UrbanSkies

Best. Convention. Ever.

Whew wee!

I followed the Democratic National Committee's convention in Boston this past week, and well, it was full of Joe-mentum!

Listening to William Jefferson "definition of is is" Clinton makes one long for presidents that motivate and invigorate their audiences. Or presidents that speak in complete sentences. Since this country hasn't seen that for four years, it reassured us that yes, the time for a leadership change is now, and that George "W" Bush's place in history will ultimately fall between Richard Nixon and Herbert Hoover, both Republicans.

John Edwards set the stage for Kerry's Thursday appearance. Edwards seems like a good VP candidate: one with hunger and intelligence to make a difference. On race issues, he said:

This is not an African-American issue, this is not a Latino issue, this is not an Asian-American issue, this is an American issue.

This reminds me of a certain other Democrat, who only 40 years ago, said:

There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem.

And while Johnson mastered domestic policy issues, his handling of Vietnam tarnished his place in history. Is it a bit coincidental that the two presidents from Texas have thrust America into murky,unpopular wars? Both used similar machismo rhetoric in addressing their enemies and plans for operational victories. That kind of mindset scares me to vote for another presidential candidate from Texas. But that's a whole other blog entry.

Back to the convention. Kerry gave a great speech on Thursday night, emphasizing his military record, and using the similar call and response method used by Clinton earlier in the week. It was quite effective. For the first time, Kerry seemed presidential. I can picture him as president. His speech was mostly a laundry list of issues picked from polling data, which is fine with me. But he had an air of leadership about him, that I haven't seen until now. That can only help him until November, especially as "W" pisses off more and more constituents with his rightist, conservative, overtly-religious policies. I actually stood and applauded when Kerry mentioned messing with the Constitution.

If you happened to watch CNN's coverage, then you heard the show director cursing when the balloons weren't falling fast enough, and the confetti fell prematurely. I was a bit aghast, and wondered who was responsible for putting him on the air. That was a bad decision, or a major screwup. I laughed heartily while also being stunned.

Now it's on to the Olympics and the Republican National Convention.

A Weekend of Nothing

Another weekend of nothing. You could tape my life and call it a Seinfeld episode. More West Wing. And more cleaning. Cleaned my apartment and cleaned and Armor-All'd my car. Didn't eat out once, which is a tremendous achievement for me. I did venture to HEB twice to get food, but I'm discovering new frozen meals other than Lean Pockets. And since I'm überpoor (literal translation: "over poor", which means middle or wealthy class or over the poor. it's humorous in that I'm not!), I have to save every penny I can.

BTW, I'm in love with cyclist George Hincapie. He's on the U.S. Postal Service Team in the Tour de France. Exhibit A, Your Honor. And while we're at it, Exhibits B and C.

Went to my therapist today, which was great in that I yelled a lot about my parents. For those not in the know, I haven't spoken to them in about six months, because, well, they're being dumbasses. In the last two weeks, I've crafted a letter to send to them about why I'm angry with their actions. When it comes to heavy, serious topics, our family tends to communicate via letters and email. My dad told us twice via email that he was leaving my mother. Seriously. Email. Twice. So, I find it best to communicate back to them in the same medium. Hopefully, I will finish up the final draft of the letter this week and send it along. I just finished a great IM session with my sister about the letter. She gave me some good ideas for polishing and additions.

So now that I'm all worked up about my parents, I should head to Gregory Gym and get in some cardio.

Ketchup

This is my "catch up" blog entry.

Quick story. In 4th grade TAG Math class, our teacher would occasionally have a "ketchup" day, where she would get out a bottle of ketchup, and we would "catch up" to where we're suppose to be in the lesson plan. One day, I smartly replied back, "Can we have a 'Lettuce Day'..."let us" do no work day?" The class liked the idea, and my teacher liked my brilliant display of pun mastery, but not enough to release us to our own imaginations. Dumb story, but it's now written for posterity.

