Three Birthdays and a Wedding

Alright, well, as you can see, rumors of this blog’s death were greatly exaggerated. Well, okay, maybe not greatly, but it appears to live in some shape or form at the moment. And I want to start off by saying the following: I have resolved to update every Sunday from now on, either with an events post or a DT or whatever else I feel like talking about. ‘Cause I usually have a fair amount of time on Sunday afternoons, and if I’m in a show Sunday nights (if that changes, I’ll change the day, but I’ll still try to update once a week).

So. Happy Mother’s day to all you mothers out there. Hope it’s goin’ well for ya.

Now that we’ve gotten the formalities out of the way, let’s get started. First off, I want to express my pride at my successfully sitting through War of the Worlds without squealing, throwing up, screaming, or gripping the arm of the person sitting next to me. I thought it was pretty good . . . Dakota Fanning was really good, Tom Cruise was okay (although . . . I thought Bono couldn’t sing . . . wow) . . . I was pretty disappointed at the end, though. Why can’t Hollywood actually let main characters die?! I don’t care if he lived in the book or not (I don’t know . . . I’ve never read it), but let him die!! Give us tragedy!! Make us bawl in sorrow! Make us hate you forever! But let a freakin’ main character die every now and then!!

But I actually saw that on Friday, so I guess I should go back to events that happened shortly after my last post. Now that I’ve taken my shots at Megan, that is.

Okay. So the first big thing that happened since I last updated was AJ’s big show at McClain’s. Mom was working, but Dad and I went. ‘Twas very good . . . he had a brand-new song which is no longer brand-new, and it rocks. And then Concept6 played after him, and they of course are amazing, so that was good.

Sorry to breeze through that, AJ, but there’s not really a whole lot to tell about that . . . concerts are like that. You’ll just have to get over it.

Then the next day Hannah got married. Which, naturally, was a pretty big deal. The actual ceremony was really short . . . had some nice slide shows, though (one of Hannah, one of Grant, and one of both of them) . . . even a picture of AJ back when he had dorky short hair. Afterwards they released some doves (of which AJ got some GREAT pictures), and then had the reception. The reception was catered by Chipotlé, which AJ dubbed “the greatest idea ever.” Much of the remainder of the reception was spent wandering around aimlessly with AJ, Seth, Indy, and the Von Helfs. David showed up at one point (decked out in his Hiding Place costume pants and makeup), and then we all left. So yes. Hannah is now married. Yay for Hannah.

Sometime after that, I received the letter in the mail I had been nervously waiting for. A letter from Mr. Wayne Scott. A letter that said “congratulations on being selected as part of the cast of Beauty and the Beast.” Sarah received the same letter. So yeah, we both got in . . . happy days. Rehearsals for that have been going well . . . Dustin is, as always, an awesome choreographer (although he caused me to have multiple bruises on my lower back . . . and I get to do that on cement for the show, what fun!), and Nolan and Jeff (his assistant, I suppose) are fabulous music directors. Especially Jeff. He’s amazing. To read fun quotes from rehearsals, go to my Xanga. And when July rolls around, come see it. It’s going to be überly awesome.

The next big thing was my mother’s birthday. It just happened to fall on the same day as the University Singers’ recital at CSUF . . . of which AJ is a part. So we all headed up to Fullerton for the afternoon. It was Saturday, April 22, 2006. There had been some wondering as to where we would go to dinner, but in the end AJ decided that we should go to California Pizza Kitchen, where Jessica works and could be our hostess.

We did so. But when our little buzzer thingy went off to inform us that our table was ready, Jessica was on the phone, and some stranger dude stole us from her! She was very upset. But she came to visit us at our table, so it was all good. She even recommended food to us. We ended up getting what she recommended, and it was REALLY good . . . I can’t remember what the pizza was, but Dad and I (and I think AJ, too, but I’m not sure) also got BBQ Chicken salads . . . they were amazing.

