Ponderings and Musings

Well I finally got to the doctor’s to find out what was going on with my sinuses. During the night the bridge of my nose had swollen up more, giving me a rugged look that looked somewhat flattering but not at all natural. Enough was enough.

He thumped my chest, pumped my glands and stuck a light up my nose. Yep, it was a sinus infection alright, but it didn’t go beyond that, my chest, etc. sounded clear. Yay! Being allergic to penicillin AND the sulfa drugs, he gave me an antibiotic called the “Z-Pak” which you take for just five days, apparently giving whatever shouldn’t be in your body a one-two punch. I also received a prescription of Allegra-D. I took both at lunch time and surprisingly the Allegra-D doesn’t make me mean. I’ll have to save a couple of these puppies for later.

Having used my lunch hour to go to the doctor, I settled back my desk to eat a turkey sandwich I had brought along. My friend Shirley offered a bowl of her homemade chicken soup to go along with the sandwich since I wasn’t feeling well and the soup should really hit the spot. It did as intended, along with a chocolate chip cookie from the batch my friend Mike had brought yesterday when he had heard I wasn’t feeling well. It’s nice to have thoughtful friends.

So now I feel tons better already and am looking forward to seeing my old nose again.

My blog friend Terry has been getting in on this blog tag thingee that’s been going around on the internet. Here’s how it works:

The Official Interview Games Rules:
1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying, “interview me”.
2. I will respond by asking you five questions – each persons will be different.
3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

I volunteered with an “interview me!” in his comments section today, simply because it looked like fun AND I’ve been working on coming out of my shell a little more this year and this seemed to be a wonderful vehicle on my journey of enlightenment.

Here’s my five questions from Terry.
1. We have been talking for ages now… but how did you first find my blog?
I wish I could remember how I found your blog, but for the life of me I don’t remember how I stumbled upon it. I think it had something to do with googling gay PowerBook users. I liked your style, I liked your blog and I found you very cute, so I stuck around.

2. How old were you when you lost your virginity?
Ah, it seems like yesterday. Actually, it was my second semester of college in March 1987. I was 18 years old at the time.

3. Top, Bottom or Versatile?
O.k. now I’m blushing. I guess “mostly top” would mean “versatile”.

4. You are being shipped to a deserted island for 3 months and you are only allowed to bring one CD. No iPod, no mix-tape, no mix-CD. One original CD. What CD would that be?
“While The Eagle Sleeps” by Alice Gomez, Madalyn Blanchett & Marilyn Rife. It’s Native American Flute Music that I often use to meditate and relax to.

5. When was the last time you said “thank you”?
Just a short while ago I thanked Earl for bringing home some Vicks Vaporub to help combat the congestion in my sinuses. I make a point of saying thank you to all that are deserving, people need to be more polite and I like to try to set a good example.

Anyone want to play?

When I’m up late for work and can’t sleep for whatever reason, I sometimes reminisce about my younger days working the second shift. I’d start work at 3, right in sync with my own circadian rhythm and would get home around 11:00, ready to settle in front of the television (armed with a bowl of popcorn) for a couple hours before calling it a night. This was before the internet, when I’d have to dial into the local BBS (bulletin board system) or GEnie with my ancient computer at 1200 baud and $2.95 an hour to chat with other guys – and they were all geeks. And there were no pictures, only characters literally crawling across the screen.

Not an efficient way of meeting people.

So I’d tune the television to the good cable station “11 Alive” out of New York, later known as WPIX (now the WB11). I’d catch the end of “The Odd Couple” (always a fun show) and then watch one of the original 39 episodes of “The Honeymooners”, followed by an original “Star Trek”.

Ah, the good old days. I think there was a boyfriend somewhere in that mix. I wonder what happened to him? Anyways, it’s fun to look back just 15-20 years ago upon television viewing habits and the fact that we weren’t assaulted with prescription drug commercials. “Can’t sleep? You need Lunesta.” I say drink a martini, count the fsckin’ sheep and hit the hay the good ol’ fashioned way.

Now that I think about it, I haven’t watched The Honeymooners in *years*. Like since 1990 or so! I don’t think Earl and I have ever sat down and watched an episode together. I don’t even know if we get WB11 here on DirecTV. Hmmm.

