Cruising

Got all the details of my cruise today and my flight. It all looks great.

There's a cruise guide available here.

There is a list of the themes for the nightly parties including Mardi Gras, Brazil and disco.

I am on deck 8, interior stateroom 8375. Second floor from the top.

My roommate's name is Alberto Brito.
A google search reveals it could be this guy:
Or it could be this guy:

Guess which I would prefer.

It talks about entertainment and shows and mentions Charo will be there opening night. Whoever that is.

Then it gives hints to two more special guests. I can't guess either hint. Help me please.

1) Surprise Musical Guest in Concert
A bell. What clue could be easier to ring true...

2) Surprise Guest Star
When they're unexpectedly unemployed, the best just pick up and head to the next
show. Lucky for us!

When I booked the cruise I asked if there were any side excursions, they said no. So today I got a 29 page booklet with all the optional side excursions. Sigh. They're all very expensive but they have a lot of options. Everything from "Bus to nice beach - $60" to "Ride a Harley motorcycle for 6 hours around the island - $450". I'm thinking of not booking them right now, in case I meet people and want to do what they're doing.

It says a call to land is $7.95 per minute and it says internet is available on board but is VERY expensive. Great.

There's even a Facebook group of people going on the cruise.

Update:
I think the musical guest is Anita Ward "Ring My Bell"
I think the actor is Harvey Firestein, just out of Hairspray on Broadway.

Desktop

This photo has been my desktop wallpaper for 2008.

It's Daniel Radcliffe, I put it up to remind myself of my trip to England to see him. It's not that he's super hot or anything, just unusual, which I value. Who wants normality?

I need a new desktop shot I've decided. What do other people use?
This is my desktop for work:

I used this as I'm kind of obsessed with this movie right now and this shot screams "SEX" which is totally inappropriate for work, which is a plus.

Let's see what others have.




My fav so far:

________________________________________________________

Sometimes I feel the older I get, the younger I get.
The more content, the less content.
The happier, the sadder.

And everywhere I go people ask "Well what do you want?"
If I had any idea would I be asking these questions?

New Years Rockin' Eve

An amazing time, probably the best New Years in 10 years.
I get incredibly nervous when I go out late and I have a general feeling I'm going to die and I can't breathe. Which is a negative. It took me about 30 minutes to get over it enough to be able to leave the house tonight.
I think the problem last night was the audience was too old. Mid to late 30's. The average age tonight was about 24 and it was a great fun time, no one took it too seriously. Plus there was tons of gays there. You're as hung, I mean young, as who you feel.
Here's the stage. Easy to tell the time:

Here's me, debuting my "Stalking John Caffrey" shirt.

Plus the crowd was full of emo's and I fit right in with my hoodie. I was in style! For once.
And baby new year himself:

Joe is great fun. I love him. We fuck the night! No seriously, he doesn't dance well but he never backs down from a challenge, he has his own mind, and he's not afraid to let down his hair. Love him.
There was a brief stripping contest:

My boyfriend went to the Barn tonight, a gay bar, but was there anything this gay going on there?:

Well there probably was actually, but maybe not this early.
The warm up act was great, a mix of aerobics, dancing and a Soul Train style line dance. "I love black people!"

The guy on the trumpet for the main act, the Bicycles, was hot:

Plus the band was GREAT! There's another all ages show on Jan 17th they're playing I'm going to. The big draw is they'll have pizza! Which I can't eat, but a room full of young gays sounds ok.
I asked some random lady on the street to take our picture:

And that was it, an amazing time!

I'm on Fire

Went to a show at the Dakota last night.

It was a variety show of sorts. The first act was a musician who was good. Then this guy came on:

And he had a really cool shirt (on the left) but it's hard to see as we were FAR away and I couldn't use the flash. On my old camera it would look like a bat at midnight so this is better.
Then this lady and her fella from Nashville came on and played a great version of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire". Loved it, been singing it all day.

There was some mediocre poetry about Parkdale and then this guy and his girlfriend came out. She couldn't sing, like she was tone deaf. It was a large group of people, surely one of them would notice this, but they didn't seem to. She started caterwauling and I plugged my ears. Her boyfriend started shouting "We fuck the night" repeatedly, and saying things like "No, seriously guys, we love you. We fuck the night!" and it was death. They said they were going to play a cover song and asked who liked Bruce Springsteen. Then they anounced they were going to cover "Kill" by Napalm Death. "1-2-3-4, Shreekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk" and I was out of there.

