tuesday, 28 september

overheard: 'just tell them it's hamburger' -marie

i can't say that yesterday was particularly exciting. i certainly have nothing interesting to say about today's news. the post article on bush's "solid" lead is downright depressing. running our country into the ground. oh. there is an article in the NYT about gay marriage bans. but it's pretty depressing too. sorry.

i god my hair cut yesterday. (yay!). and then i visited allison's mom and chatted with her for a couple hours. did some reading in the back yard in the afternoon. that was nice. and then went to joeco brazil's for dinner with my parents. it was very good. i had a wonderful heffe. very lemony. started with a spinach salad with candied pecans, chicken, and a good sesame garlic-ginger dressing. yum. then a blackened steak with crumbled blue cheese. amazing. my typing is awful today, so i'm gonna cut my losses and run. no update tomorrow on account of leaving early for london. hopefully an update thursday again, though.

monday, 27 september

overheard: 'living in the suburbs may be hazardous to your health' -the news

well well well. i watched 4 movies yesterday. sunday in spokane. i went to see shaun of the dead with bo. a romantic comedy with zombies: who would have thought? it was funny. i liked it, except the scene with that one guy getting eaten alive. i didn't like that part. then the gap thwarted my effort to buy new pants. so now i have to drive to the valley today (i know!). at home, we watched zoolander, then dumb and dumber, and finally toys. don't ask why. we just did. and i made chicken quesadillas for dinner. with spicy thai peanut sauce. even the changeling liked them, and she doesn't like anything.

the second part of the WP series on being young and gay in america was published today. go read it.

the big news on everyone's lips, though (and by everyone's lips, i mean there's nothing in the post or the times on it today, but i'm sure it's the new black. everyone will be wearing it by this evening) is the bush administration's aborted plan to have the CIA meddle in the iraqi elections. now, you all know i'm averse to swearing, but what the F*CK is the white house thinking? any credibility we had in iraq was just lost. we don't even have to meddle. the fact that we were even contemplating it--while at the same time the defense department was saying that less than full participation in elections would be acceptable--is absolutely disgusting. are we trying to sabotage ourselves, mr bush? because with you at the helm, we're doing a damn good job of it. if i had any respect left for your administration (and that's a big if), i just lost it.

sunday, 26 september

overheard: 'keep it gay.' -the producers

so fr bobbo's party went off without a hitch. the fajitas were amazing. i didn't try the sangria (stuck to beer, mostly), but there's some in the kitchen still today, so i'll have to sample it. with breakfast? perhaps. fr bobbo is one of the most deeply spiritual people i've ever met. yesterday we were celebrating the 40th anniversary of his friendship with my uncle steve and with my mother's family more generally. we had a family mass in the new back yard. i must say it was very nice. most of the day was spent getting ready for the fête. afterwards, though (technically, i suppose, before it ended), bo and i went down to see the producers. it was tasteless, but very funny. i enjoyed it, though i can't say i was knocked off my feet or anything. whom did we see there? mr dzwinel. mr falkner. aunt chris. some other people, i guess. not as many as i would have supposed. then again, all my friends have left this town. and i leave wednesday. gosh, i don't want to pack.

two little items from newsland today. the first isn't so much an article as a lovely companion to electoral-vote.com from the new york times. it even allows you to play with vote totals in the interactive map. oh joy! the second thing i want you all to read is less awesome and a lot more of a time commitment, but should be worth it. the washington post is running a four part series on growing up gay in 'real' america. today and tomorrow, they're focusing on 17-year-old Michael Shackelford from oklahoma. it's worth a read, if only to remember that far from georgetown or seattle prep or the JVC or even spokane, there are kids growing up queer who have no idea that there are happy, healthy, well-adjusted gay people. "Being gay, you'll never have that true love like a man and a woman," Michael says, standing against his truck as Merle Haggard mixes with the backyard whippoorwills. "Hearing all the songs about a man coming home from work to his wife's loving arms, you never hear of gay couples like that." He sets his ratchet down. "Do you?" it's not just that, of course. it's the taunting. the harrassment. the coldness. it will get better, of course, as time goes on. the crazy christians are fighting a losing battle against respect for human dignity.

