The Weekend

What a nice relaxing weekend. I spent Saturday morning hamming it up with the improv troupe as we got some new photos taken. Then I hung out with Dawn and Darren for Dawn's birthday.

We lunched, then played some awesome mini-golf. Dawn won, of course, because she had the highest score. 60! Go Dawn! I came in last place with a crappy 45, -6 under par! I'm such a loser.

Then we went back to their place, ate dinner and watched the movie "Shopgirl." I love Steven Martin. He's my favorite comedian of all time, a true inspiration to my comedic career. I remember pulling my dad's copy of Martin's book "Cruel Shoes" off the shelf at a young age and laughing my ass off - especially at the "How to Fold Soup" essay (scroll down on that link to read it). So, I love him. Always have, always will.

Yet that doesn't mean all his movies are awesome. I read the book "Shopgirl" when it first came out and loved it, but the movie did not do it justice. It was slow and seemed to be trying too hard. I had such a better view of the Ray Porter character in the book than in this movie version. So, sorry Steve - not this time. I love Martin's writing. His plays and short stories are always excellent. I still recommend everyone read "Shopgirl." You should also read "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," which is an excellent play, and then also his other novel "The Pleasure of My Company." As much as I'd love to see a movie version of "Pleasure," I am also afraid that it would be ruined that way. Oh well, I still love ya, Steve. You will always have far more talent in your pinky finger than I will ever have in my entire body for my entire life.

Anywho, on Sunday I lazed around for a bit and then the wife and I went hiking at a nearby state park. I felt lazy, so it was nice to get some exercise and see some "wilderness." I can't wait til we go camping over Memorial Day Weekend.

In other news, Darren has a totally awesome guitar. That's it there on the right. And if you want to hear some awesome songs, just ask Amy to make some up for you. She is a master of improvised silly songs.

I can't seem to convince her to get any huge awesome rock star tattoos, though, so go figure.

In other other news, we've slowly started packing for the big move. And - not that I'd forgotten - as with every move I've done over my 27 years of existence, I'll say this: Packing sucks. Oh, it sucks. It is a good excuse to get rid of crap, but then you still have to pack up the crap you want to keep. We started packing up our books this weekend. My books only take up about 1/2 of our two giant 6-foot shelves - somebody else's take up about 34 boxes worth of space. I won't point any fingers, but that person's name starts with an "A" and ends with a "my."

I don't mind, though. She is a pastor and it's written in the Bible somewhere (The book of Wordiness, chapter 34, verses 15-17, NIV) that pastors must own 3,000 religion-related books, and 2,499 of those must be different interpretations, versions and translations of the Bible.

Anyway, like I said - packing sucks. There's a fantastic comedian out there somewhere whose TV show I saw once. In it, she describes the process of packing in the most exact description I've heard before. I forget her name, but here is that description based on how I remember hearing it:

"When one starts packing for the move, it's all very orderly and precise. You take the glass out of the cupboard and you wrap it carefully in newspaper and then you put it in the box that's lined with padding. Then you take another glass out of the cupboard and wrap it carefully in newspaper and again put it in that padded box. Finally that box is filled and you carefully tape it shut and write "GLASSES - KITCHEN" on it in black marker with your neat hand-writing.

"By the final box, though, it's chaos. You grab the cactus, a book, a glass of water and the cat and you shove them all in one fucking box and tape it up and wildly write 'SHIT I DON'T NEED' on it in black marker."

It's funny 'cause it's true. I googled those phrases to try to remember that comedian's name, but I can't find it. She's very funny, though, and she has her own Comedy Central 1/2-hour comedy segment.

Anyway - yeah, that's describes packing perfectly. Please remind me of that in case I post on here later in June saying that we can't find our cat.