Night Out

We took a disco nap. Awoke around 8pm. Took a shower, ate a snack, picked out an outfit. (sequins? Not tonight.) Jeans and a CK t-shirt. We arrived around 11pm. The parking lot was reasonably full, but there weren't a whole lot of people inside. Or, I should say, they were scattered all over. It's a big place. There are 5 separate and distinct bars, 6 if you count the patio. There's a sports bar, a karoake bar, the dance bar, an eclectic bar called "The Other Side," and an upstairs bar overlooking the dance floor. We wandered around a bit, got a drink ($4.50 for an O'Doul's!? And I didn't even get a kiss afterward.) A few people were dancing, so we took a turn on the dance floor. I felt awkward, but it was good to be out there. After we danced a few songs we went and got another drink and went upstairs to watch the other people dancing. There was one guy out there who had no coordination or rhythm, so we felt better about our dancing abilities. I mean, if he could be out there, and we didn't judge him, then hopefully the rest of the people in the bar weren't snickering up their sleeves at us. There was a good mix of people there. There were plenty of cute guys, several cute guy couples, a healthy population of lesbians, and quite a few straight couples. The straight couples are always funny to see because they cling to one another so tightly, as if to say, "Don't let go of me! Don't let the faggots get me!" It's always nice to see straight couples there, though. It shows there is some tolerance in the world. At midnight the drag show started. This bar does their drag show on the dance floor, so for about a half-hour, there's no dancing, which kinda sucks. We've been to some pretty bad drag shows, and we've been to some pretty good ones. This wasn't one of the good ones. My heart goes out to the performers, but the venue just isn't conducive to a drag show. They need to create a dedicated drag bar. If they ever elect me owner of the bar, that's the first thing I'd do. After the drag show, we noticed the bar was a little emptier than before. We got another drink and watched the boys and relaxed. After our drink we took one last jig on the dance floor. By that point I felt pretty good about my dancing. I was feeling the beat and moving with the music. I wasn't so self-conscious, and I felt as though I was part of the crowd. We left around 1:30am. My leg felt a bit stiff and sore, so I probably over did it, but it isn't too bad. I'll put some ice on it and stay off it for a bit. That was our night out, our New Year's Eve weekend celebration extravaganza! A little dancing, a little drinking (for Chris), and a lot of fun!

Resolution, New Year's Eve, Blogging

It's amazing that 2006 is almost over. Yes, I know, everyone is saying that. If everyone's saying it, then it must be true, right? ;) I'm not big on New Year's resolutions. I prefer to set my goals throughout the year and try to keep a consistent, sustainable cycle of self-improvement. This year, though, I'm going to start 2007 with a resolution to be more self-disciplined. I haven't been doing yoga like I wanted, I haven't been meditating (I barely got started), I haven't been focused when I'm at work. So for 2007, I want to make small changes in my attitude to help me accomplish my goals: to be more at peace in my mind, to be more productive and happier at work. Any New Year's resolutions for you for 2007? - Our plans for New Year's Eve are to stay at home and not get arrested for anything. We'll probably go out tonight (Friday), but New Year's Eve will be a quiet one for us. The police have been too active around here for our taste. Totalitarian. Anyone have plans for a New Year's blow-out? - Blogging has become a huge part of my life in 2006. I spend time each day reading, thinking about, and commenting on what other people write. I feel sad when one of you is down, and I'm uplifted when one of you is happy. My daily activities are all tinged with a question: "Would this make a good blog post?" I take more pictures in the hopes that one of them might be blogworthy. Yes, I am a blog addict, and that's the way I like it! ;) I want to truly thank everyone for being yourselves and for sharing your lives on your blogs. And I can't thank you enough for accepting me as a person. The people I've met through blogging have enriched my life and made me a happier person. The friends I've made are amazing people and I look forward to getting to know you all better in the coming year. For those of you I haven't met, I can only say I hope to meet you one day. You are all special people. Have a happy and safe New Year's everyone. *group hug*

Relaxing Christmas

Christmas was a quiet, relaxing day for us. We slept in, lingered over coffee and pumpkin bread, and lazed around for a few hours. Sorted arrived around 2:30pm, and Chris started cooking dinner. We watched "Chocolat" while dinner was cooking. Sorted had never seen it, so it was fortunate we were there to edumicate him.

We ate dinner around 6:00pm, and it was delicious. Chris made turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. Yummy! After that, we relaxed on the couch and watched "Office Space." Sorted's modern education is obviously lagging, as he hadn't seen this movie either. *gasp!*

We finished the evening with pumpkin pie and quiet conversation. All-in-all, a wonderful day! I'm still relaxed from yesterday, so that's all I got for today. Hope your Christmases or holidays or Mondays were all happy.