Other than the new job, here's the other happenings in the urban skies:

The director of our department passed away last week. He had cancer for almost a year, and finally died from complications. He was the guy who first hired me full-time to a post-collegiate job. His patience, fairness, and level-headedness in times of stress were all qualities that made him a dream to work with. They are all qualities that I strive to better in myself. In fact, I'm spoiled that I started with such a great boss, because he has been the benchmark to which all other supervisors have been measured. Beyond work, he was the friend everyone wanted. Always smiling and joking, he made others feel better just by being around them. He had an open door policy, where anyone could talk to him about anything. His funeral was Saturday morning, and I miss him already.

Saturday night, I went over to Jennifer and Mark's for some BBQ time. Being around 3 other hetero couples reminds me of the differences between us. I hate focusing on differences, but sometimes it's easy to feel out a bit, even among close friends. Their first-born, Jacob, is such a beautiful bouncing baby. He walks around and says a couple of words. I can't wait to see him grow up.

Afterwards, I went out with Anant and Chase to have a couple of drinks at 1920's Club. One new waiter in particular caught our collective eye. Afterwards, Evan joined us for a walk around the state capital. Our quartet broke apart shortly thereafter. It was a nice relaxing evening.

Sunday, I stayed at home, did laundry, and watched 8 episodes of "The West Wing: Season 2" on DVD. Sometimes, it's nice to do nothing for a day.

Monday, I accepted the new job. Tuesday, I moved to my new office. I received an anonymous box of 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies later in the day. The cryptic message enclosed was "You deserve some cookies today!" Checking the usual avenues for cookie gift giving turned up no leads. So, Anonymous Cookie Giver, thank you for the generous gift that touches this boy's heart (and tummy).

A week ago was Justin's birthday. We ate at Buca di Bepo which as you may recall did not bode well for my car last time I ate there. I'm happy to report that no car damage resulted of my dining at this establishment this time around. Justin's mother gave me a LiveStrong bracelet from the Lance Armstrong Foundation (pictured below).

My gift to Justin was the first season of "The West Wing" on DVD. This past Monday, I went over to his place for some lasagna (Absolutely Divine!), and he had already seen about half of the episodes. I think Justin is half-Italian, as he prepares some of the best lasagna and spaghetti known to Mankind. Yummy! In fact, I'm about to head home to have some leftovers he gave me.

Speaking of delicious food...tomorrow, there is a large group of us eating at West Lynn Cafe, a vegetarian eatery popular in Austin. Lynn, a good friend here at work, received an invitation for her and 10 friends to eat a free meal. As you well know, I must eat some sort of meat item at each meal, so I'm not sure how well I'll survive. I've eaten at vegetarian places before, but it's a couple of centuries between visits. Hopefully, there will be some french fries or onion rings I can munch on while everyone eats tofu goodness. Can you pass the ketchup?

New Job

Ever seem like life is going so fast that you can't document it?

I got a new job. YAY! I am now a technology trainer for the same department I worked at before. I have a more enjoyable and dynamic job, and so far I'm happy with this decision. The real question is: can I handle the reduced income that accompanies this newly found happiness? I think so, but the budget will be much tighter. I have secondary income opportunities, but we'll see how they play out. I moved my office belongings on Tuesday morning.

What is the price of happiness? About 20% of my previous income!

Great Wall

There is no greater Monday morning surprise that walking in to your office, and smelling chocolate cake because you forgot to take home the Great Wall of Chocolate leftovers from Friday's lunch at P.F. Chang's. Glorious!

Editor-In-Chief

"You're the best editor a fag could have!"
-Anonymous Northwestern Law Student

Why thank you!

Vote!

AIGA is supporting a Get Out The Vote campaign, and has many posters on its site. My favorite is the one above, not only because it is clever, but the guy has a cute face. Other favorites include the donkey and elephant lovebirds, and the "One Vote Could Make a Difference...Again" with a rotated Florida. These are all very creative, and perhaps I'll come up with some of my own.

*Giggle*

Quote of the Day:

"Krispy Kremes are like bars of gold to women over 50."
-Anonymous UT Employee

That made me chuckle. So what's new?

