I forgot it was yesterday and I wanted to write something about it. I'm going to get tested again at the end of July when I go to have my blood work done for the thyroid surgery.
A reader at Father Jake's pointed out the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition litany:
Gracious God, You are merciful and loving, Hear our prayers on behalf of all who suffer with AIDS: Grant them peace in their hearts, Wisdom in the choices they make, And courage to face the days ahead.
For all who live with the disease of AIDS, Grant them the gift of your love, Hope for their future, Friends to comfort and sustain them, The will to live, And faith that resurrection is a promise for now As well as eternal life.
For all who minister to the needs of persons with AIDS, Grant them compassionate hearts, Tenderness and patience in their daily tasks, And dedication to their ministry to all who suffer.
For all whose loved ones are affected by AIDS, Grant them hope each day, An awareness that love is forever binding, The knowledge that Christ shares their suffering.
For all who have died of AIDS, Grant them rest eternal; May light perpetual shine upon them, May we always remember them in our hearts.
As you enter the plane, the rows start with the number 1 and go up. Like counting. Like you learned in kindergarten. But keep walking because you sure as hell aren't sitting in first class. When you get to the main cabin, the "A-B-C" seats are on the left, and the "D-E-F" seats are on the right. In every single row of the plane. It's quite an easy system to master and should require very little if any thought. Keep moving. There's no need to look left, then back, than right, then left again. What does your ticket say? Where is your seat? Unless your ticket says your seat is -12Q it should NOT take you 15 minutes to get you big fat ass in a seat.
And don't even get me started with people who bring very large carry on items. No, I get the simple day trip and I've got my small roller. But the people with two large rollers. No, I don't want to use the overhead compartments at all. Please feel free. I'm short and don't need the leg room under the seat in front of me. I like to sit upright, like a robot, in the middle seat, for over 4 hours. It's like Gitmo on a plane. Thanks.
So needless to say I'm back. Yes San Diego was nice. But I work too hard and didn't really go out to do anything. Plus I was with a guy who works for me so I felt bad ditching him. And then add in the detox and it wasn't like I was going to be bar hopping anyways.
The good news is that I'm like 2 weeks away from my grand vacation to Europe. Paris for a couple of days, Amsterdam for a couple of days, and then I catch the cruise out of Copenhagen going to Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland, and ending in Stockholm.
Ugh. This means I have to get on a plane again soon. Not thrilled at all.
So it was a balmy 59 degrees this AM in San Diego. But, the marine layer did burn off and it was just gorgeouse this afternoon. If only I weren't here working. Oh well.
I managed to fly cross country without succombing to carbs or Nutrasweet. And today we hit In & Out Burger for lunch. I agreed only after they told me that I could get a burger with no bun, just wrapped in lettuce. So I got the Double Double Protein style and it was actually pretty good. But I had to sit there while they all ate their golden, delicouls, oh so savory french fries. Fat boys don't get french fries.
This evening I kind of splurge and got fried calamari and the fried seafood plate. I'm sure I'll be suffering for that later. And despite my request for no fries, they piled them on. But they did manage to bring me my caesar salad. Then after dinner we stopped by Vons to pick up some water and some peanuts.
And now it's back to work. I really need to come here and take some time off as part of the trip. Oh well, no rest for the weary.
So I'm on day 4 of my little detox regime. The first couple of days weren't bad. But last night I was jonesing for a glass of Crystal Light Raspberry Ice Tea. Really badly. But I persisted and added some lime and lemon to my water. Yep, I'm living now!
So I checked out the new cafe on 17th St last night. Hmm, maybe it was just their first weekend, but the service was kind of slow. And while the Southwester Chipotle Salad with Chicken sounded amazing, it was actually a little disappointing. I just expected more. More salad. And more chicken. Of course, I was starving, so maybe that's why I was disappointed.
