It�s been over a week since I posted anything. I�ve been full of good intentions about writing, but life got busy again and I�ve been so tired that when I get home, which really is usually way too late to start an entry, I just go to sleep. After this week it�ll get a little better. After April is over it will get a lot better.

I�m staring at the screen trying to think about something I can talk about. Well, the Pope died. That�s sad, but at the same time, the poor man is in a much better place and in a lot less pain, so it really is a relief on many levels. I�m doing some freelance work at a Catholic high school right now, so it was interesting being there the last couple days. It also makes me feel old because I remember when the Pope visited San Francisco and all of the kids in the school, if they were even alive then, were still in diapers. I remember the Popemobile. It was like a little bubble car and the Pope could stand up in it while it drove down the street. They were also selling little periscope contraptions called Pope-a-scopes so people could see over the crowd. My dad showed us how to make our own using cardboard and compact mirrors. That�s my dad; turn the pontiff�s visit into the perfect opportunity for a science lesson! Though, I could still build one today if you asked, so I guess it worked.

I am Catholic, but not horribly devout. I make it to church on the important day and that�s about it. Religion doesn�t play a huge roll in my day to day life. I am very much aware of what Mother Church does and it�s policies, though, so I�ve been reflecting on the guy and he really wasn�t half bad. You know, there are many things that he did that I really don�t agree with (I will not even get started here. That is another complete rant in and of itself and I really don�t have the energy right now. Also, damn, people, the guy just died, let the body cool. There is plenty of time for ranting and raving later, when I am feeling more articulate and impassioned. OK, well, tangent. ), but at the same time there are many things he did do that were very good things. He was the first Pope who condemned the Holocaust (also, I didn�t find this out until recently, but during the war he was studying to be a priest in Poland with the Catholic underground and he helped smuggle Jews out of Nazi Poland into neutral countries.), he condemned war in general, which, surprisingly, is unusual for Popes, he was the first to travel to any real extent outside of Italy (granted, he had a technological advantage over most of his predecessors, but still,). In 1987 he hugged a 4 year old child with full-blown AIDS at a service at Mission Dolores right here in SF during the height of the paranoid hysteria when no one really knew what AIDS was and a good chunk of the population thought you could catch HIV by shaking hands. The man was fluent in 6 languages and I think knows the basics of 3 more, for chrissakes. I can�t even get two down. He acknowledged evolution, finally agreeing that it is how everything around us came to be, guided by God�s plan, of course, but hey, I�ll take it. He also started the reconciliation between the Catholics and the Jews by formally apologizing for all the stupid shit the church has done to them in the past. I really do think this is more important that it may seem right now, but it should have been done decades ago because it is just silly for Christians NOT to get along with Jews because, well, duh, our religions are based on the same beginnings. Judaism is the parent to Catholicism and there is really no place, or reason, for hatred there. Not to mention you should be able to worship the All Holy Dust Bunny if that makes you happy without any fear of repercussions. Anyway, again, that�s another rant for another time. If you don�t agree with me, well, go screw. My journal, my rules.

Also, a streetcar hit him, then an army truck and he was shot twice and survived all of it, kinda like Fifty Cent, eh? OK, not really.

I just hope the guy they choose next will keep going down these positive paths instead of either backtracking to even more conservative territory or hard lining on the things I REALLY don�t agree with in the church and with John Paul II. I�m keeping an optimistic view for now.

I�m bored with talking about religion. It�s far too heavy a subject for right now and I really don�t feel like getting into it, so we will stop here with RIP to Josef Wojtyla (That would be the Pope, y�all.).

OK, on to other, less controversial topics. POLITICS IT IS! Just kidding.

You know, I�m not really very fond of musicals. There are major exceptions to this, but in general, they don�t really do it for me. Most of the time, if I watch them once or twice, I�m good. They are fluffy and entertaining and there is definitely a place for that. A good chunk of them, though, become nightmares to me when I have to work on them I start picking them apart and I see all the plot holes a semi could drive through, and the 2-D characters, and the Deus ex Machina that usually just drives me batty. The funny thing is, with the musical I�m working on now, no one on the creative staff likes musicals. We keep running into situations in the script where one, or all of us suddenly says �why the hell does that happen?� and no one can answer the questions. We�ve started just saying, �because it�s a musical, that�s why.� See, I usually really like the musical numbers themselves, again, with exceptions, but the plot drives me bonkers if I really read it and start analyzing what is going on. I think I need to just start doing musical reviews, where it�s just the songs from the shows, no dialogue. As I said, there are exceptions, though I don�t feel like writing them out, so no need to lambaste me with lists of good musicals, they are out there. I just have yet to get to a situation where I get to work on them, or, at least good productions of them.

Yeah, as usual right now that�s about all I�ve got. Work and a little current events for spice. Wow, my life is so thrilling.