Back then I would tell others that cared that Audrey Meadows was the second Alice Kramden and that Pert Kelton was actually the first. I was obnoxious like that, spouting off facts that no one cared about. No one of my age believed me. “Pert Kelton. Pert Kelton? Who the hell is Pert Kelton?”. But there’d be someone older than me milling around at work that would show a faint familiarity with the name and would chime in to my defense. It’s not like there’s a bunch of actresses out there named Pert. Come to think of it, I think she’s the only one I’ve ever heard of. Who would name their daughter Pert? Wasn’t that a shampoo back in the mullet era?

I think I need to pick up a few DVDs of The Honeymooners. I have one favorite quote from the series:
Guest Star: “Mrs. Kramden, your husband is certainly a treasure.” (walks off the set)
Alice: “Yes, and if he keeps this up he’ll be a buried treasure.” (mocking the wife) Priceless!

Jackie Gleason and Pert Kelton in one of the original skits.

The familiar cast from “The Honeymooners”.

Due to some network upgrades at work last night, my on-call pager went off incessently from 11:00 p.m. until a little after 2:00 this morning. Blurry-eyed and very incoherent, I would stagger through each individual page making sure it wasn’t some sort of on-call emergency and try to catnap in between the screeching noise my pager makes. I wish there was a way to have it announce “Incoming! Incoming!” instead of these happy dancing tones that Motorola has programmed into the thing, it might make me feel a little better. I’d enjoy a deep voice saying “Excuse me J.P., but your attention is required.” but then I’d end up dreaming about Night Rider or something.

Anyways, because of these unsuccessful catnaps last night and Earl’s poorly timed departure for work this morning at 4:45 a.m., I’m a little incoherent today. For example, right before lunch I called a customer to let them know that their phone service issue was still in the process of being resolved, when I realized that I had just thrown the old woman at the other end of the line into a panic (something about day trading) and truth be known, I had dialed the wrong number and she wasn’t even a customer of ours. So I simply said, “Please excuse the call”, which is a phrase that hasn’t been heard since about 1966. I’ve been watching too many Bewitched reruns or something.

So now I’ve come home for lunch to play the “swing the door” game with the cat. He goes to the door, I let him out, I close the door, he immediately stands in front of the window waiting to come in so he can nibble on one piece of kibble, then he goes back to door and it starts all over again. Why sit down for a meal when you can run around the house in between bites? To add to the fun, he starts digging the moulding around the door if I don’t move fast enough. Isn’t he cute.

At least there’s a bright spot today. Earl e-mailed me to tell me that he’s not spending the night out of town, instead he’s coming home tonight. That did liven me up a little bit.

###

I’ve been thinking of my little road trip next week and think I’m going to drop Earl off at Philly airport, then head down to Richmond, Va. and drive across Virginia and West Virginia before heading back home. Why? Because it’s there. I hear folks down there really like us gay boys from the north anyways.

I’m on call again this week, but thank the Universe it’s only for five days and four nights. (Wasn’t that a movie with Anne Heche?) I have already accumulated more overtime tonight than I did during last week’s entire on-call stint. Daddy’s going to buy some Apple goodies with overtime money next week!

Earl’s work pace has gone from “very rapid” to “anti-vapid” in about six seconds but that’s o.k. He’s spending every other night in Scotia which makes for some lonely nights but I look at the bright side. It’ll make the weekend that much more special.

I’ve already put in for two vacation days next week. I’m driving Earl to Philly for a family visit AND for business meetings on Monday. He then jets off to Vermont and I’ll have the latter half of Monday and all of Tuesday to go on a little road trip in the Acura. Any suggestions on where to go?

I’ve mentioned many times over the years that I love music, more specifically dance music. When they were handing out the gay, I took a big ol’ helping of disco bunny for myself.

“Pure Imagination (Wonka Trance Edit)”, Ford.

The problem with listening to dance music off my iPod or my PowerBook is that I can’t do anything else while I’m doing it. Let’s face it, I can barely make a a cohesive sentence in normal life ambience, let alone type something witty while I’m jamming with my iPod buds in my ear.

“Come Rain Come Shine (Radio Edit)”, Jenn Cuneta.

I can not begin to relay the difficulty I’m having typing this blog entry while I’m listening to music at the same time. That aforementioned big helping of disco bunny is having a hell of a time keeping his fingers on the keyboard, let alone managing to type something intelligible. If you left a disco bunny in front of a computer long enough and fed him lots of music, would he be able to type out the complete works of Erma Bombeck, given enough time? It reminds me of the monkey that could bang out a manuscript on an old typewriter, while throwing his poop at the same time.

“Let The Sunshine In (Hot Tracks Mix)”, Army of Lovers.

