OCT 31 :: [boo-tastic] Halloween weekend has come and gone. Tonight's the trick-or-treat (most ppl I know will opt for the former) night and the kiddies will come by blah blah and we'll hand out candies blah blah. Yawn. I'm so exhausted.

The weekend was c-c-c-cold. Friday night, we picked Colin up from DCA (in from Atlanta) and whisked into the city for dinner with another dude, Jo (in from NYC) at Logan Tavern. The Fetch Trinity was reduced to the Dynamic Duo (me and Jason) this past weekend as drama rages out of control in this little gay town of Washington. Anywho, Colin didn't get in till quarter to 9 so it was a good thing I was loaded up on dumplings before dinner. Everybody else was famished and when we got to Logan Tavern at 9:45, there was a 45 min wait! Holy crap. Anyway, while waiting, I drank. And drank. And drank. 3 Cosmos later (or was it 4?), we are pretty toasty (definitely no longer cold) and we roll into Halo post-dinner just past midnight for even more drinks. Halo was still going strong then but clearly a lot of the crowd had meandered over to Apex. Colin and Jo retired after Halo but Jason and I got Tony to drop us off at JR's. Giggle. We made our runway walk through JR's, up the stairs to go pee and back downstairs and decided it was too skank so we started making our way to Apex. Midway through at, oh, 18th and P (LOL!), it was just way too cold to continue any further. . . So we called Tony to come pick us up. Hehe. And he did. And took us the 3 blocks to Apex. Hot.

Apex was a blur. I was so loaded up at that point that I only remembered Jason saddling up to a replacement horse (since Seabiscuit was out of town). The riding began and they were galloping around the racecourse (aka Apex) so I decided to ditch him coz I wasn't betting or had stakes on any of the horses there. Jason stayed at the races till, what was it sweetie, 6:30am?? Haha. Busted :p

I woke up with the Worst hangover in memory on Saturday. Must've been the compressed drinking schedule (7 drinks in 4 hours??). Anyhoo, Tony was busy all day doing some wiring work so I hopped in a car with Jason and Colin and went shopping in Georgetown. It was sunny and freezing so we cozied up at CakeLove for some lovely cakes before heading home to rest for the evening's event.

I must say Saturday night was rather tame. Jason met us at Sushi Taro for dinner before we hit JR's for a bit. Sailors (seamen, dead ahead!) and gladiators (let's wear boots, underwear and shoulder pads in 40&176# weather, shall we?) were out in force. It was cold enough I had a jacket and sweater on and it's my first time checking a coat at JR's since.. oh I don't remember. And it was not fetch. I'm NOT looking forward to winter!!

Anyhoo, we were at our usual spot.. in front of Matt, of course :) When alluvasudden, I hear a familiar start to a song. I look up and I see a VERY familiar face. It's Madonna (d'uh). And the song was unmistakably Hung Up. But wait, it's a music video I haven't seen before (and trust, I have seen ALL of them). OHMIBEYONCE, it's the new Hung Up music video! Jason and I had the same exact revelation at the same exact time. We held each other's hands, clutched our pearls with the other, mouths were gaping wide, and squealed so loud you could hear us from Nation. And then we fainted. And then we got more drinks, LOL. Fetch. That totally made our evening.

We left Jason, and I met Colin to hit Nation for the Halloween festivities. It was somewhat festive (costume contest? stage performance? ghoulish decor?) but really wasn't all that fetch. The crowd was somewhat sparse and the costumes were a yawn. Most of the boys went shirtless as their "costume" but then again, they do that every week at Nation so that wasn't entertaining. Lots of (dirty, nawty, filthy) angels, I seem to recall. We met Chuck/Joey/Bethany there. Music was stank. But we still danced like we had dislodged our pelvises. I don't remember much except sharing a cab with a Kiwi at 4:30am back to Dupont and he was, um, extremely friendly. I, of course, was a total cunt. I don't fall for cute foreign accents, spankyouverymuch.

Oh how could I forget, Ed Bailey - who was otherwise spinning unfabulous tunes - played a remix of Hung Up and that was The seminal moment (yes, I precame) of the evening. Fierce.

Sunday was Such an amazing day so we brunched with Colin/Jo at Dupont Grille, followed by driving around in the M3 under the gorgeous sunshine. We showed Jo the Undiscovered Washington i.e. Gravelly Point, Hains Point, Eastern Market, SE DC dick bars :-o, Kalorama.. it was just fun driving around with the top down after the nasty cold streak we've had. And FYI to all you bitches who think I'm self-loathing: Jo's Asian (Singaporean, ew yuk gros) and I spent Fri night and most of the day Sunday with him! :-p

No Desperate Housewives last night :( But Rome was scream-inducing. If you saw it, well, let's just say that incest is So not my scene. Definitely do not watch it post-dinner. And West Wing is setting up for The showdown of the season next week.

Ugh, it's November tomorrow. Where has this year gone? It seems that the older I get, the quicker the years go by. Not fair. Not fetch. At least I can start counting down the days till we fly to sunny Australia! @ 16:54

[litmus test] Harriet Miers was unceremoniously kicked out of the running to become a Supreme Court Justice because she failed a conservative, radical right-wing, pro-life litmus test on abortion. In addition, she was never given an up-or-down vote.

Those two reasons basically demolish the social conservative's argument that liberals are not allowed to use a litmus test when it comes to approving judges in the Senate. It also demolishes the Senate Republicans' steadfast belief that all candidates should be given up-or-down votes.

So now that the litmus test qualifier is fair game (um, you religious right-wing fucks started it), it seems that Judge Scalito *will* fail a pro-choice litmus test. Why should he get an up-or-down vote if Harriet Miers didn't? Ah-hah! Gotcha :)

Well, I wish it were that funny. But it's not. This is serious shit. And America does not agree with Judge Scalito's stance on abortion. Poll after poll on the abortion matter has established that two-thirds of America oppose the overturning of Roe v Wade, and only one-fifth of America believe abortion should be illegal under ALL circumstances.

What will Judge Scalito say during the confirmation hearings? And should Senate Democrats just come out and say they will filibuster him right now instead of waiting? If it were up to me, I'd say: "Say NO to ScaliTO!" Giggle!

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY):

"Like Rosa Parks, Judge Alito will be able to change history by virtue of where he sits. The real question today is whether Judge Alito would use his seat on the bench, just as Rosa Parks used her seat on the bus, to change history for the better or whether he would use that seat to reverse much of what Rosa Parks and so many others fought so hard and for so long to put in place."

America (liberals and moderates unite!) should not back down if lame duck Bush wants to pander to the 1/5th of Americans who want to outlaw abortion and replace the Constitution with the Bible. @ 15:13

[not so funny] End-Oct and Nov days are not so fun. How does one dress for 40s and high 60s (almost 70°)? Layering is so overrated. In the mornings, I have a turtleneck zip-up sweater (from Milan, natch) and a grey jacket over that, and that Barely keeps me warm in the 40s. Going home, I need neither in the 70° weather. Where on earth do you stash the sweater/jacket?? I have a high-60s/70s lightweight jacket but it doesn't work in 40° weather. Woe is me.

The other not so fun thing? Getting to work at 8:25 a.m. And just to rub even more salt (let's try the coarse and extra potent kind) into an already gashing wound, they were handing out Halloween treats this morning at this office building. And, of course as with everything else that requires some sort of "privilege", contractors don't get jack shit. The entrance to the facility is divided into the "whites" (employees-only) section (which is just a badge reader) and the "colored" (contractors) section which includes a metal detector (that is ludicrously calibrated.. Any zip sets it off!!). And the treats handy-outy peeps were only standing by the "whites" entrance, of course. . . Just to make it abundantly clear that the treats are Not for us second-class scums. They should just wear white hoods while they're at it. Rosa Parks is rolling in her casket.. 4 blocks from here this morning :)

Speaking of Ms. Parks, I feel compelled to go to the Capitol this morning. But since I work in 1950s Montgomery AL, only the "whites" get 2-hours off for the viewing. The "colored" don't. Maybe I should just go and tell them all to go screw themselves. Leaving the building in defiance. . . not moving to the back of the bus. . . Rosa would be so proud of me ;-) Yea, not so funny working here...

And, by far, the Least funny thing this morning is the nomination of Scalito to Justice O'Connor's Supreme COurt seat. Judge Samuel Alito currently sits on the 3rd Circuit Appeals Court. But his ideology is so similar to that right-wing nut Justice Scalia that they call him "Scalito".

So as not to seem overtly partisan on a beautiful, mild Halloween Day in DC, I only have three words for the Senate Democrats this morning: Unite and Filibuster. @ 08:51

[go ahead, laugh] You know how certain things that ppl do just make you laugh out loud and go "oh, that would Never happen to me" or "what an Idiot!" or "ohmibeyonce, are you f-in' Kidding me?". Things like. . . running out of gas. Or getting locked out of the house/car/etc. Or getting on the wrong plane.

Or not realizing you woke up an hour early after the clocks fall back, until after you shit, shower and shave, and are ready to step out into the chilly autumn air.

Yea, laugh all you want, bitches. I *know* some of you did it too!! :-p @ 08:31

OCT 29 :: [progressive alaska?] Who woulda thunk it.. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Unanimously to protect benefits for gay partners of public employees. Um, it's not like the court ruled for same-sex marriage or anything, so who cares? Right?

Um, read "Alaska" again. Like, Alaska the Second state in the Union to vote for a constitutional amendment Banning gay marriage, mmm-hmm (the first being Hawaii). And of course the Republican Governor was outraged and is now proposing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex benefits. On the eve of Rosa Parks being honored at the US Capitol, discrimination.. no, Hateful discrimination is still alive and well.

Really, how much more hateful can you get, Gov. Murkowski? I hope some day you are deathly ill and have no health insurance. And when you die, I hope someone challenges your will and none of it ends up going to your spouse.

Stupid, fucked up Republicunts. They'll all rot in hell. @ 11:30

[dumbass failure] Oooh, my first Saturday post since my mileage run in July! I'm hungover.. no, wait, I'm still drunk. I had way too many Cosmos last night. *Way* too many. But I had to share this with you: Go to Google and type in failure (or just click on the link, you lazy bastards). Link result #1 is priceless!

Now, all we need is for "dumbass" to fetch the same results. OMB, I just used the word "fetch" as a verb.. So many firsts for my blog this morning! Yes, I *must* still be drunk. @ 10:25

OCT 28 :: [only in dc] I would've thought this was a joke if I had read it anywhere else but the Washington Post. DC Council Member and former DC mayor Marion Barry pleaded guilty to not filing federal income tax returns and not paying taxes for the past FIVE years. On $534,000 of income!! I know, right... WTF??!

Why, oh Why is this man still an elected official of the District of Columbia? I guess if you can still get elected as mayor after serving a 6-mth prison term for smoking crack cocaine (caught on tape!!).. What a farce! Com'on you ppl in Ward 8, are you that stupid? Mr Barry, as your representative, is an embarassment! You deserve So much better.

I swear to God, only in DC... @ 19:10

[more blood] This is oh-so-juicy but not juicy enough. I want to see Karl Rove in handcuffs! I want more blood!!

This guy is a piece-a-work isn't he? Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff and war criminal for helping orchestrate the Iraq War) allegedly lied to FBI agents twice, perjured himself twice while testying under oath before the grand jury, and obstructed justice by impeding the grand jury's investigation into the unauthorized disclosure/leaking of Valerie Wilson's affiliation with the CIA. Good ol' special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald (like Ken Starr before him, why are special prosecutors celebrities??) said:

"When citizens testify before grand juries they are required to tell the truth. Without the truth, our criminal justice system cannot serve our nation or its citizens."

Amen. So when will President Bush testify before a grand jury investigating his decision to launch the Iraq War? Nothing but a bunch of liars in the White House. Bring them all down, I say. @ 14:32

[#29] In a rare tribute to the late civil rights icon, the United States Congress voted to authorize Rosa Parks as the first woman and the second African-American to lie in honor in the United States Capitol Rotunda. The beloved Parks died on Oct 24th in Detroit at the age of 92. She becomes the 29th person to lie in honor/state underneath the rotunda, and follows a long tradition of honoring presidents (10 of them, including the four who were assassinated), war heroes and politicians in this matter since 1852. She will be honored on Sunday and Monday. As you may all recall, the last person to lay in state in the Capitol was President Ronald Reagan in June of 2004.

(Not-so-)Fun facts: You can only "lie in state" if you're due a state funeral and you're only due a state funeral if you're the president, the president-elect, an ex-president, or someone specially designated by the president. Only 12 people (including all 10 Presidents, General Pershing and General MacArthur) have lain in state, the others have lain in honor. The first African-American to be laid in honor was Jacob J. Chestnut, one of two Capitol police officers fatally shot in 1998. Rosa Parks will be the second non-governmental official to be commemorated this way after the remains of Pierre L'Enfant - the French-born architect who designed Washington, DC - stopped at the Capitol in 1909, 84 years after his death. @ 13:54

[queen sulu] I've always been a fan of Star Trek, though not so much the original with Sulu in it (hello, I wasn't born in the 60s!). I loved watching TNG with Picard, Riker, Data, Deanna.. Beverly and her lovely son *giggle*

So this is quite interesting then, huh? I can only imagine the jokes... "set phasers on Fabulous" or "queen me up, Scottie".

