friday, 30 july

overheard: 'the plot sickens' -dod

so the IRS keeps trying to be mean to me, but i think i've figured out what they're up to. i realized i have a huge gap in my historiography; i really know very little about the alien population in 16th and 17th century london. so i spent a lot of time yesterday making kissy noises to the rhs bibliography in hopes that it would help me. i had minor luck. and now i'm afraid of showing up at the library of congress without my reader card...i haven't been there in almost 3 years. i hope they don't yell at me, though. we'll see.

just for the record, i thought john kerry's speech was brilliant. and ohteresa is coming along slowly but surely.

don't anyone expect me to be useful today. i'm heading up to lake chelan to see aaron for the first time this summer. won't be back until tomorrow night, so prolly no update tomorrow.

thursday, 29 july

overheard: 'can i just swallow?' -gay bar

i'm grumpy today. so no update. but if i were updating, i'd mention how great it was to talk to brandon yesterday, how much it sucks that he has to move to arkansas for work, and how glad i am to be getting back to my research soon.

wednesday, 28 july

overheard: 'i've got to keep my mouth busy' -katie

wow. what a weekend. expensive, yes, but GREAT fun. as always, mac house was easy. highlights:
ear cupping • meh/bach! • don't squirt me with your sausage • hancock drinks • mamma kahle/mamma house • put the hebrew in the fridge • why is this beer different from all other beers? • bern's friend mark • why do the pitchers just keep coming? • mr teeth makes an appearance • 3 to a bed • power hour, take 2 • country western bar? til 5 am? let's go to the lake • no kids allowed at brunch, 1-3 pm • 10 pm dinners • smoking • frushi • no water...SO MUCH WATER • endless airport runs • the bean • greg vs turnstile • rogue beers • the last boy i slept with... • voluntary and involuntary peeing • 3 hours on the tarmac • what type of bread? challah! • the anti-atkins crew • comparing toasts • stop another mullet • not scandalous, just weird

wednesday, 21 july

overheard: 'dad's an amateur gynecologist' -mandahouse

i don't even have an excuse for not updating yesterday. all i did was watch the a&e/bbc pride and prejudice. twice. well, one and half times. went to the gym. hmmm. it really was a boring day. as was monday, which i spent wholly at the gonzaga u library doing (or pretending to do) work. today looks to be not all that much more exciting. tomorrow, however, i'm leaving for chicago. so don't expect an update until a week today, when i'll regale you with stories of the insanity of the jvc portland mac hour reunion. it will be ridiculously fun, i think.

monday, 19 july

overheard: 'go back into the other room at your own risk' -bartender last night

(warning: this is really just the text of a drunk email i sent last night) best. night. evah: i had an amazing night. My mom made teriyaki chicken and fried rice. It was absurdly good. Katie and I decided we needed to have an adventure...because we've gotten old and only ever spend our evenings watching movies, hanging out at allison's, or drinking at the blue spark. So we resolved to do something else.

We ended up at the park downtown, hoping to ride the carrousel and feed the garbage goat. The latter we managed to do, but the carrousel was closed for the evening. So we walked around the park and looked at the waterfalls. We proceeded from thence to the valley--an area of town that is, frankly, depressing. Not because of its poverty or anything. Just because it's very lower-middle-class-suburban. We were looking for a karaoke bar. We'd just about given up hope of finding one when we spotted a tavern called 'medley's'.

When we walked in, we were greeted by the heckling of 3 25-or-so year-old girls sitting at the front of the bar ("here come abercrombie and fitch"). We ignored them...not only because neither of us was wearing anything from abercrombie, but because we're both pretty shy. So we each got a drink and sat in the corner perusing the karaoke menu. We settled on the duet "endless love". We thought it would be funny if I got on one knee and proposed to her at the end of our performance. She even gave me a ring to pull out for effect.

