Race Relations
Made my goal, plus some, had a good walk, almost broke my wrist.
Light the Night was a success. Good turn out, high spirits and I made my goal money plus some. Someone donated $17 this morning. I don't know you, but thanks. Maybe you're a reader. A non-family reader! Oh, that is exciting.
The walk was very short, the MC (a minor reporter from a local station) was pretty ineffective, she couldn't command attention.
I took Jo's dog for a bit and he nearly took my arm off. He's an itty-bitty dog, but he has the strength of a Doberman.
It was a good night.
Oh, and I am seeing "Needs a Nickname" on Sunday. He's coming to my bowling club event.
I'm Beggin' Here
Hello All -
My Lymphoma/Leukemia walk is tonight and I am a scant $25 short of my donations goal. I know not everyone has the money to spare but you can donate as much or as little as you want.
http://www.active.com/donate/ltnDenver/2164_adored1
Please help this worthy cause.
Thank you,
BettyLou
The Quiet Man
Good date. Good movie. Good kisser
We shared a bottle of Bordeaux. I had made brownies the night before (apparently making me evil in the eyes of Roommie). The movie was sweet and nostalgic.
And when he was just about to walk away into the "Friend Zone"I kissed him and he kissed me back.
And it was good.
The Law
Sometimes it
works.
There Once Was a Boy in Iraq
Hello Happy Readers:
Apparently, there is a war going on.
In case you didn't already know.
I am sure you know someone affected by it. Or you know someone who knows someone affected by the war. It's a very Six Degrees kind of conflict.
Anyway, there is a boy named David leading a unit in Iraq right now that I have known since we were 12. We were both gangly and had buck teeth. Our younger siblings were best friends.
Well, he went to a military college (he grew up to be very tall and not to gangly) and is now leading a band of soldiers out in the desert (and freaking out his mom with stories of having his vehicle shot at).
Please keep him, his troops and everyone over there in your thoughts and prayers... If only so he can come back and fulfill The Mom's dream of marrying me and giving her more grandchildren.
This is Iraq, it's a very big country full of turmoil and sand. Also, young men and women fighting very bravely.
Tired but Happy
I am very tired but happy. Not about being tired, I hate that, but I am experiencing a general sense of well-being.
Could it be the total veg-fest Roommie and I participated in last night that included brownies, beer and very bad TV? Could it be my date tonight? Could it be that I am doing something in raising money for a
cancer walk? Could it be that I finally organized my room and I have room to move around again (and Cocoa the Wonder Kitty has a bed again? Could it be that I will soon be getting "9 Songs" from NetFlix? Could it be that I am just plain amazing?
I just feel good.
Please donate to my cancer walk, I have 3 days to make $100.
Our Residents
I hate our tenants. They are angry, confrontational and just plain bored.
Yesterday, I got 2 calls from a resident wondering if she had to sign anything for her rent increase AFTER SHE HAD GOTTEN THE ANSWER FROM THE PROPERTY MANAGER!
Today, I was yelled at for 10 minutes regarding a refund of
twenty dollars. Why do I get yelled at? I tell them the situation, they don't like it. I try to placate them, use calming words, they don't like it. So they yell. And hang up on me. which I like, because it gets them off the phone.
I am expecting about 2 more angry calls from that bitch.
And they threaten to go over my (piddly) head. To whom? The next person in line will just tell them what I did. I hate today.
At least I have a girl's night to look forward to with Vieve. And a date and Harry Potter book club.
Christmas Season
The Holiday season starts very early in my house. My family's house, my house, not so much. Roommie and I haven't even discussed holiday decorating. Cocoa the Wonder Kitty loves to nibbles on the tree but I don't know about her dog. We'll see.
Anyway...
I received my to-be-filled out Christmas gift list yesterday. I have since added:
1. Money
2. Jumbo bag of peanut M&Ms.
But I don't know if I want anything else. I have Netflix for my movies, Youtube and MySpace for music. I don't think Mom could pull off world peace (she's powerful, but you have to draw the line somewhere).
