Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Losing Count
Sunday
April 16, 2006
"I've lost count of the times I've given up on you
But you make such a beautiful wreck, you do"
-Shawn Mullins "Beautiful Wreck"
"Cause years pass and people change
The bluest skies turn to gray
And though it's gonna hurt for now
Every ship must sail away"
-Blue Merle "Every Ship Must Sail Away"
On Friday night I rented two movies from Blockbuster: The Insider and The Game. The Insider was an excellent film, though it went longer than I expected (I was fighting to stay awake at the end, not because of the content, but because I was tired and it was past 1 AM by the time the film finished.) I suppose next time I need to check the run time on these movies before I give them a late-night beginning time, eh?
The Game was an interesting film. It kept twisting and turning, which is what a good thriller is supposed to do. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it; some things in the film happened a little too conveniently. But it was entertaining, much moreso than most films of that ilk.
This weekend I tried my best to get boxes unpacked and things at least somewhat organized. I've hung some things up, and slowly but surely, organization is coming about. Really, I don't have any good excuse for not having things all set up as they should be here, but I've already outpaced how they were for the short duration that I had at the Crosswinds in St. Petersburg.
I haven't ventured out into Birmingham much so far. There are several factors involved: it's 20 miles to the city limits; I don't know anyone in the city; I've felt drained after the work week. But the excuses don't hold water in comparison to when I moved to Huntington or Tampa. In both of those cases, I went out into the great unknown: me against the world. People told me things like, "I'd never have the guts to walk into a bar by myself, not knowing anybody there." You'd be surprised what you'll do when you don't have a choice. But in this situation... maybe it's not knowing where to even go in Birmingham. Maybe it's being 28, not 22 or 23 like I was in the two aforementioned situations. Maybe it's me making excuses. I don't know.
The status quo I had to leave behind when I left Tampa. It was a package deal: the friends and the nightspots couldn't make the trip to Alabaster. Perhaps I need to just remind myself that this isn't Tampa, or Manhattan for that matter, and go out and do some exploring. But that will have to wait for another weekend....
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