Front Page News

Guess who was on the front page of the Daily News today! No, it wasn't me, but it was one of my Confirmation students! I looked on the front page, and there was a huge picture of Jimmy being confirmed by Bishop Wilkerson. It's actually a really good picture, and a great article. Imagine a positive piece about the Catholic Church being run on the front page of an LA newspaper. Wonders never cease.

Check it out.

-chc

Y.U.T. 3, Y.A.M. 0

The third Young Adult Vs. Youth Group sports challenge is over, and I'm sad to say that they won again. That's Teens 3, 20 and 30 somthings, 0. Yes, they beat us in basketball, volleyball, and now football. I'm getting too old for this, and I didn't even play that much.

It was a good time though, and we had a great turnout. I would bet we had about 70 people at the park for this picnic/football event, which was great to see. Good times, good times.

Here are some pictures from the game. It was tied 8 to 8 until the last second when the teens scored one final touchdown. Did time really run out before they got that last play off? I guess we'll never know.


YAM in the huddle


Curt and Juli Rose


Group shot with Fr. Albert


Hanging around after the game


Next challenge--Badminton! Mark and Nabor are already practicing!

Have a good Sunday!

-CHC

What's new? Not much.

When time goes by and I don't write anything there is a good chance it's just because not much seems to be going on. I mean, after writing about a U2 concert and a weekend at Newport Beach what can I say? Everyday life doesn't always motivate me to post things on this blog.

Today was fun, though. I slept in until the Mexican music from next door woke me up at 11:30. When I looked out the window to see what was going on saw a bunch of kids practicing their dance moves again. It must be a weekly dance lesson or something. I guess I needed to wake up anyway. Sometimes when I wake up to that music I think I'm in Brownsville again. It's an interesting feeling--for a moment I think I'm in a time warp or something.

Last night I watched "Dead Man Walking" with the YAMS. Good movie. It's one of the few movies that won't let you off the hook easily. You really have to think about things. It's unusual in that way.

Friday night I went to Dimples for a little while. Good times. Apparently they've found a place to relocate after NBC destroys the building. I guess you can never have too many offices when you're part of a large media conglomerate. The good news is that I hear the new Dimples will be even closer to my apartment. Wahoo!

That's all for now. Have a good week!

-chc

ACE Fellowship Retreat

I just got back from one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. Thanks everyone! It was great to see so many friends again and meet a few new faces. Special thanks are also in order to Tony, Kat, and Fr. Scully for preparing such a great retreat, and to Fritz for so graciously hosting us.

I've been feeling much more alive since I got back from Newport. It's hard to describe, but I think this city has slowly been getting me down over the past year. I'm just really rejuvenated now, and I needed that. See you on the 24th!

Here are a few pictures from the boat trip. I'm sorry I didn't get everyone on film (or CCD pixels)--I had to put my camera away and hold on for my life! I think Kathy has a more complete collection of pictures.



With Lindsey, Fr. Scully, and Molly


With DGP


Mariaelena and Eric


David, Steph, and Molly


With Omar and Lindsey

-chc

U2

Wow. What a show! We were really lucky to get tickets, and it was well worth it.


Mark, Sean and I took the Metro into downtown to avoid traffic. Who would have thought that LA's subway is actually nice. I may have to use it more often.

After arriving at the Staples Center, we wandered around before meeting up with Mary. I purchased the obligatory t-shirt, and then we went inside to find our seats.


You can almost see our seats!


This picture was taken shortly after the show started.


Can you find me in this picture?

Probably not, because I'm not in it. That guy in the blue kind of looks like me though.

There were many highlights, but I'll just write about one for now. A few songs into the set Bono started reflecting on that time not too long ago when he met with John Paul II. As you may remember, he gave the pope a pair of his shades, and they both posed for photos.

So Bono went on, as he often does, about what an impact this holy man has had on him and on the world. "I may not have agreed with everything he stood for, but at least he stood for something." Then he pulled something out of his pocket. "He gave me this." Suddenly everyone was applauding like crazy. After a moment I realized what he was holding: a rosary. Bono dedicated the next song, Miracle Drug, to him.

At the end of the show he took the rosary out again and hung it in the spotlight. Then the band exited one by one, leaving it alone on center stage surrounded by thunderous applause.

What a great tribute.

-chc

Message Boards are up!

I just updated the site with a message board so that this can be a little more interactive. Please feel free to join the discussions!

Uncle Tom, now you can finally post that picture!

-chc

The Best April Fools Day Ever!

I think I mentioned last time that I was planning a great April fools joke. I set it up yesterday and executed today. It was awesome!

In order for you to understand the joke I first need to explain a couple of things about my job. Lately I've been wearing my "script coordinator" hat for at least a couple days each week because we get so many revisions from our writers. Whenever a new script comes in I print it out and distribute it to the producer, director, and production manager. I also usually flag the changed pages because there might only be three changes in a 90-page script.

So for this April Fools day I decided to commission myself as a writer. I went back to the most recently revised sections and did a little revising of my own. Basically, I changed a few lines here and there to the point where they were borderline ridiculous. Actually, I started on page one with some changes that were almost believable, and by the time I got to page 82 (skipping many pages in the middle) I was just writing anything crazy that came to mind. On the last page, one of the characters asks, "Do you even know what day it is?" The other replies, "Oh yea, it's April first. Ha-ha." Then I copied, flagged, and distributed it like I would any other revised script.

A little while after planting the fake scripts I heard bursts of laughter coming from the conference room. Then my producer poked her head into my cube saying, "This is the best April Fools joke ever!" She had been laughing so hard that she was crying! Now that's when you know you have a good joke!

The best part of the story is that I few minutes later the director called me into the conference room saying, "You just got yourself a new job. Help us brainstorm more ideas for this scene. It should be kind of like what you wrote only more over-the-top."

In the joke script I had written something crazy where our hero hits some other characters over the head with a stick when they get in her way. At the moment I couldn't think of anything more absurd, but eventually I did. I'm not sure if it'll actually make it into the movie, but it'll be cool if it does!

-chc

You know what day it is...

I have a funny little April fools joke set up for some people at work. We'll see if they go for it.

It's hard to believe that it has been a full year since I fell for the one of the biggest April 1 scams ever at my old office. They had a fake contest and I was one of the ones who believed them. Now that's not a joke....it's just mean. I guess I couldn't complain because they gave us gift certificates for being good sports about it.

At least my little plan should get a laugh even if no one believes it. I will let you know how it goes!

-chc