The Countdown Begins

I think I am going to turn in my car on Monday. It's a federal holiday. I'll still be able to attend a much-needed-banish-the-winter-blues Chili and Beer party way the hell up in Gaithersburg on Sunday without begging for a ride. I'll beat the actual end of my lease by 24 whole hours.

This weekend... my last hurrah until I do something marvelous like get a cute little Vespa come summer.

Pics

We went shopping on Rodeo Drive and had fun trying on Versace sunglasses until one pair looked stunning on me and I almost broke the bank.

Of course we had to see the Hollywood sign.

For whatever reason (I won't extrapolate the obvious), celebrities have their own, exclusive Scientology Center not open to the lay-Scientologists. I really don't want to get on my soapbox here, so I will simply point to Luke 14:7-14.

We had an amazing Thai meal at a gorgeous restaurant.

Finally, we got all glammed up to go to a concert. I had never heard of the band, but it is always fun to hear live music and see people enjoying it... plus the concert was invitation only, so I felt very special!

So all in all it was a very fun weekend and I'm glad we were so spontaneous! It had seriously been far too long since we had hung out. I miss you already, Trent!

LA Pictures Coming Soon!

One of the many things I appreciate about Trent is the way he mercilessly challenges the things I say and the way I think. He doesn't let me get away with anything. He isn't afraid to comment on my patterns of behavior. It's disconcerting in the best way.

I realize that I have rather rigid emotional boundaries and that my guard is way up during most of my social interactions; I think it's only because we have known each other for almost a decade that he isn't intimidated by me.

Gettin' Down to Bizznazz

Trent and I are having a great time in LA, but alas, our time together is coming to a close. He is putting the finishing touches on today's blog entry, I'm lounging in front of the TV, and soon we will have to spring into action and head to the airport.

I arrived on Friday, late, and was pretty wiped out from the time change. We were both starving and drove directly to the nearest sushi bar to rejuvenate ourselves. After that we headed back to Trent's apartment in North Hollywood and commeced the lenghy process of catching up. We had a great time reminiscing about how we met and the things we've seen each other through. It's amazing to know someone for ten years (since I was a teeenager!).

On Saturday we spent a leisurely morning hanging out at his apartment and then went off to do some sightseeing and shopping in Beverly Hills. I came very close to purchasing an amazing pair of sunglasses at Versace on Rodeo Drive... but my poor frugal spirit wouldn't allow it.

On Saturday we did some more sightseeing - the Hollywood sign - and some more shopping and generally catching up. Then that night we got all dolled up and had VIP access to an invitation-only concert which was very fun! Afterwards we went to a famous bar called The Abbey (I think every gay person in America has been to that bar at some point in their lives) and actually saw someone from one of my guilty-pleasure TV shows, Work Out. Trent knew her companion, but they were sitting together at a table alone, and didn't want to intrude to say hello.

All in all the weekend was mellow and very fulfilling. I love Trent so much! He is the only person who doesn't think I'm a nut for my Simpson's preoccupation. We took lots of pictures which I will post tomorrow.

Okay, I gotta get packed and ready to catch my flight back to cold, snowy DC.

Sunnier Times

Well, in 24 hours I will be on a nice long flight to sunny California!

I can't wait to escape the -teen degree weather that has been plaguing us here in DC.

I'm off to get a trim for my hair... next time you hear from me I'll be livin' the celebrity life, briefly.

Weirdness

Something odd is going on with my car. The past couple times I have approached my car to get in and go somewhere, it's looked different. Not the way I left it. Or things seem moved around inside.

Nothing is missing, no window is broken, I always leave it locked and secured with my Club.

But today as I was walking home from a speaking engagement at American U, I saw my car and I didn't think it was in the same place as I left it.

I mean, I'm sure nothing is really happening to my car... it's just weird...

Pushing On

I'm exhausted. And yet I push on.

In many ways I consider myself an athlete. I have endured years at a time of comparatively relentless and brutal training (in martial arts, training for a marathon, etc). And although I'm not formally engaged in combat training at the time, I still practice various forms of physical arts under the watchful eyes of professional instructors. I still try to use my body above and beyond it's natural (lazy) inclinations.

One thing that I've always thought sets the athlete apart from the casual exercizer is the athlete's propensity for training even when he or she doesn't want to. An athlete doesn't have the luxury of taking an unscheduled day off. An athlete doesn't bag a run because it's 25-degrees and snowing. An athlete recognizes the committment, both spoken and non, to an esteemed teacher.

And so I try to push on.

I love yoga for the way it encourages a turn of attention to the interior life. Much like the martial arts philosophies of which I have some experience, yoga insists that the practitioner balance, at first precariously and then (one hopes) with surrender, labor and effortlessness.

The same applies to the prayer life, the seasons of contemplation. Labor is involved, but not toil. A letting go of the will is required even as one must use some sense of discipline to wait out the inevitable moments of darkness.

Major "Aha!" Moment

A good instructor makes all the difference. In my yoga class this afternoon, with just one little word of advice and a tiny adjustment, I finally understood how to relax into Seated Half-Bound Lotus. Note: the picture you see is neither me nor my instructor, but borrowed from this site.

