Thanksgiving, retail and otherwise...

I got up Thanksgiving morning and called my brother's house. I talked first to my sis-in-law, then to my Dad, who when I told him who was speaking, he said, "Durlx who?" He was joking, he actually knew and was in rare form. Then I talked to my sister, but we were interupted by my nephew, who was yelling "Bunny talk, Bunny talk!" So we talked for a minute or so. He speaks in sentences now all the time, but he still has his own set of words, so I have no idea what he was telling me. Still, it was sweet.Then back to my sister and then to my niece for a few minutes; she is better on the phone, but the parade was on TV, so I let here get back to that. Finally, I had about ten minutes with my brother. It was one of the better holiday calls.After that, I went back to bed; I was tired. We had extremely good Thanksgiving bizness at the store and I had worked very hard. I got up a few hours later and promptly went back to bed again. About noon, I got up and started my cheese and fresh herb scalloped potatoes, took a shower and talked to Pebbles and then to luca, and finally got out of the house around four pee em, to go to one of my team member's T-day party. I had a good time there and the food was great! The turkey had been "brined" and it was the first time that I had tasted one done that way. It was fabulous.I was home by eight-thirty, watched some tv and went to bed to read around midnight.It was a good enough holiday. There was a point in the morning where I was a bit teary eyed as I remembered the many Thanksgivings past and those no longer among the living, but, well, at this point in my life that's just part of the game.




I went back to work Friday evening and then back again this morning at ten. For some reason, I was feeling rather weak, with a headache; I thought perhaps the flu... but probably just the desert air. You would think it would be cleaner, but this is a big frontier town and there is no guarantee of clean air. And that is true not only because of the ordinary air polution from the ordinary sources. Because of all the trees and stuff that have been planted here to make the neighborhoods bee-you-ti-ful, there are no doubt, a lot of things to be allergic to. Allergy-wise, I've had the worst fall season in decades!

Still, I forge on! Especially after talking to Pebbles on Thanksgiving, who reminded me that no matter what, I needed to put up something sparkly for the season. So, I found some small lights for one of my regular large "dried things in a great big pot" arrangements and then accessorized with some sparkly snow flakes that I found at a shop in Palm Springs.

OMG! doesn't that sound terribly gay!

It is, my dears, it is.


Also form that same shop in Palm Springs; these three sparkly and pinky x-mas trees... also very, very gay...

And just to be the first in my neighborhood, I did the balcony with some multi-colored lit fake pine garland, to which I added a string of white lights with some individual blinkers. I think I need to add some big red bows to it, and perhaps some gold balls if I get around to doing that.

The rest of the news:

My hat's in the ring, so to speak. I am officially up for a job in Austin and a job that I think would suit me to the ground. I am lining up my support, and so far that is going well, and then it's a matter of doing a good interview and getting the job.

Wish me luck.


durlx

So here's the story...

I might be moving again. It's not that I don't like where I am, it's just that there is another possibilty on the horizon, one that offers a lot of value.

The idea of moving across the country again makes me feel a bit weak, but then again, I've had some practice...

I have to decide whether to put in for the interview in the next week of so. I think that I have a good chance to get the job. The very idea of moving again is daunting, but with the right incentives it could be done.

But lordy! Driving across west Texas again!

But this is all conjecture at this point... leaving Las Vegas...

...I mean, unlike some people, I like the big casinos and the Strip. I don't love them, but I like the action and excitement of a big entertainment area. I like the energy.

But sometimes, I am a bit lonely here. And it's hundreds of dollarsa month cheaper to live somewhere else.

I'm not sure what I'll do, but I am thinking hard right now.


Wish me luck.



durlx

Finally, the new Blogger... I hope...

A trial post...

In all this time, I was able to publish to Blogger once, so my post about Zilla's visit finally got there, however not in exactly the form that I wanted it.

Finally, it seems that I can publish again, but the fonts and arrangement of things is different and I am not sure how to make it work the same. Most annoying.(

And for those of you who say "go to LJ", I say, been there done that and well, we'll see.) Technically challenged, I am.

As for the story...

