CROUCHING CONCUBINE, HIDDEN GEISHA

I have finally moved into my apartment in Albany. I need to buy more surfaces before I can finish unpacking, but until then, at least I'm moved in.

But between wrestling with Ikea furniture with the help of one Mad Dog Darby, moving cartons, dealing with ridiculous amounts of packing paper, and trying desperatly not to get a cardboard cut, I've been reading Memoirs of a Geisha since I not only want to see the movie, but Walsh had told me years ago that it was her favorite book and I've been meaning to read it.

Plus, it's the only book not in a box right now. Right.

It really is quite a fabulous book. You learn so much about the Geisha and despite the story breezing through the second World War in Japan, it's still a great read.

But it's in Japan, right?

So doesn't anyone else find it funny that the main women in the movie will be played by Chinese women?

And basically the entire cast of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

I mean, I heart, HEART Michelle Yeoh. And Ziyi Zhang - I anticipate she will have learned English for this movie? Would be fun to see the two of them in a film again where they weren't trying to kill each other with strange weapons. And Ken Wantanabe! I'm very excited for this movie - and not only because it's another chance for a bunch of Asian actors (who are fantastic) to get together.

But let's call it what it is, shall we? I have always strove for proper and clear definitions (well, at least since I was a Coro). So let's call it what it is and give it a proper subtitle:

Memoirs of a Concubine: Adapted from Memoirs of a Geisha, but we couldn't find enough Japanese actors who could play the lead women roles.

Not as misleading and better, ethical marketing. As an Asian, I wouldn't be offended.

HIGHLIGHT REEL:

Okay. So much has happened since I last posted. So to follow in the shoes of Walsh, I will hit the highlights of what hast passed in the past week or so...

1. Frustrated by the moving process (you will see this several times).
2. I spent almost $700 on a hotel room for the Spitzer Fundraiser in NYC. Think that's crazy? He raised $5 million that night.
3. The next night, dropped almost $500 on a different hotel in NYC. But got almost 6,000 points for staying there one night. Whohee!
4. That same night, got the Fighting Painting Monkeys, the Lobby Song, and Pass a Bill song stuck in my head.
5. Later that night, I got two hours of sleep and then Jessica and I left NYC only to be almost killed on the ride home because of the Noreaster that hit last Friday. We did two 360's near exit 13a. Luckily, we weren't hit, nor did we hit the guardrail, we spun over three lanes, and everything was fine. We've been touched by an angel, yo (name the movie line).
6. Friday evening, spent time with the WC kids for SF's birthday. Of course, this meant spending time with Ross, Michael, and Jilly Bear before the event, only to be joined by the fabulous Christine. Five or six short beers, two Boli Stolly's, and a limon shot later, we headed to the party. Where I proceeded to hang out with Elle and the gay boys, Sofa Kingdom, and of course, the WC kids. And included a chocolate cake shot, two Nutty Irishmen, two shots of Jameson, and a shot of SoCoh. And a game of Testicle Tap with all the gay men. Yes, it was as fun and as fabulous and as strange as a drunk night can be.
7. 8:00 am Saturday morning (after going to bed at 4ish), I headed back to NYC with Fabs, Chris, and Chris's roommate, Stevie. Jill couldn't get anyone to cover her shifts at Morimoto. We had a fabulous time.
8. Got to see the Van Gogh drawings at the Met. Awesome.
9. Got to see Ilana and Olivia and Vicki. And Vicki's friend. Who is interesting, to say the least, at karaoke.
10. Got a hug from the Karaoke man for my It's the End of the World (As We Know It)performance. Whoot-whoot!
11. I still miss Lucky's and Lalo. Sigh.
12. And Houston's.
13. And the Union Square Holiday Fair.
14. We had a great time.
15. The movers came to pack my stuff on Monday. The guy who assessed my stuff didn't do a great job of assessing how much work they'd have to do. They were fantastic, though. Just took all day. So all of my stuff got packed. Well, stuff for the most part. There was stuff that they took that I didn't want them to take. And stuff they didn't take that they should have. But it's small stuff enough. They worked hard, though. And they were fantastic guys.
16. I went to see Dave last night with Ooter at the Wachovia Center and we had amazing seats. Fantastic, if you will. I realized I am getting old because we bowed out before the end of the encore to avoid the traffic associated with concerts. I have vowed not to do this again.
17. Went to Quizzo just in time for the last two rounds. Placed 4th. Not too bad, considering that we had won twice in a row. Sofa Kingdom placed 3rd, not too far above us. But seriously, do you know the name of the operation that netted Saddam Hussein? Without googling it? Yeah, thought so.
18. That was my last Quizzo for a while. Tear. I'll just have to find it in Albany. Or start it in Albany. Huh.
19. I move into my new apartment on Saturday.
20. I still have lots to do today.

With that being said, I shall leave you be since I need to leave Delelelel at the butt-crack of dawn to make it into Albany by the 11pm conference call. Sweet Lord.

HELL HAST FROZEN OVER.

I'm sure you thought hell had frozen over when the BoSux won the series last year. Hell, I did, too. And it probably did then. But something momentous has happened.

We won again last night at Quizzo.

We even beat Sofa Kingdom.

Dizzy from our first win, we were excited, but I think the reality is setting in. We kicked their asses.

No 100 point game this time. In fact, it was almost a mirror of last week. With help from Padrino, who finally managed a cameo at our Quizzo game, we got every question right in the first round, including the bonus, to net us 11 points (Dave was instrumental in knowing FSU is playing in the Orange Bowl) and then we totally sucked the second round (50/50 before or after Pearl Harbor round - it was hard) and we only got 4 right for an awesome score of 19 (fourth from last).

Then we were saved.

See, we attributed the first win to Nick and Jessica and Malaysia. This time around, we attribute the win to our alcoholism and Richard Strauss.

We got two questions wrong in the Wild Card Round, but good enough to get us 43 points, good enough for 4th place by the end of the third. The Wild Card Round was alcohol. As if God herself couldn't give us a better topic. We didn't know the breweries in Philly, which is the reason we got two wrong, but we even got the Grappa question.

Then the infamous "Impossible Round" happened and surprisingly, we were feeling pretty strong. After much deliberation as to which President in the 20th century had the shortest tenure (Ford, by the way, and yes, we got it right), he threw us a softball with the 10 point bonus question - and we were only one of two teams to get it right: Which German composer wrote Thus Spake Zarathrusta, made famous by the movie 2001 Space Oddessey? I think Fab and I almost fell out of our seats.

Strauss, by the way. Not Wagner. Which is what everyone else guessed. Finally! All those years of being a classically trained violinist pay off! Granted, it was Quizzo, but whatever!

So with one wrong in the round, but still with the 10 pointer, we got a whopping 50 points to bring our score up to 93. We figured we had at least placed in the top three.

Then Johnny says that there was a pretty serious race for the top three. We're like, no way, we might have a chance at 2nd. Then he tells everyone to give a hearty boo to this week's winners, I Went to College With Prince Humperdink's Daughter. We found our name funny.

Total upset. We won by 7 points. Over two top teams that usually win or place first or second - one being the infamous Sofa Kingdom. Sure, there were only two of their members there, but we still took it from them.

And thus hell froze over again. Now onto the Three-Peat. Though I won't be there next week. Mama's seeing DMB with Ooter.

I would also like to take this opportunity to plead with Maury Povich: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO A DIFFERENT SHOW BESIDES "WHO'S YOUR DADDY?" IT IS GETTING OLD. If I may make a suggestion, he sometimes breaks from the usual paternity tests to do makeovers. He might start with offering to fix the teeth of his many guests.

I know this is mean. But honestly. It's worse than an English Pub in there. I had to change the channel. Besides the fact that I'm tired of the concept.

I also realize that my last two posts have been Quizzo-related. Lots of people have been like, how's the move? Next question. It's complicated and annoying and frankly, I'm going out of my mind. So Quizzo it is.

But look out! The next post will be NYC related. The Philly Phabulous girls and I will be hitting the city this weekend. Hard. I'm sure something rather amusing will come of it.

Unless a rant comes first. But I dunno that will happen.

In the meantime, spay and neuter your pets. Monkey, out!

FINALLY!!!

Last evening, the Philly Phabulous girls and I, under the name, Alicia Keyes is my Second Cousin Twice Removed, CAME IN FIRST PLACE IN QUIZZO LAST NIGHT!

Yes. I come to you with much gloat. Of course, the evil Sofa Kingdom wasn't there, but that's neither here nor there. We finally broke the 100 point mark last evening to win by 2 points. Good thing Jill and I spent an hour studying "Today in History" before Quizzo.

I know we're geeks. Embrace it.

But as Johnny Goodtimes (the Quizzo Master) surmised, we won because of Nick and Jessica's love. Or lack of, now that the two of them are separated. See, the wild card round, in honor of the separation, Johnny thought it would be fun to have the topic be "Famous Jessicas and Nicks in History." And thanks to Jessica Tandy, Stevie Nicks, Eight is Enough, and Nick Nolte, we got every single question in the round correct, moving us from 4th to last to 3rd place. We had done decently in the first round, bombed the second, and then rocked the 3rd. We then also get only one wrong in the Impossible Round and thanks to LBJ, Malaysia (the big 10 point question), and Michigan Football, we managed the win.

Seriously. Johnny was proud (the team picture will be there soon). So we got gloating rights for an eveing, $40 off the bar tab, decided to share with the guys at the table next to us (who gave us the correct answer to one in the impossible round), little old man at the bar (who gave us the correct answer to another one in the impossible round), shots of Jameson all around, and then closed the bar. We managed to make a few more friends as the night went on, but all in all in good fun.

That's the good news.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Alicia Keyes is Jill's second cousin twice removed. Yeah. We were surprised, too.

'Till next time...

WHEN THERE'S NOTHING ELSE...
I've been rather introspective lately. Had lots of time to mull since Turkey Day. Didn't really leave the homefire too much these past five days, caught up on sleep, paperwork, thinking.

Nothing terribly new to report except that I found this on the Brotzman's page and we all know that I can't resist a survey. So here goes:


1. What high school did you go to? Fayetteville-Manlius High School, baby.

2. What year did you graduate? 1997

3. What were your favorite band(s) or artist(s): Dave Matthews, Ani DiFranco, Indigo Girls, Dar Williams, Dancing for Nickels (my band, we did lots). This was all when I wasn't playing in the orchestra, so I guess that classical figures in there somewhere.

4. What was your favorite outfit? Jeans and a t-shirt. Birkensocks. And cargo shorts when it was nice out. Didn't really care much about fashion so much as comfort. Crunchy granola I was.

