Happy Pride Month!

Check out this ad from McDonalds in France. Très mignon. (Super cute.)

Cuidate.

May Madness

My, we live in interesting times.

My tattoo is finished. It took me three days, 12 hours, and 2 trips to Seattle to get the sucker done, but it’s done. Considering how large it turned out, I am really glad that I spent a little bit more money and traveled to find a good artist. Tattoos are not something that one really wants to skimp on because a bad one can leave you pissed off each time one looks in the mirror. I have not taken photos yet as it’s peeling, but I will probably post them here as opposed to Facebook as multiple nieces and nephews of mine have friended me and I would like to avoid grief from the parents as long as I can. Yes it is sad to admit, but I anticipate quite the dramatic pause followed by tears from my mother when I tell her. Good times people, good times. Catholic guilt is alive and well.

It has been my good fortune to piss off not one of my good friends, but TWO of my good friends within the past couple of months. Both of them have taken to not speaking with me, lectures, long e-mails, or combination of all of these. More good times. (Read last paragraph sarcastically please.)

School is wrapping up in the next week or so, thankfully. I don’t know why I bitch so much because it is not that hard. But the load this semester combined with the purchase of the house, too many trips (my fault, I know), the possible promotion at work, and everything else has just proven to be a bit too much. I received formal approval for my transfer to Cal State East Bay, starting this fall. It’s exciting to think that I am getting close to a degree. I usually only take 2 courses per semester, so it will take me a few more years. But I am just missing the lab portion of a science class and the remaining courses are all major-related. Super cool.

June is coming up, you all know what that means… My favorite month of the year, Gay Pride Month. The film festival starts mid-June and I will be taking some time off, so I will be able to get some use out of my fun and tax-deductible, yet expensive, gold pass to the film festival. It’s also a nice month because typically we have a good amount of warm weather, so that is always a welcome time to be off around here. (Most months of the year here are pretty consistent temperature-wise, cold and colder, in respect to the rest of the country.) Mostly, I am just looking forward to a break from work, school, and everything. People keep asking me about the house. How do I like the house? How is the house? What am I doing with the house? When can they see the house? It’s a house people; I suspect most of you live in them. I hate to be a be-y-otch about this, but I must confess I was a reluctant homebuyer. I did it because I needed the tax break and I figured it would be better to pay myself rent than someone else. But just all of the shit that I am now responsible for SUCKS. Water bill, gas bill, electric bill, window treatments, a backyard, not to mention improvements inside the house that is filled with lovely brown neutral trim everywhere. My tastes are very Latin in color and style; woods, bright colors, artwork, vividness. My house currently has all of the personality of a mental institution. So lots of work to do. Don’t think that I am not extremely grateful to have the house after a year of struggle, etc. But the rest of the stuff that comes with it is just a bitch. Probably a good thing I did not have children.

Kellie, my folks, and I had a terrific time in New York City a few weeks back. We squeezed a lot into our four days there; shopping, walking, sightseeing, and terrific eating. I love visiting NYC, but living there is a very different story. When I used to work in the city in the early 90s, it was a very different time and I was very immature and sheltered. Looking at New York now, as an adult, I do not see any way I could live there. The city has an amazing amount of character and it truly is the city that never sleeps. Living there though would be a completely different animal. I think I would go a bit stir crazy with all of the concrete. We saw Jersey Boys, which was a terrific show; the music was really cool, the staging was incredible, and it was fun to see in New York City because the audience contained a large (and vocal) contingent of Jersey natives. My parents and I also got to visit the Frick Museum which was incredible. Everything went really well overall, I am really pleased with the way the trip turned out.

So that’s the scoop on me. The news has been a bit bleak lately, has it not? Oil spills, home grown terrorists, financial crises, and on and on. I’m looking forward to a break from work, the news, and everything else in between in June.

Hope you are all doing well. Cuidate.