My flight was actually quite pleasant. I got to Dulles early enough to avoid the evening jam. I lucked out and got an exit row seat with plenty of leg room. And I popped a Nyquil, ate dinner, and then crashed. I woke up when we were almost to Ireland. The rest of the flight was a breeze.
Paris! I'm psyched about my time here. The drugs have worked on the gout, but I'm still battling a cold. And I've moved into the aches and pains phase. So much fun. My brother-in-law (BNL) picked me up at CDG and we fought the traffic back to my sister's place. I crashed for a bit and then got up to wander around. I headed first to the Trocadero. It's got a great view of the Eiffel Tower and there was a photo I wanted to take that I couldn't get last time. There are two statues, one male, one female, facing the Eiffel Tower. Needless to say I was looking for a shot of the back of the male statue, a very nice strong back, with the Eiffel Tower in the foreground. When I get home I'll share it. Then I crossed over the Seine and walked under the tower itself. And that's where I saw the gypsies.
"Do you speak English?" they would call out to tourists. I managed to see this set up before I got to close and then purposefully, but hopefully a bit randomly, walked away from them. Ignoring their queries when any came close. Not to self, must walk with Ipod. It gives more credibility to not answering them. I walked through Las Invalides nieghborhood, then along the Seine, and crossed over at the Grand Palais. The weather was nice and I had shoved my coat into my cuir sac. I got some good pics and then started to wander up the Champs. It was about then that the rain started. Sprinkles at first, but big cold rain drops. I put the jacket back on and then trudged on. I did do some window shopping, but I don't need anything and it really is just so expensive here. I ended up back at my sisters just as my niece and nephew came home from school. So I ended up playing Uncle Trey for the rest of the night and renewed my engineering quals by helping my nephew assemble the exo-force bionacle figure. Yikes, as if i didn't have a headache before.
I almost slept through the night and woke up to a really bad headache. After getting the kiddos off to school, I buckled down and did some work. After the BNL got back from some golf, we headed down to the Grand Palais to see the Paris Art show. It was interesting. Mainly modern art, some sculptures. And I know that most of them were French, but did we really need to see so much female genitalia presented so prominently? Or in such an ugly manner? Just kind of weird.
After that, my head felt like it was going to explode, so I came back, crashed for a bit, and then played CandyLand, Chutes and Ladders, and "Let's Go to Mcdonalds" with my niece. And the only reason I survived that was due to the nice glass or two of wine I had!
I woke up this AM to excruiating pain in my left foot and the tell-tale sign of a scratchy throat that means a nice cold is on it's way. Not sure what the deal is with my foot. I suspect it's gout. And yes, it's an old person's disease, but it's also apparently genetic, and can be triggered by diet. Especially a high protein diet. Which is what I've been on, up until Thursday that is. So I'm not sure what triggered it. I'm going to try to hobble along until I get an appointment with my Dr tomorrow. So much for running up and down the Champs in Paris. I'll just be happy if I'm not limping. And ironically enough, this will be the first time I've been to visit my sister and gotten sick before I get there. Usually my little lovely virus factory niece infects me and I'm sick when I get home. Of course, this could all be allergies, but I'm thinking not.
So I went to Truro for church this AM. I wanted to experience their service, I wanted to sit in their pews, I wanted to listen to how they worship to see if I could figure out why they feel the need to leave the Episcopal Church. Before I left, I had read their website, and while they claim to welcome gays and lesbians, they also refer to several of the ex-gay ministries. So I'm not sure how welcome they really are. Unfortunately with my gimp foot I got there late and quietly sat in the back. While the format and many of the components of the service were the same, it just felt odd. I'm not an evangelical, and there were several evangelical and/or charismatic moments in the service. I'm also pretty conservative when it comes of my church music. And there were several songs/hymns that seemed more at home in a big tent revival than in an Episcopal (or Anglican) church. Unfortunately as I sat there, I realized that I was listening to the lessons, the songs, the sermon through a very jaded perspective. Almost everything I heard I was probably taking the wrong way to fit into the mindset that I had already created. So I got up and left. I wasn't being honest in my attempt to listen to them, to figure out how they feel. So I left. And to be honest, my foot was trobbing so hard that I could barely focus anyways. I'm not sure I'll go back. I'd like to figure out a way to have a meaningful conversation with someone from Truro, but I'm not sure how to do it.