Giggle. @ 11:00

[madonna is my god] Giggle. Allow me to quote her:

"I like to draw a line between religion and spirituality. For me, the idea of God, or the idea of spirit, has nothing to do with religion. Religion is about separating people, and I don't think that was ever the Creator's intention. That's just people's need to belong to a group and feel good about themselves."

"Just about every war that's ever been started has been started in the name of God. It's, 'I belong to this group; my group's better than your group, so if you're not in this group, we're going to kill you.' For me, religious thinking is synonymous with tribalism. You're not thinking for yourself; you're doing things because that's what somebody else did, or it's how your family taught you to behave and think."

She's baa-ack! I *heart* Madonna. @ 09:48

[fight back] E.J. Dionne Jr. in the Washington Post's "A Departure's Lasting Damage" today:

"Republicans had railed against Democratic efforts to press court nominees for their views on legal issues... Liberals were terribly gauche and inappropriate for wanting to know someone's opinions before awarding that person life tenure on the nation's most powerful court."

"But it was neither gauche nor inappropriate for conservatives to demand that Miers clarify her views on a slew of issues, notably Roe v. Wade . When liberals asked for clarity, they were committing a sin. When conservatives asked for clarity, they were engaged in a virtuous act. Thus are conservatives permitted to alter their principles to suit their own political situation."

"Conservatives condemned liberals who suggested it was worth knowing how Roberts's religious convictions might affect his judging. But when Miers started running into trouble with conservatives, the Bush administration encouraged its allies to talk up Miers's deep religious convictions to curry favor among social conservatives. I guess it's okay for conservatives to bring up religion whenever they want, but never appropriate for liberals to speak of spiritual things."

"This has been a powerfully instructive moment. The willingness of conservatives to abandon what they had once held up as high and unbending principles reveals that this battle over the Supreme Court is, for them, a simple struggle for power. It is thus an unfortunate reminder of the highly unprincipled Supreme Court decision in 2000 that helped put Bush in the White House. Conservatives who had long insisted on deference to states' rights put those commitments aside when doing so would advance the political fortunes of one of their own."

No litmus test, my ass! The cover has been blown. The Supreme Court nomination to replace Justice O'Connor is just another power grab by the unprincipled so-called conservative movement (that believes in big government, btw, with their radical right-wing agenda) to usurp the impose their minority views across America.

Don't want another Bush v Gore 2000? Filibuster the next Supreme Court nominee. @ 09:39

OCT 27 :: [rollcall of shame] In a reaffirming and dignified victory for American democracy and her standing as the beacon of human rights, the Senate three weeks ago voted to pass the McCain Anti-Torture Amendment to the $440bn Defense Appropriations Bill by a filibuster proof 90-9 vote. The amendment sets standards for the treatment of prisoners in US military custody, specifically barring "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" of such prisoners.

And in a shameful and despicable manner befitting of humans that have no respect for other human beings much less human rights, the Bush Administration threatened to veto - wielding this power for the first time ever - the entire Defense Bill. Why? Because President Bush and his minions support torture. Yes, the President of the United States, as preposterous and idiotic as it may sound, is against legislation that would forbid torture, Abu Ghraib notwithstanding.

In Richard Cohen's "We Don't Want a Hanoi Hilton" in the Washington Post today:

"Five years ago I went to Vietnam with Sen. John McCain. We went to the so-called Hanoi Hilton, the jail where American POWs were kept and where McCain spent much of his 5 1/2 years in captivity, most of the time being brutalized, some of the time being tortured. It was a dark, fetid place where waves of claustrophobia washed over me, and I wanted to flee, as McCain could not have done. "Nice place, huh?" he said to me as we left. For the stoical McCain, that amounted to a primordial scream."

"The experience that McCain brings to the question of torture has to be respected. If not, it is appallingly conceivable that someday someone could take the press to a spot and say that here -- here in this dark and fetid place -- is where he was cruelly abused by Americans. We would all be degraded by that."

If (when?) that day comes.. When America has lost all legitimacy and dignity in the eyes of the world.. When the world looks at America in much the same way as they looked at Saddam over the past two decades.. When we're the torturers, the abusers, the ones committing "crimes against humanity"..

Remember these names: President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, and the 9 Senators (all Republicans, go figure) that voted in support of torture: Wayne Allard (CO), Kit Bond (MO), Tom Coburn (OK), Thad Cochran (MS), John Cornyn (TX), James Inhofe (OK), Pat Roberts (KS), Jeff Sessions (AL) and Ted Stevens (AK).

The Rollcall of Shame. @ 21:19

[introducing...] Jason's new toy, Terrell. After the rapid demise of both Denzel and Kanye, Jason had to have the new video-enabled Terrell. Terrell is HOT. Sleek and shiney, and oh-so-beautiful in black. From the horse's mouth:

Sean Cody via Limewire: Free
Video iPod (aka Terrell): $399
Metro ride to West Falls Church: $1.85
Arriving at destination with wet underwear and a smile: Priceless

There are some things money can't buy... ;-) @ 16:20

[$1,247] Everyday in Q3 2005 (July 1st - Sept 30th), consumers around the world forked over more than one Billion dollars to ExxonMobil. And everyday in Q3 '05, ExxonMobil made $108mn in profits. Yes, Pure Profits. Doesn't sound like much? Imagine your bank account ticking up by $1,247 every second.. now imagine it ticking up for 3 months straight. Yes, it's an embarassment of riches. On the backs of record high oil prices, the world's third largest company recorded a record high revenue for a US company of $100.7bn in Q3 '05 which resulted in a staggering, mind-blowing, largest ever US corporate profit of $9.92bn.

ExxonMobil's YTD profits has already surpassed the largest profit ever recorded by a US company (and probably the world); a title which ExxonMobil held last year (FY04) with its then record profit of $25.33bn.

Big Oil, Big Profits. @ 14:02

[smokefree dc] The DC Council's Health Committee (headed by Catania, Evans and Gray) voted 3-0 to send legislation banning smoking in all DC bars and restaurants to the full council. If the council votes to approve the legislation (and a majority in the council favors a ban), DC bars and restaurants will be smokefree beginning January 2007.

And not a lower-dry-cleaning-bill moment too soon!!! I know some of you bitches Love the fact that you can smoke in JR's but I canNot wait for the day when JR's goes smokefree. @ 10:22

[ding dong] The (Miers) witch is dead... @ 09:32

OCT 26 :: [wet drag queens] What a miserable day it was yesterday. It was in the 40s all day, and it was wet and windy to boot! Ugh. WTF happened to fall?? Winter is so fucking annoying.

Anywho, I rushed home early, got dressed (in velvet.. in the rain.. AGAIN.. lessons never learnt), hopped in Tony's car and sped down to the Washington Gas building on Constitution and 1st for the 5th Annual G&L Victory Fund Leadership Awards. We had VIP tickets courtesy of Flaming "I-have-a-trick-in-every-city-and-DC-is-no-exception" Michael, so we were there before the heathens showed up. Fetch.

The day could not have been more disgusting for an outdoor event but, ohmibeyonce, what a view! They pitched a huge, somewhat-heated tent on the rooftop of the WGas building which had a panoramic, I-can-almost-touch-it view of the Capitol and the National Mall, all the way down to the Washington Monument. It was monumentally breathtaking.

Before you know it, I've stuffed my face with hors d'oeuvres (very yummy ones at that) and some martini concoction called the Victory-tini? Whatev. They were blue. They were made with Ciroc vodka. And they were blindingly strong. I had two and about passed out. And kept drinking two more, LOL! What... I can't possibly show up at the High Heel Drag Race sober. Rick was there and he got desperately drunk so let's not even go there.

Anywho, the windswept tent was no match for the inclement weather which made for quite an awkward evening (leaky tent plus cold draft and all). Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago and former Senator and Majority/Minority Leader (gosh, put That on your resume) Tom Daschle were recipients of the Oates-Shrum awards. Mayor Daley rambled through his speech like he couldn't wait to leave and go watch the White Sox (who won in 14-innings) take a step closer to winning their first World Series in 88 years (wow, I *am* butch). And Sen. Daschle's speech was devoid of humor and laden (like a pack of pachyderms) with political ra-ra that was absolutely inappropriate - I thought - for an off-election year. I was none too impressed. Like, he could've recounted a funny story during the Senate's fight against the FMA which, btw, was valiantly fought and won by the former Majority/Minority Leader. Something, anything to lift our spirits, instead of regurgitating more of the same rhetoric. Oh well, I was drunk and my belly was happy so off we went...

We run into Jack/Sally (former neighbors) and MichaelG/David/Forty on 17th Street and watched a bunch of storm-soaked drag queens parade their wet-flat wigs, running make-up/mascara and soaked heels. What is up with the weather on high heel drag race night? It's rained, what, four of the past five years now?? Sheesh. Anywho, the race was over in, as usual, 15 seconds. It was a comedic train wreck.. As usual :) Post-race, I met up with Jason (who had just flown in from Indiana), Chuck/ChrisFT at JR's. The lines to get in were extremely stank, but we were whisked in (what, you want to make *us* bitches stand in line? Bitch, please...) only to find everyone and their fag hag in there. Yes, as with all Halloween traditions started and made fetch by the gays, the high heel drag race has been usurped by more and more str8 people with each passing year. Get yo' own damn traditions, bitches! *curtsy*

*sharpening claws* And I'm getting really tired of the NIMBYs who live on 17th Street (yes, that includes the DCCA and ANC aka Gestapo) protesting the noise levels on 17th Street (yes, that's OUR street, bitches.. hands off!). JR's had to shut their outdoor tent at 10pm again last night. WTF?! They only have the outdoor tent twice a year - Pride and the Drag Race. It's not like they have it every single weekend. Gees. Let them keep it up longer (ohmy). And get a life. Bitches, if you want suburban-like quiet, MOVE ALREADY! *retract claws*

Anywho, a whole lotta merrymaking later, I was home, and in bed by midnight. Unlike last year *GASP* Let's not even go there. Halloween week festivities continue!! @ 16:44

OCT 25 :: [let the parties begin!]The ceremony ends, thank God, and everyone makes their way to Cloud for the reception. And gurls, We got the party Started! The token gay contingent (about 10 of us) stormed the party with our dance moves and our fierce outfits; not to mention crazy drinking antics and flirting with all the straight ppl, including one questioning waiter *giggle*

The food at Cloud was surprisingly delicious. Mikko's wedding cake creation was also out of control fabulous. I must've drank 8 Cosmos but who's counting when you're having a fetch ol' time. Steve wow-ed us with a fantastic groom's speech and presentation after. It was, by far, the apex of the wedding day. I wish I could remember more but Rob and I looked at each other at one point and said "ohmibeyonce, we're So drunk but this is So much fun!". LOL. That pretty much describes it.

The party ends. And the drizzle has now become rain. It's still a little light out and the next party wasn't starting for another 4+ hours. So I went into panic mode and dragged Tony to Backstage to find me a Halloween costume. 2 hours later, I came home with a geisha outfit like no other. It was screaming red with huge flow-y sleeves à la Madonna in Nothing Really Matters. 2 more hours and I had a white face with a red lipstick-line down the middle of my lips, and a hairpiece that included sakura (cherry blossoms) and chopsticks. Add to that a canary yellow feathered fan and it came close to topping my Pride geisha outfit. Fetch. Pictures to follow.

Ski's Halloween party was *The* Halloween party to end all Halloween parties. Almost everyone dressed up. As expected, there were lots of "brides" in attendance. I felt like a celebrity when everyone squealed as I walked into the house, followed by an explosion of flashbulbs. I, of course, had the fan in front of my face to conceal my identity and when I removed it (after curtsying Japanese-style of course), Naomi and Noriko both screamed like banshees. I had not dressed up the previous two years so this was quite a shocker. I'm really not a big fan of Halloween. No, really ;)

I was starving but I couldn't eat coz of the lipstick and face paint. So Tony had to feed me, giggle. I even had to drink out of a straw with my teeth! Let's just say it kept me from getting plastered. There were a ton of costumes but the most memorable ones (note to self: show more skin!) were the semi-to-almost-full-on naked ones. There were two pharoahs with blue headresses, gold briefs and not much else. Two cavemen with loin cloth and not much else (not even underneath! *gasp* yes, we saw it All). And then there was Naomi's half-brother. Who shocked everyone with an Afro and, well, again not much else. He basically wore a black thong. Trust me, pictures will follow *GRIN*.

The party ends all too early (4am) and Sunday was a completely wasted day as far as I'm concerned. We did miss Ms Adams Morgan which I heard was absolutely outrageous this year (like how's that different from years past?) but we didn't miss any of the fun of this past weekend.