it is, of course, a tricky path. and a slow one. for a moment at the show last night (not during the 'keep it gay' song, but during the one with all the horny old women), i wondered when sex became a purely personal thing. i don't mean, necessarily, a private thing. clearly, sex and sexuality are often very public. but their firm location within an individual's prerogative seems to me a distinctly modern concept. armchair social historian that i am, i can't help but suppose that the meanings attached to contraception, or coerced sex, or the use of sex as a tool for bartaring, or being homosexually-oriented but marrrying and engaging in het intercourse to make babies have changed significantly even in the past hundred years (let alone since chaucer's time.

i'm convinced that it is this migration of sex and sexuality from being the interest of the community generally to being a personal issue is the driving force behind the increased acceptance (and, slowly, embrace) of queer sexualities. such acceptance is not indicative of a loosening of morals, just part of larger change in society. nor is the privitization of sexuality a euphamism for moral degradation. as a trend, i would think it confirms women's equal sexual dignity with men's, both inside and outside marriage. it increases the social stigma placed on rape and molestation. it frees people to acknowledge that sexual development is a part of personal development as a whole, and its retardation is detrimental to the whole person. and now i have to get ready to go to another mass with bo and dod.

saturday, 25 september

overheard: 'i really like bears' -dod

fr bobbo is in town today, so we're having a little party for him at the house. of course, his namesake (bo) is at some knights event. my mother is at the hospital, and my father is playing golf so i'm cleaning the house and getting things ready. at least it's the most beautiful day ever. high should be in the low 80s. lovely day. and i just went and bought some good beer for the party.

yesterday concluded my good lunch triumverate. i had a great chicken sandwich at the elk with cindy. my dad and i also went back to school shopping. new shoes. new trousers. new jumper. all very nice. now back to work.

friday, 24 september

overheard: 'you're expensive' -mom

what a froggy morning we're having here in spokane. i went to a new restaurant for lunch yesterday with my mom. very good. called moxie. across from the davenport. i had an ahi tuna and spinach salad with a sesame dressing, carmelized macadamia nuts, and wasabi soybeans. very good. like i said. that was pretty much the most exciting part of my day. i got two new brush heads for my sonicare. OH. and new sheets. and a tweed jacket. very brown. very hip. y'all will see it soon enough. finished making my plans for coming home at christmas. now all that has to be done is to convince jack to come for new year. that shouldn't be too awfully tough, i hope.

i head back to oxford next wednesday, you know. and hopefully once i'm there, i'll return to my regular news-junkie, opinionated self. or i'll overmedicate on jasmine tea and spend all my time at the bod. either way, big changes are coming.

thursday, 23 september

happy 2nd day of fall, since i missed the first
overheard: 'well god help oregon, for beavers are the evil minions of stan.' -bucky katt

yesterday was the autumnal equinox. i'm sure you all noticed the equal duration of night and day. and that it's now fall. which is great. i had lots of contact with would-be rhoschos yesterday. and with my gramma. we went to luna for lunch: wonderful, as always.

many thanks to my friend brian for forwarding info about these nerdy nerdy map fellowships. maybe i can get money to hang out in london and do the work i have to do anyway? that would be sweet.

last night i was laying in bed (contemplating the red cross, of course), and i realized i don't know how i feel about them. they certified me to swim (good!), but they were run for a long time by elizabeth dole (bad!). they theoretically ensure that prisoners of war are treated humanely...though it doesn't seem to have worked very well of late (good/bad!), and they continue to insist that i can't donate blood because i have the gay (bad!). what a mixed bag. anyone feel strongly one way or the other?

tuesday, 21 september

overheard: 'this fall is all about next fall' -the nyt style magazine

spokane is boring, yet, but at least it's getting warmer. and maybe someday my parents will actually dine with me. i'm not holding my breath. yesterday i visited brandon's mom at work. yes, i actually walked. mock amazement. it was such a pleasant day, though. while sitting at home doing nothing (most of the day, really), i got called by some push poll about sexual health stuff. they asked me if i supported abstinence-only education in schools (no!) and whether i thought abortion should continue to be legal (yes!). and then they asked me how strongly i felt about both issues. i love participating in polls. love love love.

