Idle Impressions

I got burned out on American Idol like 12 seasons ago, but I did happen to catch this one performance this past week. Fantastic.

Revenge at 90 mph

Decent Bottle of Wine..........$30.00
Nice Home Cooked Meal for 2.....$50.00

Getting stood up and then driving to your dates house and smearing the entire dinner you prepared for him on his doorstep and then peeling out of the drive like a white trash bat from hell...

................PRICELESS!


Walk on KV! Walk on!

Insert [Me] Here

Im not sure what im going to have to do to get there, but im gonna. Who wants to come?

paradise is a click away

DNC-VIP-4-A-GOP

I went to the Democratic presidential debate here in Austin last night. I was one of the lucky few who got in. I had no idea what a big deal this was to people here until we were transported from the Four Seasons to the Debate in a series of blacked out SUV’s, motorcade style, and watched as thousands of sign toting people screamed out to us thinking we were the candidates themselves. We waved and people exploded with applause and support, they could only see our outlines through those dark windows. It was wild. CR and I decided right then and there that we need to rent these cars at least once a month and drive around town like presidential VIP’s. I'm sure we get some free stuff or at least our own lane of traffic. Of course we were dropped off right in front of the door of the debate, in front of a marching band and what must have been 10,000 onlookers. We were whisked like total celebrities past the long lines and pushed through our own security detail. Our seats were directly on the floor about 12 rows back. We were surrounded by Texas and national politicos; Chelsea was a few rows up looking quite good I must say. The senators looked good. Clinton seemed warmer in person than on TV, Obama clearly had most of the support in the room (college kids are crazy for him) . We had to listen to some roll-your-eyes Texas DNC rebel rousing before we got to the meat of the evening. Campbell Brown and company were side notes to the 2 candidates, who started out very cordial towards each other but then eroded into some much needed mudslinging about halfway through. Hillary called barrack out on speech plagiarism and his penchant for generalizing and non-specification, Barack fired back at Hillary’s health care plan and accused her of elitism. I would honestly say that barrack had the evening tied up UNTIL the closing arguments. Hillary pulled out a show stopping wrap-up that brought the crowd to their feet. It was reminiscent of her famous campaign trail breakdown, commenting on how hard she’s working, how difficult this has been on her personally and professionally. She even addressed her own well-known marital issues and public set backs, but she brought the argument home by saying that this life she has forged for herself, despite the challenges and the the personal scrutiny has been worth every minute because she knows in the end she’s helping Americans.

I was interviewed by The Statesman on my way out and was asked if I had to vote for one of these two candidates, which it would be. I unequivocally said Clinton. When I'm forced to chose between the lesser of 2 evils, I'm gonna side with the one who has more experience, a more powerful sphere of influence and quite frankly, bigger balls. I think that about says it.

Flyin' the Coop

Anderson sent me a valentines day card and this was in it. He's so thoughtfull.



Ok.. so really my CNN rep heard about my unhealthy obsessions with AC so he had him sign this and send it to me. I know somewhere deep down Anderson wants us to live happily ever after together somewhere where our love can be lived out in the open. Yes? Ok maybe not...

Reverse Paparazzi

When Kenny Met Dolly

Love this song.. still...

In Absentia

I have a sister most of the people in my life have never met. That’s because she never writes, calls or comes and visits me. I don’t take it personally anymore like I used to. She’s a lesbian and like EVERY OTHER lesbian I know in this world, she’s cocooned with her “life partner” and their dogs in Chicago. She’s also in graduate school, which has supplied her with 4 years of unavailability excuses and scheduling conflicts.

It’s a shame that she doesn’t try harder than she does to keep in touch. Just an email, or a quick phone call would be great. I miss having her in my life. I refuse to continue to have a relationship with her answering machine and im not going to continue to coax her out of her shell for a visit anymore. I’ve tried everything, even gave her plane tickets to come see me, they got used on some other trip for her and her girlfriend.

