Home Again

I've somehow frittered away my entire day. Though a nap took away a bit, and I'm still sleepy. Maybe because I got about four hours of sleep last night. I did hear the last hours of Music Through the Night, and now WETA is all yap yap yap. Disgusting. I went through two episodes of Desperate housewives (OMG, boys kissing in the pool! how sweet!) and I just had to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Gee, It all makes a lot more sense when you've read the books. But I still say Harry and Draco are both starting to look, well, um, kinda hot. A few years...

Dead or Alive?

For the morbidly minded, here's a cute little site. I found it by accident when I was double-checking my assertion that Jonathan Brandis had killed himself. So sad.

On a more trivial note, I'm hurt that Hot Toddy's Toaster Oven has seen fit to post a comment at Enviroboi's blog and not mine. *Sniff*

Or maybe I'm just in a pissy mood because not only have I already spent ten fucking hours at this airport, but now our flight is delayed because the plane is stuck somewhere in customs. If we don't get out of here soon, we won't, because of the big storm headed to DC. Argh.

The only (and admittedly big), redeeming value of this airport is their free wireless internet. Whee! I can keep track of the approaching storm...

RSVP 2005 Trip Pics, Part One

First Batch!

Final Cruise Post

(though maybe I'll link to some pictures later)

Thursday, 8ish PM

Just got back from the barbeque. Something hilarious about cute little smiling Asian guys wearing pirate hats. Still trying to figure out what pireates have to do with barbeques, but hey. My Google t-shirt (the back says “I’m Feeling Lucky” and on the front is the Google logo in color. Get it?) today seemed to be a hit, or at least it got a lot of attention. Tonight I wore my black shorts and my black Washington Sports staff t-shirt (yes, hoping that hot little Jeff Costa would see it) and as I was leaving, he and a couple of his friends (one could be an A&F model: totally cut body, gorgeous face; seems to be awfully full of himself though) passed and I saw the other friend pointing me out to Jeff but with a strange look, like ‘how could he be a fitness teacher?’ but I’m sure I’m being paranoid, because even I think I look pretty damn good in these shorts. And maybe I’m not the youngest instructor, but I’m in better shape than a lot of them. I may not be Doug-Doug the cycle stud (boy, they would eat him alive on this ship! I’d love to trade bodies with him just for this trip… oh the fun I’d have. Shades of The Body Thief) but I’m in decent shape. Oh, I keep forgetting to mention that the week before the Cruise I’d dropped down to 165! Finally! I’m sure I’ve gained it all back though, oof.

Reading sidetrack

I’m almost done with the fourth Harry Potter Book! I can’t believe Cedric is dead. I hope he’s not really. Anyway, I can’t believe I’ve blown through the first four books so fast, and read Rendezvous with Rama again as well. Which brings me to an interesting Arthur C. Clarke observation: He has gay (or at least bisexual) characters in a lot of his books! In Rama (and I can’t believe I missed it so many times before; it’s pretty damn clear) two of the male crewmembers of the Endeavour (the ship that goes to explore Rama) are lovers, and share the same wife. Clarke describes it as an ‘equilateral triangle’ and refers to the ‘liason’ of the two men, and right after uses the term liason in an obvious reference to a sexual relationship between a man and a woman. Interestingly, Clarke goes out of his way to portray one of the men as extremely stoic and brave. I remember first reading this book when I was in high school, and you’d think I would have picked up on it. I remember when I first read Against the Fall of Night I was disappointed that there wasn’t an affair between Alvin and his friend from Lys Hildor.

And in 2010 (I have not read the book, but love the movie) I read that in the book, Kernow the American engineer and the Russian guy who gets killed by the probe had a ‘relationship’ -- explaining why kernow was so broken up when the Russian died.

And Finally, I’m reading Imperial Earth, and the main character Duncan has a long term love affair (And he’s quiteclear about it here) with another young man, Karl, his childhood friend. Also of interst in this books is how Clarke handles the nature/nurture aspect of cloning. For complex reasons, the main family ‘patriarch’ Malcolm Makenzie cannot have children, so he clones a ‘son,’ and this son in turn clones his heir (Duncan). Remember this was written almost thirty years ago, and we have learned a lot more since about genetics and environment, and whether being gay is genetic. Clarke makes a comment that the older Makenzies understand Duncan’s attraction to Karl, but implies that they don’t necessarily share that orientation. On the other hand, he goes to considerable length to highlight how the three clones, despite their generational differences, think in very much the same way. I wonder how true that would actually be; how much of that would be environment. Even identical twins, brought up in the same environment, have some differences.

I always enjoy how Clarke’s future earth books depict mankind as having realized that religion was a big hoax and there was nothing to it but an attempt by some people to control other people.

We now return you to our regular cruise blog.

*SLURP* Damn my margarita is gone!

Friday, Noonish

This morning saw flying fish! Little silver slivers skimming over the water for an amazing length of time.

Another day gone. Just one more day after today. Sunday doesn’t really count, as we have to get up early, back and get out. I just hope I can get an earlier flight out of Ft Lauderdale.

Last night the costume ball was interesting as usual, some amazing outfits. Some hat would have been incredible anywhere else only got some polite applause here; I felt kind of bad for some of the guys who obviously spent a lot of time on them. But the crowd-pleasers are almost always group costumes, and almost always drag. Two favorites were ‘Mommie Dearest’ (girl in silk pajamas crying and scrambling away from a scary Joan Crawford waving a handful of wire hangers and chasing her) and three drunk stewardesses, dragging their little carry-on bags behind them and angrily waving coffee pots.