Family and Friends

We spent last night at my brother's house. There were supposed to be lots of people there, but my SIL's family bowed out at the last minute. My dad and his girlfriend were there, and a surprise: my mom and grandfather showed up. My mom and dad together for Christmas eve! Who'd a' thunk it!? And they were pleasant with one another! Mom was more pleasant with dad than she was with me. Amazing things truly happen during Christmas. ;) My nephew was the center of attention for the duration of the evening. He was all smiles and laughing and giggling. Everything was interesting. He opened his presents from grandma and grandpa, and while daddy was taking the toys out of their boxes and removing any dangerous parts, nephew was busy turning the wrapping into a toy, running around waving it in the air. Occasionally he'd bump into something or fall over, and there would be tears, but as soon as something else caught his attention, it was back to smiles and giggles. After nephew was put to bed, daddy and Uncle Chris got out the big present for Christmas morning (a Playschool train set). I swear daddy and Uncle Chris had as much fun putting it together as nephew will have playing with it. Once it was assembled, we all sat around playing with it, and the interest of the adults was hilarious. The age range on the box said 2+, and they weren't kidding about the plus. We left my brother's house around 9:30pm, came home, and immediately went next door to our neighbor's Christmas Eve party. Given that the party started around 3pm and we arrived around 10:00pm, everyone already was very sloshed. The host's entire family was there, and he has one son (Joey) who is particularly cute. Joey's also very nice, so we chatted with him for a while. Other neighbors we hadn't seen since last year's Christmas Eve party were there, and we talked to them all, though I'm sure they won't remember it. That was our Christmas Eve. Today will be spent relaxing and cooking dinner. A quiet and peaceful day for us, something we wish for everyone. Spider said it perfectly, so I will pass that on as our Christmas wish to you. P.S., an update on my leg: it is healing very quickly. I'm able to hobble around without crutches, and it's getting better every day. I feel very fortunate. It is one of Spider's ordinary miracles. Thanks everyone for your well-wishes and good thoughts.

One day...

This was a great week for me as far as exercise. I posted a while back about the weight training I do, but my routine was never really intense. I did full-body workouts and didn't really exhaust myself on any one exercise. This past week, I split my routine into three parts: legs, chest/back, arms/shoulders. I put a lot effort into these workouts. They were really intense, and I felt really good about myself. Tonight, I did my arms/shoulders workout, and then went to a tennis clinic. I was a little concerned about overdoing it, but I really wanted to get my workout in and definitely wanted to play tennis. An hour into the tennis clinic, I was getting ready to charge forward to chase a ball, and I felt a pop in my left calf muscle. It felt like a tennis ball had hit me, and that's what I thought had happened. I didn't understand how a ball had hit me from behind, but that's exactly how it felt. My next step hurt, and I pulled up. I thought I had a cramp, so I hopped over to the fence, gingerly putting weight on my leg. The pain got worse, and I began to realize that this was something more than a cramp. By now, the rest of the clinic members were coming over to see what the problem was. I found that I couldn't put any pressure on my left leg, and I had to hop to a bench. I had a group of people standing over me, one person ran to get ice, and everyone was offering help. I felt kind of silly, but I appreciated everyone's concern. The ice arrived along with the owner of the club. One of the clinic members is an ER doctor, and the owner had a physical therapist on the phone. Prescription: ice and elevation for 48 hours. Then alternating heat and ice with gentle stretching as possible. Advil for swelling, up to 800mg at a time. No tennis for 6 weeks. Fuck. One day, I'm feeling great, working out, kickin' exercise butt. The next day, I'm an invalid, unable to walk, sitting with my leg on ice. Today I was so looking forward to a weekend of having fun and working on the house. Tonight I think I'm gonna be spending a few days in this chair. Amazing how things change so much in so little time. I didn't see this coming. I guess no one does. The pain in my leg is tolerable. It's the disappointment of not being able to do anything that's crippling. I know there's nothing to do but wait for it to heal. I'll just do the best I can to be patient and let it heal. As for what you can do to help, I'll quote Hawkeye from M*A*S*H, "Out of Sight, Out of Mind," episode 99: "...do whatever you were doing...you know, set your hair, iron your undies, get undressed...." Any takers?

Not Much

I've noticed people are writing less in their blogs this week. I think everyone's overwhelmed with the holidays and/or burned out after a long year. There's not much going on with us. We have a few days off from work and hope to get some work done around the house and generally relax. Friday we have dinner with mom. I'll let you know if I'm still sober afterward. Kidding. ;) Sunday we have dinner with brother and dad. That will be a relaxing and fun event. That half of the family is a good bunch of people. No plans yet for New Years. Anyone throwing a party?

