a visit with molly

sara and i went to visit our friend molly since she just recently had surgery. we were able to spend time with her and her mom, who was in town to help her get around. she is healing well and was in very good spirits. we had a great time with the two of them. molly is a kindergarten / first grade teacher and does something in her classroom called the tattletale notebook. in order to discourage tattling, she has her students write their "tattles" in a composition notebook. she has one for every year she has taught. so sara and i read the tattles aloud to molly and her mom. they were HILARIOUS!! a theme ran through most of the tattles..."ana was being men." "men" being MEAN. there were pages saying that. my favorite was "Nicholas wants to kiss the girls." nice. too much fun.


i realized the other day that i mixed up the days for Todd and Chrissy's birthday. i called Chrissy a few days before her birthday, but celebrated Todd's birthday too early. i have known Chrissy since my senior year in college. i basically forced having a connection to her. she was really quiet (at the time). i've been very blessed to have her in my life. her sarcasm matches mine. and i think i knew from when i first met her that we would be friends for a long time. i love when i can get her to laugh out loud. and i'm glad that she's willing to be goofy with me. happy birthday, Chrissy!

a new computer

our former computer is dying. we have already sent it back once. we plan on getting it fixed, but we knew that sara would need a reliable computer to finish school. she got a student discount, so we made the investment. this would be our second day with it so far. i actually spent a half an hour with a customer at the store the other day, talking to her about her mac. she's a lawyer and happened to give me her business card. later on, we found a bag that i knew was hers in the store. i called her and she picked it up yesterday & she left a thank you card with a $15 iTunes gift card!!! hot! i guess it pays to help people sometimes. thank you, angela!

i think the thing that should scare you all is that the mac has a little video camera feature. thus, i may video blog on occasion. maybe with my mom!!!! how funny would that be, huh? i'll work on it. maybe with folks that come to visit me or i go to visit. i'm going to visit my folks the first weekend in july. look out for it. it may make me feel a little like "blossom" though.

the asians are victorious

Jin and Soo Chung won the "fancy pants" lawsuit. I think much to the relief of all who work in the service industry. I am also glad that the judge decided to make the plantiff pay for all of the Chung's court costs and possibly, their lawyer's fees as well. Hot.

i haven't been online much and have missed a couple of birthdays. my friend, robert celebrated his thirtieth birthday this past week. i can always count on robert to have a crazy time.

he is one the only people that i can completely let loose with. i will not go into how many times and how many embarrassing stories involve robert. i miss hanging out with him terribly. and hopefully, i will see him this summer.

and my friend, todd, also celebrated a birthday last week. he is amazingly funny. if you read my blog, you probably already read his beware of the blog , but you should also listen to his podcast. it's amazing. you can download it on itunes or just listen to it from his blog.

todd is one of the most creative people i know and one day i expect to read something or watch something he's created become a classic. if you want to know anything about film, television or music, ask him. he has crazy knowledge. i'm very glad that craig brought him into my life.

a different way to celebrate

since i couldn't be down to see my dad for father's day, i decided to celebrate in a little different way. i watched one of my favorite movies of all time, Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of Desert. it makes me feel good every time i watch it. and even though it is the reason for the journey, you almost overlook the father-son relationship. hugo weaving's (memento, lord of the rings) character all of sudden has to be a father to his son. i honestly have the same fears over being a parent of having to explain myself and my life to a child. i love this movie. go rent it. right now. hugo weaving. terrance stamp. guy pearce. in drag. amazing.

by the way, i did talk to my dad on father's day. after the phone rang, he answered and all i said was hello. once he realized it was me, he said, "HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!" all i could do was laugh. that's why i love him.

speaking of gay, sara and i are obsessed with a show on HGTV called Color Splash. it stars the winner of the show Design Star. his name is david bromstad. he's totally out. you know almost instantly when he starts talking. he is super hot and spends most of the show in a tank top or with his shirt off. if you are a gay man, you should be watching this show.


