Basketball, Comics, and Wonderland

March 6, 2010:

Thanks to Nancy, I had an opportunity for extra money on the side. This took the form of helping her, and others, in packing up the comics that was being kept in their very own storage facility. This collection was from the shop's 20 odd years of back issue inventory. She had a buyer from another state, and he would pay me and the other helpers to get as much of this done as possible. Pay? Money? I'm an American, I always have uses for money!

But first I had to get up at 5:30 to make it to work at Lakewood at 7:00 am.

I had a shoot at Del Valle park for the next round of kid league Basketball Championships. Apparently the rain forecast would have very little effect on the outside basketball court. Right. We got to the park and started setting up, all the while looking up at the incoming clouds. Yet again we had trouble with the power for the truck, and I'm still not sure how we got it to work properly. But we powered through, and were setting up for the announcer segment as the teams for the first game arrived. As soon as we started rolling on the segment, it started raining. We had wrapped up all the camera equipment in plastic, which turned out so much more necessary than we had thought.

The coaches called off the game as soon as they saw how wet the court was. We took the cameras back to the truck, and hoped against hope that the second game would be called off. It was not. The rain had stopped long enough for the park caretakers to decide that they could dry off the basketball court with push brooms and leafblowers in time for the second game. This was true, but the clouds were coming in dark and brooding, and it seemed as though the sky was just waiting to drop some more water on us. We set up the cameras for the second game. It didn't rain.

Not until the next opposing teams played for about 5 minutes.

Then it started raining harder than before. The game was called off, and we got the okay to break down all the equipment. Which we did. In the rain. And slightly annoyed. By the time all the equipment was in the truck, my head was soaked. Luckily I decided to convert a trash bag (not a used one, people!) into a makeshift poncho, which kept me relatively dry and relatively looking ridiculous.

Topics of Conversation @ the shoot: The kid and the new kid, gum, rain rituals, turning on the sun, chem trails, nicotine, how one can be the best around, staying positive, how to talk like Stephen Hawking, etc.

Since we were done a little early, I was able to head over to the storage facility to help Nancy and the buyer to pack up the comics. The biggest surprise from when I got the address was the fact that the place was incredibly close to where I live. I got to the place in time to be greeted by Mark, who informed me that everyone had gone on lunch. Which meant that I had a few minutes to kill and gather my wits. So I looked around the storage.

It was big. It was full. It was going to be a LONG weekend.

The job was simple:

1. Sort the comics by Company.
2. Pack the long boxes tight.
3. Throw onto a pallet.
4. Put it in the huge truck out back.
5. Lather, rinse, and repeat.

Everyone got back from lunch, at which point I got to meet the buyer, who was a very nice man. He's also an awesome professional in the field of comics books. He actually had a shop once upon a time that I had visited multiple times in the past. It was strange to actually be meeting him officially for the first time.

The work was exhausting, especially being on top of an already long day for myself. But the crew was focused and hard working, and it was comic books, so it wasn't like I didn't enjoy the subject at hand. Though I didn't have time to read anything, nor should I have been reading anything in the first place. This was only the first day, too.

After we finished for the day, I headed over to Tustin to hang out with Jamal and Ben. They wanted to eat at a Korean BBQ, watch Alice in Wonderland, and go to a bar afterword. I was down for the BBQ and movie, but I passed on the bar, since I had to help out at the storage again tomorrow morning. Dinner was really good, even though I felt distracted by the feeling that my head felt stuffed with cotton after such a long, tiring day. When we got to the theater, Alice had already sold out. Damn. We bought tickets for a later showing, and headed over to Barnes & Noble to kill time and talk.

Topics of Conversation @ Barnes & Noble: Revenge flicks, milk, pedo friends, bro codes, My Sassy Girl, a Batman idea, mysterious friends that continue to remain frustratingly mysterious, etc.

So we watched Alice in Wonderland, in 3D, and I have to say, that it didn't work for me very well. Plot points and character traits were frustrating for most of the movie. And the ending felt really forced and random. But the actress who played Alice was excellent, and each actor did a great job. But I have to hand it to Anne Hathway, as the White Queen. She stole each and every scene she was in. She was hilarious and interesting at the same time, with really subtle quirks, and one big quirk that never stopped amusing me. Actually, all the subtle stuff in this movie worked great for me. But this is not a subtle movie. This is a very obvious, colorful, and, yes, MAD film. An okay movie, but not worth the 3D price tag ultimately.

And what is it with Tim Burton and pale, blond women?

-Nate