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☆ Well, again I'm having to say something about how long it's been since I've written in my journal. For weeks I had a half written post about TBRU that never got off the ground. Partly it was due to stress at work and trying to get through tax season, and now that's over, thankfully. It may not have been as hard as we thought, but it's definitely been a stressful time at work. Otherwise I just haven't been so inspired to write and have been lazy, watching TV in my spare time.

Lets face it, TBRU can be boiled down to a few things. There was great people there, I did my best to stay out of crowds and kept the drama to a minimum. That's not to say that going to Six Flags during Spring Break was not frustrating with the long lines and rude people, but luckily the guys I went with were good company. Also, the Battlestar Galactica finale went great and it was fun to have fellow geeks come over to watch. It made viewing it much more of an event. The finale itself was good, not great, but I think there was a lot of expectations. I saw people I knew and was glad to see them, and met a couple of new people, mostly introduced by people I knew since I'm too shy to go meet them myself.

☆ I'll just a paragraph or five about politics here. I think Obama and his administration are doing fine. Sure, I don't agree with everything he does, but I do appreciate that he seems to be able to plan for the long term and doesn't get caught up in the day-to-day news cycle. Politicians are often too reactionary (see AIG bonuses) and try to respond too often to what the polling shows rather than getting out there and making real plans. I find it refreshing.

The tax day tea parties were ridiculous. What began as a libertarian thing suddenly became some way for disenfranchised Republicans to find a voice, but the problem with that voice is that it seems to find outrage but no substance or solutions. For many people there they seemed to be outraged, but didn't quite know what they were outraged about. Of course you have Fox News out there, actually adding their name to the event. If my parents ever try to tell me that Fox News is balanced again, all I have to do is point to this moment where the right-wing network didn't report the news, but tried to be an event organizer. While I don't find much in the way of objective journalism from any of the cable news outlets, I can't see either CNN or MSNBC trying to actually create a movement for their benefit. For anyone on fox who wants to remain a journalist, it's time to leave.

Funny that these tea bag protests about spending come after several years of Republicans raising deficits while Bush was in office. All this sturm and drang only seems to come around now that they are out of power. I'll take your message as seriously as I do the Code Pink housewives.

Oh, and our governor here in Texas, Rick Perry, is worried about a primary fight against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson next year, so naturally he decides to go to these tea party events to campaign. He's a complete idiot, but he knows the Republican Party here is a bunch of rabid fools (Just check out the Texas Republican Party Platform) so he knows he has to play to these guys. Kay is much more the moderate, and she would do better in a general election, but it will be harder for her to win the primary.

So Governor Good Hair, as we call him, goes out to start talking about Texas shouldn't be ruled by Washington, that states are sovereign and we need to look at secession from the US. Great! Just what we need here is an idiot telling us that we should leave the US. If we left the US, the US would also leave us. Do you think Texas would keep the US companies that headquarter here? Do you think that the US military would just leave all there equipment to us? Do you realize that there isn't a large enough bank based in the state to do commerce with? We are so tied into the US, that...why am I even arguing this, our governor is an idiot.

☆ Lastly, tomorrow we head out to LA for our cruise. I'm excited about going out to see a Dodger game tomorrow night and Saturday getting on the ship for a Mexican Riviera cruise. It's the Lazy Bear cruise, so there should be lots of good people on the ship. chris was on this same cruise a couple of years ago - as were a couple of other LJer's. I'll admit that I am not excited about any of the ports of call, but it will be nice to relax and get away from it all.

I'm packing, trying to get everything I need into one suitcase. You'd think going away for a week wouldn't require so much, especially going to somewhere warm, but I'm struggling to keep the bag under 50 pounds. Luckily this cruise I don't have to bring formal wear.

I have been on one other all-gay cruise, and that was the one to Alaska in 2007. I liked that one because people were dressed a little more warmly, but I see this cruise as a little more body competitive - beaches and pools and such. I'm sure there will be several people in skimpy swimsuits both on and off the ship. I'm already in my mindset that I will be the largest guy on the ship and won't want to be out at the pool area. Hopefully this feeling will change and I'll be able to let go and have a good time, but I'll tell you, it's easy to feel that you are very unattractive going into something like this.