5. What was up with your hair? Not a whole hell of a lot. It was long in high school. For the most part.

6. Who were your best friend(s)? I had circles that expanded and closed tighter as folks graduated. For a while it was Joanna and that whole crew. Michelle. Elizabeth. Kelly. Nisha. Jamie. Sugene, Steve, Ander-Pander Whoopsie-Poopsie, Billy, Big Daddy Sung, Dave, Leah, Jeremy, Workman, Ange, Wound, Gibbon, the band. I was fortunate to have such great friends in high school. Most of us are still in touch when we can.

7. What did you do after school? God. I was President of my class all four years, so that took time. Orchestras - Chamber and the Pit variety. Yearbook. Various clubs I belonged to which I now conveniently forget. Thespians, MUN, NHS, I was always up to something, I remember not having much time in high school. Not much has changed since. Yeah, I'm a geek. I love it.

8. Where did you work? Well I did work at Fay's Drug Store in the Pharmacy for a year. Then I started at Mailboxes, Etc, which was a much better place of work. Better schedule. Even worked there when I was home for vacations from college for a couple of years.

9. Did you take the bus? Until I got my car, you betcha.

10. Who did you have a crush on? I think I might have had a crush on my guy friends as the years went on. Until I realized they really were just friends. But that's really about it. The good ones were all taken and the rest didn't interest me much.

11. Who did you date? See previous. I was rather busy, I didn't date much.

12. Did you fight with your parents? Who didn't?

13. Did you ever get detention? Maybe once? I can't quite remember, though upon more reflection, I don't think I ever had detention. I was quite the good kid.

14. Favorite subject? Orchestra with Hebert. Hands down. For obvious reasons. But I also always enjoyed my english and social studies classes.

15. Who did you have a CELEBRITY crush on? Jesus. Dave Matthews for a good long time. Brad Pitt - hello, what girl didn't in our day? Or now, for that matter? Keanu around Speed. He had that sexy arm thing happening when he was under the bus. His acting might have sucked, but I sure as hell didn't mind watching him.

16. My grades were... Pretty good when I applied myself. Which was often, I have to admit. Because I'm Asian. That's how we do it. But I always walked that extracurricular/academic line, I probably could have done better.

17. Did you smoke cigarettes? Nope.

18. Did you lug all of your books around in your backpack all day? Not if I could help it. We used to take Freshman who had those huge L.L. Bean bags and spin them because they used to carry their all their books - they couldn't stop spinning from the weight in those bags. I learned pretty quick.

19. Did you have a clique? You could say that. I traveled in different circles, but I had my close circle by my senior year, for sure. We travelled in packs where ever we went. We were very close.

20. Where was your Senior Prom? The Landmark Theatre in Syracuse. It was historic. I picked the place myself - couldn't have asked for a better location. It should have been a sign of things to come.

21. Did you have a Max like "Saved by the Bell"? No, but my parents were always gone on the weekends to Delaware, so we hung at my house a lot. And I guess you could say that Happy Endings in the Armory was our Max - if we could get out there. I did a lot of lying to get out there. Nobody ever spends that much time in a library...

22. Admit it, were you popular? I don't know that I would ever characterize myself as popular. I certainly didn't hang out with the crowd I'd peg as the popular, in-fashion, perfect all the time kids. I just got along well with everyone for the most part. We were a crowd unto ourselves.

23. Who did you want to be just like? I was pretty content with me. No point in pretending to be someone I wasn't.

24. What did you want to be when you grew up? President. I'll admit it. Or just doing something that would make my kids proud. Helping people. I thought politics was where I'd end up. I was right on the money for the most part.

25. What was the color of your yearbook? For the most part, ours were green. Except for that year we had a blue one. Didn't understand that.

26. What were the colors of your school? Forest Green and White. Loved it.

27. What was your school mascot? The Hornet. It's an angry hornet if you look at it. GO HORNETS!

NOT GREAT QUIZZO NEWS. AAAND PAT MORITA. SIGH. BUT LICKING THE DOORKNOB DOESN'T WORK WHEN YOU HAVE A CHECK IN HAND...

Had a great Thanksgiving, but that's neither here nor there. Really.

For everyone's information, we came in sixth in Quizzo even with the Kennedy Wild Card Round. It was a rather difficult Kennedy Wild Card - all assassination - and the last five questions weren't even about Kennedy. We did what we could. We didn't do too bad. We got some really hard ones in there. But what can you do? Looks like we'll just have to keep trying - even though I'm leaving the area.

Sad news that Pat Morita, aka Mr. Miyagi died today. I am very saddened by it.

But there has been lots of good news on the horizon. Had lots of good qualitiy time with family and my aunt who is leaving tomorrow to return to the Philippines. My mom, myself, and my aunt, have had a fantastic time lately.

But most importantly, I found that even if you lick the doorknob, that can't trump someone with a check in hand. I have been searching for apartments in Albany for a while. Though I actually only did leg work for two days. Anyway, after looking at more than a dozen, I walked into the last place and just knew. You know what I mean? Where you just know? You get the feeling? I got it. And pretty strong. I knew this was the apartment that I wanted. It was pricier than I had hoped, but you know, it was exactly what I wanted. Right size, right location, perfect building.

Apparently, some girl had already seen it before me and the guy gave her "dibs" on it. Mad Dog was like, "Did she lick the doorknob?"

Well standard shotgun rules will never apply in apartment hunting. This girl had her parents come up from Westchester to see the apartment. My guess is that mommy and daddy were kicking in.

Long story short, I got the apartment. Turns out Mommy and Daddy Westchester didn't want baby living in an "urban" area, so they wanted her to go with the "safer" suburbs. Which don't really apply in this case. So hahahahahaha, I get the apartment. Now I just have to do the whole "moving" thing and get the process going. Which is a whole other story for another time.

Hope you all had good Turkey days. Talk to you all soon when I have something remotely entertaining. Which might be soon. Who knows?

SECOND PLACE AIN'T SO BAD SOMETIMES...

So my Philly Phabulous girls and I had a boffo time at Quizzo this week. Our team, "Alan Alda is my Friend's Cousin" came in SECOND PLACE waaay above Sofa Kingdom, the team that ALWAYS wins at Quizzo. We got a whopping $20 off our bar tab and an evening of pointing fingers and laughing at the members of Sofa Kingdom.

So give me a second to gloat. We only came in second by a measley 2 points, which we could have won if we had guessed South Dakota instead of West Virginia or Little Ricky Ricardo instead of Bobby Brady. Or had gotten the Edward Muskie question right and put 1972 instead of 1980. You get the drift.

But the winds are 'a changin' 'cause you ain't seen so many 's in one sentence. Seriously, though. I have a good feeling about next Tuesday. Could it be that it is November 22nd and Johnny promised us a Kennedy Wild Card Round if the assassination happened to fall on a Tuesday? Hells yes. And I reminded him, too.

So hang on to your hats, kids. We might have some good news next Tuesday.

Until then, I'm getting my Ikea furniture delivered tomorrow for my new apartment in Albany, which I will be searching for on Friday. New York City and Thursday. Buffalo and Niagara Falls on Saturday. Back to Albany on Sunday if necessary, but watch out, this Monkee may be coming to a town near you soon!

Hah! I've always wanted to say that.

Until then, be well, friends.

WELCOME TO THE MONKEEHAUS' 100TH POST!

I actually can't believe it's only 100. I need to be better about this.

So I find myself cleaning and packing. And bored as all hell.

Yes, we won big in Buffalo. Something like 64% to 27%, which can basically be described as a blowout victory. In fact, all the Upstate Mayoralties are all Democrat. We won in Virginia, New Jersey, and defeated all of the Governator's ballot proposals in California. To say we didn't have a good night is understated. But we celebrated and now it's back to work. It's a long way to next November...

In the meantime, I am back in Delaware and attempting to clean, organize, and pack. And finding it difficult to do because after the campaign and being sick, all I did for three days was play tour guide with my family, one of whom was visiting from the Philippines. So now that I've fully caught up on sleep and rest, I'm turning towards the cleaning. Which I am not too happy to do.

In the meantime, I'm bored as hell down here. So bored that I have been studying for Quizzo tonight and found out that it's illegal to have sex with a porcupine in Florida. You heard it here. Which of course makes me wonder: "Why would anyone have to write this law down unless someone actually attempted to have sex with a porcupine in Florida?"

Chew on that one for a minute.

I also forgot to tell all of you that if you find yourself on a puddlehopper from Albany to Buffalo, your stewardess might also be the co-captain of the flight. Just FYI.

Right. I'm really off to clean and pack now. Sigh. Gotta get some work done. Off I go.

IV's ARE FANTASTIC

So I started writing this post and then I lost it. So here's the short version.

I'm sick as a dog. Extremely sick. So sick that I was in the Emergency Room yesterday. Nothing to worry about. I was just desperate for medical attention. After spending an hour with every doctor in my network in Buffalo, no one could see me. So I called the insurance company who said to go to the ER. So to the ER I went.

After much waiting, they finally saw me. See, I was not only feverish, I was achy, I was sweating, I had the chills, I couldn't swallow, I was breathing shallow, and I felt like I was going to pass out. I knew I had white spots on the throat that doesn't go away with rest alone, needs medical attention, I hadn't eaten for over 24 hours, and I was starting to have trouble swallowing water because my throat and glands were so swollen.

Enough to warrant an ER visit, I feel. So did the doctors.

By the time they saw me, my blood pressure had dropped. My heartrate was accelerated. I was dehydrated. Any longer, they suspect I would have gone into septic shock - after at least another few hours, of course, but it's a good thing I went in, they said.

So they worked quickly. They stabalized my fever, gave me steroids to undo the swelling in my throat, they hooked me up to two ivs to replace my lost fluid and slow my heart rate. It also stabilized my blood pressure. I immediately started to feel better. The pressure on my head went far away. I was able to swallow again. In fact, my mother and I went to get food afterwards because I needed it. A good sign.

So in the meantime, I am resting. And with everyone at work telling me to get my strength back. It does me or the campaign no good to continue being sick. And I certainly wouldn't want to infect anyone. It's just nice because it's been so long since I've had a bacterial infection, I forgot antibiotics work. I've had viral infections every time I've been sick in the past five years or so that all I can do is rest. So it's nice knowing that I can be better with a few pills. Seriously.

Back to rest. And work from the hotel. I find that I'm catching up on a lot of things - there's only so much sleep one can take in a day. Especially me. In the meantime, I've added yet another new link to the left - Deviation by a brilliant mind - my friend and yours, the brilliant mindy. a beers. So take a look around. Check it out.

And take care of yourselves. And each other.

THE HAPPIEST MONKEE...

Well, sort of.

My prayers (?) have been answered. I will be rather busy starting tomorrow morning. At least I might feel useful.