So, what should I ask for, if anything?
Dating Sucks
It does! So from now on, not counting tomorrow, I am done with the dating strangers thing. I will only go out with people who I've met and have a connection with.
At least I've gotten some pretty good meals out of it all.
Meals I've paid for.
And gotten food poisoning from.
Oh, the fun!
Shoot me now.
Fallibility of Man
All my life I have read articles, watched news stories, documentaries and known people who are Mormon (no polygamists that I know of). And in all that time, with all that evidence, I have learned that fundamentalist Mormons believe that a woman's role is to serve. Only. Not to be educated, be satisfied, barely be happy. She is there to serve he husband and his other wives. And
I love that people are willing to believe all this prattle from the mouth of another human being. Humans are human. Prone to power trips and ego enlarging acts of stupidity. Come on, this is not the advice of someone who is all there. Course, neither is the person who is repeating it: "He told me that I had to learn to get her to love me to the point that she would obey me because she loved me."
This is why I reject religion.
Also, I don't trust any "religion" that was founded by a guy and his golden plates less than 200 years ago (I mean no disrespect of course. My first religion was founded by a carpenter, but not the
musical kind).
Come on now.
Plates!
Skin Suit
Do you ever get that feeling that if you don't break into a straight sprint within the next 5 minutes, your going to crawl out of your skin? I have that feeling right now.
It's also very hot in my office as the maintenance staff turned off the air. I would take off a layer, but the layer isn't work appropriate
Also, I have 2 dates today and tomorrow and neither of them have emailed me in the last few days and that bugs me. It's common courtesy to keep in contact with the people you are seeing.
I think I will give up on this dating crap for a while after this.
The Power of Betty Compells You
I have powers. Evil powers...
I was not feeling our new PR manager. She was a little too big for her britches at our little company. Trying to do all these that I knew for a fact no one would go for. Yes, we are trying to upgrade the image of our company, but they are not willing to spend 10K on the holiday party. No sir. Plus she insulted my invitation method from last year. They told me to do it easily, cheaply and effectively. I sent out Evites, which they approved. She called them tacky to our new hoity caterer. Well, I do believe she was fired or quit last night because she left me a message last night regarding her not working for us anymore and could I get her portfolio to her.
This is what you get for hiring someone who has been working for Las Vegas casinos for the last couple of years. Their sense or reality is completely skewed. We don't have /are not willing to spend the kind of money she wanted/was used to.
So she's gone.
And I have powers.
NO NO NO
FUCK FUCK FUCK
Someone sideswiped my car. Can I afford to fix it? Hell no. This sucks.
This is also a pretty common occurrence since I moved to the city. My mirrors have been messed with. Now my car has damage that you can't just buff out. I am pissed. People are gonna get hurt.
Addendum
OK, so I know none of you are tackling my lengthy tome of a post so here is a brief synopsis of my trip:
It was super fun.
I met a lot of great people, some of whom I should have made out with.
I am very tired.
Oh, What a Time We Had
And… she’s back! Four glorious days in not so sunny San Francisco. Went for a vacation, came back more tired than I really ever want to be again. As you can tell by my holiday schedule:
Thursday: Go to work until 2pm, drive home, Vieve picks me up at 2:30pm, we go to the airport. As we only have carry-on and no one flies at 5:05pm on Thursday, the airport is relatively quiet.
We get on the plane sometime after finally locating a place that sells Snapple and fly to Las Vegas (Vegas, baby, Vegas!). I can’t remember what we do in Vegas, but we eventually get on another plane and fly to San Francisco. We had planed on taking the train to the LLS’s casa but we were informed upon our arrival that the new roommate who has a car would be picking us up. So no train that night (thank god, I hate metros; I get motion sick on them).
So we head into the city and meet the household and cats, eat pizza and go to bed (Vieve on the couch, me on the air mattress). It’s about 1am.