Congratulations, Steve & Naomi!! I hope the baby's a boy, giggle :) @ 16:15

[wedding blues] I woke up the next day with a splitting ear ache and headache. Not so fetch. And the wedding was to begin at noon! Gee-sus, who schedules a wedding on Saturday at noon?! That's when people wake up! Good God. I could've just continued drinking to lift the droopy drunk skin on my face but I didn't. Instead, we trudged to Georgetown in appropriate-London weather (drizzly, misty, cold, damp, wet, miserable) for the wedding service.

I want to say the service was fun. Or joyous. Or happy. Or even just plain nice. But I'm a terrible liar. And let's just say it was none of the above. In fact, it was somber. Perhaps from the hangover, I was one yawn away from falling asleep. The minister was an absolute wreck and she trembled like she had never presided over weddings before. And boy could she ramble. On and on and on (oh wait... *giggle*) about everything and nothing, some of it inappropriate even. And the whole bloody thing was just too damn religious. And you know how I view religion so don't even get me started. In short, I want to say that the service was very un-Steve&Naomi but then again, I don't really know them well enough to judge. Perhaps the bride's pregnancy necessitated the bizarrely sanctimonious ceremony? We'll never know...

The bride did look absolutely gorgeous in her well-put-together pregnancy-induced bridal gown. Noriko did wear a stunning white ensemble which made her look so fierce they should've named a Typhoon after her. And her daughter-in-law was in an equally elegant and stunning kimono which made my jaw drop to the floor. So I went out and rented one for the evening, LOL! Story to follow, of course...

I did wear my fabulous black pin-striped velvet jacket with a redder-than-the-devil's-face shirt under it. It was quite a standout. Velvet, of course, went poorly with the relentless and drenching drizzle. No matter.. fashion over function, right? @ 16:15

[two down...] So, my weekend was fairly uninteresting . . . LOL! Not. Weddings galore. One wedding each for Sept, Oct and Nov and the past weekend featured Steve (Dave's brother) & Naomi's wedding. The festivities were, in fact, the entire weekend.

Friday night, both families and friends convened at Chris/Dave's for merrymaking and one final drunken night before the wedding day itself. Chris' parents, Steve/Dave's parents, Naomi's parents were all in attendance. Naomi's half brother from Tokyo And his entire family showed up as well. I thought they were very demur and Japanese but boy was I wrong (you'll see why below). The party was overflowing with champagne and relatives/friends from far and near made it quite a boisterous affair. Steve's British friends were, well, British as usual i.e. crazy, drunken, loud, and Super Fun. I drank enough champagne to fart bubbles. I was so drunk I got Naomi's mother, Noriko, to adopt me, giggle. She's such a, from her own words, "cool mom". Love her like sashimi.

After the "family" party, we moved on up to a Whitman-Walker charity event at Cloud featuring champagne as well but that was a bore so I left and went to Halo to hook up with Adam/Patrick, MichaelG and their bunch of crazy party whores. Halo was Packed. Everyone wanted to be downstairs and Everyone wanted to be in front of the bar. The area in front of the bar is definitely a chokepoint. All was well until we meandered to Apex for some clubbing shenanigans. Champagne + mojito + vodka-cran = UGH. Music was fun, the crowd was hopping, but I just couldn't keep my tired lil' body gyrating on the dance floor past 2am. @ 16:15

[hit again] Tragedy comes in threes... For the 8th time in 14 months, Florida got hit again by a hurricane. Wilma smashed into South Florida packed with Cat-3, 125mph winds leaving 6 mn powerless - 4 times as many as Katrina did - in this densely populated area. The Sunshine State suffered substantial damage from coast-to-coast, from Naples to Miami, Key West (60% of homes flooded) to Daytona Beach. Food, hot water and fuel are in short supply. Broken glass littered streets in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, where the wind and pressure had smashed countless windows and stripped skyscrapers of their glass shells. Miami airport remains closed for the second day in a row. Five days after Wilma devastated Cancun, 30,000 tourists are still stranded there with the airport scheduled to reopen today for evacuation flights.

Nature's fury continues unabated. And the Atlantic hurricane season has one more month to go. @ 13:26

[tragic milestone] Multiply tragedy by 2,000 and you get a sense of what Bush dragged us all into in Iraq.

Shame. @ 13:11

[death of an icon] America mourns the death of civil rights icon, Rosa Parks, who died last night of natural causes in Detroit, MI at the age of 92. Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, AL and was subsequently arrested and fined $14, back in the segregated days of December 1955. That act of civil disobedience inspired a civil rights movement and a 381-day boycott of the bus system by blacks, with Rev. MLK Jr. at the helm, that changed America for the better. The boycott led to a court ruling desegregating public transportation in Montgomery and 9 years later, the Civil Rights Act was enacted proclaiming all public accommodations nationwide be desegregated.

US Rep John Lewis (D-GA) said it best: "By sitting down, she was standing up for all Americans." Bless her heart and may her soul rest in peace. @ 13:09

OCT 24 :: [end cheap gas] The NYT Editorial's case for "Gas Taxes: Lesser Evil, Greater Good".

"There's no serious disagreement that two major crises of our time are terrorism and global warming. And there's no disputing that America's oil consumption fosters both. Oil profits that flow to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries finance both terrorist acts and the spread of dangerously fanatical forms of Islam. The burning of fossil fuels creates greenhouse emissions that provoke climate change. All the while, oil dependency increases the likelihood of further military entanglements, and threatens the economy with inflation, high interest rates and risky foreign indebtedness. Until now, the government has failed to connect our crises and our consumption in a coherent way. That dereliction of duty has led to policies that are counterproductive, such as tax incentives to buy gas guzzlers and an overemphasis on increasing domestic oil supply, although even all-out drilling would not be enough to slake our oil thirst and would require a reversal of longstanding environmental protections."

"...Cheap gas is no longer compatible with a secure nation, a healthy environment or a healthy economy - if ever it was. The real question is whether we should continue paying the extra dollar or two per gallon in the form of profits to the Saudis and other producers, or in the form of taxes to the United States Treasury, where the money could be used to build true energy independence."

Amen. @ 13:05

[dying democracy] Next month, voters in Ohio and California will vote on ballot initiatives that remove redistricting powers from the hands of politicians and make redistricting an apolitical process. Both measures will fail, mostly because they will take immediate effect as opposed to waiting for the next reapportionment cycle after the 2010 census. That's a shame.

The WP Editorial writes yesterday:

"Modern redistricting is a travesty. Politicians, using powerful computers, design districts that all but guarantee victory to one side or another. Sure, voters can go through the motions on Election Day, but few races are more than fictions. Sometimes the process is rigged to protect incumbents, sometimes to oust them, but maximizing competition and voter choice is never the goal when politicians get to draw the districts in which they or their friends will run. The result contributes to political polarization, since heavily Democratic districts tend to elect people far more liberal than average while heavily Republican districts tend to elect people far more conservative."

"...the measures would improve democracy in both states. Even if elections did not become dramatically more competitive, the system would be more open. Elections are supposed to be about voters choosing candidates. That's not a meaningful choice if the candidates have already gotten to choose their voters."

Until redistricting becomes a non-partisan process throughout the United States, elections to the House of Representatives are neither elections nor representative. They become a farcical vehicle for ultra-radical zealots to hold power in the halls of Congress, proposing and imposing laws on mainstream America, much of which rejects them. The beacon of democracy is fading with each gerrymandered election. @ 12:46

[daylight democracy] So I'm a geek and I was looking up the number of daylight hours in Perth compared to DC on Nov 24th (the difference is 4 1/2 hours!) and I just realized that Australia is as screwed up as the US is when it comes to timezones.

The contiguous US has 4 timezones. Australia has 3. But Australia's is weird. Western Australia (incl. Perth) is in the same timezone as Malaysia, China, etc. Eastern Australia (incl. Australia's two largest cities - Sydney and Melbourne) is 2 hours ahead. In between, there's the Central timezone which is - get this - 30 minutes behind the Eastern timezone. How bizarre. Whoever came up with 30 minute timezones is a sadist.

It gets worse (or better, depending on how you view it). Just like the US, Australia has its quirky daylight saving time issues.

In the contiguous US, DST is not observed in portions of IN and the whole state of AZ. DST starts a week later than the EU (which is standardized across the continent, thank God) and ends at the same time as the EU. That will change in 2007 thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 signed by Bush, but that's another story.

In Australia, Western Australia - together with Queensland and the Northern Territories, do not observe DST. Canberra (Capital), Sydney (NSW), Melbourne (Victoria), Adelaide (South Australia) and Tasmania observe DST. But wait, there's more. Tasmania observes DST longer than the rest of the country. So at some points in the calendar year, Australia's timezones doubles from 3 to 6! In effect, Australia has both horizontal and vertical timezones. The Ozzies are crazy. Well, at least Perth maintains the same timezone year round so it's either 12 or 13 hours ahead of DC.

So yea, it's thoroughly confusing. That's democracy for ya, especially when it's a federal-state system like the US and Australia and each state gets to choose. Europe is a little more uniform. But the best is China. Even though China straddles at least 5 timezones, the entire country sets its clock to Beijing time; with no variance and no DST. Because of this, when the sun rises (or sets) in Shanghai, TIbet has to wait 2 more clock hours before they get daylight even though both places are almost on the same latitude.

Communism at its finest :) @ 11:32

[nasty weather] It was a bone-chilling upper 40s this morning and it won't get above 60 for the rest of the week. Add to that a powerful nor'easter tomorrow and we have the makings of a really ugly start to the week. Hurricane Wilma, battering South Florida right now, will merge with a storm system from the Ohio Valley over the Atlantic Ocean tomorrow to create a super-storm that will impact all of the Eastern Seaboard. Add that Atlantic moisture to a cold air dome plummeting south from the Arctic and heavy snow is in the forecast for New England, though not in DC. I know, snow in October??

Have I mentioned how much I despise the cold?

After battering Cozumel, Playa del Carmen and Cancun for much of the weekend with hurricane-force winds and drenching rain, Hurricane Wilma slammed ashore the Gulf Coast of South Florida this morning as a Category 3 hurricane. Earlier this weekend, Tropical Storm Alpha made history as the 22nd named storm of the Atlantic Hurricane season, breaking the 1933 season's record. It also made history as it was the first time the Greek alphabet was used to name storms.

Wilma becomes the 8th major hurricane to hit Florida in the past 14 months, after Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne in 2004, and Dennis, Katrina and Rita in 2005.

And exactly one month from today, I should be landing in sunny Perth, Australia where it's 70°+ right now and should get warmer as spring creeps into summer (the seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, FYI). Fetch! @ 10:53

OCT 21 :: [hung up] If it was Thursday night, it must've been happy hour at JR's! And last night was no different. On the way there, I ran into the groom in this weekend's wedding. Isn't it bad luck to see the groom before the wedding? :-D Anywho, Phillip (yes, bitch finally decided to re-emerge and grace us with her presence) and I got JR's going at 6pm. Bitch is on Accutane and protested about mixing alcohol with that. I was having none of it and shoved a few Madras cocktails down her throat, with very little resistance I might add. We were joined by ChrisFT/Chuck an hour later and the craziness increases exponentially, of course. I usually have 3 drinks, sometimes 4 before the 8pm cut-off. But last night's 5 drinks was definitely one too many, aided by enabler #1 ChrisFT and enabler #2 Chuck. I wobbled home, ate, and passed out. I know, how typical.

Ooh, how could I forget, JR's played Hung Up! Fierce. No video yet but they played the song anyway with a montage of Madonna's videos over the past 2 decades. Very hot.

Like I said, wedding events will take up much of this weekend. Somewhere in between, there'll be other parties to attend, some with costumes, some with bubbly, some with wine-tasting, etc. You'll just have to read all about it next week ;) Stay dry! (or wet, if you prefer *wink*) @ 16:13

[london gloom] It's miserably dreary today. It's been drizzling on and off all day, and it's cold, brr. Mid-40s and low-60s all weekend and into next week. Yup, fall is definitely here.

Tony and I checked out the new wing at Tysons mall a couple of days ago. It was nice, but nothing spectacular. At 2.3mn sq ft, Tysons Corner Center is now the 5th largest mall in the United States. Yawn. One thing's for sure, the new wing is HUGE. The only thing that hasn't changed is the traffic. It's still stank. Worse than ever. With or without Metro, I have no idea why anyone would want to put up with that traffic, which gets infinitely worse every year, and especially so around Christmas time.

Anywho, they finally have a men's H&M but the selection is stank. And while the new stores (Mexx, Hollister, Old Navy, Urban Outfitters, etc.) add a lot of variety to the mall's mix, it's still the suburbs. We ate at this place called "Brio Tuscan Grille" which was cavernous. Tables were miles apart. Service was so-so. Food was just a step above Olive Garden. I have no idea why suburbanites tolerate sub-standard Italian food but they seem to love it. I guess the sensitivity of your tastebuds is inversely proportional to your distance from the city.