I downloaded this song from, well, somewhere other than iTunes a couple of weeks ago and then played it up when I DJ’d in Buffalo. Surprisingly enough, the crowd loved the song. The hook is from the 5th Dimension’s song of the same name. While it is missing Marilyn Mc Coo, it’s still a very enjoyable song. If I still controlled a radio station, it would be one of those obscure tracks buried between two Top 40 songs that you wouldn’t hear on any other radio station.

“No Regrets (Almighty Definitive Mix)”, Quartzlock feat. Lonnie Gordon.

This track came out in the mid 1990s. It was a reworking of the same track from the late 1980s, which was very popular at a bar I used to go to on the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border just south of Nashua. That bar was called “DiRocco’s.” Good fun. This version sucks though, which brings us to …

“Come To Me (Extended Disco Mix)”, France Joli.

Did you know that this song originally had TWO verses featuring the male vocalist, Tony Green, who also produced this record. I met France Joli back in February 1997 in New Orleans. I should find that picture and share it.

Oh well I couldn’t find it but I did find an old picture of Earl and I standing in our restaurant! This was taken summer of 1999.

Earl without a mustache! Wow, I don’t remember that. It must not have lasted very long.

“The Visitors (Hot Tracks Remix)”, Abba.

Why do you suppose Abba turned down an obscene amount of money about a year ago to do a reunion concert? Do they know how many people are waiting for them to do something together again? Oh well. They must be happy with their current projects.

I’d come up with a witty way to wrap up this blog entry, but I’m too busy dancing around to “The Visitors”. Crackin’ up!

“Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy (The Remix)”, Big & Rich.

There’s a certain feeling of adventure when you tackle your morning routine with an unbridled sense of urgency. I’ve mentioned that I enjoy my sleep very much. I try to sleep until the last possible second before getting ready to take on the day. It’s not because I’m dreading getting up or anything, I just enjoy my sleep.

Jumping onto IM before taking a shower is always dangerous. You see one of your friends online, say hello, and then the merriment starts. When you’ve slept until the last possible moment and then hit the ground as a social butterfly, instead of a productive member of the American workforce, you can run a little late. So you slap two pieces of turkey between mustard laden bread, give the cat his piece of turkey, drink a glass of cranberry juice, eat a bowl of raisin bran while taking a shower at the same time (kidding), shave and brush your teeth while sitting on the john (still kidding), iron your clothes while you’re wearing them (am I kidding?), kiss the cat, put on the pager and then jump into your car and fly down the expressway at 80.

I love mornings.

For it being Monday and all I’m am quite surprised at what a positive, upbeat mood I’m in today. The sun is out, work is going well for the most part and best of all, “I feel pretty”.

I might have to make this a Kodak moment later tonight.

Jumping in with the cool kids today, I’m following fellow blogger Terry’s lead and posting a sample of my handwriting. I don’t think my penmanship is terribly bad, but its not as good as it would have been had I continued my pursuit of a career in education.

I tried to follow Terry’s lead and write something dirty, but I kept blushing.

I have this bad habit of spewing things when I’m in a bad mood. It’s not like my head is exploding or puke is shooting out of mouth or something equally horrendous but I tend to say things that I don’t really mean. I drop f-bombs. I get very demonstrative. For example, a customer was not very nice to me on the phone today. She wanted her problem resolved RIGHT NOW and wanted to know if I was going to do something about it, when in fact, I had already sent someone out to resolve the problem she was having and her assistant couldn’t find the key to the telephone equipment room. She was a bitch and I wasn’t in the mood for it, trying to dress me down on the phone like I don’t deserve respect or something because after all, I am a “service worker” at the telephone company. So after getting off the phone (which I surprisingly didn’t slam down) I told my co-worker that there are some women that just don’t deserve to be working or in positions of power.

Now I don’t know why I said that. It was very rude of me. I don’t really feel that way about women per se; I believe that there are many people, regardless of their sex, in positions of power that don’t deserve to be there. There’s all sorts of idiots, men and women, in high places around the world. In low places too and in every place in between.

Every single person on this planet has their place in the world; good people, bad people, those that contribute to society and those that take from society, every single person has a contribution to the this thing we call the human equation. I truly believe that. I believe that we can learn something from every person that we have contact with, and I believe that today, this woman showed me that I can say things in the heat of the moment that I don’t really mean. Then I write about it, think about it, share it on my blog and chalk it up to experience.

Now don’t cross me.