Wonder Weekend

Holy crap, I'm exhausted.

Friday night, Raechelle and I hosted the football game at my place (good win, guys!). Ron, Dan & Trish came out and we had pizza and beer/wine. Kayleigh and her fanbear partook of the spectacle while Tyler hung out at Uncle Gavin's. After the ballgame, I showed Near Dark, which has been a cult film staple since college. Everybody was kinda "meh" about it for all the reasons I like it - it presents a unique (and uniquely American) take on the vampire movie without ever saying the V-word. We've promised to show Trish The Lost Boys next. Made in the same year, yet a very different vampire film (and shot in Santa Cruz, where we will be hanging out in less than a week).

Saturday, as Raechelle mentioned in her weekend wrap-up, we went to IKEA and were in and out like a surgical strike team made up of greased ninja. Then it was organization to the extreme, which meant Kayleigh's bedroom and my office. And organizing my office meant sorting a lot of papers. A lot of documents. Official documents. Like Sam's death certificates. And Raechelle had the patience of a saint, helping stack the various piles and being quick with a hug when needed.

We went to dinner at Spiro's, then headed over to Crazy For You. First summer show by Twelfth Night I've had absolutely nothing to do with (not even poster, program and/or video) since Bye Bye Birdie. While Raechelle reports only the Twelfth Night gals shouting my name and running up to hug me, what she fails to mention is the sheer number of burly guys doing the same. Guys like Raff, Mark Wissing and Travis Pavey (not so burly, but man can he French kiss... wha-??).

And how is my crowd (formerly Sam's crowd) accepting Todd's New Woman?

My observation was that people were either very outgoing and engaging, or very nonchalant (so as not to make a big deal about it), but nobody has displayed Bitter Beer Face or given any indication of dislike in any way - quite the reverse. They all want to see me happy, and if Raechelle makes me happy, then they LOVE her. Simple, really.

Plus, I found out that the aforementioned Mark Wissing is cooking down at the Swell now, so we will be having lunch there more often. And of course, Travis tends bar at the Corner Pocket - and since Raechelle is no longer going to the Lock-n-Keel, I feel obligated to take her to a happy place where we can play some pool and where I've known the bartender since he was Tyler's age.

We got home and it was straight to bed. Sunday morning was a quick home tour of a place near the Junction with some great views and a lot of great character. For the first time in the process, both Raechelle and I could see ourselves living happily there. It's still early on, and I told our agent that I want to look at more homes like this before making any decisions, but that I was interested enough to bring the kids back for a look.

We got home and had some breakfast. Raechelle and Kayleigh went to take Tyler over to Gavin's to hang out while we continued cleaning. After four hours of looking at the fire-damaged family photos featuring Sam or the kids when they were younger, and the copy of our first mortgage on the house, and a bunch of joint account information, I ran across a newspaper insert that said in big letters "Give Grandma What She Wants!" and I was done. You never know what triggers are going to finally ignite the bullet. The physical sorting is really a great metaphor for the sorting I'm doing emotionally (and I'm doing great!), but sometimes you just have to take a break.

By that time I'd really not eaten much, and 6'4" + not eating + sitting on the floor for long periods + standing up quickly = dizzy. So Raechelle offered to take us to Mexican food for dinner. We piled in Sportacus and headed down to the Guadalajara cafe down by Fauntleroy, then came home (with a brief stop at Target) and watched Blazing Saddles, which Raechelle had never seen. I'm doing a good job getting her all caught up.

And she spent her third night in a row here. I gotta say, it keeps getting easier and feels more natural all the time. And Kayleigh has been bonding with her like crazy. While she was in the shower getting ready for work, I walked down to Westwood and grabbed some coffee. Unfortunately mine took a header in my front yard, so I only got about 1/3 of my latte. Crap.

If and when we do move, I will miss walking a block to almost everything I need. But as I said back at the start of this new blog, it's time for new.

And now we start the countdown to California.