lastly, watched one episode of top chef, i should be rooting for the lesbian from the south...but i'm not sure who i am rooting for yet. didn't like the personalities of the top two. should be an interesting season though.

p.s. have limited access to the computer these days, so i will post when i can. after june 30th, life will begin again. well....maybe after the results...

oceans 13

i don't have much time. basically, it's the movie they should have made the second time. lot going on and somewhat predictable, but brad looks amazing and it was worth it to watch him for over two hours. good stuff. hot brad. nice.

p.s. i love love love eddie izzard.

my greatest fear

i actually had a conversation with a friend of mine about this recently. every five minutes or so, she said "i'll just sue," in response to a bad customer service situation. and she was joking.

i'm not sure if you have heard about the fancy pants lawsuit. a couple who own a dry cleaners is being sued over an $800 pair of pants for $54 million in "damages." he claims that he suffered for their bad service and that they violated their customer service guarantee. he is a judge and they are asian immigrants. i give you one guess whose side i'm on.

so, now should i be afraid to be sued if i can't find a copy of Men are from Mars, Women are Venus? i guarantee that if this gentleman wins that companies will stop printing "Customer satisfaction is guaranteed," on anything in their stores.

ridiculous. how many pairs of pants can $54 million dollars buy?

dc pride 2007

my friend jake and i went to the festival portion of dc pride for a couple of hours yesterday. i haven't been to a pride event since i lived in my hometown. this was a tadbit larger.

i love gay people. not just because i am one. i just do. i love being surrounded by them. why? because on a normal day, i am usually alone and i can't talk about it at all. (at least at the moment)

i like that i don't stand out in a gay crowd, but i still belong. jake stands out. he walked up to the metro station where we met with a lei on and one for me to wear. i thought that may make us stick out in the crowd there, but it helped us blend in.

we got to kinda see Frank DeCaro, one of Sara's favorite gay celebrities. he's got a show on Sirius OutQ radio station. i like him too. i also heard a phrase that i loved as we walked by a gentleman in Dupont Circle..."i live in a gayborhood." love it.

this is first time since i moved here that i was able to go to pride. i never find out when it is until it too late. i'll do better next year. on the way out of the festival, an old school mini cooper drove past us. i, of course, got excited. jake ran over to the owner and convinced him to let me sit in it and take a photo inside. sexy.

this is just one of the reasons that he is my friend. he called me spontaneously to go to pride and convinced me that i should ask to get out of work an hour early. he and i walked all over dc together. and even though i'm not drinking alcohol at the moment, he tried to coerce me into drinking. "it's pride!!!" (he had his cosmo and i had my ice tea. ) we talk about totally random things from the masons, to politics, to star trek.

we've been friends for the past 3 years, and he even asked me to have his child last night. he's a lot of fun, and he was the first good friend that i made after my rough spot four years ago. and even though i've told him to stop, he ALWAYS tells me how he loves being my friend after we hang out. ever single time. like all my other friends, he has a strong personality. i like it that way. my life is never boring.

a leadership conference

this was the view from my hotel room from the conference that i attended the last couple of days.

i've been to management meetings, but not formal training meetings. most companies do not invest heavily in training, which does not seem the case at my current job. i was kinda wary about these two days. and i didn't even know that i was going to be sharing a room with someone else.

i think the weirdest thing about this meeting was the fact that about four people were there that reminded me of people in my past. i think the strangest thing was the woman that i roomed with reminded me of my ex-girlfriend (or what i remember i liked about her). we got along really well, had a lot in common, and shared weird characteristics. the first thing out of her mouth was (while on the phone with her husband), "oh yeah, i know i'm gonna get along with her. she has VANS!!!" she warned me that she was very blunt and direct. i warned her that she needed to drink enough to pass out because i snore. (she only got 2 hours sleep, but was nice about it.) i think we will keep in touch. i think that was one of the cooler parts of the last two days. (of course, i came out to her.)

