Vibrant.(Still) Unrepentant. Badass. Old. Queer

Too bad "None of the Above" is not an option. I'm working on an application for a position at HUD for which I believe I am very well-qualified. However, turning that belief into actual words to answer the stupid KSAs is driving me BATTY! Actually, KSAs in general drive me batty. I wonder if anyone ever reads them, or are they used as a means to weed out the lazier applicants? The particular KSAs for this job are: 1. Knowledge of environmental, housing, or health and safety rules and regulations. 2. Ability to analyze and evaluate data and make recommendations or provide guidance based on the review and analysis of data. 3. Ability to effectively communicate and coordinate, both orally and in writing, with diverse stakeholders. KSA 1 is super-easy. I tore through that one in about 5 minutes. KSA 2 and 3, on the other hand, are a lot harder. For 2, I don't really have any quantifiable experience. I mean, I look at numbers and make recommendations ... but I don...

Friday night: Knitted. Watched DVDs. Went to bed early. Saturday: Planned to get up early, go inline skating, go to farmer's market. In actuality, slept very late (10:30). Managed to drink coffee before having to leave. Left house around noon to run errands. Went to Christal's house to check her mail, water her plants, and goof around on her computer for awhile. Shopped on 14th St - bought (expensive) silk scarf for mother's 65th birthday; bought (expensive) funky t-shirt to wear to Darryl's crazy party later that night. Went to Mike's house for afternoon pizza party. Drank lots. Ate loads. Mike got a headache. Didn't want to go to Darryl's crazy party. I didn't want to go by myself. Ended up back at my house (with Mike) watching movies and ... um ... "watching movies." Sunday: Slept in. Brunch at Austin Grill. Walked dogs with Mike [He's dog-sitting again]. Came home. Took nap on sofa (with Mike). Woke up at 5:30. R...

I refuse to believe it. I mean, really, a guy is only " allegedly gay " until some compromising StickSteven photos come to light. Oh. Wait.

How I Spent My Friday Morning: An Essay by the Slightly Headachy and Cranky VUBOQ, Whose Eyeballs May Explode at Any Moment In a brilliant flash of insight, I decided to organize my work email account and, in the process, managed to delete every single email in my Inbox. I, then, had to go through the "Deleted Email" file to determine which emails were worthy of being saved and filed and which should be erased forever. This took HOURS. [Apparently, I have been neglecting my Inbox since late 2004.] Now, I'm going to lunch. When I return ... the "Sent Items" file beckons. Update: What I got for lunch - mushroom quesadilla, spicy thai kettle chips, tea, heatstroke. It's a gabillion degrees outside. celsius. I may never leave the office again.

I'm a little headachy hungover, a lot tired, and feeling kinda weepy ... if that doesn't say "my time of the month," I don't know what does. Darryl's happy hour last night was fun. I get there at 5:30, as we agreed. Naturally, he sends me a text message at 5:27 saying he'll be there at 6. *bah* I should've known to be half an hour late. *bah* 2 greyhounds and some sort of mystery free round of birthday shots later, Mike, Tomoko, Robert and I headed to Luna Cafe for a late dinner. Spinach and mushroom melt. Yum. I had a glass of wine there, which I am blaming for the headache. Then, Mike and I walked back to his place to pick up a change of clothes. On the way to my place we had the worst train luck EVER ! We *just* missed a train at Shaw-Howard and had to wait 15 minutes. Then, at the Fort Totten transfer, we *just* missed another train and had to wait 18 minutes. Fortunately, we did manage to catch the last bus to my house at 12:05. YAY! It was too la...

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." -- Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh "Weeds are flowers too, until you rip them from the ground and throw them into the compost bin." --VUBOQ

Nothing like getting a call from your boss asking, "Did [our Project Officer] call you this morning? No? Well ..." Apparently, someone was being given the big old Federal Government Run Around until he reached an Assistant Administrator at the EPA, who tracked his original question to us and attempted to blame us for all of this guy's worldly problems. Of course, our Project Officer was in a meeting, so we couldn't find out what the heck was going on until a few minutes ago. As it turns out, the guy emailed us a question asking for a document we don't have. We referred him to the docket (public records office). They said they didn't have the document. So, this guy [a lawyer *geh*] gets all huffy and makes a big stink. Fortunately, my boss could prove to our PO that we were correct in sending him to the docket. Now, it's all their fault. Ha ha ha. Crisis averted.