It felt great to drive home this evening through my secret path through downtown in the warm spring air. Well, maybe not warm, but cool with a hint of warmness. Plus you could just barely make out the humidity hanging in the air illuminated by the street lights beneath the almost foggy sky. I loved it. And I was so glad to be home.
My trip to Omaha, yes Omaha, was not fun. The work portion of it was okay, the rest? Not so much. Flight hassles, hotel hassles, you name it. Loved the Holiday Inn Express with my fabulous view of the highway. In Nebraska! Don't get me started. Or the fact that I sort of made a comment about how dinner at Hooters wasn't exactly my thing, and then all I heard was how everyone was bummed about not going to dinner at Hooters. Are you FRAKKIN KIDDING ME!!!! If Hooters is considered fine dining, then I've surely been to hell, and thankfully escaped. More flight delays and hassles getting back today. I spent some quality time at Eppley Field, that's the Omaha airport. Not sure why it's not called the Omaha Regional Airport, or something like that, but whatever. The fine dining options consisted of cheese curds and A&W burgers. Oh, and needless to say I've fallen off the diet wagon and bounced three time. It all started with the fresh baked chocolate chip cookies that Midwest Express serves on their flights. And then it went downhill from there.
Anyways, trapped at Eppley Field by bad weather and more plane hassles, I had plenty of opportunity to get my pop culture fix. And in case you are wondering, here are the headlines:
Star: Hollywood Nannies Tell ALL People: Angelina's New Son! Us Weekly: Inside Katie's Prison In Touch: The Killer Is . . . . (which I think is about Anna Nicole)
Just shoot me. Anyways, I'm just SO glad to be back from America's heartland and home, sweet home!!
"We proclaim the Gospel of what God has done and is doing in Christ, of the dignity of every human being, and of justice, compassion, and peace. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God's children, including women, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ's Church. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God's children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ's Church. We proclaim the Gospel that stands against any violence, including violence done to women and children as well as those who are persecuted because of their differences, often in the name of God. The (Primates') Communiqué is distressingly silent on this subject. And, contrary to the way (others) have represented us, we proclaim a Gospel that welcomes diversity of thought and encourages free and open theological debate as a way of seeking God's truth. If that means that others reject us and communion with us, as some have already done, we must with great regret and sorrow accept their decision."
Schism is inevitable, but I think that was the case regardless. It's a good day to be an Episcopalian!
So my Mom works at the church thrift store and so I end up with all sorts of dead men clothes. I know she means well, and a shirt for $1 is a good deal. Or it would be if it weren't HIDEOUS! So I thank her, keep it in my closet for a couple of months, and then when I go on a closet cleaning spree it's on it's way to Goodwill.
Anyways, for Christmas my Mom got me a nice silk tie from the Thrift Store and I just hung in my closet. I don't know. It's just didn't work for me. But when I got up this AM, I thought, what the heck, I'll give it a shot. And with the brown dress slacks and the little too dark for french blue shirt I was wearing it looked good. And I got a number of compliments. I was remarking to one of the ladies (because let's face it, they would be the only one's who would notice), how I had a hard time matching the tie and she responded. Oh, it would look good with a burgandy suit. And I stopped, and I looked at her. Burgandy suit? You know, like a maroon suit she said. A maroon suit? I don't think I've ever seen a maroon suit. And she said that they were very popular. And sure enough, when I went back down to my desk, she had sent me a link to a maroon/burgandy suit. OMG! Not only no, but do I look like a pimp NO! Hello, I'm a slacker by not wearing the requisite blue or black suit every day. I'm thinking the maroon suit is just not going to fly at all.