On the other hand, I'm in a lot of pain. My back has locked up in the past two days and movement of any kind is really quite painful. Sitting for a long time, standing for a long time - I just seem to be uncomfortable no matter what I try to do.

So I caved in. I called a local chiropractor, had him contact my chiro in Delaware, and went in for the adjustment. Different method, but nonetheless, useful. My back still hurts, but that's to be expected considering that I haven't had an adjustment in weeks. The whole "unwinding" thing that I don't feel like going into. But instead of the bear hugs that I get from my chiro, I had the "drop" method. Which is really interesting. You lie on your stomach onto a table where the waist down moves. The doctor pokes around on your back, lifts up that part of the table, presses on the vertebrae, and then the table drops, moving your back into the correct position. It's interesting. To say the least. But I can already tell my back is unlocked. Now it's just sore as hell and I need to be drinking lots of water because of all the moving around they did back there (all the negative juice the spine releases when adjusted). So I think I'm headed for the jacuzzi as soon as I post this.

But why am I a happy monkee? A few reasons.

1. I will be busy starting tomorrow. GOTV, here I come.

2. AFSCME has been working their little butts off over here. And it makes me happy knowing we're kicking ass and taking names.

3. I drove by two Frank Lloyd Wright houses here in Buffalo - might be the best I can do given my schedule. Maybe I can work in a tour. I'm hoping. But driving by was enough - jeebus, that man was a brilliant designer and architect.

4. And finally, RIGHTEOUS BABE RECORDS.

So yesterday I spent all day at the AFSCME office, which happens to be right 'round the corner from the Righteous Babe Records Headquarters - which I didn't know was there (Ani DiFranco's company - for those who don't know) - and across the street from the future home of Righteous Babe Records, the church the company saved from demolition (I did know this).

And as we were leaving to go to lunch, apparently, my car keys fell out of the hole in my old peajacket pocket. I'd mend the hole if I had some cloth and a needle and thread. I heart this old jacket.

Either way, my keys fell out. Neat.

It wasn't until I was done with lunch 15 minutes away did I realize my keys must have fallen out of the pocket. I had gotten a call over lunch that I ignored because I didn't recognize the number. Turns out someone had found my keys, called the Avis number, and Avis called me to give me the guy's information. So I called. Matt is the guy who had my keys and he told me to come over to 121 W. Tupper Street, right around the corner from the AFSCME office.

So I walk into the place. And suddenly, it becomes clear. I'm standing right in the entrance of Righteous Babe Records, a Mecca for any aspiring independent musician. And after I ask for Matt, I say, "So you guys are here, huh?" They were like, "Yes, yes we are." They were all really laid back and cool. And so then I take a look around and realize that all of the RBR products are on shelves, posters, promo materials are all over the walls. And I ask if I can buy RBR stuff there instead of online and they're like, "Hell yes, you can."

So being busy with AFSCME work yesterday, I told them I'd return to take a look around. So I returned today.

Spent a pretty penny, but I ended up chatting with the folks that worked there, getting to know them. I think we all thought each other was cool. So I tell them that I'll definitely be back for more when Matt asks me if I want some free stuff. Hell to the yes.

I ask them when they are moving into their new space. They were like, "How long are you in town?" I told them that I was only here for another week when Matt and the other chick (I never got her name) were like, "Well you have to definitely come back for the opening or after we open, we'll give you a grand tour of the space - the whole nine."

Who wants to go to Buffalo in January or February? I'm totally taking them up on this offer.

So not only did I spend a lot of money, but I walked away with loads of Ani promo material that's pretty damn cool. And for someone who's been listening to her since I was 15 (that would be eleven years and counting), this is a pretty damn cool day. And I made some pretty cool friends in the meantime. I think I'm going back there soon.

In the meantime, it's to the jacuzzi for me. Surreal.

FRIENDS I HAVEN'T MET YET

First and foremost, congrats to my Philly girls for coming in at a close second last week at Quizzo. Well, actually, let me congratulate Jill, who is probably the only one from the team who reads this. Walshie, my girl, please be sure to keep me updated on the team names, I find them quite humorous. I don't know why it is that last month we sucked holy balls, but I'm still planning on trying to make Quizzo on the 22nd for the Kennedy round. Remind Jerome, er, Johnny, that he promised there would be a Kennedy round. We shall prevail.

Now onto Buffalo.

Surprisingly, my schedule hasn't been too crazy. For many different reasons, I feel like I haven't been doing much. But I know this will change on Monday when we turn our focus to GOTV and I can actually be a part of the planning process. So until then, I've been told to relax a little. So I shall. In my jacuzzi. When I'm not trying to figure out how I can be useful to this campaign.

I know this will change. I noticed right away the first day that I got here that it was strangely quiet in the campaign office. I hoped it was because everyone was out, knocking on doors, at phone banks. And I'm beginning to wonder. Because all the balls are up in the air, no one seems to know what's happening where or when, and today, I sat at the front desk answering phones while waiting for my canvassers to show up. A handful did. The good news is that we're on fourth or fifth rounds of canvasses and lit drops, so I guess it's not as bad as I think it is. I've been observing and sitting for three days and the guy I'm working with assured me that this is what it was like for him when he got there the week before me. But he's dealing with a death in the family, so he told me that I should see what's happening tomorrow, but assured me that not much would be happening since the Bills are playing tomorrow and nothing happens in Buffalo when football is on. So it looks like I have another day of rest before we get together, piss and moan about lack of communication, come up with our last week plan, and start implementing. I expect to be very busy soon.

But the most interesting thing so far are the random people I've met.

For starters, I forgot that people in Upstate New York have an accent. In Syracuse, it's more nasal. We have really flat vowels. Instead of "I spent time with my ah-nt yesterday" the phrase sounds like, "I spent time with my A-nt yesterday." You get the idea. "I broke the vah-ze" becomes "I broke the vAA-se." And sometimes it borders on Canuck.

West of 'Cuse, folks talk with a weird mix of Canadian and Midwest. Soda is pop out here and I swear at times that I'm in the middle of a Minnesota Toronto, or a Minneonto, if you will. Or even a Torosota. But either way, it's amusing. I just hope I don't pick it up. Because we all know I have a tendency to pick up on accents. Very quickly. But for now, I'm just amused every time I talk to someone here.

I've encountered two very interesting people here that really stick out in my mind.

First, we have Dancing Man. I've seen Dancing Man every day since I've been here - four times in one day, even. I suspect that Dancing Man is homeless or in a shelter as he travels around in the same outfit wielding a plastic bag filled with something every day. I don't like to judge, but that's what I think. Judging by his clothes that are dirty and ragged in places and that his face seems to gather more dirt each time I see him, I have to assume such a theory.

But the thing about Dancing Man is - you guessed it - he's always dancing. Doing ballroom dancing moves and twirling and even some ballerina in him. Yesterday, I saw him do a West Side Story move as he crossed the street. He is completely oblivious to onlookers and seems content to dance to the music in his head. Which, for some odd reason, comforts me. I find him to be not amusing, but somewhat uplifting. No matter where he goes, he's dancing. And this makes me happy. And I know I'll see him everyday, near the campaign office, and run into him at some point. He's like "Where's Waldo" for me every day.

Then there's Antonio. Or Tony. I don't really know.

Last night, I realized at around 8pm that I hadn't eaten all day. I think part of it is the trying to save money thing. Because while I have a jacuzzi in my room, I have no kitchen, no refrigerator, and no microwave. So I have to eat out. I have nary a choice. My hotel is located in a pretty good spot in downtown Buffalo where there's a great coffee shop across the street and bars and eateries all around. So I wandered outside for a spell and wanted something healthy, but I'm around bars and dives and things like that. So I went to Jim's Steak Out, which claims to have the best steak hogie in Buffalo.

But in Buffalo, like in Rome, do what the Buffalonians do. Yes, they're called Buffalonians out here.

So I got wings. Because yes, they do make them damn good out here. And yes, they are different here than other places.

But as I rolled up to Jimmy's, there was another guy in the place. He was all over the place and very clearly, a good-looking gay man. And we all know that I collect gay men like they were baseball cards or even Pogs. Yeah, pulled that one out of my ass.

So he's talking to the girl behind the counter, apparently they all know him there. And he's saying weird things, they're saying he's pretty drunk. And the girl behind the counter goes out back and he takes notice of my presence, still halfway through his conversation with the now dissapeared girl when he suddenly turns to me and was like, "Go ahead, slap my ass."

So i did. Because why not?

And so he introduces himself to me with a curtsy and a kiss on my hand as Antonio. And I realize his eyes are really scary. Because he has these light-almost-white blue contacts in. For Halloween, I assume. I hope. And then we start talking, conversation all over the place, him just flaming all over and me somewhat happy to have made a friend.

While we're waiting for my order, he reaches down to tie his shoe and declares, "Oh, fashion faux pax! I'm wearing white socks with brown shoes." And the girl behind the counter (who has returned) says in response, "You're not doing your community any good if you're dressing like that, aren't you guys supposed to have a superpower fashion sense?" And he commiserates over his faux pas when some girls walk in - you know the type, tube tops, low rider jeans so the whole world's their gynocolygist, and shiny, sparkly bags that looked like they were bejeweled. And he turns to me and says under his breath, "Talk about fashion faux pas." Then he proceeds to talk really loudly in a valley girl voice and we're laughing.

Meanwhile, he's still making me slap his ass. And then he returns the favor. All in good fun.

And the girl behind the counter is like, "You know him?" And I laugh and shake my head no and explain we just met. Then he comes up behind me and slaps my ass and turns around so I can do the same and she's like, "Oh, you know him?"

I was like, "We just had this conversation."

So after much more ass grabbing between the two of us, we go outside while we wait and he tells me more about him. And he keeps telling me I'm just adorable when his friends call and ask him where he is. He tells them he'll meet them down the street in a minute and explains that he met this cutie pie gorgeous girl and then hangs up and decides he's going to hang out with me a little longer. We chat, it's nice. Get to know each other a little bit. Then he takes me back into Jimmy's, I'm getting my food, he gives me a hug and a kiss and then leaves.

I expect I'll run into Tony again, but it was a strange, but nice little point of contact in what would otherwise be a no-contact day. It's strange to be on a campaign, sitting on my ass, feeling like I have nothing to do, sitting in a hotel room by myself - so I felt somewhat happy I ventured out. I don't know why, but it was funny and happy at the same time.

Who says you can't have fun in Buffalo? Even for a moment. At least it was something. If I find time, I'm going to stalk the Righteous Babe headquarters and see if I can get some good stuff before I leave. Hell, I'm in Buffalo. And I really want to check out the Frank Lloyd Wright houses at some point. Watch. I'll get really busy and I won't get a chance. Won't that just be a bitch?