Still I can't just stay in our little cabin all vacation long. This will be odd for me because I'm always looking for things to do on vacation but this one seems to be more about doing nothing. I hope I don't go crazy with boredom as I can't think of any of these ports that I want to explore, or anything. I'll be missing my internet access, too. I'm guessing I'm going to be on deck reading a book quite often. We will see how it goes.

Now if I can just cram all these T-Shirts in the bag!

☆ Oh, and it's possible that California's Supreme Court will rule on marriage next week. I guess we'll see if our marriage is still valid (in selected states) or not. We'll be without internet, but I'm sure we will hear the news on the ship. not that I'm expecting it, but if they rule for marriage equality that is going to be one big party boat.
eggwards: (Xmas)
I took a half day off from work today. I didn't feel like taking the whole day off today in protest since I didn't really have anything planned to do, say community service wise, so I didn't feel there was a positive point for me to be out all day just to protest Prop 8 and marriage rights.

No offense to those who called in gay today, I just felt like I do more by being in the office. my whole team knows that I got married a month and a half ago to Chris, so i think that does more for awareness than anything else. I remember that I didn't exactly come out and say anything right away about the wedding to my co-workers, but I had to tell my boss just incase there were any HR issues I needed to tackle.

My boss wanted to make a big deal about it to the team, but I didn't think it needed to be. I haven't worked here for even a year yet, and I don't know all my team members that well (I'm kind of quiet at work), so I didn't want anyone to be offended or anything. My boss eventually leaked it to the team and everyone was pretty positive about it. One of them asked me why I didn't announce it to the team. I told her "Have you seen how many McCain stickers are in the parking lot?" My fears were allayed, and I found my team is very accepting.

Another reason not to call in today was that all of my co-workers saw me last night at the holiday event. The company took us out to Main Event - sort of a Dave and Busters type of place, but with crappy food. I managed to win in bowling and wiped up on trivia against a large group of managers. I not only wanted to boast, but not appear that I shrugged work off the day after the holiday party.

While I won on bowling and trivia, I didn't do so well at lazer tag, but wasn't the biggest loser (that gal had negative points) and ended up working a sweat.

So what did I do with my half day off? After going to lunch I went over to the mall thinking that it would be less crowded than usual, which was true. It's been cold, and we try not to turn up the heat too much in order to save money, so I wanted to get some pajama pants or sweats or something. Well, the mall closest to us isn't good for such mundane items.

The lowliest store there is Dillard's and although they do have a large big and tall selection, it's all overpriced. Since retailers are having a difficult holiday season, just about everything was 25% off, but even at that, I think those should have been the prices to start with. I know I'm cheap, but come on, $40 for sweats? I guess I'll wait until late January when all the winter stuff is 70% off.

I got home and I took Joey for a walk before it got dark. We walk for about 45 minutes. I worked to catch up on some little projects I've been needing to do, including changing the vehicle registration in my car. While I have the car door open and went back to get some Windex, Joey just jumps into the car, plops herself in the passenger seat and waits. I thought that she'd get out as she usually associates getting in the car with going to the vets or to the pet hotel. She's never jumped into the car voluntarily without coaxing from Chris or I.

I waited a bit to see if she would get out, as I had finished removing the old sticker and placed the new one on (Check the Date, Love Your State, the sticker says). I went back into the house and she just stayed there, so I got the keys and we decided to take a drive in the nearby neighborhood to see the holiday lights. Just the dog and I. Joey doesn't get very excited about car rides, and she didn't try to hang her head outside the window or anything. She only got excited when she saw someone walking another dog on the sidewalk. Once we got back into the garage Joey was ready to jump out of the car and go back to doing the normal things she does around the house. Those being eat, play ball, chew on her bone and of course, sleep.

Well, now I should get back to the laundry so I can say I did put some of this time to good use.

Out To Sea?

Dec. 8th, 2008 08:48 am
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I know that everyone is concerned about money, and with the holidays here, it's even more on our minds, ours too. Chris and I are thinking about taking another cruise vacation. We haven't booked it yet, but I've already got the time off from work and we are thinking about going for it.

Like our cruise to Alaska last year, it's another Lazy Bear sponsored RSVP all-gay cruise, so there should be a good contingent of bears along with the rest of the crowd. This one is going down the Mexican Pacific Coast (or Mexican Rivera, as one who is trying to sell the cruise may say). The dates are April 18-25 leaving from and returning to Los Angeles.