Today is the sarong (or as some call it ‘so-wrong!’) party. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Last night was a one-man show by Leslie Jordan called “Like a dog on linoleum.” He is the tiny little guy most of you, gentle readers might know as Karen’s diminutive nemesis on Will & Grace, which he made reference to only briefly with the quote “Karen Walker! I knew you must be nearby because the room reeks of gin!” (or something along those lines). He was also in a movie called Sordid Lives, which I haven’t seen. But this show was basically autobiographical, and it was hilarious! I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes a few times, and there were people in total hysterics. He’s a total little queen and struts around the stage. Well, definitely worth seeing, best show of the cruise so far.

Saturday evening.

Drank way too much at the sarong party. I’ll leave it at that. Just laid around and read most of the day; didn’t bother to go to Half-Moon Cay (2 reasons: like Anakin Skywalker, I don’t much like sand: it’s coarse and rough, and it gets in everything; and just watching those tenders bobbing around in the sea made me queasy.

This afternoon I stopped by Bingo, and instead of Chi-Chi in the silly giant Shirley Temple dress with the white bob wig and hat, was Vuk. He was hilarious! After bingo he had to give the debarkation speech and it was pretty funny to see this big butch Aussie standing there in this ridiculous outfit. At one point he paused in his talk about customs and said “Please don’t look up my dress!” Then he said "And when you pack you bags, check the cabin to be sure you haven't forgotten anything. Also make sure you haven't accidentally packed any towels, cutlry, or your room steward." He paused for the inevitable "Wooooo!" And smirked. "You know you want to pack your room stewards."

Had dinner and now back in the room, hoping to get to the airport early and try to get an earlier flight back home; I don’t want to spend the whole day there. Going to turn in pretty soon too; I’m tired.

Sunday Noonish

Here I am at the Ft Lauderdale airport, in limbo. My flight isn't for hours, there's no chance of getting on an earlier one. At least Ft. Lauderdale airport has fre internet access!

Another big Self-indulgent Cruise post

Day Three Morning, back at the library. Finished the third Harry Potter book at breakfast (a guy sitting across from me said, noting my bookmark near the back, “You’re already that far in the book this early in the cruise?” I said, “Um, well yeah, and this is the third book.”

And -- score! -- of the very few books in this little library, what paperback was available? Yes indeed, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, book four in the series. And that was the only one here.

Raced off to see a presentation by the producer of Latter Days, who insisted that both leads were straight but real troupers about the explicit sex scene. How nice. He previewed scenes from his next movie, Adam and Steve, which, while sweet, didn’t have the same impact for me. There were also these weird ‘fantasy’ sequences that really smacked of that classic Jeffrey (with Steve Weber, Patrick Stewart and the gorgeous Michael T. Weiss) but not as good.

A little entertainment on the aft Lido deck with those acrobats again, and soon hopefully everyone and their sister will be getting off the ship to wander around San Juan. Unfortunately, they weren’t offering the rainforest tour because we don’t get in until late in the afternoon.

Had a nice and quiet evening, most all the queens went into town to go to some big gay disco in San Juan. *yawn.*



Day Four: Signs and Portents

(Did that sound a little like Professor Trelawney?) Got up early, had a light breakfast, looked out the window and saw a little pod of porpoises! They didn’t leap out of the water while I saw them, but they were right below the surface. One was in the lead and there were four or five others, a couple looked smaller like young ones.

Then I did the gym thing had breakfast and laid out a bit as we arrived at Tortola, which, as it turns out, is part of the British Virgin Islands. We pulled up right next to a Holland America sister ship, the Zuiderdam, which happens to be the very ship Andreas and I went on 2 years ago for the Mardi Gras cruise. Boy, three years old and already a few rust spots on the hull. I guess the sea is hard on them (BTW, our ship, the Westerdam, is almost brand-new).

Fun fact: I overheard a staff member say that they make as much on one of these week-long cruises loaded with gays as they make in a month (4 cruises) of regular people. All of it is booze, I’m sure, because actually the queers don't even go to the casino as much as the others. Though they may also make a little more cause its a charter; I dunno.

I have a dilemma tonight: Bingo overlaps another core class with Jeff, which in turn overlaps the (ahem) singles party. Though I’m leaning towards skipping Bingo (it’s fun, really) and doing core then going to the party late. (Follow-up note: This was rendered moot by a sudden little rainstorm as we departed Tortola, canceling core training -- which is held on the aft lido deck outside. But then the sky cleared up and a double rainbow appeared. It just so happened that we were sailing right towards it. Rainbow, gay cruise, get it?

And tonight is the infamous leather/uniform party, which will start off with a bang with free rum & cokes for an hour. It’s like a feeding frenzy, believe me; the first time I saw it a couple cruises ago, the look of sheer amazement (or is it terror?) on the poor servers’ faces was priceless, as they walked onto the deck with a huge tray full of glasses of drink and -- *FOOOM* -- it was gone… just a few empty plastic cups and some water stains where dozens of brimming cocktails had once been. No leather for me of course; I was never a big fan of that. I have my cute little sailor outfit though. Must remember to smile. I was reminded today that on several occasions in bars, guys would actually come up to me (not even trying to hit on me) and say “Smile!” or “Stop frowning!” It seems like my normal expression is pretty hostile. Oh well, no wonder I don’t get hit on, I glare at people!

I have to say that the staff people work their asses off, especially the room stewards. On arrival/departure day, they lug tons of luggage off the ship, then tons more on and deliver it to the rooms. And our head steward is so sweet, always very nice and asking us how are day is. He’s on a first-name basis with some of the guys on our hall. And I’m sure it’s their training, but virtually every smiles and says hello in the hallways. A far cry from the surly Greek officers on the Odyssey, I have to say (and boy were they unprepared for the drinking: those bartenders were so slow at first. They got better towards the end though).

