Well, I haven�t updated in quite a while, have I? What is a good excuse? Well, I�ve just been very tired and busy and haven�t had one darn thing to write about, how�s that?

It is raining here. RAINING. What is up with this? This is supposed to be one of the nicest months here.

Minion 2.0 is here and he is working out well. He doesn�t know the gear as well, so his learning curve is a little steeper, but he is doing fine. I think this is going to work out.

I�m trying to put together a small vacation for myself next month. I�m going to go to the Utah Shakespeare festival. Now, am I a Shakespeare nut? Well, a little, but I have a friend of mine who I haven�t seen in many yers who is going to be working there this summer and I am going to go see him. I think it will be a lot of fun. He has to work during the day, but that means I have the days to be a lazy bum and just wander around this tiny little town and in the evenings I see my friend and hang out and have fun. Sounds perfect to me. I spent a weekend in LA for my cousin�s graduation not too long ago, and that was fun and I did get to see the Dynamic Duo which was great, but there was an obligation of something I HAD to do while I was there, and while I love my family very much, it isn�t exactly relaxing to be around them all the time. I was also bummed I couldn�t make time to see my other friends who live down that direction. Next time.

I was just looking over my last entry and I realized I never wrote about the shows I saw. Well, the first one I saw with my cousin was very good. I cried. It was about adult abuse, like when someone abuses an invalid or an elderly person. It was really good, though. It touched on so many facets of the issue, not only how it hurts the person being abused, and how really unacceptable it is, but also how hard it is to be the caregiver, especially if you are trying to make your own way in the world but are still tethered to the past and to home by this person who you love that needs care and who you want to help but who you are starting to hate at the same time because of what it means mentally and physically to care for them all day. They also touch on how the outside world views folks with disabilities. This specific character has Cerebral Palsy (The actor, by the way, AMAZING. Outstanding performance. Not only did he have the mannerisms down, but he also perfectly captured the mental state and the emotions. Lots of times you get one or the other.) and a woman wants him in a documentary she�s making. She wants him to tell the story of a brave, pure soul who overcomes adversity to make a good life despite his illness, typical feel-good treacle. He tries to tell her the real story: He is forced into poverty because if he gets a job he will lose his government healthcare and there is no job in the world he could possibly do that would give healthcare benefits good enough to pay for his medical care. His daughter also cannot get a job because he needs 24/7 care and there is no way they could afford a nurse, not to mention if she starts to make too much money he will, again, lose his healthcare. It�s a catch 22 and he�s stuck it is a rather pathetic situation, though a real one. He is also a rather cantacerous, sarcastic man and he isn�t filming as sympatheticly as the director would like so she tries to direct the interview to what she wants to hear. That scene was very interesting for me. It really sort of nailed how, a lot of the time, our society �wants� ill people to be. They should be brave, with strong inner drive to overcome all obsitcles and make their life �worthwhile� despite their illness. It makes it ok, somehow. This guy doesn�t live up to that. His life pretty much sucks. He�s happy, considering, but he�s in a lot of pain and it�s only going to get worse, and he�s a burden on his daughter and he never wanted to be and it sort of sucks. He�s dealing as best he can, but it still sucks and it doesn�t fit into the �strong invalid� mold. He only did the interview because she could pay him under the table. Anyway, it�s more complex than this and there is a lot more that happens, but overall excellent show. My friend was fabulous too. She played the daughter and she told me it was the hardest role she has had to play. It was weird, seeing my good, kind friend beating up this poor, sick man.

The other show was not nearly as serious. It was two one act comedies. One was about a blind date in a bar where two women have met through a personal add. Very funny. The second was written by my friend. It is the story of her trying to get laid and the many women she has encountered int his quest. It was so funny I almost peed my pants. The really funny thing is that most of the stories are true and I heard them the first time around. I would really like to see this show done by someone who doesn�t know the author because I�m watching my friend tell stories, I would like to see a stranger interpret everything on their own and see how close to the original it would come.

Anyway, that was rather quick and dirty, but those were the shows.

I finished another book. I actually finished it a while ago, but I just haven�t gotten it up here yet. Book # 10 is Roald Dahl�s Book of Ghost Stories. This is a collection of stories from other authors Dahl put together. The forward is actually very interesting reading and the stories are quite creepy. Eventhough most aren�t jump out- scare you thrillers, just quietly creepy and disconcerting, which I like better.

Anyway, that�s it for now.