I didn't go out last night, or Friday night. Just feeling really tired. I wonder if that's because I'm purging caffeine from my body. I don't know, but I feel worn out right now and I hope I can sleep on the plane to San Diego.
Now, I wore shorts to church today so I really have no moral high ground to speak of. But there was one guy there in a sleevelss shirt. WTF? Ugh, and after the service he put that weird cowboy hat thing on that was so trendy a couple of years ago. I guess I'm old school, but I don't think you put the hat on until after you leave church. And there was some twink who was there who was wearing a very weird bandana as like a sweat band on his head. It was a grey hanky if that means anything. I can only hope that he was coming back from some all night clubbing thing and thought about going to church while the drugs were still kicking. Because if he woke up and thought this was appropriate church attire, he was sadly mistaken. I guess I'm just a little bit conservative that way.
Anyways, off to San Diego for work. The weather report?
So I was working out at the gym with a friend (and yes I need a good nickname for you!) and we were talking about things, work, life, etc. Work sucks right now. Suxs donkey dick as Jimbo would say. And part of me just wants to go on my cruise and forget all of this crap. And part of me doesn't want to go on the cruise because I'm still huge and being surrounded by hot men will only make me feel worse. This naturally lead into the now very tired discussion about how I sabotage my diet efforts, that I eat when I'm stressed, and that I put work over my health, etc. Yikes, I'm tired of hearing myself complain!
Anyways, we started talking about diets and how we both needed to stop eating & drinking some of the bad things we do. And I made some sort of comment about living on Diet Coke and he said that I had to stop all of that diet soda stuff. That Nutrasweet was bad and part of the reason I was having a problem losing weight. Now, I don't drink that much Diet Coke, but I'm addicted to Crystal Light Ice Tea (Raspberry, Peach, and Lemon). Like I drink 2-3 gallons of it a day.
So anyways, the challenge is to go nutrasweet (or any artificial sweetner) free for the next seven days. The challenge starts tomorrow so I'm savoring my last couple of glasses of ice tea before the purge begins. Anyways, it will be interesting to see what happens.
So Sunday I drove out to Merriweather Post Pavillion to go see the True Colors concert. First I have to say, that even though it takes a while to drive there (50 minutes-ish), I was flying the whole time. Not stuck in bumper to bumper traffic like if you head out to the Nissan Pavillion. That place just blows. Now normally I avoid outside concerts, especially in the summer, because the thought of being jammed packed into some venue with everyone reeking of the beer sweating out of their bodies just makes me ill. And trust me, I smelled it Sunday night. But I managed to block it.
In addition to it being a good cause, HRC and PFLAG, I was really excited to see Erasure. Sure Margaret Cho was funny. As was Rosie O'Donnell. And The Gossip rocked pretty hard. But the Dresden Dolls and Debbie Harry? Ugh, pass. And we had Rufus Wainwright. I'm just not sure about him. But the main attraction for me was Erasure.
Erasure is one of the four music groups that I listened to in my formative years. The others? Pet Shop Boys. New Order. And Depeche Mode. New wave was the fall back for those who couldn't go all the way into the goth world. It was kind of like Goth-lite and was more socially acceptable to be into New Wave, as opposed to Goth. Plus with most of the New Wave artists being British, you could sort of cling to that. Oh, it's not gay, it's British.
Yep, New Wave was where the shy, not yet out, pre-gays could hang out. And I remember dancing at the Odyssey in Colorado Springs on New Wave Thursday nights. My parents could never understand why I would go out on a Thursday night, but not on the weekends. Looking back it was all kind of amusing.
The funny thing is that at first I didn't even know that Erasure was gay. When I was in the Navy in Japan I heard about them playing in Tokyo, so I managed to get a ticket and rode the train up to see them. After getting lost in a part of Tokyo I had never been to before, and begging directions in my pidgin Japanese, I made it to the concert. Surrounded by an interesting mix of Japanese and expats in Tokyo, we watched as Andy Bell strutted out onto the stage wearing big feather wings, a golden harness across his chest, and gold hot pants that included a gigantic horn that jutted out from his crotch. Yep. He's gay. But the music was amazing and I had a great time.
