I have found my calling!!!!

As you guys may have noticed, I have not been as available during the day for the last few weeks. If you have sent me an email and I have not replied, or if you have left me a voice mail at work and I have deleted it.....I apologize.
I have been working on presentations and training for this week and it has kept me very busy.

My presentations started on Monday and the training started on Tuesday. I conducted two training sessions yesterday and I will conduct two more for the rest of the week. Each session is about 3 to 4 hours long.

I think I have found my calling, I have really enjoyed conducting training and doing presentations. Maybe I should go work for the company that we bought the software from, I am practically an expert on it now. Or maybe I can go work for MS and conduct their training.

Do you think I can find someone to pay me to do this for a living?

Yellow Wrist Bands

Does anyone know what the yellow wrist bands are for?
The last few days I have been seeing a bunch of people in my building wearing them and I have no clue what they are. They are just plain, yellow, rubber/plastic bands.

If anyone knows please let me know.

Horacio Update - Tales of Cheating and Drama, Lots of Drama

I got a call from my friend "Hank" today and he never calls me unless he wants to gossip. So we chat for about 20 minutes and I can tell he is building up to it and then.....BOOM there it is. He brings up the topic of my friend "Horacio" and wants to know if I have talked to him lately (see post from July 18 - Weekend Update). I haven't so I did not say anything. All of a sudden he is giving me all kinds of information about how Horacio's boyfriend is cheating on him. I didn't tell him I already knew and just let him continue talking. It turns out everyone knows except for Horacio and they want to get together next weekend and tell him. Horacio and his boyfriend are suppose to be signing a lease for a new apartment where the boyfriend, I will call him "Mike" for now, will be living. Everyone is all up in arms about it and want to tell him before he signs the lease and is committed to an apartment that he won't live in.

I called Horacio tonight to see how he was doing but him and his mother were at the hospital visiting his step-mother. I will call him again tomorrow to see how he is doing but I have already decided that I am not getting involved. I am way to old to be involved with all of this Drama. What is it about gay men and drama? Do you think we will ever leave this behind? I sure do hope so.

I know it sounds like I am being a bad friend, but Horatio already caught Mike cheating once when they lived in a different city and didn't do anything about it. I don't want to get involved because I know he won't do anything about it. Sure, he will huff and puff for a week, talk about how he sees everything clearly now, how he is empowered, how he won't be fooled again....but a week later they will be back together.

Just an update. I am sure I will be hearing more about this as the story unfolds. I hope they tell him soon so they all get it out of their systems.

Game Night

This past weekend my little brother was in town and I got to spend some time with him. On Thursday night we were up until 1 a.m. playing board games with my sister and we had a lot of fun. Through out the weekend when we were both home we would break out Jenga and play.

This weekend I decided to bring back Game Night. A while back I was having friends over to my house on a Friday or Saturday night and playing board games. We were all tired of going out so this was an inexpensive, safe alternative. We would play at my house, drink, eat, and on some occasions  get into discussions but it was always a lot of fun.

Sooo, I am planning on having a game night this coming month. It will be an alternative to going out and I know a few people are already tired of going out to the clubs every weekend.

There are a few drawbacks to doing this:
1. I have to clean and I am not looking forward to cleaning my house.
2. I can't invite everyone because my house is small and we won't all fit.
3. I have to clean.

Anyway, it should be fun and it will probably be the same people that I always invite. I know there are a few people that won't make it so I will invite them anyway just to be nice.

I can't wait. Maybe by then I will have a dog and it can be a Game Night/Meet My Dog Night.

 

Clutter

We will be moving offices in a few weeks so everyone is busy packing and cleaning their offices. I didn't think I had much up here but once I got started I found all kinds of things that I never even knew I had. Just for kicks, here are a few of the things I found....why I even brought them to work is another question:

1. Milagros (for those of you who don't know, these are little pendants sold at cathedrals in MX. You buy these and pin them on the wall and ask the saints to grant you a miracle)
2. Rolls of film (I wonder what's on them?)
3. Three bottles of contact lens solution.
4. Lots of packets of Honey (for my tea)
5. Kinder eggs (German toys)

Do you guys have anything interesting in your office? What is it and why did you think it was necessary to bring it to work?

Lessons Learned

I went to go see Bangi last night (see post from July 21, 2004) and it didn't go well.