at the opposite end of the spectrum, i've decided i hate the word tony. a lot. it just sounds crass. and the new york times overuses it. and, no, it's not just because it's a common nickname for anthony, though i must say i've never liked it much for that purpose, either. crass. that's what i'm saying.

monday, 20 september

overheard: 'i got up because it smelled like irony' -bo

most exciting thing ever: congrats to julie marie, the new aunt of baxter eliot (spelling, jules?). i'm so happy for you and your family! send photos! post them to the blog. spoil him rotten. we're depending on you.

the less fascinating parts of my own life: firstly, i bought a ticket home for the christmas holiday. alright: perhaps not all the way home. but a round trip BA flight from LHR to DEN. then i'll be able to see rufus a little bit more than i would otherwise get to. and i'll get to see her play basketmaball. so that's exciting. of course, i have realized (yet again) that spokane is immensely boring. but oh well. T, the new york times style magazine had an article in yesterday's men's fall fashion issue about how to develop what i affectionately call 'love muscles'. so at least i'll have something to keep me busy until i head back to england next wednesday.

one last thing before i let y'all go for the day: it is a travesty beyond words that the hot olympians website has been taken down. this is rank injustice, and i hope the good people of the internet will not stand for it. we demand more hot olympians!

sunday, 19 september

overheard: 'the service bar is backed up, honey' -rudest waitress ever

so i paid my summer bills yesterday. not as much carnage as i had feared. thankfully. but i'm still thinking i'm darn po'. then again, i'm in graduate school and unemployed, so the amount of fun i've had this summer (trips to DC, new york, philly, cape cod, chicago, and the sound) is pretty darn surprising. enough complaining. on that, anyway. bo and i went to o'leary's for dinner last night after mass with my godparents and uncle steve. and we had, as noted above, the rudest waitress in history. definitely not okay. but i had a great spinach salad, and root beer. hurrah.

i was driving out to the valley yesterday to pick up the changeling, listening to dar williams, and i had a little crisis. one of those JVC crises. about whether i'm doing enough good in the world. stoopid JVC. with the deteriorating state of this election, i'm tempted to remove the electoral vote projection at the top of this screen. but i won't. not yet. maybe it will serve as a slight reminder that all y'all have to go vote. preferrably for kerry. please.

saturday, 18 september

overheard: 'i'm spoiled, too' -anna

i slept with my window open last night. september is my favorite month in spokane, and i love nothing more than waking up with my face cold and my body warm under a down comforter. in a properly-sized bed. of course, when i woke up this morning, we had no electricity at the house. some truck had run into a power pole on bernard between 14th and 15th. so i went to the spokane club to have a swim. let me tell you: my lungs are out of shape. still, it was nice. i did a mile with a kickboard. that was nice. we'll see if i can walk tomorrow.

friday, 17 september

overheard: 'we are now boarding all rows' -iad

someone really should send a memo to alaska airlines telling them how awful it is to load an entire 737 at once. all in all, though, my trip went quickly and painlessly. i slept for about two hours on the first flight, but i will say that it was still darn nice to sleep in my own bed. really, there's very little to be said about yesterday. sorry. the presidential polls are looking downright depressing. that is all for now. OH. one highlight of yesterday: an invitation to the 2005 achievement summit. hurrah.

wednesday, 15 september

happy 26th anniversary, m&d!
overheard: 'why not?' -jack's weekend refrain

i don't really have anything interesting to say about yesterday. i left the house once. to walk the dog. and i spent the rest of the day reading and napping. really, not a bad day. today i'm meeting with a georgetown rhodes applicant. doing a tiny bit of shopping, and having dinner with amanda at bistrot du coin. but joe isn't coming. OH: good news. it looks like joe is getting that house in the country. so maybe someday i'll be able to post some pictures of the adorable place. i'm flying back to spo tomorrow, so, um, maybe there won't be an update until late. YAY! i'll miss DC, though. i won't be back until amanda's graduation in may.

tuesday, 14 september

overheard: 'no one in my family has ever spent two weeks alone with ben' -allison

what a great weekend! i know i know: i forgot to mention i was leaving. jack and i went to new york for the weekend. we stayed with allison, and managed to see about a million people (allison, katie, kate, joe, danielle, joe, rich, jimmy, nick, shannon, julie, chris, fred, meredith, allen, andy, and meghan). all in all, it was a hectic trip. my first to new york which was dominated by social commitments. normally, i just wander around under my own auspices. i think i may be suffering the repercussions of lack of sleep.