That was my dinner last night ... well, except for the tub of butter. I felt so blobulous from eating an entire Chipotle burrito that I couldn't even think about more food. When I got home, I made a martini, had some tortilla chips with salsa, and -finally- finished reading The Weather Makers . I did a load of laundry. Yay! Clean clothes. When I pulled out one of my brand spankin' new pairs of pants out of the washer, it looked like it had a spot on it, as if someone had spilled bleach on it. GAH! I was a little peeved and I steamed and stewed until it came out of the dryer. And the spot was gone. Maybe I imagined it? Or it was concentrated lint? I have no idea. And I don't care - my new pants aren't ruined! YAY! I started to get a little hungry around 9, so that's when I ate the baby carrots. Yum. Then, I watched a DVD. Around 10, I decided to turn in. I figured I should go to bed a little early last night because I'm hoping to be up late tonight...

A momentous event has just occurred! VUBOQ has eaten an entire Chipotle burrito. And, it only took 3.5 hours!!! As some of you may know, usually when I order a Chipotle burrito, I eat half of it for lunch and then have the other half for dinner. Today, I was unusually hungry around 11, so I ate lunch earlier than normal. Then, around 2, I was hungry again. So I ate the rest of the burrito. Maybe I should go purge now.

I'm a saver. I always have been. In fact, there's a cute story from when I was around 5 or 6 that my parents like to tell ad infinitum: My older brother and I were rough-housing in our bedroom, and I pushed him off the bed [a year or so later, he would get revenge by pushing me face first off the top of a sliding board]. In the process, his glasses broke. As punishment, my parents made me pay for half of the cost of fixing his glasses. In tears, I went upstairs to get my cigar box stuffed with cash. As I slowly counted out the money, tears streamed down my face and I said, "I love my money." And I still do. Now, though, I have a lot more bills than I did when I was 6, so saving is more difficult. I force myself to save by having money automatically deposited into my online savings account. It's not much (usually $100/month), but it adds up. After buying my home in November, and pretty much depleting my savings for the down payment, I have finally built those savin...

"Your mother's birthday is coming up soon." "I know." "It's a big one. She'll be 65." "Oh. Really." "I think you should come home. Check your calendar to see if you can fly down one weekend in August." "Uh. [pause] OK." "We'll keep it a secret. Here's your mother." Home. What is home? How do we as individuals define our home? Is it where we grew up? Where our parents live? Where we live? Every time one of my parents asks me to come "home," I want to say to them, "I am HOME!" I love where I live. I love my cute little co-op . I love being by the park. I love living so close to the District. I've lived here longer than I've lived anywhere in my life (rapidly approaching 7 years in the DC/Metro Area). This area is my home. So, when my parents refer to their house as my home, I feel insulted, like they consider where I live now to be a temporary place, a blip...

*whew* I'm done. TB100 asked two questions; however, since I have never "messed around" with a girl [beyond very simple making out - and that has only happened maybe twice?], I can only respond to his inquiry about the first time I got drunk. It was a slightly snowy Saturday night in October of my Senior Year in High School. Our marching band entered a contest at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. My brother was a sophomore there, so my friend, Brian, and I asked if we could spend the weekend with him - to get a taste of college life. To our amazement, our parents thought it was a good idea. After the contest (our band didn't do very well, but the Drum Majors -meaning ME and, my friend, Roya- won a third place trophy! Go us!), Brian and I headed over to my brother's dorm room. We hung out there for awhile and then went to dinner. Later, we went to the apartment of one of my brother's friends. That is where I had my first taste of that yummy elixir of...

Dykewife requested that I tell you about my first day of high school. Oddly enough, the only thing I remember about my first day of high school is what I wore. [Perhaps that's not so odd, actually.] On my first day of high school, I wore a neon yellow shortsleeve shirt and pin-striped blue jeans. The girl who sat directly behind me in homeroom wore a shirt the exact same color! Her name was Benetta Dease and, for the next four years, we were in the same homeroom and always referred to ourselves as twins. If I remember correctly, my class schedule was - 1st Period: Honors English I - I can't remember the teacher's name, but she loved Romeo and Juliet and sometimes carried a purse shaped like a pig. My classmates and I would always discuss the previous afternoon's Santa Barbara before class began. 2nd Period: Geometry - The teacher had a beard. I hate math. Homeroom 3rd Period: US History - Mr. Hierle (sp?) was the teacher. He was excellent. 4th Period: Band - Taugh...

