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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"I thought that because I was born here, I was American Citizen...I was wrong. "

aka: a trip, a play, a party, and an earthquake.

Roughly two weeks worth, so lets just get into it:

Friday 08/31/01:

Nothing to exciting. Just a day spent running errands and random unnecessary projects to avoid doing things that did need doing, such as cleaning the house and watering plants and the like.

Saturday 09/01/01:

The cats don't like it when John & I pull out the suitcase, because they know that is a signal that we will be leaving and they will have to deal with the automatic feeder thing they don't like, or worse, having to deal with some strange evil person coming over and giving them food and attention.

The reason we pulled out the suitcase was that we were going to Pismo Beach for the weekend. Not for fun mind you, but for the annual ******* family reunion and yes, fun and family reunions are mutually exclusive. Well, maybe not really, but they aren't a barrel of laughs either.

I have nothing to do with planning these things, which came be seen in the fact that they are always held on Labor day weekend. This part of John's family is scattered across California and Arizona, so the reunions have traditionally been held in such fun places as Fresno, Scottsdale and Riverside.

Not the best of places to be weather wise at the end of summer. We might as well have spent many of them in Death Valley considering the heat and general uckyness we had to deal with. Add holiday traffic to the mix and well, I think it's obvious why I don't always look forward to these things.

Anyhow, the deal was being held in Pismo this year to avoid the heat and to try something different. So John & I packed up the car, picked up James, Rosie and Nicole then drove the four hours it takes to get up there.

We did avoid heat this year. In fact, it down right cold. With the fog, overcast skies and highs in the low 70's, It felt like we were in San Francisco. If San Francisco were a small beach town dominated by teens and young college students off for a weekend of surfing and fun.

Dinner that night was at an amazingly good BBQ joint called Mo's. We ate really good fried green tomatoes, garlic french fries scattered with bits of parsley and chunks of roasted garlic, homemade potato salad and assorted meaty and nonmeaty sandwiches. I'm normally not a huge barbecue fan, but dang, this place was good.

Sunday 09/02/01:

This was the family reunion day proper, which meant the ******* family practically taking over a local restaurant for lunch, then wandering around the pier and shops scarring people. Yes, sarcasm.

It also meant hitting a local outlet mall, where John somehow ended up with several items of clothing that he doesn't need and I ended up with one sweat shirt that I don't need.

Pizza and a poker game at the hotel finished out the evening, which is why I ducked out early and I watched everything and nothing on TV, while eating caramel M&M's and slugging back Arizona brand green tea. An interesting combination.

Monday 09/03/01:

Labor day and the four hour drive back into Los Angeles. Way fun. I stayed up too late the night before watching TV and spent most of the trip asleep.

Tuesday 09/04/01:

I didn't have to go into work, but only because I had to work friday instead, so bleagh to that. I didn't get to much done other than starting a couple of fix-it type projects around the house and fast forwarding through a Star Trek movie (First contact). It was the one that introduced a new character, Lt. something or another, who was rumored to be the first "officially" gay character of the franchise. He's the guy who got turned into a borg and was blasted off the ship into deep space. If I remember correctly, paramount denied the gay rumor, but I still find it funny that not only did the guy HAD to die, he had to do so in a scene that had most of the fans hooting and applauding . Whatever.

Wednesday 09/05/01:

John and I tickets to see Another American at the Mark Taper. It's played in several other cities the past couple of years and now it's in Los Angeles. Mark Wolf, the writer/creator/actor interviewed people regarding the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy and by extension, the entire issue of having closeted and Out gay/lesbian personnel in the military.

It was a one man show and he spent the evening playing several of the people he had interviewed, including both halves of an older lesbian couple, several men who had been drummed out of the military, as well different officers and people who believed that it would be disruptive and dangerous to have Out gay servicemen.

He also played Dorothy Hajdy-Holman, Allen Schindler's mother.

I have to admit that I had almost forgotten about him. Allen Schindler was the navy petty officer who was murdered by fellow crewmen (Charles Vins and Terry Helvey) in 1992 because he was gay.

The attack was savage. It was brutal. They broke his bones and crushed his internal organs. Allen's face was kicked so many times and so hard that the imprints from the bottom of their boots were left on his head.

You could hear members of the audience crying as Mark as Mrs. Hajdy-Holman spoke about being able to identify the body, solely because of the tattoos on his arms.

When it ended, a man in the row behind me said that it was a powerful piece.

Not everyone in the audience thought so however. Some people left after the first act, including a couple in the row in front of me who mentioned something about how they thought they had gotten tickets for another play before the performance started.

There was also the sixtyish year old man a couple of seats over from me, who fell asleep during the first act and started to snore. Loudly. His wife had to hit him a couple times to wake him up. Lot 'o fun.

Saturday 09/08/01:

I've mentioned in an earlier entry that I am tired of surprise parties. So of course John and I had to be at a surprise birthday party for his brother James. Oh the joy of hiding behind furniture to jump out and yell surprise for what, the fifth or six time this summer?

The party was fine and their were lots of kids running around the place. So many of them, that after hearing how bored they were for the umpteenth time, I turned the TV on to find them some cartoons to watch. Luckily, Power Puff girls was on which pleased all of the grumbly preteens running around.

Being Mr. Cable-free, I've never really seen an episode and ended up watching it with the kids. It certainly is a subversive little show. I can see why so many folks, grown up folks that is, like it.

Sunday 09/09/01:

Kristen and I did our traditional lunch and hang out thing. Food was a new Cuban place in Alhambra on Main st. The meal was good, roasted chicken, rice, beans and plantains, but the service was a bit slow and a little confused. I'm assuming that it will get better with time since the restaurant has only been open foe a few weeks, or maybe it would be more accurate to write that I'm hoping that the service improves. I liked the food and want to go back :-)

After the meal, we went back to my place and watched some episodes of Patlabor (yup, anime). A police force piloting giant robots called labors to stop giant robot crimes in Tokyo in the near future. Well, at least what was the near future, the episodes take place in the late 1990's I think.

There was one strange episode that consisted of two female officers trying to out do each other. The squad was on a R&R trip, so out doing each other consisted of reciting historical facts, limericks, arguing and even tossing drunk men out of windows, all while trying to out drink each other. Kristen told me that she felt like she was watching two really butch women flirting each other. I think I had to agree.

The earthquake that I mentioned in the title happened while we were watching TV. Nothing big. According to the news, it was a 4.2 somewhere near West Hollywood. The house shook and windows rattled and that was about it. We haven't even felt any of the aftershocks.

OK, enough of this. The coming workweek is going to be a busy one and I need to get to bed sometime tonight.

More later

nico

[the title of the entry is a quote from the play. It's said by a woman who after having to fight in court for the right to serve in the army has come to realize that she in fact a second class citizen and has no real rights because of her sexual orientation. This realization has left her a very angry person.]

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