Bored Meeting

Last night I went immediately from work to the baseball scrimmage (in which we valiantly portrayed the part of the Bad News Bears minus the hot-shot chick pitcher). Immediately from there, I went to the theatre board meeting, for which I was (by fiat and plan) an hour late....and they had just been bobbing along, killing time waiting for me to show up.

It's never a good thing when you arrive at a meeting, and (literally) 10 people say "Oh, thank God, he's here! Now we can get to work!"

But the meeting went fine, and (god, this is a shockin' (and revoltin') development) I walked out of there with more tasks to do. I'm going to hook up credit card processing to our website , so customers can order tickets online with a credit card. Pretty cool, although how do I end up doing all this stuff?

Oh, yeah, it's because I'm an idiot.

Senses

Well, the town meeting went well last night...I spoke up against moving the Old Town Hall. So did about a kabillion other residents. The vitriol about the move was palpable, and I almost -- almost -- felt sorry for the young man representing the developers, who got largely flayed.

On the other hand, I lost no sleep over it. Stupid money-seeking heritage-destroying aesthetics-crushing soulless geeks.

Seems to me that the proposal was well and truly mutilated.

History and Whores

Well, that's not your normal blog-entry title. Not mine, anyway.

Tonight, I'm attending a meeting of our city council and mayor. We have a lovely (although in somewhat (repairable) disrepair) building overlooking our town square. Called Old Town Hall, it's one of the original buildings in town. It's got style; more importantly, it's got history.

Some developers own the land right behind it, and they intend to build a strip mall there. Without getting into the ethics and aesthetics of building yet another strip mall (because ethically and aesthetically, it's the worst idea since the Burger King Quad Bacon Cheese Burger (which in and of itself is the worst idea since protoplasm first squirted onshore and said "Hey, "where's all the feces"?)), a developer's conundrum has arisen....mainly in that this fine historic building will obscure the view of their benighted strip mall.

Ahem.

So. Said developer has proposed moving the Old Town Hall, so that the lovely view of concrete won't be obscured by history and style.

It gets worse.

The developer wants to move the building to the center of our 'historical village', which would use up all the remaining green space in the historical village.

So, in recap, our mayor et al want to a)make us see a strip mall, b) move a historic building from its historic home, and c) wipe out the green space of one of our other historic treasures.

All in pursuit of money.

Back to the Fray

Well, the fall baseball season begins tomorrow.

Well, actually, we have a scrimmage tomorrow -- we don't actually begin games until next Tuesday. Still, we'll be in game situations (and I'll have to actually manage), so in Tedworld, it begins tomorrow.

It's (mostly) a good thing....I love baseball. I really need to find out exactly what these boys can do, too....so it'll be a good thing.

Wet

Yesterday was a work-late, drive-home-in-the-gushing-rain kinda day.

Last night was a curl-up-on-the-couch-and-accidentally-fall-asleep-there kinda night.

I'm becoming a boring-and-old kinda guy. Whoda thunk?

Lard

Well, by way of update, from the beginning of the year, I lost around 18 pounds; and in the last 12 months, lost 30+. Not bad.

In the last 6 weeks(ish), I've put a little of it back...not great, but not too bad. I gained maybe 3 pounds, that's all.

Still, I'm finding myself, lately, wanting that double-buttered popcorn (followed by peanut butter) at night. THAT might not be the wisest nutritional choice.

Still, all in all, I'm not dissatisfied. I'd like to drop another 9 or so, though....so maybe I'll re-kick in the program, and see if I can get a little svelter.

Which sounds like but isn't sweater. I got sweater down pat already.

Just Me?

Is it just me, or is this summer rushing away like an anaconda through a river?

Here...then gone. Poof.

Well, at least I didn't get eaten, so there's that.

Still....school starts in only a couple of weeks; as does fall baseball and the theatre season...and when am I going to get a chance to go backpacking? I want to do an overnight in September, probably...but I'm going to have a set to build and a team to coach.....

Yeesh.

Well, I think I'll schedule the backpacking anyway. I'm allowed to have a life, ain't I?

Competitive

Last night we got together with my sister-in-law and her family. My brother-in-law's birthday is this week, so we usually get together on the weekend in-between his birthday and mine and celebrate both of 'em.

Was fun -- always is with Shirley and John and their family.

In the evening, we played some games -- another thing we often/usually do.

After the guys beat the girls consecutively, somehow they came up with the idea that it would be "more fair" if we played it again, but the teams would be Me; and Everybody Else (which was 8 of 'em). I told 'em that was stupid, and they'd obviously just whup my butt, but they insisted on playing that way.

Well, they did beat me, of course, but I kept it close for most of the game. The funny thing is that, even though there was no way I could win, I really wanted to....and it did bum me (a little) that I lost. Guys can't help bein' guys, I guess.

Grief

Mackenzie's best friend left Friday night. We knew it was coming, obviously, and Mackenzie spent as much time as possible with her before she left.

Still, once she left, the awful terribleness of it hit her like magma. She was, more or less, hanging in there when she was at her friend's house and watched her leave. When she came home, she was sniffling and sad but standing...until I walked in her room and just held my arms out to hold her.

She collapsed into my arms and just sobbed....she must have cried for 20 minutes or more, uncontrollably. After she was able, finally, even to catch her breath, I held her for another 20 minutes or more while she just cried and cried.....occasionally cracking out with "I can't believe she's gone".

God, it's so sad. It's like a death -- exactly like a death, really.

Her grief hit me pretty hard, too.....

Full

The weekend was pretty full....Friday night I (more or less) chilled, although I did spend a little more time preparing marketing materials for the theatre. I also treated myself to couch-sitting, watching one of my old favorite movies and noshing on (heavily) buttered popcorn. Not a perfect evening, I don't suppose, but pretty darned nice.

Saturday I had to rehearse in the morning for the play-reading performance I was doing Saturday night; I had to pick up Mackenzie at her friend's house; I had to pick up Michael who was returning from summer camp; and I had to perform (and, of course, prepare for the performance). Even for something as (relatively) simple as a play-reading, I get neurotically nervous, and just before the lights come up, I convince myself that I'll never do this again.

Once the lights come up, of course, it's a blast. The show went very well -- the audience was attentive, and picked up on all the comedy as well as the serious (and sometimes) shocking drama. Moreover, they picked up on most of the subtleties of character and melancholy and life-regret which was very much an unstated theme of the show.

Still Busy

Honest to God, I don't know how this happens. I swear I will stop filling every single tocking minute of my life with stuff to do, and yet....here I go again.

I've been putting together the marketing for our upcoming theatre season....I had to put together some logos and make some decisions as to marketing, because we will be doing a mass-mailing soon. We're doing a season of classics this year, although it's a pretty eclectic season, stylistically. I created the following "Dracula" logo for our posters and mailings (I kinda like it -- I went for 'creepy' rather than 'campy'):



Last night I drafted players -- I'm coaching baseball again in the fall. It's not so bad -- the season only lasts a month, so it's just kind of a nice end to Summer...and I like coaching. Dunno if I'm any good as a coach, but I do try to instill three important things in 'em:

1) The fun is not necessarily in winning, it's in striving to do/be your best.
2) Any game is enhanced when you improve your own fundamentals -- their largest goal should be to get better. I admire the player who starts as a "D" quality player but improves to "C+" much more than an "A-" player who simply gets by on his talent. Anyone can have gifts -- not so many will work to make their gifts stronger.
3) It's only a game.

It's much more about the journey, you know?

So. I'm busy, per my neurotic/frantic usual. Fun, though....

I'll sleep when I'm dead.