In response to my request for childhood memory suggestions, GayProf asks, "VUBOQ tell us about the first time that you remember having a crush on another boy." Back in my diary-x EnviroBoi incarnation, I wrote an entry about my first boycrush. However, as we all know, diary-x crashed and burned along with everyone's entries. My backup entries are archived on my dead laptop. I searched through the 45-pages or so of entries I managed to rescue from various search engines' cache files here at work, but the "first crush" entry isn't there. *sigh* I was quite proud of that particular entry. Knowing that I may never find it again is a little depressing. Anyway, rather than recreating it, I decided to write about a later boycrush. Many, many years ago, I was not the towering pillar of VUBOQian confidence you see before you. In fact, in Junior High School, I was a tiny little shriveled mess of prepubescence. I tried to blend into the background, to be unnoticed...

In response to my desperate plea for ideas, the Love Lemming asks, "Enviroboi, I would like to know about the kid you disliked the most when you were a small boy." Suprisingly, given how much hate and venom I spew now, I can't really think of anyone in particular I disliked when I was a small boy. I vaguely remember a boy in cub scouts when I was around 8 or 9, but I can't remember why I didn't like him or, actually, anything about him other than his name - Greg. The next person I can remember actively disliking was a kid named Paul Smith (I think. I'm pretty sure Smith was his last name. Not so sure about the first name. Actually, wait, Paul Smith was the cute friend of the guy I disliked. Hm. What was the guy's name? Bah. I can't remember. Let's call him "Frankenstein."). Anyway, my family moved to Stallings, NC, when I was 10. We lived there for a very, very long two years. I hated Stallings. It was flat and boring and hot ...

Last night, my plan was to go to bed early (like 9) and catch up on some much needed sleep. Yet, once again, my plans gang aft a-gley 'ed. I stayed up until well after ten finishing the book Billy recommended, Lost and Found . Like he said, it was a easy, fun Summer read. I enjoyed it. However, there was one scene stuck in my head and was driving me bananas for completely stupid reasons. I wish I had remembered to bring the book with me so I could quote the passage directly. I shall try my best to recreate it ... Justin, the ex-gay super Christian, and his wife, Abby, having won a challenge in Beppu, Japan (which, coincidentally is near where I used to live), hop into a cab to race to the airport. And, then, the part which drove me crazy ... "Hijouku ," Justin said to the cab driver, using the Japanese word for "airport." blah blah blah. And, what's my problem with this scene? Hijouku isn't the Japanese word for "airport." My mind started wan...

but, at least, I'm wearing cute new pants! Yay! I'm blogging right now to keep from falling asleep. I don't know how I'm going to make it until 5PM. I'm already very close to the 83.09 cups of instant coffee it will take to kill me. And I need more. More caffeine. More. Caffeine. Good. Anyway, I have spent the last 15 minutes trying to think of an interesting story from my childhood to tell you. I can't think of one. Mostly because my brain isn't working. Thus, I give you the ... VUBOQ Is So Tired He Can't Think of Any Interesting Stories About His Childhood to Tell You, So You, His Readers, Should Make Some Suggestions Meme. If you need a little help to get you started, here's a template-suggestion-thingy you may use: VUBOQ, tell us about the time you were [age] and you [blank]. Leave any ideas/suggestions/questions in the comments section (assuming Blogger lets you). *many happy smooches*

Baja Fresh Grilled Veggie Burrito "Enchilado" Style. More than likely, I'll have half for lunch and the other half for dinner tonight. Cheese. Yum.

I'm a little groggy this morning (explanation to come), so here's a brief rundown of my weekend. Friday night. I stayed in. Ran out of gin. Watched DVDs. Knitted. Saturday. I got up early. Had my haircut and reblonded (see photo below). Bought lottery tickets (I didn't win). Blobbed around the house. Went to a birthday party with Mike. Sunday. Eventually got up. Ate "breakfast" (Is it still breakfast if you eat it at 1:30PM?). Met Tomoko and Robert at the National Gallery of Art. Saw the Henri Rousseau exhibit . Mike joined us at Alero. Drank many margaritas. Ate liquid cheese. Sat in the Circle. Walked around DC with Mike. Went back to Mike's. Watched Miss Universe (really just to see the Project Runway-designed evening gown). Discovered I had made an incorrect assumption.* Got on the 70 bus at 11:40PM. Arrived in Silver Spring at 12:23. Home at 12:45. In bed at 1. very very very very very very tired. *As some of you will remember from a previous post, I am r...

