06.30.08
Posted in The days, traveling for work at 11:59 pm by Beau
It comes as a sad and shocking revelation about the poor quality of my current standards of knowledge. Case in point, while in Omaha last week, a city poised on a river that separates it from Iowa, I paused to reflect on the lack of anything remotely resembling flooding. Sure the banks of the river were muddy and silted but wasn’t the Mississippi River suppose to be surging it’s banks well past historical cresting levels?
Well, yes it is…two states away, separating Missouri from Illinois. I just happened to be standing at the banks of the Missouri River as I was contemplating the flooding while in Omaha, eyeing the very close casinos perched on the banks of the river on the Iowa side. Of course the thing that makes this even worse, as if that’s possible (and not only is it possible but more embarrassing) is that I actually lived in St. Louis on the banks of the actual Mississippi River for a year after college….so I know, or evidently knew, exactly where the Mississippi River was/is and it is not, contrary to my initial survey, the river between Nebraska and Iowa. Sigh.
To be fair, my teammate, Rob, correctly identified the river this morning when I asked, albeit as a complete guess, “ummm…maybe the Missouri?” which I then validated the answer via Google. Thank Jeebus, I didn’t pick up the magazine at the airport this morning with the lead article “Is Google Making Us Stoopid?” or I’d never have been able to google the answer on my Blackberry.
And then, just now, feeling somewhat better about actually knowing what river I’m going to be running next to and/or gambling next to while we’re in OmaHaHa, I was reading through Newsweek which had a map of the US with some states highlighted and while I went right to Nebraska, I had to start some mental gymnastics to start naming the other states….specifically all the states in the South, which has always confused me. The conversation started off as “Nebraska…so the one ot the right is Iowa and below that is….hmmm….well, to the right of Iowa right there at the split would be Missouri so right below Iowa is Kansas….then…Wow, Oklahoma is soooooo close to Kansas and then there is Texas. Now, hmmm, that’s the boot so its Louisiana and right above it is….mmmm…I’ll come back to that one….to the right of Louisiana is, now is that Mississippi or Alabama…well, Max lived in Alabama and he used to drive two hours to Atlanta for CD’s so that must mean he was right next to Georgia which is there so I’m going with Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, then Alabama, then Georgia. HA! Arkansas is above Louisiana!…so Georgia there and well, that’s Ohio up there which makes that West Virginia so Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina Georgia….” And on and on and on.
I mean, for Zod’s sake, was that three minutes of ridiculous mental association to figure out the Southeastern US? if I’d had a CNN camera and mic stuck in my face for some expose on declining educational standards, would I be that douche in a suit they show, hemming and hawing, notable to point out our nation on a globe? Unfortunately, probably yes. Also, I cannot spell so the televised national spelling be gives me hives.
This is all to say, I’m in one of my knowledge upswings that starts happening around this time of year. The upcoming election starts internal conversations where I ask myself “how did we get here?” and I start re-reading “1776″, hoping to not only finish it this time but move into biographies of Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin in a vain attempt to actually work my way up to the Civil War. I am not so hopeful as to believe this time will be much different, especially with the competing affections of DC’s “Final Crisis” and Marvel’s “Invasion” series. I do however, give myself credit that I can recognize the concern and lack of knowing and want to be better for it.
Perhaps on my next flight, I’ll actually start tackling the states to the north and west of Nebraska. But then again, there are those four damn states that come together at their corners and I can NEVER keep those straight. So there is that.
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06.29.08
Posted in The days at 8:27 pm by Beau
I just got the invitation for my 20th High School Reunion. Of course I’m going back to Ohio for it but its being held in something called a party barn. I simply have no idea what I’m going to wear to such a thing being held in a party barn. The mind reels though a gingham dress and sparkly, red platform heels come to mind. I do have a repuation to live up to coming from New York.
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06.28.08
Posted in Being Better at 2:24 pm by Beau
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06.27.08
Posted in The days, traveling for work at 11:13 am by Beau
So the thing is, anyone who has the misfortune of following me on Twitter already knows the travel drama I’m having. But because I’m Trapped! In Omaha! and have a viable Internet connection, I’m going to bitch and complain about it again:
I’m Trapped! In Omaha! which is the follow up to the earlier Rainbow Tour that started the week off. The Rainbow Tour was suppose to come to a stunning conclusion yesterday evening with my direct departure to EWR however weather, somewhere in the continental US but not actually in or around Nebraska cancelled the flight a full 10 hours before it was scheduled to leave. That bit of precognition left all my more travel-experienced team perplexed. I had been automatically rebooked to a 7am flight this morning. So I booked a room, went across the river into Iowa and played a little black jack and won some cash. Score! So really I was feeling fine and even picked up a little of the local flavor when the pit boss asked me if I’d been to the Playhouse yet. Why no, I hadn’t been to any theater in Omaha yet but if there was something he was recommending, I’d be sure to check it out.
