Dropping a Load on LJ
I haven't posted in so long this'll probably go over my shoulder and all over the walls... This is going to be one of this long catch up posts with lots of pictures, clicky things, fun stuff, etc so strap it on and play along at home with me...
When last I left you I was on my way to LA for Kevin and Michael's housewarming party in Silverlake. Had a great time there with Jaime, Sluggo, and Rob (rrumm). It's always a treat to get to hang out with Kevin and Michael and the wide variety of interesting folks there made it all the better (even a cast member from "Newsies!" hehe). Enjoyed the cookie decorating, good food, and fun conversation quite a bit. Hope to see more of them both in 2007. Here's a pic of Rob and his Fab Cookie Creation (which he thinks won for some reason):
He's so proud. I want to thank Kevin for turning me onto a new musical that just opened on Broadway in December. It's called Spring Awakening and I'm really enjoying the cast recording (cocktail). You can find out more about it here. I think I'm gonna try and see it when I head to NYC sometime in 2007.
So after having a nice visit I said my goodbyes and headed North to Bakersfield. I made good time and got in around 7pm or so. My sister Liz was there with her son along with my Aunt Liz and Uncle Pat. We caught up some and relaxed and put the presents around the tree before calling it a night. I had a nice room nearby (posted a photo of the creepy hallway a few days back) and after watching the end of Sound of Music on ABC (yes, I'm gay) I passed out.
On Sunday I woke up early to have my Grandpa's pancakes at Mom's place before church. Mom and I headed over early so I could practice with the handbell choir and the choir as well. Yes, I played handbells in jr high and highschool so they asked me to help out. I hadn't played in about 14 years so it was very surreal but I enjoyed it a lot. Here's a shot of me in action:
Sorry it's so dark - my sister was in charge of the cam. The service was nice and it was good to see some of my friends from high school and all of the folks who had watched me grow up. We moved to Bakersfield when I was 5. My Dad was the minister at Wesley (that's why we moved there) for 3 1/2 years before being asked to leave (he committed adultery and as laid back as Methodists are they do have some standards). We settled in Bako and I basically grew up there. The people in that church have always supported me. When I came out the minister at the time wrote me a letter to let me know how proud he was of my decision to be myself. So yeah, going back is always a positive experience.
After church Mom and I had practice for the Christmas Eve Service that night. We then headed back to the house where the rest of the family had shown up. So all told there was Grandma and Grandpa, Dee (my Uncle Pat's Mom), Uncle Pat and Aunt Liz, Cousin Matt, Uncle Bill and Kristen his wife, Cousins Jared and Brook, my sister Liz (Lissy) and her husband Scott and their kids Josh and Nathan, my Mom and her husband Michael and Michael's son Christopher. A full house for sure! We had our traditional family sing (four part harmony, a capella at times) around the piano (pic I posted earlier here), ate spaghetti and then headed to the Christmas Eve Service where I got to sing two of my favorite John Rutter pieces with the choir. An enjoyable day for sure.
Christmas Day was the normal mixture of madness and fun. Had a great time watching my family open the gifts I'd gotten for them. As for me I got some DVDs, a few shirts, money, some neat glasses, a calendar, gift cards, a PS2 game... A nice assortment of stuff really. But I really did get more out of seeing people's reactions to their gifts. My Uncle flipped when he opened Season 1 of Battlestar and was intrigued with Dave White's book that I had also gotten for him. Kristen was stoked on her copy of Season 1 of Weeds and Brook really dug the t-shirt I got her at the Bizarre Bazaar. So yeah, good times. I hung out a while longer and played Guitar Hero 2 with my cousins, watched home movies, and ate a ton of Christmas cookies before saying my goodbyes and heading back to San Diego.
Here's a pic of my nephew Nathan. If you click on it you can check out all the photos from Christmas including red hot handbell action.
