Red Hot

This Saturday was softball opening day, and it couldn't have been more beautiful. High 70's and sunny, with a beautiful breeze. I can't tell who won the game because the rules at Rookie level are mysterious, but my baby hit the ball both times she got to bat, so she was happy.

When I got home from the game, though, I discovered that just because it's only in the 70's, that doesn't mean I'm exempt from sunburn. I look like a nicely boiled lobster. I actually felt ill for most of the rest of the day because of the sunburn.

Sunday did not get off to an auspicious start. It was dreary and raining, and at church, we sang like 15 songs that all had lyrics that came directly from the 23rd psalm. There was a guest minister who seemed to have a philosphy of "why say it in 10 words when you can say it in 450 words, with several analogies just in case you didn't catch the point the 5th time through". We were there for an extra hour.

But all was well when we got home, because Loki took the girls to visit their grandma (well, their substitute grandma since his mother is 3000 miles away - grandma Joan is the mother of Loki's college roommate who passed away 3 years ago). So it was me, the dog, the cats, and the DVD of Freaks & Geeks.

I never watched that show when it was on, because at the time I was working 60 or 70 hours a week. I would work from 7-4, go home to make dinner and tuck Monkey and Sweetness into bed, and then go back to work until 10 or 11, so I didn't watch much TV. But my sister was a huge fan, and when the DVD came out she bought it right away, and then she raved about it, so I borrowed her DVD and settled in for a day of laundry folding and TV watching.

I watched almost the whole series in one day, and I think I have a crush on Seth Rogan. It was a good show, it avoided a lot of cliches, and the kids all seemed real - except maybe James Franco, who looked like he was about 45. Still, the characters were well written and three dimensional. I think its human nature to categorize people - the jocks, the geeks, the burnouts, etc., but in reality, people are always more complicated.

When I was a senior in high school, we had a new student who had bleached blonde hair, and wore a ton of makeup and trendy clothes, and she acted like an airhead, and on top of that, her name was Echo! My friends and I used to mock her all the time. But later that year, Echo and I were both cast in the school musical (Pippin), and we got to be friends, and I found out that she had all kinds of pain of her own that she was dealing with - and she had better coping skills than me, because she was happy, where I was miserable most of the time.