happy halloween yall. get yerself a beverage, this is a long ass post.
i am so sorry it has taken me nearly two weeks to post about IDKE 8 in Austin.
i always have such a hard time getting back into the swing of things and work and life have been more hectic than usual.
so lets get to it. i am going to do this day by day. that is the only way it is manageable for me.
in my last post, you will find the pictures i took on thursday at the meet and great. they are mostly of the folks i was staying with, so i am not going to re-post them here. overally, the meet and greet was fun. we had a few drinks and went home fairly early b/c folks had to be at work the next day and i knew that friday was going to be a full day for me.
so the first thing i attended on friday was the "butch on butch" panel put on by amber billey, debbie linn and sam bryer from chicago. we had a problem parking, so we got there late, but luckily they were just finishing up introductions. you were basically supposed to say your name and one word (or phrase) that you thought of when you thought of butch. i said "hot."
the room was really full with folks sitting on the floor and crowding in. what i was most taken by was the generational diversity of the group. walking into the room, the first thing i saw was a number of what i would call "old school" butches or studs, you know the folks who fought the fight long before i even figured out i was queer. that felt really good. i was also really excited that there was a discussion of the difference between "stud" and "butch" and how race and culture influence the understanding of those two words. one person, from st. louis (maybe?) said something like "look, i am 36 years old and i still identify as a stud, butch is something i aspire to be one day, its a process." i just liked the way that s/he articulated a history that many of us forget. overall it was a very lively discussion. i also liked this one younger person who talked about working in a deli with other liberal and/or queer types and how because s/he is the most "butch looking" person there, folks expect hir to take out the trash and shit. just a nice way to talk about the expectations of masculinity. it was a rich discussion. i am glad i went.
after that, i went to the "making history: documenting our performance cultures & communities" panel by julie applegate, christa (simon) and alana kumbier. it was interesting to hear all the projects that have been done and are being done by folks to save all the memories created both at IDKE and in their own communities. they passed out this great little zine that is a wonderful "how to" archive your own work. they also let us know about a blog that you can post to. its address is:
www.idkearchives.blogspot.com
they asked that folks cross post their posts about IDKE 8 there. i plan to. i missed a good part of the end of the talk b/c i was helping this random woman with her two adorable twin babies. i forget their names by now, but they were about 7 months old and girls and adorable. one was skinnier and very wiggly and one was chubbier and more chill. when the wiggly one got REAL wiggly and sort of loud, i asked the mom if she needed help occupying the chill one (who started to get a little not so chill) so all hell wouldn't break loose. she handed me chillbaby and she immediately became mesmerized by my long luxurious locks (read: my stringy greasy straight hair) and my chin. with my help, the mom lady (who was from austin) was able to stay through most of the panel. we bid our adieus outside the room when the babies really started fussing. so many people asked me if those were my babies. i was like "nope, i was just an instant nanny."
If you have any questions about archiving, please contact one or all of the following people:
Julie Applegate/Jake Wakeman: vespadyke@yahoo.com
Alana Kumbier/Redrider: dragarchivist@yahoo.com
Christa Orth/Simon LeBongo: christamae@yahoo.com
they are smart folks and they can help you.
after that i had lunch and hung out a bit with my new friend jodi bon jodi who is on the idke board. then i headed to the film shorts. some of my favorites were:
1. "the sea calls us home" by annie simpson- because trevor endeavor was in it. hot.
2. "les maladventures de zut-alors" by jeanne stern- the whole thing is about these two sort of party blower sock puppets. fucking ingenious and hilarious.
3. "miggy n lil" by bug davidson-weird but engaging film about this butcher who falls for this femmey hustler girl. i am not sure i completely "got it" but you should check it out.
4. "lez side story" by hedia maron & faye driscoll- also HIlarious. fruits. queers. dancing. chains. a must see for the whole family.
the last thing i did on friday was facilitate the race caucus. now this was requested by jolie harris last year at winnipeg and i said i was interested then. so for the last few months six of us (jolie harris, dd chandler? cummings?, sand chang, mel corn, matt richardson and myself) have been discussing how to best organize a race caucus at IDKE. we decided that splitting into affinity groups based on racial identity for the first thirty minutes and then spending the next thirty minutes together as an entire group was best. each group had a set of questions they were to discuss.