I made good time back to San Diego. It only took me about three hours. I totally crashed on the sofa and just veg'd out. Around 8:30pm I grabbed up a bunch of Christmas candy, my Santa hat, and my music and headed to PECs to do my Christmas Day shift. I had a total blast. The bar was packed and I was able to turn a lot of folks onto my "Grin and Bear It" Monday nights and the music I play. A lot of the local boys came in to keep me company too including bearringsd, funbearsd, xxlbear, bnsd70, mrrealestate, and an assortment of non-Ljers too. Had a special surprise of seeing my friend Stephen from DC who was in town to see family for the holiday as well as my good buddy Brian who used to live in SD but now lives in Vegas. I was pretty busy a lot of the time but I did manage to watch John lose a crown on the Dewars Chews I had brought in to share (he got it fixed today). At one point John, Henry, and Brian were all sitting at the bar and it felt like the old days... I'm really grateful to have such a great group of supportive and awesome guys here in town. We were pretty hopping up 'til closing time so I didn't get out of there 'til almost 2:30am. Went home and ended up not sleeping a heck of a lot which for better or worse made the next day interesting...
Alex and his buddies from Ohio (Roger and Bob) along with thikstache picked me up around 6:30am (I got about 45 minutes sleep) to head to Six Flags for the day. We were meeting up with Ray from LA, sluggobear, and Dave from SF for one last shot on our annual passes. I slept most of the way up and was just awake enough to enjoy a tasty breakfast and socialize some with my car mates before heading into the park and hitting Tatsu. The park was a little more crowded than I expected but we still hit all the big rides at least once and did Tatsu four times. Was great to see Dave again at last. He's a sweetheart. And I really enjoyed getting to hang more with the Ohio boys as well. I rode home with Mikey and slept a lot of the way. I do remember eating crappy KFC at one point. He dropped me off around 9pm and somehow I mustered up the energy to head over to Alex's to soak in the hottub with him and the Ohio guys. Oh man, now THAT FELT GOOD!!! I ended up crashing there after a very relaxing visit.
The next morning I went out to get in my car and...well...it was gone. Yup, gone. I had parked it where I thought I'd be ok (metered parking before 6pm) and hadn't noticed the No Parking 6am-8:30am sign and so yeah, it had been towed. After making some calls I located the car and Alex took me over to get it back. $260 for the tow and a $40 parking ticket. Ouch! Funny how I got money for Christmas and made good tips at the bar only to have a fair chunk of it be gone. I just barely have room in my budget for a Wii now :-( Aw well, the visit with the boys was worth the ticket. We really did have a lot of fun.
So I drove on home and relaxed a bit and caught up on LJ some before meeting up with Alex, Wallace, Roger, and Bob to see Dream Girls. I thought it was excellent. And I guess I'd been living under a gay rock because I didn't know that Jennifer Hudson was on American Idol. She looked familiar from something else though too? Anyhow, she was awesome, Eddie Murphy was a surprise as well and I thought Beyonce's Diana Ross was not too bad either. Nice flick!
So yeah, that was yesterday - almost caught up. That night I met up with rrumm for a beer at PECs and to say goodbye to the Ohio Guys as they were headed to PS for New Years. A Beer and a few shots later, Rob and I hit Bronx Pizza and then watched Tivo's episodes of Are You Being Served? and Little Britain before calling it a night.
Today I spent a lot of time finishing photos from Madrid for Flickr and doing some other stuff with sets. I also rejoined NetFlix and spent far too much time rating movies on there. I met up with bearxxl for a quick lunch and some catch-up time and now I'm getting addresses and solidifying plans for me and finfinfin in LA the next two days. So far we're crashing on e_ticket's couch tonight, then bumming around LA tomorrow--brunch with his friends and then maybe a visit to Amoeba to see aairplane, maybe a movie at The Arclight or a trip to one of the LA Art Museums. That night we'll head to Mr. Cobb's party before crashing at my Mom's pad in Laguna. Saturday is Disney Day so if any of y'all wanted to meet up with us we'll be getting there before it opens (around 7:30am) and hitting both parks 'til we're pooped.
So...
Here're the Madrid Photos
Here's a new Set on Flickr of all the Urban Art I clicked on the fly in Europe
Here's a link to my NETFLIX page if you want to friend me up
And he's a great vid of MARRS doing "Pump Up the Volume" on YouTube
If I don't post before New Years I hope y'all have a safe and happy one.
