said Petey is his favorite... was a pretty funny guy. Time was short, we probably talked for about 7 minutes and then all of the members from each band went out when the show was over and hung around their merch tables. Really crazy to stumble across Buchholz's close friend like that though. (Clay and the Red Sox won vs Detroit today, woohoo! Petey hit his 8th homerun of the season, WOOHOO! And they were wearing their blue jerseys. And Petey had his socks showing?)


Man alive- no matter how Bowden pitches, he cant get a Win to his name to save his life. It's a TALENT of his- either taking the loss, or not factoring in the decision for a victory.


Crazy, Pat's coming here really soon, and then I'm leaving. Hopefully things are put together by that point but life just has this way of moving forward so whatever happens, happens. I think I actually covered all of the different things I had on my mind to write about. Good night East Coasters.