Enjoy the Silence

Hey, y'all. Sorry to not have posted much recently, I really haven't had that much to say. Life has been pretty normal since I last checked-in. I had two attend two work functions over the weekend, which went okay (though I would have rather been at home, not in a suit). I also went to a birthday party on Friday night and then out with friends on Saturday. Sunday was laundry day and spending some time outdoors in the lovely temps.

I've not been sleeping well recently, which has caused my workouts to be a little subpar, but I'm sure it's just a phase. I just have to do better about getting in the bed by 11. It's been closer to 12 or slightly after recently.

This weekend Rich, his boyfriend Curry, and I will all be staying with Rich's friend Chris in Charleston for the Cooper River Brige Run. Whit is going, too, but she's staying with some other people. I wish the trip was longer, because I haven't had a nice Charleston trip in quite some time (not counting the Bridge Run last year where I stayed an extra day). As far as the race goes, I was originally hoping to finish in 50 minutes, but because my running has not been great recently I just want to beat last year's time (which was 54 minutes and change). If they line the runners and walkers up in the correct order, that may be a possibility. Last year the walkers didn't line up where they were supposed to and subsequently caused a logjam that really didn't shake off the whole race ... I was passing walkers to the bitter end.

My parents are leaving today on a two week vacation to Germany, France, and Austria. I'm very excited for them, as this is their only second trip to Europe (their first was Thanksgiving 2004 when they visited the UK while Whit was abroad in Edinburgh). My dad has been wanting to visit Austria, and the catalyst for this trip was actually the Munich fare sale that I took advantage of back around my 30th birthday weekend. They were able to catch the very final days of allowed travel and wound up getting rountrip tickets on Lufthansa from Charlotte to Munich for $398. That's a great deal, especially for nonstop flights from a smaller market like Charlotte. They're spending most of their time in Germany and Austria, but they will go into the edge of France with one of our family friends who lives on the border of Germany and France in the town of Saarbrucken.

Of course, I'm already thinking about my next international vacation, too. It will probably be around Labor Day or later in September. I've suddenly been reading a lot about Estonia, so it's piqued my interest as a Baltic state with very strong Scandinavian leanings. Croatia is also appealing and has been getting rave reviews in trade rags as a good deal and beautiful country. Something about a slightly-under-the-radar-but-not-third-world country appeals to me. Yes, I do need to go to London and Paris, but I'm sure I'll get to it sometime in the near future. And I need to get to Budapest and Prague before they ditch their respective currencies and adopt the Euro in 2009. Anyway, I think Rich wants to go somewhere, too, so we said that we'd talk about it this weekend. I think he'd rather go somewhere a little more mainstream than me, but like I said, there are tons of places that are new to me so that shouldn't be a problem.

I have to get to work on my self-evaluation for this past fiscal year so I can get it to Glenda in advance of our meeting tomorrow. I'm copying and pasting a lot of last year's, since a lot hasn't changed. Tedious, tedious!

Congrats are in Order ...

Y'all congratulate my sister ... she got into all three grad school programs she applied to! That would be Indiana, Ole Miss, and UNC. IU is not offering her much money, so it's down to Ole Miss, which has the ideal program but would mean her moving about 12 hours away, and UNC, which would mean she wouldn't have to move, but the program isn't as pefect as Ole Miss. She and I are going to Ole Miss and Memphis over Easter weekend to check it out once more (she's been before in college, I haven't been) before she makes a decision, although she's leaning towards Ole Miss at this point. She'll probably go there unless she hates the town and/or school. Now, keep in mind that if it's backwaters South (compared to some places, that is) that doesn't mean she won't go. There's a tremendous amount of charm and rich cultural opportunities in what is probably the home of the Blues and much Southern folklore. Oxford, Miss., the town in which Ole Miss is located, was home to William Faulkner and is home to John Grisham and a plethora of other less-famous Southern literary figures. It's not your average Southern small town. Whit would probably enjoy that for a couple of years, as it is certainly related to her graduate studies. I'm excited to see the University, to spend a weekend with my sis, and to have work pay for my plane ticket down there, as I'm going to set up some work meetings in Memphis to justify having work pay for the plane ticket. I haven't been to Memphis yet for work, and I can certainly justify at least one trip.

