Ann-tastic

I am back from the glorious Danube River cruise - our first through RSVP - and as always, had a fantastic time. Jeff and I have got this thing now. We know how to choose vacations, we always have a good time. River Cruising is more low-key than ocean ones, and with the RSVP crowd, it was as low-key as low key gets. The average age of the passenger is between 50-55, and this is the farthest thing from a party boat. There aren't parties, and the closest thing we got was a costume contest thing on the last afternoon of the cruise, and it went on for only 45 minutes. However, this cruise had Ann Hampton Callaway as the entertainment, and for me, that alone was worth the price of the trip. Imagine having her sing almost every night? Yes, it sounds as good as it was. And getting to know and hang out with her is like cherry on top of the ice cream sundae. She is fantastic, with positive energy, wit for ages, and I get her, and I think she gets us, too. This makes a once-in-a-lifetime trip a truly unforgettable event. I am now home with a glow, and am kind of depressed to be going back to the low humdrum of my normal life. But, there's always some other next time.

It's Just About To Start

Well, just about a week more to go, and the Danube trip is on. I should really start packing, and I just might do it. I have to finish all of it by the weekend, I promise. I still have to call RSVP one more time to see if we can get in the Budapest Sightseeing tours with the people who bought the Pre-cruise package. I don't know how much they will charge, but if it's reasonable enough, then why not? I am just thinking there are things I still need to do, like setting up the transfer from the airport to my first hotel. There are a couple of things swimming in my head and I just need to focus and do things one at a time.

2 1/2 Weeks

- Two and a half weeks until the river cruise, and I am more excited. I took out my luggage tonight and started filling it with some items I definitely want to bring. Again, this is two weeks of traveling and I have a specific vision that I want to accomplish, and I hope to be able to execute it. I finally got our documents this week and it looks good. This is definitely going to be a classy trip, and even though we hit a snag with Desiree, I am quite happy with RSVP. I spoke to this guy Nick on Friday, and he just happens to be the one in charge for the Danube trip, and got a lot of insight. Plus, I got ourselves invited to some of the activities for the people who bought their Pre-Cruise package with them, which includes a Pub Crawl in Budapest Saturday night before the cruise.

- I still have not gotten a hotel room for the first night. I am inundated with choices but you know what? I will just pick one, as long as it is near both the Intercontinental and Le Meridien, it should be fine. The first night I just need a bed to sleep in anyway.

Travel Talk

- Inefficiency drives me mad. Our "final documents" for our Danube River Cruise trip has been out. But for some reason it was sent directly to Desiree, instead of our home addresses. It shouldn't be a problem, right? Well, it turned out that she was away or on vacation or somewhere else. And she was only able to mail out the document this morning instead of last week. So, essentially, we are getting our papers late. This is sometimes what I do not like about these gay businesses - their customer service skills are so lacking. We had the same experience with Atlantis, and now RSVP...and it's just so frustrating. But hopefully, the dilemma is over now. It should be here in a couple of days and I could continue planning things for the trip.

- And speaking of planning, wires were crossed somehow and I mistakenly planned my arrival to Budapest a day earlier than Jeff's. And this means I will have to get a hotel room the first night. I arrive around midnight-ish and I need a place to sleep  that night. I checked around and, for continuity's sake, was going to get a room at our same hotel (Le Meridien) but curiously, it is sold out for the night. Thank God Budapest is a relatively cheap city hotel-wise (Prague is more expensive, for example) so I have been seeing some cheap-ish deals. I am close to getting a room at The Marriott, but I am loathe to give money to a company owned by Mormons, and whose money fights Marriage Equality. Or should I say fuck it? Let me look first at some of the boutique hotel offerings, but I am thinking - should I spend time and energy on this? I mean, I'll basically sleep the night and move by the next day.

The Heat Gets Me Down

 - The oppressive heat here in the desert is kind of getting me down. More than usual, I feel trapped. I went out to get some food yesterday and it was 110 degrees and felt like it. All i really want to do is stay home, and read, or veg out and do nothing. I feel uncompelled to do anything, and it is so unlike me. Remember when I would go out and do things and go places? Is this old age? We went to church today, and lunch afterwards, and I couldn't wait to get home. I remember when I first arrived here i met an Eastcoaster and she told me that I will miss bodies of water, and I would really like to be by the beach just right now. Or a cruise.