9,555.00 Hershey Kisses will kill me. 19.11 Starbucks grande coffees will kill me, too. I think I'd prefer the Kisses. btw, does anyone know the difference between coffee (drip) and coffee (brewed), other than it takes 12.98 fewer cups of drip coffee to kill me?

Seventeen dollars and thirty-seven cents, to be exact. That's what my whoppingly huge "merit increase" comes to. So, every two weeks I'm seventeen dollars and thirty-seven cents richer. woo hoo. I'll try not to spend it all in one place. Except, wait, I already did. Curse that J Crew End of Season Summer Clearance sale! Yesterday, I bought a book! Yay! This one . I felt that, after reading lots of depressing books on climate change and still trudging through a couple of biographies, I needed to read something a little less heavy. Billy recommended it. He reviewed it on his blog . The book's price was $23.95. However, because I have a Borders Membership Card thing, I got an extra 20% off. AND, because I have a Borders VISA Card that gives me $5 in Reward Certificates for every $500 I charge, I only paid ... wait for it ... $0.12! BARGAIN! [Or, if you want to look at it in the whole glass is half empty way - $2000.12.] Which brings us to my credit card philoso...

A recent conversation with some friends has been coloring my perception and interpretation of events. I know I shouldn't let other people's opinions hold such influence over my thinking. However, I've always been inclined to believe the negative over the positive. The subject was my "relationship" with Mike. One friend stated simply, "all things must end." While true, the question is when will the end come? Tomorrow? Next year? When one of us dies? The other friend, commenting on the rebound aspect, said that once I fully recover from the breakup with John, I will end things with Mike - be it in one month, three months, or maybe as long as a year. He went on to say that Mike will be crushed. I'm not in the habit of crushing people [although I have -unintentionally- done it in the past], and what he said has been bothering me a lot. I know I started seeing Mike because it was fun and I needed a diversion. As time passes, I feel myself becoming more at...

BAH! I left my coffee at home this morning. Now, I must suffer through the brown swill known as "office coffee." *geh* I have a sinking feeling that I'm going to be extra-cranky this morning. Not much exciting is happening. Supposedly having dinner tonight with Mike, but I have no idea what time. I called. He never called back. *eh* Either we go to dinner or I stay home to knit. Right now, both options are equally appealing. [Can you feel the crankiness?] Last night, I watched a couple of DVDs, vacuumed the house, did two loads of laundry (clean sheets!), and worked on a hat. I ate the other half of my Subway sandwich for dinner. After I went to bed, I read a little bit more of the book Mike loaned me, The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz . If you can trudge through most of the New Age metaphysical crap, the core message of the book seems to be pretty good. Yesterday, I read the third agreement: Don't Make Assumptions Find the courage to ask questions and to expres...

I've been wondering how the whole Cheating Cheater Who Cheated Cheatfully ordeal has affected my mental well-being, so I took an online depression screening test . My results: You scored a total of 17 . You appear to be experiencing some very mild depressive symptoms, most of which are commonly found amongst the general population. It is unclear as to whether you suffer these problems severely enough to need to seek further diagnosis and treatment of them. However, an 18 would mean borderline depression ! This is all John's fault. Grrr. I also have borderline mania . [I blame the recent online shopping sprees and thinking about sex with Mike all the time.] As far as alcoholism is concerned: Your alcohol usage exceeds safe-use guidelines, either in terms of how much alcohol you are consuming, or in terms of how your alcohol consumption appears to be affecting your behavior. While you may not be an alcoholic, you are drinking too much and are definitely at risk for health and so...

Blogger seems to be having some issues right now, and the wonderful entry I wrote a few minutes ago has been eaten by the Beast. *sigh* Actually, it wasn't all that great of an entry, so I won't bother recreating it. I will keep the thoughts that inspired it floating around my head for a few days, so maybe it will return in a different form. We'll see ... Meanwhile, my disturbing dreams seem to have ceased. Mike suggested that before I fall asleep, I should tell myself that I'm going to have a restful sleep with good dreams and wake up refreshed. I've tried it the past few nights. Although my dreams are still very vivid, they have not been overly traumatic. Always a good thing. Lunch break in 15 minutes. I have no idea what I want to eat. Maybe a sandwich. From Subway? From Whole Foods? Augh. The dilemma.