Spent the last two days in South Florida (Naples, Miami & Key Largo). South Beach is beautiful but is full of some trashy people. Seriously, I've been there several times but really got to see another side this trip, since I stayed right in the thick of Collins Avenue on Monday night. I never noticed the copious amounts of souvenir shops filled with tacky sexual innuendo and getting drunk t-shirts until this trip. Everyone has a cocky attitude ... worse than anywhere I have been in the U.S. (yes, worse than L.A.). Plus I feel like I'm in a rap video sometimes (or back in high school), as I have to slowly trudge behind an entourage of 20 people spread across a small sidewalk. Um, if y'all are going to walk slow, single-file it so I can get to my dinner date, holmes! Of course, it is Spring Break season, and lots of college-aged kids were in town and could have skewed the normal tourist composition.

I felt much more at ease and at home yesterday when I had to go down to Key Largo for a meeting at someone's home there. That area is much more what I think "Old Florida" would be like: much more shabby and sparsely populated than Miami proper. I went to an awesome place for lunch called Mrs. Mac's Kitchen right on the Overseas Highway. Open-air, knotty-pine walls, laid back, full of locals and tourists alike ... I stuck out in my black suit for sure. The drive back through subtropical coastal forests and shrubs was so peacfeul and beautiful, it made me want to just pull off down a sandy dirty road and just drive until i hit water, change into my shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flops, and just sit there for the rest of the day. Hopefully I can plan a beach trip -- to a quiet-ish beach -- sometimes soon.

There Goes My Bracket!

Well shit, Duke just lost to Virginia Commonwealth 79-77. I had Duke going to the Final Four, so I might as well kiss winning our friendly bracket competition goodbye. Duke always performs well in the tourney, so even though they were a little subpar this year and were seeded six, I still thought they'd step up.

Neither Clemson nor Wake made it this year, so I'm probably just going to cheer for Georgetown now. FYI, I have Memphis winning the whole thing, beating Florida in the title game. Let's see how the rest of this bracket shakes out.

Who Are You People?

Admittedly, I WAS on vacation for a week and a half, but I've come back to an office filled with people I don't recognize. Before this job I never worked in an office bigger than ten people, so we all knew each other. There wasn't that much turnover, either. Here, my office has about 25 people, and we have a lot more turnover. Not only that, but we constantly have visitors and such from other offices in the corporation. Consequently, I've just given up on getting to know anyone that I don't already know. Sure, I'll be nice to you (I'm not the jackass that I sound like on here), but beyond "hey" and "how are you" and "the bathroom's this way," don't expect much from me, transients. Since I've moved to DC for this job, my work persona has been less "chatty cathy" and more "head-to-the-grindstone-and-mind-my-own-business." A lot of it just has to do with DC ... people just aren't as nice here. But then we also have big glass doors, so we can close them and still be viewed from the outside. Prior to this job I either worked in a cube or in an office with a solid door. Close it for anything besides a phone call or a meeting and people get suspicious.


I also should know by now that I need to take a xanax, valium, or some other mood stabilizer before I read the letters to the editor in my hometown paper The Greenville News. Now, let me say that Greenville is not some country bumpkin, one-horse town. It's quite a lovely place to live, has the highest per capita number of engineers in the US (including my father); is home to Michelin's North American Headquaters, BMW's North American manufacturing facility and South Carolina's most highly-regarded private university; and has nice neighborhoods, shopping, and restaurants for a mid-sized Southern city. However, of South Carolina's three largest cities, Greenville is home to by far the most conservative people in the state. It's evident in the letters to the editor. For instance, Bob Inglis, the Republican (shocker!) Congressman representing Greenville, actually voted for the House's resolution condeming the escalation of the Iraq War. Well, you would have thought that he was taking it up the ass from Osama Bin Laden himself the way that the people responded in the editorial pages of the paper. And what kills me is that they were using talking points straight out of the Bush Administration's and Republican pundits' playbook, saying things like "emboldening the enemy," "not wanting to succceed in Iraq," and "dishonoring the troops." "Bob Inglis has received my last vote." Seriously? Y'all come up with your own material, please! These people love nothing more than to write in about any and all conservative pet causes like abortion, gay rights, immigration, school prayer, the displays of the ten commandments (and I bet you $1000 that less than 5% can name all ten), and birth control. In fact, I don't think the plight of the poor, health care, or the environment is ever a topic of conversation, which is pretty consistent among conservative people all over the country. Politicians don't have a hard time telling these people what to give a shit about. I've nosed through the letters to the editor in other state papers, but they don't have the same vitriol and anger that the ones do in Greenville.


