Monday, June 25, 2007 | by nathan

246 - Dan

You’re the Christian version of a cheerleader or quarterback: everyone secretly hates you behind your back because we can’t see that you’re like us, flawed, afraid.

Sunday, June 24, 2007 | by nathan

245 - Caleigh

She gushed over my writing, getting together with the girls every Thursday to read my newspaper column. For the first time I believed I was good.

Saturday, June 23, 2007 | by nathan

244 - Aaron

We’re so alike sometimes it’s scary; both smart kids who felt like E.T. most of the time at school, we’re unbeatable at Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture!

Friday, June 22, 2007 | by nathan

243 - Missy

She’s more grown up and responsible than I know how to be, raising two kids, going to school, and still finding time to have a life.

Thursday, June 21, 2007 | by nathan

Here We Go Again…

Some people look good because they honestly enjoy getting out on a basketball course or a tennis court every day. I’m not one of those people. You get me on a basketball course for even ten seconds and I’m going to make a complete ass of myself, prove that I have no sports skills whatsoever, and, when you inevitably start to beat me, I’m going to start seriously, horribly, trash-talking you, so much so that we probably won’t be able to be friends anymore.

It’s rather like playing a board game with me, come to think of it.

Anyway. I’m the most out of shape that I’ve been in - ever, but I’m slowly getting better, because I joined a wonderful gym, and I have a wonderful guy who accompanies me there every evening. But still, that’s not enough for me, see. My parents are scientists, after all, and as I am their child, I like to quantify things. I like to keep track. Charts, numbers, these make sense to me. And so, I’ve decided to start tracking my meals and my cardio workouts through SparkPeople, a wonderful website that’s free to join where you put in what you eat every day (I’m finding myself adding a lot of foods to their library because they don’t have the specific brands of things I eat), and track how much you work out. It has a place for tracking strength training, but I find their system lacking and so I’m not putting that in. But overall it’s a very helpful website, and I’m inviting you all to follow along, and join me. I’ve even set up a personal page - because apparently having three spaces on the web counting this IS NOT ENOUGH.

I’ve always heard people talk about how they get sort of "addicted" to working out, how the endorphin rush gives you a kind of natural high to which you look forward every day. I’m finally starting to understand that, because after I get off the arc trainer or set down the weights, when I’ve showered and steamed off for a bit, I feel unbelievably good.

I sound like such a Suzanne-Somers- L.A.-Weight-Loss- Nothing-Tastes-As-Good-As-Being-Thin-Feels- Margaret-Cho-When-She-Had-Her-TV-Show moron. Someone shoot me. After I manage to squeeze back into a 31-waist jean. 

Thursday, June 21, 2007 | by nathan

You’re Taking One Down

This hasn’t been an easy week. The first week back after vacation never really is, but this one has been especially trying. Brian’s been sick since Saturday, so we spent the last day of our vacation mostly just chilling in the hotel room, hoping he’d get better. Instead, he got worse. We had different flights back Sunday, and I didn’t arrive in Dallas until 8 p.m., and we didn’t make it back to Oklahoma City until around midnight. We still haven’t unpacked.

Monday I went to the gym by myself, as Brian was still too sick to go, and I rammed his car into a pole, leaving a serious dent in the front bumper, which will now have to be replaced. Yes, it was stupid, and I felt horrible, but it’s a testament to how wonderful our relationship is that I knew when I told him that he wouldn’t be mad at me, that he’d realize it’s just a car, and no big deal, and that he’d reassure me that, no, I won’t be sleeping under a bridge with the dog tonight, drinking gin out of some stranger’s shoe. So there’s that. 

Tuesday night it rained heavily in the city, as it had been doing all last week while we were gone. Brian managed to mow the front lawn before the rain started, but not the back, which is now ankle-high. I can’t really mow because as I get older, my allergies get worse and the last several times I’ve done it I’ve spent the next week feeling horribly ill.

So when I got home from work yesterday the house reeked. I opened the door and my gag reflex went bing! I realized that as we’d been cleaning the house the night before we’d forgotten to take the giant trash bag outside. So I took it out, but the smell lingered. Brian got home and we went searching for the smell. Culprit One was the trashcan full of grass clippings, which was sitting right next to the dryer intake, shooting the smell of rotting grass into the house. So we moved that, but there was still something more. 