Now Chris has been on this particular cruise before, and he enjoyed it. It was on a different ship, though. This one's on an NCL ship and is supposed to be top notch. What would really seal the deal for us is if we could gat a few friends to go with. Is anyone interested?
eggwards: (Yardman)
It's so hard to come back to the humdrum land of work when you've been gone on a good long vacation. I'm definitely feeling the pull of the blues here, wishing I could be back in New York.

I love sending picture posts, but they only tell part of the story. I have many, many more pictures and if I can get motivated, I'll send them up to Flickr, but at the moment they are in the same limbo as befell my pictures from Boston two years ago, and from the cruise I took last year. I'm not sure why it's hard to come back to those, but procrastination is my middle name...I think.

Walking around New York is like feeling you are on a movie set. There's so many things that you've seen, but there they are right in front of you. 30 Rock, The Flatiron Building, The Empire State Building, Times Square, even the Unisphere way out in Flushing Meadows Park. All have that familiarity, and many seem much, much bigger in real life.

From where I left off the other day, Laura and I had breakfast with Ryan ([livejournal.com profile] bobo_dreams) and followed him into the Toys R Us in Times Square for some hilarity. Then we went in and sat for a while in the studio for the Frank DeCaro show on Sirius Out Q. Frank was nice enough to give us a tour of the now Sirius-XM studios and gave us some restaurant recommendations for the rest of our stay. We instantly went out to the first one he mentioned, having lunch in Madison Square Park at the Shake Shack. Man those cheese fries were good!

Leaving the Shake Shack we went downtown so Laura could see Battery Park and the Statue of Liberty. I saw it the other night when I rode the Staten Island Ferry. While looking around Wall Street near the charging bull statue we spotted Chris Noth who was working on a Law and Order episode. We then went to the Brooklyn Bridge. After a twenty minute walk, we were in Brooklyn. We didn't get to stay long as we needed to go to Union Square to meet Kurt ([livejournal.com profile] bigboychb) who was working at Virgin. We finished the evening at the observation deck at Top of the Rock.

By this time I had blisters on my feet, and almost didn't go out, but it was bear bar night so i felt I had to deal with it and head out to Christopher Street. It certainly wasn't what I expected, with a lot of kids hanging out. by the time I got to the Dugout it was already midnight and the crowd was already heading out the door. There I didn't meet many of the locals, buts saw Bob from Michigan (not on LJ), and met Ed and John ([livejournal.com profile] cubbies76 and [livejournal.com profile] johnboi76) from Chicago. It was good to meet them and have someone to talk to there. After a bit we decided to leave the bar and go on up to Ty's which seemed to be hopping. Of course Ty's is a tiny place, so even a small crowd would make it seem crowded. There I ran into [livejournal.com profile] theoctothorpe (who has a dreamy accent) and [livejournal.com profile] joebehrsandiego. before Ed and John had to head back to Long Island we stopped by for some late night New York style pizza with some surly waitstaff.

Saturday found Laura and I first setting out for breakfast at Billy's Bakery in Chelsea, then off to see [livejournal.com profile] naylandblake's installation "Guys We Want to Fuck" at a very small warehouse gallery. Then it was off to Central Park for walking, walking and more walking. I was definitely having to tell Laura to slow it down as my feet were in bad shape after having to walk so much in the city (really, I've built up a lot of stamina in the last couple of years, but it's more stamina as far as time, not wear and tear. I'm used to gym conditions, not the real street). Sure, there's plenty of public transportation but you still end up walking a lot, and there's many, many sets of stairs in the subway. The whole trip was a workout. We walked a circuitous path from Columbus Circle to the Guggenheim Museum. Sadly the museum was filled with tourists and was under renovation. Lincoln Center was also under renovations, also a disappointment. Still, we ducked into a McDonald's (another place with bad service, how do New Yorkers put up with it?) and saw Michael Emmeron, aka Ben on Lost, getting cash from an ATM. I told him I liked his work which he thanked me in that strange voice he has.

