Last Thursday evening was a good evening.

First, after work, I went to my daughter’s school. She played two roles in the school play Crumpled Classics. It was a play-within-a-play, where the main plot was that the students were trying to present some classic stories (Romeo & Juliet, King Arthur) to the school principal but, of course, their take on each classic was, well, crumpled. Isla had a smaller role in The Phantom of the Opera act, but her show stealing role was as the school principal. Isla really put her all into the role, and fully hammed it up as befitting a comedy. Her performance was made even funnier due to the fact that she was the shortest person in the play, and with students as old as 12th-graders in the play, their height difference was very noticeable. It was good fun, and I was very proud of my talented little 3rd-grader!

Afterward, we got ice cream from McDonald’s.

Then, after that, I went to The Rock Band Experience to hear my buddy Ryan perform in a Neil Young cover band.  Mercifully, the venue was not in downtown Minneapolis, so that made for a pleasant experience even before I arrived. But the venue was great, the acoustics were excellent, there were free snacks and free beer, and the intimate venue made for a concert experience that I absolutely loved. Owen came with me, and we sat in the front row watching Ryan channel his inner-Rhett on drums. When the set was completed, I shouted “Encore!” and the band agreed to a replay of “Cinnamon Girl” as long as everyone joined them on stage singing vocals.

Well, only about 5-7 audience members took the opportunity to run up on stage, but Owen and I were among them.

Here’s the cool thing:

On January 19, 1992, I was present when Ryan performed “Cinnamon Girl” along with a few other friends. I even videotaped the recording. Here’s a picture of Ryan on that day:

I never would have imaged that, twenty-seven years, three months, and six day later, I would be at an equally fun encore. Here’s Ryan last Thursday:

Yeah! The band did great! Ryan did great! The play was great! Isla was great! Sometimes – every once in a long, long while – life turns out to be surprisingly fucking awesome.

I haven’t really had a good day in at least two months. And I’m hard-pressed to say any day I went to work makes for a good day. So let’s just say it was a good evening.

There’s suddenly a strong impetus to finish some projects around the house.

If you’re one of the one or two people who ever visit this blog, you’ve probably noticed I spend quite a bit of time on improving my house. Though there are some frustrating moments (and jobs), for the most part, I enjoy it. I like figuring out how to do something – or using the skills and tools I’ve accumulated during my two decades of adulthood to make my house better – and I take pride in the end results.

Owen is slated to move into the basement. I have been down there a lot in the past 6 months trying to bring it up to readiness for him to live in. Jennifer has spent a lot of time down there, too, including several hours this past Friday. Around Xmas time, I started telling Owen he would hopefully be able to move in to his new room around the time of his birthday. But his birthday is now less than a month away, and there’s just no way the room will be ready by then. Actually, it’s not even a “room” yet.

Of course, the room doesn’t have to be fully completed for him to move down there, but the walls and floor need to be completed. And I can’t finish the walls – or even build the ones that need building – until new mortar is purchased and applied to the two outer walls and electrical is run through the inner walls.

Time and money. It’s always goddam time and money.

Lately, my friends have been really good friends – inviting me over for a beer, meeting me at a pub for a beer, or coming over to my house for a beer. That’s all great – and if you’re one of my friends who have done that, I certainly appreciate it. But it doesn’t get anything done. In fact, the beer probably makes me just feel worse.

Last week, I met up with a friend for a meal. I didn’t drink any alcohol, and after eating we played billiards and then bowled two games. I liked that because we actually did something – we got up off our butts and did a physical activity. So that was a step in the right direction.

But the best thing is actual progress on projects. If I’m gonna get together with someone, I want them to help me with a home-improvement project. Or I want to go to their house to help them with a project. I’m trying to get some stuff done. I need to get some stuff done. But it’s just not happening.

Beneath the stains of time,
The feelings disappear.
You are someone else,
I am still right here.

What have I become,
My sweetest friend?
Everyone I know,
Goes away in the end…

The love of my life,
She left me one day,
I cried when she said,
“I don’t feel the same way”…

Well, another year has wrapped up, and it’s time to take a look at my movie-viewing. In 2016, I made some goals regarding movie watching, and the results were largely underwhelming. So, in 2017, I tried again.

Here’s the complete list of every movie I saw for the first time in 2017.

The first thing to notice is that there’s a grand total of 186 movies on the list. This is an average of more than one every other day. This is probably a record for me, even outdoing my teenage years, and is certainly better than 2016, when I saw merely 55. In fact, I am certain I watched over 200 films this year, but the linked list does not include movies that I had already seen. For one thing, Owen and I watched the first three Harry Potter films together (but I’d seen them before). We also watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and E.T. together, and my younger kids frequently rewatched movies at random times…so a lot of rewatches this year, too.

Beside simply tracking the movies I saw, I also made a goal of seeing at least one film from each decade since the 1910s, and seeing at least one film with a title from each letter of the alphabet.

In both cases, I succeed. I saw 2 movies from the 1910s, in fact, including L’Inferno, which now holds the record for the oldest full-length film I’ve seen (it’s from 1911). The year from which I saw the most movies was 2016, which makes sense since it is the most recent completed year. The youngest movie I’ve seen, incidentally, is Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

I also saw at least one film beginning with each letter of the alphabet. I saw a single movie beginning with the letter X: X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I saw at least two movies beginning with the other 25 letters. The most represented letter was, of course, S. I saw 22 movies with titles beginning with the letter S. The longest holdout was N. I didn’t see a movie starting with an N until October 1st, when I finished watching Night Train to Munich. I also saw four movies with titles that begin with numbers.

My pacing was pretty even, though I went nine full days without watching a single movie from May 15th-May 23rd. But, come on, I had my youngest kid’s birthday, a final paper due in college, and my own college graduation to think about during that time. At the other extreme, from October 6th-12th, I saw one movie each day all seven days, which was the longest such streak. The months in which I saw the most movies were January and October (20 each), both narrowly surpassing July’s total of 19. The month in which I saw the least number of movies was May, with only 8. Second lowest was September, with 10.

I saw six movies at the theater, watched one for school, and saw six while riding in an airplane. I also watched movies in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Massachusetts, and Florida.

My least favorite movie I saw was Carnosaur. The second-worst was Beetlejuice. Only slightly better than these two pieces of garbage was Ghost in the Shell.

Here are the five best movies I saw this year:

5. Blood Diamond

4. The Purple Rose of Cairo

3. Cinderella Man

2. The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years

1. The Prestige