"Forget about the reasons and the treasons we are seeking
Forget about the notion that our emotion can be kept at bay"
--Seek Up, Dave Matthews Band
I had a thought the other day at the gym (the new corporate gym on the Fox lot, now replacing 24-Hour Fitness in my daily routine, at half the cost and twice the convenience) about how gyms are often like churches, and not in a good way. A big problem with the youth group which formerly employed me (and with many youth groups, I would assume) was the way the core group of attendees would respond to visitors, mostly those of the not-so-"churchy" lifestyles. Say there's somebody you go to school with who's known to be a drinker and a drug user, and you're the typical good Christian boy, how would you, the latter, view the former's presence with you in church on Sunday morning? Ideally, he'd be welcomed with open arms (as Jesus often spoke of how he came to heal the sick, not the well), but in reality, it was often far from that. The looks and whispers say "what is
he doing here?" instead of "thank God he's here," and that sucks. So the thought I had at the gym was that the fit often view the unfit in the same light, right? Thankfully the Fox gym is made up of a vastly different clientele than, say, Gold's Gym (my buddy Mike, who's a member at Gold's, speaks fondly of his rise up the relative manliness charts in his move to the Fox location), but I think the thought process is universal. For whatever reason, there's an "I'm better than you" feeling that permeates both of these institutions (churches and gyms, not Gold's and Fox), and I'm certainly not saying I'm exempt, which also sucks. I think there's a sermon in there somewhere...
Speaking of churches, I had a chance to check out Mosaic in Downtown L.A. Sunday night, which reminded me very much of Hillsong in London, but with better teaching. Erwin McManus (I believe I went to a seminar of his at Youth Specialties one year) is one of two people that I now realize I'm able to listen to for more than 20 minutes. It's a sad reality that I fall asleep in almost every church service I attend (especially the Christmas Eve service at LCPC, moreso because it's late), which probably represents ADD of some kind (though it's never been diagnosed), and the odds go way up the longer the sermon goes. When I used to speak on Sunday mornings, I'd try real hard to keep it to 20 minutes or less, because I know the attention span of teenagers is even worse than mine, so when I'm trying to hear a sermon, it's real tough to stay up the longer it goes. That being said, I've had one big exception to the rule (until Sunday night): Britt Merrick, who I got to hear speak two or three times up at Reality in Santa Barbara a few years back. He'd speak for 40-50 minutes and I was into it the whole way, which was shocking at the time. Erwin spoke for close to an hour on Sunday, and again, I was there with him the whole way. It remains to be seen whether this was a one-time thing (was I better-rested than usual? did the fact that I was seated in the second row--as opposed to my normally further-back location--mean I had to be extra careful, subconsciously?) or whether he's got the power to keep my attention for an unlimited amount of time. Girls have that power (only certain ones, obviously), but it'd be nice to get that at church too...
Wonderful weekend in the Premiership, highlighted by a HUGE Newcastle United win over Liverpool--Oguchi Onyewu was outstanding in his home debut for the Magpies, Obafemi Martins scored another great goal, and old favorite Nolberto Solano knocked in a penalty for the winner). Manchester United kept its six-point lead over Chelsea, thanks to Ji-Sung Park and Darren Fletcher (though much of the work was done, as usual, by Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney), and they remain favorites to bring home the title. Elsewhere (in American-centric circles), Reading (Bobby Convey and Marcus Hahnemann) continued their remarkable rise up the table (they're currently 6th) with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa, Jay DeMerit's Watford beat Jonathan Spector's West Ham, 1-0, and Clint Dempsey/Brian McBride/Carlos Bocanegra couldn't keep Fulham from falling to Bolton, 2-1.
I still haven't had time to blog about Miami, and I don't know that I'll ever be able to adequately sum up the 10 days I spent down there, but I suppose I'll have to try at some point. Highs include two Heat games (including the TNT game against the Cavs, where we saw everyone who's anyone--Ladainian, Andy Roddick, Enrique Iglesias & Anna Kournikova, etc.), extended work with the lovely ladies of the Irene Marie modeling agency (four days' worth of model challenge segments, such fun), coordination of our DJ's (DJ Irie, the Heat DJ, for three days, and DJ Khaled--with good friend Rick Ross--the other two) and dancers (most notably, the
Heat dancers), and several fun shoots (an eating contest with Leeann at Hooters, tattoos with Rodney and Dibble at Miami Ink, Salley in the locker room and on the floor at that Heat game). Lows, hmm, how about none? Besides being pretty tired at the end of the week, I can't come up with something bad about the trip, and I'd say that's a small price to pay...
My television show selection is quite thankful for TiVo, I must say, since the only three shows I watch with regularity all air on Monday nights--Prison Break, 24 and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Missing two weeks' worth (Miami, remember?) meant I spent much of the day Saturday (after the EPL, of course) catching up on everything. It bears mentioning that this was my first full weekend at home since early December, which is pretty ridiculous.
That's pretty much it for now. Oh yeah, except for this...
