Rolling Thoughts

Coffee & Cheese

I'm liking Tonya more and more. I got an SMS from her early on Saturday saying hi and saying she was going stir-crazy after being sick in bed for 3 days (doesn't that suck being sick on Turkey day?). I was just waking up, but quite hungry so I asked if she'd like to go hang out at my favorite wine shop with me and have cheese plates. That went over well, so we did.

Definitely enjoying spending time with this woman ... of course the evil at heart always have been a weekness for me :-)

Turkey Day 2004

So I went to Alameda for Orphans Thanksgiving with Kris. It was a lot of fun ... and a lot of craziness. And since that is exactly what I needed I'd judge the trip a success. My only regret is that I didn't get to see Nikki or cook breakfast today. Oh well.

The bad is that when I got off the plane in Pheonix for a transfer I had a message from Pete saying Call Now. So I did. Dad was at the emergency room but Pete didn't have any other info except where it was and that it sounded like a heart atack. There was nothing I could do except get on my plane and continue onto DC. That was a misserable 4 hours.

I get off the plane and there's a new message from Pete that Dad is home resting and ok. After an agonizing drive home and after talking to Pete I decide to call the folks. Mom is mom. Nothing new there. But Dad basically hung up on me after saying he was ok. I'm hoping that it was just him being tired. But don't know .... stubborness runs in the family.

Childrens dreams,
Pets desires.
Lifes good fortune,
Souls revived.

Rythmic beats,
Rough brews.
Tough clientel,
Tall barstools.

Bared teeth,
Predatory smiles.
Tongue action,
Dinner served.

Short lines,
Incompetant workers.
Frayed tempers,
Clock ticking.

Security screen,
Cheese-cloth more likely.
Stuff almost stolen,
Grrr .... time to get a brew.

Fragment of life,
Memories savaged.
Lifes cool measure,
Recolection scorned.

Death notice,
Loss of life.
What to do,
What choice.

Convictions torn,
What cost born.
To say goodbye,
To go alone.

oh hell

Well, 5 hours later .... good movie (Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Her choice), good food (she said ... and finished plate), good conversation ... and she is only obligated to work for the company for 10 more months.

oh hell, oh hell, oh hell ...

:-)

Trip

Well, I survived.

I'm sitting at a bar in the oakland airport trying vainly to type up my notes for the trip. It aint gonna happen.

So I'm sitting here having a really good Ale.

So to recap ...
1) Saw lots of friends. Kat, Brandi (bree), Nikki, Kris, Eric(karen), Donna (Ray & Miranda).
2) Made new friends. Lois, Allison(yet ANOTHER one).
3) Spent lots of work money. 1K for the hotel. 600 for the car. Close to 500 for food. Hoo-ahhh! However, I went out with the Sales & Marketing folks last night. THOSE guys can spend money.

Now I'm waiting for my flight. [sigh] time to go home. I hope it is still there.

Fun trip

Had a great weekend. On Friday Kris and I got Zach's pizza and met Eric & Karen at the Albatross. Karen is really cool and I had a great time. Kris said she really liked the pub too. So the evening was a success. Normally I don't post pics of my friends here, but this one of Kris turned out so well that I'm making an exception in this case:

While we were there Jules stopped by and we got to catch up. I hope to see his art studio this week before flying back. Really good to see him again.

I took a trip down to Fres-hell this weekend to visit Kat and her husband Bert. Haven't seen them in years (see a trend here folks?). It was Renn Faire weekend there and so I met up with them. Got to see some jousting and other horsemanship. Very impressive and Kat gave me a run down of the horses and riders and whatnot. While we were wandering around I heard this voice from my past call out "Lance ... is that you?" BRANDI!!! It was so good to see her and Bree (who is a very precocious & cute 7 year old now). When that kid hits high school Brandi is going to regret every bad thing she ever did as a teenager cause it's gonna be payback time! :-)

Memorable quote of the trip:
"If you're a former wican looking for a place to go, Catholicism or Mormanism has a lot of ritual"

Veterans Day

"Here's to our Veterans. No matter where you serve, under which flag, and in which war. Thank you."