1. Congratulations to my 10,000th visitor, Terry . I didn't recognize his IP stuff, because he was checking my blog from his new job. Bad Terry! Two days on the job and already blog-surfing! Your prize will be something knitted, either a hat or mittens [Let me know what you want soon]! 2. Yesterday was a Code Red day for Ozone levels in the DC/Metro area, which meant FREE BUSES! WOO HOO! Which meant, I didn't arrive at work as a drippy sweaty puddle! YAY! 3. Today is laundry day! 4. Mike and I are going out to dinner tomorrow. Yay! 5. Breakfast at Tiffany's is showing at the AFI Silver this weekend. According to some people , I should see it. 6. Thank you to everyone who responded to my shameless request for ego-stroking yesterday. *smooch* 7. That's all.

"The first time I didn't feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!" 10,000 hits! So excited. What would I ever do without Statcounter [and YOU my loyal readers/friends]? As I mentioned previously, I plan to send a prize to my 10,000th visitor: According to Statcounter, you are from Columbia, Maryland and linked to my blog through Synaptic Discharge at 09:54:50. I have your IP address, so leave a comment and I can work on a prize for you :-) Meanwhile, I need a little more ego-stroking, so to celebrate the big 10K, I'm requesting everyone who visits my blog today to leave a comment here or a blogpost on your blog [10,000 words or less] responding to one of these prompts: 1. Why, I, like, totally *heart* VUBOQ -or- 2. Everything I Need to Know I Learned from VUBOQ OK. Get to it. *smooch*

I can feel the excitement! Can you? At some point today, I'm pretty sure that I'll get my 10,000th hit! Woo hoo! I'll try to use my Statcounter to determine who it is, but leave a comment if you think it's you! That would be most helpful. AudioPost (see previous entry) seemed to work successfully. Now, you all know a) how goofy I sound and b) what a total cheeseball I am. I felt like I was channeling Nathalie Dupree during the post. Here's the promised picture: I didn't do much of anything else last night. I watched Midnight Cowboy and knitted for a bit. Fun times. More later. *smooch*

When sharing a bed with someone new, you get to learn all sorts of interesting things about yourself ... and them ... like, 1) I'm a total covers hog, and 2) When I am being a total covers hog, the ass of the person with whom I am sharing the bed becomes like ICE. K-brrr. And, although he does remember me saying "Your ass is FREEZING," he claims not to remember me nearly punching him earlier that morning. As most of you know, I've been having disturbing dreams lately. Not nightmares, per se, simply very vivid, sometimes violent or scary, dreams which wake me up. Saturday night (or early Sunday morning), I dreamed that my home was under attack. People were breaking in the windows and surging through the house. I tried to fight them off, but had to run upstairs to escape. I entered a bedroom. Inside, there was a man about to molest a young boy. I immediately made a fist and pulled my arm back so I could knock the living bejeebus out of him. Just as I was about to throw...

Last night, as we were stretched out on my (very comfortable) sofa, Mike and I had the following (practically verbatim) conversation: M: I forgot to buy deodorant today. V: That's because you are Thinky . Thinky people don't remember little things. They are too busy thinking about big, important, thinky things. M: ... V: I, on the other hand, am Pretty . I spend my time being Pretty and sometimes thinking about the little things, like buying your toothpaste. M: Yeah. I wouldn't have that either, if you hadn't remembered. V: Maybe the best relationships are ones that have a good balance of Pretty and Thinky? M: You're being kind of Thinky right now though. V: See? That's it. It's like Yin and Yang, at the heart of Pretty is a core of Thinky and at the heart of Thinky is a core of Pretty . You have the Pretty within you. You just have to find it. M: ... V: I could be on to something here. PS. Partial credit for this emerging new philosophy should go to the...

