The Friday Random Ten: The Five-Day Weekend Edition

Fire up the iPod, set it to shuffle, and write down the first ten songs that play. No cheating. No skipping forward.

1. These Arms of Mine—Joan Osborne
2. Thin Line Between Love and Hate—The Pretenders
3. Un monde avec toi—Mireille Mathieu
4. No Holly for Miss Quinn—Enya
5. What's Going On—Cyndi Lauper
6. I Have Dreamed...—Barbra Streisand
7. Gloomy Sunday—Sarah McLachlan
8. Love Will Save the Day—Whitney Houston
9. Noah's Dove—10,000 Maniacs
10. Waiting for the Night—Depeche Mode

TGIF, folks. Damn, TGIF. And TG for a five-day weekend! Well, three days plus two at a class, which will undoubtedly be more fun than anything I can do here. So five days away from this desk. Lord, that's sad. Maybe I should move to Canada. Although, since I've started to learn Spanish, I could very well move to Spain; I hear Barcelona is paradise. And the signs are starting to point that direction, me thinks.

I will not charge admission to the bathroom

In case you haven't laughed today. I especially like: "Ralph won't 'morph' if you squeeze him hard enough" and "I am not delightfully saucy." And then there's: "I was not touched 'there' by an angel," "I will not surprise the incontinent," and OMG I'm laughing too hard for this, "I will not yell 'She's Dead' during roll call."

The Friday Random Ten: The Wireless Keyboard Edition

Fire up the iPod, set it to shuffle, and write down the first ten songs that play. No cheating. No skipping forward.

1. Suspension Without Suspense—No Doubt
2. Big Love—Fleetwood Mac
3. Too Soon to Tell—Bonnie Raitt
4. Happy Home—Garbage
5. I Miss You—Stevie Nicks
6. Save All Your Tears—Cher
7. Skylark—k.d. lang
8. Mary—Tori Amos
9. C'mon, C'mon—Sheryl Crow
10. Loin de la ville où tu t'endors—Mireille Mathieu

So, it's been a week. I had such a fantastic weekend last weekend. I was in Monterey visiting with friends who I never thought I'd see again. It was amazing. I haven't laughed that hard that long for so long.

I had a class in XML on Tuesday and Wednesday, and again, I was amazed. It's so easy! It also opened up my eyes to possibilities that I hadn't thought of before now, possibilities like learning web development or programming. I never thought I had it in me to do something like that, but why not? I picked it up so easily—it's a foreign language so why wouldn't I?—now I just have to figure out what to do with it, or what I want to do with it.

Then there's the horror of Thursday. I still find it hard to believe that such evil exists, even after all we've seen. You know, I maybe be oversimplifying a bit here, but with all the special effects that Hollywood produces and shoves down our throats at the movies, it's hard not to get a little jaded to explosions and destruction and death until it happens close to home. I'm not saying that I consider London close to home, but it's close enough to my heart that it does hurt a little. The first time I was in London, I got off the Picadilly Line at Russell Square and promptly got lost trying to find my way back to my hotel. "Oh, it's only a few blocks that way on the map. I'm sure it's close." Ha. London is a huge place, and I was caught in the middle of it. I have similar memories of Liverpool Street, Edgware Road, and of course, Kings Cross. They're not so foreign to me, even though they truly are. I've been there. The World Trade Center was more foreign to me than London is, and that was in my own country. And that is a different story.

So now we're at Friday again. I can't wait to get out of this place.

The American Legion

So get this, I'm going through my junk mail when I see an over-sized brown envelope, obviously mass-printed, but addressed to yours truly. I look at it quizzically and notice that Roommate has one just like it. I open it up and found an invitation to join the American Legion. Hmmm, that's curious, because I think both of my grandfathers were vfw, and with all due respect, they were old, and I'm not...really; although, in a few days, I'll be about 95 in gay years. Could this be a mistake? Looking closer at the document, it appears that if one served on active duty between 2 August 1990 and today, one is eligible, which makes me eligible.

So does this mean I can be buried with full military rites, including a gun salute and all that? I know it entitles me to a whole host of benefits like cheap motel rates and 12% off Dell computers and...wait...what's this? Cruise discounts? Like ocean cruises? Holy heck! Where do I sign?

I won't mention the whole gay thing and the real reason I was only active for 19 months. Nah, we don't need to go into all of that. Just send me my little hat and the card that gives me access to the local lodge, and I'm there.

On a completely less interesting note: I purchased my Jabra Bluetooth headset today. It's black and sleek, and it sounds great. Now I really can be Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise. "Captain, we're picking up a distress signal." OMG! GEEK! If only I could look that good in a miniskirt. So, everyone, call me!

Stop Me If You've Heard This Before

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me-ee!
Happy birthday to me!

And Grandma, tooooooooo!

Quelle Journée

So, yesterday was spent traipsing around different parts of San Francisco. I always like taking days off over there. I never get to spend enough time in the city. H and I left around noon and drove over. We were going to BART/MUNI it, but I'm really glad we didn't. Our first stop was the conservatory at Golden Gate Park. I hadn't been there since it was remodeled, and it was nice...warm and steamy, but nice. Took some interesting photos, the subjects of which had no name cards, so don't ask me what they are. I've set up a Flickr account but haven't put anything up there yet. Maybe soon.

After that, we drove over to Land's End for a picnic of cake and oranges. It sounds odd, but it was filling and enjoyable. We grabbed a bench with a truly magnificent view of the Golden Gate and the ocean. I never get sick of looking at that bridge. It always looks so unreal, like I'm watching a movie or something. Tuesday must be a heavy receiving day at the Port of Oakland because we counted half a dozen cargo ships pass by in the brief time we spent there.

Our next stop was the Marina and "Book Bay," which used to be called the Friends of the Public Library Bookstore. I don't know when they changed the name. They always have something I want and for cheap. I found Blood Canticle by Anne Rice, supposedly the last of the Vampire Chronicles, but who knows about that. I hadn't read it yet, and considering that I have all of her books (in hard cover, mind you), I felt obligated to pick up this hard cover copy for an astonishing $4. I don't know, is that all it's worth? We all need our escapist fiction from time to time, you know. No judging.

Then there was dinner, and then there was the ride home. I was very sad that the day was over so quickly. I only get one of those a year (duh), and they always fly by. But it was a nice break on a Tuesday afternoon. It was a gorgeous day: sunny and breezy, not hot at all. And now I'm 34, pretty much midlife, although without the crisis...well, without a crisis I care to talk about anyway.