Well, off to dinner; on my way back from the aft Lido, I passed several guys already in their leather. Eek.

Thursday Noonish

Well the leather/uniform party was kind of a bust. We uniform guys were outnumbered by the throngs of the leather-thonged. That look has just never done it for men, even on a hot guy, much less on some of these dudes. I stayed away from the smoke gun, and eyes were fine today. I also didn’t stay as long. Oh and the rum&cokes sucked. Flat and weak. After the first bunch, people didn’t even take them. Sad waste, really. The old rum pinches on the Carnival ship were delightfully deadly.

We’re docked at the Dominican Republic right now, another snoozer of a port. This cruise is kind of a bust as far as ports of call for me, just boring shopping places. Match Game this afternoon, and the masquerade ball tonight. God knows what that will be all about.

Ship’s Blog, Day One

I got checked out and boarded without much incident. Though when I got to the room, it turned out that there was one bed (actually not a big deal, the beds are designed to split apart). I then discovered that my roommate was:

1) A kinda cute latino guy named David, and

2) Deaf.

It’s a little awkward because he tries to talk to me, and I am terrible at understanding anyone with an accent, much less someone who, well let’s be honest, pronounces things oddly. But then I feel stupid or ignorant when I keep asking him to repeat things. I feel even stupider because he is apparently a great lip reader. We should just get a little white board like they used on that most excellent Buffy episode Hush when everyone couldn’t speak.

Anyway we got the beds separated, He went off to dinner. I toured the ship. Now, though it’s shockingly early in the evening, I’m sleepy. There is no big dance party tonight, so if I’m going to pick a night to turn in early, this should be it. It’s too late to nap, really, and after last night’s dreams of Dragons and Snakes, I’m a bit tired. And I want to get up early and work out!

Oh and one good thing about having a deaf roommate: no worries about waking him up with my infamous talking in my sleep or my periodic allergy-induced coughing fits (aren’t I fun?). I just hope he doesn’t snore.


Day Two

Well, here I am in the library (I need to charge the iPod, and it only charges while the laptop is on, dammit) doing some writing, blogging and email. Turns out they do offer wireless access, but it’s no cheaper than using their PCs. Oh, well, I’ll accumulate some blog entries and emails and then batch them out.

First night for me was pretty tame, I went to bed at about 10 pm. I did go see the evening entertainment, which was these two beautiful young guys wearing only skintight pants who did very homoerotic acrobatics and balancing on each other (think gay, 3rd string Cirque). They both had abs to die for. They were a little shaky, though I don't know if it was because of the hoots and hollers and whistles that greeted them when they first came on stage, or if was because of the moving ship (I can feel this ship rock as much as any I’ve been on since I was on that tiny awful 250 passenger Odysseus in the Agean, maybe because we are out in the Atlantic now, headed for Puerto Rico; before we were always in the Caribbean.).

Turns out my roommate David is reading the fifth Harry Potter book! So we have something to talk about; too bad I can barely understand him. Maybe I should whip out my laptop some time and try typing a message. I’m the one who likes to IM more than chat on the phone anyway…

So I got up at 7 this morning, had some cereal and down to the gym. I wonder, like last time, if the fitness staff is in shock on one of these gay cruises. I bet the gym is normally deserted, but today of course, all the treadmills were in use, people were crowding each other for mirror space with the free weights, and the signup for the spin class at 3:00 was already full.

And yes, this cruise seems to have at least as many big shaved muscleboys as the last one.

Which brings me to the crew. As usual, all the stewards, kitchen staff, and waitstaff are Southeast Asian, while the officers and ‘entertainment’ staff are (I assume) Dutch. This is Holland America after all (actually I learned later that a lot of them are Australian). And these Dutch guys are all about 7 feet tall and blond. I saw some members of the entertainment staff down at the afternoon sendoff (they all had little gold name badges and wore matching black polo shirts that staid “Entertainment” or “Photographer”) and a couple of the guys were queenier than 90% of the passengers!

Oh and guess what movie they are playing daily? Latter Days.

---

Day 2 afternoon

Today’s weather: Choppy seas, partly cloudy skies and mood swings throughout.

Was feeling good just relaxing and reading, then I guess the endorphin rush wore off, crashed during pool games. Wandered/staggered about -- the boat is really pitching -- was faced with Latter Days in the ship’s theater. Managed to only look… for a minute. 4 pm: bingo, nap or reading?

Went to Bingo, stayed for a bit, then walked back and caught the tearful, contrived and yet emotional ending of Latter Days. Mistake. However, afternoon was salvaged by rushing up to the Lido Deck just in time to catch the core training class (abs/back) taught by that little hottie Jeff Costa (on previous cruises he only did aerobics in the mornings. I don’t do aerobics. Ever). This class, however, I did better than most of the rest of the guys, even some that looked like they had great abs. Nothing like 30 seconds of plank pose to separate the men from the girlie men. *flop*

Now just a mere six hours ‘til the underwear party! What to wear? Briefs or boxer-briefs? White or black? Should I wear a wifebeater? Where do I put my room card? Dammit I knew I should have brought the Doc Martens! That’s what everyone wears to the underwear party! And I hope it’s not as cold and windy as it was today. And if the ship keeps rocking the way it was earlier, we could lose some drunken party-boys over the side.

David’s in she shower getting ready for dinner (tonight is formal night, where you’re supposed to wear a tux; haven’t done that since the very first cruise when I met Andreas.) So I’m thinking I’ll do preliminary cleanup and take out the contacts for an hour or so, then go see the evening’s main entertainment (remember the Holland America entertainment crew I was talking about? I can’t wait to see those boys put on a show.