Are you ready?

I've been asked this several times recently. "Are you ready for Christmas?" Kinda sounds like I'm taking the SAT's or having surgury or undergoing some other traumatic event. I may have said this before, but one thing that bothers me about the "holiday" season is that it's a one-time deal. It seems like so many people try to cram all their generosity and kindness into a few weeks, and when it's done, they go back to treating people like shit. Companies suddenly remember that their employees have lives outside of work. People send cards and communicate with friends and family when they otherwise wouldn't bother. The media run stories about something good happening in the world instead of their usual doom-and-gloom. Now, I'm grateful that people find time sometime during the year to be generous and kind. Something is better than nothing. "Nothing" is a pretty poor benchmark to judge ourselves by, though. It would be a wonderful surprise if someday the world acted like each day was Christmas, and the "holiday" season lasted year-round. To answer all those who have asked (none of whom read my blog), yes, I am ready for Christmas. My bomb shelter is built, it's stocked with a year's worth of rations (read: Mac n' Cheese and Doritos), I have enough porn and lube to last me a while, and we're ready for the long "winter" until next Christmas when we can expect to be treated like humans again. Thankfully, everyone I've met online doesn't fall into the above category. I have found kindness, support, and generosity in abundance in the blogosphere. Perhaps we can start a revolution of sorts, a "random acts of kindness" revolution. As Margaret Cho says, "I urge you all today to love yourselves without reservation and to love each other without restraint — unless you’re into leather. Then by all means use restraints."

Home Away from Home

Last week Chris was in Orlando on business. We arranged to take Friday off and spend some time relaxing and getting together with our Orlando friends. I arrived Thursday evening and we met up with Sorted for dinner and a little wandering around Disney Village. Although our visit was short (he has to get up at like 4am! That's insane!), it was great to see him. Friday and Saturday we slept in and did some shopping during the day. Friday evening we went to the Orlando Science Center and saw their "Our Body" exhibit. It as okay, but their displays weren't much more than "here's a body part." There wasn't much information about the parts they displayed, wasn't much in the way of real education. They probably spent a lot of money on cadavers and scientists to carve them up, but they didn't put forth that extra little bit to make the display truly good. I walked out with an "eh" attitude, instead of a "wow, cool!" attitude. It's worth seeing, but only barely. Saturday evening started at the Portobello restaurant in Disney Village. It was a little expensive, but it was tasty. They had printer problems and lost our order, but gave us free drinks while we waited. After dinner we met our friends Joe and Paul (from Deland) to see Cirque du Soleil. Our seats were on the left side of the stage about 10 rows back. The show was fantastic. Joe pointed out that so many of their acts have a sensual undertone, and being so close to the stage, we couldn't help but agree. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but if you like incredibly hot guys in incredibly tight spandex, this is a must-see show. Their acrobatics aren't bad, either. ;) Joe and Paul had to leave right after the show, but we managed to get in touch with Six and arranged to meet him at Pleasure Island. We hung out at the Irish pub and had a few drinks and talked until they closed. We witnessed a drunken brawl which was broken up by Disney security, and then one of the brawlers was hauled away by the sheriff. Live entertainment! It was awesome to finally meet Six, and we had a great time. Sunday morning we had brunch with Spider, Sorted, MiKell and TheHusband, and Spider's friend Brad. It was an event filled with good food and great company. After brunch we wandered around Lake Eola and ogled several hot joggers watched as people jogged by. It was a beautiful day spent with beautiful people (our friends, not the joggers). After the weekend, I felt totally relaxed. I'd forgotten about work, didn't care about anything, and I was just plain happy. I swear Orlando feels more like home than our own hometown, and it's because of the friends we have there. Guys, we think about you often, and we are truly grateful to know you.

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I've been away since last Thursday. I have lots to blog about, but no energy, so here's my results for the latest blog virus, er, quiz. Enjoy!