Topics for the people of color affinity group:
• How do we use our performances to explore race? What does that look like, and why is it important?
• As audience members and performers, when have we been offended? When have we decided to leave spaces because of fucked up race politics on and/or off stage? How have we confronted others who participate in the offensive performance, or if we haven't, what are the barriers?
• What does being "colorblind" mean? Is it possible?
• Is it okay for people of color to appropriate music by people of color from a different racial group? How does power play into this?
What is the difference between impersonation and interpretation? Can a performer responsibly and respectfully do cross-racial performances?
------------------------------------------------------------
Topics for the white affinity group:
• Why do we adopt racial tropes/stereotypes in our performances? What are the alternatives?
• What does being “colorblind” mean? Is it possible?
• How can white people use gender/drag performance to intentionally explore race? What does it look like? Why is it important?
• If we see someone in our troupe or on stage doing a performance that makes us uncomfortable because of the race issues involved, what can we do about it?
What is the difference between impersonation and interpretation? Can a performer responsibly and respectfully do cross-racial performances?
now first of all, i thought we would have MAYBE 25 people at this session. while it was scheduled when nothing else was scheduled, i figured it was the end of the day and really i thought not that many folks care to talk about race, racism and how both intersect with IDKE. i was wrong. we had probably between 75 and 100 people there. and lots of them were white folks (something i also didn't expect).
mel and i facilitated the white affinity group. it went pretty well. there were a lot more people than we anticipated, so i did not have enough handouts and i think that it may have been easier to handle and hear if we broke into two groups of white people. the feedback i got privately from some of the folks in the group was that as facilitators, we should have taken those particpants who said problematic things to task. i think they were probably right and i am trying to figure out a way to incorporate more of a "talk back" structure when we do this again. i do think that most of the things i did not agree with that were said, were in some way addressed by other members of the white affinity group, so that, to me, is good, but i agree that sometimes, things that may be hurtful or violent to others sometimes need to be identified as such by the folks facilitating.
the most interesting thing (to me) of the "coming back together" part was the number of white people in the room who vocalized how they felt tension in the room. i didn't feel the tension, but i think if people did, its a good thing. i think the tension is that "uncomfortable-ness" that we white folks have when our race privilege is exposed. to me, that tension was a sign of transformation. of movement. so i welcome it.
a lot of the participants thanked us as facilitators for putting on the caucus and said they were really glad it has become an institutionalized part of the conference. while it was exhausting and frustrating at some points, i mostly felt exhiliarated and blessed to be amongst so many amazing people who were willing to engage in hard discussions about race, racism, power and privilege. i felt humbled and proud to be a part of the IDKE community.
ok this has gotten way too long and i have to head out to meet someone for drinks. i am going to have to post about dragdom tomorrow. there will be pictures, i promise.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
it's 3am
and i can't sleep, so here i am, starting the blog process.
i certainly have work work and dissertation work to do, but strangely, my brain does not feel like doing that
nor, apparently, does it feel like sleeping
the real fucked up thing? i just went to sleep less than four hours ago.
i smell a nap for my friday afternoon
so there was much talk of the importance of archiving at IDKE 8-Austin this past weekend, so I want to be able to cross post from my blog to many of the newly created blogs and live journals and what not. so to do that, i have to split up my weekend into reports on my idke friends and my non idke friends (even though throughout the weekend the two intertwined), to save time and writing energy, i am going to create this weird separation. so let me begin with my escapades with my friends in austin that were not affiliated with IDKE 8.
so jes and i left at the ass crack of dawn (4:45 am) last thursday morning to head to the airport for our flight to austin. we were both attending IDKE 8 and jes was also attending the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) conference, b/c really one event a weekend is really not enough. NLG is an organization of politically progressive lawyers, law students and legal workers. basically the kids who want to fuck shit up in one way or another. i digress. airport, early, flight to austin. overall, the flight to dallas and then from dallas to austin was pretty uneventful. on the way there they showed a movie... what was it, oh yes, the lake house with hottie mchotties sandra bullock and keanu reeves. not a real winner- i was able to doze off for about twenty minutes in the middle of it and still got the gist of the storyline in the end. i did like that it was set in chicago. more movies, in my humble opinion, should be set in chi-town. its a very lovely city, if i do say so myself.