What’s tomorrow? Oh, yeah San Juan. Not sure what I’ll do; the rainforest hike was sold out, and what was left didn’t really interest me that much. I’ll probably get off the ship for a little walk around at least. I may have to find something else to do… hmm, a ship with 1800 gay men…

Day 2 Evening: The entertainment

Well, it was in some ways what you would expect for the regular on-board entertainment: a kind of cheesy revue-style thing with a few singer/dancers who change clothes really often. I had assumed that all the vocals were recorded too, but as it turns out, the leads do sing live when they aren’t dancing around like mad. One who I had seen yesterday was really hamming it up, and I have to say did some amazing splits. He’ll be quite popular at the underwear party.

Before the show started, Danny the RSVP host came out and introduced this guy Vuk, a towering Australian hottie who was the normal cruise director. The very handsome and butch Vuk thanked Danny for basically taking over his job for a week so he could ‘relax.’

Anyway, the show started off pretty normal, but then in the middle of You can keep your hat on (right after Lady Marmalade), a guy came out (though not in drag) and started dancing with the lead male singer. From then on they would do little gay things until, when the opening music started for that Titanic song My Heart Will Go On and the lead male singer came out, there was a lot of giggling in the audience. He started the song, and he did sound a little weak, like maybe he wasn’t used to singing it, and the range was giving him trouble even in a lower octave. But then about halfway through the song, out onto the stage struts Vuk, wearing only a wifebeater and pajama bottoms, and the singer belts out “You’re here… I knew you were queer!” Then Vuk mutters, no I’m straight, and the singer continues “If youuu’re straight, I like it that way!” and grinds up against him.

It was, um… cute. Then the singer started to hump Vut and it got a little weird. Vut picked him up and carried him off stage at the end.

There were a few other moments like that, where the lead singer ‘finally found what he was looking for’ in the cute little latino guy, while the female lead was holding hands with one of the girl dancers.

Oh and on the way to the entertainment I passed a mob of guys coming out of the formal dinner. No less than half a dozen in the full kilt outfit, looking quite snappy actually. And… I’ve seen it before and just forgot about it. Of course there were quite a few guys in drag. Formal drag, of course!

Gayopoly

Yes I'm still here, dammit. As I ate my banana (from WHole Foods) and my free Cafe Verona coffee (breakfast downstairs isn't for another 1/2 hour or so) I was reading some blogs. Toby's may be shamelessly self-indulgent, but he did have a link to this: Gayopoly - Gay Board Game, Lesbian Board Game. The Ultimate Versatile Board Game.

You can get this kit from FLAXart that lets you customize your own -opoly, and I've been working on a Shadow World version, but somehow I don't think it could be as fabulous as Gayopoly.

Oooh, winter storm advisory in DC! Have fun, kids!

Bon Voyage

This might be my last blog entry for a few days; while the ship has an internet cafe, it's not free (unlike the wi-fi I've been enjoying the last few days) and I have other things to blow my money on.

Random things:

I had awful dreams last night, about snakes (in the office no less, how symbolic is that? They were slithering around at our feet and we had to try to avoid them or push them aside but not anger them or they would bite with their poisonous fangs) then about dragons. Maybe I should lay off the Harry Potter books/DVD for a day or so, (though it was fun to see Harry make Draco spin like a top again!). I also was paranoid about missing the ship -- did I have the wrong day, stupid stuff like that. It's as bad as my paranoia about missing that early morning spin class at Georgetown. I wonder if there's a pill for that (kidding). Though I have been thinking maybe I should consider counseling again, but with someone new.

I thought those houseboys were pretty butch, until they were horsing around yesterday in front of one of the rooms and one tossed a (closed) bag of trash at the other, and he let out the highest-pitch girly squeal I think I've ever heard a man make. It was kind of cute though.

As I type, I'm listening to Sunday Baroque streaming through WETA. It's true that this isn't necessarily the last time I'll probably be able to hear it; you can listen to archived episodes streamed from the Sunday Baroque web site, but after next Sunday it won't be heard on WETA.

Ugh, I need to pack everything up now and check out after breakfast. That is one of the cool things about a cruise, though: once you are on board, there is no more packing and unpacking: the 'hotel' goes everywhere with you! Another nice thing of course is that your hotel room is always just a short walk (or in some cases, stumble) from the bar/club/underwear party.

Need more coffee...

Ouch

That was my wallet, or more specifically, my Amex card, whining about me blowing $20 on a stupid firewire cable. Sheesh. Well, at least I have one. When I drove all the way out to that Radio Shack, the (surprisingly) cute Asian clerk (it's not surprising that he was cute and Asian, silly, it's surprising that he was cute and worked at a Radio Shack) asked if I wanted 4-pin to 6-pin or 4-pin to 4-pin. This was a quandry till I looked at them. Four pins were right out. I asked if he didn't have any 6-to-6 and what was he doing later. Sadly, he didn't have the former, and I only thought the latter to myself. He said "not much call for those." I said, "It's what I need to plug my ipod into my laptop." And he gave me a blank 'oh, a Mac dork' stare.

However, I had spotted a Best Buy on my way out, an lo, they had several 6-to-6 cables. Unfortunately they were all between 20 and 30 dollars. As I thought ruefully of my several unused firewire cables at home, I pulled one from the rack. And to make myself feel better, I spent more money. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was on sale.