Cheers!
--Brian
When last I left you I was on my way to LA for Kevin and Michael's housewarming party in Silverlake. Had a great time there with Jaime, Sluggo, and Rob (rrumm). It's always a treat to get to hang out with Kevin and Michael and the wide variety of interesting folks there made it all the better (even a cast member from "Newsies!" hehe). Enjoyed the cookie decorating, good food, and fun conversation quite a bit. Hope to see more of them both in 2007. Here's a pic of Rob and his Fab Cookie Creation (which he thinks won for some reason):
He's so proud. I want to thank Kevin for turning me onto a new musical that just opened on Broadway in December. It's called Spring Awakening and I'm really enjoying the cast recording (cocktail). You can find out more about it here. I think I'm gonna try and see it when I head to NYC sometime in 2007.
So after having a nice visit I said my goodbyes and headed North to Bakersfield. I made good time and got in around 7pm or so. My sister Liz was there with her son along with my Aunt Liz and Uncle Pat. We caught up some and relaxed and put the presents around the tree before calling it a night. I had a nice room nearby (posted a photo of the creepy hallway a few days back) and after watching the end of Sound of Music on ABC (yes, I'm gay) I passed out.
On Sunday I woke up early to have my Grandpa's pancakes at Mom's place before church. Mom and I headed over early so I could practice with the handbell choir and the choir as well. Yes, I played handbells in jr high and highschool so they asked me to help out. I hadn't played in about 14 years so it was very surreal but I enjoyed it a lot. Here's a shot of me in action:
Sorry it's so dark - my sister was in charge of the cam. The service was nice and it was good to see some of my friends from high school and all of the folks who had watched me grow up. We moved to Bakersfield when I was 5. My Dad was the minister at Wesley (that's why we moved there) for 3 1/2 years before being asked to leave (he committed adultery and as laid back as Methodists are they do have some standards). We settled in Bako and I basically grew up there. The people in that church have always supported me. When I came out the minister at the time wrote me a letter to let me know how proud he was of my decision to be myself. So yeah, going back is always a positive experience.
After church Mom and I had practice for the Christmas Eve Service that night. We then headed back to the house where the rest of the family had shown up. So all told there was Grandma and Grandpa, Dee (my Uncle Pat's Mom), Uncle Pat and Aunt Liz, Cousin Matt, Uncle Bill and Kristen his wife, Cousins Jared and Brook, my sister Liz (Lissy) and her husband Scott and their kids Josh and Nathan, my Mom and her husband Michael and Michael's son Christopher. A full house for sure! We had our traditional family sing (four part harmony, a capella at times) around the piano (pic I posted earlier here), ate spaghetti and then headed to the Christmas Eve Service where I got to sing two of my favorite John Rutter pieces with the choir. An enjoyable day for sure.
Christmas Day was the normal mixture of madness and fun. Had a great time watching my family open the gifts I'd gotten for them. As for me I got some DVDs, a few shirts, money, some neat glasses, a calendar, gift cards, a PS2 game... A nice assortment of stuff really. But I really did get more out of seeing people's reactions to their gifts. My Uncle flipped when he opened Season 1 of Battlestar and was intrigued with Dave White's book that I had also gotten for him. Kristen was stoked on her copy of Season 1 of Weeds and Brook really dug the t-shirt I got her at the Bizarre Bazaar. So yeah, good times. I hung out a while longer and played Guitar Hero 2 with my cousins, watched home movies, and ate a ton of Christmas cookies before saying my goodbyes and heading back to San Diego.
Here's a pic of my nephew Nathan. If you click on it you can check out all the photos from Christmas including red hot handbell action.
