- Poolside BBQs. Drunken karaoke, changing the lyrics from “Tearing Up My Heart” to something much more gay appropriate. God bless bun-sized dogs and knowing all the choreography to Britney Spears videos.
- Potter, Harry. The movie was okay, but not the most thrilling or easy to follow of the series. Also concerned about girl’s strange preoccupation with apparently acid-laced pudding.
- Prussia, King of. A mall after my own heart. Why? Kids-sized stores including Abercrombie, JCrew, and more. I love my smaller clothes, but not the staff who try to get me to visit the “adult store.” Oh honey.
- Pancakes, Pineapples. Kevin’s specialty. Separately, of course. I added syrup with our initials. Yeah, that’s right.
- Potty pricing. Lowes sells some of the most expensive boring toilets I’ve ever touched. With padded seat coverings.
- Pieces, Reeses. Chocolate of the gods.
- Plots of Real Estate. Still perplexing. Still unattainable. In either state I currently reside.
- Prayer, Book of Common. A gift from the bf to keep me entertained while he works. Total surprise, totally perfect.
- Platinum Passes. The tickets that weren’t worth paying for to see Tori Amos’ fall tour. I opted and successfully acquired Gold VIP before the website crashed. Don’t be shocked, I’m only going to one show this tour.
- Puma. Underwear and shoes. The underwear extremely hot (wearing it right now), the shoes not so much. Will be returning shoes ASAP and rocking out the Steve Maddens this weekend.
- Psych ward. Had a dream one of my friends told me all about her time spent in one on the street at 4 am.
- Petroleum. Exxon in particular. See my last entry.
- Plume, nom de. I picked my own pen name, and had dinner with a particular gentleman who goes by that alias. Good time, nice conversation, great cheeseburgers.
- Pilates. What I need to do after the cheeseburgers.
Stepping outside in D.C. this summer, it's hard not to notice the heat. And while the temperature continues to rise, so do ExxonMobil's profits this quarter -- to the staggering tune of nearly ten billion. Turns out, this is less than coincidental.
While people in the District are sweating off dollars at the pump, Exxon is also helping to raise temperatures, as the only oil giant directly funding groups that tout global warming as nothing more than "environmental alarmism." ExxonMobil has spent up to $21 million bankrolling global warming denier groups like the Heartland Institute, and while the company claims it is taking action on global warming, its own global warming pollution levels actually increased by over 5 percent last year.
Other oil giants are actively investing their profits in renewable energy and setting self-imposed limits on their own pollution. ExxonMobil does none of these things.
Studies used by Congress show that if we increase our use of homegrown renewable energy resources like wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass, then consumer energy prices will drop and new high-paying jobs will be created. ExxonMobil still refuses to invest in renewable energy.
It's time to turn up the heat on a company that is abusing both our pockets and the environment.
Really great video from Hillary Clinton on her plans for Iraq.
Iraqi prime minister says U.S. troops can leave 'anytime they want'
Meanwhile, he accused the U.S. of embarrassing the Iraqi government by violating human rights and treating his country like an "experiment in a U.S. lab."
I don’t know how much I’ve told you about Kevin’s lifestyle. He’s awesomely focused on organic living; he always keeps fresh fruit in the house. There’s almost always bananas or yogurt or something good for you sitting around. He loves the stuff. So do all his new little friends who decided to occupy the apartment yesterday. For a place that was once only occupied by two gay men, it seems mildly appropriate that it’s now swarming with fruit flies. So I have just completed phase one of operation: die faggot maggots while listening to the peaceful tunes of the Live Earth concert. This has progressed a little past dish washing duty.
I took the alley to the Rock'n'Roll Hotel. Something about walking in the rain in Northeast made it seem safer than the street. It’s our show; we are celebrating freedom through digital music. Dead guitar angels hang from the ceiling, the lights in the bathroom flicker if you can find their switch, that is once you’ve walked down the long hall of faded show posters to get there. A haunted house of rock gods past. Even the salsa was a little rough around the edges.
Chit-chat with the sales team of Politico, resisting the urge to bounce up and down to Asian robotic thumpers Exit Clov -- wordplay on Samuel Beckett. I shouldn’t have resisted; senior staff dance in synchronized zombie motions, waving a glow of cell phones above their heads.
I stay for two more hours, watching red eyes deepen, discussing fairness in the work place. Some queers (the resident DJ and friends) have snuck in for free food and booze. They tell me to pretend to vomit if someone mugs me walking to my car. I won't be bulimic just to save my wallet.