Then, to make matters worse, I stopped by the Barnes & Noble (hi, Ken!) and bought a copy of the third Harry Potter book, even though I have one at home. Stupid muggle me. This was after I had to ask where they were, and had to go into the children's section, where I felt very out of place. I've read that in some librarys they don't even allow adults without children in the children's section because they think they might be pedophiles. Oh, great. You'd think they could stock a few Potter books over in the sci-fi section! I see adults reading them all the time. (Am I bad that I think Draco Malfoy is cute? Maybe I should be banned from the children's section!)

Well at least I have a cable now and my iPod is charging. With this cable I could charge it from another room! Another house!

*Yawn*

Even on vacation, I wake up early. What's up with that? Though the boys in the next room are up too, and sounding a little rambunctious.

Plan for today:

• breakfast down in the courtyard
• lounge around by pool, read more Harry Potter. Think about how I am not teaching my spin class today, and be grateful to that cute guy Linus for subbing for me.
• zip over to Radio Shack for Firewire cable
• lounge around by pool, maybe bring laptop and do some writing.
• brisk walk along beach
• happy hour
• Whatever!

I have the Weather Channel on right now (am I the only one who thinks Bob Stokes is a little... creepy?), and I must say, this experience of actually having to suffer these things called advertisements that they stick in between the program segments is a bit annoying. That one for the little blue sleeve that you pull over your finger and rub on your teeth while dancing through the subway is downright disturbing. That Tiger Woods sure has white teeth though.

You know what's really sick? I can't wait to get on the ship tomorrow... and go to the gym. I haven't had a decent workout since Tuesday and I'm really feeling like a slug. Yesterday's morning crunches and afternoon beach walk hardly count; I do that much walking just going the 1/2 mile to and from work every day. The Holland America ships have really nice gyms. Exercise really is kind of addictive I guess. Just as well, the unlimited food on the ship can be dangerous.

Woah

Dude was wearing a kilt? Awesome!

Today in Ft. Lauderdale

Partly cloudy, upper 70's. I like a few clouds; constant sun makes me sweat.

They have the cutest houseboys (they clean the rooms) here, they look like they could almost be brothers. They look sort of latino, wear matching sleeveless t-shirts and shorts.

I'm almost through my second book already (the first Harry Potter book)! I read most of Rendezvous with Rama at the airport/on the plane. I guess I read faster than I thought. I only brought the first 2 Harry Potters, a couple other Arthur C. Clarke books and the last book in the Angel With a Sword series by C.J. Cherryh.

I may stop by the nearby mall at midday to get another book, and see if I can get a Firewire cable.

Trip Blog 1

(ooh! my B&B has free wireless internet!)

At the Airport

So far, so good. The iBook survives another bumpy ride through the airport x-ray machine. I got here at 12:45 and whisked through security in a matter of minutes. Again, everyone was polite and cooperative, and the security people were downright pleasant. So take that, evil terrorists! On the downside, I now have over an hour to kill before boarding.

I can’t think of anything major that I have forgotten yet, except the Firewire cable so I can charge the iPod through the iBook (I left the other charger at work, but then meant to pull the other one from my Cube, but oh, well.

I was able to take a few minutes and clear a bunch of duplicate Degrassis off the DVR, and try to optimize TiVo so that nothing important gets deleted while I’m gone. Either way, I’ll have a full day of catching-up to do when I get back. Desperate Housewives, Lost, Stargate and laundry. Fun!

It sort of amuses me the people who get here and while they wait for their flight, they leave an endless list of phone messages for people. Listening in, it’s clear that they really don’t have anything pertinent to say; they are just bored. Though of course here I am writing a blog entry… is that any better?

On the Plane

Geez, 'First Class' is hardly that anymore. Last time I swear I at least got two little liquor bottles when I got a drink. And no meal, just some lame-ass snacks! Damn, it wasn’t that long ago that you could fly Midwest in coach and get big leather seats, a very nice meal with real china and flatware… damn you, terrorists and discount airlines! Though there was some evil satisfaction watching the seemingly endless riffraff trundle by as they headed for the cattle seats and glared at we few, we special few, we twelve of first class (and a motley group we were, quite varied as usual). Later I must talk about blackberrys and how stupid people look talking into them. (BTW, I did not pay for first class, I had a ton of flyer miles and decided to burn them while USAirways was still around).

When I fly home I’m getting wasted on USAirways’ dime, dammit (I won’t be driving and it will be night so who cares?). By the way, I was so nice to the little old lady next to me, though when she started to go off about her surgeries on her wrist that she had broken a year ago I did subside to grunts and nods as I peered more intently into my book, almost regretting offering to help her with her water bottle cap…

At the Worthington, 10-ish, Wednesday nite, 2/16

All settled in, already been to the Whole Foods for supplies (I consider the December trip sort of a ‘scouting mission’ for this trip; I buzzed down there and back like a pro -- in the dark mind you!

I must say my little Dodge Neon (white) is cute, though not what you would call powerful. It does have power doors and windows (despite what the cute Alamo guy named Boris implied when he tried to upgrade me to a midsize for a little more money). Why do I need more than a compact? It’s just me and some luggage! Boris was cute, though.

For comfort I watched LOST on the little tv, and a little of the Will and Grace cast on Larry King. OMG, Could Megan Mullaly be any different than her character -- unlike the rest of them. When will 'Jack' come out?

It's torturous watching regular tv and suffering through the ads. Though Tiger Woods is still looking trés hot, I must say. Which reminds me of an annoying drug ad I saw on tv: some once a week pill for women that is supposed to help build bone density. It suggested that you 'ask your doctor about miraclex.' Then they list the usual scary side effects. Well, you know what will biuld bone density with no bad side effects, plus some good side effects!?! Weight-bearing exercise! It's proven! If that little old lady next to me on the plane had exercised regularly, maybe her wrist wouldn't have broken.