moving on. so the plan was when we got to austin, we would meet up with kim (who flew there from atlanta) and get a rental car. this all went smoothly EXCEPT that delta lost kim's small toiletry bag that she checked so she would not lose her $25 bumble and bumble hair product (AGAIN!) once the very nice dude behind the luggage counter got done taking the info of where we were staying (and frankly, hitting on her- he was old enough to be our dad-nice!) we were on our way to the rental car, a nice, four door white chevy.
from the airport we headed to lee and rebecca's house. l & r are friends of kim's from new orleans. they lost just about everything in their apartment in hurricance katrina (though their cats were saved, thank god) and they have just settled in austin after a quick unhappy jaunt to houston. they now rent this lovely house in austin with their two cats lu and paeda (or something like that). rebecca took us to lunch at this delicious mexican restaurant called chuy's (jes and i kept roaring like chewbacca when they would say the name) where i had a divine margarita and some guacamole tacos. they were BRIMMING with guacamole. loved it! all i remember after that was taking a nap in their gorgeous guest bedroom and then eating some delish homemade chili before we made our way to the meet and greet at some place called the cattle company (or something like that). all i know is it had a big ole dance floor and queers were two steppin.' here is a picture of jes, rebecca, lee, kim and r&l's friend aimee. how cute are these kids?
now the weird thing is that a few weeks ago, jes and i had dinner at kate's joint in new york with our friend darrelle and her sweetie (whose name escapes me this late/early). they told us they were going to be in austin for a day or two while we were there, so we made plans to meet up at the meet and greet. here is a pic of jes, darrelle, her sweetie and their cute gay boy friend whose name i can't remember either:
luckily, lee had work on friday morning (she's a physical therapist-sexy), so we went home at a fairly reasonable hour. i am pretty sure i crashed immediately, but i think jes may have stayed up and played video games? or maybe that didn't happen until friday night? who knows. friday day jes and i spent conferencing while lee worked (yuck) and kim and rebecca played and ran around town. we all met back at the house and i am guessing we had dinner but i can't now remember what it was. maybe jes or kim will remember and post about it. friday night was dragdom at this outdoor bar called emo's. the show, for the most part, was entertaining with a little whack racist shit thrown in. it went real long so we left before it was over, in large part b/c there was too much of this:
just kidding. it was more b/c it was late and we were all pretty tired. now kim was a little bit worried she couldn't get a ride home, so she first tried to get in some guy's trunk:
but she had to move to make room for his amp and speakers. so then she tried this random bike:
it took a lot of convincing to keep her off somebody's crotch rocket (very fast motorcycle). luckily, she agreed rebecca's suv was the best way to go.
much like friday, saturday was filled with more conferencing for jes and i while kim, rebecca and lee slept in and then relaxed. i had a IDKE board meeting that went from 8am-11am, so by 3 in the afternoon, i was pretty wrecked. we headed back to the house, had a bloody mary and took a quick disco nap while the other three ladies went over to a friends house for a quick drop in on a party. now let me tell you about this bloody mary for a minute. first of all, it was in lee's gramma's official bloody mary glasses- one of the few things that survived katrina. second of all, it was delicious and spicy and you could not taste the vodka, and third of all-and honestly, to be this was the best part- it had PICKLED GREEN BEANS IN IT YALL. i mean i have never had one of those before. but you take them, and let them soak in some spicy tomato bloody mary mix and you have what i like to call HEAVEN. i liked them so much that after i ate the two complimentary beans, lee replaced them with... TWO MORE. just. plain. good.
