Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm on my way out the door for breakfast at Grandmother and Grandfather's so this will be a quick one. Right now I'm still waiting for Nora and Steve to get back from the store, then it's over the river and through the woods we go.

I was pleasantly surprised to find some snow waiting for me back here in the Midwest. I'm sure there'll be plenty more where that came from at Christmas.

We had a great Turkey Day with just about all of my relatives on my mom's side of the family. Great traditions like the ceremonial "tossing of the rolls" continue. Do any other families take the phrase "pass the rolls" literally in a football sense? At least we squeezed by without anything as bad as the great dropped pass of '01 where a deflected roll ended up in tipping over a wine glass... Now there was a Kodak moment.

-chc

Letters Lost

I read an interesting article the other day about how technology is changing our lives--and not always for the better. So allow me to play the neo-luddite for a few minutes. I love technology as much as the next guy, but there comes a point when we have to take some time to think about what it's doing to us.

It seems like only yesterday that I finally broke down and got a cell phone. That was three years ago. At that time it didn't really matter if I could be reached at any second of the day or night. And come to think of it, it still doesn't. True, it's a convenience, but at what price? Yes, I can always turn it off, but do I? No. I might miss a call that way.

It's staggering to think about how much life has sped up during the past few decades. Are we any better for it? Maybe, but maybe not. Now we can get everywhere and do everything so much more quickly, but where is that extra free time the computers were supposed to give us when they took over all the mundane, time consuming tasks? The truth is, instead of having more time we now have less. Instead of using technology to allow a new period of enlightenment, society has become enslaved by it. We need everything immediately, because we are so accustomed to having everything at our fingertips. We've lost our patience along the way, and perhaps a piece of our humanity with it.

Do you remember that time when people used to write letters? I hear a resounding, "what's that?" from the younger generation. One of the great things about letters was that you could hold onto them. People would keep the important ones, and they would get saved and passed down as a way to remember those closest to us. There was also something ultimately thoughtful about putting pen to paper and actually writing. You had to think about it before you committed to words, unlike the e-mails that people sometimes send off on a whim now. Oh, and on a side note, the convenience of e-mail hasn't even made me any better at writing people back. To anyone waiting for a reply from me, I'm sorry about the slow response--I'll get around to it...

Last weekend I actually spent a lot of time writing letters. I had just come back from sponsoring a confirmation retreat and was asked to write to the students in my small group. It really makes you think differently when writing that many letters. I would even say it was enjoyable. Hey, maybe that experience will make me turn over a new leaf and start writing real, honest-to-goodness letters to everyone I know. Yours might already be in the mail! But don't count on it...I think my cell is ringing for me.

-chc

Back to Blogging

It seems like the longer I say away from posting, the harder it is to start back up again. Now another month of excitement has piled up on me, and I feel obligated to type it all here. But I'm going to avoid doing that, both for your sakes and for mine. I'm actually thinking of turning this into less of a "what I've been doing" blog and more of a "random thoughts" blog. Or maybe I could actually go back to the title and start talking about "Life in Hollywood" again. Oooh that would be a novel idea. It might be more interesting that way as well.

Here's a start:

Did I tell you that Mr. Belding is a ND football fan? Well he is. I asked him myself. Okay, I didn't really ask him myself--he just kind of told me because he heard me talking about it. That was several weeks ago, after the game-that-will-not-be-mentioned. But at least now I can actually say I got to meet Mr. Belding, which has been on the life's to do list for a while. I was almost going to ask him to record my voicemail greeting for me, but I didn't want to be rude. It would have said, "Hi, this is Mr. Belding. Charlie can't come to the phone right now because he's in detention. Please leave a message." Oh well, I guess it's just another missed opportunity. Next time...

-chc