 

Goals for the Weekend

I want to keep this weekend as simple as possible. I just want to enjoy it and relax. I have not done that in a while. So these are my goals for the weekend:

1. Get a Facial (gay I know)
2. Spend time with my brother
3. Visit with my friend Kathy
4. Shop with my friend Kathy
5. Mow lawn
6. Clean House
7. Maybe catch a movie
8. Maybe get a hair cut

 
That is it. All very simple, but all very stress free. I can't wait.

 

Dog

I know nobody believes me that I am going to get a dog anymore but I still keep looking. The reason I have not gotten one is because I have not found the right one.

But all of that has changed. I am in talks with the people who have the dog on the attached link to see if I can adopt her. I am so excited. Click on the link and tell me what you think.

Bangi!

 
Isn't she adorable?

Have You Ever?

Lost your debit card?

I went to the bank this morning to get cash and I was so distracted that I walked drove away without taking my card out of the ATM machine. I did not notice until 5 minutes later when I was driving to work, I turned around but my card was long gone. I immediately called the bank and it doesn't seem like any other transactions were processed.
Now I have to wait until August the 4th to get my new card. What am I going to do? I use my card for EVERYTHING, I never carry cash.

I am going to the bank during my lunch hour and I am going to try to get a temporary card issues.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Off to Work I Go

The first phase of my big project is coming to an end so I have been working a lot of hours lately. I normally like to work under pressure because I get more of a kick out of it but this time I feel as if I was causing more problems than I am solving. I know that is not the case but that is how it feels.
 
There are two things that bother me:
1. I feel like we should have caught some of the issues we are dealing with early in the project.
2. There are way to many issues.
 
Right now I just want to go eat. I am hungry and tired.
 
Oh, another thing that bothers me is that my psycho boss is going to try to take credit for the project. If she even tries I will tell her something. I am tired of her crap.
 
Other than that life is great.

Weekend Adventures

It was an interesting weekend. I took the GMAT on Saturday morning and I did not do as well as I had hoped so I decided to go out that night and drown my sorrows.
My test was in Denton so I had to leave my house at 6:30 to get there on time. There was hardly anyone on the road at that time so it was very quiet and peaceful. I turned the radio off and it felt a little weird. I felt very "little" in the grand scheme of things. It was a very good opportunity to think and reflect on decisions I have made and things I want to accomplish. I decided to take more early morning drives to the middle of nowhere more often and just think.  On the way back I decided to call my friend Tomas, we decided to go shopping so I picked him up. We ended up just driving around and going to different places. It was a lot of fun, we have not been hanging out a lot lately. Mostly because he has been out town a lot lately visiting a guy he is kind of dating in Detroit but there has been some friction between us lately. I am not sure what it is but sometimes I feel he is more critical of me than I am of myself. Sometimes I feel judged, but I am sure it is all in my head. He is a great guy and we always have fun together. We ended up going to a few places and we had fun.
 
Later that night my friend Fernando met me at my house to go to Chico's house. We were going to be meeting Ivan, his roommate, Leo, Ashish, and Seyd out at the gay bars. Chico, Fernando, and I went to the Village first because they are going to be closing it for a few months before they re-open as "Our Place" or some other crapy name like that. I ran into my old friend Dwayne and we talked for a bit, as I was getting ready to leave he gives me some good scoop about my friend "Horacio"  and his boyfriend. Apparently his b/f is cheating on him, something we have suspected for a long time and the reason why they broke up the first time, and just with him for the money. It was crazy, now I am debating whether I should tell "Horacio" or keep out of it. Any suggestions? "Horacio" and I have been friends for like 6 years and I don't want to see him get used. But I feel like he already knows what is going on but is turning the blind eye. I don't want to bring it up and him not believe me. Anyway, we will see how this plays out.
 
I ran into Kolon (sp?) at TMC, he is a guy that I use to have in my Spanish classes but we never really talked to much. I always thought he hated me because he use to give me some bad looks so I never made the attempt to be friendly with him. Since we graduated I have seen him out and about a few times here and there but he told me on Saturday that he will be moving to Minnesota (I loose another friend to that damn state!!!). I will definitely miss running into him. The funny thing is that I didn't even know his name until Saturday but every time we run into each other we are very excited to see each other. Strange, I know. I am going to try to get his contact information so that I can keep in touch with him. He is an interesting guy.
 