Now, the silence is killing me, and since there seems to be no classical music in Ft Lauderdale, I’m burning myself a Baroque CD to pop into the handy player in my room (there is also one in my Neon!)

Done! Gotta love iTunes. Glad I brought a couple of blank Cds, thought I guess I should have thought to bring some music cds.

Bed time! Tomorrow: cancer-fest, part one.

Not missing a beat

They must be trying very hard not to jump for joy over at WGMS, soon to be the only broadcast station in the DC area that plays classical music at all.

The ad sales staff in particular are probably running giggling down the hall to their offices, knowing full well that the angry listening masses will be fleeing traitorous WETA, even if it does mean suffering through those aggravating ads for Mattress Discounters, Winchester Homes, and the endless diamond wholesalers.

I get the WGMS weekly email newsletter, and they couldn't resist 'reassuring' me that, even though WETA was going to all talk, there were no such plans here! *chortle*

I just wish that the oddly entertaining Dennis Owens was still doing the WGMS morning show.

Well, off to finish packing.

Dream interpreted!

My old friend Ruth (I have known her since college!) plugged my dream into a dream interpretation web site, and she got this:

Your dream contained 4 dream symbols ...

Clothes Dream contained: dress
Clothes symbolize roles and identity.

Hotel Dream contained: hotel
Hotels represent temporary solutions and circumstances.

Orange Dream contained: orange
Orange is symbolic of feelings and emotional situations.

Shower Dream contained: shower
A shower typically symbolizes time to refresh and renew your energy.

Makes sense to me, though I think I should have included the whole 'naked' aspect of the dream, because I kept pulling the curtain back and forth so I was covered while I changed...

Genesis II

I bet I'm the only one who remembers this funky old Series Pilot that Gene Roddenberry did back in the 70's. I wish they'd dig up the tape and put it on DVD; I still love the old subshuttle.

And speaking of things not on DVD, I'm surprised they haven't come out with SeaQuest and Earth II on DVD. I could never really get into the latter, but I enjoyed the first 2 seasons of SeaQuest -- what a cast of hotties. Sad about Jonathan Brandis offing himself though.

Bahaha!

Ten day weather forecast for Fort Lauderdale

Plan for today:

• Clean up my house
• Hit the Java Shack and finish up a chapter of Shadowstone
• Post said chapter
• Start organizing stuff to pack
• Go to Container Store
• Gym one last time: Abs and Strength Class

I am Sad

When I get back, the treacherous management and board of WETA 90.9 FM will have converted their format to all talk.

No Sunday Baroque, no Music Through the Night, no Performance Today, No just 'random classical music'! Argh.

Dreamtime

Had another one of those dreams last night. I was staying in some hotel with my old friend Fred from Sweden (as opposed to Andreas from Switzerland?) and I was going to take a shower. There was this one bright orange curtain (influenced by all the media coverage of that Christo thing in New York?) separating the entiire bathroom area from the rest of the room. But the curtain wasn't quite big enough, so I kept pulling it back and forth.

I wanted to take a shower, but I kept getting interrupted by, strangely enough, people from work asking me questions. So I would get partially undressed, and have to dress again and come out. The situation got more and more bizarre to the point of being slapstick, with me getting in the shower partially dressed, coming out soaking wet... so not funny at the time though.

I just love my subconscious, don't you?

I'm free!

I'm finally home and safe after my last day of work before my vacation. And what a day it was. I'll spare you the personal grooming details. I'll also spare you (and me) from a recounting of the disastrous presentation to a large architectural client involving me, a sales rep, and a recalcitrant trade show display called a Banner Bug. Don't ask.

Just don't.

Suffice it to say that immediately after our return, I was tempted to hit the little airplane bottle of rum that a different sales rep had given me earlier as part of a going-away goft basket (she is so sweet). There was sunblock, goodies, a cap, and of course rum.

The rum is now gone. *Hick*

I hope Ryan doesn't have a meltdown, but I also hope that things are busy enough to show anyone who bothers to pay attention that my job is not something any idiot can do (like, ahem, the CAD jobs).

Tomorrow is devoted to errands, packing, and one last gym visit. Then Wednesday it's away from this real-estate inflation pit.

Mood spin?

My moods have been all over the place the last few days. Class went well this morning, and I was feeling good, and now after coming back from brunch (with Steven, Robert, Ahongas (sp?) and another guy I don't know), I'm feeling blah. It was a nice brunch though, first time I've actually been out to a restaurant in weeks, it was at a place in Dupont. I parked right in front of my old apartment on Riggs Place.

I have my suitcase out, and starting to lay out what I want to take with me, but I'm just feeling ambivalent. I wonder if the weather is influencing me? It was sunny this morning and now it is dark and gray, and it's just going to slip from a gray day to an overcast night. Tomorrow will be busy with work stuff, then I have a bunch of things planned for my day off Tuesday.

One sure sign that I'm sick, by the way, is that my place's usual 65° has not been warm enough for me. I feel cold all the time. I have a heater going and pointing at me here in the home office. I'm telling myself that it really is a good thing that I'm headed down to sunny Florida then on to a cruise in the Caribbean for more sun and warmth. I just hope I'll be done with this crappy sinus thing before I get on the plane.

Spin class update

Today's class at Cap Hill went great! I had 14 people, one of my biggest classes (more is always better), including a few new people. I had planned to take it easy but kind of got caught up in the energy.

I had three people (inlcuding this new kinda hot guy) come to me afterward and tell me it was a great class and they loved the music (see below)!