Exhausted, Laura and I went back to the hotel (the Muse near Times Square, highly recommended) and cleaned up before meeting the Jersey Boys, Tom ([livejournal.com profile] evilcreamsicle), John ([livejournal.com profile] txredneck) and Ed ([livejournal.com profile] njbearcub1) for dinner at a sort of cajun place on Restaurant Row. Sadly, Laura and I did not know about Restaurant Row until this, the last night. We had a great meal and spent a long time at the restaurant just talking and hanging out before sending the Jersey Boys back through the tunnel. It was a good night and I was glad they were able to join us, if just for a few hours.

Sadly, we never saw the Cash Cab.

We looked a little more at Times Square on Sunday morning when there weren't so many people running around before heading back to Penn Station and to the train back to Baltimore. It was nice that the Square was calmer than it had been for the last few days with tons of tourists standing around gawking. Sure, it's quite a sight, but when you realize that it's all just advertisements and encouragements to buy, buy, buy, you figure out there's a lot better sights to see in New York than this.

Frankly, I was impressed. There's a lot packed in the city, and even more that we didn't get to. It will definitely be worth a second look, to go back and see some of the smaller things, and like our walk through Chelsea, see more of the real New York, not just the big postcard items. With the two new stadiums coming on line, there will certainly be an excuse to come back again. Hell, I never even found the Apple Cube!

Hopefully by then my feet will have fully healed from all the walking.
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Another licensing test down. This morning I went over to the testing center to take the r the Texas Life and Health Insurance exam. I didn't study all that much over the weekend, but I managed to stun myself by scoring a 92. Now I can sell insurance in Texas. over the next few weeks I have to get the licenses for the remaining 50 states (count in Washington DC) before I can go on the regulated phones.

I don't have to take the test for the other states, but I do have to send off requests to them to show i passed the Texas exam. Now the job doesn't sell insurance, but we sell annuities, so the license overlaps the securities license I have for the brokerage aspects of the job.

In the long run it just means I can answer trivia questions about insurance.

Several other members of my training class were also taking the test. Most have been working in the financial world for some time, but had, like myself, no insurance experience. A couple of them were outside the testing place this morning still going over flash cards. I have a feeling that I'm not going to learn much in the minutes right before the exam, so I just have to rely on whatever I picked up before. Luckily the practice tests were giving me most of what I needed, and common sense picked up the rest. I know one of our classmates failed the test and will have to take it again.

I have one more examination before I'm fully in the clear for my new employer. I still have to take the Series 63. It's a selling license for stocks and other securities. The Series 7 that i took last year is one part, it allows you to be a registered representative with the stock exchanges and allows you to work with securities, but the 63 allows you to sell and market those securities. I never picked up the 63 because I never did sales to the public, oh, and my previous employer was too cheap to let me sit for it. I guess that's one reason that half of my training class is from Fidelity.

I know they want me to sit for the Series 63 exam soon, but since the next two weekends are very busy, Chris' brother's wedding this weekend, and TBRU the next, I'm not sure when I'll have a lot of time to study.

____________________________________

Speaking of the upcoming weekend, Chris' brother's wedding is happening on a yacht. A Yacht on the Pacific Ocean. Thank goodness I still have one of the sea-sickness patches left over from last year's cruise, otherwise I'm not sure I would make it to the reception.

Because I have no vacation time, it's going to be a quick hop in an out for the wedding. We are looking to hit Disneyland on Saturday, and the wedding is on Sunday. I fly back just a short bit after the ceremony ends. We aren't renting a car, so I doubt we'll be able to leave the OC for anything Saturday night. Still, I'm excited about Disneyland, and seeing the changes since I went there in 1972 (the year Chris was born).

________________________________________________________

Finally, Should you be inclined to ask me a question, you can still do so HERE, where comments are screened.
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Dear Princess Cruises,

My partner is on your cruise right now. He's emailed me once, from somewhere in Mexico, since your internet service apparently sucks. (Of course, he's also probably having too much fun on the cruise to be bother to email me all the time, go fig.)

Still, being the pining away partner who has to go to work and all, I still like to check in every once in a while and figure out what's going on with your ship. Luckily for me, there's the ship web cam, which I've kept up in the background on my computer at work. This morning I saw the ship haltingly come into port at Cabo San lucas. Haltingly because I'd get one picture every 60 seconds.

Still, that's the only thing I saw. You stick the damned camera on the bridge and it just looks out there. I'm not watching it right now because all I'd see is the murky night as you plow through the waters back towards Los Angeles. Since you're at sea all day tomorrow, all I'll see is the poor image quality of endless, boring ocean. Come on, what i want to see is the fun of being on the dang boat.

