~

SO, I kinda forgot to mention one interesting bit from pride.

I did mention the guy with the perfect pecs that was talking to me about the scissor sisters. I saw him at the park and he was handing these little pink flyers for his gym. the second time I walked by him again he gave me another one and he said "don't throw that one away" - so I stuffed it in my pocket.

Ran into him again at the Cuff just as I decided I had had enough and it was probably going to rain soon and tony was offering me a ride to my car which was parked in Guam. Anyway, I run into him and he says "hey, Scissor man - did you read my note"? I didn't so i dug through my pocket and found it and he had indeed scribbled on the back of the pink gym flyer. "call me scissor man - brett" & phone number. I was a little shocked, ok really shocked, but I gave him my number and promised to call him the next night.

I didn't get around to calling him until tuesday night. I don't know if it was the fact that i wasn't feeling well ( this a about an hour before barf-o-rama started ) but we basically sat on the phone for an hour and argued. about everything conceiveable.

he's 34, divorced, supports Bush because he thinks it's necessary to support the governement during a war because otherwise troop morale would suffer. hates move-on.org because they "poisoned the political landscape." hates the clintons. hates anyone that uses any kind of drug - prescription included. hates the gay "scene", wishes more guys were like his straight friends.
and of course, how I should join his gym so he could make me "a better man". I asked for a guarantee that i would end up looking like him. the only thing we had in common was some good taste in music : Scissor Sisters, Siouxsie, Goldfrapp, the Smiths , Old Rem. When I asked him what his favorite Siouxsie tracks were he listed a bunch of b-sides. HUGE bonus points there.

Of course, if you know me and the Uber opinionated bitch that i am - I argued right back at every turn - just to see how he would take it. On one hand, he's a jack-ass - but on the other, he's rather intelligent and funny. and did i mention HOT? after an hour I told him I had to go - I wasn't feeling well and his ranting had given me a headache. He told me to call him this weekend as he had enjoyed giving me a headache.

I don't know. I'll probably call him, something about him and our conversation was quite stimulating.

Yesterday at lunch, my boss told us a story about how his son called him a "Barf Brain".

Last night around 6:30 my stomach was killing me. by 10:30 I was "evacuating" which continued throughout the night. It had to be food poisoning. Any of you lucky enough to have never had it should count your blessings. Can't sleep, can't get comfortable, barf barf barf - ACCKKKK.

Although, re-reading that kind of sums up my life all the time, doesn't it?

01. Orange haired Rock Star Draggie.
02. Cute Guy recruiting Football players.
03. Green Grapes Draggie. Cool, but her real boobs were Frightening.
04. Indian dance troop.
05. Another Draggie. With a giant mouth.

.........

Sunday was pre-parade cocktailing at La COccina ( perfect view!) parade at 11, walk around the park, beer bust at the Cuff with with C list "divae" cc peniston, Ruth Pointer ( I guess they couldn't afford all three sisters?) and Robin S.

I always go because I end up seeing friends I never get to see- and I always meet a lot of people. At the parade, park thing, block party I wore my black and silver Scissor Sisters shirt and I'd say about 10 different people came up to me to chat about them. Including one really HOT guy with the most beautiful and perfect pecs I have ever witnessed and another that jumped off a float to run up and thank me for "representing" the Scissor Sisters.

it was mostly fun. The canadians were there with Steve - I was very glad to have my closest friend there with me - he has skipped the last few years. We have been friends for so long that people will see me out alone and ask "where's your husband"?

I try not to over analyze it ( Pride, the parade, etc. ). There's good, bad and embarassing.

It is what it is, right?

I was home by 7pm.

01. A Jedi Penis fighting Darth Maul aka Syphilis
02. Miss Gay Washington. Yawn. This state isn’t big on decent Draggies.
03. Silver guy with a heavy Helmet.
04. The Goths. Why are the Goths in our parade? There should be a Goth-n-Bondage day parade too!
05. These guys all had “BUSH TERRORIST” masks on.