Category 4 Hurricane Wilma made a mess out of the Yucatan Peninsula today, lashing the tourist resorts of Cancun and Cozumel with 140mph winds - the same strength as Katrina when it slammed into New Orleans. Wilma was once the most intense Atlantic hurricane in recorded history, when the central pressure was measured at 882mb on Oct 19th. With Wilma, the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season has broken many records: 21 tropical storms making this the most active season on record (tied with 1933), 12 hurricanes equals the most hurricanes to form in a single season (tied with 1969). The season has spawned three Category 5 storms, the first time on record this has happened. Three of the six strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic formed this season - Katrina (902mb), Rita (897mb) and Wilma (882mb). Definitely one for the history books.

Found this to be an interesting little article. Among cities half a million or more, Washington DC has the largest net increase in daytime population due to commuters, registering a 71.8% rise when workers come into the city from Virginia and Maryland. That means that during the day, DC has close to a million people! If Manhattan was a city, it would win this race in both sheer numbers (1.34mn increase to 2.9mn people!!) and percentage-wise (87%).

The rest of the year is shaping up to be quite busy for us. We have engagements or trips scheduled for much of the remaining weekends in 2005. Before you know it, 2006 will roll around. In fact, there are only 71 days left to the year. Time flies when you're having lots of fun! @ 15:59

OCT 20 :: [rest in peace] Datin Seri Endon Mahmood, the First Lady of Malaysia since October 2003 when her husband Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became Malaysia's 5th Prime Minister, died today at the age of 64 after fighting a long 4-year battle with breast cancer, two months after the first couple's 40th wedding anniversary. She passed peacefully at the Prime Minister's official residence, Seri Perdana, in Putrajaya - Malaysia's new capital. She is survived by two children and four grandchildren. Her sister, Noraini, also died of breast cancer in January 2004.

It is a very sad day for Malaysia, and this serves as a tragic reminder that breast cancer kills and does so with little regard for race, color, creed or class. October is breast cancer awareness month and tomorrow is National Mammography Day. Please schedule a check-up. @ 13:30

OCT 19 :: [travel whores] So we've finally decided to replace Bali with Thailand and Hong Kong for our upcoming trip to Asia/Australia over Thanksgiving. We'll be going to Bangkok and Samui (which we've never been) before hopping over to HK to see Su-Ann, my HSBC tai-tai*. Should be fun, I'm looking forward to it. This trip will also find us in First Class on Lufthansa (hot!), Singapore Airlines (*squeal*) and United (uhm, err...). Yes, we're gonna live it up like never before.

*tai-tai:: well-preserved, older Asian lady who has enough assets - whether self-accumulated, inherited or provided - to lunch and play mahjong all day.

Speaking of travels, my mom is currently on her 542nd trip to China (I exaggerate but she Does go there something like twice a year). Prior to her leaving, here's a lil' snippet of conversation that we had. [Funny how I wait for her to depart before I write this.. she *does* read my blog. Oh the horrors...]

Since I, being the useless gaysian that I am, can't read or write in Chinese, this entire conversation has been transliterated for your viewing pleasure..

Mom:: Ming-Ming, it's Mom, yea?

[bitches, I swear if any of you call me Ming-Ming...]

Me:: [OMB, I'm 28.. I *Know* what you sound like, Mom] Yea? 'Sup?

[actually, it was more like "what's happening?" but who said my translation was perfect :-p]

Mom:: Have you eaten?
Me:: (furrowed brow and looks at the clock) Yea, of course.. It's 11pm. I ate hours ago.

["Have you eaten?" or "Sik pow mei?" is like the universal Cantonese "Hi, how're you". Trust.. but really, I don't think my parents have gotten the timezone concept quite yet]

Mom:: Did you cook or eat out?
Me:: Tony cooked
Mom:: (silence)

[this usually happens the first time I bring up his name, LOL]

Mom:: How's your younger brother?
Me:: $*&%^#

[OK, I'm gonna snip out most of this part of the conversation coz it'll make my blood boil]

Mom:: Mommy is going to the Middle Kingdom next month [chinese lesson #243: the Chinese call their own country Zhong-guo or "Middle Country"]
Me:: Again?! Where in China?
Mom:: Jiuzhaigou. It's really, really pretty with mountains covered with fog and bamboo pagodas dotting the entire landscape, and lions, and dragons, and monkeys.. blah, blah, blah

[I just tune her out at this point coz really, it's like describing how beautiful North Dakota is]

Me:: Wow, cool
Mom:: So you pay for mommy, yea? Your elder brother is paying for daddy. I'm gonna swipe your credit card later today when I go to the travel agency. OK?
Me:: [What did you expect me to say.. 'No'? This is like entrapment..] OK. How much is it?
Mom:: Oh, very cheap. Only 3,900 ringgit.
Me:: Oh, so about a thousand dollars [clearly I need to make more money]. Um, sure. How's Da..?
Mom:: OK, don't want to talk anymore. Mommy's got to go.
Mom:: Drink-more-water, Don't-go-out-all-the-time, Don't-drink-so-much-alcohol! Not good for you! I see you are drinking all the time.. Not good!
Me:: Yes, mom. [how can you argue when she has proof in my blog?]
Mom:: Remember, don't drink so much! OK, bye. [click]

And that's how my mom got me to pay for her China trip. It's not the first and it won't be the last! I love how my mom has replaced "thank you" or "I'll talk to you later" with "Don't drink so much!". @ 16:01

[$61,400] That's the average amount a typical family of four earning $60,000 annually spends a year. Um, wait.. how does one spend more than they earn? Oh, right.. it's called Credit Card DEBT. Yes, we've turned into a credit-hungry nation with zero-savings, spending way beyond our means, and an out-of-control budget deficit.

The $61,400 figure includes local and state income taxes, costs associated with owning two cars (except in Manhattan), public transportation costs, goods and services, sales taxes, and costs to own a 2,500 sq ft house (mortgage payment, insurance, real estate taxes, utilities and maintenance).

To no one's surprise, Manhattan is the costliest place to live in the United States. The annual cost there is a whopping $146,060 or almost 2.4 times the national average. What Is a shocker though is housing costs gobbles up $100,532 annually in Manhattan - 7 out of every 10 dollars spent! Um, who on earth spends $8,400/mth on housing?! Good God.

San Francisco comes in second at $122,007/yr ($79,156 on housing) or just shy of double the national average. LA $117,726/yr. San Jose $108,506/yr. And finally, our nation's capital and where we live - Washington, DC $102,589/yr or about 67% above the national average.

I live in the 5th most expensive city in the United States. Go figure. And if I had a choice, the cities in this list's top three would rank in my top three as well of cities I would want to live in the US. Yea, I'm high maintenance ;-) @ 13:39

[madonnadrama] Madonna released the first single from her new album "Confessions on the Dancefloor" two days ago on iTunes. The album comes out next month. The new single is called "Hung Up", an ABBA-heavy sample of "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" (1979). I tried to download it all night when it came out but iTunes kept crapping out. No idea why. So I waited patiently and when I got home last night, I immediately tried to download it and, voilà, it worked! I was getting all giddy until I tried to strip the DRM from the .m4p file. My "stripper" (JHymn) errored out with a "we don't support iTunes 6... yet". Grr. I knew I should've have upgraded to v6.

Before you get all "bitch, serves you right for trying to steal music", I *Paid* for the single. Yea bitch, I have started paying for my music; unless it's not available on iTunes then I still use LimeWire. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have admitted to that on the Internet. Anywho, I strip the DRM because .m4p files don't play on my sound system at home or on my W800 walkman-phone. I really don't care about the DRM but stripping it is the only way to convert the file into an MP3.

Anywho, I panicked and immediately sent out a Bat signal to my Apple guru, Jason aka Hurricane Willy. Trust me, Willy packed stronger winds than Wilma when he was on the dancefloor at Cobalt on Friday night! Aaaaaanywho, he was like "der, just burn it onto a CD and then rip it back". I'm pretty smart but I can be so stupid sometimes. So I get giddy again, I burn it and rip it into an MP3 file and I proceeded to upload it to my W800. All is well! I listened to it a few times last night. I'm happy *ooze* :-)

I'm getting all tingly as I leave the house this morning (mostly because of the cold but partially because I get to listen to Madonna over and over again!).. I put on my mug-me white earphones, scroll through my phone's playlist for Madonna, the anticipation is building with every step I take..

And *shock and horror*, "Hung Up" is not there. I have no idea what happened. Why didn't it upload? I scoured through my iTunes database at home (yea, I did it from work.. toldcha I'm pretty smart) but nada, no Hung Up.mp3 :-( I guess I'm just not meant to listen to the new single.

Everything little thing that you say or do
I'm hung up
I'm hung up on you

I need my Madonna!!

My day is ruined. And it hasn't recovered. Mostly because I work in Auschwitz where contractors are treated like sub-humans. Totally stank. I'm hoping retail therapy tonight will lift my spirits. *mope* @ 11:07

OCT 17 :: [a picture is worth...] A gay-zillion words. As promised:

Tony and M2 @ Halo
The Fetch Trinity! @ Halo
The Tongue, LOL!
Cobalt - Rick and Diva Bethany
Cobalt - Rick and mystery woman
The Showgirl Pic
Willy Wonka unleashed
Sorority Girls kissing
Me and Diva Bethany @ McD's
Me and drunk ChrisFT @ McD's
Priceless! @ 20:46

[泰山] Born on July 9th to Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, the newest member of the giant panda family at the National Zoo is now called Tai Shan or "peaceful mountain". He was named 100 days afte he was born in accordance with Chinese custom. As of last week, Tai Shan was 25.5" long and weighed 12.7 pounds.

There are only 1,600 giant pandas in the wild in China. Besides DC, giant pandas can also be found in zoos in San Diego, Atlanta and Memphis. Tai Shan is only here for 2 years after which he is returned to China.

Hmm, since he's born in the US, does he get a US passport? :) @ 20:26

[desperately priceless] The scream-worthy moment from last night's Desperate Housewives came when Andrew oh-so-perfectly mimicked her mother's orgasmic squeals at the dinner table to rile up George, before Bree sat down and demonstrated that same exact squeal upon taking a bite of her home-made dessert. Squirm-inducing. I almost fell off my couch. If my mouth was agape during that scene, I can only imagine the piercing shrieks from families all across America.

Only on Desperate Housewives.

And the quote of the episode, as Gabrielle prods her new lawyer to arrange a conjugal visit with her incarcerated husband:

I want what I want when I want it.

I love Gabrielle! She's me. Or I'm her. Whichever. @ 16:42

[6-hour rule] Saturday morning, my phone buzzes like a bad wake-up call to a hangover. Rick was on the other line and bitch couldn't talk coz he had lost his voice screaming so hard at 80s night, LOL. And then I got Jason's text:

OMB. I had sooo much fun last night. giggle. I cant wait to see the pics. I was in Jenna Bush mode.

After channelling Jenna all night on Friday, the Fetch Trinity came to a fork in the road on Saturday. I chose the ohmmm, detox-my-hangover chant at yoga while Jason (who eschewed picking up guys at the Millions More March) and Rick decide to start drinking at 2pm. At Gordon Biersch *gag*. Yup, another week, another blue-collar trick for Rick. Hispanic, to boot. He's probably done all the dishwashers in DC by now :-o Aaaanywho, I get these texts from Jason:

We had to get Rick a donut ring so he could sit at the bar. (post-Corey)

Wait till you see the Eastern European 'porn star' that works here. HOT!

So what do I do? I jump in my convertible (it was a beautiful 70s day) and join them after yoga (no alcohol for me). Shock and horror, we proceed to have a riotous time in a str8 bar. Much of the conversation is unfit for print, of course ;) Let's just say we had a CSI moment and it had to do with investigating the package of hot bi guy sitting to our left. We did do some preliminary planning for our Halloween outfits. I'm thinking doing the geisha thing again but we'll see. Jason is gonna be covered in golden tickets, of course. He'll make a grand entrance into Fireplace and start handing 'em out, slowly exposing his body to the masses, while screaming "come to my chocolate factory!" the whole time. Giggle.

We left GB after doing massive damage to some hot wings and those two bitches had 8 drinks each, or so it seemed. And we proceed to go shopping and then drove around a bit (complete with Jason singing to a black meter maid) before Rick had to go meet up with his trick post-work at GB and Jason and I went home. The 6-hour rule kicked in i.e. if you go home within 6 hours after getting blitzed, you won't come back out again. Yes, I was left to fend for myself for the evening. Stank.

I was sending out Desperate SOS's all over. Text messages flying everywhere. In the meantime, a flank of cop cars and gaggles of DC's finest gathered at our neighbors for a suspected burglary. That was drama in itself. Anywho, my Saturday night was ultimately saved when MichaelG calls and invites me to a "sorority girl" party.

I'm like, "WTF?" So I get Tony to drop me off at some little shack off 66 in Ballston. Oh. My. Beyonce. I thought I had just walked into an ex-gay conversion party coz the girls there were Super HOT! There was so much silicone in the room you'd think the alphabet started at C. Big, tight, perky, hot.. it was like a parade of cleavages and blond hair. I So wanted to be one of them. Can you imagine all those frat boys lusting after you? Oh gurrrl, I just tinkled.