I do hope that one day she will actively participate in my life, I’ve got a lot to offer and im a pretty fun person.. Until then I will remember the fun, energetic, wickedly funny girl she used to be and I will look forward to getting reintroduced to that person again somewhere down the road.

Im Sick Yall...

I think it's the flu... (insert sympathy here)

Delicious DC

A DC colleague (and native North Carolinian) and I popped over to Georgia Browns for lunch on Thursday for a little South in your mouth/smack ya momma goodness. I had the southern fried chicken which was served on top of a bed of braised collard greens and a side of sweet potato fries. ‘Twas delish. From our table, near the door, we watched Mr. Jesse Jackson come in (can you say cliche' ?) and wait in line for 20 minutes for a table. That’s when ya know Miss Georgia Brown’s not puttin’ on any airs. Everyone’s somebody in there and you wait in line for lunch, period!

As if that wasn’t enough, S and N and I scrambled over to the Ritz Carlton after a lackluster-yet-attendance-required book signing party and had a late dinner at their new restaurant, West End Bistro. Food was much better than the wait (1.5 hours, even though we had a reservation). When we were finally seated we gobbled down Chef Marino’s 3-Star styled prosciutto over garlic rubbed artisan bread , baby artichoke salads (artichoke was shaved) and seared rare beef tenderloins swimming in green peppercorn sauce. Damn it was good. We should have stopped there because the pistachio rice pudding we ordered for dessert was terribly executed. Didn’t taint the experience though, we were drunk on Kir Royals and conversation by the time the food came anyway.

Tomorrow it’s back to Austin and tex-mex food for miles. Not to knock Austin, theres some good food happening there. It is nice, however, to come to the big city and dine among sophisticates who appreciate slow food and grown-up service.

Political Predisposition

Life Uncovered.

So as KV moves out into his new place, I’ve been prompted to clean out closets, storage rooms, and drawers. As I open boxes and look way back on the shelves, little pieces of my life reveal themselves in the clutter. Yesterday I came across an old laptop that ushered me through my last doomed Austin dot com, a long relationship, several moves, good times, heartbreak and many other life events. I powered it up after 4 years of sitting dormant and browsed through the files, photos and other electronic memorabilia and went on a little techno-trip down memory lane. I read letters I never sent and looked at low-resolution photos from Austin, Dallas, Delray, Atlanta, all places I’ve hung my hung over the years. I read resignation letters from my various jobs, early versions of my resume, and even a pre-blog electronic journal I kept for a few years.

Rarely do I think about the relationship I had with C but reading my thoughts and seeing photos from our many years together prompted a flood of memories. In retrospect, we made a good go at it. For two completely different guys attacking their first adult-sized relationship together, we faired pretty well. As the years have past, the many mistakes I made have become more obvious and the differences that eventually tore us apart are much more apparent. Had we met recently, given my life now, the drastic changes I’ve made professionally, personally and emotionally, I don’t think we would have made it past a first date. That being said, what we did accomplish, what we went through together and the life lessons we learned from it were a very necessary step in our growth as people and more importantly in our ability to source and find more compatible mates in the future.

Honestly, even though I’ve had relationships since, it does hurt a bit that we don’t really stay in touch. He makes no effort whatsoever and mine are few and far between. I wish I knew what sort of emotions I stir up inside him when I do wander into his conscious; good, bad, indifferent? If and How he explains our relationship to his friends? I’f he ever misses “us”. No matter what the answers are, I will continue to believe that he, like I, focuses on the many good times we had, the short yet close-to-perfect life we built for ourselves, and the love that was shared between two guys who gave it all they knew to give.

The laptop is now has been wiped clean, all files erased and is now sitting in my trash can. I know erasing your past isn’t as easy as clicking delete, but as my forefinger clicked down on that mouse, I let go of a lot of difficult memories and stored all the good ones to be remembered periodically for the rest of my life.