Anyways, after work I decided that I want to work my new look at the Ultra Hip Lounge and have a drink (diet coke) with GreekBoi. So we went over there and it was dead. There was no one really there to take in my sartorial splender! I was pissed. I looked good damn it! Where are all the fabulous people to gawk and compliment me damn it!! And seriously, do you know the last time I went to a bar on a Monday night! Now I know why!!
So I did make it to Blow Off last night. I went with Stick Boy (sorry, I couldn't think of a better knickname, but I'm open to suggestions) and I think he had an okay time. He referred to it as the Man's Man crowd. Which I will have to agree with. Not quite so hard core as the Eagle crowd, though I did see a couple of harnesses. And not quite so twinky as the Apex crowd, though I did see quite a few of them. I personally liked it, and definitely got my groove on. So that was fun. Early on it was mainly a social type thing with people just talking and drinking. It was all good. Bob was spinning that there was this little lithe queen doing sort of a vogue-ing thing right up front. And Blow Off so isn't the vogue-ing scene. But she was working it for all it was worth. And I think she kep trying to get Bob's eye, and I'm not sure if Bob was just in the zone and not seeing anyone, or if he purposely trying to ignore her. But it was really quite funny. As the evening/morning got later, there was more drinking and more dancing. I don't remember everyone doing shots the last time I was at Blow Off, but maybe that was a St. Paddy's day thing. I was san alcohol and I think when I'm not drinking that I have a low tolerance for annoying drunk people. And I think there were a lot there last night. Anyways, we bailed around 130AM, kind of early, but maybe I'll make it later next time.
The reason for the early (ish) night was that I had church and then my volunteer stint at the House of Ruth. So after church, it was just our fearless leader and me as we made the trek into North East DC. And while it was probably less than 5 miles, the differences between my nice little safe corner of the ghood and their neighborhood was like night and day. Anyways, we usually help them cook a meal (and making carrot cake for 60 is a story I'll share another day), they had a leaking pipe in the kitchen, so we really couldn't cook. Instead, we helped out with chores and one of the chores was throwing food away! Apparently they had gotten inundated with bread, so we were throwing away all of these bagels. Specifically the bagels with poppy seeds. I guess there were concerns about some of the women with past substance abuse problems testing positive for drugs based on the poppy seeds. Of course that just reminded me of Elaine!
Well, I still want to pursue DCHB Night, but I think I need to wait a bit. Work is a pretty maddening vortex right now and I'm on the road to Omaha (ugh!) and Paris (yea!) in the next two weeks. So my new plan is to try to start spinning that back up in early April. So stand by for more on that!
I'm in the zone again it seems. My current schedule:
Wake Up. Gym. Breakfast. Work. Lunch. Work. Gym. Dinner. Work. Watch last night's Tivo-ed "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" Sleep.
Repeat.
And yes that's 2 gym work outs a day. I've been doing an hour of cardio in the AM. And then lifting and 30 minutes of cardio in the PM. The good news is that my "Captain Cardio" routine has helped me drop some weight. And it does feel good to fit into some of my nicer clothes and not worry about them looking like sausage casing.
Anyways, I'm feeling the urge to do a blog rant about politics, but I'll probably save that till the weekend when I have time to think clearly.
I was there on Sunday when he gave this sermon. I was a bit offput at first. Using terms like "hetero dictatorship" usually turns me off. But as I listened to this warm, funny, determined, old man I became entranced in the sermon, the lesson, the history and towards the end I had trouble holding back the tears.
If you aren't touched by this, then I weep for you.
So I love the comment from Chris over at Jimbo's blog:
"Where are the in-betweeners in this town? We are looking for a place to hang out! I am too heavy for JR’s and not big enough for a lot of the bears at Woof. I like the guys at Woof and the Eagle but I am clean shaven so for a lot of those guys I may as well be wearing flip flops and a popped collar."
