Road Trip

I'm going to be hitting the road in a few days and may not be posting so much. On the other hand, I will be bringing my laptop so who knows — there might be just too much going on to stay quiet!

Happy Holidays everyone. I love you all.

Work, Milk, Weird

Work — Today, tomorrow and I'll be done with work. It's impossible to focus any more; I've simply got to get out of here! The upcoming trip should recharge my batteries so I'm not too worried.

Milk — Finally saw Milk last night with a friend. OK actually it was a second date, and a really good one at that.  The movie was solid, and yes I cried, but I was surprised at a few things they left out, like the entire aftermath of the shooting, or Dianne Feinsteins purported complicity in the murders (that's a joke for John).  Also I loved Tom A.'s cameo! Can't believe he's moving to Sacramento to be my representative after basically being one of my bosses for a few years. 

Weird — I had to send my Ex a firm "cool it" email yesterday, and I think I hurt his feelings. He's been emailing and texting me constantly, as if nothing ever happened and we're still best buddies, and I'm just not there yet.  So I asked him to lay off a bit.  He's now "unfriended" me on Facebook!  Is this what middle school is like these days?  One more step on the strange ride, but one I had to take.  It's for the best, right now.

Three days left!

Three days to go in the office until my long holiday begins! Once I get through this Wednesday, I won't be back on the job until Monday January 5th -- it's like Winter Break in school again. I'm extremely psyched for the extended break, which is going to have a little bit of everything this year -- xmas with my friends here in town, some fun for my birthday (although lots of people are out of town this year), and a big adventure trip with friends through New Years. I imagine that by the time I get back to San Francisco, I'll be much grayer or at least pretty darn sleepy! Should you be more tired when you get back from vacation than when you left? :-)

Speaking of tired, boy what a weekend. I've been making a big push to find new friends, and a guy I met about a week ago has been keeping me busy lately. He got me completely hooked on the show "Weeds" — we had a marathon session for the rainy Sunday afternoon. I haven't had a TV show make my cry in a long, long time, but it was the good kind of cry.

Good times, indeed!

Redheads Everywhere

One of the strangest things I've noticed as I start putting myself out there is this: there is no shortage of redheaded boys in this town, chatting me up, sending me messages, just sorta trying to get my attention.

I can only imagine that these are guys who've seen me out & about in the neighborhood for years with The Ex. Now that he's gone they must think I either (1) only like redheads, a fetish thing; or (2) want me to be reminded of him every time I look at them. I hope for their sake that it's #1 and not #2. :-)

Currently I'm politely declining these advances.... I bet much the same way my Ex must be avoiding Turks right now. But I have a feeling there are fewer Turks here in San Francisco than redheads.

I want those earrings!

All I want to know is how he managed to steal both my song AND my hair.

Republican for Transportation Secretary!

Gah.... why does the cabinet pick for my industry have to be a Republican? I finally thought we would be past the era of privatization and toll-lane projects, and now this. Obama.... please.... don't.... be... a... weenie!

Ray LaHood, Illinois Republican Congresscritter, represents a fairly rural section of Illinois. This means he's unlikely to be a champion of public transit or urban issues. However, he did break with Republicans on Amtrak funding, and on one public transit spending bill, so perhaps there's hope.

Oh, and did I mention he presided over the Clinton impeachment proceedings in the 1990's? Gah. (and yes I'll say it... he even looks like a corrupt Republican.)

More here and more here.

Python and fried foods

Not sure if I'm going to lose any weight this week. Monday I took Tom, Zabe, and Christopher out for superfantastic steaks & seafood at Bobo's on Lombard. We didn't skimp and had... hmm let's see: crab, mussels, shrimp, tuna tartare, onion rings, fried zucchini... for appetizers! And then last night Brett and I were out and had a basket of fries and beer for dinner. Not exactly the health food diet....