Watched "The Amazing Race 5" last night with Chase. I don't watch much reality t.v., but this show is absolutely addicting. Damn you Justin for getting me hooked. Several hot guys are racers this year, but there are also too many "godly" folk there. Look, your god doesn't care if you win a reality show race or not. It's nice to think she does, but she really doesn't. Several people on the Outsports forums already have nicknames for some of the teams, like Team Blue Lagoon. So accurate and funny.

OK, this has taken all day to write, so I'll end it now. Maybe more stuff tomorrow.

Rollercoaster

When isn't life a rollercoaster?

For most people, rollercoasters are fun. But I hate them. Always have. It goes back to my childhood, with my mother reading such reassuring stories from the newspaper, such as "Did you hear that a rollercoaster was stuck upside for three hours in Tokyo?" or "Four people died when a rollercoaster ran off the tracks in New Jersey". It's always New Jersey. There was always a rollercoaster incident once or twice a year in the Garden State, all of which were announced by my mother to everyone at the breakfast table. And that my friends is why I hate rollercoasters.

But life the past several weeks has been a series of ups and downs.

First off, my Journey to Normal was a great life-changing experience. I learned so much about myself, met several new friends, saw a lot of America (and by America, I mean farms) and cleared my head and focused on what I will accomplish in the next several years. I won't write much now, but expect a blog entry about it in the near future. To satiate your appetite, here's a cool pic of the St. Louis arch I took. Full size available here.

Second, the job I interviewed for before my journey was offered to someone else. However, that is ok, because there may be an additional opening in the next few weeks, and I will apply for that job. I have a high chance of obtaining this opening. However, a positive outcome of the Journey to Normal is the realization that I don't have to continue on the path I am currently on, both career-wise and employer-wise. So should this other job opening fall through, I'm resigning in August and becoming a teacher. It can't be any worse than what I'm doing now, and I'll get summers off. I've already started looking at local school district websites for job listings, and there are a couple I'm qualified for (less the teacher certification). So that is promising.

And now the rollercoaster spirals downward. On Friday, I had a conference with my supervisor. One particular project I am working on has taken too long, and therefore, I am inefficient. Or at least that's what was conveyed to me in this conference. So now, I'm getting a "conference memo" in my personnel file indicating that we had this conference. I will file a grievance stating my side. This is not a big deal (as in, this is not the start of the firing process) and the memo carries no legal weight, but I am still obsessing about it. If anything, it's motivating me to find a new job.

Of course, this less-than-happy news meant I had to drink heavily on Friday night. Chase, Lana, Lynn, Abby (Lynn's roommate) and I caught Happy Hour at Maudie's II. A couple of margaritas later, the world is a happier place. After a couple of hours, we headed to G&S, a South Austin bar that was, uh, interesting. Chase kept laying his head on the table, so we departed for Ernest's abode. Chase crashed there, and I hung out with Kenton and Josh, who live in the same complex. The three of us were hungry, so off to Magnolia Cafe we went. Pancakes were delicious, as was our waiter. Hmmm...I really need to move below the river. More attractive bois there. I hung out at KentonAndJosh's place until I sobered up, then went home. While Friday did have its low point, I did get to see a lot of friends and started talking with Lana again.

Saturday was spent sleeping and errand running. Nighttime came, and off to Clyde's birthday party. We were there for a short while, drinking and staying safely within our own clique. Then off to Oil Can's. Earlier in the week, I was ready to go out clubbing, but once I got there, I had no energy. I had one drink, and then was ready to go. Chase made out with some boi from Georgia, and then we went home. Chase's version is here.

Me and Chase at Clyde's Birthday

Sunday was the Fourth of July, so again, Chase, Anant and I head to Zilker to listen to the Austin Symphony Orchestra and watch fireworks. The orchestra seemed better than in years past, and their programming was most enjoyable. The canons for 1812 Overture was directly behind us, so when they were fired off near the end, we collectively jumped out of our seats. The fireworks were spectacular, much better than previous years. And traffic was easier too, even if the walk was a bit further.

So now, back to work on Monday. Here's hoping the rollercoaster starts heading up again.