Um, yeah. According to the pit boss, the Playhouse has the hottest, totally-nude bitches around these here parts. So that’s kinda nice to file away whenever that opportunity presents itself. I LOVE hot, totally-nude bitches. I AM one, for God’s sake.
So I’m up at 4am this morning to take the one available shuttle back out to the airport with a flight crew staying at the hotel, and get to the airport JUST as they cancel my flight this morning, finding myself rebooked on the next direct to NYC…at 7pm tonight. I did manage to fanaggle myself onto the standby list for an 12noon flight but that one is now on its second delay so, right, I’m thinking that one isn’t happening either.
On the plus side, I’m set up at Starbucks with a good, strong connection and Twittering the hell out of my encampment, giving running color commentary on the weirdness of the downtown coffee clutch crowd (mounted Omaha Police in big, black boots are hotness). Feel free to hook into and follow me on Twitter. It’s not always as much fun today, but I do try.
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Posted in Movies, other stuff at 9:09 am by Beau
I thought I could somehow justify this because it is awesome and Max wants it so bad so it MUST be cool. But honestly, Jeff will overlook a lot of my shit but I’m not sure even I could get a $400 Lego DeathStar past him.
But THIS is perfection and it’s pre-ordered and I don’t care if it’s divorce in a perfectly executed, perfectly packaged, mint condition goodness. I mean, seriously, it has attacking birds. Just stop it!
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06.24.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:13 am by Beau
I’m in Omaha, NE, for work this week and as this is my first stop ever in Nebraska, I’m happy to have some time to explore a bit. A quick review of the internets made it apparent the only place to stay was the old market area of town which is several blocks of old, renovated buildings turned into lofts, condo’s, restaurants, and shops. It’s all old brick streets and from the quick swoop through last night on our way to dinner, it seems pretty nice. I’m hoping to get out more this evening for another walk around.
On the way back from the client site last evening, one of my co-workers expressed surprise at how brown and washed out the city feels. I agreed though wasn’t too surprised, thinking that Omaha is exactly as I pictured it, neither good nor bad, just rather…beige. It’s not a large city by any stretch of the imagination and on the flight in yesterday morning, you could see the patchwork quilt of fields running right up to the very edge of the city. Not much suburbia around, that I can tell.
As this is the Omaha Rainbow Tour, celebrating Pride month, I hit two of the four listed gay bars last night, all of which are conveniently located close to the hotel. The Omaha Mining Co. which is billed as the leather bar was hosting just me and the bartender last night, neither of us wearing leather. I’ll have to give it a pass since it was Monday night and really, there isn’t a bar that can really come alive on a Monday. The Max, which is suppose to be the big dance club, was the second place I hit. It had a few people but it was honestly a throwback to the one gay bar in Dayton everyone went to back in my early 20′s; all gray walls and musty carpet with tinted black glass panels. The music was good, though..so there is that.
Overall, nice place to visit, but probably not moving here.
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06.20.08
Posted in Too Much TV, other stuff at 11:19 pm by Beau
Because there can be no other than Beaker. He is my heart.
Oh Danny Boy done right.
And then there are the SuperFriend mashups…
The always classic “Wassup?”
And now “The Super F.R.I.E.N.D.S” (courtesy of the very gaymous Mondo Rick-o,)
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06.18.08
Posted in Being Better, Books, City Life, art at 8:42 am by Beau
As it’s Gay Pride coming up this weekend in New York, I decided to celebrate my diversity by a quick swing through Borders. These ended up being my actual purchases. Believe me, I’m as surprised as the next person. Jeff was actually rendered speechless.
The McKinsey Way
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
Craft Magazine: June 2008
Bear’s Life Magazine: June 2008
Martha Stewart: Weddings, June 2008
American Artist Series: Watercolor, Summer 2008
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06.17.08
Posted in Being Better, City Life, Health and well-being, Mom, Vanity at 10:54 am by Beau
I turned 38 this past Sunday and though wishful thinking because of the potential hot twin boffing we could do and video for x-tube, I am not his twin. Though in general, I’d regard 38 as one of those birthdays that is a blurry slide into 40, this one is interesting to me for several reasons. First and foremost, my father, when he was this age, had a debilitating brain aneurysm that quite literally shattered and change irrevocably the lives of many, many people. I’m certainly not pointing this out because I’m all doom and gloom about the task of actually trying to live through 38 unscathed but rather, the stangeness of now being the age of my father and being able to see for the first time how much of his life he had in front of him.
At the time of his aneurysm, I was 14 and he was my parent so what did I know about it? Now I have a much different perspective. I’m just starting my life and finding it’s groove. The home life, the home, the man, the work, the friends…all things are really, really good and I can only see better days ahead and I’m sure that is how my Dad must have been too. His masonary business was taking off and he was venturing out into investing into finanicial partnerships that were going to make him even more successful than he had been. He was known for the quality of his work and the integrity of his work ethic. All this ended the moment he blacked out and came crashing down to the sidewalk where a stranger found him. And so there is some heaviness about being 38 that I didn’t quite grasp so fully before. I often think about all the things my Mom I and would talk about now if she was still alive and I think she’d be shocked and pleased at the understanding I’ve come into. I completely get how young they felt and how young at heart they were.