Sunday night brought all of that back. They only played about six or seven songs, but I think I knew every one, and I especially like their new song: "I Could Fall In Love With You." But I think I'll leave you with "Hideaway". Enjoy!
Well, despite my attempts to keep track of Stephen Colbert's 427 part series called "Better Know a District", it looks like I need to take a step back and see what I really know about my District.
On Thursday I had to go see my endocrine-surgeon at the Washington Hospital Center. Umm, the what? I didn't even know it existed. I'm good with the Georgetown Hospital, Sibley Hospital, and George Washington Hospital. And yes I'm vaguely aware that Howard University has a Hospital, but WHC? First I'd heard of it. So I leave work and I drive up into North DC. Wow, this is no longer the Shire. And I'm kind of fascinated by the different neighborhoods that I wander through due to a bad combination of Google Maps and road construction. But once I make it up there, I realize that the WHC is just part of a HUGE hospital complex to include the VA Hospital, plus some other ones. It was very impressive. But a pain to navigate, much less find parking.
My appointment with my Dr went fine. I'm going to wait to go under the knife until I get back from my various vacations planned for this summer. I'm not going to let a little thing like cancer stop me from my gay and fabulous vacations lined up for this summer. So that's good. Plus that gives me time to arrange for Mom's visit etc. So that's all good.
The funny thing is that it took me an hour to get from my office to WHC. When I left, I asked for directions home and it took me about 10 minutes. So weird. And I'm still amazed that I didn't even know WHC existed. I live about 99% of my life in a strange 5 square miles that includes both Dupont and Rosslyn. And for me to leave my little comfortable section of DC is quite uncommon. But I do need to get out more and see more of the District. But that would require me to have a life, and that's a different discussion for a different day!
Post Pride Ponderings Brought To You By The Letter "P"
So my weekend was as expected, slightly disappointing with a couple of redeeming points.
The call to the parental units went okay. I had to tell my Dad twice that I wanted to speak to him and Mom at the same time. They don't play on the phone together nicely. There was no histrionics, but lots of concern. And I'll probably have Mom come out whenever I have to go under the knife.
I had really wanted to go out dancing Friday night, but I got told by TwigBoy that BeBar has a microscopic dance floor, and then the rain came, and staying home and nursing my depression sounded so much better.
Saturday, after the gym and a little pool time, I had a Pre-Pride Parade Party. So like 6 people RSVPed to my invite. And like 12 people showed up! Which was great since I hadn't seen some people in while. But I came dangerously close to running out of food. The beverage de juer was Fresca and Vodka. Very summery and light. And then we walked down to 17th to watch the parade. SuperLawyer had brought his children and there were a couple of times we had to distract them from some of the not quite appropriate scenes passing by. But overall it was fine. I was very glad to see that St. Thomas' had a big contingent in the parade and that Bishop Chane was there as well. My church rocks.
After the parade, and after losing some of my compatriots to the local drinking establishments on 17th St, we headed over to Levantes for dinner which was actually quite nice. But between the food and the previous alcohol consumption, the lure of my nice warm bed was too much for me. So no dancing for me.
Sunday, I went up to Woodley Park to have lunch with a high school friend who is here for a conference. He had come to my party, but we hadn't had a chance to really catch up, so it was good to have some quality time with him. Afterwards, GreekBoi and I went to the Pride festival. And that was fun. We hung out for a couple of hours and then I headed back to do some work.
So that was my weekend.
Oh, so I'm totally digging Fall Out Boy's: Thanks for the Memories! Kind of a weird video, but I'm loving the song:
So I found out yesterday and I go through cycles where I think of it and then where I push it to the back of my mind. I'm really too busy to be sick. And I'll just say sick instead of the C-word.