- Pipo's birthday today, and he spent a good chunk of the weekend in Palm Springs and then he had his friends at The Abbey for drinks. Are we really all turning 45 this year? (See above paragraph)

Bit Behind

 - I am just thinking, it's just five weeks till the Danube cruise and I am still a lot unprepared. Normally by now I have thought about everything but I frankly am behind - or am I getting too comfortable now not to plan or lay out everything? I have a general idea of what my "look" will be for the trip and I have a little but of execution from it, but still have a long way to go. As years go by, though, I find that I am a whole lot smarter about everything. Gone are the days when i would over pack, for example. I bring just enough - the playing safe in me may bring a piece or two in excess, but no more overload. I have just learned about that the hard way too many times. Okay, now that I am writing about this I am getting more excited... and just a little bit scared that i am behind in my preparation.

Ye Olde Life

 - I haven't written here, and I wish I knew why. Fatigue? Apathy? Maybe a bit of both, nor not. All I know is that I had the urge today. Maybe I will do it a weekly thing - a "week that was" kind of update. I just finished watching on Blu-Ray "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," and it touched me. It's kind of about September 11, and of course it made me think about ye olde life. I have been thinking about that lately, anyway. I go through waves of it, I guess. It's melancholy, but then it's not. I sometimes think what life has yet in store for me, if any. I was very pleasantly surprised with Sandy Bullock on the movie, by the by. I write her off by default, but she delivered here. The movie also made me want to see out Jonathan Safer's book - I am sure there is much more depth and texture to this story.

- What A Difference a Speaker makes. I have been using these rinky-dinky $10.00 iLuv speakers for a while now, and when I play music from my Iphone, it actually runs interference and there is this noise/buzz that comes out on certain songs. So I went in search for new speakers, and found some Altec Lansing ones on Groupon for cheap. I really wasn't expecting too much, but it is marvelous. It's a wonder what real speakers make - I sometimes feel like I am hearing songs for the first time. I am so happy with this purchase, you have no idea.

- Vacation in about five weeks, and I am excited/scared/anxious as I always am whenever a trip comes up. I just hope there are no delays, no problems. I have a six hour layover in Heathrow, so I am hedging my bets. I hope it won't be too bad, and there are worse places in the world to be stuck, if it happens.

Kiki and Kim

I Have Been Changed For Good

We get used to things after a while, and we learn to move on. I remember saying (and writing here) that it is sometimes painful for me to watch the network morning shows because they are all set in NYC, and it just makes me miss the city. But I am ok now, and once in a while, even peek at them. To get the news and weather, I turn to my local station here, and for the most part, I am happy with Jason and Monica from Channel 5 here. They were my default then, and I happily tune to them now. This means that I am now completely at peace here. I was at my local bank on Saturday, and was talking to this guy who also moved from San Francisco same time as I did, and we were comparing notes on how we dealt with uprooting our lives from one place to another. He asked me if it took a while for me to get used to life here, and I said, really no. I really do enjoy the relative silence of my life here, and case in point - this weekend I almost did not do anything, but relished the naps, the reading, the whatever I did. It's all good.

Easter Beginnings

Well, it's Easter Sunday and I am still here. It's a little bit of a non-event. We just went to mass and had a family lunch, and that was it. But it's all good. I have been feeling a little "lost" lately and I don't really know where it is coming from. I think I am in a weird place, but it's nothing I can really pinpoint at. I will find it, though. The New York trip is coming in two weeks and I am looking forward to that - perhaps that's it. I am just waiting for it, and am excited.

365, and A Day

I was going to do something yesterday to "commemorate"  my year at the desert. I had a vague plan of doing something by myself, for myself but it rained. Yes, it rained on the day of my first year, which is quite unlike what is normal weather here (I would say it rains less than ten times past year) so maybe it was nature's way of giving me something different, something old and familiar. In the end, it was just another day, it seems. Just another St. Patrick's Day. I remember the sights and sounds of the NYC parade, and the past couple of years, it just became a familiar nuisance. I remember spending the day thinking I should get home as early as possible - those belligerent drunks can be nasty and stupid at times. There's a parade here, too, but it's low-key, maybe because the Irish community here isn't as big. So in the end, not much ado about something, and maybe everyone is better off that way.

March, and a year.

March is here, and Daylight Savings Time is this weekend, which means Spring is just around the corner, every little corner. Plus, a year ago on March 17 I moved to the desert. Can you believe it? It seems like only yesterday I was running around, packing, shipping things and now it's been a year. I seriously didn't even feel the year go by, although perhaps I should have.

Well Well

All's well, and for now....it has ended well enough. I have a new box, but getting to this point was literally an ordeal. Customer Service has really gone down a lot, and I don't know how some of these companies continue to stay in business. Both DirecTV and Fedex had horrible phone representatives, and I won't belabor and write every screwup they did in this particular case, but most of the time it was like pulling teeth. And the irony of it all? I am not even that big a television person. Besides specific shows, I am the type of person who, most of the time, keeps television off. I know some people like to keep it on as "company," but a lot of evenings I just like silence. The worst thing for me was losing everything stored on my DVR, like four episodes of "Southland," which I had planned to see this weekend. Plus, my episode at "Anderson" was there, but oh well, what are you going to do?