But then I pinched myself and realized that the frat boys there were Even hotter. Phew! Summa-Cum-Allovahme coz this party was FIERCE. Adam, Leo, the Mean Girls + Bethany, Ryan, Mark, etc. were all there and I met some really fun and a gaggle of crazy girls. We were pounding tequilla shots, rum shots, vodka-soaked pineapple. We stole rum and diet from one of the girls and ChrisFT was pounding SoCo shots like it was going out of style and had just been brought back. Hot! Everyone was wasted. At one point, some of the frat boys dared us to blow each other :-o

The other rule from this weekend: Sorority girls have more fun!

We pile into a moving global warmer (aka Suburban) and crash Cobalt 30 minutes before closing. Hot! Luke was spinning and the music was fierce as usual on nights that he spins. One fetch trip to McDonald's later, MichaelG and I walk to Alberto's and then I crash. Another 3:30 party night. And so my weekend ended on Saturday night... well, Sunday morning.

I did absolutely nothing on Sunday. I woke up and you could smell the tequila and regret in my breath. One more shot of tequila and I would've been comatose, I swear. I didn't move from the couch or go outside. I slept like a baby last night. Another weekend ebbs, and another fetch one is on the horizon! Naomi and Steve's wedding this Saturday, woohoo! The parties keep on rollin'...

I promise, pictures will follow. Hold on to your panties, mmm-kay? @ 16:31

[fetch fridays] Oh Monday, Monday, Monday. How do you solve a problem like Monday. The Only consolation to Mondays is my bitches and I jump on IM and giggle about our weekend like high schoolgirls talking about their dates the next day. Except that ours is Full of sex. Enough to make Tara Reid blush. Hot.

I have officially declared what is probably the most anticipated day of the week to be Fetch Friday. Who doesn't look forward to the weekend after a long week of being slave to the office grind? Apparently, the Fetch Trinity looks forward to it the most coz bitches, we were On Fire, as we have been for the past several Fetch Fridays. Of course, it also helped that I started my Friday off with retail therapy at H&M ;-)

After successive weeks of faltering around midnight, we planned it way better this past Friday. "No drinking before 9pm" was the motto. So we got to Halo at 8:50pm just in time for 2-for-1, lol! Yea, we're cheap. Rick shows up at 9:01 and just misses the cut. He was having wardrobe drama. And for the third week in a row, Rick's ex-related drama re-surfaces. Me thinks it's time to reconsider Halo on Fridays. Anywho, we went upstairs instead and made fun of all the faux-lebrities who made an appearance. There was PHAT Tobey Maguire (as in Pretty Heavy and Tragic) and a Queer Eye Ted lookalike. M2/Leo, Adam/MichaelG, Jamie were there, etc. Cosmos everywhere.

LCD-Corey (it's a private joke, you won't get it) calls, so we flipped our hair (left, right) and hauled ass (Rick had to make two trips, LOL) outta there to JR's. I had a classy bitch moment with Corey there:

C:: Why don't you like me
Me:: Coz you're dumb

Giggle! I'm mean. The apex of the evening was not the usual Apex Friday night thing but 80s night at Cobalt! We had been waiting for this night All week. In case you don't comprehend, 80s night is usually on Tuesdays at Cobalt but most of us white-collar gays have to work on Wednesdays. But 80s is such an amazing night that we do it anyway. Having it on a Friday was like pouring honey all over Cobalt. And bitches, the queen-bees were swarmin'!

On the way there, we run into the Mean Girls + Bethany and proceed to have a riotous 17th out-on-the-fucking-Street moment. We get to Cobalt and we immediately sear the dancefloor. Drinks and all can wait. Hot boys, check. Fetch music, check. Dancing on the podium, check. Roping all the straight girls and them stringing their gays along into our web, check.

Jason was especially fierce that night. She latched on to this guy like her wedding day. In Vera Wang. Bitch was on fire! She was tossed and thrown and flipped and reversed.. and that was just on the dance floor. Jason's dance moves on this guy was like Showgirls and Rockettes all rolled into one. She was twirling so much, She should've been the 21st named storm of the season. At one point, her back was parallel to the floor (and yet her hymen was still intact the next day, go figure). Uh-huh, one wonders where her legs were. She hopped onto "Seabiscuit" so much she about kicked everybody in the bar. Me thinks she should wear a jockey uniform for Halloween instead.

It was a sight to behold. I thought she was gonna bust her thigh. Again! Giggle.

We danced ourselves into a frenzy and they (Rick, Jason, Corey) then decided to go get food at Annie's. I demurred, and as I was giving Jason a goodbye hug, bitch picks me up and carries me on her shoulder.. INTO Annie's! They almost kicked us out, LOL! They claimed we were too drunk to dine there. Yup, we've definitely reached a new high (low?) in our public display of drunkenness. Anywho, I was home and in bed by 3:30. What a fierce night! 80s rules. Forever. Shout-out to my bitches who make Fetch Fridays happen. Muah. @ 16:00

[bottom woods] This past weekend, we (Willy Wanka - aka Jason - and me) inducted Regina into the Bottom Woods Country Club. Let's just say Corey was in town and Regina mistook him for Seabiscuit.

Yes, the club is exclusive and No, we won't take your money. But if you have a nice horse, by all means come pay us a visit! Jason will take all your Black Stallions and I seem to gravitate towards White Clydesdales.

We love horses :) @ 11:28

[pretty woman] Bitches, I am in Desperate need of retail therapy (Tony's quaking in his apron right now). Yes, if I had a show on TV, it would be called Desperate Clotheswhore.

Why the sudden realization of, oh, something I do every 3 months or so? Well, the weather has gotten decidedly colder (ugh) and all my cold-weather pants from last year don't fit anymore. I squeezed into a size 29 jeans the other day which means all the size 30 pants have Got to go. And all my linen pants from spring/summer just ain't gonna cut it. Well, that and they are So last season, Please. Waa. So I'm stuck freezing my lil' twins off walking to work every morning. Lemme tell ya, the whole novelty of the walking/metro-ing commute thing was quite tiring (and sweaty) in summer but I'm definitely over it now that it's cold as balls outside.

Back to shopping. Well, I quite detest shopping. I much prefer buying. Tony will tell you that if I go to a Mall and leave without swiping my credit card at least once.. well, let's just say an empty-handed Kiat is a grumpy Kiat. Sooooo, I'm thinking H&M, Kenneth Cole, Gap, Banana, Mexx, Zara.. Nordstrom for sure. Where would I find all that under one roof.. Oooh, Tysons opened a new wing 2 weeks ago and I have yet to check it out. I hear it's totally Phat. I know which "spa" I'll be going to for my retail therapy. Watch out you NoVA bitches. I'm gonna be sashaying down your neck of the woods like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Bags and all. Trust.

Well, sans fedora. And sans LA weather. DC weather sucks. @ 11:20

[cattle pen] Our offices did some massive reshuffling of offices and cubes this past weekend. And I believe we are all now situated in our somewhat permanent positions. And it's completely not fetch.

I'm in a cattle pen. There are FIVE of us in this cube. Yes, five. I mean, it's a pretty big cube but still.. It's basically U-shaped with 2 on each of the long sides and 1 in the middle and I have the the tip of one of the long sides. Stank. The goverment peeps all have massive window or interior offices. My boss has a 8x8 cube to himself. Everyone else is cattle for all they care. They treat contractors here like dirt, as I imagine the Federal Gov't does at every facility. They view us with disdain.. simply coz we're far more productive and relevant than they will ever be. Government is Not the solution!!

Bunch of Nazis. LOL! Actually, it ain't all bad. I love sitting in spaces with lots of activity and life. Coz I'm such a chatty Asian, I never shut up, and I love bitchin' about everything. My co-workers are gonna be So sick of me, giggle.

In the meantime.. Moo. 10:40

OCT 14 :: [more pictures] By popular request, more camera phone pictures.. this time from Columbus Day weekend. Hope y'like!

I *love* this T-shirt
The Fetch Trinity at JR's
Fetch Trinity part deux
Me and Rick!
Adam and I @ Halo
Patrick and I @ Halo
This is the "Licking" photo
Me and Tyson... somewhere, who remembers after the 8th drink @ 11:01

[boys don't like to get wet] Well, not unless it's summer, or part of foreplay. I've been out the past three nights - no, I've been good.. been home by midnight every night - and the city is just dead. I, for one, do Not like to get my hair wet. So going out in the rain is like self-punishment. Tuesday, I met Rick at Foodbar, drag bingo and Cobalt for a little bit. Wednesday, I met Rick/Jason and Flaming Michael (yes, this name is gonna stick) at Halo for a little bit before going grocery shopping - first time in months? - at Whole Foods. If you've never been grocery shopping with me when I'm hungry, it's quite entertaining as Tony will tell you, and also quite damaging on the wallet.. also as Tony will tell you. I buy Everything.

Last night at JR's was dead but Eric-TX was in town so we took him there. I run into the Mean Girls, of course, and ChrisFT was already past the point of blitzed when I got there. 6 more drinks later and bitch couldn't even stand so off she went. In between, Adam and MichaelG (grr, I have Way too many Michaels in my life) show up sans Patrick (who's in TN, pray for him) and we had quite a raucous time at JR's till past 11pm. Michael was Kung Pao and I was Moo Shu for the evening and we got Moo Goo on each other's Gai Pan all night. Fetch. And we have pictures to prove it!

You'll see me, ChrisFT, Chuck, Michael and Adam in both these pictures but it's up to you to figure out who's who :) Enjoy! BTW, there's no flash on this pictures, just a little bright light and it was dark in the bar, mmm-kay? Still, I *love* my new camera phone. 2-megapixel photos, HOT!

From JR's last night: Picture 1, Picture 2... no points for figuring out which one's ChrisFT (he's the blindingly pale "I'm so white, I'm translucent" boy who looks completely blitzed). S'just too obvious, LOL! Love you, muah. @ 10:44

[rain, go away] If it seems like it's been raining for much of the past week, well it has. After last weekend's deluge, we've had rain every workday this week. Although, we shouldn't complain coz it's been raining in NYC (and much of the Northeast) for the past 7 days (12.3" of rain!) and the rain is still coming down. Me thinks they should start rounding up the animals :) But tomorrow is supposed to hit close to 80° in DC (and sunny!) so I'm happy.

I wore a light jacket to work yesterday for the first time since spring. It barely went above 60° all day, ugh. And last night, I wore pants around the house also for the first time since spring as the house cooled to 72°. Winter is definitely coming. And I'm dreading it. I'm dreading bundling up and freezing in the house as I keep the thermostat at 68° coz of the natural gas prices. Brrr... Not fetch at all.

Rain, I know we prayed for you to come water our crops and gardens but honey, you've way overstayed your welcome. Time for you to go. No, you go. And stay there. @ 10:25

OCT 12 :: [mundane weekend] Can you be-Lieve I waited until Wednesday to write about my weekend? It was a perfectly mundane weekend. Well, maybe not mundane. It was not as fetch as I would've liked it to be, But it also wasn't as bad as I make it out to be. So yea, I guess it was mundane. I call it my Goldlilocks weekend. It was "Just Right". I don't remember much of it now so I'll just quickly go through it like it was a sitcom.

Columbus Day weekend. All because some Spanish dude sailed across the Atlantic 513 years ago, we now get a holiday in October. Fetch. He was looking for Asia and Thank God he found America coz he only had enough supplies to reach America. Anywho, though he surely wasn't the first person to set foot on America, he was credited with discovering the New World so here we are, the richest nation on the planet and honoring a crazy explorer every October.

It poured like an M-F-er Friday and Saturday. 7.3" and they weren't even the good kind of inches ;-) (or AOL ones either!) Rick/Jason, Jason/Paul, Tony/I met for a margie-filled dinner at Lauriol where there was a lot of talk about fried chicken and dumplings. Hmm, note to self: record conversations for future reference next time. I Do remember coining drag names for all of us. We Have, of course, established Rick to be "Regina Cuntina", who is now famous DC-wide (not the least because she's been a cunt to practically every single boy in DC). If you must ask "why Regina?" and you haven't watched "Mean Girls", well, you're totally not fetch and you're never sitting at our table. Ever! Then we have "Willy Wonka" which is not so much drag but supremely appropriate for chocolate-loving, "I-have-all-the-golden-tickets" Jason. And I staked a claim on "Lucy Liu" before (Rick's) Jason bursts out with "ahem, more like Lucy Loose". ROTFL. With friends like these, who needs an enema... ;-D

I was gonna get all SARS on her ass, but she was gonna get all bird flu on mine so we called a pandemic truce. [hmm, why do all funky diseases come from Asia??]

Armed with newly-anointed drag names, we marched up to Duplex in the pouring rain for more drinks before driving down to Halo for some killer Cosmos. Then we hit JR's.. then Cobalt.. and I really wanted to stay at Cobalt but.. oh who the fuck knows/cares. It all seems like a blur now coz we started drinking Way too early and I was home and in bed by just past midnight. I think I passed out but who remembers now, 6 days later.

I was sufficiently in pain Saturday that I skipped yoga. I did Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The weather was Stank. I just felt like sleeping All day. We did spend some time mounting the plasma TV on the wall. So this Thing is like fucking Huge. It's not very heavy but it takes up some serious wall space. But really, I Love watching this TV. It's sheer pleasure. The HD pictures are mind-blowing. Totally fetch.

