"Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever" LA

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. Ian is absolutely fascinated and obsessed about Halloween. A portion of our home is decorated with a full sized skeleton, a full sized ghoul sitting at our dining room table (he was waiting for his dinner for 200 years and never showed up),cobwebs, mummies, etc. What is it about morbidity that fascinates us? Is it the curiosity about the unknown? Is it the gruesome sites? Is it the thrill of being scared? Perhaps it is all of the above and more. I stare at road-kill whenever I pass it (Yes, you do too!). When Ian was three, we went on the Haunted Mansion Holiday attraction over twenty times during the five days we spent at Disneyland. Even after all those visits, we were not sick of the attraction. The majority of three year olds that I saw were absolutely horrified to go in the mansion. I was a total wimp when I was kid and would have not stepped foot in the Haunted Mansion. We are going to Disneyland Thanksgiving week. Ian can’t wait to see the new OogieBoogie addition to the Haunted Mansion Holiday attraction this year. I’m glad we are season pass holders (and we live six hours away!). All I know is that on November 1st, everything at the Halloween Superstore will be 50% off. We need to get there early! Perhaps we can get a good deal on the life-size mummy. Ian would be stoked.

I have a long commute to and from work. A one way trip can take up to an hour to an hour and a half. In a way it sucks, but at the same time I have a lot of time to think (just like when I run). A strong feeling of nostalgia has been taking over my thoughts during these placid times. I am doing my best to squeeze out memories as far back as I can remember. The memories that have peaked out from the dark, have reaquainted me with different emotions that I haven’t felt in such a long time.

Instead of listening to XM radio, news, or my regular talk shows, I am going to pull out a CD from my past and listen to it in the car on my way to work. I actually started today. Today I pulled out an old Cure CD. The very old stuff. Anyways, I haven?t listened to this CD for at least ten years. It?s depressing tunes brought back some memories from my teenage years. 10:15 on a Saturday Night is such an eerie tune (The Cure? Who would have thought)? The song lyrically and muscially is so simple yet effective. The guitar lick is just a few triads and a few harmonics. There is also a simple bass line and simple drum beat. The tempo is standard 4/4 yet melancholy. The part where Robert Smith sings/says ?drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip? is really freaky. The song?s theme is basically the clich鬠?A watched pot never boils?. He is desperately waiting for a girl to call as time goes by at a snail?s pace. It is such a haunting song.

RIP Fred Berry. I loved Whats Happening! I watched it as a kid growing up in the seventies. Fred Berry was the ultimate dance machine. It always saddens me when talent disappears from the face of the earth to a place we all have different opinions about.

In other news, I saw a live interview with John Ritter last year at Disney’s Grand California theme park. I video taped a small portion of the interview. During the interview he was totally upbeat, funny, and healthy. I can’t believe he is gone. Death does not discriminate.

The team I work with are scattered throughout the nation. We have some folks in CA, NY, CT and TX. We have a daily ?touch point? meeting with our group via the telephone. This meeting starts at 9AM for us left-coasters out here in CA. The meeting obviously starts at 12PM for the east coasters and 11am Central time respectively. So we did the usual thing that we do at these meetings. We apprised each other of our projects. Towards the end we all got kind of giddy and did not talk much of anything. We made sarcastic comments seeing if we could get laughs out of anyone. No one seemed too amused. One of the team leads then said, ?OK, if there isn?t anything else to talk about, I am going to go get some breakfast.? What amused me about this comment is that this person is from the east coast! Its 12 PM out there. Isn?t it lunch time? How cool is that? I want to live in the ?right-coast?. That comment made my day. Anyways, 10 AM PST is approaching. I need to start mixing my mimosas. LOL

So it was destined to happen. The Sigfried and Roy show is at a standstill. You know why these guys made it to the top right? The audience knew (subconsciously or consciously) that something like this would eventually happen. Hence, spend the money to watch a potential disaster with supposedly wild animals that have gone tame (We the audience know better though). Why else would a couple of magicians include WILD animals in a magic act? They could have done the same thing with ponys or llamas. I know a few magicians that choose this profession as their living and they use bunnies and doves. Why did people pay to see Evel Knievel jump 30 trucks? To see if he could land it? I think they wanted to see him scrub. Anyways, I wish Roy Horn a speedy recovery.