Friday: LLS decided she needs another tattoo just in time for our mother’s visit so we head down to the Castro and have brunch before she is inked. A little window shopping and she settles in to have a dragonfly permanently attached to her shoulder (the perennial lesbian tattoo location). V and I need something to do so we head next door to get manicure where we are told that we are 2 of their few female customers (this is the Castro, mind you, a gay neighborhood in a gay town, go fig).
I learn what a “bear” is. You don’t want to know.
That night we go to a play as part of the SF Fringe Festival. It’s about DH Lawrence. And while I applaud anyone who puts something of themselves out there for the public, I have to say two things:
1) There is a time and a place for a DH Lawrence historical play. It’s at the DH Lawrence Festival and Conference at Nottingham University, England.
2) If you are going to attempt accents in a play, practice them first. New Hampshire cannot pass for German, nor can Yiddish; or Southern for New Zealand. It was abysmal.
After the play, which was more fun to make fun of than watch, we go out for Turkish food (at Sultan Kabob) with V’s friend Tim and his friends. The group is lively and worldly, all very interesting and I spent much of the meal talking with Karina and Sherwin. She’s Latvian, he’s Indian American and they live in Latvia and will until their baby is born. Also in the mix were Alex and Cho. He’s from Yorkshire, she’s from China and they live in the city. Also there are Tim of course and Jeff. Jeff is visiting from England and we talked most of the night, during dinner, walking through the streets, at the bar (Blur). I think it’s very interesting that Jeff made it a point to sit next to me though the night. It could have been that my dress kept opening up and revealing my pink underwear, or it could be my sparkling personality. I am going to go with a combination of the two. It’s all about the panties and personality. Anyway, the boys walk us to the train that night near the original League of Nations, which is very cool and I am glad I saw it at night because it is in the worst part of town. I should have made out with Jeff.
V and I get the last train home and get to bed around 1am.
LLS rudely wakes us at 6am to help get her house ready for the party. We decorate and plan and mix and eventually, we go out and find breakfast in the neighborhood, at a sweet little dive up the street run by a very friendly Asian couple.
My parents arrive with the food and we set all that out, there is, as usual at one of my mother’s parties, way too much. People start arriving. They are all from the LLS’s office and all very nice, gifts and speeches are given, LLS’s partner, me, V and Erica go to the grocery store (where they sell alcohol! So not fair!). And she offers us her Brandi Carlile tickets for that night. She bought them a while ago not thinking about the party and so we go.
Very good show, A Fine Frenzy opened. There were twins (in Brandi’s band). It was at the historic Fillmore, a very famous venue somewhat near Haight-Ashbury (which has a GAP now, it’s so wrong). Apparently though, when San Franciscans get drunk, they don’t believe in the concept of personal space so I had a woman’s ass in my face for most of the second encore (we had seats in the side balcony). It was a great show, lots of energy and humor.
OK, so that’s Saturday. I was also invited to Melanie’s wedding (the reason V was out on the coast) that day.
We wake up frikkin early as we have to get the rental car ($70 each or a 6 hour train ride, you decide) at 8am and drive down to San Jose to meet another of V’s friends, Julie this time, for breakfast. We go to this cute little place and talk and eat. We ate so much on this trip, it’s not even funny. Always, they suggest that since we have the whole day to kill that we should go to Santa Cruz and play on the beach. A stunning idea since SC is only a half hour away and they have ocean there. So we go and play on the boardwalk, walk on the beach, eat some carnival food and look at seals and the outrageously priced souvenirs and move on our merry way back to SJ for the wedding.
We are pretty much the first non-party guests to arrive so we get ready in the hotel bathroom and primp a little. It’s a good thing I bought that other dress in the Castro and wore it to the LLS’s shindig. Otherwise I would have had nothing to wear to the wedding.
Anyway, I have to start out by saying that the wedding it being held at this mansion/hotel/former home compound thing. It’s gorgeous and manicured and perfect. Even the carpets match the wedding colors. The CHUPAH was already set up and just needed to be decorated; the chairs were in place so we were seated.