I didn't drink that much that night but for some reason the alcohol really got to me. Maybe I am just getting older. I felt fine when I woke up on Sunday morning but after about an hour of being awake I started to feel really bad. I ended up staying the whole day asleep which is very unusual for me. I would break out into cold chills and sweats. It was horrible. I don't think it was the alcohol because I didn't drink that much but it was definitely something.
 
When I finally woke up (around 5) I got up and went to my friend Sarah and Willis house. They were grilling hamburgers and invited me over. Their baby has been sick for the last few days so the baby was crying a lot. Hopefully the doctor will be able to give them something tomorrow to help her get over whatever she has.
 
That is it for my weekend.

San Francisco

I have decided to go to San Francisco with my friend Kathy and her brother David. Every year David comes to Texas from Paris and they go on a big trip together. I really like David, he is a pretty cool guy and he is about my age. He is also gay and has a b/f of like 5 years. The boyfriend is not going to be coming to TX with him so it should prove to be an interesting time. We don't really have any set plans but we have already agreed we will be going to the gay bars at night. I am not sure if that is going ot happen b/c he normally doesn't go out so I may have to hit the bars on my own. Which won't be a big deal because I usually do that anyway during the trip I take by myself once a year.
I have already told them I would probably be separating myself from them during one or two of the days we are there so they can do the brother-sister bonding and I can do the stuff that I want to do. Knowing Kathy and David we are going to have plans for every single moment of the trip but we are really not going to do anything. I love Kathy to death but she is not the best planner. And even when she does plan her plans usually get changed by the wind. 

I can't wait, I am very excited about this trip.  There are a few things I have to do to prepare for my trip:
1. I need to find a cool messenger bag
2. I need to buy some cool dress down/t-shirt type of clothes. (I will need Ivan's help for this)
3. I need to loose at least 10 lbs. (David is very skinny and I don't want to be the fat friend). 
I think that is all I need to do.

Have you guys been to San Francisco? Do you have any suggestions on what I should definitely see while I am there?

El Señor Madera

Pienso que estoy enamorado. Lo se, lo se...¿Cesar enamorado? pero creo que al fin me llego el momento para enamorarme. La verdad es que no conosco a este muchacho pero las ultimas semanas lo e visto en el edificio donde trabajo. Siempre lo veo en los pasillos o caminando por el centro. No se nada de el pero si se su nombre. Ayer tuve que ir al centro de producsion y hoy a alguin llamarlo por su nombre. Por el momento lo llamare El Señor Madera.
Que puedo decir del Señor Madera......es alto, guapo, delgado, y tiene una sonrisa que hace a mis rodillas temblar.
 
El Señor Madera.....asta que por fin entro a mi vida.
 

A letter from my Senator - Kay Bailey Hutchison

This email is in regards to an email to Kay Bailey Hutchinson stating my opposition to the Gay Marriage Constitutional Amendment. If Kay Bailey Hutchinson is your senator you can contact her at the following addresses.

284 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510-4304, Phone: (202) 224-5922, Fax: (202) 224-0776

10440 N. Central Expressway, #1160, Dallas, TX 75231, Phone: (214) 361-3500, Fax: (214) 361-3502


**********************************
Thank you for contacting me regarding same-sex marriages. I welcome your thoughts and comments on this issue.

Marriage laws have historically been the responsibility of state governments, and I generally oppose federal government intrusion into matters of state authority. Periodically, however, one state's action can have serious and far-reaching implications for other states, particularly because our Constitution requires states to give full faith and credit to
the laws of other states.

In 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defined marriage as only between a man and a woman. I voted for this federal law, and I continue to support it today because I believe the traditional family unit should remain the foundation of our society. The recent decision by a narrow majority of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court mandating same-sex
marriage threatens to overturn DOMA nationwide and effectively make that single state's marriage policy the law of our entire country.

In response, Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) has introduced S.J. Res. 30, the Federal Marriage Amendment, of which I am a co-sponsor. This bill would amend the Constitution to define marriage in the United States as consisting only of the union of a man and a woman. Currently, S.J. Res. 30 is under review by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. When this
legislation comes before the full Senate for a vote, I intend to support its passage.

I appreciate hearing from you and hope you will not hesitate to keep in touch on any issue of concern to you.

Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison

Poor Souls

I don't understand why people insist in getting into relationships that just aren't good for them. Why they would rather be with someone who doesn't make them happy than be alone and happy. I know, I know, they are just afraid of being alone. But that doesn't compute with me because I am not like that or at least I don't think. I am sure there are a few people out there that will think differently.
Why would someone get into a relationship with someone who has all kinds of drama in their life?
I just needed to vent. Some weird stuff has been going on the last few days and I wanted to make a vague comment about it.

Oh, Saturday how wonderful are thee

So far Saturday has been very productive.

I woke up early because Will and I were going to go and get new tires (see post from July 09, 2004). I only had to buy one new tire because my spare tire was a full tire from when I bought my car. So it wasn't to bad. After that we went back to Will's house and he washed my car. It looks so good now, I have not had a chance to get it cleaned in several months but now it looks brand new, well, that is a little exaggeration.

I came to work today because I have a lot to do and next week I will be in the office but not at my desk. I have meetings starting at 8:30 and they don't end until 4:30. I don't think I will be getting a lot done, I am just glad I have great employees who require little to no direction.
There is hardly anyone here today, I think I ran into three people total, so I was able to get a lot done. It is so different up here when there it is quiet and the phone is not ringing off the hook. My boss was up here also so we went and grabbed a quick bite to eat and had a nice little chat.

Now I am just ready to get out of here. Sarah, Will, Eli, and I are going to Oceans, one of my favorite restaurants tonight, and I can't wait to eat.

I hope you guys are having a good weekend so far. Be save!!

Flat Tire

Yesterday evening I was on leaving my house to meet a friend for dinner and as I was pulling out of my driveway I noticed that my car was leaning a little to the left. I turned back and I noticed that my drivers side passenger tire was completely flat. For most people this would not be a big deal but for me it was the end of the world (temporarily) because I don't know how to change a tire. What was a helpless gay man to do? I called my friend Will and he came over and changed my tire for me. I can't say I learned how to change a tire because I just watched while he changed it for me. It didn't take him long, maybe next time I will even give it a try myself.

My question to you is: How many of you know how to change a tire? Have you ever had to change one of your own tires?

4th of July

I had a very productive weekend and I am worn out. I decided to paint the living room and I had to start on Friday night taking down the wallpaper border. It was HELL!! I think it took me like three to four hours to get that accomplished. I was planning on redoing the bathroom next but the whole thing is wallpaper so I am going to put that off for a while and instead move on to my bedroom.
I have chosen a red color for my bedroom, it is not blood red, it is more like a dark wine/brown red. I think it is going to look very nice. I am only going to paint one wall so it won’t be to much work. It took me all day to paint the living room and I was tired.
My friend Chico came over while I was painting and we decided to go out to Gayville that night. I don’t know what I was thinking because I was really tired. I was up until midnight the night before working on the border, and I woke up at eight on Saturday to start painting. Bye the time we were getting ready to go out I was exhausted. Surprisingly I had a good time. We met Seyd and Ash out at JR’s and then we headed over to Kaliente.

On the 4th Sarah and Will invited me to go over to Sarah’s mom’s house for a cookout. Sarah’s mom is the best cook ever. The food was delicious. She has a new puppy, a tea-cup Chihuahua, that is just adorable. He is very small and very active. I briefly considered getting one for me but it is way to small. You would never be able to walk it and if you tried taking it for a walk you would end up carrying it for the most part. On Monday Will called and they guy that was selling them had one dog left, I think it was black and his name was Cesar. Isn’t that a coincidence? I thought it was fate, it was meant to be but then I remembered how I don’t like Chihuahuas and forgot about it.
Had it been a tea-cup poodle I would have considered it.

I also went to a bbq at my friends Bill and Scott (see previous posting). It was fun but I didn’t eat anything since I had already eaten at the other bbq. It was nice to see everyone again and catch up. We went to see Spider Man that night and I was very disappointed. I am not the best person to go to a theater with because I get very antsy sitting down for long periods of time unless the movie is really good and this movie just wasn’t. The only thing that made it tolerable was seeing Tobey. I never noticed he didn’t have any lips, despite that he is still cute.

Couples

I am tired of couples looking at me like I am the last single person on this earth.
I went to a bbq on Sunday for the 4th of July and EVERYONE there is dating someone. All of our conversations seemed to revolve around me being single, if I hear "Oh don't worry, you will find someone" one more time I am going to shoot myself. No, better yet, I will shoot the person who tells me. Yes, that is a much better idea.
I am single because I choose to be single (for the most part), if I wanted to be in an unhealthy relationship I would be in one.