Good News / Bad News
ok, i have been SORELY in need of an update, so here it is. i'm going to try not to make it a novel, since i'm in the library and only have 15 minutes left in my time slot, but for some reason i just get so prolific whenever i write in LJ.
anywho, last week was hectic but totally fabulous. i already had my Vegas trip planned, but on monday morning i got a called from our VP of PLAGAL (Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians) who asked me to call a producer from a show called 30 Days on FX. so i did, and then ended up flying me to LA on that Wed. to film for an episode of 30 days. you can learn about 30 Days on http://www.arp.tv/ so basically the set up of the show was taking this pro-choice woman (Jennifer) and sticking her in the pro-life community for 30 days. she was living in a home called His Nesting Place, which is for homeless moms. it was uber-Christian so the producers looked for alternative pro-life voices, and boom, they came up with PLAGAL. so they picked me up from the airport and took me to Long Beach to a coffeeshop where i met Jennifer and we chatted and debated and then went to a few local queer shops and i passed out PLAGAL literature and condoms(!) with PLAGAL stickers on them. we debated with this owner of a shop Barbara for a while. all of this was filmed but if i actually make it into the show, which i'm not even sure yet, i'll probably be on screen for all of like 5 minutes, but still it was sooo fabulous, and i'm so happy i was able to do this on behalf of PLAGAL even though there are a lot better speakers with more personal positionalities like our President who is a woman who has actually had an abortion and realized later it was a mistake.
so then i left for Vegas, and met Tim Brooks, whom i met 2 years ago in DC at the club Nation, and danced with him (and then reconnected with him recently through a Craig's List "Missed Connections" ad). the reason i got to go to Vegas is b/c Tim was there for a business conference and used his miles to get me a ticket and then his company paid for the hotel Paris which was right on the strip. the whole weekend worked out really well. i drove to SF and parked my car at my friend Jessica's apt. right as the SuperShuttle was there to pick me up and take me to the airport. i didn't realize that it was only 2-hour parking around Jessica's place, but i didn't get a ticket the whole weekend, thank goodness. Jessica's bf ended up taking my car to work and parked it in different spots. so big thanks to Peter. so the first night Tim and i stayed in. the next day i went and got us half-price tickets to a Cirque Du Soleil show called Mystere and visited my Obie friend Andria at her Teach for America school which was really cool and a nice excursion from all the excess and plastic that Vegas on the strip is comprised of. Andria's school is low-income, majority Latino/a (good thing Andria speaks Spanish well). the kids were really excited to meet me. one of the kids upon meeting me asked me, "Why are you skinny?" i think that will stick with me b/c it really struck me. i would say that he was skinny, too, but he might be used to overweight people, b/c as some of y'all might know, a lot of low-income people are overweight b/c cheaper food is oftentimes unhealthy for you. so the norm might be for him in his family and friends to be overweight.
so then i went back and hung out at the pool in the hotel Paris which by the way is a kinda cheesy hotel with the fake french accents, but it was nice, nonetheless. we ended up going to dinner at this cheesy fake Hawaiian place called Kahunaville which we had some coupons for drinks from the Mystere tickets. it was good food, but i never got to experience one of the famous buffets that Vegas is known for. no worries though. i want to go back.
so we saw Mystere which was fuckin' AMAAAZING. i love gymanastics and contortion and there was plenty of it. two hot muscular guys were lifting each other's bodies up in all kinds of crazy combinations. very homoerotic. so then we went to a club called Krave, which is a big queer club on the strip and the go-go boys were like Cirque du Soleil rejects b/c they too hung from slings and stuff and contorted their bodies. it was hot, though. they def. worked for them tips. for some reason, Vegas clubs have this anti-hat dress code policy. so Tim had to go hatless which adds about 10 years to his age. so i felt a little gross dancing with him with people looking at me. i'm sure they were thinking that he was my sugardaddy, and well, yeah, he kinda was...but i did get us some free drinks. one of my acquaintances knew one of the servers so i went up to him and told him my acquaintance said hi and he asked my name 'n shit, and that was about it until Tim and i sat in his section. and he asked what he could get for us, and i replied, "May I have a mudslide, please?" and he was so astonished that someone asked him so politely and i said "well i'm from the south so y'know it's that hospitality thang." so he ended up giving me and Tim our drinks for free. holla @ that. we gave him a tip though.
the next day we went by the pool again and laid out. the weather was fuckin' gorgeous, btw, such a needed reprieve from the dismal gloom of constant rain here in Sactown. then we met up with Andria and went to the Hoover Dam. i was kinda nervous that it would be awkward and hard to juggle both Tim and Andria at the same time, but it went so well. no awkward silences, mostly b/c Andria is such a talker, which i didn't realize while at Oberlin. but it was great. we talked about Vegas and Arizona 'n stuff. the tour was pretty cool, but not really worth $10. then we went back and had dinner at a burger joint called Fatburger, and Andria, being a vegetarian ordered a burger with no meat which like totally confused them, fo course. then Andria dropped us off, and Tim and i walked around some more and saw the volcanic eruption show in front of Treasure Island. then we saw the magician Lance Burton at the Monte Cristo. i'm not big on Magicians. i would've much preferred Chippendales or American Storm (another male strip show) but Tim wanted to see Lance Burton so i relented. it was aiight, kinda cheesy. before the show they kept showing all these pictures of Lance with all these prepubescent boys with a t-shirt that read "i disappeared at the Lance Burton show" sketchy, much? just where do they go and what do they do while they are "disappeared"?