Last summer Steve, Consuelo and I saw Margaret Cho ina small theater here and it sucked. This is a commedienne I have enjoyed for about a decade so it was very disturbing. Last summer she was either sick, stoned, drunk or whatever. I had seen her before live and it was great. All the dvds I've seen were great. Obviously, it was very sad and disappointing.

SO, when she was here last friday night, I was a little weary - but went with Mike & Kevin and am pleased to say that it was awesome, hysterical, incredible.

she is easily one of the funniest human beings. ( See the link to her very good blog to your right in my "other sources of enlightenment" section )


SO, that was friday night of pride. Started at Manray and walked down to margaret. tried to go back to manray but it was too packed and the streets were packed with drunkies. Steve made friends with some canadians and went off with them. I was home in bed by 12:30 - until UM came home at 2am and decided to clean the house.

This weekend was lots of rushing around, hurry up and wait and drive all over hell and back. thee Wedding went pretty smoothly and it was very nice.

It's Tuesday and I'm in Iowa. Back to mpls and then back to SEA tomorrow afternoon. Have double and quadrupple checked my itinerary.

Had lunch with Paul downtown at Eddington's - was nice to catch up. We were walking back to the aefa building and the sky turned black and it was eerily quiet and creepy. Then the wind picked up and it started to pour. It was freaky. It looked like it was 9 at night at 1:45. See photo.

ran around with Mark! today and had some good americanized chinese buffet. "Hunan's" didn't even have chopsticks. it was good though.

spent some quailty time with the P's and my grandmother. Good home cookin' and northwestern steakhouse last night. I'm a total steak SNOB and that was some good shite!

tonight my niece Leah was here and we snuck out to my grandma's farm. it's extremely sad to go there because no one lives there anymore. my grandma had to be put into a home after my uncle committed suicide. he was taking care of her after she broke her hip.

anyway, gran ( eedie ) is much better off in the old folks home, it's in mason city and my mom spends hours with her almost everyday. she turns 99 in august and she's sharp as a needle. still, old people homes depress the fuck out of me and visiting her house with no one living there was very sad.
i found a few old treasures like "professor frog" and my mother urged me to take them home. SO I did. she needs to sew some eyes on professor frog, his are gone. I wanderered around the farm and chatted with the 7 wild cats (cuties!) and fended off swarms of mosquitoes. disgusting.

took lots of pictures.Was generally saddened by the whole scene. I guess you can never go back.

Going out for some cheap Iowa beer with Mark, Sean and the crazy beetch Brigeeete this evening. Very tired.

it was all important work, of course - but I am too old for this. I think this whole trip has made me feel old. Discussed "OLD" with Karie and jeremy and tony. Made mental notes about life and what needs to change, etc.

But I've been gone too much lately, want to get back to my life.

can't wait to see TanQbaby.

and THAT...is all.

Let me tell you all that missing a flight is a bad thing.

Somehow i thought my flight was wed at 1am, when it was actually tues at 1am. 2 hours of talking to people in Turkmenistan and 400 bucks later - I ended up flying standby on the flight I THOUGHT I was suppossed to be on.

ha ha - how endlessly ammusing.

on the flight I bonded with a mid 50's off-broadway actress living in NYC but originally from seattle. She was as tall as me and rail thin with a cloud of fake red hair and a raspy voice. She was great. she does 2 shows a night (Cinderella and Cat on a hot tin roof) Wed-Sun. We did vanilla stoli shots with ginger ale chasers and read gossip magazines. it was an uncomfortable flight ( screw northwest!) but the company was nice.

this evening i was bitten by a mosquito. Rude.

If you have not seen "Team America" - I suggest you do so ASAP. At least Rent it and make sure it's the unrated director's cut. I promise you will find yourself singing Kim Jong Li's Ballad "I'm so ronrey, so ronrey, so ronrey and sadry arone" - i sang it walking down the street this morning.