Unfortunately, we were so bad that we bailed on that idea. And we made a b-line for the door when we were done. The hecklers didn't even get a chance to say anything. We were so embarrassed! Neither of us can hold a tune in a bucket. So we proceeded thence to a grocery store to buy beer. Miller high life: champagne of beers. By which I mean it's crap. But 6 pints for $3.79 is like the best deal ever. So we bought them. And did a quasi power hour...alternating shots of beer with shots of water. and now i'm eating alpen for breakfast before spending the day with katie at the GU library.

sunday, 18 july

overheard: 'dance, my man. dance!' -gay bar

i haven't had any unpleasant reactions to the article. yet. we'll see. this is spokane after all. it got forwarded to the gay rhodes scholar listserv yesterday. a couple of them mentioned that they did something similar when reagan was in office (eek: that didn't work out so weel), and that the warden wrote the 'ring leaders' a not-so-nice letter. oh well. our warden is leaving soon. in today's news, you can find a story about my friend rob brewster. very nice.

i got a couple shirts down at nordies yesterday. and a tie that's perfect for a garden party (hurrah!). one of the shirts is pretty cool, too, if i do say so myself. i really couldn't tell you what else i did yesterday. i read quite a lot of middlemarch. i'm warming to it, but slowly. eliot writes such wonderful characters.

oh. one more thing. read this infuriating account of our crazy post-9/11 hyper-suspicion. there's a protest, i think, scheduled for the first of august from 1-4 PM at the ballard locks in seattle.

saturday, 17 july

overheard: 'full hook ups in the woods' -sign at silverwood

so the article finally ran today. please note the ridiculous photo. taken by the adorable photographer. whom i think katie should kiss. yeah yeah. i don't know him. but i do know katie. and i think she should kiss him.

yesterday was great fun. i only got a little bit sunburned. color, we call it. the problem with silverwood is that there were 500 shirtless men, no more than a dozen of whom were actually attractive in any way. i just got back from mrs. staehli's husband's funeral. st al's gets so hot in the summer. it was a lovely mass. lots of old teachers. all of them commented on the article. believe it or not, i don't like to be the center of attention. so now i'm off to nordstrom for the anniversary sale. and golden pagoda. hurrah. jack's calling later. then maybe 8 femmes with katie. best. day. ever.

friday, 16 july

overheard: 'her boyfriend's mother can be a bit...much.' -aunt mary beth

well, still no s-r article today, which is a little disappointing. we'll see. it's not really super time-sensitive, so whatevs. to follow up on embarrassing things about the FMA, here's a great picture from wonkette that hits the nail pretty squarely on the head. it's hilarious to me that straight people get all worked up about gay people want to enjoy the benefits that the straights get in forming stable relationships. are they worried that such a phenomenon may, 20 years down the road, debunk some of their more specious claims about our flawed characters? who knows. but a constitutional amendment backing same sex marriage seems like a great way to turn every successful queer person into a permanent expat.

today i'm going to silverwood with my family. must remember to wear lots of sunscreen. but first, heading to the gym. yesterday was good. a bit warm. got to go swimming with katie. got qdoba for dinner, but didn't eat there because their a/c was MIA and it had to be 95 degrees in there. otherwise, it was a pretty normal day. talked to jack on the phone, but not for very long. talked to joe online for quite a while. oh. and most exciting thing ever (other than the supportive email from paul: THANKS!). is the new (and free) program i downloaded called audacity. it can crop MP3s, allowing one to make power hour CDs. oh yeah. we're pumped.

thursday, 15 july

overheard: 'welcome to fox news: your voice for evil' -the simpsons

days like yesterday remind me of all the good and bad things that melt together to make spokane. from anonymous, homophobic letters to evenings full of conversation and somosas with old friends. breakfast for dinner and ridiculously cute photojournalists to everyone getting their fifteen minutes of shame. really, like always, i got almost nothing done. went to the gym early, and then had an interview for an article in the spokesman-review. then lunch at allison's with katie and marie and an afternoon at home having the best game of scrabble of my life. it's not a very high bar, i assure all of you scrabble nuts. after dinner, i went back to allison's and forgot to buy milk.

definitely happy about bush's embarrassing FMA loss in the senate.

