The phone rings. Caller ID announces, “Coldwell Banker.” (from out of town)
Me: “Hello?”
Him (exceedingly chipper): “Hi, this is Ken at Coldwell Banker. We recently listed a duplex home in Utica for sale and we’re wondering if you know anyone that would be interested in buying it.”
Me: “Nope.”
Him (exceedingly chipper): “Well thanks for thinking that over carefully…”
Me: click.
Since when does a real estate agent randomly call a home and ask if they know anyone that wants to buy a house?
I can’t think of the last time that I was up at 4:30 in the morning and not growling at people. Here I am, wide awake and actually making myself a “to-do” list for the day. I have included the obligatory nap for 2:30 this afternoon so I can be refreshed for a rousing episode of “Leave It to Beaver” on TV Land.
My sleeping habits have been oscillating back and forth between “sloth” and “zombie” for the past couple of weeks. Usually I try to be in bed by 11 and up by eight, but when we went camping a couple of weeks ago I stayed up until two or so and then slept in until ten. This seemed to work reasonably well, but it’s not something that I can do during the week as I would then miss my college classes.
Sunday night I went to bed at two and was up by nine, even though there were several attempts from a certain cat to get me up way before then. “Thou shall get a paw in the eye and claws across the beard until thou serves tuna.”
On the other hand, last night I went to bed at ten and was up by 4:30 this morning, as I was awoken by the delivery of a very large aircraft to the local airliner maintenance center. So much for noise abatement. Last night’s turning in early was entirely due to my recent attempt at eating healthy, as I was so hungry I was ready to gnaw on my desk so I thought I should either go to sleep or eat a half gallon of ice cream.
So now I’m patiently waiting for Earl to get up in an hour so I can rip the sheets out from under him and start the ritual I call “giddy with laundry”.
They’ll be done just in time for my mid afternoon nap.
So it was 2 a.m. and I was surfing from page to page on the internet, undoubtedly trying to catch up on important topics in world news or looking for creative porn or something of that sort. It was then that I I came across a parenting forum where they were discussing how to determine if their pre-adolescent child (in this instance, a boy) was gay. Now that I think back on the it, it kind of makes me wonder what my google search query was. Anyways, this handful of mothers and few interested fathers were discussing telltale signs as to their elementary school child’s impending sexual orientation.
I find these discussions relatively humorous. Let me preface this by saying that I fully believe that one is born attracted to one sex or the other, or in some instances to both, and that it’s not a conscious decision we make when our hormones surge during our teens. Show me someone that “decided” to be gay and I’ll show you an idiot with a low self-esteem and a non-existent ego. Maybe that’s a little harsh, but I truly believe there are a very few out there that “decided to be gay”. We’re wired the way that we’re wired and that’s all there is to it. Because of our resulting natural predisposition, I believe for some that genes and other DNA circuitry are programmed to care about certain things such as shopping or colors more than other things such as mowing the lawns or playing with toy soldiers. Thinking about a recent theme weekend at a gay campground, perhaps that last example isn’t such a good one.
Anyway, the forum members were mentioning that this concerned parent should watch for the stereotypical telltale signs: the boy wanting to grow his hair long or wanting to play with Barbie dolls or showing no interest in trucks. I find these barometers to be rather unwieldy in today’s environment. First of all, since the metrosexual movement is still somewhat present it’s difficult to tell ascertain the sexuality of a youngster by things such as long hair, earrings in the wrong ears and whatnot. Hell, there’s angry, straight gang members acting all tough like and running around with eyebrows stylized like a 1920s movie starlet and in pink shirts with popped collars. What’s long hair going to prove? I think parents would be relieved if their child wanted just their ear pierced, what with all the piercings one encounters today. This isn’t going to tell the parent anything.
I guess it was easier for my parents’ generation; in many instances they simply hiked up the pants leg of their youngster and if their little boy had black and blue marks on his shin then odds were they were gay, because the black and blue marks were undoubtedly from secret attempts to spin from Diana Prince to Wonder Woman and the resulting banging into the coffee table.
One ‘knowledgeable’ person suggested that if the little boy was interested in cats instead of dogs then he was going to grow up to be a ‘flamer’, as he so eloquently described it. Wrongo. If the boy likes cats then he’s going to be straight because only lesbians like cats and lesbians like girls.
Duh.
Another suggested an interest in comic books would indicate that he’s not gay. Apparently straight-destined boys want to Superman or Batman. Hello, wrong again. I loved comic books and when as a kid I had to settle for being “Robin” when in fact I wanted to enchant “Oh Zephyr Winds which blow on high, lift me now so I can fly” but not wear a skirt. Just because the youngster is pulling a Superman doesn’t mean he wouldn’t rather be Catwoman.