Off to bed to enjoy the extra hour of sleep. Hope you're all doing well, faithful readers.

HOOKED UP IN BUFFAFALO!!!

Okay. So I shuffled off to Buffalo yesterday and I have been running around this city like it was going out of style.

But I got hooked up here. HOOKED UP!
So Brian and I get to the Avis Rent-A-Car where the woman asks me if I'd like the convertible for my luxury car. I kind of do a double take. I squint back at her. I'm conflicted. I've been asked for the first time if I'd like the convertible. And I have to turn it down. Because no one in their right mind would chose the convertible in Buffalo in October-soon-to-be-November.

Of course it's going to be 60 degrees on Sunday. Neat.

So I'm like, "Great, I got the Malibu or the Pontiac."

Mad Dog still has it good with the 'Stang, but mama got a Pontiac Cruiser.

Yes. It's a strange as hell car. But considering my other rentals - the Grand AM, the Focus, the Impala, the random GM car that I can't ever remember the name of - I think it's an interesting choice. Hell, I could have had the convertible. Damnhellass.

But that's not all. So I had to change hotels - nothing big, just they couldn't get me at the one downtown, so I was at the Hampton at the airport. It was nice enough. The Hampton at the airport in Albany is suhweet.

But the Hampton Downtown Buffalo is AWESOME. I'm worried I'm not going to get a suite. I think I'm getting a single or worse, a double (two twin beds - what the hell am I going to do with that?).

Nah. I got the King Sized single with JACUZZI.

Mama's living large!

Of course, I'm at the office and meetings and running around all the time, so who can enjoy it?

It might have been 2:30 in the morning. I don't care if my neighbor is asleep. Mama got in the jacuzzi. It is niiice. I have a feeling I'm spending time in that thing for the next 13 days.

The campaign is interesting. I dunno what to think yet except that I'll be busy getting canvass stuff ready all day tomorrow for Saturday.

Oh, and one more thing. I'm an Ani DiFranco fan, right? Been listening to her for over 10 years, right?

The church she and Scott saved (as documented in "Render") is a block down the street from me. I could spit on the future of Righteous Babe Records - they're conserving and rebuilding the church into a concert and art center where RBR's office will be.

Dood.

I'm finding Buffalo to be exactly like the Ani song, "Subdivision", and I'm finding that I also love a lot of the cute little businesses around here. I heart the coffee shop across the street from the Starbucks where there are more folks in the coffee shop than in Starbucks (success!) and the row of restaurants and pubs around here. Me like. I have a feeling I'm stopping into that coffee shop every morning before heading into the office.

Oy. It's late. And I need to get up in a few hours. So hope you're all doing well.

And to my Philly Phabulous Girls: I really missed all of you Tuesday night - it felt so strange to be so far away. Hope you're kicking some Sofa Kingdom ass! Or at least someone's ass! And remember, when in doubt, Martina Navratilova.

BACK IN UPSTATE NEW YORK, HAVE SOME CRAPPY WEATHER

So after running around A LOT in the past few days, I got on a plane this morning at 7:#0 to fly an hour and a half to Albany from Philly. Not too bad, unless you counter the fact that I got less than four hours sleep and I don't think I've had more than 5 or 6 hours sleep in the past SIX WEEKS.

So the weather all along the East Coast blows ass right now and I love hearing the pilot tell us he's going to land when I can't see a damn thing out the window. But I'm here, in one piece.

This hotel is SWEET. It's hooked up. And I'm only here one day.

So a day of "orientation" in Albany, which consisted of reading, meeting folks, and cleaning up the office - which, Boom-Boom, if you are reading this, I will be sending you a package in DC very soon.

I was hoping to maybe get a look around at some apartments tonight, but this weather has made me want to do nothing more than crawl into bed, read a craptastic magazine, watch some bad tv, and pass out for nine hours or more. So without further ado, I shall go to it.

I'll be sure to keep all of you updated since I'm leaving tomorrow morning to Shuffle off to Buffalo. Fun stories to come, I'm sure.

Whee!

THE MOST ANNOYING QUIZZO EVER

This story goes out to my Philly Chicas.

I'm all about making new friends. One time, a lady on a plane asked if we knew each other because I looked very familiar. When I replied no, she answered, "Well, that's okay. I have friends I haven't met yet." Nice sentiment.

I'm saying this because last night, we decided to schedule a Quizzo night since I'm leaving for Albany on Tuesday (got the confirmation).

So by the time Jill and I got there after viewing Elizabethtown - much better than the critics have said it is - we found Megan and Christine at a table with two people we didn't know. Turns out there was no other available table and instead of leaving after dinner, these folks decided to stay and wanted to play Quizzo on our team. Okay.

So after yet another "_insert celebrity/sports figure/random person name_ is best friends with my second cousin!" team name, we settled in for a game of Thursday night Quizzo, hoping to better our below average placements as of late.

Let me stop here to explain the team names. We used to be "Honk if you Heart Butt-Sex," a name not so much vulgar as funny because it's related to a very funny story. But we weren't doing so good with the name. One of the times we came in 3rd, our name was "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em." After more amusing names that bordered on embarrassing personal stories and running out of embarrassing moments to create the names, a few weeks ago, Jill blurted out, "My second cousin is best friends with George Clooney!" And finding this funny, we made it our team name. Needless to say, team names after have all been on this theme, including: "Babe Ruth is my second cousin!", "George Clooney dated my aunt!" (another Jill gem), "My second cousin won the chess championship in Atlana when he was twelve!", "Nancy Kerrigan is my best friend's second cousin!", and "The Olympic Bronze medalist for Ice Dancing is my second cousin!" You get the idea. I'm waiting for "I once stood behind Seth Green in line at a deli!" to come up.

Back to the story...

So these two people are very nice - one guy, one girl. We make friends. We go through the first round of Quizzo. The guy keeps giving us bad answers, though he was right about one of them. He's a very close talker. Very intense, you know, with the non-blinking eye contact. But he's harmless enough. And drunk. The girl, on the other hand, is sweet as can be and chatting up a storm with us. We're cool.

Now the entire time, the four of us are thinking these two are together. They have good body language, leaning in to chat, smiling at each other the whole time, you know. After a while, it becomes clear that the four of us are playing and the other two are watching with mild amusement, mostly wondering how we knew Bella Lugosi was the answer to one of the questions. The girl is really trying to be very helpful. The guy is drunk, blurting out wrong answers, and then decides to disappear for a while. Which is fine. We girls bond over the next two rounds of Quizzo.

I should mention that Christine has three packs of cigarettes in front of her and Megan and Jill were allowing these friends to bum cigarettes off of them. Very communal that way. We're nice people.

All of a sudden, some random chick who's very drunk comes over to Chris and asks to bum a cigarette. True believers in cigarette karma (as the above implies), she graciously offers one to the girl, who, intense herself, strikes up a conversation with Chris. It's polite and nice, you know, the kind when meeting new people. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the guy comes back and he steps in to talk to the chick.

What we understand is that she's been playing Quizzo with some friends of hers at the bar. And we quickly turn our attention to the third round, kicking ass, I might add. So us five girls - me, Jill, Chris, Megan, and new girl friend are playing along while the dude and the random cigarette bummer (I'll call her CB) are talking. No big deal.

So we find out the girl and the guy live in the building together or go to school together or something like that. And she says after the third round that she has to leave soon because she's got class in the morning. She decides to stay for the last round, but decides afterwards to peace out. She tells us that she's happy she met us and would it be okay for her to come next Tuesday for Quizzo and the girls proceed to tell her it will be great, especially since I'm not going to be there, they'll be a person down anyway, blah blah blah. She leaves and we're happy to have met her.

As she does, she has to interrupt the guy and CB and tells him she's leaving, he hugs her, tells her he'll talk to her later and she leaves with the, "love you" line.

We're sort of confused.

Then again, I have some good guy friends who end conversations with me like that, too. So okay. We thought they were together. Now we find out they aren't. Fine. Whatever.

I should mention that at this point the way we were sitting. Here's a diagram - I'm procrastinating, okay? And a set designer. This is what I do.



Megan left after the third round. So Jill, Megan, and me found ourselves the sole players on the team remaining. In the meantime, CB and Dude move over to the table. Which is fine. Except that if you look carefully at the diagram above, we were pressed for space to begin with and we were in a small area.

So it ended up looking like this:



Now, this will come across as mean, but why not go back to her table? Hmm? Obviously they were in their own world. Except that this girl had the voice that reminded you of nails on a chalkboard. And she talked loud. And a lot. I've already mentioned he was a close talker.

You know where this is going.

So as we tried to listen to the last questions over her annoying voice and his loud drunk one, we found ourselves getting annoyed and frustrated.

And because of the way we were sitting, we couldn't engage in meaningful conversation.

The conversation stopped between the three of us as we couldn't help but listen to their conversation, passing notes to each other like we were in school, laughing at the situation and conveying all of this through our eyes and looks at each other. Over the course of a month, we've learned how to read each other's faces. And so we were kind of amused, but really really annoyed at the same time.

Wanna know what they were talking about? Well, she was going on and on about Ovid and how "beautiful" it is to be educated, what she learned at Columbia, how "beautiful" her education was, how she's fluent in French, how her father is an ophthalmologist and "likes eyeballs", her childhood, how fantastic ancient literature is.

And on and on.

And he was leaning in, touching her at times as he responded to her with, "I'm sorry, I've just never met anyone so passionate as you." Puhlease.

She kept going on about fine art, how "beautiful" it is, how she doesn't get modern art, and more things that made us want to poke our eyeballs out of our eye sockets with the pen and throw them across the table at them.

He tried to respond equally educated about his experience at Penn before she started going on about doing really well on the LSAT and how she got into law school and she just didn't know, there were so many "beautiful" things out there she was so into and not sure about going to law school.

By the way, this all takes place in the span of a half hour. I've never seen a pickup meeting go in so many different directions at once, mostly because she had verbal diarrhea.

During all of this, we were trying hard not to be obvious with our displeasure, but found it difficult to sustain any sort of conversation with this chick yammering on.

We instead focused on chugging our beers and getting the hell out of there.

Chris got up to go to the bathroom and the dude reached over to her cigarette box (she smartly put away the extras) and finding it empty, picked up Jill's pack and proceeded to give one to the chick and one for himself before taking her lighter to light them.

Um.

This was fine when he was actually talking to us. Now that he had spent the last two hours listening to her in hopes of bringing her home, we weren't feeling as gracious as we had before.