Oh -- and while we were out I ran into a fellow Pythonista who works at YouTube. He said that if the Mexico vacation video from April (no link, because it's gone!) had less than twenty seconds of any particular "property" (e.g. Mariah Carey background music), I could have protested them removing it due to DMCA copyright. But, since the video had a lot more than that, guess we'll just have to suck it up.

Lesson learned for next time.

The Last Unicorn

There's not much that happened this weekend that I can put on a public blog, so let's just say that I had a lovely time. Except for that part about moving Zabe all day in the pouring rain on Sunday! Gah!!! But she deserved the help since she was instrumental in getting me into my new pad just two weeks ago. Granted it was a beautiful sunny day when I moved.....

Did anyone else miss "The Last Unicorn" in the 1980's? I did, but I saw it this weekend and I have to say, it really moved me. Am I a sentimental weenie, or what?

"Unicorn!!!! Unicorn!!!"

A really great day.

Heading to bed now, but just wanted to post a little bit before hitting the sack. Some of my days are easier than others; and some are a lot harder. Today was one of those days where everything just came together like magic. I'll take it!

It started with a great workout at the gym, followed by probably the most productive day I've had in the office in weeks. Plowed through things that have been stagnating forEVAH, which is such a great feeling. Then, cemented my plans for the holiday break which I'm totally excited about! I wasn't sure if I was going to be in the mood for any holiday stuff at all this year, and now it seems like it's going to be nonstop fun, top to bottom.

Then another gorgeous sunset -- not sure what's in the air these days but we've had one amazing sunset after another, all week long. The view from my office is stunning. Our office xmas party was tonight, and it was a surprisingly good time, surrounded by more and more people I actually like. It's a long way from the Transportation Authority of 2003.

Plus, a little art around the corner from my house -- I'm in the Mission now, which is a bit more... avant garde? than my former nbhd in Castro. I present you some art in the window down the block.

And finally, I got to give a gift to a friend tonight too -- Life is sweet.

(no not THAT kind of gift, sheesh who do you think I am???!)

Giggles and Shites

Corkle-san was in town last night and had me in stitches late into the night, as usual. This time we were making up humorous Craigslist ads, one of which I actually posted on m4m -- the short version was,

"Hot guy looking for 2-3 months of rollercoaster rebound relationship, guaranteed to have wild ups and downs. Dirty sex, fun dates, emotional confusion and/or irrational exuberance will keep you guessing, PLUS I promise the breakup at the end of winter will be sharp and quick."

People actually responded -- I just love this town.

184 and counting

The mad exercise routine is highly effective: I'm down to 184 now!! For those of you worried that I'm turning anorexic, rest assured that I still have a nice thick layer of heat-retaining blubber covering every inch of me. I'm just trying to get things back into shape so I don't look ridiculous in the mirror. So far, I'm liking the progress and I think if I can get somewhere between 175-180 i will be quite happy with the results. So stop worrying!

In work news I had a dreary Finance Committee meeting with the board of supervisors at City Hall today. A big mixup over a travel survey which was misunderstood to be English-only when in fact it will be English/Spanish/Chinese. Ugh, some days this job is ridiculous!! Can't I just hide in my cute little office and code up some Python every afternoon? That would be much better. :-)

Heading out to dinner w/Donnie and Mike later, and then Corkle-san is coming back to town for one evening -- and will be my first houseguest tonight. Yay! He may also be subjected to my new TV and stereo system before I let him go. He moves here officially at the beginning of January. It can't come soon enough if you ask me!

All in all, a pretty decent day!

God - get me off this damn ride

The Ex and I had a nice chat last night. We're both absolutely exhausted from several weeks of sheer insanity surrounding this breakup. I'm hopeful that this time, we really are both going to try and keep things clean and simple. Exactly two weeks ago, we said the same thing, but there's just no easy way to break up, I guess.

I'm hopeful. I don't want to be on this rollercoaster anymore, and apparently no one else wants to be either. This is a good thing.

My deep thanks to my friend for being wise enough to run away. He's trying to help, but The Ex and I need to sort this out ourselves. And, thanks to The Ex for writing the title of this post!