Speaking of God's Warriors, I watched something on YouTube this week that really made me gawk in awe. On that TV show Trading Spouses (is that the one on ABC?), they apparently had, at some point, two women trade places who were from very different religious backgrounds. One was a woman from Massachusetts who was a new ageist and believe in astrology, tarot cards, and the like. Another one was from Louisiana and was a wild-eyed fundamentalist Christian. I'll let you guess which one of these is the woman pictured above. Well, when the Louisiana wife came home, she went butt-fucking crazy in front of her family, spewing all this talk about casting out the devil and such foolishness. Just go to YouTube and search for "crazy woman trading spaces" and that should pull it up. Amazing that these people are walking the streets among us and are (presumably) holding down jobs. My guess is that she's probably a fan of President Bush and has a cooch in desperate need of some FDS.

Would Someone Please Get This Guy a New Shirt?

Seriously, y'all, this terrorist guy is fugly. In the three-plus years he's been at Guantanamo Bay, the feds couldn't at least hose him down with some Ajax, comb his hair, and exchanged his boatnecked blouse for something a little more terrorist-appropriate?

I'm always reminded of a segment on SNL's Weekend Update where Horatio Sanz played him and actually said something to the effect of "couldn't you guys have found a better picture of me?"

I'm Back; My Bag Isn't

Hey there everyone. I've been back now for around 10 hours. I have to say it was a marvelous trip all the way around ... Sydney was just like I expected, which was awesome. Auckland was an interesting place to visit, as well, as it's quite the city in transition right now. My flight down there was long but tolerable, and my flight back was actually fairly pleasant and as enjoyable as it could have been. I flew United down and Air New Zealand back. Wasn't even a contest, ANZ kicked ass. Their on-demand in flight entertaiment had a lot to do with that ... 85 movies and probably as many TV shows, too, to choose from. Stopping and starting whenever you like? Pure hotness.

Well, except for the luggage thing. I had one checked bag that made it from Auckland to L.A. just fine. I claimed it in L.A., went through customs, and rechecked it with United. And that's the last time I have seen it. It didn't make my flight despite me checking it with the agent a solid hour before. When I filled out the claim last night, the baggage agent apparently typed in my cell phone wrong, so when they tried to deliver it today, they couldn't call me. I had ran out briefly for lunch, so I could have easily swung back by my place and met the driver, but I couldn't be reached. Now the bag is back at Dulles and three calls to United later (plus 30 minute wait time preceeding each call) and the bag is still not here at 10:50pm. I think baggage is handled by the dreaded Indian Call Center, as everyone I have talked to has thick Indian accents ... that call center is horrible at customer service, so I think I'm doomed to have to drive back out to Dulles tomorrow night and pick the damn thing up myself. Watch them try to deliver it to my place while I'm at work tomorrow, too.

My pictures are all uploaded to my Flickr account (if you care to peruse them), though I haven't begun to label them ... there are 500 of them, after all. I did the best I could with the Mardi Gras parade ... it was tough to snap shots in the dark fighting my way among thousands of people, but I think I did a fair job.

Despite the hordes upon hordes of hot men that I laid my eyes upon during this trip, I didn't once get lucky. Not even a smooch on the lips. It was pretty much due to lack of effort; I just wasn't feeling too lascivious on this trip for some reason, so I didn't even attempt to start up something with someone. I just enjoyed hanging with my crew and window shopping. It's not often that I don't pursue the company of men whilst on vacation, but yes, it does happen from time to time.




One more thing, what the fuck is manchester???