Exorcising demons

These trips to California have been having a fortunate, yet completely unanticipated benefit for me.

We all have demons to contend with. Mine are no worse and in some cases a lot better than others contend with. Mostly mine deal with regrets and missed opportunities.

These last couple of trips have served to exorcise some of the big ones. I'm sleeping better too.

wow

Gentle rain,
light kisses.
Soothing music,
restive dreams.

Someone tell me why I'm not moving back here? In less than 2 weeks I've managed to hook up with, or see three-quarters of my friends in the area and it's like no time has passed since I left 3+ years ago. This is truly my home.

I met Miranda last night, Donna & Ray's daughter. Cute little bugger. 4 months old if I remember correctly. Apparently I'm good with kids. They're ethnic chinese and Donna tells me AFTER I've been holding the squirt for 10 minutes that "she's never that good with white people." Gee thanks :-)

Afterwards I was calling Kristen to arrange dinner meetup for Wednesday with Nikki and I. Did that. Then she calls me back and invites me to a small party. Lots of fun. Tonight with the 3 of us together is going to be interesting ....

Artwork

I was out last night and a friend showed me a portfolio that she had put together for a last minute application to the school of fine art here in SF.

Her work is amazing.

18

It's been an eventfull week. Some bad but mostly good.

First off, the housemate pulled his hissy fit on Friday. Used work e-mail to send me his typical amatuer psycho-babel 'analysis' of what is wrong with my behaviour. I just wrote back that the 30 day notice period ends on Dec 2nd and that I will not talk to him about personal issues. Ever. I'll be very relieved when he's gone.

THEN Alison sends me an IM when I'm at a meeting basically demanding to know where I have her stuff stored. Waits 10 minutes for a reply and then sends another saying that she's just going to go get it herself. What a bitch. A few back and forths that afternoon and now I've just added her to my ignore list. For someone that says she doesn't want to have anything to do with me she's sure expending a lot of effort to tell me things. All I can figure is that she gets some sort of sick pleasure out of trying to provoke people. I'm getting really fed up. As soon as Michael is out I think it's time to get some glazer rounds. She is beginning to scare me.

So that's the bad. The good is that Friday night I took Rebecca to the Albatross. Rene is still there!! She delayed her move for a couple of months. I told her about the condo in Huntsville and how I'd like to talk to her about some of her art for it. She smiled.

Saturday I played tour guide for Rebecca. Drove across the golden gate, took her to the vivarium in Berkeley. Jack London square in Oakland. Pretty exhausting really. Sat night we went to the Lucky 13 and hung out for a while. After Nikki came over and we chatted at Kelly's jazz place.

Sunday I met up with Ellen and Vic and we checked out the Scharfenburger Chocolate museum in Emmeryville. So-so. The one in Cologne is much more impressive ... but that isn't really fair since this one is only 7 years old. Stollwerk is 140 years old. The building is really pretty though. Old brick construction.

After bidding them adiue(sp?) I came back to Alameda. Didn't feel like crashing yet since it was only 6 and decided to head down to the 13 again and just read for a quiet sunday night. Was not to be. :-)
Jengo was there! Really nice guy. He was invited by the owner to help finish off a keg of pilsner in the beer garden and grabbed me too. So I was back there with him when who walks in but Kristen! I haven't seen this woman in 3 years. It was awesome. We chatted for a couple of hours until her SO got a little peeved (to be honest I would have been upset too if my date kissed some guy in a bar too) and took her home. But I got her number and am going to try to get together another time before leaving. I had the biggest crush on her way back when ...

And finally ... Tonia. Not sure what to think about her. Really like her and enjoy spending time ... It's not like either of us has expressed an interest in the other or anything like that. And I'm content to just be friends. Well, we'll see.

30 days

well, he took it well. Didn't bitch or moan or anything.

Just glad that I'm leaving for 2 weeks :-)