The work weeks are blurring together now. We lost promotions with a famous NY group who fight for their right to party. I’m actively avoiding $3000 speeding tickets and the desire to remove iPhones from coworkers’ desks. I sort of came out to my sister.
Massachusetts requires health care for all, and the English, who may have made the cigarette glamorous, now have a public smoking ban nationwide. Hooray for better dental hygiene.
Sometimes I want to strangle the uninformed.
"The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
-Yeats
Ad budgets soaring. In talks with RollingStone. MySpace. Bands I'm not allowed to name.
Does this get me off?
Yes, it has me going. It entrances me. It keeps me hyper in the office at 8 in the evening.
I realized tonite the book I'm reading is well over a thousand pages. I realized this on the wrong train to a part of the city I'd never been.
Maybe I'm shedding the city boy. The lack of air in my day. The Los Angelean despondency.
"Fear of the dark can be synthesized in the laboratory. Fear of the dark is an arrangement of fifteen amino acids. Fear of the dark is a protein."
-Joan Didion
I want my thousand pages.
Antique cars lined Main Street Lansdale, crowds darting between Model A's, Mustangs, gangster wagons. Rides from the 1920s, 30s, dune buggies from the 50s, Barbie cars, hell raisers. Grizzly old men who may actually be the original owners. An amusement park of heavy metal, complete with funnel cake, all roaring in to sell, admire, but not to touch. It's the small town togetherness you see on TV.
Everything has turned around since the last entry. Some days you have to check yourself.
Yes, I am amazing.
Yes, I am worth loving.
Yes, I am changing my world for the better.
It's true, I'd like to surround myself with more do-gooders. Non-smokers. People who are constantly pushing for more.
The Weekend
I've been working out of Kevin's house in Pennsylvania since Friday. We're both busy during the day, then rock out at night. Strange realization in Philly last night when I knew about as many people there as I'd have bumped into at any bar in D.C. Living a dual life now. We made our way from Bump to the Tavern after clown car-ing it into town. All our friends from the Outerbanks trip were there, as well as a few others, and the infamous RussRoss, who was lovely in person.
Kevin and I have been joking around unabashedly. Mostly bathroom humor. It's nice; we're making it through that awkward stage after the initial infatuation wears off when you have to really build a relationship. It's becoming easy to be myself around him and to let him bring out the attractive parts of me. The goofy parts.
Lifestyle Changes
I'm excited. I'm making an active effort to eat right. Lots of salads, cut the caffeine (one soda at max per day), barely any alcohol aside from at work functions, working out (abs/cardio especially), yogurt, fruit and veggie snacks. I'm going to a vegan café with the coworkers on Monday. Not sure what my goal is; I'm about 5 lbs heavier than I have been for most of my adult life -- which is a good thing. I just want to tone up and put on some muscle. Healthy living is the focus right now. Keeps a smile on my face.
Living Situation
Apartment shopping was lame. I need to sit down with my mom and work out finances and figure out what I can afford if I actually buy a condo. DC feels like home now, and the only thing that makes me think I might not stay is my relationship. I would love for Kevin to fall in love with D.C., but I know he is rooted in PA, having grown up there, working six (sometimes seven) days a week there. I didn't realize until this weekend that his busy schedule is going to stay busy until December. Of course, that's when my work world is going nuts.
Misc.
Really happy to hear Rilo Kiley is releasing album #4, Under the Blacklight. Finally something to overplay aside from American Doll Posse.
And it turns out there was something to be happy about for pride. Hooray for continued marriages in my old home state. What happens when the moral majority isn't in majority anymore?
Professional Life
Work is getting to be fun again. The environmental campaign is really picking up and I'm working on writing every state legislator in 36 states along with some hundred thousand constituents. Our office party really brought me back out of my shell. It was a better time than I expected, and I have to take these events as networking opportunities. This is how I keep people liking me and keep my job. Which will hopefully pay off soon (more on this later).
The party was in honor of our move to a new building, and therefore MOViE themed, with its own red carpet, paparazzi, movie posters (I was superimposed over Emilio Estevez in the Breakfast Club), popcorn machines, etc. I did not restrain my dancing (spot me on the floor in one of the pictures below) and didn't intend to stay that long, but surprise, it was midnight and people were still telling me wild stories.