And after we were done, Jessica suddenly appeared with a free sundae for mom. In a cruel twist of ironic fate, she actually couldn’t eat it because of her diet, but it was a nice gesture. And it was nice for AJ, Dad and I, because we DID get to eat it. Yummy.

And then, of course, there was the recital . . . it was very good. They did some stuff from Carmina Burana, which AJ says is something everyone should listen to before they die, and it rocked. The entire second half (after intermission) was all one piece, which was a bit different . . . very long. But it was in English, so I could actually follow it (and they had the words in the program, too, which was nice).

Then we went home and to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream . . . I’m not sure when exactly that happened, but I also saw Hamlet with Mel Gibson . . . that was really good. I might even have mentioned it in my last post, I don’t know. I’m too lazy and my internet is too slow to go check. But yes.

So after that it was MY birthday (a week after that, that is). AJ came down. The party-ish thingy was actually the day after my birthday, but AJ came down on the actual date to celebrate. That was not intended to rhyme. But anyway, yes. I’m sixteen now. Yay.

On the actual day, I received a number of books from AJ (Passion & Purity, Hinds’ Feet on High Places, and Morning and Evening), an electric shaver from Dad, and a video camera and accessories from Mom and Dad.

The next day, we had church as always. The Von Helfs stayed for a little while afterwards and AJ put on a mini-concert for them . . . I got a recording of a song on my brand-new video camera. He also played a new song that no one had yet heard, which wasn’t as good as the new one at the show, but it was still good. Forgive my terrible grammar.

Eventually, they left. Lunch happened afterwards. My party was supposed to start at Lifehouse at 1:50. Sarah and David weren’t to be there, ‘cause they were going to Crafton instead and meeting up with us later. So it was supposed to be myself, AJ, Seth, and Megan. Seth needed a ride, so he came to my house a few minutes early, and went with AJ and me to Lifehouse.

We were about five minutes late, but in the end it didn’t matter ‘cause Megan ended up being half an hour late and barely made it in time for the show (some lame excuse about “traffic” . . .).

Oh, ha-ha, I should probably mention what the show was, huh? ‘Twas Heidi. This show is not the highest in my esteem, and I have bad memories from it (the show itself, not the cast). I believe it was one of Wayne’s earlier shows, and . . . well, it can be summed up in three words: “The Oom-pah-pah Song.”

Megan described it as “the most entertaining Lifehouse show [she’d] seen in a long time.” I’m inclined to agree with her, but the important thing to note is that this entertainment was not intentional. Let’s go to the play-by-play:

During a big, villainous song, the spotlight on the antagonist is off and her head is cut off.
Later in the same song, there’s a complete blackout, and when the lights come up again they’re on the wrong side of the stage.
During the lunch scene, someone misses a line and Heidi goes of on what is apparently a tangent completely unrelated to the current discussion.
Peter’s voice holds a wonderful amount of emotion, but his hands, face, feet, and every other body part don’t move for the entire show.
The singing of certain people is . . . well, let’s just leave it at that.
In the last scene, one of the goats has a very visible icepack coming out of his head.

So yes. Great fun there. After that, we met up with David and Sarah at the Gourmet Pizza Shoppe on State St., and spent about half an hour deciding what to get. Then we sat down at a picnic table, and Rachel complained that there were three conversations going on at once, so we moved to a round table. Then we got the pizzas, and the cheeseburger one didn’t have any lettuce on it. So AJ asked a passing waiter to give us some, and he did. More than some. A giant bowl full of it. So we gave Megan the honor of sprinkling it upon the pizza, which she did with unmatchable finesse (until she got fed up with the amount of it and just dumped it out in the center of it all). David then christened it “happenin’ lettuce.”

After much intelligent and thought-provoking discussion (intelligence: AJ and David converse in Latin; thought-provocation: Megan hears AJ and David converse in Latin and says “how did I become friends with you people?”), we went back to my house for cake. Mom had made an Oreo Cheesecake, and all of us but AJ (who was full) ate it. My mother is a very good cook.

