Let me back up...

Since I haven't blogged in a while I suppose I have some backstories to tell.

The last few weeks have been busy. My friend Jason came to visit from Indianapolis and when he went home I went to Indy with him. When I came back I had a few days before Matt came to visit from San Diego. Whew. Jasons visit was mostly uneventful, we went out to dinner, played some video poker, drank and partied. On our way back to Indy the fun began. We had upgraded to business class so we were well into our second complimentary cocktail when they came on the intercom to announce that we had a special guest flying with us today. Little what's his name, flying home from his very special trip to meet his favorite wrestler as part of the make-a-wish foundation. It seems these people are everywhere I travel. Go to an amusement park, wait in line for a ride and inevitably will come a group of people (tards, make-a-wishers) who have the "right" to board before you. Try to find a parking place and because you're non-handicapped you have to park a million miles away. The worst however are the people in the power chairs. Now I'm not saying that people should be immobile or that people with disabilities should be shunned. I'm simply saying that having a disability doesn't give you special rights. Just because you are in a power chair doesn't give you the right to run over my fricking foot with your chair. The make-a-wish kid on my flight and his older, apparently non-troubled brother were whispering and pointing at me before their flight. Obviously a lack of white blood cells doesn't cure homophobia. The flight attendants took their pictures, called him brave and sent him back to coach.

Air tran managed to lose Jasons luggage and though we waited for a bit, they weren't able to assure us it would be in on the next flight. Our friend Jeff picked us up at the airport and took us to Jasons house. I realized in the car that I have known Jeff since he and my sister became best friends in the second grade, almost 30 years ago. Jason and I have known each other since middle school, somewhere around 1984. It was interesting to realize how much history I had in just these two people. We went back to Jasons and watched some tv, had some drinks and then I went to bed. The next few days were non-eventful, (I am intentionally leaving out Thursday night, I will explain why in a few minutes) taking my grandmother to the doctor, dinner with my mother, drinks with friends. Friday night I went to OP's for line dancing and saw a lot of old friends. Saturday morning I headed south with my sister to "The Ranch". Before I left Indy in January I was invited to go on this outing with all the kids who worked at MacNivens. Basically they close down the restaurant and take all their employees on a weekend outing as a reward. It's a working horse ranch on the edge of Brown County State Park. There is a main house with a huge sundeck (the site of the mega water balloon invasion on Sunday afternoon) and then down the hill is a huge barn, the downstairs of which is just that, a bar, with horse stalls and the such. Horses are outside during the day but at night they are housed elsewhere. Upstairs, accessible by stairs on either end of the building, there is a large common room with a dining area at either end. The rest of the building is broken down into dorm type rooms with large bunkbeds and each with a private bathroom. I shared a room with Marjan, my sister, Loren and uber-cute Matt. Most of the weekend was spent drinking cheap beer (go Hi-Life!) and playing cornhole, which is a game sort of similar to the old game toss across. It's quite popular among the staff, so much so that they had a whole tournament. I only got through one round before I was trounced. Sunday night was the frenzied close of the tournament and no-one was really calling the action so I took it over. Using my best Triumph the insult comic dog I did an hour or so of color commentary, needling contestants and begging for someone to end the pain of the super slow games. It got late and since my sister and I had to leave early the next morning we decided to leave that night and drive back to Indy. We packed up and left, both having had a lot of fun. My roommates and I had gone to Brown County Inn for breakfast and then into the little artist community. Some of you may recall this sign which I saw on another trip to Brown County with Matt. The same store still had it so I purchased the sign and had it mailed back to New Orleans. It's now hanging over my back door.

Monday we went to the horse races with our mothers family. It was fun but it takes so much time. I didn't win much but I didn't lose much either. Tuesday was fun, I met Jason at Ivy's and then we went to Metro where we hung out with a bunch of kids we had just met and avoided a really creepy guy named J.D. After that we went to Metro and though I'm sure I started it, suddenly shirts were coming off and pants were coming down and then boyfriends started breaking up...we left before things got really out of hand. The next day I headed back to New Orleans.

I had to work for several days in a row after I came back. Wednesday before last Mattie P. came to visit from San Diego. I had to work the first few nights but had Friday night off to hang out. This of course led to a trip to the corner pocket and a sideline through Le Round-Up. Matt's trip was fun but mostly uneventful. He got to see a lot of old friends and we got to spend time together. Monday night I went to bowling and managed to eek out a 198 and a 152 to offset my 132.

This week I've been to the movies twice, both with Justin. The first was Prairie Home Companion. Now I'm not a regular listener but I know the style of the show and the dry humor level. I really enjoyed the movie, the performances by Kiellor and Lily Tomlin and Meryll Streep were wonderful and even the little coke head herself Lindsay Lohan was amusing. Virginia Madsens role was an odd one but I just adore her anyway.

Last night I went to see "An Inconvenient Truth," the Al Gore film. It was absolutely amazing, and frightening and sad and angering. There is no disputing many of the findings which aren't so much his findings but a collection of information presented as a slide show. If it's playing where you are, you must go and see this movie. The only part of the show I didn't care for were these little asides about his son being hit by a car and his sister dying of lung cancer and his own election problems. I mean they were an interesting glimpse into the life of the former VP but it had little to do with what he was trying to tell people about global warming.

I'm off to work in a few but should send out some early birthday shout outs to Jim in San Francisco (Sunday) and my brother Michael (Tuesday) and to DJ Rev, the pubs own Blair Quintana (Wednesday I think.)

I'll write more soon including the left out Thursday night in Indy which has to do with a very attractive Chicago boy named Matthew. More on him at a later date...

Ciao!