so then Tim was tired so he went to bed and i met up with Andria and her Teach for America friends and we went to a club in the Hotel Paris, which was very straight, but they played my jams so i got my dance on. we got done with that, and i came back and packed up my stuff, took a shower, said bye to Tim and headed back to the airport. i got to SF and was hoping to hang out with Jessica for the day, but she just gave me my keys and i headed back to Sacto.
ok, so then more good news this week. my supervisor Ruby told me i was getting a visit from the governor's office on Wed. to see specifically me and my client. so i thought that was all exciting, although kinda pressurized b/c it's about funding 'n stuff and one of the people thinks that people with severe disablities cannot work. at all. period.
so then the BAD news. i found out today that this same client has been FIRED from his job! and i feel, a piece of me, has been fired, too. apparently some of the other employees at the jobsite have been complaining about my client's verbal threats. but he only makes the threats towards me b/c i'm the one asking him to perform the job functions. and he has never actually tried to carry out the threats. i mean some of them are just plain impossible, like him trying to vacuum me up. so what i do is follow a behaviorist technique of "extinction" or planned ignoring where i do not give him the attention he is seeking from the threats but rather just try to redirect him to the task at hand. but these corporate mofos don't understand that. they just see him as creating a hostile environment and want him out even though he has been making them coffee and cleaning up their messes for a year now. and some of their other employees make inappropriate comments. so yeah, i'm not sure what to do. i want to go in there and advocate for my consumer, but i don't want to overstep my bounds and get myself fired. i mean, i suppose this is what my client wants, is to get fired. but then that teaches him that if he doesn't want to work, all he has to do is make verbal threats. and it's not like him getting fired will mean he's out on the street which it may mean for one of us. so it's like, how will he learn? where's his motivation?
so yeah, basically even though my life has been very interesting of late, i am mad frustrated and needed to vent and this was a good space to do so.
oh, and i saw Dr. Drew from MTV's Lovelines while in Vegas.
LEAVE ME COMMENT LOVE!!!!!
anywho, last week was hectic but totally fabulous. i already had my Vegas trip planned, but on monday morning i got a called from our VP of PLAGAL (Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians) who asked me to call a producer from a show called 30 Days on FX. so i did, and then ended up flying me to LA on that Wed. to film for an episode of 30 days. you can learn about 30 Days on http://www.arp.tv/ so basically the set up of the show was taking this pro-choice woman (Jennifer) and sticking her in the pro-life community for 30 days. she was living in a home called His Nesting Place, which is for homeless moms. it was uber-Christian so the producers looked for alternative pro-life voices, and boom, they came up with PLAGAL. so they picked me up from the airport and took me to Long Beach to a coffeeshop where i met Jennifer and we chatted and debated and then went to a few local queer shops and i passed out PLAGAL literature and condoms(!) with PLAGAL stickers on them. we debated with this owner of a shop Barbara for a while. all of this was filmed but if i actually make it into the show, which i'm not even sure yet, i'll probably be on screen for all of like 5 minutes, but still it was sooo fabulous, and i'm so happy i was able to do this on behalf of PLAGAL even though there are a lot better speakers with more personal positionalities like our President who is a woman who has actually had an abortion and realized later it was a mistake.
so then i left for Vegas, and met Tim Brooks, whom i met 2 years ago in DC at the club Nation, and danced with him (and then reconnected with him recently through a Craig's List "Missed Connections" ad). the reason i got to go to Vegas is b/c Tim was there for a business conference and used his miles to get me a ticket and then his company paid for the hotel Paris which was right on the strip. the whole weekend worked out really well. i drove to SF and parked my car at my friend Jessica's apt. right as the SuperShuttle was there to pick me up and take me to the airport. i didn't realize that it was only 2-hour parking around Jessica's place, but i didn't get a ticket the whole weekend, thank goodness. Jessica's bf ended up taking my car to work and parked it in different spots. so big thanks to Peter. so the first night Tim and i stayed in. the next day i went and got us half-price tickets to a Cirque Du Soleil show called Mystere and visited my Obie friend Andria at her Teach for America school which was really cool and a nice excursion from all the excess and plastic that Vegas on the strip is comprised of. Andria's school is low-income, majority Latino/a (good thing Andria speaks Spanish well). the kids were really excited to meet me. one of the kids upon meeting me asked me, "Why are you skinny?" i think that will stick with me b/c it really struck me. i would say that he was skinny, too, but he might be used to overweight people, b/c as some of y'all might know, a lot of low-income people are overweight b/c cheaper food is oftentimes unhealthy for you. so the norm might be for him in his family and friends to be overweight.