Obviously my attempt at audioblogging this weekend did not work ... hm. I must have done something wrong. I'll try to figure it out later. In the meantime, here's the report of my wonderful weekend: Friday night, I met Robert, his friend, Margot, and Darryl for happy hour at Gazuza. 3 $6 apple martinis later, Darryl and Margot had to leave. Robert and I met Tomoko and Mike. We went to Bua Thai for dinner. Drunken noodle. Yum. I spent the night at Mike's, where we watched Project Runway 3, episode 1. WOO HOO! And did some "other stuff" too ;-) ;-) Saturday afternoon, Mike met a friend to go to the newly renovated National Portrait Gallery and I headed home. I met them later in Chinatown for dinner. Sichuan Tofu. Yum. Friend left and Mike ended up back at my place. Sunday afternoon, I went to Eastern Market to the yarn shop. I needed several new pairs of needles and some yarn. Unfortunately, they only had one size of needle that I wanted. bah. The...

Now that they 've gone ... Two of the things that bugged me about the movie: 1. Why didn't the director make up his mind about when the movie was taking place? Like, um, the computers were antiquated, but the cellphones all had cameras? What up with that? Nothing matched. It was like he took every time period available and mashed it into one anachronistic era. I found that extremely distracting. 2. The Kid The whole Superman as Dad thing completely blew my mind. I mean, really, didn't he use a condom? Or do you think he has SuperOrgasm powers and the condom was ripped to shreds. And, if he has such amazing orgasms, why didn't they just blast through Lois Lane? Does he have that much control? Maybe he knew about Kegel exercises ? And how far do you think a SuperOrgasm would go? I also find it hard to believe that a liberated, independent woman like Lois Lane wasn't on the Pill and that she didn't insist on other types of birth control as well [Not that birth cont...

I received a birthday party invitation from a friend last week. Apparently, there was some confusion, because he sent out a clarification yesterday: This is an event for "Down Brothers." For those of you who cannot make it; I will miss you and maybe next year! I immediately emailed Mike: Does this mean that the brothers have to be covered in feathers? Hot! Literally. He responded: Silly. It means they must be stuffed with feathers. The image of all those down-filled men (soft and warm, but a little prickly) makes me laugh every time I think about it. Anyway, Mike and I went to see Superman Returns last night. I think I would have enjoyed it more if 1) it was not 6 and half hours long, 2) the girl in the seat next to me had not spent half the movie text messaging, then calling someone on her cell phone [fortunately, my "Teacher Glare of Death" still works and she stopped], and 3) the differently abled [special needs? What is the correct term these days?] teen...

This morning I discovered one of the hazards of dating enjoying the company of a thinky man. Let this serve as a warning to the rest of you who are interested in the more thinky amongst us: When you send the thinky man you are dating "sharing" time with an article you believe he will find interesting , be prepared to receive a dissertation-length response which closes with "What do you think?" What do I think? What do I think? I'm the pretty one. I'm not supposed to think. GAH!

or, Burning My Crosses Before I Come to Them or, I Think I Mixed Two Metaphors There ... Maybe Even Three ... I don't think I've ever tried to explain my religious beliefs in this forum. Probably because I haven't completely explained them to myself yet. I'm not overly conflicted about religion, like some people I know. However, having a Methodist minister for a father and attending church very regularly for the first 18 years of my life has greatly impacted/ influenced my belief system. Currently, I classify myself as a non-practicing Christian. To me, that means I try to live by Christian ideals/morals/values without all the worshipping the invisible guy in the sky and his son whose mother was a virgin (uh-huh. right. and so am I) and who was killed but then came back from the dead (hm. yeah. I have problems with that too). Well, I have problems with literal interpretation, at least. My parents taught me to think critically about issues. My education in the sciences ...

I'm all for a little interfaith unity; however, when the unification arises from mutual hatred, I think the faiths need to re-evaluate their understanding of their respective religions. Somehow, I doubt hate plays a big part of what their particular god/supreme being expects. Faiths in Jerusalem United Over Gay March For those of you who can't link through to the WaPo , here are a few choice quotes: "We consider this offensive and harmful to the religious integrity of the city," said Sheik Taissir Tamimi, head of the Islamic court in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "This group of homosexuals, we consider them impure," he said. "The evil are coming upon (Jerusalem) to desecrate its honor and to humiliate its glory with acts that the Torah despises and that are despised by all the religions," [Rabbi Shlomo]Amar wrote [in a letter to Pope Benedict XVI]. "In addition, they also want to negatively influence babies, children and teenagers, to ruin th...