Related, but much more Me!Me!Me! is that idea that at 38, my parents had four sons, 19, 14, 10, and 9. I can’t even begin to fathom having kids and what it means at this age, let alone to have four, two of which were adolesents. Jeff and I are spoiled and rotten and if I don’t get my weekly comics, I’m grumpy and distressed so what did my parents give up so that we could be taken care of? The mind reels. I told Aunt Pam, who spent so much time with my parents along with all the cousins at that time, that the big secret I think I figured out is that not one of them had any clue about parenting and were really no different then I am now at this age…they just had to fake it and make it look like they knew what they were doing. They did a good job, by the way, in that we’re all still alive and kicking and generally happy and most of my cousins and brothers and their families are having their own babies and whatnot so what’s old is new again. Still, my mind reels.
And so 38! I actually had a hard time believing I wasn’t going to be 40 this year and a little disappointed too. I have a total hard-on for the 40+ crowd and don’t even get me started on the hotness of salt-n-pepper hair so to think I still have two years to go is just something else. I’m not the most patient of people but nothing I can do about it other than just continue to enjoy the good days and work on being better.
The whole sha-bang though, was clarified for me this morning, as I was running a practice 5K in the Central Park this morning, getting ready for the real deal NYC Corporate Challange coming up on Thursday. I’m in no way the hotness of him, or him, or him, or her, or the others who continually inspire and push me to pass on the bread at dinner and get up at 5:30 to go running but it’s a good first step for me to run the 5K. I’ve been on the treadmill for months but there isn’t anything like actually running outside and this morning was SPECTACULAR. Cool and low humidity, the sun was out, and I was reminded the very best of NYC is being able to run through Central Park, looking at the museums, and the Dakota, and the Bethesda Fountain and the Jackie O Resevoir, or finding a statue of a crouching panther hidden in the blossoming hydrangeas along the east side of the Met that I hadn’t ever seen before. I was just banging out a fantastic run when I totally got cruised by a hot bearded guy running the opposite direction. My gaydar pinged so hard I just HAD to turn and glance over my shoulder at him one more time and totally caught him doing the same thing! I’m 38 and I still get cruised. I mean, please. How much better could today have been? Perfection or endorphins, it totally doesn’t matter cause I’ll take the cloud I’m rocking on right now.
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06.09.08
Posted in City Life, The days, Uncategorized, traveling for work at 7:32 am by Beau
My time in Philadelphia is drawing to a close. After six weeks and two engagement extensions, we’re wrapping up the project and bugging out. My weeks have gone from reasonable hours to excessive, excessive to the point where my performance mentor has called twice to let me know I’m working at about 136% utilization. Supposedly there is some point when utilization hits a certain point and an email, I’m guessing, is generated so that the people who care are notified and can “reach out” as we say in consultant land. I appreciated the gesture, both times really, but honestly, you don’t think I don’t know that I’m working the kind of hours that equate into 136% utilization? I’m just saying.
But Philadelphia has been good. It’s a city I hadn’t spent much time in though honestly, I guess I could still say that since I haven’t hardly left the gayborhood except for a martini run at the Continental diner that one time. So for me, Philadelphia is the gayborhood and that’s OK. Good food, good architecture, good-looking menz, and street cruising. I’m even a regular at a bar and I haven’t ever had that, anywhere, not even (or, especially) in New York, where I’ve lived since 1996.
So I’m departing Philadelphia this week with another engagement under my belt, this one challenging and difficult in ways that I hadn’t expected, but better for it…always better for new experiences, pleasant or not. I’m NYC bound next week and slipping in a short 5K corporate run next Thursday then it’s off to my next assignment the week after which will carry me through until the end of July. I understand jealousy can greet me, even from the best of friends, because of my cosmopolitan consultanty life-style, getting to jet off to strange and exotic places, seeing and meeting new people. This of course is always the “one-after” engagement meaning the one after this next one coming up, which for me just happens to be in Omaha, Nebraska. I mean, Omaha, Nebraska in July…all of July. And me with my whole humidity issues and East Coast mentality; a recipe for disaster, I’d think. In preparation, I’ve shaved my head down to my buzz cut so I don’t have to deal with hair product and the perfect zshuzz of curls styled ever so carefully to look like they effortlessly fell that way out of the shower. As far as the East Coast mentality, I’m not sure you can even get a 136% utilization rate west of the Mississippi, even if you find that elusive 25th hour in the day. But I understand Omaha does have some gentlemanly pubs of a certain caliber and I was raised in farm country, after all, so I’m sure I’ll be able to slip in, under the radar, and figure it out.
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