Pity Party

I'm sorry I haven't been reading or commenting on people's blogs. I've spent the past couple days battling a wave of self-pity. And I'm not saying that just to get sympathy. ;) A quick google on self-pity brought up some interesting links. Here's a sampling of what I learned. ********** From the Urban Dictionary: "Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality. "...Self-pity is an icky liquid you swim around in when you blame the world for your problems. "...Worrying about things that don't even matter in the long run, you allow yourself to be overcome, and others to walk over you in whatever way they wish." From Living Life Fully: "Self-pity is an extreme form of egocentrism, and usually a result of a very selfish perspective of the world. People who regularly engage in self-pity are miserable, and they tend to make others quite unhappy, too." From Join the Fun: "I believe self pity to be the single most addictive thing in the world, partly because no one will admit to having it in the first place. "...[It's] much easier to admit you're a heroin addict than a pity addict, don't you think? ********** Self-pity is one of the things that dominates my mother's life. I don't know if I inherited the gene or learned the behavior from her, but it's something that's plagued me from time to time throughout my life. Like pessimism, self-pity is just a way of looking at things. That sounds so simple. Join the Fun has a technique for beating self-pity which I will try in the hopes of avoiding future attacks. If you suffer from (or even enjoy) self-pity, check out the link and give it a try. Let me know how it works for you. My name is Doug, and I'm a self-pity addict. I've been clean for one day. And counting.

Tis the season...

...to get sloppy drunk! Not me, but others certainly did. Saturday night we went to a Christmas party in St. Pete hosted by our good friend Tom. We got there at 8:30pm expecting we'd be early, but there were already 50-or-so people there. Tom has an awesome old-Florida house with a huge back yard. There were four fire pits with chairs around each, a fully stocked bar, at least three coolers full of beer, and food and snacks galore. I brought my 6-pack of non-alcoholic beer, Chris had a bottle of wine, and we mingled. We met a really nice (and cute) guy named Randy, who incidentally also doesn't drink. We hung out with him the entire evening and got to know him. We exchanged contact info and hope to see him again sometime. This party was one of the most inclusive parties I've ever been to. While the majority of guests were gay males, there were also lesbians, straight people, whites, blacks, hispanics, older people, younger people, and transsexuals. It was really cool to see such a variety of backgrounds. As the evening progressed, a few people started getting more than a little tipsy. I rarely have stayed at an event long enough to witness the increasing effects of alcohol. I usually get bored or tired and leave, but we enjoyed talking with Randy, and we had plenty of entertainment to keep us awake. There was a cute young male couple who got very drunk and invited us to their party next weekend. There was a self-proclaimed metrosexual guy who mixed shots for a group of people and they all got progressively hammered. Someone tried to give him a sample of gay lovin', but he wasn't drunk enough yet, so that didn't happen, but he kept lifting his shirt and playing with his belt buckle, so there was something going on there. It was chilly out, so Chris, Randy, Tom and I got involved in a four-way hug-fest. (To keep warm! Get your minds out of the gutter!) After some drama between the host and an ex-boyfriend of his (The ex-boyfriend would easily qualify as one of Sorted's trainwrecks. That girl is a mess!), one of the guests passed out in a patio chair and got carried inside and put to bed. We reluctantly decided it was time to go at about 3:30am. The next day we heard the dude who passed out later re-joined the party wearing only his underwear, which he later lost, so I guess we left too early.

Vestiges

Today I sold the last vestige of my drinking days: my kegerator. It was a good friend in times of need and it will be missed. Very little is better than fresh draught Bitburger on your own back porch. In other news... When I first saw this, I thought it was neat, but didn't feel a need to do it myself. As it literally is everywhere now, I don't want to be left out. Growing up I always was last to be picked for the team, so I guess I still feel vestiges of that insecurity when everyone else is doing something and I'm not doing it too.
create your own visited states map This map utility has been to more states than any of us ever will. ;)

Surprising People

I had a couple nice surprises today. The tennis pro that I take lessons with is a nice guy. He kinda talks like John Wayne, but once you get used to it you don't feel like giggling every time he says something. Anyway, I've taken lessons with three different pros over the past few months. I've gotten a couple good pointers on things I'm doing wrong, but nothing to create a huge improvement in my game. Today, though, John saw two or three things on virtually every shot I made and things seemed to click really well. I'm always happy after I play tennis, but today I was thrilled with how well I hit the ball. John really surprised me, and I gained a lot of respect for him today. After my tennis lesson, Chris and I got massages. We don't get massages very often because they're expensive, so this was a nice treat. When we got there, I mentioned my elbow problems, and my masseur asked me a few questions, stretched my arm a little, and experimentally poked and prodded my elbow and arm. During the massage, he went full force into pressure points and deep-tissue massage that really seemed to hit the problems in my elbow. It's still sore, but it feels much better. I hadn't known my masseur was so knowledgable about such things, so I was happily surprised by the wonderful treatment I got. So two different people suprised me today with their skill and knowledge. I thought I knew better than to prejudge or underestimate people. I guess I needed a little reminder. Oh, and I didn't notice that I passed 100 blog posts. This is post 102. I never imagined when I started this what a wonderful world awaited me, full of friends and support and good cheer. I've said before, but it bears repeating. Thanks. You all mean a lot to me.