AND THEN she starts yammering about The Trojan Women and explaining to him the story. I'm slightly amused because this is all about sex. In The Trojan Women, to stop a war the women felt were unjust, they withhold sex from their husbands to earn world peace. In a nutshell. And she's going on and on about a woman's place and how the men make the decisions, so they are doomed to fail, blah blah blah. At which point, I started getting angry. But then she cuts off that thought by saying, "That Aristophanes was amusing. And a great read." He starts telling her how he's reading French literature from the 1800's, which she finds appalling, exclaiming how much she hates that literature. Now Jill and I have both taken TM's Ancient Greek and Roman Theatre class (or whatever it's called) and we're just highly amused at her critique of that amusing Aristophanes. BECAUSE EURIPIDES, NOT ARISTOPHANES, WROTE THE TROJAN WOMEN.

Now we're running for the door. The only thing we say to them as we leave is Chris asking for her jacket that the Dude has been sitting on for the last two hours. We leave without another word. We get to the door and once on the other side, start laughing and saying how annoying the last two hours were.

As I drive away, I see the dude walking with her, taking her home. I call Chris and Jill. And we laugh and say, "well, that was the most ridiculous pickup I've ever seen. And we saw it all."

That, my friends, was the most annoying Quizzo we've ever sat through. From here on out, we're just going to have to get there at 9:30 to get our own table. Never again.

Oh, and by the way, this guy is still a douchebag. And is it just me, or does he look like Sloth from The Goonies?


I fucking hate Tom DeLay. I rarely use that kind of profanity on this blog, but the Christ, I can't stand him.

Right. Off to finish up this work.

Yes, I have been extremely wayward in my blogging duties.

For the few of you who actually read this, I have decided to forego my blogging of the trip to the Brown land. Why? Because the next few days are extremely depressing posts detailing my fathers funeral and for now I'd like to stay out of therapy and subject all of you to it - no "Read my pain!" blogs right now. I know I will need some sort of therapy somewhere down the road for all the shitstorms I've faced in my life, but I have to remember that few of you are licensed therapists and after the trauma of the past few months, I need to pay all of you and my incredible support group and frankly, I don't have that kind of dough. Besides, I need something to talk to my future therapist about.

So some of you might actually say, "But why, Monkee, I've been very interested in your stories from the homeland?!" And I will answer, yes, someday I will scribe stories about the Philippines that will make you laugh and cry. But not today.

Things have been very hectic for me out here in the past few weeks. But there's big news: I HAVE A NEW JOB. Effective sometime they unclog the papers from the hopper in AFSCME Land. Those AFSCME employees who read this know what I mean. Basically, my old boss got a new job in DC and they needed someone to replace her. And I was the lucky one. So I expect in the next few days to be shuffled off to Buffalo (I've always wanted to say that, sort of) to work on the Mayor's race.

Right. I didn't actually tell you what I was going to be doing.

Basically, I'm moving to Albany. I'm still with AFSCME and this is a great position for a New Yorker like myself. I'll still be working on campaigns and doing the talking with legislators thing, except I get a fancy new title, pay raise, a hell of a lot more stability, a home base, and traveling mostly around my home state and the state I love the best (Maryland is a close second). So I'm excited for the new opportunity and to get back to the place I know very well and keep fighting the man.

Speaking of...

I've been busy because last week was a big week of activity for us left-of-center kids. So in usual Keeza fashion, I'm reclaiming my soapbox. I promise it won't be long. Too long, anyway.

See, with Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast and finally some honest discussion about the differences in economics (i.e. Poor People in this country who were left to fend for themselves during one of the worst hurricanes in history), we at AFSCME and other like-minded groups are rallying around the country to push the House and Senate to stop their assault on low-income and hard-working families with further budget cuts to essential programs such as food stamps and Medicaid and fighting against the $70 million in tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% of Americans.

Hi, I've been speechwriting for a week. Can you tell?

So we planned big "Speak-Out" events in targeted states across the country and AFSCME found members in Louisiana affected by the storm and these Katrina survivors agreed to travel across the country to tell their stories. It was amazing.

So we had this awesome survivor up in Delaware for a week - we had the luxury of spending lots of time with Michele. And finding her a wonderful and positive person, we felt okay to ask her some questions about Katrina and what happened, etc.
I found my Coro interview skills well at hand spending time with her. I found out some really important information about what actually happened on the ground out there. And it's the story we aren't hearing.

Before I actually get up on the soapbox to shake my fist at the Administration and Republican Leadership, I'm saving that for the next post. Let's just say that after last week and finding some free time on my hands ironing my laundry from two months, I've been watching a lot of Bill Maher.

Instead, I choose to impart this knowledge from Michele directly to you and then next post, I'll get into the usual ranting and raving. Mmmmkay?

So we took Michele to lunch and as usual, got on the topic of politics and the right. This was where we started asking the good questions. Here's what she told us:

1. Yes, the Administration and FEMA are definitely at fault. But the folks in Louisiana who were there will also give lots of criticism to the Mayor and the Governor. There's plenty of blame to go around. The folks in "power" in New Orleans made bad decisions and the President was too busy clearing bush on his ranch to be bothered. They all know this and they will be the first to say that blame starts with the Mayor of New Orleans, the Governor of Louisiana, the President of the United States, and FEMA. There's no other way to look at it. No blame can be assigned to one party or the other. Tragedies of this kind are usually the fault of many people failing to react in the proper ways.

2. Many people who stuck around New Orleans weren't just too lazy or too poor to get out of town. Many of them had reasons for staying, amongst them: family members in the hospital, entire lives wrapped around their homes, and the obvious: by the time they realized how bad it was going to be, it was too late. And here's where it becomes the problem of economic divide - people didn't have the means to get out quick enough before it hit. Nor were the resources available for them to leave.

3. The Mayor and Governor decided not to use all the school buses at their advantage. By the time the storm hit, the buses were under several feet of water and couldn't get out. So all those people who might have had a chance were never given a choice.

4. The day after Katrina hit and the levees broke, the water was rising rapidly - something we have all heard. But by this time, Army trucks had already started going around. At the point Michele saw them, she was up to her chest in water (and she's tall) and her and her husband were on top of their SUV, calling out to the folks in the trucks to come and help them. And get this: their answer was, "Sorry, we're not allowed to do that."

I'll just let that one sit for a minute.

5. The helicopters were only rescuing folks one at a time, unlike what their actual capacities can handle, which is drop a net and get several people to safety quickly. Why? No one really knows or understands, but the process was extremely slow and could have been much quicker (this is information we probably all know, but hearing it from someone on the ground confirms it).

I'm trying to remember all of the stuff, but here's the most fascinating and in my mind, egregious one:

6. Think this whole "poor" discussion about Katrina is bull? When the Army Corps was deciding which levees to blow up to alleviate the problem of the rising water and to let the water out, they made an interesting choice. Now many of us were relieved to hear that the French Quarter was not badly damaged. BECAUSE THEY MADE A CONSCIOUS DECISION, NOT BECAUSE IT IS ON HIGHER GROUND. Instead of blowing the levee above the French Quarter to help drain the water, they opted for the levee below it. The problem is the levee below it was keeping a lot of water out of East New Orleans, known as a very poor part of town. They made the decision to blow the lower levee, causing the water to flow out and further damage the area of town where they knew a majority of folks who didn't get out of town were. So in case you're unsure: INSTEAD OF SACRIFICING THE FRENCH QUARTER TO FURTHER DAMAGE AND PROBABLY SAVE MORE LIVES AND POSSIBLY PROPERTY, THEY DECIDED TO INSTEAD FURTHER DAMAGE THE FOLKS HARDEST HIT BY THE STORM AND LET THEM FEND FOR THEMSELVES.

I am not making any of this up. I know that the situation down there was dire and terrible, but looking at the decision-making process, one has to start asking some serious questions. Because I promise you, if this was Beverly Hills, or an affluent suburb of Michigan, I seriously doubt these decisions would be different. The difference would be that those folks who had the money would have been gone and they would have saved Rodeo Drive and wiped out Compton instead. I realize they're not in the same area, but you know what I mean.

It's like when they were cutting the budget in New York after 9/11 and got rid of the twice a week garbage pick ups in parts of Manhattan. Where did they cut the trash pickup from two to one first? Spanish Harlem, Washington Heights, and parts of Harlem, USA. Basically anywhere the minorities and poorer New Yorkers live in neighborhoods. I asked then if such decision making was right and I ask again now.

And with the President and leading Republicans so good at the spin game, pointing the fingers and moving the discussion from poverty to "rebuilding" and "economic development" is it not hard to see what their plans are actually going to do? If the President has his way and creates these "economic zones" and "development zones" in rebuilt New Orleans, what happens to the 9th Ward (the Democratic stronghold in a mostly lower-income area)? What happens to the people who have had land in New Orleans from the sharecropping days handed down to them by generations of family who are technically just above the poverty line (a line they keep moving down to empirically state that poverty is on the decline)? They won't be able to afford "rebuilt New Orleans" at all, will they? And where do they go?

Katrina offers us a chance to make things better and to fix the problems. It shed light on the most stubborn residues of racism - economic inequality. And because of the turn in discussion, it was the shortest attention to poverty in this crazy 24-hour news cycle. I know it's depressing to talk about such things, but it is our biggest chance in decades to have an honest discussion about it.

And it shames me to know that it's already slipped many of our minds. Because we all know too well what happens when our attention moves from an honest discussion about poverty to Tomkitten.

I think it's up to all of us who really want change next year to fight to keep it in the forefront. We've got another storm approaching soon and can we please finally talk again about Global Warming? The President and the Republican leadership are finally getting slammed. When Ann Coulter (who is a man) and Andrew Sullivan say they can't trust the president again, we gotta push the issue. And we need to find the right voices to do it - I'm not afraid to pick fights with my own party here, either.

It's time to step to the plate, friends. And not let them forget it.

Oh. And Tom Cruise is gay, anyway. This whole Tomkitten thing was said best by SF this evening: "Either Katie Holmes is about to have an alien anti-christ child or it's gonna come out looking like Chris Klein because she's just Tom's beard." 'Nuff said. Let's get it off the front page now. And get back to the things that really matter.

Back soon to get on the soapbox, I'm just getting started.

That wasn't so long, was it?

Take care of yourselves. And each other.

I know I said I'd blog every day. But after such lengthy posts, I decided that my loyal readers needed some time to digest my posts. So I decided to wait for a little before continuing my stories from the Land of Brown.

That and my dsl line at home is down until tomorrow when the technician will come and fix it sometime between 12 and 4pm. Yeah. My ass. Chances are, they'll show up at 4:30. Neat.

I would like to take a quick second to display my joy and affection for my Bronx Bombers - all of those "Yankee Fans" who told me they sucked all year and that they wouldn't survive to the post-season can kiss it. I had no doubts. My boys play in October. Few things are more certain than that. In the meantime, I know I can at least enjoy another week of Yankee watching, one of my favorite pasttimes in the world.