that night we had dinner at this adorable joint called mother's cafe. jes got a big ole baked potato and i got this avocado sammie (sense the trend here folks-they know how to do avocado in austin) and we shared. wait a second. maybe we went to mothers on friday night? its blurry to me now. but the take home point- good food. moving on. saturday night was the showcase. now just rebecca went with us at first b/c lee had tickets to some concert. shawn colvin i think, but i feel like she only stayed for the opener, whose name i am forgetting. jesus christo yall, i really REALLY need to stop drinking diet coke. this is what it is doing to me. anywho, here is a picture of cutie mc cuties, jes, rebecca and kim at the showcase:
now the showcase was in this lovely space called the palmer arts center. it is brand new and very spacious and at the beginning- very cold. i brought my video camera to tape and of course my batteries ran out shortly after the beginning of the second half. there were no plugs in the room (except the ones the sound people brought with them) so i was freed up to just watch the show and not worry about if i was getting a good enough shot of it. the showcase also went pretty long so by the time it was over the kids were ready to head home. lee joined us at the showcase, which was a nice surprise. we headed home and i headed to bed, but jes stayed up and whupped rebecca's ass in either tetris or mario brothers. they were talking trash back and forth all weekend:
on sunday morning we slept in (until about 9 or 9:30) and then hung out, had some HOMEMADE blueberry muffins, and then jes and i headed to the brunch and kim stayed back to chill with lee and rebecca, and their cute cats lu and p. here is a picture of lu, the wonder cat:
overall, it was an outstanding (and exhausting) weekend. for me, it was a nice balance of IDKE stuff and then just chilling with lee and rebecca at their lovely house. they were hella great hosts-giving us "keep austin weird" coozies (how do you spell that) and letting us stay in their divinely comfie guest bed. rebecca, who is a singer and musician (sexy), even played us a tune or two. she has the voice of an angel. when her cd is finished? comes out? i will post a picture of it here. i am so glad we got to know them and i LOVE seeing kim with her New Orleans friends. she is even more adorable than usual (if you can imagine that).
ok its almost 4am and my battery is about to die. wish me luck on falling back to sleep.
i certainly have work work and dissertation work to do, but strangely, my brain does not feel like doing that
nor, apparently, does it feel like sleeping
the real fucked up thing? i just went to sleep less than four hours ago.
i smell a nap for my friday afternoon
so there was much talk of the importance of archiving at IDKE 8-Austin this past weekend, so I want to be able to cross post from my blog to many of the newly created blogs and live journals and what not. so to do that, i have to split up my weekend into reports on my idke friends and my non idke friends (even though throughout the weekend the two intertwined), to save time and writing energy, i am going to create this weird separation. so let me begin with my escapades with my friends in austin that were not affiliated with IDKE 8.
so jes and i left at the ass crack of dawn (4:45 am) last thursday morning to head to the airport for our flight to austin. we were both attending IDKE 8 and jes was also attending the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) conference, b/c really one event a weekend is really not enough. NLG is an organization of politically progressive lawyers, law students and legal workers. basically the kids who want to fuck shit up in one way or another. i digress. airport, early, flight to austin. overall, the flight to dallas and then from dallas to austin was pretty uneventful. on the way there they showed a movie... what was it, oh yes, the lake house with hottie mchotties sandra bullock and keanu reeves. not a real winner- i was able to doze off for about twenty minutes in the middle of it and still got the gist of the storyline in the end. i did like that it was set in chicago. more movies, in my humble opinion, should be set in chi-town. its a very lovely city, if i do say so myself.
moving on. so the plan was when we got to austin, we would meet up with kim (who flew there from atlanta) and get a rental car. this all went smoothly EXCEPT that delta lost kim's small toiletry bag that she checked so she would not lose her $25 bumble and bumble hair product (AGAIN!) once the very nice dude behind the luggage counter got done taking the info of where we were staying (and frankly, hitting on her- he was old enough to be our dad-nice!) we were on our way to the rental car, a nice, four door white chevy.
from the airport we headed to lee and rebecca's house. l & r are friends of kim's from new orleans. they lost just about everything in their apartment in hurricance katrina (though their cats were saved, thank god) and they have just settled in austin after a quick unhappy jaunt to houston. they now rent this lovely house in austin with their two cats lu and paeda (or something like that). rebecca took us to lunch at this delicious mexican restaurant called chuy's (jes and i kept roaring like chewbacca when they would say the name) where i had a divine margarita and some guacamole tacos. they were BRIMMING with guacamole. loved it! all i remember after that was taking a nap in their gorgeous guest bedroom and then eating some delish homemade chili before we made our way to the meet and greet at some place called the cattle company (or something like that). all i know is it had a big ole dance floor and queers were two steppin.' here is a picture of jes, rebecca, lee, kim and r&l's friend aimee. how cute are these kids?
