It’s Been Too Long

Hey there, my beloved readers! I know, I know, I haven’t updated in a long time, and I apologize. Rest assured that we’ll be back on schedule with daily posts ASAP. 

Corelyn just started her new job the other day, working as a member of the support staff to a sales team for a company that’s been doing very well with the whole “health shakes” thing. We both feel this is a giant blessing from the Lord, and an answer to prayer: the people she works with seem very nice, the company clearly makes taking care of its employees its highest priority, and she’s able to get home by about 3 or 4 o’clock every day. The catch on that last one is that she has to be in at 6 a.m, since some of her bosses are on a different time zone than her, but let’s be honest here: mornings suck. It doesn’t matter if it’s 6 or 8 in the morning, the floor is always cold and the bed you’re leaving is always warm.

On a completely different note, Corelyn and I have been attending a local bar’s trivia night for a few weeks now with some friends of ours. I don’t honestly know why we do it, since we always get creamed, but normally it’s just about spending time with the people, so it’s all good. This past Tuesday, however, our typical mad scramble for intellectual survival was substituted with a surreal, almost dream-like coasting past the competition to achieve 3rd place. We were bestowed with a sheet of white printer paper that promised us ten entire dollars towards our next purchase. Given that our team is, at smallest, five people strong, I’m already fantasizing about where my two dollars will go. With wealth like this, one can’t help but scoff and wonder, “What economic crisis?” I think I’ll begin referring to myself as “landed gentry.”

Switching topics again, I am now officially a member of California’s public transit community, and I can report that they’ve clearly gotten their act together in the last few years. The buses are pretty clean, they move fast, and they’re on time. That being said, all public transportation has an axiomatic “inside joke” quality to it; when you first start, you are immediately of a sense that you don’t understand “how things are done around here.” It reminded me of when Cor and I went to a Catholic mass for one of her classes. We figured that these guys and gals were here to try and get a high-five from Christ the same as we were, so how different could it be? Thirty minutes later, we were such sore thumbs we practically felt ourselves throb. And, to be quite honest, the little things the congregation all knew how to do weren’t written down anywhere, ever. I imagine that’s part of the magic, you feel united by experience.

The bus is the same way. You assume the principles are so basically in agreement with your desires that nothing can go wrong, and it absolutely can. I won’t get into specifics, but I will tell you I ended up walking home yesterday after a misunderstanding about which bus stops correspond to which buses. 

Let me also say that I gravely overestimated a Los Angeles bus driver’s capacity for empathy. I was amazed that these men could see me flinging myself at them for asylum, body literally wrought with effort, and feel nothing. They are hardened misers, I tell you, worn down by cheap skates and liars. There simply aren’t enough Ghosts of Christmas Anything to get these people relating to the rest of their species anytime soon.

And, for my last turnabout in subject matter, Corelyn and I recently saw “Rachel Getting Married” at the Arclight. We give it very high marks as compelling drama with three dimensional characters. Yes, it is a dysfunctional family kind of flick, but the strong endorsement of the importance of family and the power of faith in God on display won me over. This is a movie that takes faith and family quite seriously, even if the titular ceremony is a little bit of a cultural oddity. Extra high praise for Anne Hathaway’s magnetic performance as Kym, the central character. It’s time to start talking about an Oscar for her.