The ceremony was beautiful. The groom’s (Steve) brother-in-law was the efficient along with a traditional cantor, the bride cried during her vows. They both looked very happy.
Then, COCKTAIL HOUR! I had one champagne and met and talked with some very nice people.
Dinner was salmon or beef, I had salmon. The table V and I sat at (apart so we wouldn’t just talk to each other, more for my own good than hers) was very cool. Everyone was really nice and cool and talkative and funny. There was Ben and Emily (the roll thief and the artist thinking about studying in Paris for a year), Doug and Jessica (brother and sister, both very funny, Doug was very cute too, should have made out with him too). Melinda the world traveler, Rachel, etc. the list goes on and on. It was a small but very fun crowd. I danced with the bride’s brother (I lead), who looks just like this boy I dated in high school, and it was freaky.
More dancing, laughing, frolicking and the crowd wanes, there is cake.
The after-party is in the basement bar. You would think the bride and groom would be tired, but no, they are going strong, as are most of the young people at the festivities. We, however, have to drive home that night so we say out goodbyes and head home. We are in bed by 1am.
Monday: We relax and get on more planes and come home.
I need a vacation from my vacation.
Odd Behavior
There is a boy in my office. He's not a man because he is only a few months older than I am. Every time I venture into his neck of the office woods, he gets this flustered, embarrassed look on his face, stops talking and just giggles. So either he is a 12 year old girl in disguise or something else is going on. I don't know. Your opinion?
Third Wheel Rolling
Went out with Roomie and Roomie's BF last night. We saw "Once" and it was beautiful. The songs are emotional and haunting and the story is sweet and unassuming. I think I'm in love with Glen Hansard.
Early Morning Wake-Up Call
Do trains have trainy-type car alarms? Because something very loud woke me up this morning and I am thinking it was a trainy-type car alarm. Trains, real ones, not city trains (we don't have a subway system in the middle, we are proud of our trains, they are above ground) have tracks near my house. And yes, I'm from the wrong side of them. So I hear trains several times a day. Stupid trains, can't just go past my neighborhood quietly, gotta blow that horn. And this morning around 5am there was an incredibly loud noise outside. It's either trains or I have really obnoxious neighbors with really, really obnoxious car alarms. Either way, I'm tired and I need a cookie.
Cocoa and I were not pleased.
Stupid trains.
A Weekend in Review
It was a fabulous weekend.
Friday night: Vieve came over to see the house and I made dinner.
Saturday: I had brunch with The Banker and played pool with Roomie, Roomie's BF, my ex, Fidget and their friend Matt.
Sunday: I went and saw The Nugget, still the cutest baby in the universe.
Monday: I wanted to do something. I thought about baseball and the fair, but everyone was busy and when I got someone to go out and do something with me, we just fought so I dropped him off and called Best Non-Boyfriend Boyfriend Matt and we had dinner and drinks at 3 bars (the city was deserted, everyone peaked too early and was passed out by the time we went out, I can only assume). Very fun, we haven't gotten to see each other in a while. We are both bad friends and have not made the effort to call each other. So we got caught up and he drove my drunk ass from bar to bar. My tolerance is getting better. 2.5 beers. Be proud.
The Last Day
Here it is. The last (unofficial) day of summer. I live in the middle, so school started here a week ago. East coast readers (if there are any), I'm sorry for bringing up this most painful topic. It's true though and you know how I can tell? I slept in fuzzy jammies last night. I usually sleep in just my underwear in the summer, but last night was a fuzzy jammie night.
It's fall, people, fall. My favorite season. Colors changing in the trees. The air getting crispier. My birthday is a comin' up!
I leave for California in 3 days and I am super excited. Brunches, walks, no shopping (too poor), sister time. It will be glorious. there will also be a big lesbian luau that is LLS and Partner's wedding reception.
I need to do laundry and pack.
Have a great day everyone. Enjoy it. Snow is just around the corner (bah! Evil snow).