...well it goes like this:

I took the red eye flight to Boston on a Saturday night, arriving in Boston about 7:30 AM on Sunday. My brother was there to meet me, but most suprisingly, so was my sister. I hadn't seen her in so long; our family seems to fly around a lot, but our paths hadn't crossed in over a year. She was on her way back to Rochester after helping to take care of my Dad, and there was about 15 minutes of overlap at the airport where we got to talk and hug. That was sweet. We had our picture taken in front of a big poster in the airport. Now remember that I had been up for over 25 hours, with a little "sleep" on the plane and I must tell you that Karen had little sleep the night before as well. We both thought that the poster behind us was the perfect background; our sense of humor is much the same.















I returned to Vegas after midnight Tuesday and luca picked me up around ten the next morning and we proceded to Palm Springs. We met Alex at the P.S. Art Museum on Thursday for his reading. I've known Alex for a few years now, but I've never seen him read his stuff out loud before. There was a good crowd of poets in the audience and the whole thing went down extremely well! Alex told the stories of when and why he wrote each poem and then spoke it. Honestly, it was amazing. He's really very good at this.





After the reading, we went to Desrt Hot Springs, to the Beat Hotel for a reception. The little 50's 8 room hotel is amazing! It's interesting because it was the place where William Bourroughs and a lot of the beat poets wrote some of their works. The guy who restored the place to it's 50's glory was an assistant to Bourroughs during the last years of his life and he had the most incredible collection of books and other stuff, including some of Bourroughs paintings on the walls and a working "Dream Machine" (You will have to do your own research on that). I mean, it was a astonishing and wonderful to hang out in this historic place with a bunch of writers and poets and talk about William Bourroughs! The next day, Alex, luca and I walked about P.S. and had lunch, and the Luca and I drove on to San Diego.



















We stopped a bit north of S.D., to meet up with Chuck and Bok, and after a couple of hours of talk, we drove down the coast to Sand Diego, and the Hilcrest area for dinner and drinks.





Bok was charming and delightful as always, but Chuck was looking a little tired...bwahahahaha! That older guy is not Chuck, hehe! We did a bit of gay Hilcrest; the pic above was taking at a place called "Martinis over 4th", a very enjoyable place. After that we went to a big loud place called "Bourbon St." which was packed with really good looking men. Luca and I got back to our lodgings for the night at a very late hour.

The next day, we got up and did a lot of touristy things like Cabrillo Point and a tour of the aircraft carrier Midway. We also watched the "Seranade of the Seas" gay cruise leave the dock. Three thousand gay men on a big boat; what a lot of semen, yuk, yuk.

After that, we met up with Bryan, from ChaosMen, (formerly of ChaosInAustin). I've kept in touch with Bry over the years and have followed his career. He recently published his first photography book, which we saw in one of the local stores. If you have visited his site, you know that he is also offering some juicy videos. We had a delightful dinner at Baja Betty's, a Tex-Mex place and then walked around the Hilcrest area for a while as he told us about the kind of things that go on behind the scenes. Totally amusing! Bry autographed copies of his book for luca and I and then we all headed home.

The next day, luca and I drove up 101, up the California coast. It's hard to believe that so many people have enough money to live there! Then, we met up with Chuck and Bok again. Bok provided both luca and I each, with a fabulous Soviet Jeans outfit! As we modeled, Bok said, "Well, I suppose that the next time I invite you to a party at Krave, they will let you in". hehe.After that, we headed back to Vegas, with Chuck along for the ride. Everyone was home before midnight.I went back to work on Wednesday, but from the airport. A day of work in L.A. Then a 5 AM shift and an 8AM shift, with a visit from the Regional VP. That all went extremely well. Yes indeed.

I talked to my brother tonight. He has my Dad home with them after a rather difficult hospital stay. My Dad's doing O.K. He can walk by himself again, but his short term memory is close to 5 minutes and his long term memory, well, it seems to be gone. But, if you tell him a joke, he tells you one and he is always polite. That's a good thing; some Alzheimer's patients get really mean and angry and difficult, but so far my Dad is the man that he has always been.

I also talked to Uno in Baton Rouge tonight. He's doing well and is as interesting as one can be. Those of you who know him, know what I am talking about. He's an interesting and delightful man and I can never thank him and his partner enough for taking me in after the storm.

And that's enough.

durlx


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