I know I need to 'engage' the class more (e.g., eye contact, chat them up before/after class, acknowledge my regulars) even though it's hard for me. Though I have a couple regulars at this class that I do talk to, and I think it helps. Cap Hill is definitely my favorite group. Now, it's almost too bad I'm going to be gone for 2 weeks.

This weekend's spin mix

When I do a new mix I can usually use it for both Saturday and Sunday, as the DC Capitol Hill crowd is unlikely to mix with the Arlington/Clarendon crowd. I did, however, have someone from my Sunday morning Clarendon class show up at my Thursday morning Georgetown session, so there is some overlap. and I don't want to play the same mix twice for someone in the same week. My new mix:

• Roam (B-52's) -- warmup
• Toxic (Britney Spears)
• 9 pm (ATB)
• The Rhythm of the Night (Corona)
• Love at First (Kylie Minogue)
• Danger Zone (Kenny Loggins
• Tell it to My heart (Taylor Dayne)
• Heaven (DJ Sammy)
• It's not right But it's Okay (Whitney Houston/Thunderpuss remix)
• Vacation (Go-Go's)
• Sailing (*N Sync) -- cool-down/stretch

Ready for my vacation

I'm tired.

This week wasn't so bad really, but I'm still dragging from whatever respiratory ailment has been dogging me. I went to my fabulous doctor today and he hooked me up with a variety of fun drug samples, from Allegra D to a cortizone inhaler, to a new antibiotic. I'm not normally one to go for the antibiotic when what I have is probably a viral infection, but this has been going on too long, and I didn't even ask; Moody said we should just hit this with everything and knock it out before my vacation. No argument from me.

Monday at work is going to be a circus; I'd love to just blow it off, but I have a grooming appt. downtown, and I agreed to go to a meeting with a fairly important client. I'm glad I have all Tuesday to prepare for the trip. Packing for a two-week vacation is a major project, honey!

Only two more spin classes before I go; I must admit I'm also looking forward to a couple weeks off from that. I'm sure I'll still work out some on the ship (Holland America ships have a nice gym; I even took a spinning class on the last one!)

I'm just furious

About this: WETA Board Approves Switch To News-Talk Format The switch is to happen on Feb 28th, so when I get back from vacation, they will have killed all their classical programming except, ironically, two things I really dislike: the Saturday afternoon opera and Saturday night 4 hour orgy of folk music... yuck. No more Sunday Baroque. I wonder if the Shark will record an internet streaming program?

Now the only classical music station left in the DC area is commercial WGMS. I guess I'll be getting that Airport Express and new iPod and loading up all those classical CDs I have gathering dust!

Uh-oh

Free Expression Can Be Costly When Bloggers Bad-Mouth Jobs (washingtonpost.com)

Eye Candy

Courtesy of Abercrombie & Fitch, who does not market to gay men, nosiree.

The Journey

One week to go. I'm feeling better, and I'm back on board (little pun there) with a positive outlook about the trip. And god knows I need a break from the stress factory that has been my job lately. I've got an appt with my Dr. on Friday to check out this lingering sinus thing to make sure I'll be in shape for the trip.

Today I chose (from the available candidates) who I wanted for my new assistant. (Ryan was, unfortunately, not among the available candidates, since he is basically running the other branch. But he is coming over starting Thursday for refresher training to take over for me while I'm away. Fun to be had by me.) But this guy I've chosen seems like he will be okay, he's very quiet and mild-mannered, but seems to have a good knowledge base. And he called back today to ask about the position, so he is still interested in the job after meeting scary me. He won't be as fun as Ken (Hi Ken! Martinis at the Mayflower?) but I think he'll be okay.

I think tomorrow I'll start on my to do (stop paper and mail, get bills taken care of) and to pack lists, which always get me in the mood. I'm glad that US Airways hasn't gone under yet, so I can fly first class on those miles at least. And I'm looking forward to four days in a little Ft Lauderdale gay hotel followed by seven days on board a ship with 2000 other gay men... though I have to admit, having a private little balcony to watch the waves go by is also very nice.

But I have vowed to sleep in more and get to more of the theme parties. I'm by nature a morning person and I all too often miss the big late dances. Previously though I was more interested in going on the excursions to Mayan ruins, but this time it's less of a big deal.

And of course there will be lying out on deck all day with my reading selections while cute Thai boys bring me drinks.

Game of shirtless tennis, anyone?

Wow. Hot shirtless tennis players.

Radio Shark

Thanks to Rob Pegoraro of the Washington Post (he wrote me back!) I now know of a solution to my 'TiVo for radio' dilemma. It's the radioSHARK. Looks pretty spiffy!

Monday morning blues

I'm sitting in bed;
the paper is read
I'm starting to dread
going to work.

Hey I never claimed I was a poet.

I'm in a dark mood. I want to turn out the light, close the blinds and go back to sleep. I'm not even looking forward to my big vacation a mere nine days away. I'm still a bit sniffly, my head hurts, my back hurts. Basically I'm a wreck.

Argh.

The internet is the tool of the devil

Back in Ye Olden Days (aka, the 80's) before the internet, I was a very productive writer. I cranked out literally dozens of books, most for Space Master, Shadow World, and of course, Middle-earth.

But now I find it hard to sit at the computer and concentrate on writing any major project. I want to check my email or blog or Google some random thing, or research using Airport Express to wirelessly stream some of my 200+ classical CDs off my computer in my home office into my bedroom in case I do lose Music Through the Night to the money-grubbers at WETA-FM.

The internet is too distracting! I used to do better when I would use my laptop and sit on my bed or go to a coffee shop, but then I just had to go and put an airport card in the damn thing and voila! Internet connection. Evil, evil, evil.