now the weird thing is that a few weeks ago, jes and i had dinner at kate's joint in new york with our friend darrelle and her sweetie (whose name escapes me this late/early). they told us they were going to be in austin for a day or two while we were there, so we made plans to meet up at the meet and greet. here is a pic of jes, darrelle, her sweetie and their cute gay boy friend whose name i can't remember either:
luckily, lee had work on friday morning (she's a physical therapist-sexy), so we went home at a fairly reasonable hour. i am pretty sure i crashed immediately, but i think jes may have stayed up and played video games? or maybe that didn't happen until friday night? who knows. friday day jes and i spent conferencing while lee worked (yuck) and kim and rebecca played and ran around town. we all met back at the house and i am guessing we had dinner but i can't now remember what it was. maybe jes or kim will remember and post about it. friday night was dragdom at this outdoor bar called emo's. the show, for the most part, was entertaining with a little whack racist shit thrown in. it went real long so we left before it was over, in large part b/c there was too much of this:
just kidding. it was more b/c it was late and we were all pretty tired. now kim was a little bit worried she couldn't get a ride home, so she first tried to get in some guy's trunk:
but she had to move to make room for his amp and speakers. so then she tried this random bike:
it took a lot of convincing to keep her off somebody's crotch rocket (very fast motorcycle). luckily, she agreed rebecca's suv was the best way to go.
much like friday, saturday was filled with more conferencing for jes and i while kim, rebecca and lee slept in and then relaxed. i had a IDKE board meeting that went from 8am-11am, so by 3 in the afternoon, i was pretty wrecked. we headed back to the house, had a bloody mary and took a quick disco nap while the other three ladies went over to a friends house for a quick drop in on a party. now let me tell you about this bloody mary for a minute. first of all, it was in lee's gramma's official bloody mary glasses- one of the few things that survived katrina. second of all, it was delicious and spicy and you could not taste the vodka, and third of all-and honestly, to be this was the best part- it had PICKLED GREEN BEANS IN IT YALL. i mean i have never had one of those before. but you take them, and let them soak in some spicy tomato bloody mary mix and you have what i like to call HEAVEN. i liked them so much that after i ate the two complimentary beans, lee replaced them with... TWO MORE. just. plain. good.
that night we had dinner at this adorable joint called mother's cafe. jes got a big ole baked potato and i got this avocado sammie (sense the trend here folks-they know how to do avocado in austin) and we shared. wait a second. maybe we went to mothers on friday night? its blurry to me now. but the take home point- good food. moving on. saturday night was the showcase. now just rebecca went with us at first b/c lee had tickets to some concert. shawn colvin i think, but i feel like she only stayed for the opener, whose name i am forgetting. jesus christo yall, i really REALLY need to stop drinking diet coke. this is what it is doing to me. anywho, here is a picture of cutie mc cuties, jes, rebecca and kim at the showcase:
now the showcase was in this lovely space called the palmer arts center. it is brand new and very spacious and at the beginning- very cold. i brought my video camera to tape and of course my batteries ran out shortly after the beginning of the second half. there were no plugs in the room (except the ones the sound people brought with them) so i was freed up to just watch the show and not worry about if i was getting a good enough shot of it. the showcase also went pretty long so by the time it was over the kids were ready to head home. lee joined us at the showcase, which was a nice surprise. we headed home and i headed to bed, but jes stayed up and whupped rebecca's ass in either tetris or mario brothers. they were talking trash back and forth all weekend:
on sunday morning we slept in (until about 9 or 9:30) and then hung out, had some HOMEMADE blueberry muffins, and then jes and i headed to the brunch and kim stayed back to chill with lee and rebecca, and their cute cats lu and p. here is a picture of lu, the wonder cat:
overall, it was an outstanding (and exhausting) weekend. for me, it was a nice balance of IDKE stuff and then just chilling with lee and rebecca at their lovely house. they were hella great hosts-giving us "keep austin weird" coozies (how do you spell that) and letting us stay in their divinely comfie guest bed. rebecca, who is a singer and musician (sexy), even played us a tune or two. she has the voice of an angel. when her cd is finished? comes out? i will post a picture of it here. i am so glad we got to know them and i LOVE seeing kim with her New Orleans friends. she is even more adorable than usual (if you can imagine that).