the food: thursday evening we went to a vietnamese restaurant on the upper east side called saigon grill. it was very good. i had the chicken curry. huge portions. good flavors. fresh vegetables. no complaints. we proceeded thence to jimmy's book party, where the finger foods were good, the beer was a little warm, but there was ample provision of malibu and diet coke (no doubt thanks to nick's influence). friday for lunch we went to a great busaba-esque thai restaurant called peep on prince street. i think every new yorker has heard of this restaurant. it was very good. the main courses moreso than the appetizers, i think, which weren't hot enough, though they had wonderful flavor. we actually had lunch there again yesterday. the most captivating feature of this restaurant, of course, is its famous bathrooms, which are behind one-way mirrors, so that while sitting on the toilet, you can watch people eat. very weird. friday dinner brought us to odeon a french restaurant in tribeca. i had a goat's cheese salad to start, followed by a very good spinach, bacon and gruyere omellette. we were joined there by jack's friend chris from tokyo, who was kind enough to buy our meals for us. thanks, chris! saturday we had lunch with meredith at a place near the four seasons that was altogether unremarkable (i don't even recall its name), though i did get an orange-peach nantucket nectar, which was simply divine. there was a large rendezvous saturday night for dinner at republic in union square. its reputation is well deserved. shannon got a very odd lychees-based frozen alcoholic beverage. jack had a cold beef noodle dish. the meat was very good. i had duck in a chicken-based curry broth with noodles. i enjoyed it, but left with an upset stomach, probably on account of the mediocre food at lunch, or the afternoon of drinking belgian beers and eating french fried in the west village. sunday brunch found us back on the upper east side for brunch at sarabeth's, where jack ran into a co-westminsterite. jack had bacon and eggs. tough to mess up. i had pancakes with fresh strawberries, which turned out to be very good, though not very filling. sunday evening, we went to a new york mexican chain called caliente which wasn't bad, but wasn't amazing, either. wait. i lied. their mango margarita was amazing. thanks, katie!

i know i know. too long. i'm almost done. i returned to tending my website today, and thought i'd review my sitemeter to see who visited while i was away. some of the search terms y'all use to find my website are pretty funny. on the oxford university search engine, i come up as the number one and two hits under a search for gay picture and as the second hit for jesuit conferrence 2004. on google, i noticed visits from a lot of different types of searches, from the fairly common power hour CDs searches to things like gay hookups in oxford (i'm number 5!), amateur gynecologist (12), miller high life font (2), and gay cabin crew newcastle (9). yes. check. i'm gay. we got that part. and i drink bad beer in large volumes. but i'm not a slut. or a flight attendant. or a jesuit. got it? good.

wednesday, 8 september

overheard: 'it smells like my mom' -jack

i'm boring. we had an amazing dinner for jack's birthday last night. adams morgan. little fountain cafe. 2339 18th st NW. go eat there. we had good wine, too. a meeting with gtown rhodes applicants yesterday left me hopeful for more hoyas at oxford soon. jack tells me i'm not as bad at speaking to groups as i always fear myself to be.

we were shopping on m st yesterday and jack bumped into one of his friends from london. small world. then i drank this odwalla protein smoothie thing. it wasn't very smooth: really, it was more gritty. and that was my day.

tuesday, 7 september

happy 23rd birthday, jack!
overheard: 'it's difficult to be this skinny sometimes' -brian

and safe travels as brian returns to arizona today. see you back england-side, buddy. the holiday was exactly what it should have been: relaxing. it was not, however, capped by a symphony concert in the park, which was disappointing. especially when my brother called during the battle hymn of the republic to say that our mom was crying. not out of patriotism (how passe), but because of the movie san francisco. she's so funny. i really need to make some calls about new york. i can't believe i'm going home in nine days. hurrah. football games. a weekend in seattle. prep pride day. i'm going in drag. ha. just kidding.

i thought there was some sort of interesting news to write to y'all about, but i'm probably mistaken.