Let's hope tonight's NYE show is better.

"Tell me now baby is he good to you
Can he do to you the things that I do
I can take you higher
I'm on fire"

2008

A year in review.
In January I started volunteering for the Gay and Lesbian Archives which has changed my life. There's a sentiment that when you give your time, you get back so much more and never was that truer.

I found gay monopoly, launching nearly as many games as conversations.

I became vegan at the start of March and it wasn't something I was sure I could sustain. How the heck has it been 9 months already? One of the easiest and best choices of my life.

I went to Ottawa for work. Found out it's a speed bump. Desire to explore the rest of Canada lessens.

Blue Jays and the season pass that keeps on giving.

A home opener with my father that sparked a year of forgiveness, understanding, and a relationship that will last the rest of my life.
A lifelong dream fulfilled in a visit to Auschwitz.

A visit to my now favourite city in the world, Berlin.

Gay pride.

A bus trip from Hell. Running out of money and 20 hours on a bus. Would I do it again? Sure.
Fenway Park in Boston, my favourite baseball stadium.

America's capital and a lesson in poverty and a police state.

Archives hottie and the awakening of a sex drive.

A trip to Paris that had many questioning and ended up being fantastic.

I will never forget the red light district in Amsterdam as long as I live. And I will never go back.

A charity dinner for the Archives and a new awakening of self. A new me, who can laugh at parties and mingle and flirt and smile and be self-confident. Probably the best night of the year.

A new super camera, the possibilities are now endless. Baseball players, in focus!

A boyfriend. Someone I can't discuss here but who's presence is nonetheless felt here. An opening of my heart, and a joy long since forgotten. Poetry, laughter, understanding.
Turning 30.
Yoga. A new calling, a positive release, and a foundation for looking and feeling better.

It's exciting looking at all this cool stuff that happened. If I could take myself back a year and see all this coming up, I would run ahead, not walk, and jump in with both feet.

Good, bad, good

24 Jan Depart Toronto 07:30 Arrive Philadelphia 09:08 (economy class)

24 Jan Depart Philadelphia 12:15 Arrive Miami 15:05 (business class)

01 Feb Depart Miami 14:05 Arrive Philadelphia 16:52 (business class)

01 Feb Depart Philadelphia 19:50 Arrive Toronto 21:22 (business class)

BAD: Depart at 7:30 am????

GOOD: Free

BAD: Layover. Last time they lost my luggage. Me on a ship for 7 days with no luggage = Titanic.

GOOD: First class! I may never get that again!

My hostel: http://www.hostelmiamibeach.com/

My cruise: http://www.atlantisevents.com/cruises_2009_caribbean.aspx

Footprints

Thank you for writing footprints in my comments section.

"One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord."

- A dream, because this can't happen in reality.
- If the lord is an omnipresent being, how can he walk along a beach?

Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.

- If scenes are flashing in the sky, why are you looking down at the sand? I don't understand how there can be things on the sand corresponding to events in the sky. Is this like fireworks? 4th of July? Please explain.

Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.

- Ok, so at this point you are walking, right, so that's one set??? Was someone on this beach before? When I go to the beach there's tons of footprints in the sand. Which beach exactly is this?

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints

- This sentence is a run-on sentence and I felt the need to interject. What kind of jerk takes you for a walk and reminds you of scenes from your life of anguish, sorrow and defeat? Sounds like a blast to me.
- I have happier dreams.

, so I said to the Lord,“You promised me Lord,that if I followed you, you would walk with me always.

- I have another question. At what point did the "lord" promise you anything? He can't talk right? How can something that has no physical form and can't speak promise something?

But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand.

- I am still very unclear about this sand thing.

Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?" The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

- Several questions. How can something that has no physical form carry you? Wouldn't it be a better analogy to the story to realize you carried yourself? Let's pretend god doesn't exist, basically then at these low points you carried yourself. You were talking out loud, helping yourself on. You were releasing the things you could not change. How is it more beneficial to the human psyche to attribute these things to something else then to yourself?

The lesson from this story seems to be what I've said all along. That life's difficult times have made you survive, made you stronger. And by building yourself up, you have become a whole person with the ability to walk on your own.

You are the love that you need.