I've been feeling different since my trip. Not Health-wise, but a sort of Mental clarity. Things that used to confound or drive me nuts make perfect sense now and last week I was solving distressed co-worker's problems with ease.

Everything in my own life that needs fixing is being scrutinized and my evil plans are starting to take shape. I just don't like much about my life now and haven't for quite some time. Enough whining. I'll keep you posted.

Off to Mpls tonight for my Sister's wedding. WiIll be nice to see family and friends, although it will be quite brief.

Really not looking forward to flying, either. It's funny how on my OZ trip, it was the domestic flights that I hated, not the 12+ hr overseas flights. I've become a travel snob.

That is all.

01. The Huge pooping Kangaroo
02. Scary Huge Beautiful Tiger.
03. 14 fucking foot 1400 lb Shark
04. the Bridge Steve climbed
05. cute Stoned Koala

I had an amazing time. It was very liberating.
I need to get out more.

The international flights weren't too bad ( Qantas takes care of you _ and somehow the single empty seat on both flights was next to me ) although they were 14 and 12 hours respectivley. Alaska airlines did their best to screw everything up in LA both ways. Bastards.

Was struck by how NICE everyone was and the weather was gorgeous. Not a moment wasted as there was so much to do. and that Australian accent....HOT. Plus, SO many HOT men. So, picture HOT Aussie men with HOT accents who are super friendly.

Darling Harbour is where we stayed. The Sydney Entertainment Centre, where we were to see Kylie - was directly across the street from our hotel. That Damn Opera house was not so impressive up close, I tell you. It took hours to get to and of course you have to pay 35 bucks to get in and walk around.

Confronting my Fear of Sharks with was very humbling. The shark tank was full of 'em. like 50 or more of various shapes, breeds and sizes and a few other things like these giant Rays - which have the coolest faces underneath. Ok, so the huge one in the picture is just a Mere Gray Nurse Shark - but the Bitch was 16 feet long and 1400 pounds. Still seriously scary.

There were no cages between people and the kargaroos. I half expected to get my Ass kicked by that huge one, he kept opening one eye to look at me. And then he pooped himself and went back to sleep. Some silly kids were going up to them and petting them. I've seen too many america's funniest home videos where the kangaroos kick the shit out of people. No thanks.


Koalas's are some cute shit. We learned that they are totally stoned all the time from the Eucalyptus leaves. Sweet! They don't move very fast because they are stoned and we learned that they don't really have a rib cage and are easily killed. it's illegal to touch a Koala in New South Wales ( the "state" that Sydney is in ) unless you are aided by a zoo official. strange?

Lions and Tigers and Bears - Oh My! Saw them all. Was kind of struck with how absolutely beautiful the tigers were. Of course, the one above was fantasizing about eating me.

01. Ferry Ride to the Toronga Zoo.
02. Friday Harbour ("HahBuh")
03. Confronting my fear of Sharks at the Aquarium Shark Tank.
04. That Damn Opera House.
05. Friday Harbour again.


I put them ALL up at SNAPFISH and I can't figure out how to directly link them - so I have to invite people. you have to quickly join but it takes like 10 seconds.

Drop Me a quick note to TWALSHSEA@yahoo.com and I'll invite ye.

and then comment or question me here.

I'm Back. It was Flippin' Fabulous

will make some sort of blog with pictures this weekend

JET LAG

seriously

Today is the trip.

This is the very vacation I've taken since a family trip to a resort in 1991. Long overdue.


Looked up our itinerary on travelocity and the site said it was "cancelled". Pat called India/Guadal canal/Turzbekistan and they figured it out. Then I called to make myself feel better and got other trip numbers to use in an emergency.

I'm sure that to people that travel abroad a lot this is all Cake - but I'm stressed fer days.

14 hours on a plane ( actually 16.5 ) each way.