I had a couple of other breakthroughs, too. I love how yoga is helping to form my interior life. It also does wonders for my confidence. I love how with consistency I see improvement in my asanas each time I practice.

Yoga rocks.

O, The World!

My kittens have begun sighing. Big, heavy, rattling sighs; they turn their big eyes on me as though they're carrying something heavy on their conscience.

Unemployed free-loading loafers, I'd like to know just what in your lives is so serious.

Fragment

From tonight's episode of The Simpsons:

Random editor of a writing competition journal, upon reading the winning entry submitted by Moe: Stop the presses, buy my wife some flowers and get me an Advil! What? You don't work for me? Well, you're hired. And now that you're hired, you're fired. Now that you're fired, we can be friends. Now that we're friends, you never call - what kind of friend are you? Hangs up.

Heehee.

The Way It All Began

I am so excited to go visit Trent. I may even come home with a little surprise for you all...

This morning I was thinking about how we met, so I will tell you. I was 17, in high school, one day saw a book lecture announcement at Border's a couple miles from my house. I decided to check it out; it was on a weeknight starting around 7:30, I think. The attendance was small - five of us plus the discussion leader - and Trent was one of them, having read the book for his graduate class at U of M.

We all clicked immediately and got really caught up in our talk about the book. Before we knew it, the store had closed around us, and suddenly I saw my mom striding through the store with this worried expression! I was a bit mortified, but then I found out that it was near 11:00 and she had called the store when I didn't come home and was told that we had broken up some time ago and the store was closed. So she drove over and found my car, unlocked, in the parking lot, and thus was understandably a bit anticipatory of my whereabouts. So that is how Trent met me, my mom, and my mom's boyfriend at the time all in one night :)

And for a while she didn't like Trent (I was 17, he was 23, you know) but now she adores him, being that he has "withstood the test of time" and having become one of my most faithful and interesting friends.

I cannot wait to live the pseudo-celebrity life for a few days in sunny LA!

Contemplation

Do not be too quick to assume your enemy is a savage just because he is your enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy because he thinks you are a savage. Or perhaps he is afraid of you because he feels that you are afraid of him. And perhaps if he believed you were capable of loving him he would no longer be your enemy.

Do not be too quick to assume that your enemy is an enemy of God because he is your enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy precisely because he can find nothing in you that gives glory to God. Perhaps he fears you because he can find nothing in you of God's love and God's kindness and God's patience and mercy and understanding of the weaknesses of men.

Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God, for it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice, your mediocrity and materialiam, your sensuality and selfishness that have killed his faith.

--Father Thomas Merton

I'm Going To LA!

But not for another month.

My dearest friend, Trent, happens to be a celebrity blogger. Of course I knew him way back when blogs didn't even exist. In fact, his first online journal was on easyjournal.com, where you had to copy and paste from Word. But somehow he went from teaching at a swanky private school in a swanky Detroit suburb to giving Spears/Federline soundbites on CNN and weighing in on E! celebrity news shows.

His blog gets thousands of hits everyday and is sometimes even featured in the Post and the New York Times. Nicole Richie recognized him standing in line for the movies. He's famous, I'm telling you, and I knew him first and he's flying me out to LA next month!!!!

Paraphrased from my new favorite comedienne

I sometimes wish I had a degenerative disease. I already feel achy and tired all the time, but if I were actually diagnosed with something, I would feel exactly the same yet be described as courageous. I could roll out of bed at noon and people would say, "She insisted on getting up!"

Saturday Morning Cat-Nap

Telling

On the metro this morning a guy and a girl board together. At least I think they're together: despite the basically empty train car, they choose to sit together. They don't, however, talk, touch, or do anything to indicate that they are more than brother and sister. At their stop, he rises first, giving me a chance to see what she's reading: a self-help book called The Emotionally Available Man.

I dreamt last night that the metro went to India! So I took the train through snowy mountains and ended up at an underground lake broken up by caves. It was well lit and the water was very clear. Gray whales were just about to begin leaving offerings for the resident blue whale, and the person I was with showed me how to grab onto the fin and hitch a ride with the gray whale to the blue whale, streaking through the water.

Dream

A few nights ago I dreamt that I was trying to deliver a package for a man, but he wouldn't let me. We were in the car, he was driving, and he kept doing things to delay the delivery, like changing the contents of the package. Or we would pull up to the house and I was supposed to jump out and leave the package on the front porch, but he wouldn't stop all the way, just keep driving really slowly so I couldn't get out. Finally I got really frustrated and tried to jump out of the car to deliver the package but at the last second he shouted "No!" and grabbed a handful of my hair and I was like, "Okay, fine, I won't deliver it yet."

Gone and Back Again

Just had a nice long weekend in Michigan. An indulgent massage, French cafes, a pretty good film, family, presents (!), sleeping in, coffee with old friends.

It's nice to come home to two little creatures who are happy to see me, although I think it took them a few minutes to realize who I was!

I feel well-rested and ready for the week. Or, at least, ready for tomorrow.

Repetition-Compulsion

For the first time in my life I own a scale. I do not know if I like it. I can see how a person can become obsessed with weighing himself.