After a night of fairly intense and slightly disturbing dreams, I remember waking up early this morning and being in that state of not-quite awake/ not-quite asleep, that point where I was aware of my surroundings, but still felt like I was dreaming. Combine that feeling with my very imperfect vision and the objects in my room and the shadows they cast take on new shapes and meanings. As I peeked over my covers towards one of my closets, I saw the creepy evil character from Ju-on ( The Grudge ) hovering over me. GAH! 36-years-old and still cowering under the covers, trying to convince myself that a) the creepy evil character from Ju-on isn't really there and 2) um? hello? she's a movie character; she doesn't really exist anyway. Eventually, I fell back into a fitful sleep, but once it got a little lighter, I checked again to make sure she wasn't there. Last night I saw upon the stair A little man who wasn't there He wasn't there again today Oh, how I wish...

We're having a Going Away Potluck for an officemate today. I volunteered to make pasta salad. My guess is that it will be one of the few meat-free items that I will be able to eat. The people here love their meat. *geh* Tonight is the season premiere of Project Runway 3 on Bravo. It starts at 9PM with a one hour casting special, followed by the first show. I do not have cable. I can not watch. On the bright side, Mike has offered (ok, "offered" in the sense that I'm making him do it) to TiVo it for me! YAY! I can watch it at his place sometime this weekend! YAY! So, no one may blog about Project Runway 3 until after I watch it. Promise? Or, at least, put a *spoiler alert* at the beginning of the post. We're going to see Superman Returns tomorrow night. I need to look up the schedule. I think he's coming to Silver Spring to watch it. In other news, Mush showed me the wonders that are audioblogger this week. I may attempt an audioblog post thi...

I'm not one to point fingers, so I'll keep my opinion to myself . Meanwhile, not being able to obsessively check statcounter and my flickr photo s every few minutes is driving me crazy . And my eyes are starting to go all wonky. I think I need to change my disposable contacts soon.

As I was listening to NPR this morning, one of the segments was called "Books Worth Calling in Sick For" [or something to that affect]. I was in the bathroom and the woman began talking about Savannah Baboons. "Odd," thought I. "I didn't know there were baboons in Georgia." Later, I realized I was being completely stupid. Savanna Baboons. Duh. Mornings, Pre-Coffee, are not my best time of day. The book sounds interesting, very Jane Goodall-esque. Or, perhaps, Gorillas in the Mist-ish. The book begins with the line: I had never planned to become a savanna baboon when I grew up; instead, I had always assumed I would become a mountain gorilla. -- A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons I began to create my own sentence ... I had never planned to become a supervisor of the most boring EPA hotline ever when I grew up; instead, I had always assumed I would become a ... a ... and, that's where I got st...

Love me! Love my pictures! Nida, the bride, and me after too many Bellinis Tomoko and me prior to too many Bellinis Jake and me feeling all Gay Sex and the 70s documentary-ish Jake and me at the free concert in Central Park Cute Bartender! Free Shots! Give that girl a sandwich! Alison, the Hostess with the Mostess VUBOQ does Project Runway 2! Andre ... Meet me at the Red Lobster. additional photos on Flickr

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Didja miss me? New York City was a total blast! I've posted a few cell phone pics on my flickr site . I plan on uploading more from my digicam later today (stay tuned). I arrived Friday afternoon, and Alison's apartment (on W. 38th and 6th) was an easy walk from Penn Station. I did have to trample a few annoying tourist en route though. I chilled out at her place until about 6, when I left to meet Tomoko and Emiliano to go to Nida and Nehal's wedding party. T&E and I first made a stop at the Tribeca Grand Hotel's bar, aptly called Church. AND that's the kind of Church I like going to! *heh* We, then wandered to the party site, one of Nehal's coworker's penthouse apartment, which had wonderful views of the river. The weather was perfect - sunny, mild, cool breezes. We left the party around 10:30 (I think). I had many Bellinis, so I'm not exactly sure. And headed to a bar/club that Jake suggested - Crobar. Alison joined us th...

Have a lovely day and blog to you on Monday. *smooch*

I feel extra cute today :-)

One Incredibly Dull Post. Many thanks to PeskyMac who alerted her loyal following to the Summer Knitty . It's mostly things that are way too complicated for a novice like myself. However, there is a totally cute skullcappylikething which I think will make an Xcellent Xmas Present for a few friends. YAY! Must. Buy. Yarn. [Of course, I still need to finish the Neverending Sweater as well as knit 2 scarves, one for a contest winner quite some time ago.] Meanwhile, my maiden trip to NEW YORK CITY is still a GO! I called the friend who I will be staying with to get info/directions/etc. She lives in Midtown, within walking distance of Penn Station and Times Square. SWEET! After I finish this entry, I'll purchase my train tickets. YAY! I've practically decided on my "smart casual" party outfit [Thanks for all the input, everyone!]. The outfit is as follows: supercute pair of plaid pants, light gray shortsleeve shirt with fun pearlesque buttons, and these sh...