Delivery and HNT

The solar panels arrived today. And there was much rejoicing....yaaaay. It was somewhat anticlimactic and a little amusing. The panels arrived on a single pallet, and the other parts in another box. After the pallet had been delivered, Chris and I stood around the stack of panels under the house and kinda looked at each other, shrugged, and then went back upstairs. Woo hoo. ;) Roadway either owns Penske Rental or they had to rent a truck to deliver our panels. We thought it was hilarious that a shipping company had to rent a truck. Maybe it's normal, but it was funny to us. It does say a lot that they went to that much trouble to get the panels to us, so for that we're grateful. We've got an electrician scheduled to install the electrical sub-panel and the solar installers scheduled to put the solar panels on the roof. I'll definitely post when the next steps are done. We're still planning a trip to Orlando December 15th through 17th. We hope we can get together with the Orlando bloggers again, and meet others we missed on our last trip. For HNT I give you me in the morning on the back patio as a front came through a few weeks ago. It was cold and rainy and I was out enjoying the weather.

What Shipment?

Well, the solar panel shipment we were expecting didn't arrive. Here's the whole poop: 1. They still want to charge us an extra $100 to take the panels off their truck and put them in our driveway. The alternative is for us to disassemble the pallets on the truck and remove the panels ourselves. 2. Their best estimate for delivery was "sometime later this afternoon." 3. They didn't call us to tell us their truck broke down and we wouldn't be getting our shipment. We had to call them at 5:30pm to get a status. The shipping company is Roadway. If you ever ship something, be sure to use someone else.

Random Stuff and a Mini-Rant

The solar panels are being delivered today. We discovered on Saturday that the shipping company wants to charge us an extra $100 to take the panels off the truck and put them in our driveway. I guess shipping something doesn't imply giving it to the person you shipped it to. In reference to Tony's post, the delivery guy better be cute. I don't care if he's smart. ;) We've also got the electrician coming today to give us an estimate on installing a sub-panel for the circuits that will be on solar power. Hopefully he'll be intelligent. Things are moving very quickly now! We're having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year. We've got 80-degree weather (not complaining, just saying), guilt trips on the mom express (complaining), disgust with the video game riots and the obvious greed of the holiday shopping season, and a general feeling of apathy. We're gonna put up lights later today. Hopefully that will help. In other news, my elbow is an on-again, off-again affair. I'm gonna go to Costco and see if they have replacement elbows. I'll probably get two just in case. I've had some competition for the signed Whoopi Goldberg Guinan Doll, but I'm still the high bidder. We'll see how big this thing gets. The auctions for Bid2BeatAIDS last until December 10th. Ten bucks could land you a unique something signed by someone famous! Mini-Rant: A problem I see with days like World AIDS Day is that they come and go, there's a media blitz for that one day, and then its out of everyone's minds (everyone who doesn't have HIV). I'm going to try to remember that HIV is still a huge world crisis, even though it's now December 4th. Perhaps something as important as this needs a day each month to remind people that it hasn't gone away. In the past two years I've attended Pride parades in March, June, August, and October. Pride parades get me charged up, seeing there are so many of us out there (no pun intended), feeling optimistic about our activism and our chances for equality. It helps that parades occur throughout the year rather than bunched up into a single month. AIDS and HIV need something similar (other than daily pills, constant side-effects, and death) to remind the world at large that it still exists, that people still need our help, that we can beat it if we keep up the fight. /mini-rant

Stuff

Yesterday was the last day of hurricane season and we (Southwest Florida) had only one tropical storm the whole season. Reason to party! I had a crappy day Tuesday and Wednesday, but a good day Thursday. I played tennis Thursday evening. I feel so good after playing tennis, I gotta play more often. I haven't seen black-Jetta guy since that first time he approached me. I'm keeping my eyes peeled. It's funny how we feel pressure to come up with topics to blog about. And if we don't, we apologize to our audience. I'm not apologizing, I'm just saying it's funny how we feel pressure to. I want to say 'hi' to all my blogger friends, and give extra hugs to those who are going through a rough patch of life. Whenever I feel down, I get mad at myself for feeling down in the first place. Please don't let that happen. It's okay that things aren't perfect. Things will get better. Today is World AIDS Day. I'm going to be bidding on some things at Bid2BeatAIDS. Stuff goes on sale starting at noon today. I've never bid on this kind of thing, so I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm going to bid on what I can. I heard about Bid2BeatAIDS from Chris Tuttle. Take a gander at his site. He's a really cool guy, and hot to boot. Hope everyone's Friday is a good one. Peace and hugs.