GROSS.

the carry on includes:

22 fave cds, mostly comps. & disc man
book "light before day" by christopher rice
a couple magazines
a few reader's digests that a Pat gave me ( disposable )
obviously, prescription drugs

my travel companion will sleep the whole trip.

we leave LA at 830 pm wed night and arrive in Sydney at 6AM friday. lose a whole day on the way but arrive back in Seattle an "hour" after leaving Sydney ( leave 1:25, arrive 2:33 ).

TanQ is very upset now that the suitcase has come out. She walks all over it and in and out of it and sharpens her invisible claws on it and yowls.

she's staying with Pat, who she pretends to hate. She'll just hide from BEAR and Sydney but sneak around and eat their food and play with their toys.

Obviously, it's better than leaving her with my roommate - because he would murder her.
yippee

Send me some good vacation Karma.

Over the last few weeks my commute has gotten worse and worse. Every morning I leave a few minutes earlier and every morning I find the bvackup at the I90 bridge closer and closer to my home.

weekend was unexciting.


we leave wednesday afternoon.

Saw Star Wars Episode 3 : Revenge Of The Sith yesterday.
I enjoyed it immensley but found it somewhat UNDERWHELMING.

Probably because I've been following this series since I was a Wee tot and saw the first film at the drive in in the late 70's. I knew what was going to happen and when it did I was like "well, that's that..."..maybe i'm a little sad to see the whole story tied up in a neat little bow?

For the most part, it was very satisfying. I Love the hype and hoopla. I love seeing all the merchandise and tie ins - I love that you can get little starwars happy meal toys at burger king. Steve has been buying the action figures. it's cool. it's like living the excitement of being a kid over again.

And then there are RETARDED people like UM and Consuelo who have never seen a star wars film and never plan to and just don't see the attraction. RETARDED.

I do want to say that a lot of the fun and excitement of movies is spoiled anymore. tv, internet etc have totally ruined any suprises. ah well....


and that ...is All.

Since I'm having my own little Health issues on this road of life with various interesting twists, turns, breakdowns and bumps in the road I fully realize how your health can de-rail your entire life.

Our trip to Sydney was mostly based and built around a once in a lifetime chance to see Kylie Minogue perform in her home town. She announced yesterday that she has early breast cancer and has cancelled her tour. Now, obviously we are totally bummed. But we're not going to cancel our trip as some people have suggested (Sillies!).

Clearly we wish her the best and a fast recovery. The tour is officially "postponed" so I doubt we can get our money back for the tickets. We actually have 4 tickets - and I tried to sell two of them on ebay last week ( what a nightmare setting up an auction is - wasted at least an hour setting that beast up )! But no one was bitting, I have a feeling that maybe rumours were swirling around about cancellations?

Maybe as the resceduled shows get closer we might find cheap fares - especially if we have a good time next week. We shall see what happens, you know?

I was actually really irritated for a few minutes before pulling my head out of my ass and seeing how selfish that was. It's not a huge crisis but it did sort of knock the wind out of sails.

I'm sure we will still have a great time. A vacation for me is LONG overdue.


That is all.

it's BEAR!


There was a song lyric stuck in my head all weekend. of course, now I can't remember it.

My friend Mike had to go into a court ordered De-tox ( Long story and hardly Scandalous ) so we had him and his BF and our friend Matt over for Beers on Friday night. Also Steve came over. the Lesbies from upstairs came down. It was nice and low key.

I can't remember the Fucking Lyric to save my life. Whatever it was - I applied my own life to it - as you can do with all well written songs - and it was upsetting.

it will come to me at a random point and I'll post it here.

I was in a bad mood all weekend. A little black cloud following me around.



BEAR ran away briefly on saturday and it really iriitated me. Cats should just stay the fuck in the house forever. whenever TanQ tries to get out or jumps out the door i scream at her to get the fuck back in the house. she always does. Of course, if she gets out while I'm not home, which isn't often not that Fucking JOYCE is long gone - I had to be all nice when i find her "Oh, I'm so glad to see you" She's not dumb.

to finalize. Cats = In House=FOREVER.

that is all.

I haven't blogged in a while, been rather busy or too tired ot annoyed to bother.