monady, 6 september

overheard: i got nothin...i was distracted yesterday

brunch was amazing. amanda wins. like a million points. i was burping yummy brunchiness all day. jack was exhausted, but he managed to make it to mass with me, which i really enjoyed. that may be the last time i ever go to the 8 pm mass. odd, huh? it was bound to happen eventually, though, i suppose. i can't really say what will be going on today. it's nice and overcast. perhaps we'll drive over to annapolis. or something. really doesn't matter to me. hurrah.

sunday, 5 september

dtJBM:0
overheard: 'you put this sh*t in your butt?! it probably never comes out!' -joe

jack jack jack. jack jack jack jack jack. jack at dulles. jack at brunch. jack taking a nap. jack at mass. that is all.

saturday, 4 september

dtJBM:1
overheard: 'i hear we have something in common' -eric

after an all-too-exciting thrusday, i really did almost nothing yesterday. watched love, actually again. took a nap. read a little bit. fell asleep at 9.30 pm while reading emma. i'll probably rest up again tonight, so that i'll be bright eyed and bushy-tailed when jack gets here tomorrow: hurrah!

friday, 3 september

dtJBM:2
overheard: 'portugal is the black sheep of europe' -apex bathroom

well, if nothing else, i can say i went out last night. somewhere toward the end, though, ian and i kept losing brian. apex is still...badlands. it was almost like my sophomore year at georgetown all over again. except i kept answering my cell phone. which is never a good idea in a club. rodolphe was there with his cute boyfriend. that was nice. the bush speech, on the other hand, was not nice. in fact, it was pretty awful. what we had hoped would be a drinking game (drink every time bush makes that evil smirk, etc) quickly deteriorated into four grown men shouting at the television screen.

i would link to some news analyses from the WP and/or the NYT, but i already know that that type of people who are interested in my inane ramblings on here will probably already know everything in those two articles, so i won't bother. and i'm feeling lazy and a little hung over. but basically, yeah, anyone else notice that the president didn't really talk about anything? he could talk or not talk for hours and still find things to not talk about. for an hour. on national TV. anyway, you can probably guess how i'm voting. oh, but nader got on the washington state ballot, apparently. jerkface.

speaking of which, i really did only 3 things yesterday: had lunch with a georgetown grad down at the watergate (it was very nice. a little sequestered by GIANT roads, though. i wonder what jane jacobs would say?), voted in the washington state primary (this four ballot system is confusing!), and got a gmail address (yes. that's the best thing about yesterday. a new email addy. i'm a nerd). oh, lastly but most importantly...i also got an email yesterday from my cousin stephen, which is always a joy. he's one of the seattle paper's election bloggers, so check his stuff out, yo.

thursday, 2 september

dtJBM:3
overheard: 'that's my favorite type of pedophile' -red square

i just write this stuff down. context only makes it less enjoyable. i watched love, actually yesterday. i love those british accents, i tell you. and one in particular. i made my first appearance at the tombs for dinner with amanda. i fixed her internet, and i started reading this book. it's quite good despite being autobiography, which is (to quote the times) 'now as common as adultery and hardly less reprehensible'. mr clark was the director of the national gallery in london from 1931 to 1946. i'm mostly reading this book to learn about what was done with all that art during the blitz. i'll keep you informed.

in other news, can we talk about this artice for a moment? i have trouble remembering my first impressions of Mr G W Bush (perhaps i should comb back over my fall 2000 blogs), but reading that news analysis, i can only suppose i found him naïvely insipid. four years on, i have trouble thinking him as anything but delusionally evil. i suppose it's just further along the same scale, right? the banality of evil is a constant shock.

re-elect kerry and edwards in 2008!

wednesday, 1 september

dtJBM:4
happy birthday, rachelle!
overheard: 'are you two really siblings?' -woman at the gu bookstore

so yesterday amanda went to ikea. that really seemed to dominate the day. dinner with devi was lovely. i arranged lunch dates for today (becky) and tomorrow (bart) and dinner for thursday (brian) and next wednesday (lauren) and a reception and dinner on tuesday. yes, i was feeling social.

other news of yesterday: chipotle for lunch. a book recommendation, and a friendster message from a cute gtown med student. oh, and yesterday afternoon i realized that my debit card expired last night at midnight. so, um, hopefully i don't need cash any time soon. eek!