ok its almost 4am and my battery is about to die. wish me luck on falling back to sleep.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
newest addition to my family
check out my sister's new cat samuel. we like to call him samuel l. jackson
the other cute devil (without a tail) is my nephew ben:
the other cute devil (without a tail) is my nephew ben:
Sunday, October 15, 2006
allright bitches part dos
on sunday, erin and i went to take a tour of the cloisters, a lovely building way up north on manhattan island that used to house nuns i think. it is just blocks from higgins work and home so we met up with her afterwards for a bite to eat. luckily there was a huge renaissance fair going on in the park adjacent to the cloisters so we got to see lots of ladies and knights and such. one guy working at the cloisters was dressed as a unicorn.
here is a picture of the lovely architecture:
i was trying to get artsy with my photos here, you know prove that i can take pictures just as well as jes. here is one of a pretty door:
this is one of my favorite pictures i took. i love the way the shadow falls across erin's face:
this is my other favorite picture i took. so artsy:
on monday erin and i went into the city to meet my friend maria. maria and i went to high school together. she was in new york en route to connecticut for a conference for her work. she sells fit linx work out machinery. so the three of us met up, walked through central park and then headed down to ground zero. after that, the three of us met up with jes at grand central station to get some lunch.
here is a picture of maria and me at central park:
and here is a real cute picture of jes, me and maria. i feel like maria and i look like we are related, do you?
the rest of the week we mostly worked, ate dinner together and kind of chilled. on thursday night, erin went down to the lottery for rush tickets for Avenue Q and she won! Yippee! So I met her at a restaurant/bar, she got a turkey burger, i got a grilled cheese, we shared some fries and headed out to the show. It was hilarious and we were in the front row. I saw the performers sweat and spit and I saw puppets do some nasty things. If you get a chance, I highly recommend it.
In celebraton of Erin finishing her research on Friday we went to Cattyshack and did some kamikaze (spelling?) shots. While Jes and Erin played Ms. Pac Man and Galaga I chatted up the dj named Storm. After that, we introduced Erin to Erotic Photo Hunt. She loved it. At first she got distracted trying to figure out where the models where and why they were laying half naked in the kitchen. I told her the only thing she needed to focus on was what was different in the picture on the left. We stayed out kind of late-so late we had to stop at smiling pizza and get a slice on the way home. After sleeping in, we drove into the city and dropped Erin off at Penn Station. After that we picked up Ali and a bunch of junk food and came home to watch the Ohio State v. Michigan State game. Of course, the buckeyes won. Yippee!
okay, we are watching "Imagine Me and You" and jes is very excited the two ladies are getting together. Piper Perabo does a fake british accent pretty well. i am getting tired, so i will end it there.
happy sunday
here is a picture of the lovely architecture:
i was trying to get artsy with my photos here, you know prove that i can take pictures just as well as jes. here is one of a pretty door:
this is one of my favorite pictures i took. i love the way the shadow falls across erin's face:
this is my other favorite picture i took. so artsy:
on monday erin and i went into the city to meet my friend maria. maria and i went to high school together. she was in new york en route to connecticut for a conference for her work. she sells fit linx work out machinery. so the three of us met up, walked through central park and then headed down to ground zero. after that, the three of us met up with jes at grand central station to get some lunch.
here is a picture of maria and me at central park:
and here is a real cute picture of jes, me and maria. i feel like maria and i look like we are related, do you?
the rest of the week we mostly worked, ate dinner together and kind of chilled. on thursday night, erin went down to the lottery for rush tickets for Avenue Q and she won! Yippee! So I met her at a restaurant/bar, she got a turkey burger, i got a grilled cheese, we shared some fries and headed out to the show. It was hilarious and we were in the front row. I saw the performers sweat and spit and I saw puppets do some nasty things. If you get a chance, I highly recommend it.