Now. Lest I forget that I have a mission here, I shall regale you will more stories from the Philippines. Before I do, instead of posting one picture or several at a time, click on the link below to see pics of my homeland. You can also find these pics on a lick on the right.

PICTURES FROM THE PHILIPPINES


Without further ado:

SEPTEMBER 12, 2005 (US, MONDAY)
LOCATION: MANILA TRAFFIC
TIME: 1150 AM, MANILA; 11:50 PM, NEW YORK (SEPTEMBER 11)

I forgot about the traffic. But we've already covered this.

Today my mother, my uncle, my aunt, and I (and some other assorted random family members) have to go to the cemetary to make all of the arrangements.

As we drive along, I take stock of my surroundings.

Besides the traffic, I have forgotten about the poverty here. (Check the pictures link to see what I mean)

Well, I should be honest. It's difficult to forget. From the time I was three, the faces and eyes of countless Filipino men, women, and children have remained in my memory as they begged me on street corners, staring into our stopped car, staring at us with hands outstretched.

Driving along the way, I am struck by the shabby, corrugated cardboard, tin, and wood scraps making up the walls of shacks. Spaces are left between them for windows, stacked one on top of the others, clothes hung out to dry from wire between the windows, families sitting on top of their shacks on what looks to be a very thin tin.

I started thinking about my uncle's house that I was staying at. How big, how modern, how beautiful. And I'm seeing these people, living in filth, amongst rats and dire poverty. And I start to feel helpless.

I can't help but remember a thought I had when I was eight and I visited: "This is the face of poverty. So many of my friends would never believe this exists." I'm looking at the same sight - sitting smack across the street from mansions and businesses that have grown around them. Manila is easily the ugliest city in the Philippines - and because they haven't planned the city as nicely as they could have. I remember thinking then the same thing I'm thinking now: "There are people who live like this in the U.S. But so many Americans don't know. This is what we as a people are missing - the forgotten people who are forced to live like this." I don't feel any better.

They say things in the Philippines won't change for at least 20 years. Besides new buildings, I've noticed it has been the same since I remember coming.

Here, the rich get richer, the poor live in shacks but have cards and pirated flat-screens. The government is corrupt and there hasn't been anything really new since Marcos was in power. I see my homeland suffering from these consequences and the mindset and I am even more upset.

I can start to make comparisons now, but I'll wait until I return to the states and digest all of this first.

I can sum all of this up by saying and asking: The country of my family must rise anew before anything changes. And the country of my birth also needs to wake up. It seems that everyone has much work to do. But who will be the ones brave enough to take on that task? Where have all the leaders gone?

Welcome to my blog if you're just joining us from other sites in your surfing. Or boredom. I care not which.

I have added a new link to the list on the right - shot out to the Colonel.

In the meantime, I shall continue blogging my experiences from the Philippines. If you didn't already know, the post previous to this one is the plane ride from Philly to Manila in all it's glory. I shall continue where I left off. I promise you, this stuff is worth reading if you don't know what to do with yourself for a small period of time.

DATE: SEPTEMBER 11, 2005 (US, SUNDAY)
LOCATION: UNCLE JUN'S HOUSE, CORINTHIAN HILLS, MANILA, PHILIPPINES
TIME: 725 AM, MANILA (SEPT. 12); 725 PM, NEW YORK (SEPT. 11)

I am sort of confused about what day it is since I'm 12 hours ahead of the states, so I'm trying to keep it all straight in my head.

I am fully aware of what day it is in New York City, however. Trust me, this observation did not sit lightly with me. But in the midst of other emotional priorities, it got stirred up in the mix.

Yesterday, I was awoken by two children bounding into my room loudly.

After being jumped on, bounced upon, they proceeded to pepper me with questions such as: "Do you know how to play chess? Checkers? Scrabble?"

At which point, my 8 year old cousin left the room only to return and plop the games down on my bed. She then declared I was "so big" and then proceeded to house me in a game of checkers where she broke all the rules and I took no time at all pointing that out to her.

I should take a moment to explain something. Here, in the Philippines, if you aren't a stick, you are big. Now I realize that under normal circumstances, I could easily spend a week living off the fat of the land. But here, more than in the US, it's about appearance - if you can fathom such a thing being true. But it really is. Body type is all they talk about here, us Filipinos are supposed to be small-boned, slight, and with long hair - all attributes that fall a few yards by me. So it's something you come to expect. I literally could step off the plane at 100 lbs and they'd be like, "Did you put on weight?" And honestly, this really doesn't bother me in the least, I don't give a rat's ass. But since my little cousin thought it would be fun to keep harping on the fact, I am doing my best to preserve my intent by telling you the story as-is.

Right.

Back at the ranch...

I have been wanting to play Scrabble for months since I played at the Astoria Beer Garden the last time I was in NYC for Coro's New York at Nite - and yes, we went to a beer garden and played Scrabble, what's your point?

But I more than made up for it. I played seven games or something like that today. By the second one, I was tired. By the seventh, I was silly stupid.

And bypassing the fact that my cousin cheats, which I let her do until the fourth game where it became rather wearing, I won all the other games. Yes, she's eight. No, she doesn't speak English fluently. But tell me what you would do when your seven letters are: "Y", "I", "O", "I", "O", "A", and "E"? It sucks when all you get are vowels or consonants.

I'm pretty tired from jet-lag and Scrabble. Bed looks good right about now...

Cheers,
Keeza

I have finally returned from the motherland. And I found myself in an interesting position as I seemed to have contracted a stomach virus.

Not neat.

I was in the hosptial for a few hours to get rehydrated and now I'm finally feeling better three days later.

But that's neither here nor there.

I had hoped to blog every day of my trip. I kept a journal. One of those nice moleskin ones (thanks for the advice, Mad Dog).

But the internet isn't so great on that side of the pond. So in all it's glory, here is my journal from the past two weeks. I will post every day until I finish my travel log. Then it will be back to the regularly scheduled program. Trust me, there's just too much fodder for me not to blog this. So without further ado...

TRAVEL DAY: SEPTEMBER 9, 2005 (US)
LOCATION: SOMEWHERE OVER CANADA. LAKE SUPERIOR?
TIME: 545 AM, JAPAN; 445 PM, NEW YORK

I forget how much I enjoy travel, regardless of the circumstances under which I travel. At this point, after such a difficult month, I have decided that I should take my amusement when it comes and make no apologies for it. I figure that the least I can do is be fully aware in all moments - good, bad, funny, annoying. Hell, that's life after all.

Take, for instance, my utter amusement and delight at discovering that beer and wine on international flights, unlike domestic ones, are free of charge.

Here I sit, feet propped up on the empty seat between my mother and I - turned sideways for maximum comfort - with a Miller Lite in my hand, ice cold, and at 6am Philippines/Japan time.

My mother is actually the one who supplied me with the free drink information after an entire morning of my cousin, Ailieen, and I joking about needing a drink, but that it was probably too early in the morning to start.

I'm not going to lie to you. We weren't joking. At least I know I've been dreaming of an ice cold beer since last week. Aileen has been saying we need a drink after the two weeks that we've had.

After my joy of realizing that the drinks were, indeed, free, I caught my mother's eye for a split second. A fleeting thought entered my mind: "Does she think I'm an alcoholic?"

My answer comes quickly from a different part of my mind: "You deserve it, it's free, and besides, when in Rome..."

Then I quickly wonder if this is the part of my brain that gets me in trouble.

Before I can contemplate ways to isolate this particular region of my cerebrum, I am snapped back to reality by the feeling of extreme clausterphobia as I get clocked in the head by the reclining seat directly in front of me.

I swear to god, if she could recline any further, she'd have her head in my lap. And you know why I wouldn't mind for a quick second? Because it's the perfect angle to punch her in the neck.

Well, not really. That's really rather violent of me, isn't it?

I should mention at this point that I am only on my second hour of this leg of the trip. And it's 19 hours long. And if I'm taking stock, I've had one beer, a dinner of chicken, shrimp salad, a roll, beans, and a brownie - nothing to write home about, by the way, and I've already been clocked in the head. I'm halfway through the David Sedaris book I started this morning and I'm afraid that taking out the tarot cards will offend the delicate sensibilites of the majority of Asians that make up this plane's demographic.

And I have another 17 hours to go. I wonder if my mom would worry if I ordered another beer - oh wait, this isn't a boring baseball game where I can drink the innings faster. Dammit.

On the other hand, there's that region of my brain again...

Ow.

Bitchslapped by the seat again. That's it, I'm walking around. Craptasm!

TRAVEL DAY: STILL SEPTEMBER 9, 2005 (US, FRIDAY)
LOCATION: SOMEWHERE OVER SOME PROVINCE IN CANADA
TIME: 650 AM, JAPAN; 550 PM, NEW YORK

Okay. I'm wondering what part of Canada I'm currently over when I was struck by a thought:

I'm not the only one who giggles when I hear Saskatchewan, am I?

Or even better: Manitoba!

Hee hee!

Okay. Seriously. Stop looking at me like that. I've been on a plane for forever.

Fine. I'm walking around again.

TRAVEL DAY: SEPTEMBER 10, 2005 (US, SATURDAY)
LOCATION: I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA. SOMEWHERE NEAR JAPAN?
TIME: 520 PM, JAPAN; 420 AM, NEW YORK

I love how they try to simulate "morning" on a plane. They turn the lights on full - forcing people to open their eyes and squint as the stewardess asks: "eggs or rice?"

Assuming I'm close to Asia, I opt for the rice.

I, however, have mostly been awake. They turned off the lights not long after I last wrote.

I seem to think it's been daylight outside the windows since we left Detroit. Seriously. One guy close to me has had his flap up and it's been light the whole time. That's unnatural, right? Makes me wonder if we're just circling around.

At some point since my last writing, they've shown four movies, including "Monster In-Law" which isn't even listed as one of our available movies. I'm hoping they follow suite with "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" - we're not supposed to have that, either.

Of course, my viewing pleasure would be better enhanced if there wasn't an abnormally tall Asian man with spiky hair blocking 40% of the screen. I tried moving my head slightly, but have you ever seen someone start to fall asleep? Their head rolls around like a bladder on a stick, as Eddie from Ab Fab would say. This man falls asleep like this - but only when there's a movie on. I got neck cramps from moving my head around so much. As I write now, there's no movie on, so his head is still. Craptasm.

By the way, I assume breakfast tastes better without the headrest in front of you included. This woman has been sleeping since we took off. She'll be pretty jetlagged once we hit Nagoya.

Boy, I really got lucky with the passengers in front of me. I'm putting money down that after we refuel in Nagoya, my experience will be better for the final leg of this journey.