Oh, you want to see something else, you say, well, here's the wedding chapel, a whole cam just for that one room. well, guess what, no one's in the wedding chapel. Where's the deck cam? Come on, how are us unbelievers supposed to understand how great your cruises are unless we can see someone on it?

Yeah, I know, it gets dangerously close to being one of those parents who stares endlessly at the day care webcam as they worry about their child's upbringing, but come on, I just want to play Where's Waldo during my workday.

What's the use of a webcam that never shows a soul? even the ports of call looked empty as the beaches or the mountains were far away from your high perch. We're looking to get closer using the internet, not farther away.

So Princess, thanks for providing the link where I can tell that the ship hasn't hit an iceberg, but little else. Now just makes sure chris gets back safely so he can keep me warm here.

------------------
in other news, there's a nice freedom to go out for dinner with friends this week. I had a good time chatting with Michael ([livejournal.com profile] mikeybeartx) and Skye ([livejournal.com profile] cristalskye). One more night alone...anyone want to do dinner tomorrow night, once i make sure to get some more Dog Food for Joey?
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I dropped Chris off at DFW this morning for his flight to Los Angeles. We had breakfast at Whataburger, and something there made me kind of sick . Still, I think some of it was psychosomatic.

This afternoon I got a call from Chris saying that he arrived well, and had made it to the ship, gaining a ride from some cute bears. It sounds like he's going to have a great time. I, of course, am jealous.

Still, it's his just rights, he couldn't go with me to Boston, and he needs to burn vacation days, so he made his choice of them. A boat full of gays, several hundred of them bears. For as much as I'm saying I don't like the idea of a cruise, the more he got excited, I got interested.

So I'm here, in the house, alone. Even though I've lived here for 10 months, and visiting for longer, there's still the feeling that this is Chris' house. I live in Chris' house, with Chris' dog, Joey. It's not that Chris is not happy to share his house, or not happy to have me live here, but with him being gone, it feels very strange.

Yep, I'm already missing him.

Still, as I was driving back home I saw a sign of hope. It said, "McRib is back at McDonalds."

Randomizer

Jun. 28th, 2006 11:52 pm
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So I'm trying to get back to journalling every day again, and here I am needing to go to bed. Getting up before 7am really sucks, and i wouldn't do it if I didn't have to. I haven't quite worked it out to get my whole morning routine - shower, shave, eat breakfast, and read a little overnight LJ, in less than an hour. How did I ever do it when I was actually making posts in the morning before leaving for work?

Work is going through a "transformation" where they are changing up job roles and descriptions and who reports to whom and all. Personally I'm very nonchalant about the whole thing because there's no basis for "how it was before" to me, but others are worried. Still others are just saying that it's going back to the failed programs of previous directors, so that should turn out well.

Still, the new cafeteria at work seems to be getting better. Yea for hamburgers and pizza, but occasionally barbecue, too.

The pool in our neighborhood is out of commission for the summer. There's not enough money in the association budget to fix it, so all it sees is the occasional duck. Chris and I really should make it a point to find more friends with pools.

My friend Hans and his wife are coming to visit this weekend and we're taking them out to a Ranger's game this weekend. I don't think they will be staying all weekend, so I don't know how much we'll have to show them, but maybe they will stay for the Addison fireworks display - oh wait, Addison's Kaboom Town will be on July 3rd - great, I guess I can go after work on Monday. Dang, I hate it when these holidays are on middle weekdays. Still, if anyone wants to hang out and watch the fireworks...

Also, my mother called tonight and said that she and Dad were thinking of coming up to Dallas the weekend after next. luckily she said that they would be staying with my great aunt. I'm not sure they are ready to stay with us. Of course I really didn't offer. I've only had the folks visit my apartment a couple of times, so visiting in another city would be a little strange.

Still, I thought I'd get back to Houston before they got up here. Suddenly they are traveling all the time, since they have gone to Las Vegas and visited my sister in baltimore this year. Funny, they never travelled much before!

Lastly, I need to nail down what I'm doing for my big vacation this year, but i think i'll write more about it soon...needless to say, I have the last full week in August, and not plan one of what to do. I need to get things going before airfare becomes astronomical.

So, that's what's on my mind now...

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