I had to stop reading the discussion when a woman suggested that she have the boy look at his shoe and if he turns his foot one way he’s gay and if he turns it the other he’s straight.
Perhaps a Rockettes kick would have been the indicator.
Ok, I’m in love with Apple again. Leopard looks really cool and it’s coming out in October so I’ve calmed down a little bit.
Today Earl and I had my dad and his wife and my sister over for a get together on our new patio. Dad is going to be out of town next week for Father’s Day so we decided to celebrate a week early. This is the first time that we’ve had company on the patio and we were a little hesitant since we don’t have a lawn or landscaping installed yet. The contractor has left several mounds of dirt and promises to be here the first part of the week, but whether that really happens remains to be seen.
Even though I now do the majority of the cooking in our merry little household, when it comes to entertaining company Earl takes control of the kitchen and I just clean up behind him and stay out of his way. Here he’s getting the spare ribs ready for the picnic.
Since we weren’t serving tuna fish or kibble for the get together, Tom had to eat his regular food in his bowl. I kept him company and chatted with him so he didn’t feel left out.
And I took this shot by standing on one of the mounds of dirt that is destined to become beautiful landscaping. By taking the picture from this angle, one can’t notice the “Yucca Flats After The Blast” motif we have going on directly behind me.
All in all it was a good day.
While many think that gay men hit all the circuit parties on Saturday night, Earl and I are proving to the contrary this evening. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a circuit party before. Anyway, Earl and I are sitting in the café at Barnes and Noble with our Macs back to back, meaning we’re facing each other. There’s not a lot of people here in the café this evening, perhaps they are at the circuit party. There is one guy who thought he was hot stuff with his newish computer until the boys opened up their Macs. Mac trumps newish every time.
Earl is listening to iTunes and being super studious and putting entries into Quicken as we sit here. This is a good thing, for I don’t think he’ll scold me for the receipts I have turned in for the week. At least not in public. At least I hope not.
I have a couple more blog entries waiting to be posted today as I’ve been messing around with vidcasts today but forgot to bring along the cable to upload the files to the computer. Much to Earl’s chagrin these will be posted by the end of the weekend.
I always find people-watching at Barnes and Noble to be such a fascinating exercise. There’s a woman ordering a mocha-chocha-la-la-loo-loo at the counter when in fact I believe she just wants a cup of Sanka. I think that Barnes and Noble should provide translator services for those that don’t speak snobby latte. There’s been several layers of confusion on all involved with the ordering process. I think it would have been easier to squeeze some Joe out of Juan Valdez. She asked for coffee with a little milk and ended up with a latte. She’s now returning it because there’s too much milk in it, even though it’s half and half. “I thought you meant a little creamer.”
There’s two kids (one boy, one girl) yelling at the top of their lungs and showing their somewhat rotund, bare stomachs at each other and yelling “cheese” in unison at varying intervals. Oy.
Earl has discarded the aforementioned receipts with nary a cross glance in my direction, so I think I’m safe as far as the checkbook goes for the week.
It’s fun to surf in public at Barnes and Noble.
I always love a good 80s pop tune on a sunny Saturday afternoon, so here’s a live performance of Dead or Alive’s “In Too Deep”. Pete Burns (the lead singer) has never done anything for me, but I’m really grooving on his backup singers/dancers.
As a diehard geek, I get excited about the new technologies that are being introduced on an almost minute-by-minute basis. We are seeing cool, new things everyday; for example, the upcoming Apple iPhone has a “wow” feature that a mobile phone rarely achieves. I don’t see me owning an iPhone any time soon (mostly because of price), but I think we’re about to see the next big leap in mobile communications.
While the iPhone is quite exciting and intriguing, there are few things that make me gasp with excitement when I see technology. I usually have this “yeah yeah yeah” approach when I see new ideas, especially when they come from the folks at Microsoft. However, Microsoft Surface made me say out loud, “now that’s cool.”
I never thought I’d be referring gentle readers to the Microsoft site, but take a look at the Microsoft Surface website. Talk about a cool piece of furniture!
And while I’m on a technology discussion, I’m just going to say that I’ve just about forgotten about the upcoming release of Leopard. It’s so yesterday.
Sometimes its good to get in the car, drink in some sun through the sunroof and drive through the Catskills. And that is what I did today.
Life is good. Don’t let anyone ever tell you differently.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!