Last Thursday was an odd day. I got home late and felt strange. Jittery and cranky.

I didn't want to be at home and I couldn't get ahold of anyone. It was the day before payday so i was pretty broke. I felt really LOST. I was having all sorts of weird thoughts.

So - the best thing to do when youy're broke? Go shopping! Why not - cqna't spend any money? So I went to easy street and tower. Just wandered around and looked thru the used stuff. Saw this really cute blonde guy at easy street. we were both loooking thru the bargain bin. it was cute. he laughed a couple times at the things i picked out and i scolded him "hey, it's all crap - why else would it be in this bin - but there are degrees of crap, obviously" and he replied "one man's crap is another's celine dion?". it was cute. I waved at him as i left.

And then i went to tower and was looking thru the used stuff and he came up next to me and asked "where's the 99 cents bin"? again, it was cute. every time he found something for 99 cents he held it up and asked if i needed it. he all the sudden got a phone call and he walked outside to take it. he came back in suddenly and said "I'm Blaine, I gotta run - was nice shopping with you". I told him my name and said I hoped we could do it again sometime. HeI winked and ran off.

It left me feeling all smooshy inside. And then all I heard was Steve's voice in my head saying "You let THAT get away"?

Dumb.

I drove home and went to bed because it was almost 11pm.

It's Thursday.

A doctor Appointment at 9am and my Doctor never bothered to show up. he didn't call and they couldn't get ahold of him. I could have seen another doctor but he didn't know anything about me and what is the point of explaining something to someone and maybe screwing it up.

I did have to get a little irrate about paying $35 plus parking to be there.

worked in the Sseattle office for a little bit but there's no room for me with a full staff now, so I headed back over to Hellevue.
Work at the Mall tonight but would aahve enjoyed going out for Cinco de Mayo.

I'm totally stressed. More than usual. Not sleeping.

Yipppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

This is a "worry about political bullshit" week for me.

I was furious when I read about Microsoft caving to the Nutcase Redmond Preacher ( STORY )
I'm tired of hearing about this guy. As usual, It's the freaks that make the most noise that define a group of people.

I'm horrifed that the right wing control of the GOP has never been as plain as day and yet I'm hearing barely a complaint about it.

Separation of church and state....I fear it'll be gone soon. Why do I blame for the sad state of the Union?
Complacent Americans that are too fucking busy with their own neat little lives to pay attention, have an opinion and do their part to shape democracy ( Vote ).

I refuse to believe that over half of America is fine with the Right Wing doing their best to Take control of the country. It's funny. These people are nothing like what would be considered "christian" by any stretch of the imagination.

Jesus Christ was the Ultimate Liberal.

"The one book of the bible that says homosexuality is a sin also condemns eating pork and says it's quite ok to own slaves. Also, Divorce is extensively condemned.

I'm sick of the hypocrisy. You can't pick and choose what is an abomination.

The new pope contardicts himself all the time. He's got one foot in this century and the other in the 18th. Maybe he was picked because the voters could see that this is a time in flux : things could be very different ( pro or con ) within the next decade?

On the other hand : it's possible that the aforementioned complacent Amercians need a violent and unsettling wake up call.

I read an article about Ann Coulter ( who i despise ) and it was quite eye opening. I know view her as more of an entertainer as it's hard to piece together facts about her personal life with traits of her on screen, on air, in oprint persona. She has buitl a career on stirring shit to a group of people easily stirred. Why isn't there a liberal version of her?

Sorry for the jumbled rant.

This is a post about nothing.

I have nothing to say of any real value.

Been working at the Seattle most of this week. Haven't slept a wink for some stupid reason.
Had dinner at Outback last night - their food has an australian flavor suppossedly - I'll see when I get to sydney.

I'm beginnign to wonder how I'm going to have any money for australia and stay on top of bills and then go home for my sister's wedding in june. The medical bills are mounting.

This is a huge Sucking period in my otherwise fabulous life.