so then i went back and hung out at the pool in the hotel Paris which by the way is a kinda cheesy hotel with the fake french accents, but it was nice, nonetheless. we ended up going to dinner at this cheesy fake Hawaiian place called Kahunaville which we had some coupons for drinks from the Mystere tickets. it was good food, but i never got to experience one of the famous buffets that Vegas is known for. no worries though. i want to go back.
so we saw Mystere which was fuckin' AMAAAZING. i love gymanastics and contortion and there was plenty of it. two hot muscular guys were lifting each other's bodies up in all kinds of crazy combinations. very homoerotic. so then we went to a club called Krave, which is a big queer club on the strip and the go-go boys were like Cirque du Soleil rejects b/c they too hung from slings and stuff and contorted their bodies. it was hot, though. they def. worked for them tips. for some reason, Vegas clubs have this anti-hat dress code policy. so Tim had to go hatless which adds about 10 years to his age. so i felt a little gross dancing with him with people looking at me. i'm sure they were thinking that he was my sugardaddy, and well, yeah, he kinda was...but i did get us some free drinks. one of my acquaintances knew one of the servers so i went up to him and told him my acquaintance said hi and he asked my name 'n shit, and that was about it until Tim and i sat in his section. and he asked what he could get for us, and i replied, "May I have a mudslide, please?" and he was so astonished that someone asked him so politely and i said "well i'm from the south so y'know it's that hospitality thang." so he ended up giving me and Tim our drinks for free. holla @ that. we gave him a tip though.
the next day we went by the pool again and laid out. the weather was fuckin' gorgeous, btw, such a needed reprieve from the dismal gloom of constant rain here in Sactown. then we met up with Andria and went to the Hoover Dam. i was kinda nervous that it would be awkward and hard to juggle both Tim and Andria at the same time, but it went so well. no awkward silences, mostly b/c Andria is such a talker, which i didn't realize while at Oberlin. but it was great. we talked about Vegas and Arizona 'n stuff. the tour was pretty cool, but not really worth $10. then we went back and had dinner at a burger joint called Fatburger, and Andria, being a vegetarian ordered a burger with no meat which like totally confused them, fo course. then Andria dropped us off, and Tim and i walked around some more and saw the volcanic eruption show in front of Treasure Island. then we saw the magician Lance Burton at the Monte Cristo. i'm not big on Magicians. i would've much preferred Chippendales or American Storm (another male strip show) but Tim wanted to see Lance Burton so i relented. it was aiight, kinda cheesy. before the show they kept showing all these pictures of Lance with all these prepubescent boys with a t-shirt that read "i disappeared at the Lance Burton show" sketchy, much? just where do they go and what do they do while they are "disappeared"?
so then Tim was tired so he went to bed and i met up with Andria and her Teach for America friends and we went to a club in the Hotel Paris, which was very straight, but they played my jams so i got my dance on. we got done with that, and i came back and packed up my stuff, took a shower, said bye to Tim and headed back to the airport. i got to SF and was hoping to hang out with Jessica for the day, but she just gave me my keys and i headed back to Sacto.
ok, so then more good news this week. my supervisor Ruby told me i was getting a visit from the governor's office on Wed. to see specifically me and my client. so i thought that was all exciting, although kinda pressurized b/c it's about funding 'n stuff and one of the people thinks that people with severe disablities cannot work. at all. period.
so then the BAD news. i found out today that this same client has been FIRED from his job! and i feel, a piece of me, has been fired, too. apparently some of the other employees at the jobsite have been complaining about my client's verbal threats. but he only makes the threats towards me b/c i'm the one asking him to perform the job functions. and he has never actually tried to carry out the threats. i mean some of them are just plain impossible, like him trying to vacuum me up. so what i do is follow a behaviorist technique of "extinction" or planned ignoring where i do not give him the attention he is seeking from the threats but rather just try to redirect him to the task at hand. but these corporate mofos don't understand that. they just see him as creating a hostile environment and want him out even though he has been making them coffee and cleaning up their messes for a year now. and some of their other employees make inappropriate comments. so yeah, i'm not sure what to do. i want to go in there and advocate for my consumer, but i don't want to overstep my bounds and get myself fired. i mean, i suppose this is what my client wants, is to get fired. but then that teaches him that if he doesn't want to work, all he has to do is make verbal threats. and it's not like him getting fired will mean he's out on the street which it may mean for one of us. so it's like, how will he learn? where's his motivation?
so yeah, basically even though my life has been very interesting of late, i am mad frustrated and needed to vent and this was a good space to do so.
oh, and i saw Dr. Drew from MTV's Lovelines while in Vegas.
LEAVE ME COMMENT LOVE!!!!!