It's so true. As I've tiptoed through the various scenes here in DC and the only thing I've found in common is how I don't fit in. Too vanilla for the Eagle crowd. Took skinny for the WOOF crowd. Too heavy for the Halo crowd. Too old for the JR's crowd. Too young for the Window's crowd. I feel like goldilocks looking for the perfect bed.
However, I think Nellie's Sports Bar might be the place for in-betweeners!
So I got to go inside Nellie's Sports Bar this evening and check it out. And let me tell you, it's going to be great when it opens. It's actually a pretty large building that has three different rooms, including one with just an amazing antique long bar. Very cool. There's even more space in another room for bar tables, stools, etc that has a stage that might work for a Blog Jam. But that's still kind of TBD. Upstairs there is a small room that has some really amazing antique pub glass and then there is a deck. Like the Boat Slip in Ptown, they have a very big deck! I can see that becoming a late summer hang out! Very nice. Anyways it was kind of cool to get a sneak peak.
Thanks to those who've expressed interest in doing a blog jam type of thing. And thanks Jimbo for the suggestions. I'm going to continue to search out gay bloggers to see if we can get critical mass and then figure out a way forward. I'm definitely new to this type of thing, so suggestions are welcome.
So work is feast or famine for me I swear. At the beginning of the year I had to transfer some people to other departments since I didn't have the work to support them. The effect of that was I was kind of in a nice mellow sweet spot. I was busy, but not crazy, completely overwhelmed, must binge on Coke and M&Ms, busy. Ya know what I'm saying? Well, my little down cycle is over. I'm swamped. I need to hire and basically I need to double my staff. In the meantime, I'm pulling some crazy hours. So yes while the weather was awesome this weekend, I've spent most of it in my home office trying to make a dent in all of the work I've got. So not fun.
But in between rather productive work sessions, I've been checking out Craig's List and I really don't get some people. I've got no issue with all of the people who are into much more interesting things sexually than me. Hey, knock yourself out. If you're into that. But some of the listings just don't make sense. If you just want to watch some guy jerk off in a parking lot, then why does he need to be a top? Am I missing something? I guess it's no different than ManHunt, but still, it's odd.
DCHB! So I've been blog trawling telling people about DCHB and I'll keep doing that as I can. Thanks for the interest, comments, and support so far. I may be meeting with the owner of Nellies this week and get a sneak preview of the space. So once that happens, I'll be able to really put a plan together. So standby!
So I've been thinking that it would be really cool to get all of the DC gay bloggers together. There are a lot of smart, funny, sarcastic, introspective, personal, political you name it gay bloggers out there in those internet tubes and I think it would be great to have some sort of gay blogger event. When I first moved to DC, I attended the Homo Blogjam at DC9. It was really the tipping point that lead to my own little piece of the blogosphere and I was just amazed at all of the great speakers who read from their blogs. NYC has their own monthly event called WYSIWYG Talent Show and it sounds like it's amazing according to Joe. And I kept thinking that there should be something like that in DC. Maybe not monthly. But maybe every other month? Or something. And I waited. Because there are a lot of good bloggers out there, I was sure there would be a Homo Blogjam #2. But no so far.
So I've decided to try to organize a little something. I've been in email contact with the owner of the new sportsbar called Nellies to see if we could hold an event there. And seriously what better place to have a DC Homo Bloggerati Night than at a bar called Nellies! And I think that might work.
So anyways, I'm going to try to contact as many gay bloggers out there to see if there is interest in doing this. I'm probably going to be leaving some comments on some of my favorite 'mo bloggers and hopefully the word will get out. If anyone is interested, please contact me at DCHBlog@gmail.com. And if anyone wants to help me try to organize this, that would be cool also.
And if no one wants to do a blogjam type event, then we can always do a blarg hop. Or we could do both.
So what do you think?
(I'm not sure who first coined the term homo bloggerati, but hat tip to you!)