wednesday, 14 july

overheard: 'i told amanda to have the sex talk with her' -mom

happy bastille day edition. or: hurrah for all the people i love. in the past day, jack, brandon and julie have all called me. i got to see katie, and talk to allison on the phone. how much better can it get? sorry about the late update today. i had an interview with a reporter from the spokesman earlier. and then lunch with marie and katie. already been to the gym. and watched the more reasonable senators capsize the religious right's awful marriage amendment. hurrah. ok. gotta run. photographer's here, you know. i'll post a link later. mwah!

tuesday, 13 july

overheard: 'finally someone had thought to combine punk rock with cardigans' -vh1

yesterday wasn't technically a hangover day. i really just didn't sleep a wink at all on sunday night, and so i was not up for trying to coherent. while tipsy sunday night, i realised just how much i miss jack and how much i wanted to be sharing my evening with him. yes, i know: vomit. but i really don't mind having those little lapses of romanticism. at least when they're heart-felt.

from a press conference i watched on cspan yesterday, it seems as if the senate vote on the federal marriage amendment will happen today or tomorrow at the latest. so i have a request to make of any of you americans reading this: please call the senate switchboard at 202-225-3121 and ask to be connected to your senators' offices, whom you ought then to encourage to vote against writing unnecessary and unjust discrimination into our nation's founding document. in other gay gay gay news, i encourage you to read this article from yesterday's spokesman-review about a super-cool kid who started a crisis line/coming out support group for young queer men. pretty damn awesome. snaps to you, ryan.

i had lunch with bekah's mom yesterday. the first two restaurants we tried were closed, but the mexican place we ended up at in the end (about 4 blocks from my house) ended up being very good. we talked politics, religion, books, jobs. it was a great 2 hour lunch. she leant me a book about the 1665/6 plague in england. i hope i enjoy it.

sunday, 11 july

overheard: 'everyone has to poop' -jack

well, i didn't miss jack's call last night. so that was good. but when he called, the caller ID said it was from sun valley. how weird is that? i mean, who goes to sun valley in the summer? that's not a rhetorical question. i actually would like to know. other good news to communicate today includes katie's earlier-than-anticipated return to the 'kane on tuesday. really, my only real achievement yesterday was laying in the sun for a whole hour. this may not, a prima facie, seem like much of an achievement. but you must understand that most of the time i simply do not have the patience to sit still for an hour of anything. i miss oxford.

ok. apoligies for yet another boring entry. i'll try to do something noteworthy today to write about tomorrow. or maybe i'll try to form an opinion about something and write about that. no promises, though.

saturday, 10 july

overheard: 'are you having sex with hiim?' -girl #a. 'he's not here now' -girl #b.

i went drinkin with amanda last night at the elk, which meant i missed jack's calling me from nepal. so that was sad. and then i didn't sleep well, so that was no good. either. still, the fence is up now and the sun is coming out and my dad bought me middlemarch yesterday at auntie's. so i may start reading that. best news ever: katie comes home on TUESDAY. yaaaaaaay. ok. break.

friday, 9 july

overheard: 'don't believe him when he says he won't come in your mouth' -you don't even want to know

survived until friday. dinner last night was AMAZING. my godparents came over, along with the aunt i lived with in seattle during high school and my grandmother. and we had very good flank steak. and i got to hear all about the ridiculousness of my family. never have i been given so much direction in going to the store to by baking powder. i ought to have made a list. can you believe that someone had already rented the copy of 8 femmes from my local blockbuster video? i know!

i know that i haven't had any opinions in ages. i just haven't been doing my normal RSS 200 news stories a day + blog reading. so it's tough to feel informed. but i will say i think it was great that kerry upstaged W's birthday with the veep announcement. brilliant.

oh, and out of pure curiosity: several people from harvard seem to be reading my blog each day, tied with oxford for the most represented university. but i know lots of people at oxford (obviously) and i don't think i know anyone at harvard. email me. email me. email me. i'm always curious to see who is reading my blog. i'm reverse-stalkerish that way.

thursday, 8 july

overheard: 'these people don't want champagne on their cars' -proctor

i had a chest xray yesterday after lunch. and then i had coffee with aaron and his friend cam from australia. that was nice. had a good workout. watched the big chill and got to sleep around 11. not a bad day. today, i'm heading to the library to get stuff done.