The rain stops at 7pm or so and I immediately woke up, jumped in the shower, and bolted out the door for dinner with Tony at Komi for our 101-monthniversary. Yup, we're silly like that. So I love Komi and all but they Really need to bring down their prices. We had an appetizer and an entree each (no dessert) plus two glasses of wine per person and the bill was $75/pp. Good God. Anywho, we then met up with Jason at JR's for a few before going up to Cobalt. We were there pretty early, but left mighty late, completely passed out drunk again. LOL! This was also the night Jason misplaced his iPod. Lots of other things happened at Cobalt (the only keywords I'll use are: Norfolk and Navy) but much of it shall remain under wraps due to an impassionate request from whore Jason. LOL!

Sunday was pleasant enough. Fast-forward to JR's at 6pm (sans food! oy vay) with the usual suspects - M2, Leo, Jason/Paul, Rick/Jason, Harrison, Tyson, and some other skanks. Since I was the only one that had Monday off, predictably I was the only one left standing by 8:30 or so.. until Adam/Patrick/Michael showed up and I started my second session (wind?) at JR's with the newly arrived drinking buddies. After a brief but disastrous visit to Halo (OMB, is it like chocolate night on Sunday?? *speed-dials Jason's number*), we finally get to Lizard Lounge at around 10:30. I met up with Henric and Evan and bitches, this place was PACKED. And it only got more packed. We were on the top floor and it was almost hard to breathe at one point. The music was skank as usual but the drinks were strong and the boys were searingly hot (perhaps because of the strong drinks but who cares). I must've danced till 3 before heading up to The Diner for some food with newfound friends. Yadda yadda yadda, I was home at 5 :-o

Coupled with the fact that the construction workers (putting in the kitchen cabinet extension) showed up at 9-ish the next morning and you have the makings of a completely wasted Monday. Tony wasn't home so I just laid in bed with my laptop All day until he got home. I felt like Cleopatra.. Well, minus the slaves feeding me grapes and fanning me. It was the laziest Columbus Day ever. I'm just glad I didn't have to go to work.

So there ya have it. A less-than-fetch but still super-fun Columbus Day weekend. Next stop: Thanksgiving! I Live for holidays... @ 16:50

[ipod video] Hot on the heels of selling 1mn nanos in 17 days, Apple unveiled the iPod Video today (no, no pink nano *pout*). A 2 1/2-in, 260k colors screen, 30GB ($299) or 60GB ($399), black (in a nod to Jason) or white, 31% slimmer than current iPods, can store 15,000 songs, 25,000 photos, 150 hours of video, blah blah blah. Yawn. What is Really fierce about this new little widget is that it will play hit TV shows downloaded from iTunes 6 (for $1.99 each!) on top of the usual stuff like music videos, video clips, etc. I'm not sure how many ppl would want to watch Desperate Housewives or Lost on a 2 1/2-in screen but if they do, this will be ground-breaking and revolutionary as it would surely become the most popular portable video player in history.

Someday, people are gonna look back over the history of technology and wonder, "Apple sold computers?". Apple Computer Inc. should just change their name to iPod (Global Domination) Corp. It's only fitting for a company that has generated so much lust for a piece of plastic with some electronics in it in so little time.

In celebration of the other major Apple announcement - a remote control iMac that lets you rewind and fast forward (among other things) DVDs from across the room - Jason and I had this tawdry little conversation:

WARNING:: Do not continue if you're easily offended. LOL!

J:: I want the new iMac that is remote controlled. watch streaming Bel Ami content from my couch!!! Hot!
Me:: haha. if the same remote controlled an iDildo, I'll be the first in line
J:: I am sure I can ask an engineer at Apple
Me:: ROTFL
J:: I know a rather large lesbian engineer out of the NYC office
J:: Well, the Leather Rack does have a USB powered dildo
Me:: really?! LOL!!!
J:: It even has a picture of a powerbook on the front
Me:: the punch line: 'it never needs to be recharged' or 'it just keeps going and going and going' or 'plug it in and STICK IT IN!'
J:: i know! it interacts with certain software
Me:: holy shit, i want one... for christmas
J:: haha
Me:: all i want for christmas is a USB-powered dildo, a USB-powered dildo, see my USB-powered dildo!!!
J:: if I were to get one, I want one that's for FireWire.. bigger and faster bandwidth
Me:: faster vibrations
J:: lol....they might as well call it "BlackWire"
Me:: LOL... or AssonFireWire

Enjoy it while you can. It's never gonna get this dirty again. Ever ;-) @ 16:05

[all madonna, all the time] Rumors are flying all over the internet that Apple is about to make a major announcement today, a day after Apple announced a quadrupling of profits, powered by the iPod phenomnenon. Apple sold >6mn iPods in the most recent quarter, accounting for a third of overall company revenue, and has 75% of the market for digital music players. Talk about a juggernaut.

And Apple is looking to lord over its rivals again with a video iPod with a bigger hard drive, bigger screen and smaller click wheel. That made me quiver. But what made me wet myself was the juicy possibility that Apple might unveil a pink nano pre-loaded with Madonna songs...

OH. MY. Madonna Esther Louise Ciccone Richie. I will most definitely let out a little pee, slide off my chair, land on the floor, and strike a pose if that happens. *SQUEAL*

Speaking of Madonna... Her new single "Hung Up" will be released in FIVE days *double squeal*. She will debut her new single "Hung Up" live at MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon on Nov 3rd. Twelve days later (Nov 15th, mark your calendars!!), her new album, "Confessions on a Dancefloor", will be released worldwide.

Oh the cruel anticipation which will give way to unending joy and happiness in the next month... I absolutely cannot wait. It's almost too much to bear! @ 11:32

[heating up] Holy shit. I just checked the cost of natural gas in DC (Washington Gas) and in the last two months alone (Aug-Oct), the cost per therm has gone up 43% (!!!) to $1.3758. Unless natural gas costs drop precipitously over the next few months as winter approaches (very unlikely), warnings like these are not a joke. Last winter (Nov-Mar), natural gas costs were $0.9/therm on average. And our gas bill totalled about $920. We are looking at a $500 increase if no other factors change. That in itself is highly unlikely considering 4 of the 5 coldest months last winter were above the long-term average. Our gas bills could potentially double.

Somebody needs to talk to America about conservation... @ 10:43

OCT 11 :: [denzel and kanye] Among this past weekend's top stories (in the self-absorbed world of Kiat, of course), the premature death of Denzel coupled with the mysterious disappearance of Kanye has to be two of the most significant (in the life of Jason, of course). Bitch went through not one, but TWO black nanos in the span of a few days.

So many black nanos have been diagnosed by Dr Apple Jobs with, as Jason would call it, multiple screen failures that it was no surprise, but still no less shocking, when Denzel bit the dust. Denzel was born on 9/9 and died a sudden death on 10/6. It was heartbreaking. But hope springs eternal when a day later, Kanye was born; thanks to the miracle of instant child-birth called the Apple Store in Pentagon City. Kanye had an eerie and uncanny resemblance to Denzel though. Then again, don't they all look alike? LOL! I kill myself.

But much to everyone's horror, (brace yourself) Kanye disappeared mid-way through the weekend. Left somewhere at a bar, perhaps. Dropped out of Jason's pocket during his many inebriated trips home from JR's, Halo or what-not. Or, *gasp*, stolen!!

We'll never know. And the press and paparazzi have mainly stayed away from this damsel in distress story. See, they're all racist after all *giggle*. Meanwhile, we mourn the loss of two fine black icons.

May Denzel's and Kanye's souls rest in peace. As (Puff? P?) Diddy (Daddy?) once said: We be missing you. @ 15:51

[inhospitable] That's the only word I can think of to describe Earth after the tragic natural (well, some say man-made but we'll keep politics out of this for now) events of the past year. It all started with the enormous undersea quake in December of 2004 which unleashed a tsunami that killed 285,000 in South and South-East Asia. Mother Nature got angry again when she unleashed one of the (if not *the*) most active Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, culminating with Katrina which almost wiped out one of America's metropolises. And as if on a prolonged PMS, she rattled the Earth again this past weekend, this time a major 7.6 magnitude quake under India and Pakistan, killing 41,000 so far. The devastation is immense, piling on more misery on a region that has had a very unfortunate recent history. It is just so, so sad. The earthquake crushed a region already destroyed by half a century of war between Pakistan (Kashmir) and India (Jammu). The Kashmir earthquake flattened every single building in the town of 250,000 called Balakot near the epicenter, just 60 miles from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Now, That's Shock and Awe. Don't fuck with Mother Nature s'all'ahm'sayin'.

Doesn't it feel like things are out of control recently? Mother Nature is pissed and she's takin' it out on us. Not fair. This past year, since Bush's re-election (OK, I couldn't help it *GRIN*), has just been an annus horribilis.

But wait, there's more. Introducing.. avian flu or H5N1. We are on the verge of a pandemic! *giggle* How alarmist. Well, whatever it is, let's hope that we have enough resources to fight this thing (budget cuts for the CDC anybody?). And let's learn the quarantine and containment lessons from SARS, where it took Asian goverments less than two years to eradicate a pneumonia-like disease that had a 10% mortality rate.

What a hostile planet we live in. @ 14:42

[bizarre] That's the only word I can think of to describe the outcome of the German elections. For the first time ever, Germany will be ruled by a female chancellor, and, more significantly I think, the first East German to lead unified Germany. Reunification has been one of the biggest success stories in our globe's geo-political history, if not economically. Angela Merkel succeeds Gerhard Schroeder, a two-term chancellor, whose legacy includes a 12% unemployment rate - the highest since WWII - in the world's largest exporter and third-largest economy (after the US and Japan).

Bizarre. Yes. After the elections last month, the CDU (center-right), led by Merkel, won just 4 more seats than the SDU (left), led by Shroeder, in the 598-seat Bundestag. After a month-long wait by nervous Germans, it was finally announced yesterday that Merkel will lead a grand coalition - the first in 40 years - of the CDU and the SDU. The CDU will control the chancellorship, the ceremonial post of presidency, and six cabinet seats (economy, defense, interior, agriculture, family and education) plus the cabinet-level chief of staff post. The SDU won the right to fill eight cabinet ministries (foreign, finance, labor, justice, health, transport, environment and development). The cabinet table will have equal representation of 8 CDU members and 8 SDU members.

Why is it bizarre? Imagine the United States with a Republican President, 6 Republican Secretaries and 8 Democratic Secretaries. Power-sharing between the radical right-wing idiots and the crazy lefties? Pennsylvania Avenue (aka Hell) would freeze over and Bush will be doing the figure skating duet with Dean before that ever happens.

It is an absolutely bizarre situation indeed. But one can only wish her well in her attempt to revive the eceonomic crown-jewel of Europe. @ 14:01

[autumn gloom] The fabulously warm weather that has prevailed throughout September and the first week of October, ended when a cold front swept into the DC area on Fri/Sat, dropping temps below 70° for the first time since.. well, I don't remember. Temps will not rise above 70° all week *groan*, although they're still a little above average. Add to that the wet weather and I feel like I'm in England.

Yes, autumn is officially here. Well, it's called "fall" here and I can see why - Everything is falling. The leaves, the temps, the sunshine, the daylight, the mood. It's so hard to be jovial when the sun sets before 7pm and it's wet and dreary outside.

Speaking of wet weather, the cold front and Tropical Storm Tammy provided the one-two punch necessary to wipe out the drought situation in DC and then some. 7.3" of rain fell over a two-day period! Startling. More than double our average October rainfall of 3". And just in time for the weekend too, no thanks to that bitch Mother Nature. That put a huge damper on Fri/Sat night plans but conditions were ideal for a Sunday night-into-Columbus Day bash at Lizard till 5 in the morning *gasp*. More details later.

And check out this priceless little map. Basically, they are forecasting a cold winter in the Northeast this year; as is usually the case following a warm summer. 2.5°F below normal for DC, and slightly more snow than usual. Great. With natural gas prices this year at least 50% above last year's prices, I'm already dreading the sight of my first winter gas bill. I can't imagine what life must be like for the lower income ppl.. shivering in the cold coz they have to make a choice between feeding themselves or heating their houses. It's awful.

Natural gas prices are way, way, way offbase. Electricity prices have barely changed since I got here in '97 but natural gas prices back then were a third of what it was last year. And if they are projecting a 50% increase, that's gonna bring it to FIVE times what it was 8 years ago. Isn't that absurd? I should investigate converting our furnace into a heat pump.

Or I could just move to California. The normal average winter temp in DC is 41.5°F (it'll be sub-40 this year, brrrrrr). LA? 60°. San Diego? 59°. Even SF comes in at a comfortable 55°. Although, I think I would have problems with the no snow part. Then again, I only like the season's first big snowstorm and the fact that I don't have to shovel *giggle*. Yea, I want warm and I want snow. I want cake! Story of my life. Go figure.