Well I'm fasting on Mondays for Lent. Look I'm not super crazy religious, but not eating for a day won't kill me if you know what I mean. So Monday was fun. Got up, did a bunch of cardio at the gym, and then proceeded to drink my way through the day. Thank God for Crystal Light Peach Tea. I'm a serious junkie. Anyways, after work I went back to the gym to lift. I did my little treadmill warm up thing and then started with lat pulldowns. I think I got through maybe the 8th rep when I realized that this was SO not happening. I had NO strength at all. None. My body was just tired. And when I stood up, I was a bit dizzy. Nice. So I ended up doing an hour on the bike, not killing myself, but definitely feeling the burn. Then that night GreekBoi and I went to see Music and Lyrics at the Dupont theaters. And you know what, it was actually kind of cute. Of course it starts with the cheesiest music video that was just a hilarious send up of all of those awful 80s videos! Pop! Goes My Heart!
Then Tuesday night was First Tuesdays, but it was at JRs. Which is kind of small for the 60ish people who usually attend. Plus I think JRs has their own usual crowd, so adding 60 more to the mix was a mistake. Plus, I think every gay man who enters JRs automatically goes into the standard S&M mode which doesn't make conversation very easy. Of course, as distracting as it was, I was loving the video's since it was 80's night! I did get to meet GCinDC, who was very nice! But then GreekBoi got bored, or tired, and we were out of there. Which is just as well since I had work to do.
The issue isn't that Coulter called Edwards "gay." The issue is her free and denigrating use of the term "faggot."
Let's take this another way. What if she had called Barack Obama a "nigger?"
That's the issue here. She had a room full of "Christian" conservatives cheering the use of the term "faggot" and cheering the fact she "dared" to use the term, as if she were some brave champion of free speech.
She didn't call John Edwards "gay." She called him a "nigger."
Bingo. And the "Christians" clapped and cheered her like a hero!
If you're going to do the whole Stand and Model thing at JRs, my recommendation is NOT to do it with a look of sneer and disdain permanently fixed on your face. You aren't Derek Zoolander (by a long shot) and that look is NOT good for you.
Going under the assumption that you are there to try to meet people, I'm not sure how many would want to walk up and chat with you while you are sporting that look. Just something to think about.
Greekboy dragged me over to Omega which I hadn't been to in years. And now I remember why. On the upside, I think I'm good for another 2-3 years I guess. Then we went to JRs and it was packed. And packed with attitude. Thanks, but no thanks.
Well there's been a definite theme running around the blogosphere today.
From Tank: "My demon is an abundance of free time spent in solitude. My curse is laziness. And my nemesis is sure to be assorted self-destructive behaviors. I've got to foil this monster before it gets any more noxious."
I do have a lot of free time. Especially since I've pretty much given up on dating for awhile. And then add to it my need to regenerate and hibernate that causes problems.
From Jimbo: "I really like my private time to regenerate, and contrary to some may perceive I'm actually an introvert, if you go by the technical description of the personality type. I'm incredibly social when I'm well-rested and have had my private time to myself, but if I'm worn out from work or a tight schedule, I'm admittedly the last person you'll want to be around."
Again, that's me (well, mabye not incredibly social). But I wonder if I take it to an unhealthy extreme? Is my need to hibernate, to shut down, to shut out the world, just an attempt to not address some of my underlying mental/emotional problems. Eating till you're sleepy, and then sleeping until you're hungry is a form of denial, or self-medication. But isn't exactly good for my waistline, which puts me back into the downward spiral of depression.
I wandered around my little condo last night. Almost pacing. I didn't want to surf the web, I didn't want to order in, I didn't want to watch TV. I didn't want to do anything. And I knew it was too early to go to sleep. It was just odd.
Anyways, I need to figure out something to do that keeps me busy, doesn't drain me, and doesn't involve food or alcohol. So after the gym tonight, I may just go for a long walk. I don't know. Something different.