as far as the conference, one of the facilitators came out during the diversity session. nice. i thanked him after his session, but did not out myself. (do i need to?) i was really glad to meet people at other stores that seem interested in sharing ideas. i'm freaked out now about harry potter. but i think i learned alot about myself in terms of my management style. during the analysis, our styles were compared to automobiles. i'm apparently a "mini-van" when it comes to my communication style. i didn't really like that comparison. i would love to be the "sporty coupe," but in reality, i'm a dodge caravan. can't i at least be a VW Bus?

lastly, my friend, craig, is now an uncle. i got a super cool message from him about his new nephew. obviously, he is most beautiful baby ever born. :) i'm excited to meet him one day. congrats karen, his super cool sister.

craig commented on my last entry about watching the show Dexter next. i watched this show while it was on this past season and the second book is on my end table (along with 3 others). it IS my second favorite show of all-time after Six Feet Under. i don't think anything will ever top that show in my mind.

take some good advice. watch Dexter. if you don't like blood, don't watch. either show.

a little different topic....

sara and i just finished watching the second season of Weeds. if you know sara and what she does for a living, i'm sure you find her love for this show somewhat ironic. she was the one who got me into the show.

i've had a love for mary louise parker, since her almost lesbian role in Fried Green Tomatoes. Until this role, I thought all she knew how to do was die well. i'm glad that she is capable of much more. She is very good in the show. however, the ensemble as a whole is AMAZING! (i put "amazing" in caps...it's that good.)

the plot of the show is basically a widowed woman trying to make a living selling marijuana in order to support her family. this season went to places i didn't even think was possible. it doesn't matter what you think about wacky weed, both sides are represented in the show. all i can do is suggest checking it out...it's your loss if you don't.

currently, i'm watching the movie, Kinky Boots, and i'm not quite sure why i waited so long. i chose it because Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert came out this week in new packaging. Priscilla is one of my all-time favorite movies. if you haven't seen either, watch them both. immediately. netflix. blockbuster. go now. whatever it takes.

mosaic harmony

I went to a gospel concert this afternoon performed by a group called Mosaic Harmony, directed by Pastor David North (the gentleman on the very left in the beige suit). Mosaic Harmony is by their own definition:

"A multicultural, interfaith choir based in the Washington, D.C. area, we were founded in 1993. Now about 90 members strong, our members belong to more than 17 faith traditions and range in age from 14 to 78." (www.mosaicharmony.com)

They were pretty incredible. I had a lot of respect for David North already, having been my pastor for the past 3 years. He and his partner, David, have been together for over ten years. They are an amazing couple.

There were a couple of cool things about the concert that stuck out in my mind.

My favorite performer was the woman on the left in the blue scarf. I don't know her name, but I was amazed by her energy and her smile.

And there was a row of members from the Red Hat Society. It's an organization that claims that "there is fun after fifty (and before) for women of all walks of life." (Sara told me about this....I just thought the hats were awesome.)

Overall, it was an amazing time. i'm definitely gonna have to work on my gospel collection. if i ever figure out how to post videos, i will post the short clips i have on my camera.

i love my VANS

i love my shoes. the shoes on the left are very similar to the first pair that i ever owned...except mine were pink and purple checkerboard. nice, huh?

the best thing about these shoes is their comfort. the reason i bring this up is that i got two more pair at a ridiculous low price today. and i can wear them to work. yeah buddy.

the shoes on the right are similar to the ones i bought today. i also got a pair of black slip-ons. i currently have one other pair. my old skools. my current favorite pair of shoes ever. my brother is a sneakerhead. he owns a lot of limited edition shoes and he has some super cool vans.

speaking of family, my mom just celebrated her 63rd birthday!!! big ups to my mom!

also, a group of my friends participated in a 75 mile MS Bike Ride today. my thoughts and prayers are with them. i can barely make a five mile walk, much less a 75 mile ride. big ups to the MSsion Possible bike team!!!