The good news is that it's the second most common kind of C-word. And one of the most curable. I've been doing a lot of research online in my spare time. And of course a part of me is going, "Finally! I can be the drama queen I've always wanted to be."
Talked with my sister who I just adore. She was good.
Going to call the parents tonight and talk with them. Not a conversation I'm looking forward to.
If you haven't made it over to Joe's to read his Pride blog entry, you must. It's amazing. And despite the C-word, I'm going out tonight dancing because there's a Madonna party and atleast I'll know all of the songs. Plus, I do think I need to get my groove on.
So last night I went to the Kennedy Center to see the ballet. One of my Navy friends who works at the White House got us some tickets. And not just tickets, but tickets for the Presidential Box. So when the President is out of town (he's currently doing the G8 thing trying to sabotage any real climate change initiatives), they are up for grabs by White House folks. So she got a total of 4 and invited me to come. Well of course my plan to leave work at 5PM is just pipe dream, and I'm cursing the traffic in DC at 630PM as I'm trying to get home. I was supposed to be at the Kennedy Center, at 645PM, in a suit. I get home, throw on a dark blue sports coat that sort of matches the dark blue pants I'm wearing and race to catch a cab. Only 15 minutes late I arrive sweating like a pig. So attractive. The ladies (all Navy Officers) are all dressed to the nines. So we make our way up to the second floor where we are quickly stopped by an usher. Access to this level is very restricted. And then our tickets have to be checked again before the open the red velvet rope (!) to let us enter the Presidential Box. Let's just say it's very nice. A little sitting room for you to have some pre-show drinks. The Navy runs the Presidential Mess so it's fully stocked with little splits of champagne, sodas, water, peanuts, and candies. So we proceed to kick back some of the champagne. It was pretty nice.
Well the show starts and we've got the first 4 seats in the box. There's a couple who has joined us also, but they are in the second row of seats. The first ballet is Scottish Symphony or some such thing and while the ballerinas are in tights and tutus, the bellerinos (?) are in pseudo traditional Scottish garb to include kilts. Well with all of the spinning, it was clear that they were not truly going Scottish. Which I think is a good thing. I'm thinking going commando and doing ballet is an accident waiting to happen. So the first dance ends and we go back to our sitting room for more champs and all of the girls are talking about the dancer who fell. And I'm like, someone fell? Well the other couple comes in and sure enough the woman makes a comment about the falling dancer and the husband is just like me, "Someone fell?" So apparently us guys just didn't get it.
There were two more dances and then the finale, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. I'm sorry, but what kind of name is that!! Anyways it's sort of an American ballet piece set in prohibition and it's all about a gangster who's supposed to shoot the lead dancer. It was very flapper/vaudeville-ish. Complete with jazz hands! But funny. Of course by the time it was over, I was more than balleted out. So I came home and promptly crashed!
Anyways, it was fun and definitely a Washington experience.
From the President's speech in Washington yesterday:
'In recent years, science has deepened our understanding of climate change and opened new possibilities for confronting it.'
"Translation: In recent years, my refusal to acknowledge the reality and seriousness of global warming has turned me into a laughing-stock and contributed to my record low poll ratings. So now I have to look interested.
'The United States takes this issue seriously.'
"Translation: Al Gore takes this issue seriously, his movie was a hit, and it's causing me no end of grief.'
'By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term goal for reducing greenhouse gases.'
'Translation: By the end of next year, I'll be weeks away from the end of my presidency and this can be someone else's problem.'
'To develop this goal, the United States will convene a series of meetings of nations that produce the most greenhouse gasses, including nations with rapidly growing economies such as India and China.'
'Translation: We will look as busy as we can without doing anything.
'The new initiative I am outlining today will contribute to the important dialogue that will take place in Germany.'
"Translation: The new initiative will put the brakes on the much more robust proposal the Germans are putting forward. As long as dialogue continues, we won't have to abide by any decisions."