I made good time back to San Diego. It only took me about three hours. I totally crashed on the sofa and just veg'd out. Around 8:30pm I grabbed up a bunch of Christmas candy, my Santa hat, and my music and headed to PECs to do my Christmas Day shift. I had a total blast. The bar was packed and I was able to turn a lot of folks onto my "Grin and Bear It" Monday nights and the music I play. A lot of the local boys came in to keep me company too including bearringsd, funbearsd, xxlbear, bnsd70, mrrealestate, and an assortment of non-Ljers too. Had a special surprise of seeing my friend Stephen from DC who was in town to see family for the holiday as well as my good buddy Brian who used to live in SD but now lives in Vegas. I was pretty busy a lot of the time but I did manage to watch John lose a crown on the Dewars Chews I had brought in to share (he got it fixed today). At one point John, Henry, and Brian were all sitting at the bar and it felt like the old days... I'm really grateful to have such a great group of supportive and awesome guys here in town. We were pretty hopping up 'til closing time so I didn't get out of there 'til almost 2:30am. Went home and ended up not sleeping a heck of a lot which for better or worse made the next day interesting...
Alex and his buddies from Ohio (Roger and Bob) along with thikstache picked me up around 6:30am (I got about 45 minutes sleep) to head to Six Flags for the day. We were meeting up with Ray from LA, sluggobear, and Dave from SF for one last shot on our annual passes. I slept most of the way up and was just awake enough to enjoy a tasty breakfast and socialize some with my car mates before heading into the park and hitting Tatsu. The park was a little more crowded than I expected but we still hit all the big rides at least once and did Tatsu four times. Was great to see Dave again at last. He's a sweetheart. And I really enjoyed getting to hang more with the Ohio boys as well. I rode home with Mikey and slept a lot of the way. I do remember eating crappy KFC at one point. He dropped me off around 9pm and somehow I mustered up the energy to head over to Alex's to soak in the hottub with him and the Ohio guys. Oh man, now THAT FELT GOOD!!! I ended up crashing there after a very relaxing visit.
The next morning I went out to get in my car and...well...it was gone. Yup, gone. I had parked it where I thought I'd be ok (metered parking before 6pm) and hadn't noticed the No Parking 6am-8:30am sign and so yeah, it had been towed. After making some calls I located the car and Alex took me over to get it back. $260 for the tow and a $40 parking ticket. Ouch! Funny how I got money for Christmas and made good tips at the bar only to have a fair chunk of it be gone. I just barely have room in my budget for a Wii now :-( Aw well, the visit with the boys was worth the ticket. We really did have a lot of fun.
So I drove on home and relaxed a bit and caught up on LJ some before meeting up with Alex, Wallace, Roger, and Bob to see Dream Girls. I thought it was excellent. And I guess I'd been living under a gay rock because I didn't know that Jennifer Hudson was on American Idol. She looked familiar from something else though too? Anyhow, she was awesome, Eddie Murphy was a surprise as well and I thought Beyonce's Diana Ross was not too bad either. Nice flick!
So yeah, that was yesterday - almost caught up. That night I met up with rrumm for a beer at PECs and to say goodbye to the Ohio Guys as they were headed to PS for New Years. A Beer and a few shots later, Rob and I hit Bronx Pizza and then watched Tivo's episodes of Are You Being Served? and Little Britain before calling it a night.
Today I spent a lot of time finishing photos from Madrid for Flickr and doing some other stuff with sets. I also rejoined NetFlix and spent far too much time rating movies on there. I met up with bearxxl for a quick lunch and some catch-up time and now I'm getting addresses and solidifying plans for me and finfinfin in LA the next two days. So far we're crashing on e_ticket's couch tonight, then bumming around LA tomorrow--brunch with his friends and then maybe a visit to Amoeba to see aairplane, maybe a movie at The Arclight or a trip to one of the LA Art Museums. That night we'll head to Mr. Cobb's party before crashing at my Mom's pad in Laguna. Saturday is Disney Day so if any of y'all wanted to meet up with us we'll be getting there before it opens (around 7:30am) and hitting both parks 'til we're pooped.
So...
Here're the Madrid Photos
Here's a new Set on Flickr of all the Urban Art I clicked on the fly in Europe
Here's a link to my NETFLIX page if you want to friend me up
And he's a great vid of MARRS doing "Pump Up the Volume" on YouTube
If I don't post before New Years I hope y'all have a safe and happy one.
Cheers!
--Brian