So after a while of eating and discoursing, it was declared time for presents. Rachel was given the job of filming it. AJ was given the job of playing Happy Birthday (the opening chords had a “sense of foreboding,” according to David), and everyone else the job of singing after just eating a piece of oreo cheesecake. It was quite . . . um . . . interesting.

Anyway, after that I did open my presents. Actually, Rachel didn’t get me one ‘cause she was strapped for cash, Seth had given to me earlier, and Megan’s is a special one that I haven’t gotten yet (*pointed look at Megan* Finish it, woman!), so I was just opening Sarah and David’s. I also already knew what Sarah got me, because at Dance that Friday, David had told me that she bought it, thinking she had bought it for herself. But it all turned out alright in the end because it rocks. I’ll get back to it in a minute. David got me two things: a book the two of us had been laughing at in a bookstore a while ago, The Tao of Pooh, and a Mark Lowry DVD that I actually forgot about until now and still haven’t watched yet . . .

But anyway, back to Sarah’s gift. What was it, you ask? It was All That You Can’t Leave Behind, an album by the band U2. I had recently seen a U2 song in an Alias episode, and it made me realize “Hey, I’ve always rather liked U2, but I never got any of their CDs . . . maybe I should pursue that . . .” and pursue it I did. I downloaded Best of 1990-2000 from iTunes, and absolutely loved it. I therefore asked for this CD for my birthday, and ended up getting How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, another of their CDs, from Seth. I am now officially obsessed.

If there are any of you poor souls out there reading this who have never had any extended exposure to U2, I pity you. They’re amazing. They’ve overtaken even Weird Al on my all time favorite musical group/artist list. I hope you all have a chance to listen to at least one of their CDs at least once all the way through (with the words in front of you) before you die. In addition to becoming my favorite band of all time, their song Walk On (from ATYCLB) has taken the top spot on my all-time favorite song list.

So anyway, we then hung out for a while and one by one all the folks were carted away (except for David, who carted Sarah and Seth away). And so the artificial lighting was turned off on the end of my first full day as a sixteen-year-old.

Nothing really exciting happened the rest of the week, and on Saturday it was Seth’s turn to have a birthday party. Basically, it was a giant Super Smash Brothers Festival, with a few card games and some eating thrown in here and there.

Sarah didn’t come initially, ‘cause she had too much school, but after we ate we called her and told her to come over, which she did. She started playing SSBM with us, wailing pitifully about how she hadn’t played it, or even a real-time game, in ages. Then, of course, she goes and clobbers Indy, Seth, and I, the accepted champs of the group. *Sigh* Girls are so weird . . .

Then some other stuff happened for a while, and Seth opened his presents and got lots of money and giftcards and a shirt and hat. And an iPod, and electrical tape. We then got the idea that we should play tapeball. We were doing so, but it was far too dark for such a thing, and after ten minutes or so we lost the ball, gave up, and went back to SSBM. Then I went home.

After church the next day, Seth and Indy stayed for a few hours and played MORE SSBM . . . in which I discovered that Jigglypuff rocks, and Seth discovered that Zelda/Sheik rocks.

Then . . . let’s see . . . I don’t think anything really significant has happened since then . . . well, AJ and I rediscovered William Steig, but you can read all about that on HIS blog.

So welcome back to my life. And expect more updates from now on. Now, to comments:

AJ: Oh yes, of course . . . if Matchbox 20 uses the same phrase, it’s all okay . . .

Stephen: Well . . . I suppose, but I don’t think that’s how they’d use it. From my experience, the term “Sith” or “Sith Lord” (when used as an expletive) is usually kind of a substitute for the B-word, whereas Sithspawn is more the S-word or, more appropriately, crap. That’s my reasoning. You, however, have far more experience in this issue, so I might be wrong . . .

David: Well, hey . . . I had to take some kind of shot at you, and the piano lent itself to that rather well . . .

Stephen Again: Yeah, I noticed that . . . I figured it was just some glitch. But I’ll remove it now. Is your old one back to being existent?