16 Candles, Bathsheba Syndrome, and the Craig's List Congressman

Jake Ryan. Sigh.

Flashback to 1984. I worked at the movie theater in Colorado Springs and I must have seen 16 Candles a thousand time. Such a great move and seriously, Jake Ryan? Super hottie. Cute, good hair, and ends up ditching the vacuous prom queen for the dorky girl. A girl can dream, right?

Anyways, the movie company re-released 16 Candles last week for just two nights for Valentine's Day. Just Sunday and Monday night. We went Sunday night and just had a blast. Most of the people in the audience (which was mainly gay men and women) would just swoon when ever Jake was on the screen. And even though I haven't seen the movie since 1984 (and why isn't this on TV like every weekend?), I knew almost all of the lines. And there are some seriously goods lines in that movie! "I think my brother paid a buck to see your panties last night." "Look dear, she got her boobies, and they are so perky!" as the theme from Jaws kicks in as the grandmother begins to grope her. Such a good time.

So I've ditched work this week to go to training. I haven't done any professional development in awhile so I figured I would take a class. The Architect recommended a class at the Brookings Institute which is conveniently located 2.5 blocks from my house. So I'm there. "Ethics in Action." It was actually pretty interesting. We started with Plato & Aristotle and then looked at some eastern philosophy (Confucius) and then back to Kant and some more western thinkers. Our instructor was great and I definitely enjoyed it.

I especially like the information on the Bathsheba Syndrome. Or as I call it, "When Good Leaders Do Really Monumentally Stupid Things" (think Bill Clinton, Mark Sanford, etc). So this is all from the Bible. David (of David and Goliath fame) was a great king. Lots of stories about him in the bible. But he leaves the war (mistake #1), to come back to his palace where he sees Bathsheba, seduces her, and gets her pregnant (mistakes #2, 3, and 4). Then he tries to cover up the pregnancy (mistake #5) and then when that doesn't work, he has Bathsheba's husband killed (mistake #6). See, even back then it wasn't the crime, but the coverup that get you in trouble. Anyways, if David was such a good person, a good king, etc., then why did he do this? Even today we have lots of experience with leaders who did great things in the past and then they got put into a position of leadership and they succumb to the Bathsheba Syndrome. They lose their focus, they've been so successful in the past that they think they will always be successful, they think that they can control every outcome. And they end up losing their moral/ethical compass and do something absurdly idiotic.

This past week we had the perfect example: now former Congressman Chris Lee. What were you thinking? Love the ubiquitous shirtless photo in the bathroom. If you had a good gay in your life, he could have told you that those are totally 2010 and now are kind of creepy. In addition, a good gay would NEVER have allowed you to use your real name. Or your real email address. As a congressman you must know that the NSA/CIA/FBI are always spying on us, you don't have to make it too easy for them.

Star Trek, Morning Walks, and Car Shopping

So SuperLawyer, his BF, Lawyer X, and I went to see Star trek on Saturday night. Loved it! Lawyer X had some problems with the story line since it kind of broke with Star Trek canon. But hey, if you're going to re-boot the franchise, then you need to make room for some new story lines. And creating an alternate world by changing the space time continuum seems like a no-brainer to me. So Kirk was hot, but I have to tell you I think young Spock was kind of hot as well.

Morning walks. So I'm spending a lot of time over at Lawyer X's house since he has Shiva to take care of. And yes even pets have nicknames on this blog. And Shiva is a pretty good one since we also call her the "Princess of Destruction." Anyways, in the AM, sometimes after the gym, but sometimes not, I make the walk back to my place. And I won't call it the "walk of shame" since it's not a hook up. We're dating, well more than dating. And sure sometimes I'm walking down P St in the clothes I wore the previous night and a bad case of bed head, but still. And trust me, I've seen the folks making the walk of shame down P St. So I'll just call my commute from Laywer X's house to my place just a little morning walk. ;-)

So why does buying a car suck so much? I went out to a VW place in Fairfax and the slimey sales guy pulled out the whole bag of tricks, "What would it take to put you in a car today." An act of God. I'm just trying to get information. "What would you say if I would give you 3K for our trade in." I'd say I'd still like to know how much the car I'd like to buy is going to cost me. "What if I gave you $4K?" "What if I gave you $5K?" I'd say that even if you offered what I originally paid for the car I'd still like to know how much the car I want is going to cost and you still haven't answered my question. Agh! I finally got the answer, but it was like pulling teeth. And then we got into a beyond insane conversation about mortgages. Don't ask. I still want the car. Just not sure I'm going back there again.

The Gays and the Gals

Saturday night I joined SuperLawyer, his BF, and his kids to go see Prince Caspian down in Gtown. As part of my new car diet, I decided to walk. It's a bit of a hike. Like almost 2 miles, but I figure the exercise would be good. Plus there is no good Metro for Gtown, so I would end up walking a lot anyways. One of the things I like about walking to Gtown is cutting down off of M St to walk along the canal. It really is cool. And just makes the walk a little bit more interesting.