In celebraton of Erin finishing her research on Friday we went to Cattyshack and did some kamikaze (spelling?) shots. While Jes and Erin played Ms. Pac Man and Galaga I chatted up the dj named Storm. After that, we introduced Erin to Erotic Photo Hunt. She loved it. At first she got distracted trying to figure out where the models where and why they were laying half naked in the kitchen. I told her the only thing she needed to focus on was what was different in the picture on the left. We stayed out kind of late-so late we had to stop at smiling pizza and get a slice on the way home. After sleeping in, we drove into the city and dropped Erin off at Penn Station. After that we picked up Ali and a bunch of junk food and came home to watch the Ohio State v. Michigan State game. Of course, the buckeyes won. Yippee!
okay, we are watching "Imagine Me and You" and jes is very excited the two ladies are getting together. Piper Perabo does a fake british accent pretty well. i am getting tired, so i will end it there.
happy sunday
allright bitches
i have been getting some grief from some people (who shall remain nameless) about the length of time since my last post, so...
i am back on line
at least for tonight
i know it has been a minute since i wrote but life and work and friends have gotten in the way. so here it goes for the ketchup. :)
for the past week my friend erin has been staying with us. she came to see us, to see the city and to do research for her dissertation at the american museum of natural history. our journey with erin began last friday when jes and i went to penn station to meet her at the amtrak station. she took a train here from chicago. it took over 20 hours. good googely mooglely. so she had to bring this xray machine so she could xray some skulls at the museum. she also had to bring a lead vest so that the radiation would not seep into her cells. needless to say these things, along with one weeks worth of clothes were quite heavy. luckily we only made her schlep these things across the world and back (and up and down lots and lots of subway stairs). all of us were very sweaty and sore by the end of the day from carrying and/or pulling these things around. i convinced myself it counted as a trip to the gym.
so erin was not on new york soil for more than one minute and she had her first celebrity sighting: richard dreyfus.
yeah that's right: mr holland's opus, close encounter of the third kind- you know him. we weren't sure where to wait for erin b/c we had never been to penn station and when we thought we found the right gate we asked around to other folks what train they were waiting for. this nice young man said he was waiting for chicago and then he told us a famous guy just walked by. i looked and realized it was richard dreyfus. how cool is that? it was a team effort celebrity sighting, but one nonetheless. he had all these bags and could not get them up the stairs by himself so he went back into the rich people only lounge and got some help i guess.
the next celebrity sighting was on monday afternoon when erin accompanied me into the city to meet my high school friend maria. as we walked toward central park passed fancy restaurants, erin spotted uli from project runway:
i wouldn't have known who she was if she had a shirt on that said "i am uli" but when erin explained she was from project runway i had a vague sense of seeing her when i watched the show once or twice at glennda and kim's. i was impressed by erin's celebrity spidey sense, but what really put me over the edge was when she spotted alan rickman in soho on a busy shopping day. yeah, you got it, she picked out none other than snape from harry potter among six zillion consumers in soho:
she said he was carrying a dean and deluca shopping bag. erin really gained my respect on this one. i knew i was working with a top notch celebrity spotter. and on her *first* trip to nyc. very very impressive.
ok so lets move on to what we did while she was here.
on saturday jes, erin and i went to take a tour of the united nations. it was really amazing. not only do you get to see all aspects of the building, you also get to really learn what the UN does. i think both erin and i realized we want to work for the UN. I am pretty sure it will never happen to me because I only speak English and a little Spanish, but I am going to look into it just for shits and giggles. So here is a picture of the security council room (i think):
when you start the tour, they give you these very official looking badges. here is a pic of erin, with her badge, in the securities room:
what i learned most on this tour is that i know next to nothing about the United Nations and what they do. they have this one program called the millenium development goals. its like seven or eight goals that every country in the UN has agreed to work toward achieving. this is the program i would want to work for.
i forgot the name of this room, but it is where they filmed many scenes from the movie "The Interpreter" with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. Jes can't remember the name of the room either.
here is a pic of jes and me with our badges:
here is one of two cuties and a big gold globe:
and i like to call this one "stop the violence and oh my god donna has a big pumpkin head":
ok we are leaving the library, so i will write more when i get home.
stay tuned....
i am back on line
at least for tonight
i know it has been a minute since i wrote but life and work and friends have gotten in the way. so here it goes for the ketchup. :)
for the past week my friend erin has been staying with us. she came to see us, to see the city and to do research for her dissertation at the american museum of natural history. our journey with erin began last friday when jes and i went to penn station to meet her at the amtrak station. she took a train here from chicago. it took over 20 hours. good googely mooglely. so she had to bring this xray machine so she could xray some skulls at the museum. she also had to bring a lead vest so that the radiation would not seep into her cells. needless to say these things, along with one weeks worth of clothes were quite heavy. luckily we only made her schlep these things across the world and back (and up and down lots and lots of subway stairs). all of us were very sweaty and sore by the end of the day from carrying and/or pulling these things around. i convinced myself it counted as a trip to the gym.
