a weekend

After last weekend's total eclipse by a combination of opening night, rehearsals and music performance, this weekend was doubly welcome. It started with a quiet night at home on Friday. Thanks to Netflix, I watched Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo. I'm not generally much of a Woody Allen fan, but this was one among his oeuvre that I enjoyed.

I had the chance to sleep in on Saturday, then did a bunch of household work on a warm sunny day. This turned out to be the last full day of that unseasonable weather pattern. By this evening the prevailing wind direction had swung back from the east (where it had been pulling hot dry air from the desert) to the west (where it is now pulling cool moist air from the ocean). If you've been following the saga of the firefighters laboring in great danger out in Riverside County, this weather shift will help them.

Saturday evening I drove up to see Shannon in Santa Monica. She was in town on business; isn't it nice that her employer sent her to my neck of the woods? As I drove up Santa Monica Boulevard on my way to her hotel, I saw the famous hillside Hollywood sign for the first time. I've been here for over a year, so it's sort of surprising that it took me this long!

Shannon and I had dinner at a Thai restaurant that was all Halloweened up to within an inch of its life. Not only was the waitstaff all in costume, but so were some of the patrons. There was a table of superheroes next to us. Superman and Batman sat across from each other. Superman's date was some variation on a milkmaid (you could tell she wasn't Bo Peep -- no crook), while Batman's date was not in costume. Or... was that just her everyday alter ego?

Sunday dawned cool and gray as the weather pattern changed. I attended services at a church up here in Long Beach. It participates in the same denomination as the Church of What's Happenin' Now, which after my move north is too far away for me to justify the drive every week.

Now, you know how some churches are all about the fashion? That was true at the Church of What's Happenin', Long Beach division. Today all the children in the congregation got to wear their Halloween costumes to church. A few of the adult members of the congregation also wore theirs. The kids paraded through the sanctuary for all to admire. Their walk was accompanied by organ music -- and later, the organist would don a costume of his own before performing Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor for the occasion.

But wait, there's more, and it's still about the clothes. Today was also the euphoniously named Undie Sunday. Members of the congregation were urged to bring new underwear and donate it to the drop-in day center that the church runs for the homeless population in downtown Long Beach.

In the afternoon, it was back to work. Recently my colleague-cum-supervisor John and I did a presentation for the Board of Directors. It went very well -- so well that it inspired a Board member to put on an event for major donors this afternoon, and present a return performance of the John & Megan Show. That too went very well. With luck, it will bring more support from existing donors and recruit new donors to the cause. Then we'll all be able to do the Money Comin' In Dance.