We went to the den downstairs and immediately realized that the carpet down there was soaked. The rain had come into our downstairs den - possibly via the fireplace in there, or its proximity to the garage - and soaked about half the carpet. This has happened twice before, but this time the smell was worse than ever, and because I’m deeply allergic to mold, I began getting a severe headache, and my mood went south really fast. So we moved everything out of the den, rolled up the carpet, took it out to the front yard, and cut away the wet part. Most of it was still dry, so we unrolled that in the sun room - much to the dog’s chagrin - to get the smell out.

Also, as I mentioned before, getting the vacation photos onto Flickr was a feat of computering akin to hacking into the mainframe at Microsoft, and it ate a lot of my time yesterday.

This is pride week in Oklahoma City, so that should be kind of redeeming everything, except Brian’s company is having a huge event in Atlanta this weekend, and he’s going to miss everything. I’m still wanting to enjoy Pride, but without him it won’t be any fun. I’m probably going to invite a select group of gay boys over for drinks sometime in the weekend, and of course I’ll go to the parade and Angles afterward, but I need people to step up and help me have fun. This means YOU, gay people. This means YOU.

Thursday, June 21, 2007 | by nathan

242 - June Marie

She’d get up every Thursday and sing in the open-mic night, and now she’s lost a leg to amputation, but she still sings, loud and proud.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 | by nathan

Where Ya Been?

 I finally got all the vacation photos uploaded to Flickr. I’ve decided that I hate the Flickr Uploader, except that it is really the only thing going. It’s like Microsoft Office in that way. At any rate, I’ll blog about the trip later, and I’ll catch up on x365 later, but for now - enjoy these! (And seriously, look at them because it took me hours, and I had to delete and re-upload about four times).

Highlights:

- A weekend doing NOTHING in Dallas except relaxing at the Belmont, a little shopping, but mostly some margaritas, a meal at Monica’s, and a whole lot of dancing at S4 before coming back to the hotel and talking about music - and me explaining why this clip gives me chills every time I watch it - all night.

- Standing in line to see the Indigo Girls and Brandi Carlisle at the Fillmore, and getting to talk to some very cool lesbians about San Fran life. Then, during the concert, when they did "The Power of Two" and Brian and I just stood there, swaying along with all the lesbians.

- The Yellow Mustang, the drive around Napa and Sonoma, especially when we passed the Indigo Girls’ BUS! A bird shit on me at Viansa Winery, but it was still my favorite one. 

- Seeing the "Various & Sundry" tour at Petaluma’s Mystic Theater, with Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket, Grant Lee Phillips (formerly of Grant Lee Buffalo), Sara and Sean Watkins (of Nickel Creek) and Luke Bulla (of Blue Merle). Brian and I were both raised on acoustic country bluegrass jam sessions, and something about it is healing to the soul.

- Dinner with Brian’s friends Leslie and Megan from high school, who took us to Boulevard, a wonderful restaurant on Embarcadero, and brought some of their gay friends along to meet us. Then, later, going with them to the Virgin Megastore and buying a 2-CD Maria Callas in "Carmen" set, then walking back to the hotel from their apartment.

- Meeting several gay couples who’d been together 30+ years.

- Walking around the San Francisco Zoo for hours.

- Seeing the Pacific. Finally.

- Buying 3 bags of chocolate at Ghirardelli, then finding a liquor store - they’re open ALL NIGHT in Cali! - and getting a bottle of champagne, then going back to the hotel, drinking champagne and eating chocolate until the wee hours.

All in all, it was one of the best weeks of my entire life, and I’m coming back relaxed, refreshed, and more in love with Brian than ever before. The only thing that’s vexing me is a powerful desire to uproot and move to San Francisco, but whattaya gonna do? 

 POST EDIT: We took only three photos at the Indigo Girls show at the Fillmore with Brian’s camera phone. However, there is a wonderful set of photos from that show right here, and I highly recommend you check it out.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 | by nathan

241 - Corny

We knew each other as teenagers. It was disappointing to meet up later and hear this philosophy spew out: “Sex sells. If it bleeds it leads.”

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 | by nathan

240 - Debby

She was a hippie, hanging out in the Paseo in the 1960’s, part of Oklahoma City’s underground. Now a widow, she’s who I am without Brian.