It doesn't help that I have the attention span of a hummingbird, thanks to MTV, another tool of Satan.

Sleepy Sunday

Well, I'm feeling much better today, after storming out of work Friday afternoon (more on that in a minute), going home, unplugging the phone and basically passing out for 12 hours. I woke up at 3 am, drank some water and passed out again. Woke up still feeling blah but made it to Spin class. Spent All day Saturday in bed watching:

2 Episodes of Stargate SG-1 (More Jack and Daniel Gou'uld, please)
1 Episode of Charmed (Kerr Smith is hawt)
1 Episode of Crossing Jordan
1 Ep of Point Pleasant (still uneven but the eye candy keeps me coming back)
Part of last week's Gotti (not enough of the boys, grew bored).

Thank the gods for TiVo.

Turned in early, woke up and went to Spin today, feeling pretty good, just a little sniffly.

So anyway, back to Friday. I go in early. I've been sick for three days. I talk to my boss about the workload for the mounting guy (who had the big job last weekend and bolted on us Saturday afternoon, leaving me and Ryan to spend all day Sunday doing his job.) I say maybe we should send some of his work to the other branch, since there are all these displays that are needed for a trade show this weekend. He says he'll see about it. I say also that I would like to leave early and get some rest.

The day drags on, I am feeling worse and worse, but I get all the printing done, and even design and print some additional (last-minute, natch) stuff for marketing for this trade show. It's early afternoon and the mounting guy says he needs some help. I say, I'm leaving soon, talk to the guys in the other branch. What I am thinking is: You asshole, you aren't pulling this shit again. You've had days to get this done, and you took off yesterday for personal shit, but you could have worked a little late Wednesday, come in a little early today, basically taken one tiny bit of responsibility for your own fucking job. Normally this guy gets to -- literally -- sleep half the day. Once in awhile he gets something work intensive. And hell, he gets paid overtime.

So I go up to see the situation. He is way behind because he has to hand-cut these boards. He has been doing this kind of thing for years; he should have known how long it would take and planned ahead.

I got to my boss and say we need to get the other branch involved. He says 'they are busy.' I say how busy can they be? (It's a smaller branch and they are usually dead, and they are overstaffed.) What he isn't telling me and I found out is one guy is in jail, and the manager is having one of his periodic mental breakdowns and is AWOL, leaving poor Ryan to run the branch. So my boss basically says that I am copping an attitude, he says I should 'be more constructive.' I say (oh and btw, I'm not only sick, I'm hopped up on antihistamines, which make me even more irritable than I normally am) I'm not bailing out the mounting guy again. I said I'm sick as a dog and I've reached my limit, I'm going home to bed. He says "I'm not allowed to 'reach my limit," trying to play the guilt game with me. But this time it's not working. I wanted to say "That's why they pay you the big bucks, buster, you deal with it."

Everything that I am responsible for is done. So I leave.

We'll see if I have a job tomorrow.

On a lighter note, this kind of thing is what makes Weekend Edition fun. However, I don't want to give up my Sunday Baroque, or weeknight concerts, or, god forbid, Music through the Night. Argh.

All-too common cold

Well, maybe it's not that surprising that I got another cold so soon after the last one; this page comes right out and lists Fatigue and overwork and emotional stress increase your susceptibility. Let's see, I had to work all last weekend, and I've been a basket case over teaching a new class (which went okay, btw). Sounds like a recipe for an immunity breakdown to me.

If I know what's good for me, I'll spend the entire weekend (except my two spin classes, of course) lounging on my couch and catching up on the dozens of episodes of Degrassi clogging my DVR.

Ohh!

Remember that job I was bitching about because I had to spend most of my weekend working on?

Well, pictures of the map boards made it into the Washington Post today! This was one of thirty boards we had to do. It's also on the front page -- in color -- of the print Metro section.

My friend Kleenex®

Yuck, I feel like I'm getting sick AGAIN. Runny nose, sore throat.

Worse, I am supposed to teach a spin and abs class tomorrow at the crack of dawn. Blech.

Notthatboy

It would be better if he wasn't grinning exactly like he did when he was the Dell Dude.

I, Borg

I happened to catch part of This Episode of Star Trek:TNG at the gym today, and -- despite all the inconsistencies with later Borg encounters (why doesn't 3rd of 5 just start injecting people with Borg nanoprobes?) -- found it rather moving, mostly because of sweet Jonathan Del Arco's portrayal of Hugh, the confused and lonely young Borg cut off from the collective. I was getting all choked up right in the middle of the club! Bad idea.

Exhibit Highlights Leonardo's 'Curious Genius'

Very cool story (reported by the fabulous Sylvia Poggioli) about Leonardo's inventions

The next level of Bad Names...

...Bad Signs! Courtesy of my Boston friend Eric.

Rectus Abdominus Anxiety

Ugh, why did I vounteer to teach another spin class at the new club in Georgetown -- at 6:30 on Thursday mornings, no less? That was bad enough, but then the fitness manager came back and said they needed someone to teach an abs class immediately after the spin slot, and could I do that?

Well, I had just finished training for Club Abs (and Strength and Stretch) that they paid for, and hell it's just 15 minutes right after the other class, so it's not like I'm making another trip. I thought that the classes wouldn't be starting up until the beginning of March, but I got an email from the DC fitness manager yesterday 'reminding ' me that I was starting on Thursday!

So I'm taking as many Abs classes as I can, and I've pulled out the manual to review and put together a program. You see, it's not just 15 minutes of crunches, there's a structured warmup and cool down, and exercises for the upper and lower abs and obliques and lower back. Whee. And what music to play?