Good, Great, Unbelievable, Hard, Cruel, So Beautiful

Today was a good day. Isn't it great to be able to say that? I didn't get any homework done (maybe that was part of it), but I got a lot of miscellaneous items accomplished. Here's a little run down of my day:

• 8 a.m. — Woke up.
• 12:30 p.m. — Woke up for real.
• 1:30 p.m. — Went to The Mill. Organized my planner, called my parents and a friend, sent my dad a check for my car insurance along with a three-page letter, checked PostSecret, the usual Facebook and Blogger checking, read comics.
• 3:30 p.m. — Returned to room. Watched Law & Order: Criminal Intent (the only one that was on) while doing some cleaning and sorting through clothes.
• 6:00 p.m. — Started laundry.
• 6:30 p.m. — Went to Noodles & Co. with a friend for supper. Came back and put laundry in dryer.
• 8:00 p.m. — Hung out with Renee in Prescott until dryer finished.
• 9:00 p.m. — Started folding laundry and listened to This American Life. The episode was titled, "The Book That Changed Your Life." It was marvelous to say the least. The last act even had a Midwest theme that further put the beauty of Nebraska and, get this, even winter into a more positive perspective.
• 10:00 p.m. — Moved my car (got a freaking front row spot!) and called my brother.

Now I'm back in my room. It's seriously been an amazing day! I'm about to put my fresh clothes away and head to bed in order to wake up early tomorrow and work on homework. It's so ironic how it's possible to be productive without doing homework.

What I mainly began this post for was the phone call with my brother. We talk a lot, both over the phone and text message. If you had known us growing up, you never would have expected that we would be communicating this closely as "adults." This past week was his first year of college. We've dialoged a lot about that. It was pretty frustrating for him at first, but he's adjusting fast. I'm sure he'll be completely acclimated in a few weeks.

As I was browsing Blockbuster for a movie to use my monthly freebie coupon on (I ended up with "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"), I spotted "Grind." An avid skateboarder teenager, my brother naturally gravitated to this overhyped, ridiculous comedy. We watched it together, and, oddly, I loved it. Mentioning it to him, we decided to watch it at home over Thanksgiving break along with "Mrs. Doubtfire" and a night of the complete Star Wars original trilogy (let's be honest, they're the only ones that matter anyway...it might take us a while to find the VHS series in the boxes of movies my parents have packed away).

While browsing Goodwill this weekend for my Almost Anything Goes (class night, basically), I found a CD of the Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." When I was young, I borrowed the movie from a family at our church. I liked it so much, I played the whole thing into a cassette tape so I could listen to it afterwards.

My parents didn't approve of it (they aren't big on theatre in general). Some thing about it being sacrilegious. And I can kind of see it. The play doesn't exactly have any references to God being part of the story. But I don't think it's very harmful. It doesn't mock religion, just tells the story in a different way, mixing current culture into it. For example, in "Pharaoh Story" there's a line that goes, "No one had rights or a vote, but the king / In fact you might say he was fairly right-wing." I never caught that before, but it cracks me up. It don't criticize my parents' view looking back. They didn't make a big deal about it or prevent me from watching it, just was a discussion we had. That's healthy.

I don't have some strong conclusion to end with. The sentiment that comes with looking back just made my day and weekend. It's one of those days where I was able to look at my past, present, and future all at the same time and say firmly, "Life is good."

(P.S. If you didn't catch the reference made in the title, it's an old LFO song called "Unbelievable." Look it up. Go '90s pop!)