Day in the Park

FUN day in the park today! My work crew were at a public outreach meeting in the Tenderloin and were desperately in the need of cocktails by lunchtime. What a perfect opportunity to have people over to the new pad for a first little shindig! Chris and John came by too, so it wasn't just work folks. Dolores Park is just a few steps away, but unfortunately the day wasn't as warm as I would have liked. Now granted, it is early December and I'm complaining that we couldn't wear shorts outside, when most of the country is freezing or soaked right now. So I try to keep things in perspective but we do get spoiled out here.

A fabulous afternoon.

Seeing clearly....

....for the first time in a long time. Wish it didn't take so long to finally understand what's going on, but now that I do, wow what a feeling. I woke up this morning with a viv in my step that hasn't been there since well before the breakup.

One of the most difficult aspects of the breakup was the relative quickness we went from "things are really bad, we need to fix it or end it" to actually parting ways. Now I finally get it. I may be slow, but I'm not stupid. ;-)

So, at last I'm really looking forward to new adventures! I'm having people for brunch at my pad today, then we're traipsing over to the beautiful park a block away, and I've got plans tonight too. Come along for Billy's Wild Ride...........

Thanks, Tom!!

Pants-off night at the bar? Bad!! You certainly know how to show a girl a good time.

;-)

Corkle-san!

Yay yay YAYYY!!!! My friend Mike (a.k.a. Corkle-san) and his beau are moving here from Tokyo! We lived in the same building back in the good ole' days in Chicago, and spent many many weekends dancing our asses off at Big Chicks, Berlin, and Roscoe's. I think we spent more than a few weeknights doing the same thing, actually.

I can't believe that he didn't even tell me he was considering moving here -- it was such a shock at dinner last night that I squealed loud enough to have other tables look over and see what the hubbub was about.

Billy super happy!

Happy Birthday Trigby !!!!!

Be sure to email, call, and text Trigby several times today. Sing him the Happy Birthday song, the Friendship Song, and any other song you can think of!

It's his birthday today, and he needs everyone to call him at least six times today wishing him a great day!!! So , do your part to help out!

Quiet Night

I'm having a quiet night at home tonight. This is the first evening in about two weeks (months?) that I haven't had either social plans or moving insanity, so I'm relishing the idea of sitting my ass on this couch and just catching up on email.

My kitchen is unpacked; I was finally able to cook something tonight! (Made lima beans and artichokes along with some pasta & feta. Yum!) But this isn't a cooking blog so I'll skip the recipes. But y'all know that if I can't cook I'm unhappy. So, good news there. I've also got just about all my clothing put away in the bedroom, and the new stereo is plugged in so I've got some tunes going, too.

It'll be interesting to see if I can keep a simpler lifestyle going with fewer monthly payments. Right now I'm living without cable, no home phone, and no HD Tivo. I also had gotten used to some of my Ex's little treats, like GameFly videogame rentals. Hmmm, might have to sign up for that one. :-)

I didn't realize how exhausting all this has been, since I've been running on full adrenaline since last weekend. Today I felt this nagging cold getting a bit worse, so I came home from work early -- and quickly proceeded to fall asleep on the couch for more than two hours. So, apparently I need to keep taking care of myself even though there's so much to do. Oh, and I lost two more pounds, down to 187 now. Yikes!

Alrighty then -- a few more online address-changes and I think I'm done for the day.

Costco and Best Buy and Bloodbath, OH MY

Well, anyone who thought it was going to be a bad Xmas season can rest easy after today. I just dropped more money shopping in a single day than I think I ever have!

Bloodbath and Beyond is particularly insidious -- you can go in there thinking you need a $12.99 shower curtain, and before you know it you've got not one but TWO coffee makers in your cart; one for those on-your-own mornings, and then a bigger one for after-dinner cafe and cookies with friends. Good lord.

I've also decided I probably don't need my gym membership anymore, now that I have several flights of stairs between the daily goodies in my car and my new apartment.