Star Trek exhibit

I went to the Star Trek exhibit today - the one at the AZ Science Center. I'd never been to the Science Center before. It's neat because it's very hands-on. The place was crawling with kids there on field trips. They seemed to be having fun. I know I would have loved it as a kid. My dad hated taking me places because I always had to touch everything.

The Star Trek exhibit was amazing. They had costumes from the movies and shows, and props, and busts of alien species so you could see the makeup details. There were little models of all the starships, too, and they had the actual bridge from the Enterprise in TNG. I got to sit in the captain's chair. My inner nerd went crazy.

The props were really cheesy up close, but a sign on the wall explained that the camera only captures so many details, so they only made really nice looking props if there needed to be a close-up. That way the nice phasers and tricorders didn't break or anything.

I'd never really thought about Star Trek from a costume design perspective, but the outfits really were amazing. All of Deanna Troi's outfits are very well made, tailored perfectly with these teeny-tiny stitches on all the seams. That actress has to be a toothpick, because her clothes are TINY. I liked seeing Captain Kirk's outfits from the original series - there were four or five of them and the details are amazing.

There were a few odd pieces, too - like the Robin Hood costume Captain Picard wore in one of the Q episodes. Either Patrick Stewart has thin legs, or the costumes were a lot tighter on him than on the mannequin. There were a few of Data's costumes as well, and it looks like Brent Spiner must have bulked up a little between seasons because one of the jackets had much wider shoulders than the other.

I got two pictures - one of me and my mom being beamed down onto the ship, and one of me on the captain's chair. They weren't cheap but it was all so freaking cool!

Baseball and grief

I went to a Spring Training game today with my big brother, Scooter. Dodgers - Giants. It was a good game - the score was tied for a lot of the time and the Giants made loads of errors. Scott and I were sitting near a few very vocal Dodger fans, too, so that was fun. It was a beautiful day for baseball, if a bit on the windy side. We had seats in the shade. It was nice.

It felt good to get up at a decent hour and get out of the house for a few hours. I hadn't been to a game since last year. My dad took me to an Angels game at Diablo stadium. We'd talked for years about going to a Spring Training game and finally I told him, look, you've got brain cancer, it's now or never. I was joking at the time but I'm so glad he got tickets because that was the last game we went to together. Scott got my dad D-backs tickets for his birthday but they were for a game on September 1st and on that day my father was unconscious in the hospital. He died eight days later.

I've been thinking about my dad a lot lately. I've heard that it's common for a fresh wave of grief to hit about six months after the fact and it's been true for me, and for my mother. It's terribly frustrating. I feel like I'm making progress in my grief and then something will happen that sets me off again and I feel like I did when my dad was in the hospital and we didn't know what had happened to him.

I am so tired of grieving. I'm tired of everything reminding me of my dad. At the same time though I don't want it to stop because I need to be reminded of him. I need those memories. They're all I have.