So after leaving the canal path, I cut down one of the streets and I fall behind two women who are dressed to the nines. Love the dress, love the shoes, love it all. And I'm thinking it must be hard to walk down this steep cobblestone sidewalk in those high heels. There must be some sort of wedding reception or some party at the Washington Harbor that they are heading to. But no, they turn the corner and head to the theatres. And that's when it dawned on me. They are going to see "Sex and the City".

Yep, they were going to see a movie and they had dressed up in their best dresses and their favorite Manola Blahniks. And they weren't alone. There were TONS of women. All dressed up. Though I will say that I did see a number of unfortunate fashion choices. Now if they only served cosmos at the theatre, it would be a real party.

As I waited (and waited, and waited, and waited, etc) for Superlawyer and crowd to arrive, I had a great spot to people watch. And while I'm going to say that the crowd was about 80% women (it was showing on 3 screens and all but one 1145PM showing was sold out), the gay were out in force also. But we're much more subtle in our fashion choices, more utilitarian. So the pre-requisite skinny jeans and t-shirts that are just a little bit too tight. Usually an A&F shirt or some shirt with some bit of print on it, but off centered, of course. So yes we'll dress up to go see Carrie and the gals, but we'll be able to head over to Ultra-hip lounge or Juniors without looking out of place. Oh, and I can't begin to tell you how many air kisses I saw while I was standing there. Gays and gals alike.

Oh, Prince Caspian was good. Saw some good previews. Thumbs up.

Here's some vintage Belinda to close out. We had a tornado watch Saturday PM and we had quite a little storm: winds, lighting, thunder. I do love summer storms.

Belated Blog-versary!!

With all of the stuff going on, I realized that I missed my blog-versary! My official blog-versary is 1 November. Though I think I wrote it at a little after 1AM, so it's probably Halloween. Oh well. I'm now entering my 4th year of blogging.

And I'm still digging it. It's good for me to just rant some time, to take the time to think things outloud, or on the computer screen, or to just capture a moment in time. I've got a various and assorted group of blog daddies due to the Homo Blog Jam in 2004. And I've actually met a few of them. Introvert that I am, I usually don't say hello to them. That's just the way it is.

I am kind of depressed that some of my favorite bloggers have either officially shut down, like Eric, or only blog like once very three months (GeekSlut!). I think I can understand why at times.

But I do love the ability to peer into another world, to walk in someone's footsteps, to read & feel about experiences that may have been mine in another life, or if I had taken a different road. And the things I've learned! About the larger gay world, about politics, about my Church at large. It's all so fascinating and so fitting for my ADHD and introverted personality.

I haven't succumbed to Facebook or MySpace yet. Between work and the blog, my original web site is on life support. So I can't even imagine having to deal with one of the social networks. How much does one need to live on the internet anyways?

{Spinning the subject wheel}

So I did a movie marathon on Thursday and Friday. The Island. Not bad at all. And Ewan McGregor is as hot as always. Forumula 17. Very cute Taiwanese movie about coming out. Recommend it. Boy Culture. I was very surprised. I love this movie. Definitely a thumbs up. Unfortunately, I did pick up a stinker. "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry". Ugh! Words cannot describe my hatred of this movie. It was so bad that I only watched the first 30 minutes of it. I get it, Adam Sandler's character (and him) are straight. But my ability to suspend my disbelief when Adam Sandler's character is apparently sleeping with all of the bar staff at the local Hooters? Um, no. Adam Sander falls into that kind of cute, sort of attractive space. Not the oh so hot that he's got not one, not two, but 6 women in bed with him. That I'm not believing. Not by a long shot. And I'm not a big fan of the word "faggot" that was hurled around quite frequently. Anyways, not good. Don't see it.

Ciao for now!

80's Nights!

Well I'm fasting on Mondays for Lent. Look I'm not super crazy religious, but not eating for a day won't kill me if you know what I mean. So Monday was fun. Got up, did a bunch of cardio at the gym, and then proceeded to drink my way through the day. Thank God for Crystal Light Peach Tea. I'm a serious junkie. Anyways, after work I went back to the gym to lift. I did my little treadmill warm up thing and then started with lat pulldowns. I think I got through maybe the 8th rep when I realized that this was SO not happening. I had NO strength at all. None. My body was just tired. And when I stood up, I was a bit dizzy. Nice. So I ended up doing an hour on the bike, not killing myself, but definitely feeling the burn. Then that night GreekBoi and I went to see Music and Lyrics at the Dupont theaters. And you know what, it was actually kind of cute. Of course it starts with the cheesiest music video that was just a hilarious send up of all of those awful 80s videos! Pop! Goes My Heart!



Then Tuesday night was First Tuesdays, but it was at JRs. Which is kind of small for the 60ish people who usually attend. Plus I think JRs has their own usual crowd, so adding 60 more to the mix was a mistake. Plus, I think every gay man who enters JRs automatically goes into the standard S&M mode which doesn't make conversation very easy. Of course, as distracting as it was, I was loving the video's since it was 80's night! I did get to meet GCinDC, who was very nice! But then GreekBoi got bored, or tired, and we were out of there. Which is just as well since I had work to do.