Stories from a man who fails to meet media expectations of what it means to be gay:
white, frivolous, over sexed yet sexless, shrill, single, stylish, a clown, unimportant, et al.

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This week was largely one I don�t want to ever repeat again. Specifically the bits of it that involve my car. I�m going to have to start working on getting a new one soon and I really don�t want to. Anyway, the week:

Tues 11/21/00 was well, a really, really sucky day. At work, I spent over an hour and a half getting yelled at by some yahoo on the phone �cause I wouldn�t kowtow to his ridiculous demands that I break the law, which according to him was O.K. because it was just this once and if I didn�t do what he wanted, he would sue me and the government with his high priced Encino lawyers. To make up all the time I wasted trying to deal with this guy, I stayed late at work. When I finally did leave work, my car decided to die in the middle of South Central Los Angeles. Not the most fun nor safest place to be stranded at night. While waiting for the tow truck, I got yelled at again, this time by some random street guy. No threats of high priced Encino lawyers however. After street guy, several police cars stopped in the middle of the street and several officers started searching nearby buildings for who knows what or who. The twenty minutes it took to get the tow truck out to me seemed to take a looong time. After having my car towed and left in the parking lot of the mechanics (closed by this time of night of course), John drove out and took me home. I wasn�t a very happy camper by that point.

Wed 11/22/00 was spent at home stressing over my car and work. I took the day off, but I still ended up on the phone to the office, dealing with several people who only spoke Spanish and had been specifically referred to me. Normally the clerk could have translated for Alisia, but of course she had taken the week off for vacation and wasn�t available.

When the mechanics called, there was good news and also no news. The car wouldn't start for them either, so they pushed it over to the diagnostic machines where my car immediately started working again. They checked several things, but other than being a nine year old car, there wasn�t anything obviously wrong with it. The place was going to be closed for Thanksgiving, but Gerald (my �Service Advisor�) asked if they could keep the car till Friday to try to figure out what the heck happened. I ended up agreeing despite reservations.

Thurs 11/23/00 was Thanksgiving. John and I ended up doing a separate family thing this year. My parents get mopey if I�m not there for dinner and John didn�t want to go over to my folks �cause he still thinks that they don�t like him. While that was sorta kinda true years ago, it�s not true now, but then again, I've never been able to make John do anything he didn�t want to do, so separate holidays it was.

I got a ride down to my parents from sister who amazingly had a day off from the hospital. Dinner at my parents this year was roasted chicken, ham, shrimp, mixed greens salad with a cilantro/chipotle dressing, Mexican rice and fresh baked rolls (instead of tortillas) with grilled bananas, pumpkin pie and tea for desert. After eating way too much food and talking about nothing in general for most of the day, I got a ride back to my house from Pa.

John�s Family does a very organized gift exchange for Christmas and names were drawn while he was at his folks today. This year, John and I are getting gifts for Rose (John�s younger brother�s girlfriend) and John�s Dad.

Kristen came over Fri 11/24/00 and we had lunch at Charlie's Trio in Alhambra. She had a spicy seafood pasta dish, while I had a spicy chicken with pasta thing. After getting back to my place, we watched some more anime series that she had become interested in. First was an episode of Martian Successor Nadesico, the story of the trials and tribulations of the battle ship Nadesico, as its' crew defends the Earth against the terrible Jovian invaders. It�s actually a satire on the space battle/giant robot genre. It was funny, but I doubt I would go out of my way to buy or follow the series.

Second were some episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, a 26 episode long grand epic end of the world/giant robot/multiple secret conspiracies/giant monster story sorta vaguely based on Revelations? Kristen described it as a very high quality series, although obviously aimed at teen boys (semi-gratuitous semi-sexy shots of it�s female characters every once in while) and advised that I not get too hung up on the Revelations deal. The pacing was kinda slow, but the art was good and I can see how the series would be considered �High Quality�. Kristen let me borrow the first eight episodes so I could make up my own mind.

By the end of the afternoon, Kristin had gone home and I had picked up my car from the mechanics. They weren't able to �recreate the problem� and couldn�t figure out what went wrong with the car. As far as they could determine, the car was working fine. So for now, the only diagnostic is that my car is finicky.

That night John and I had tickets to see Ennio, an Italian comedian/mime/performer who makes all of his costumes out of paper. We went into Westwood, had dinner at the Jerry�s Dinner there, then wasted some time at Tower. I found the other Rudolph figures there, so now all I�m missing is the abominable snowman. The show itself was short, only about 70 minutes or so, but it was ridiculously funny. Ennio portrayed/pantomimed several different celebrities and icons all with quick changes and all with nothing but paper costumes and a lot of skill. I�m not sure which was funnier, a lip sinking whitney houston whose record kept skipping or a teeny, weeny, hip shaking ricky martin who was on top of the world. Most of the audience was dying of laughter, but the gentleman seated next to me seemed to have no clue as to who most of the people being lampooned were. He seemed about fifty, so I could see not getting the newer celebrities, but he didn�t seem to recognize Tina Turner or Janis Joplin either.

Sat 11/25/00 John and I meet his brother George, his son Kenny, John�s parents and Pat (a friend of the Family) at a sport cards/comics/beeny babies/collectibles dealer place out in the City of Industry. George got me for the Christmas gift exchange and somehow it was decided that I really wanted the Where the Wild Things Are figures from Mcfarland Toys, so part of the reason for this jaunt was for John to show George what they looked like. While I wouldn�t mind owning them, I�m not quite sure were the idea that I had to have them came from. I didn�t tell John or George this, because apparently I have a rep in the family as being hard to shop for and the two of them seemed to have fun looking at the various action figures for sale. I pretended not to notice when they they ended up buying all of the figures that day.

It�s kinda funny, normally I would be the one buying stuff at a place like this, but it was John who bought the Sigmand(the Sea Monster) and Cling & Clang (H.R.Pufinstuf) action figures. I thought about getting Kristen some anime books or things here for Christmas, but I decided not to because she has been indulging herself and I have no idea what she may or may not already have.

Sun 11/26/00 was largely a �nonday�. I have soo many things and projects to get done, but I ignored most of them. Instead, I spent a little time working on the journal and spent more time cruising around the Internet looking at things of no consequence or significance. The only real thing I got done toady was helping John with food shopping. FYI, Sunday seems to be the day that all the South Pasadena lesbians shop at Vons. Bunches of women, straight folk, then John and me.

This weeks entry was written listening to The Chillout album (the essential late night mix). I guess it�s OK for the middle of the afternoon as well.

More later, nico

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