As I mentioned in a previous post, this weekend will be my first ever trip to New York City! Big Apple! [and, now, I'm singing Eva Beware of the City from Evita ] ... One of my friends from graduate school is getting (will be getting?) (got?) married. She and her husband are having a wedding party on Friday evening. I thought it would be fun to go [and if anyone can explain to me what the hell a "smart casual" dress code means, I'd be much obliged]. I'll be taking the train up and staying with a friend somewhere in Manhattan (address details to come). Tomoko and Emiliano will also be attending. I think we're going to hang out on Saturday at some point. And, I'm going to meet up with Jake :-) I plan on heading back to DC on Sunday morning-ish. Fun times! The only problem is that I have no idea what to do or where to go. I would be most pleased if people could leave some interesting suggestions. Clubs? Bars? Shops? Flea markets? Museums? All are welcome. d...

"Are you going to be blogging this," he asked as we were laying naked on his bed. "Yes," I said . Last week (or so), Mike learned I have a blog. At the time, I told him I would give him the address if he asked, but I would prefer he didn't ask. I said if he were reading my blog I would feel like I would start censoring myself. And, I don't want to feel that way. I suppose I could share the address with him, but then create a separate, secret blog [ as I have done in the past ]. In the end, that gets overly complicated and is not much fun. "Yes, but I won't go into details like I used to." I've noticed that I'm writing less explicitly about my sexual activities. Maybe it's because I can only write "I got face-fucked until my jaw hurt" in so many ways before it becomes silly and repetitive? Or maybe the idea of strangers reading about my sexual misadventures became less appealing once those strangers became friends? O...

After I left work on Monday, I metro'ed over to Mike's to help him get ready for the barbeque. People started arriving around 6:30 or 7 and a good time was had by all. The bulk of the party left around 11, I think. Mike's friend, Atul (sp?), stayed and the three of us played a game of Scrabble. Normally, I'm not a very competitive person. However, when the Scrabble board comes out, I turn into a vicious wordmonster. After a brilliantly played word ("jolted," with the j on a triple letter square), Mike recalls that I said something along the lines of "and I surge into the lead." It was at that point in the game where I started drawing nothing but vowels. VOWELS! GAH! How many words can one make from A, I, A, U, A, I, U? They refused to accept "AAAII", meaning "the screaming sound one makes when he has all vowels in Scrabble" as an actual word. The bastards! Needless to say, I did not win the Scrabble match. I helped Mike ...

from Will Smith, some actor whose name I can never remember, and StickSteven! AND, our favorite Spice Girl, Mel C: I've been dreaming about it I can't live without it I've got to find my own way I'm not changing my mind now Or looking behind now This is my Independence I've been dreaming about it I can't live without it I've got to find my own wayI 'm not changing my mind now Or looking behind now This is my Independence Day My Independence Day Independence Day (Bend It Like Beckham soundtrack) --Melanie C Just an hour to go and I'm off like a prom dress! Holiday! Holiday! Woo hoo! *waves flag*

or at least the part directly in front of me ... Any questions? I have a headache.

How did that happen? Here's the weekend rundown: Friday night's Summer Buggin' Movie Party was loads of fun, even though we ended up talking all night and not watching any movies. Oops. The last guests left around midnight-ish (I think) and I went to bed around 1. The grapefruit punch was yummy. Saturday, I finished cleaning up from the party and did lots of blobbing around the house. Mike called. During our conversation, he asked, "So, why am I coming over on Sunday night and not tonight?" And, I said something along the lines of, "I don't know. I thought you had something to do." As it turns out, the thing he had to do ... was me. *heh* He came over around 7:30. I made miso soup (yum) and edamame. We ate inari sushi and some of the other party leftovers. Then, we watched Attack of the Giant Leeches . We went to bed around 11, I guess. We got up around 9 (I think) and messed around for awhile. I made breakfast - a bastardized migas: sc...