I've given up trying to figure out how much longer we have. At some point hours ago, it was useless. It became unfathomable for me to comprehend the time I've spent on this plane. It's like someone claiming that they have a gazillion dollars and daring you to count it all. What's the point? I know my ass will be here for a while - I'd rather not count down the hours because after two, it's like watching paint dry.

I'm forcing myself to stay awake now for at least the next 60-70% of the the remainder of this trip. I probably already had a decent night's sleep - at least 5 hours. But it seems that I've been awake longer than anyone in this section. I know I was awake hours before they were. It doesn't surprise me, really, since I barely get sleep when I'm actually on land.

Night owl that I am, maybe this will be good for me. Normal hours for me instead of jetlagged. Murphy's law would reverse this. Chances are...

In the meantime, some reading while waiting for an available bathroom seems to be in order. Honestly, can we get another bathroom for the 19 hour flight? I've been waiting for hours...

TRAVEL DAY: STILL SEPTEMBER 10, 2005 (US, SATURDAY)
LOCATION: NAGOYA, JAPAN
TIME: 750 PM, JAPAN; 650 AM, NEW YORK

I heart Japan. I need to leave the airport first before I can declare that, I know. But hell, it's true. Judging by this airport, I know I'd love it.

Mai's right: everything here is cute and strangely disturbing at the same time. Like the hand dryers in the bathroom. Fantastic. I can't even describe it except to say that instead of the dryer being above your hands, it's like a cutout. You put your hands in it and it dries both sides of your hands with a powerful gust of warm air. That's the stuff. I was more disturbed by the sight attached to it that read: "Feel funny on the airplane? Nausea, headache, fever, chills, aches? Go to the Health Counsel's office NOW!"

I'm wondering how seriously people take that. I started thinking about whether or not I felt any of it on the plane. I started getting worried that I had. Then I started getting worried I hadn't.

Then I remembered that I'm not a hypochondriac.

I picked up a state-of-the-art digital camera that's more advanced than the ones we have here and cost just shy of $400. I figure it's not too bad. Then again, my mother bought it, but whatever. I'm excited. I also picked up something that said vitamin juice and "coffee shot" which promises to keep me up all day or something. Both for 220 Yen or basically just under $2 - when I pay $6 for a Starbucks tall. Sigh.

Everything here is also orderly and clean which seems exactly the kind of an environment an anal-retentive monkey like myself would feel at home in.

Oooh. Time to board the plane. More later.

P.S. I mention the camera because soon this trip will resemble the widely unfamous "Tales from the Trail" blog I started last year during the Presidential race - meaning you'll get a picture or more on the posts. Something to look forward too?

TRAVEL DAY: STILL SEPTEMBER 10, 2005 (US, SATURDAY)
LOCATION: SOMEWHERE BETWEEN JAPAN AND MANILA
TIME: 815 PM, JAPAN; 715 AM, NEW YORK

My mother just turned to me to ask me who keeps farting.

I just woke up from sleep. I don't know. Nor can I smell passed gas.

She crinkles her nose into a sour puss face.

"Well someone has been farting since we took off, I can smell it."

Knowing her sense of smell, I don't doubt it. Confident that it's not me, I go back to sleep.

TRAVEL DAY: STILL SEPTEMBER 10, 2005 (US, SATURDAY)
LOCATION: ABOUT TO LAND IN MANILA, PHILIPPINES
TIME: 1030 PM, MANILA; 1030 AM, NEW YORK

I cannot decide whether or not I like the map shown on the screen to indicate where we are, where we have traveled thus far, and how close we are to our destination.

Partly because like I said earlier, after 19 hours, the plane doesn't look like it's moving on the map at all. It is like watching paint dry.

On the other hand, it is nice to see how close we are to Manila. Yet, I can't decide if I like knowing that in times of turbulence (and we've had them) that I have a choice between landing on what looks to be a mountain range or somewhere in the sea. Morbid thoughts, I know, but honestly, after that past month, these thoughts come. At least it gives me time to figure out whether to reach above for the masks that will fall or my seat cushion that will act as a floatation device in cases of emergency. Preparation is key.

Oh, we solved the mystery. The man in the seat in front of me is the flatulator. Thank god my sinuses are acting up.

But not that bad. He stood up to stretch and I almost passed out.

My mother and I laughed.

TRAVEL DAY: SEPTEMBER 11, 2005 (US, SUNDAY)
LOCATION: UNCLE JUN'S HOUSE AT CORINTHIAN HILLS, MANILA, PHILIPPINES
TIME: 330 AM, MANILA; 330 PM, NEW YORK (SEPTEMBER 10)

Wide awake. La la la. I feared this.

Ninoy Aquino Airport only seems to have one bathroom. And it's not by any gate. You have to go through customs first, wait in the long line, then walk another football field length to get to baggage claim before you finally can use the bathroom. Neat.

So we got in hours ago after our arrival. As soon as we stepped outside, I started sweating. Just a sign of things to come.

I will also now mention the legendary traffic in Manila. Imagine the bottleneck going into the Holland Tunnel during rush hour. The LIE on a weekend in the summer. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge going to Ocean City in July. Boston when they started the Big Dig. DC jammed with lots of tourists not knowing where to go. Los Angeles traffic during... well, at anytime. But with road closings.

Have that awful scene in your head?

Now throw them all together, take out sensical rules of the road, seatbelt laws, and lane markers. Now you have Manila traffic. See a space? Go with it. See a red light? Run it. See that guy in front of you as you exit a parking lot? He'll move. Jesus, I forgot I have a heart attack everytime I get into a car here.

And it wasn't even busy on the roads when we left. Oy.

But this time, I think I have the cajones to try my hand at driving here.

Well, at least outside of Manila. In my mother's province. Where road traffic is limited to motorcycle tricycles, kids on bikes, chickens, and goats.

The smell of Manila is distinct. The air is heavier. And hotter. And the minute you step outside, you know you're home.

My uncle's brand-new house is absolutely gorgeous. It's huge. It has big-planked wood floors, marble on the first floor, state-of-the-art bathrooms (I should remind myself to tell you about bathrooms in the Philippines in general in a later post), and air conditioning. And I'm extremely happy about that.

But I will attempt some sleep now. I'm starting to get tired. More adventures tomorrow.

Cheers.

Hello all,

As promised, I am sitting in an internet cafe. Of course, internet service ain't as good here as on our side of the pond. So when I get back, I shall regale you with stories of my time from the land of the brown.

Until then, wait. I'll be coming at you from a 21 hour plane ride home soon.

Cheers,
Keeza

I find myself in Detroit at the moment. Sitting in an internet cafe in the airport, wearing very comfortable clothes as I try to eat what I would consider the last solid meal I might have in the next 19 hours.

I doubt there are many people out there who continue to read this since I've failed at posting thus far. But I know that there are a few of you who still faithfully click on my blog when you are bored, so for the few and the brave, I shall endeavor to continue.

I plan on blogging a lot in the next two weeks. I'll wager that almost all of you who read this know that my father passed away on Sunday - something I'm not quite sure that I will get around to writing about anytime soon, but I know it'll have to come out. It's been a long and strange month and it's hard to tell which way is up most of the time.

So here I am, at the airport, awaiting the 19 hour leg between Detroit and Manila. Bringing my dad home is bittersweet and it's hard to believe it's been almost eight years since I've been home. I'm eager to go, yet dreading the eventual emotional storm I fear I will have to weather. But that's life. And the best we can do is go on.

In the meantime, I'm keeping my sense of humor intact. It seems to be the only thing saving me besides the amazing support system of friends that have sustained me this past month. So expect the usual Keeza wit. I'm already thinking of my next post. Airports are great fodder for blogs.

Stay tuned, I'll be back soon. In the meantime, mama's gotta eat some good food before I sit on a plane for almost a day.

Best,
Keez

So I know it's been awhile, but my life has been upended with all the family stuff I'm dealing with. Long story short, my dad is still in the hospital and not doing well, we've had family in from all corners - California and Canada, and besides work and the Philly Fringe, I've been pretty exhausted and finally starting to feel the mental, emotional, and physical fatigue. But we take one day at a time and that's how you survive.

In the meantime, I've found that my problems pale in comparison to what's happening in the Gulf states. And knowing how political I am, I will refrain from my usual soap box rants about the President flying by in a helicopter - hey, at least it only took him two days to get there, that's an improvement from 9/11...

But I'll let this speak for itself. Rather fascinating, no? It's about time the country started to wake up.

Editor and Publisher notes that, "On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: 'It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.'

It's my birthday so I don't really feel like updating you fully yet. It's been an interesting week and I've discovered how truly wonderful all of my friends are for their support, encouragement, and friendship. Thanks to everyone who has sent best wishes and birthday greetings - you are all wonderful and put a smile on my face!

In the meantime, enjoy this.

Megan had this on her blog a little while ago and I’ve been meaning to do it. Just haven’t gotten around to it yet. So enjoy.

My iTunes Library

How many total songs? 951 songs, 2.5 days, 4.65 GB

Top Most Played Song: It’s actually a tie between two songs I am in the process of writing for the musical mindy. And I are working on – “Expert 1” and “Workshop and Opening Act I” (21 times). Yes, I actually wrote the songs.

Sort by...

Title
First: “And I’ll Never Be Sorry” – another song from the musical I’m writing.
Last: “Your Winter” – Sister Hazel

Time
First: “Towlie” – South Park clip (0:01)
Last: “Rhapsody in Blue” – George Gershwin (16:11)

Artist
First: “Changes vs. Man in the Mirror” – 2Pac – I don’t know that this counts, but it’s what comes up
Last: “Super Mario Medley” – Zaperman (or something like that – this one is really random)

Find "sex", how many songs show up? 6
You Sexy Thing – Barry White
I Wanna Sex You Up – Color Me Badd
Sexual Healing – Marvin Gaye
Sex and Candy – Marcy Playground
Sexual Healing Remix – Shaggy
I’m Too Sexy – The South Park version - pretty funny.