Ugh, I should move. This lotus blossom cannot handle the harsh winters here. Anything below 40° and my body just shuts down. I'm just glad I don't live in Chicago or Buffalo (31°), or *eeep* Int'l Falls, MN (14°!!!). Happy Tuesday :) @ 11:18

OCT 7 :: [the bold.. ad?] I saw an ad for Kohler this a.m. on the Today Show. Yes, I love my new plasma TV and I watch it as much as I can. And yes, Katie Couric has Hi-Def wrinkles! Anywho, the ad starts off with a very good-looking, well-dressed couple attending a performance. The camera zooms in on the man picking up a walking stick. Yes, he was blind.. and Very hot! I'm sure he was only playing one on TV but gurrrrls.. I wouldn't take my eyes off him even if my house was on fire. Trust.

Anywho, he gets up to go to the bathroom. He walks up to the sink (with the walking stick, of course). He leans on it and begins feeling around for the faucet, like a blind man would. He finds the handles.. .. .. While staring straight into the mirror (if he could only see his own reflection, aw..), he runs his fingers back and forth - almost caressing - the handle. He grabs the spout with his fist and rubs it back and forth to the point of jacking it off (oh my... is it getting hot in here?). He lets his fingers trace around the rim (oh!) of the sink. Y'know, stuff like that. *pant* Of course, it's a Kohler faucet and sink set.

He does his thang, walks back to his girlfriend (grr). He sits down, leans over to her and says:

"You should see the bathroom."

Next, you see: 'The Bold Look of Kohler'

I laughed. Hard. And then I winced. Coz some group out there is gonna object to the whole blind angle. But it stuck to my mind. And I loved it! Hot ad! @ 15:13

[love-hate] Yup, sigh. I'm having a love-hate relationship with my new phone. I'm sure I'll grow to love it over time but it's just lacking in ways that bother me. It's like I've settled for the next best thing, and the knowledge of "the best is yet to come" is driving me crazy.

First and foremost, I never thought I'd be so addicted to this but I Miss My Click Wheel! Apple's invention of the Click Wheel is a tour de force. Although I'm happy that I can control the functions of the W800i's music player without looking at the screen, I constantly find myself fingering the W800i in circles with my pointer finger coz I'm so used to the Click Wheel. Apple is a genius. The Click Wheel is the new crack. Hot.

I'm still peeved about the double-cord thing - the converter and the headphones - but getting used to it. It's still hideous, and I try my best to bury the converter cord in my pocket/bag. But, hmm, the phone uses the converter cord as the radio antenna so it's staticky if I want to listen to 99.5 with the converter cord in my pocket or bag. Argh. And speaking of signal, the signal strength on this phone is HORRID. Sometimes I want to blame T-Mobile but I *know* Sony Ericsson is partially to blame. Not fetch.

As if being an MP3 player, 2-megapixel camera and a world phone ain't enough, this thing is a life-saver too! There's the light above the camera lense that illuminates close objects.. well, that light can be set on SOS function in case of emergency. It goes blink-blink-blink [pause] bliiiiink-bliiiiink-bliiiiink [pause] blink-blink-blink. Hot fetch. I don't think I'll ever use it but good to have, right? I swear this phone does everything but wipe your ass. For that, you'll have to get the premium package.

Speaking of love-hate, Jason has one right now with his "Denzel" (read: black nano). Denzel's screen got polarized and Jason couldn't fathom riding the Metro to work without music (we're twins!) so he took the day off, LOL. Hopefully he gets a bigger and better model. Me thinks he should name it Kanye. Yea, dig it. Last night at JR's was fun. It was Empty though. DC is such a gov't town.. which other city empties out for Columbus Day weekend?! I have never gotten Columbus Day off until now, working in this gov't facility. And the worse part is nobody I know has Columbus Day off besides my co-workers and ew, I don't want to hang out with them. Well, Rick does have the whole month off, LOL. And now that he's off Manhunt, maybe he'll actually call me back.

Oh well, I ain't complaining. Some bitch sailed across the Atlantic 500+ years ago and now I'm getting a 3-day weekend because of him. Go Christopher! @10:53

[safety tips] In light of the recent bombings in Madrid and London, and the credible threats made against the NYC subway, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) recommends the following safety tips so that all Metro riders can get to their intended destinations safe and sound.

1. Please take All magazines, newspapers and other belongings with you when you leave the train. You may think it's harmless to leave a box of documents on the train but All left packages are suspicious until proven otherwise. How would you like it if I left newspapers in the back seat of your car?

2. No Food and Drinks allowed on Metro. You may think Starbucks is your daily morning IV but Metro considers a Grande-Decaf-Soy-Milk-No-Foam-Skim-Latte a beverage and is therefore Not allowed on Metro. We have enough roaches without them being all wired and shit so please take your liquids elsewhere.

3. If yo Ass is so Big it's got its own zipcode (or is wide enough to take up the EN-TI-YAH escalator) and you cannot "stand on the right" coz there's no right or left with yo Fat Ass, Take the Elevator. Please. We want all commuters to get to their destinations as quickly and as safely as possible and bitch, when yo ass is so Big you've gotta build a bridge to cross from one cheek to another, that is a clear and present danger for all Metro riders.

4. If it's raining outside and your pretty blond Heather-Jennifer-Sarah-Michelle-whore locks have just been blown dry prior to leaving the house, carry a Fucking Umbrella. Rain just makes your hair look like a bad blow job and you Know how we all Detest bad blow jobs. Teeth, rain, same f-ing difference.

5. If the train is packed and you and half your relatives are headed out of town for Columbus Day weekend with wheelies, trunks and your kitchen sink in tow, Take The Next Train, Bitch! It's hard enough for us commuters to get to work packed like lemmings in a train car when the preceding train has been taken out of service. My newly-shined black shoes do Not need a close encounter with your I-have-a-dead-body-in-my-luggage-on-wheels rolling over it, spank-you-very-much. My toes will sue yo ass (and your lil' bag too). Trust.

Thank you for riding Metro and we wish you a safe and pleasant day. @ 09:37

OCT 6 :: [my new toy] It's cute. It's made of rubber mixed in with some plastic. Pretty good-sized, not too thick and not too long. You can talk to it. It runs on batteries. It vibrates (hot!), and it even rings. Best yet, it's orange!

Yes, I went out and got myself a new cellphone yesterday. The fabulously fetch Sony Ericsson W800 Walkman Phone. This is the best (and most expensive) phone I've ever owned. It's so hot it makes me coo. So here's why I love it, along with some sidenotes on why it's not perfect:

1. Love:: It's an MP3 player! It comes with 512MB worth of memory; enough for 100+ songs. So how is that better than ROKR? Well, the memory is expandable up to 2GB. Since my playlist only consists of 50 songs, I doubt I'll need to expand. Oh and the MP3 player part of the phone can operate with the phone turned off i.e. I can use it on planes. Fetch! The music even stops when someone calls and continues when the person hangs up. Also, the keypad on the phone can be locked and you can still control the MP3 player (play, pause, volume, etc.) via certain special keys on the side of the phone. Fierce! Dislike:: It doesn't sync up with iTunes. And the data transfer from PC to phone can only be described as Jurassic in speed. AND there is an intermediary converter widget before you can plug your ear/head-phones into the phone. Yes, two cords. Sketch. Also, the phone uses, of course, Sony's Memory Stick which are yucky and expensive.

2. Love:: It's a 2-megapixel camera! Yes, 1632x1224 pictures or 256 pictures in the 512MB stick. Excellent for 4x6 and great for 8x10. Watch out bitches! This Asian is armed with a high-quality phone camera and is ready to use it :p It even has a lighting mechanism AND a much bigger mirror for self portraits. Best yet, the camera has a lense cover that, if slid open, activates the camera automagically. Hot. Dislike:: Flash comes in a separate widget; bulky and yucky :(

3. Love:: It's a world phone! Well, world minus Japan, Korea, Verizon and Sprint. D'oh, does anyone use CDMA anymore? Bitches, join GSM! Anywho, I also love that the battery life is amazing. That was my main gripe with my dysfunctional iPod Mini. Also love that the phone plays MP3 clips as ringtones. Right now, "Don't Cha" plays when people call. Dislike:: As with *all* SE phones, the signal strength is marginal.

4. Love:: It looks SO cute! Basically beige plastic with an orange band encircling it. Very MTV. Love it. I'd take a picture of it right now and put it on here but that's kinda impossible. It doesn't do well taking pictures of itself... :-D

So there ya have it. I Love my new toy!! Now if only I can figure out how to get rid of that ugly tangle of wires that constitute my earphones... @ 16:45

[pink is strong] Every 2 1/2 minutes, a woman in America is diagnosed with breast cancer. That's 211,000 a year. The good news is, breast cancer patients are living longer than ever - 88% survival rate for those diagnosed within the past 5 years as opposed to 60% in the last 20 years. The bad news is breast cancer detection through mammography is not infallible. In fact, it's only 70% effective. Shocking, I know. You'd think that in this day and age (it's the 21st Century for God's sakes), prevention through detection for a disease that kills 40,000 women each year - second only to lung cancer - would have made a more significant progress. Still, it's the best way to detect breast cancer, together with a breast ultrasound which is covered by insurance, btw. Detection is VERY important when it comes to breast cancer coz genetics only account for, at most, 15% of all breast cancer cases. Who knows what causes the overwhelming majority of cases. But this much we know: *ALL* women are at risk for breast cancer and the risk increases as women get older, especially after age 40.

Which leads to mammography. Annual mammograms for women aged 40 and over are critical because a year can make the difference between a highly curable breast cancer and one that is more difficult to treat. National Mammography Day this year is on October 21st. On that day, please, please, please make an appointment for a check-up.

Environment factors such as obesity (which is really a choice, so I have no idea why it's called an "environment factor") increases a woman's risk of getting cancer by 70%. And even more startlingly, smoking is the cause of death for 90% of all lung cancer patients. And lung cancer remains The leading cancer killer among men and women - accounting for 1 out of every 3 cancer deaths in men. Both obesity and smoking are choices. Think about it - 9 out of every 10 instances of lung cancer are preventable by not smoking. Dolls, smoking is not cool. Trust.

Back to breasts *grin*. So why am I talking about breast cancer when less than 2,000 men get it each year? Coz I love the women in my life and while I'm young and healthy, I'm gonna fight for their causes! October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Flash that pink, and live strong! @ 14:47

OCT 5 :: [most livable] Vancouver was named the "most livable" city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit (yes, I admit to being an Economist whore) based on education, stability, culture, environment and health care (hah, no wonder no American cities made the Top 10). Another survey by Mercer placed Vancouver in second place. So, it seems there's much to love about Vancouver?

Well, there is the jaw-dropping, drop-dead gorgeous setting of the Pacific Ocean surrounding perfect little islands, with the Canadian Rockies in the background. And who doesn't love Canada, what with its amazingly liberal social policies? And let's not forget that Canada offers universal health care to one and all. Even the weather in Vancouver, thanks to the moderating influence of the Pacific Ocean, is far less forbidding than what we all perceive Canadian winters to be. That does not make Vancouver the San Diego of the Pacific Northwest but it sure as hell ain't Montreal either!

So what's not to like about Vancouver? It's like, um hello, WAY too Asian for me. 1 out of every 5 Vancouverite is Chinese. It's so chinky in Vancouver, they nicknamed it Vanc-Kong (or Hong-couver). Stepping out into the Arrivals area of Vancouver International Airport, one cannot be blamed for wondering if they had slept through and flown all the way to Hong Kong instead. And let's not even talk about the non-existent nightlife. It's almost too quiet and sterile.

But it's hard not to love Vancouver. Possibly the most perfect combination of green and concrete, urban and nature. Go West! (and North)

In case you're wonderin'...

1. Vancouver
2. Melbourne
3. Vienna
4. Geneva
5. Perth
6. Adelaide
7. Sydney
8. Zurich
9. Toronto
10. Calgary

Canada and Australia take 7 out of the top 10 spots. @ 12:59

OCT 4 :: [brotherly love] I have no idea where I find these people I call friends...

Jason:: Last night, I was getting the stare downs too. Every brother was looking at me like I was a bucket of KFC
Me:: your reputation has spread as far as your legs

Fall is here! @ 15:24

[headed for extinction] This is music to my environmentally-friendly ears! Last month, GM sold 24% less vehicles and Ford recorded a 20% drop. Those are massive numbers. But what I'm doing a happy green jig about is that sales of picksups/SUVs/vans plummeted 30% at GM and 27% at Ford. Better yet, Explorer/Expedition/Navigator sales dropped by more than HALF, each!! Hooray! Yes, I think SUVs and pick-up trucks are the worst vehicles on the planet. They should all be removed, if not from our streets, from all HOV lanes (hello, "NO TRUCKS ALLOWED") and banned from parkways (again, "NO TRUCKS"!) and preferably all DC streets. We should send them all to Texas (since they like size so much) and we'll let them choke to death on their own self-inflicted pollution.