so erin was not on new york soil for more than one minute and she had her first celebrity sighting: richard dreyfus.
yeah that's right: mr holland's opus, close encounter of the third kind- you know him. we weren't sure where to wait for erin b/c we had never been to penn station and when we thought we found the right gate we asked around to other folks what train they were waiting for. this nice young man said he was waiting for chicago and then he told us a famous guy just walked by. i looked and realized it was richard dreyfus. how cool is that? it was a team effort celebrity sighting, but one nonetheless. he had all these bags and could not get them up the stairs by himself so he went back into the rich people only lounge and got some help i guess.
the next celebrity sighting was on monday afternoon when erin accompanied me into the city to meet my high school friend maria. as we walked toward central park passed fancy restaurants, erin spotted uli from project runway:
i wouldn't have known who she was if she had a shirt on that said "i am uli" but when erin explained she was from project runway i had a vague sense of seeing her when i watched the show once or twice at glennda and kim's. i was impressed by erin's celebrity spidey sense, but what really put me over the edge was when she spotted alan rickman in soho on a busy shopping day. yeah, you got it, she picked out none other than snape from harry potter among six zillion consumers in soho:
she said he was carrying a dean and deluca shopping bag. erin really gained my respect on this one. i knew i was working with a top notch celebrity spotter. and on her *first* trip to nyc. very very impressive.
ok so lets move on to what we did while she was here.
on saturday jes, erin and i went to take a tour of the united nations. it was really amazing. not only do you get to see all aspects of the building, you also get to really learn what the UN does. i think both erin and i realized we want to work for the UN. I am pretty sure it will never happen to me because I only speak English and a little Spanish, but I am going to look into it just for shits and giggles. So here is a picture of the security council room (i think):
when you start the tour, they give you these very official looking badges. here is a pic of erin, with her badge, in the securities room:
what i learned most on this tour is that i know next to nothing about the United Nations and what they do. they have this one program called the millenium development goals. its like seven or eight goals that every country in the UN has agreed to work toward achieving. this is the program i would want to work for.
i forgot the name of this room, but it is where they filmed many scenes from the movie "The Interpreter" with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. Jes can't remember the name of the room either.
here is a pic of jes and me with our badges:
here is one of two cuties and a big gold globe:
and i like to call this one "stop the violence and oh my god donna has a big pumpkin head":
ok we are leaving the library, so i will write more when i get home.
stay tuned....
Thursday, October 12, 2006
a very bad blogger
yall
i am sorry i have been so remiss with the blog.
i have to say that work has really picked up and its kind of kicking my butt
that paired with friends visiting has really kept me busy busy busy.
so the bad news is i don't really have the time to write more right now
the good news i have plenty to talk about: my friend erin visiting, my friend maria visiting, touring the UN, touring the cloisters, celebrity sightings, and so on.
i also have a few lovely pictures to post.
so....
stay tuned until the weekend when life gets a little bit easier for me.
and also get pumped for IDKE 8 in Austin! for more info on that, go to:
www.idkeaustin.com
i hope yall had a wonderful coming out day (yesterday), in case you were wondering, i am a big flaming lesbo.there, i did my duty. i came out (again). you know what is bonkers? this february, i will have been out as a dyke for 15 years. that is for reals yall.
i am sorry i have been so remiss with the blog.
i have to say that work has really picked up and its kind of kicking my butt
that paired with friends visiting has really kept me busy busy busy.
so the bad news is i don't really have the time to write more right now
the good news i have plenty to talk about: my friend erin visiting, my friend maria visiting, touring the UN, touring the cloisters, celebrity sightings, and so on.
i also have a few lovely pictures to post.
so....
stay tuned until the weekend when life gets a little bit easier for me.
and also get pumped for IDKE 8 in Austin! for more info on that, go to:
www.idkeaustin.com
i hope yall had a wonderful coming out day (yesterday), in case you were wondering, i am a big flaming lesbo.there, i did my duty. i came out (again). you know what is bonkers? this february, i will have been out as a dyke for 15 years. that is for reals yall.
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