links for today: firstly, i just found out that bartleby has published emily post's 1922 Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home, which is probably exciting to no one besides me. but there you have it. secondly, the nytimes ran a whole article on the font gotham today. gotta love that.

wednesday, 7 july

overheard: 'whenever i do karate at work...' -blue spark

ok. yesterday was pretty boring. bought some yarn. got a haircut. helped allison leave town. a good dinner complemented by newcastle brown ale at heroes and legends. that's really about it. i saw laurie the nosky, which was nice. ummmm. break.

tuesday, 6 july

happy birthday, james!
overheard: 'we just found ourselves in the midst of a loser flotilla' -mike

i had a weird dream last night in which spokane and london melded into some weird combicity. i'd call it a good dream, except the part that had been combined was primarily the homeless population. so it was a bit depressing in that inspirational JVC sort of way.

as often happens when allison is in town, i had two dinners last night. and still, i woke up starving to death at 7 this morning. one of the great things about hanging out with the lamberts is the quick turn-around on photo printing. so i now have two cute pictures of myself and allison. hurrah. she's leaving today, though (sad day). hopefully i'll see her in august and september in new york. we watched (or, rather, tried to watch) bad santa last night. what a horrendous movie. truly awful.

i'm sorry to inform you that the avenger died last night. gone but not forgotten.

monday, 5 july

overheard: 'i've never been on the bottom' -jeff

i apologize for having neglected to write an update yesterday. i hope everyone had a safe and happy independence day. i went to the best-ever party at the featherstones' lake place. allison and john and james were there. as were callie and charles and charles's super-fun younger sister and various and sundry other people. including what i'm convinced was an adorably cute gay couple from whitman.

the memories from that lake cabin are very thick. the two most salient yesterday: seven summers ago, i remember laying on a lounge next to bekah (or maybe katie), talking about how sad it would be if someone in our group of friends died. that autumn, of course, justin died. the other memory is of sleeping on those same lounges maybe two summers ago (or three?!) with aaron. oh, reminiscences. bitter-sweet; what can you do?

my mother was walking outside our house yesterday when she was attacked by what we can only call the avenger, a small yellow bird which clearly escaped from someone's house. so now we have a bird in a cage on our breakfast table. what has this world come to?

ps to brandon, katie, bekah and patrick (among others): we miss you. you should have been at the lake with us yesterday. mwah!

saturday, 3 july

overheard: 'it would be tough to be sane and have sex with one' -chch sports ground bbq

what happened yesterday? i'll be darned if i can remember. OH! i waited around for the cable guy. i had lunch with my grandmother at the wall street diner (mmmm). i ran some errands. i went to the gym. i saw my godmother. i talked to jeremy on the phone. i ate some dinner. i read some ulysses and i went to pick up allison at the airport. great day. kinda boring to read about though: apologies. i'll try to do something noteworthy soon.

friday, 2 july

overheard: 'it's not a toilet; it's art' -ruskin

so lots of good news today: first, i got to talk to aaron. which is always nice. also, i'm going to lunch with my grandma. last but not least: i got my exam results from my supervisor yesterday. not only did i pass my masters' examinations: i was awarded a distinction. hurrah! definitely a pleasant surprise.

i bought my DC tickets for august/september last night. if you wanna meet up, make sure you email me. link to the right. have a happy 4th of july weekend.

thursday, 1 july

overheard: 'she doesn't need a seatbelt. she's my fourth child, not my first' -marie

i finished the dharma bums yesterday. quotes forthcoming. great book, though. i'm thinking (gasp) of trying to crack open ulysses next. last night, probably on account of the kerouac, i felt a swelling of love for all creation. quite a nice feeling. not entirely unlike being full. which i also like.

good news of the day: not only did i pass my masters' examinations (which i never thought was a sure thing), but i was awarded a distinction. and it's not that i know entirely what that means. but i imagine it's a good thing. and i have updated my CV accordingly. ok. gotta eat something. so i can love all of creation some more.