In contrast, Toyota's sales went up 10%, and Honda up 12%. The gas-electric hybrid Prius soared 90%! Gas prices are hovering at $2.94/gallon, up a buck from a year ago. Who said higher gas prices wouldn't kill the monstrous SUV and pick-up trucks? Hate them, hate them, hate them. Note to Congress: Increase gasoline taxes. Conserve fuel. Rid ourselves from our dependency on Middle-East oil. And voilà, send all the SUVs and trucks to the junkyard!

Hmm, I shouldn't be so vocal about this. My fabu-mobile only gets 17/25 mpg :-o I know, I'm a polluter. But if you've seen my car, you'll forgive me ;-) @ 11:46

[ipod underground] The possibilities are endless. Well, that's only if you have an iPod Photo (I wonder if the nano can see these maps?). Anywho, check out iPod Subway Maps. They have awesome subway maps that you can download and put in your iPod. From Boston to Berlin, Toronto to Tokyo, London to Hong Kong and, of course, NYC to DC.. you'll never get lost navigating foreign subways again. Urban fetch at its best!

And the best things in life are, of course, Free! @ 11:29

[harriet miers] What an Awful name. WTF names their child "Harriet"?? That's so... 40s. Oh wait, she Is 60 after all, LOL. Anyway, I have No idea where ChrisFT (hat-tip) gets this shit but This is Uproariously funny.

Unless you've been living in a nuclear bunker, it is now officially the Roberts Court *shudder*. Roberts is the youngest justice in the Supreme Court, where 7 of the 9 members are over 65. Thomas is 57. So many contentious cases this year: assisted suicide, religion, military recruiting (involves "don't ask, don't tell"), abortion notification and protests, miranda rights, the death penalty, etc. Phew, talk about a smorgasbord of social tinderbox issues!

And then we have Harriet. And unless you've been living in the basement of a nuclear bunker, our Fucked-up-piece-of-shit-In-Chief nominated her to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Miers has never been a judge. If confirmed, she would be only the third woman to sit on the high court, after O'Connor and Ginsburg. Both conservatives and liberals are tip-toeing around the confirmation of this nominee. Here's a reaction I agree with. From the Daily Kos...

"Several Democrats, including Reid, have already come out praising Miers, which ultimately will only fuel the right-wing meltdown on the decision."

"I reserve the right to change my mind, but Miers' biggest sin, at this early juncture, is her allegiance to Bush. That her appointment is an act of cronyism is without a doubt, but if that's the price of admission to another Souter or moderate justice, I'm willing to pay it."

A right-wing meltdown. Fetch! But really, it's better to laugh at it so go read her blog! @ 10:43

[a woweekend] Oh what a weekend. I know, this is late but I wanted to wait till I posted the pictures to accompany my oh-so-fabulous weekend before writing about it. Y'know, pictures speak louder than blah blah blah and in this case, the pictures are Scr-reeeeaming :)

It all started on a beautiful Friday evening in DC. In fact, October started as beautifully as September was. I could really get used to this 80s/60s, brilliant sunshine routine. Anywho, we had a brilliant 2-dozen-orgasm-inducing oyster-dinner at Hank's (together with 2 head-spinning bottles of white wine between Chris, Tony and I!) before invading Halo. I swear by the time I got to Halo, I was already drunk. I do remember running into drama at Halo on a Friday night.. yes, again! The new Halo has turned into something of an epicenter of drama of sorts.

Here's how the scenes unfolded: We ran into Leo, AndyP, Adam/Patrick/Michael and their group of boys. And before you know it, Rick shows up with Nathaniel, Tyson and a bunch of other folks. And for the second Friday in a row, Rick's drama forces us out of Halo and onward to... Secrets! I'm not sure how I'm remembering all this coz I had two Cosmos and a Cape Cod at Halo and bitches, you *know* how strong their drinks are (they better be at $8 a pop). I'm babbling incoherently, trying to direct the cabbie to SE without crossing into Virginia. I don't remember much after except that we run into Rick's drama again at the strip club and so bitch just takes off. Chris and I were barely able to stand (or speak) so we hailed a cab home and if not for some gumbo, I would have been sick. As it were, I just passed out. Hot.

Definitely not feeling so fetch on Saturday. Yoga helped and by 5pm, we donned our tuxs and headed out the door to the Convention Center. This would be our fourth year at the HRC National Dinner and ladies, lemme tell ya, it was by FAR the best. Yes, it topped our virgin dinner way back when we had to pay $250/pp and we were packed like lemmings into the Hilton ballroom. I remember Steven Spielberg and Max Mutchnick (creator/writer for Will & Grace.. funny guy). This was back in '02. The following year, HRC moved, in more ways than one. They had a new HQ on 17th/RI, and the dinner moved into the spectacular brand spanking new Convention Center where Allison Janney (West Wing), the Fab Five, Tipper/Al (Gore) were in attendance, and Sister Sledge performed "We Are Family". It was also Elizabeth Birch's farewell dinner. Last year, Cheryl Jacques spoke. It was election year and also the first dinner after Bush's despicable Federal Marriage Amendment. Elizabeth Edwards showed up. Rosie O'Donnell gave a hillarious speech, poking fun at how loooong the dinner lasted. I think it was midnight before the fish came out; and tasted absolutely delicious at that. My outfit was not so fetch last year. Yes, I had a fab tie on but I have definitely shrunk enough that none of my suits/tuxs fit me anymore. You can read all about the previous three dinners if you search for "HRC" ;)

So this year, I show up in a Gucci tux looking like a billion liras. Size 36, can you believe it? I used to be a 42. Gucci cufflinks and shoes to match, and a new Thomas Pink (pink!) shirt with a purple/pink tie. You'll see what I mean in the pictures. I felt searingly hot that night. And so did Phillip! Ohmibeyonce, bitch and I were the Gucci twins (not to mention we bought the tuxs together).

We get there, and we attend the major donors' reception. What a waste of time. Yes, the bar was open but there was nothing to eat or do; and I was starving! Plus their definition of "major donors" was a little bit too loose for my taste (ew skank, haven't I seen you at JR's? who'd you fuck to get in here?). The silent auction was upstairs so we left the reception and went to the auction instead. Having a separate reception was a good idea coz the auction area was mercifully less crowded - unlike last year's stifling crowded conditions - but it also meant that there was less bidding going on (we neither bid nor won anything this year). We run into familiar faces, and new acquaintances.. And then we're off to search for our table.

We're in Table 116. I was like, "hmm.. THREE digits? did they put us in BFE again?" I look at the chart and practically fainted. We have the first table in the middle row, directly in front of the stage. And I, of course, took the seat closest to the podium. I was so close to the podium, I could look up the pants/skirts of the guest speakers. So close that when I laughed, the speaker's eyes trained on me (yes, Joe Solmonese actually remarked to me after the dinner that he had used me as a gauge to see how the crowd would react to his lines). So close that I could see all the fabulous lines on Cyndi Lauper's face. So close I was practically sitting on stage when Kimberly Locke sang "Eighth World Wonder" and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". So close that Elizabeth Birch AND Kimberly Locke had less desirable tables. So close that when the confetti blasted from the ceiling after Kimberly was done, our table was covered in them (and some even found their way into my drinks! talk about alcohol abuse...). In previous years, we would've squealed if one confetti made it to our table, which might as well had been outside the building.

So bitches, Yes I was *There*. The food was *horrid* this year (beef? ew..) but our table made up for everything. EVERYbody came up to us during breaks to hang out around our table. Senators, Congressmen, celebrities, state politicians, you name it. Bruce, our table captain, had two back-to-back tables and we were the sun in the solar system of gay politics for that night. At one point, I averted my gaze from the stage and looked towards the back of the room and gasped coz EVERYone was looking in my direction, LOL. And then I realized the stage was behind me and if I leaned back a little, I could've touched it. Giggle.

Joe and Elizabeth spoke back-to-back. Since it's an off-election year, Joe made the only overtly political comment of the evening. And boy was it a good one. He told us all to unite and take down Rick Santorum. That garnered a standing ovation. Elizabeth was first to speak and I was too mesmerized by my seat location to remember what she said. I just had both hands over my gaping mouth the entire time.. coz bitches, I could actually SEE HER FACE!! Without looking at the big screens! Crazy hot fetch.

Cyndi Lauper looked absolutely fierce. She weaved her lesbian sister into a storyline before belting out "True Colors" a cappella. I was inspired to tears. Her voice is so amazing I wet myself, slid off my chair and landed on the ground. Love her. And again, she was so close I thought she was singing to me! If only... Julian Bond gave a moving and captivating speech. I absolutely LOVED it when the NAACP Chairman exclaimed that "gay rights is civil rights." He's our man!

The dinner actually ended early (10ish?), although I would've loved for Rosie to deadpan some hillarious lines about the "longest party EVER" again this year. The after-party was well-attended (no more walking across the street to some skanky hotel ballroom!) and the B-52s performed! The crowd was wild to begin with but they were spun into a frenzy when the band played "Love Shack". It was pandemonium!

We took the post-after-party (in a limo!) to Nation where we danced the night away... I don't remember much at that point coz I was severely loaded on champagne and wine and lord knows what else so someone else will have to fill in the blanks for me. And that was how the weekend ended. Coz I could barely move on Sunday after back-to-back nights of intense partying. The HRC dinner was phenomenal but made all the more so by Phillip and Bruce's fabulous table location. Thank you both!!

The week started yesterday and already I'm looking forward to this weekend. What other shenanigans am I going to get up to? Stay tuned... :)

Oh, d'oh... Pictures! @ 10:13

OCT 3 :: [hopes and fears] Fifteen years ago today, Germany was reunited, ending 45 years of division and relegating the Cold War into the history books. A year before that, East Germans had started streaming into West Germany via Hungary and Czechoslovakia. And then on Nov 9, 1989, the moment that all of peace-loving Europe had been waiting for finally arrived: The Berlin Wall was cracked. And the crack soon became a massive hole through which the hopes and dreams of hundreds of millions of Eastern Europeans came pouring through.

It had been forty five years since May 8, 1945 - the day WWII ended and Berlin (as well as Germany) was carved up in defeat and disgrace into four sectors - American, British, French in the West and the Soviet in the East. In 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected and it seemed Europe will remain forever divided. An Iron Curtain had descended upon Europe, slicing her mid-section into the prosperous, democratic West on one side, and the stolid, communist East on the other.

The tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the lifting of the Iron Curtain 15 years ago was a jolt to peace-loving nations and peoples all over the world; an electric shock of jubilation, optimism, hope, for a better future. The Cold War, and with it the threat of nuclear holocaust, had ended.

The 90s were great, weren't they? Peace and prosperity reigned. And then came September 11th, 2001. Followed by Bali, Madrid, London, and countless others; all within the past 4 years. Jubilation turned into fear. The Iron Curtain's grip was powerful and ominous but it was never uncertain. That has now been replaced by random acts of terror. No rhyme or reason, no agenda. Just senseless massacres. Like this.

I was scheduled to travel to Bali at the end of next month for an 8-day vacation. I was to have stayed in hotels in Ubud, Seminyak and the bomb-hit Jimbaran Bay. I thought, three years had passed since the far more lethal bombing in Kuta which killed 200+ ppl, some of my friends have been to Bali, everything seemed well. Tourism had rebounded, the people of Bali had finally regained some normalcy in their lives, I have always wanted to see and feel the magic of Bali, and so I let my hope and optimism overcome the fear of the uncertain and unknown.

All that has now gone the way of the terrorist bombs. Even if I mustered enough courage to go, I don't think I could convince Tony, or anyone else who loves us dearly, that we should be there. Someday, I will go. I know I will. Because I will not be terrorized, and I will not live in fear. @ 15:21

More >>

31 :: boo-tastic
31 :: litmus test
31 :: not so funny
31 :: go ahead, laugh
29 :: progressive alaska?
29 :: dumbass failure
28 :: only in dc
28 :: more blood
28 :: #29
28 :: queen sulu
28 :: madonna is my god
28 :: fight back
27 :: rollcall of shame
27 :: introducing...
27 :: $1,247
27 :: smokefree dc
27 :: ding dong
26 :: wet drag queens
25 :: let the parties begin!
25 :: wedding blues
25 :: two down...
25 :: hit again
25 :: tragic milestone
25 :: death of an icon
24 :: end cheap gas
24 :: dying democracy
24 :: daylight democracy
24 :: nasty weather
21 :: hung up
21 :: london gloom
20 :: rest in peace
19 :: travel whores
19 :: $61,400
19 :: madonnadrama
17 :: a picture is worth...
17 :: 泰山
17 :: desperately priceless
17 :: 6-hour rule
17 :: fetch fridays
17 :: bottom woods
17 :: pretty woman
17 :: cattle pen
14 :: more pictures
14 :: boys don't like to get wet
14 :: rain, go away
12 :: mundane weekend
12 :: ipod video
12 :: all madonna, all the time
12 :: heating up
11 :: denzel and kanye
11 :: inhospitable
11 :: bizarre
11 :: autumn gloom
07 :: the bold.. ad?
07 :: love-hate
07 :: safety tips
06 :: pink is strong
05 :: most livable
04 :: brotherly love
04 :: headed for extinction
04 :: ipod underground
04 :: harriet miers
04 :: a woweekend
03 :: hopes and fears