Find "death", how many songs show up? 0

Find "love", how many songs show up? 46 – Oh the Christ – here goes:
Never My Love – Association
Where is the Love (ice remix) – Black Eyed Peas
Where is the Love – Black Eyed Peas
I’ll Make Love to You – Boyz II Men
All for Love – Bryan Adams, Sting, Rod Stewart
Love You Madly – Cake
After All (Love theme from “Chances Are”) – Cher and Peter Cetera
Glory of Love – Peter Cetera
Loves Embrace – Christina Aguilera
I Love Paris – Cole Porter
Friday’s I’m in Love – The Cure
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover – Dave Matthews cover
Baby Love – Diana Ross & the Supremes
Love Potion Number 9 – The Drifters
You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me – Dusty Springfield
Your Song – Elton John (it’s under Love Songs Album or something)
Love Will (Turn Back the Hand) – Grease 2 Soundtrack
Rich Girl – Gwen Stafani (Love.Angel.Music CD)
The Origin of Love – Hedwig and the Angry Inch Soundtrack
Saving All My Love (Live) – Idina Menzel
Mr. Lover – Janet Jackson
Blowin Me Up With Her Love – JC Chasez
I Honestly Love You – Lea Salonga
Working for the Weekend – Loverboy (ha!)
This Love – Maroon 5
She Will Be Loved – Maroon 5
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me – Mel Carter (Love Sixties CD)
The Game of Love – Michelle Branch
Medical Love Song – Monty Python
That’s the Way Love Goes – N*Sync cover
This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) – Natalie Cole
(I Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection – Nelson (That’s right, Matthew and Gunner)
Hey Ya – Outkast (Speakerboxxx/The Love Below CD)
The Way You Move - Outkast (Speakerboxxx/The Love Below CD)
Feelin’ Love – Paula Cole
Baby I Love Your Way – Peter Frampton
Seasons of Love – Rent Original Broadway Cast Soundtrack
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – The Shirelles
Isn’t She Lovely – Stevie Wonder
Seasons of Love – Stevie Wonder version
Stop! In the Name of Love – The Supremes
Love Don’t Come Easy – The Supremes
Saving All My Love For You – Whitney Houston
You Give Good Love – Whitney Houston
The Greatest Love of All – Whitney Houston
In Love With A Stripper – Wyclef Jean

Okay.

I realize it’s been over a month since I last blogged. For this I am very sorry. But I believe I have good reason.

So this one will be long because I fully intend to update you all fully. I just am having trouble trying to keep it all straight in my head.

Alright. I’ll just go for it.

1. New Link Added!

Volansky, as evidenced by previous posts and in a number of luminous articles by everyone that matters, is the Goddess of my Idolatry. And she has stared a blog. I encourage you to click – and see why she rocks so damn hard.

2. I Got My Jeep Back!

It only took a month and a half. And they only made one mistake – which isn’t bad considering they basically had to put the entire car back together. When I asked what they didn’t touch, the guy said, “Um, basically from the doors back. But not even, we had to fix some of the doors. Otherwise the rest of it is brand-new.” Suhweet. As for the one mistake – I have windshield wipers on the front and back of my car. When I go to try to clean the front window, I’m supposed to pull the lever towards me for the mist. When I pull, the mist goes off in the rear window. When I push the button for the rear mist, the front mist goes. It’s actually pretty amusing. But they are going to fix it. I was so confused the first time – it was like getting the car brand new all over again. But I’m happy my baby is back.

3. Vacation, all I ever wanted!

We went on our annual trek to North Kackalacki again. Seven miles up the beach in an amazing house – sure, there were a couple of problems with the house – like no air conditioning on the third floor until Wednesday, a broken bathroom door that three of us were sharing, and a luke-warm hot tub. But really, who cares when you’re on vacation up the beach, nobody really around for miles, good food and drink, and most importantly, good company? We played Dance Dance and Karaoke Revolutions, we beached, we wave jumped, I rented a boat to take out on the water, we luke-warm tubbed it, we played board games, we listed to music, we drank, we watched movies – and we had fun. I don’t know that I can ever ask for a better vacation that that. For fun quotes, click on the link to the Cardboard Box’s Blog – it’s all there. That’s some fun you can shake a stick at.

4. I bought a time share!

I did! In Williamsburg. I spent a pretty penny. The next day…

5. I cancelled my time share!

It was a really sweet deal, but I don’t think I’m ready at this point in my life for that. I still have car and education to pay for – and an education I hope to have in the future. So no time-shares, just give me North Kackalacki and I’m cool.

6. It was still a free vacation.

So Fabs and I took advantage of it, went to Busch Gardens for free and rode all the rides – I was afraid I was too old for that stuff. I’m not. It was soo much fun. And we had an amazing time. The free hotel room was connected to an IHop and we had a whirlpool in our bathroom - which prompted a trip to the Big K for bubble bath. The next day we went to Monticello to check out good ‘ol TJ’s hizzy. We’re dorks, but we love that shit. Next time, we’ll do Montpelier.

7. I passed this sign twice in a month. I still laugh when I see it. Ha.

8. July 4th in Philly with Tony Danza?

Lindsay, Brian, and I went to Volansky’s on July 4th and went to the free concert. No, we didn’t go to Live 8 – everyone keeps asking. But we went to Elton John’s free concert. We saw Brian Adams. And Patti LaBelle. And Rufus Wainwright. And then the man himself came on. It was great – we were just standing there, having a good time (and yes, it was hot as hell and standing was annoying after a while, but once Elton came on, I didn’t notice anymore). I could see for most of it. Until Elton came on. Then this was my view:



Dick.

All night, we kept shouting, “Tiny!” Who doesn’t love Tiny Dancer? And he actually played it! And then one of the girls in the group said, “Ever notice how it sounds like he’s singing ‘Tony Danza?’” I’ll never hear the song again without thinking in my head, “Hold me closer, Tony Daaanzaaa.” Damn.

9. I MET ANI DIFRANCO!!!! I CAN DIE NOW.

So a while back, Sarah and I got tickets to the Ani DiFranco show in Wilmington this past week. Lindsay and Brian were going to come, but at the last minute, we had to change plans. So I gave the tickets to Siobhain and Dickert – it had recently been both of their birthdays. So I was happy to finally give them the chance to see Ani live – and front row balcony, too. So we went. Erin McKeown opened. She is amazing. Then the ‘Lil Folksinger herself came on and it was one of the most memorable shows I’ve seen her do. She did a lot of my favorite songs – As Is, Your Next Bold Move, Subdivision, Shameless, Studying Stones, Overlap – I can’t remember all of them, but it was a great concert. Afterwards, we noticed her tour bus behind the venue. There was a small crowd of about ten of us and we waited for almost two hours. Before she came out, the cops tried to kick us out. The Righteous Babe staff and her road crew told us to stay – they made sure we got to see her. Then one of her people came out and explained that she didn’t like pictures and couldn’t sign autographs because she had tendonitis – she was really sorry, but we could at least talk to her. No problem.

I wish I had met her years ago when she was cool with all of that, but I understood. So she came out, all unassuming and right up and chatted with us. I know I said something stupid. But she was smiling, told us how employees at Whole Foods can’t have dyed hair or piercings – this was because someone mentioned her dreads were gone and her hair was now purple. She looked over at me. I said, “Hey, thanks for playing Subdivision – I love that song – I’m from Syracuse, so I know exactly what you’re talking about.” She smiled and was like, “Yeah! That’s cool.” She put up her fist and leaned back and said, “Homestate.” I said, “Yeah, thanks – you were amazing and I heart you.” She said, “Cool. Thanks a lot.” There was some little chatter, but right after that, she pretty much got on her tour bus and drove away. So I met her. I did.

10. Congress Does Yet Another Dumb Thing.

I find the title of this section humorous and incredibly sad at the same time.

I will get on my soapbox soon – this is nothing. It’s been a while since I ranted, but I will leave that for the next post or so when I do more research. Yes, I do fact checking before I open my mouth. So there.

But you know, all of us thought this Energy bill was going nowhere. At the Ani concert, she told us how the day before they were in DC and the went to their Congressman’s offices and went to the hearing on the energy bill and “they gave [her] a mic and a podium and everything.” She ripped into them about what the energy bill was about to do – give billions of dollars in tax breaks to the oil and energy companies, create new nuclear facilities – and on top of that, they don’t know what to do with all of the nuclear waste as it is. So the bill allows them to put nuclear waste on trains and transport the waste through the country – think of all of those cities and villages and sleepy towns NUCLEAR WASTE will be traveling through - it’s destination? A Native American site/reservation in Utah.

WHAT THE HELL?!

This passed with an enormous amount of support. I was pretty pissed when I found out that the CAFTA vote came down to 2 VOTES in the House but this energy bill is outrageous. This is the type of thing that makes me so damn angry. They’re up all night, writing the bill, changing it – who wants to bet money that this 1,700+ page bill, amended at he 11th and 12th hours wasn’t read by a majority of the Congressman? I’ll bet the farm. And whatever is left of my Social Security – with this f*@!ing Administration running the helm and Congressmen kissing ass to them, my guaranteed benefit is as good as gone – these bastards have a way of getting their shit passed with no one blinking an eye.

When did America fall asleep? WHEN???!!! When will it wake up and realize that we are getting the golden shaft?!

Let me quickly break down the basics:
-This bill is basically one big tax break. Electric utilities will see a saving of $3.1 billion, the Coal Industry will see a savings of $2.9 billion, and the Oil and Gas Companies will see a whopping $2.7 billion saved over the next ten years.
-The bill has little or no impact on gas prices. So the President, when asked how to lower gas prices, has pointed to this stalled legislation had to concede that this bill will do nothing to gas prices, wanna know what the reaction was? A big fat nothing. No one has bothered to make the connection that the President was – once again – talking out of his ass. Or Karl Rove’s. Hard to tell.
- The bill won’t necessarily prevent another blackout. It makes them more accountable. And encourages investments in nuclear energy and the construction of power plants, like I said above. So it naturally begs the question – how will this connect to Homeland Security and the Patriot Act now that we have decided to give them the green light to create more terrorist targets…er, I mean, how are we going to be sure these facilities are secure?

And, my friends, if this doesn’t already piss you off, I’m sure this will:
At the 11th hour, they added $1.5 billion in research funds to help oil and gas companies in the Texas district of none other than House majority leader, Tom DeLay. (Time Magazine, August 8, 2005)

Pissed now? Thought so.

11. I’m slow to the take on politics because it has been a difficult week.

I am putting in a rare personal note in this blog post. I ask for your good thoughts and prayers – my father is in the hospital and he’s doing well, but not out of the woods yet. I’m just happy and fortunate that they were here and not home in Syracuse when it happened so that I can be here. Since my cousin just got a job in Dover, he’s here, too – so it’s good we’re all together. It’s always times like these when I forget how strong and formidable my mother is – how wonderfully resilient, brave, and graceful she is in times of duress. So there are good things along with the bad, but just say a good word for him when you get a chance, will you? Everyone has been so amazing – and for those of you who have offered support, time, and anything I need in the past week – and if you read this blog – thank you. It means a lot.

So on that note, I leave you. Thanks for reading – and checking up on it. Because I have been bad at this lately, but I hope to get better.

Coming up: Trips to Albany and Wisconsin and my 26th birthday next week – I will write soon!

Take care of yourself. And others.

-Keeza