Mercury Retrograding

Oh, how I despise Mercury Retrograde. I am trying to calm myself right now. technical things have been going haywire. I got home, and all of a sudden my cable box won't turn on, and it really pissed me off. I call DirecTV and it took me a couple of tries, going through hurdles on their phone system until I get a Tech Support person, and we exhaust all possibilities until it is realized that I need a new box, and one won't get to me until three business days and by all calculation that will not happen until Saturday, so here is hoping and crossing fingers that it arrives bY Saturday, and with all these delays and what-nots I won't be surprised if it does not arrive by ten. I hate to be cynical but there you go. And then we keep on trying to call Bombet and we cannot connect. All wires are getting crossed and it really wound me up, and I am still wound up right this very minute and I am just trying my damndest to calm myself down right now so I thought I would write. I mean, i don't even watch a lot of television, and oh, wait for this, what would be worse is that everything that I have DVR'd in there will be gone once I get a new box, so that was another thing that pissed me off.  Oh Lord help me. 

As Today

I feel like I have not written here, and maybe I just need some kind of inspiration. The year hasn't so far been the kindest, but it has gotten a lot better, and I know it will continue to be even better. Valentine's Day is coming up in a day or two and I don't feel anything about it. Year after year it means les and less, and to think ten years ago I would have gone into deep depression by now. But I guess with age comes apathy. Or maybe I have just given up, and that's not necessarily the worst thing in the world.

Anti-Social

A quiet Saturday night beckons. A week ago I was in WeHo at The Abbey and while it was nice and a lot of fun, I can't help but think that I couldn't possibly do that every week. At this point in my life, it would be too much excitement! Right now I am just doing laundry - I have three weeks' worth to do - and I could barely contain myself. That's what old age does, I guess. My brother's group of friends are having a SuperBowl party tomorrow and they are doing the hard invite, but I honestly would be much more content being at home, seeing the Madonna part of the festivities, and then going back to reading, or watching my BluRays. Am I getting anti-social in my elderyears?

The Book Of Mormon

1. There is a guy who owns one of the companies we order supply from. He is one of those older jovial guys - nice but probably one of those conservative Republican types (if I am to go by stereotypes) So anyway, he was at the office and out of the blue went to my desk and said, "Hey Buddy...are you ready for the big game on Sunday?" I assume he is talking about the Superbowl, of course. I played along, and he started talking about football stats and I thought, I hope my eyes weren't glossing over. But the more important thing was, I guess I can still pull of "straight" because why else would he, all of a sudden, talk to me about sports. Bizarre.

2. Our secretary, Jacky, started telling me a story earlier. She said she took her husband, who does construction work, to this family who wanted to have extensions done to their house. In the process of their conversation, the woman told her that she just recently disowned her 13 year old on. The reason: he came out to her. Jacky was saying how bad she felt about the kid, and she said it was probably because the family were Mormons. I told her these people were despicable. Mormons can have as many wives as they want, but they cannot accept a gay son. 

Impromptu

Sometimes spontaneous is best. We were all just having dim sum on Sunday morning, when my brother and sister in law suggested going to Los Angeles. At first I was hesitant about going - I had envisioned a relaxing weekend - but I called Pipo and he said, what are you talkign about? Get in the car with them and just go! It's not like you will be driving, he said. So three and a half hours later, we were eating at Max's in Glendale.

The Memory Of Scent

I went to the movies today and behind me was a woman who was wearing Chloe Narcisse, and I tell you, it brought me right back to 1997. I remember when I used to wear that scent that even Tim was saying that whenever he smelled it on other women, it always reminded him of me. The dominant note is daffodil, but it also powdery and has hints of sandalwood. I haven't worn it for the longest time, and don't even own it now, but I have this sudden desire to wear it all of a sudden. Since it is from the 90s, I am sure the scent has been reformulated and I wonder if it smells the same, although what the woman was wearing swells very close to how I remember it to be, so it should be close enough. But it is funny how smells bring you back to a time and place. Or maybe I am just thinking about this because I am currently reading a book about time travel. Mixed media. 

Let The Long Weekend Begin

I realize I have not posted here, things have been a little hectic, beginning of the year stuff and all that. But as the long weekend honouring Martin Luther King begins, I am going to try relaxing just a little bit. I need some time for myself, and maybe I will call Lolita and get a massage, yes that would really be nice. It seems kind of weird that there is a long weekend right after the holidays but I ain't complaining. Truth be told, I thought we were open on Monday, but since it is a Federal holiday, apparently we observe it, so happy yipee yehey!