The Sexless Innkeeper

Played THAT game last night.

I'm not thrilled about this. Though, in my defense, I tried to leave before he finally just kept me at his place. It's just that when it's well-after 3 AM, and you've made out for over an hour in the car with a guy, you're expected to stay.

Seriously, nothing happned.  I just crashed (and maybe got a hickey or two), but as I think about this, I'm not sure what the eff happened last night.  One second, I'm complaining about another guy, the next, my friend is making a move.  And that was the moment I was turned off (until I got so tired I just went home and curled up with him all night).

He's sweet.  Fun.  Amazing.  And he likes me. Yet, despite the fact that he held me all night and comforted me when I was scared by a car backfire in the middle of the night), I can't bring myself to do this.  I have a serious thing for a college pal who, let's face it, will always see me as "the fat chick."  Yet, I can't get him out of my head. Sexless Inkeeper is Sexless Inkeeper, I just need to make sure he knows that.

Movies I'm watching

I have a plan this weekend.

I'm going to clean the house from top to bottom, including dusting (which I hate) and dusting knicknacks (which I really hate). In between that, I'm going to try to get another 10,000 words done on Til There Was You, my new novel.  That'll get me to 40,000 in all, a hump that I've been struggling with for a few weeks now.

Right now, though, I'm watching the first of the two terrifying movies that I promised myself I watch this weekend.  Forks over Knives is a food documentary that extolls the virtue of a plant-based diet.  Essentially "meat bad; plant good" kind of stuff.  It's part of the reason my friend, Steve, is a vegan now.  I'm about halfway through, and it's definitely making some good points.  It's also probably not what I should be watching on such a BBQ-centric weekend.

Portobellos, here I come.

The other movie is The Exorcist.  I'll be live-tweeting that one.  I also won't be sleeping much tonight....

If I ever

Consider a book by Ray Blackston again, KILL Me.

I’d turn it off, but I don’t have my iPod.  

Description:

Jay Jarvis is pondering commitment.  But his math is getting complicated.

Can he survive a trip from the beaches of South Carolina to the Outback with his cluster of crazy friends?  Or will the allure of a wild roo-chase spoil his perfectly calculated plans?  Ray Blackston’s back with more side-splitting humor, unconventional characters, and electrifying dialogue.

I’m about 4 discs in, and have found no side-splitting humor (unless the fact that the pastor back home has email is supposed to be funny).  I have found a ton of preaching and postulating.  There is no sex – even when the couple is dying in the desert – because the couple is NOT MARRIED.  They’re engaged, but they’re not married, so no sex.  Not that I would want to have to listen to a sex scene while trying to work, but I didn’t sign on for a piece of religious fiction where the guy (after they’re found of course) thinks that it would help his case with the rental guy if he introduced him to his “singles group” back home.  Three guesses where he met them….

It's been a while

3.5 years to be exact.

What can I say, I've been busy.  I've:

• Gained and lost a roomate
• Lost and gained 20 lbs (twice)
• Run 2 marathons (and am training for a third)
• Run 7 or 8 half marathons (they're all starting to run together...pun intended)
• Written two novels (neither of them published...yet)
• Fallen in love twice
• Had my heart smashed twice
• Watched friends marry and divorce
• Met three of my favorite authors
• Watched a friend gain and lose a television show (but he's back on TV now...)
• Lost dear friends to cancer (LET'S FIND A CURE!)
• Joined the Bone Marrow Registry
• Joined the RWA
• Watched my sister meet the man she'll soon marry
• Survived a hurricane and an earthquake in the same week
• Camped in the woods (never again)
• Camped on the beach (again again!)
• Witnessed a full body apparition
• Went to Texas looking to meet a cowboy (and met a biker instead...NOT the same thing)

Interesting stories, all.  One day I might just tell them.  In the meantime, I'm excited to be back, sharing these little snippits of my life...or something resembling reality.

Operation Find Don

I found the original version of this post in the weeks after 9/11. Unable to believe what I had seen that bright, sunny morning, I sought out the accounts of those who were actually there. Who'd actually be able to put a human face on the tragedy and make me, finally, begin to comprehend that what I had seen with Aaron Brown and Wolf Blitzer wasn't the Jerry Bruckheimer-style action adventure that I'd hoped and I prayed I'd been watching that day.

I know it's morbid, but at the time it actually helped with the healing process.

One of the posts I'd read during that time was a plea from a girl who'd survived to help her find her "disaster buddy." The guy was an African American man who'd she met in the NYC financial district (though not in the WTC complex itself) in the early moments of 9/11. They'd stuck together until he was finally put on a boat to Jersey at the end of the day, and then she never saw him again. She knew almost nothing about him...Jersey, birthday, looked like Blair Underwood around the eyes. All she wanted to do was buy him a beer. Her mother wasn't sure if angels - and that's what she was convinced her daughter's new friend was - drank beer.

After reading the post, I clicked on to the next, and soon it was lost to the millions of blog postings on the 9/11 tragedy. Still, every September I thought about the girl and the man, and while their names had been lost to me - she remained "something with an 'S,'" the blog 'strawberries or a tomato'" - I've often wondered if she'd ever found him.

About an hour ago, I got an update from the most unexpected source, like, ever.

My sister, whom some of you may know has just moved in with me after being laid off in NYC, has been watching the first season of Degrassi High (the old one when both Joey and Snake still had hair) on Netflix. When she got tonight's disc, I found myself trying to catch up. A google search of "Claude Kills Himself" landed me here, and after laughing my way through the post, I noticed the line:

Sarah mixes it up about TV and more over at Tomato Nation.

Suddenly, it clicked, and so did I.

It only took me a few moments to find the post I'd been looking for from September 14, 2001. Even today, seven years later, I found the emotions were flooding back, most especially the ones of peace that this girl, who was my age, had found someone to hold her hand and hope for a future where she could actually buy that man a beer.

Sadly, the update from this past September reveals that while my search for this post that affected me so deeply all those years ago is over, Sarah's search still continues. However, it seems that Sarah has, in the ensuing years, begun to become more and more open to the possibility that Don was, in fact, an angel. By her own admission, she may not believe in them, but there's still that possibility. I don't know. I believe in angels; but I also believe that people, real people, have an inherent good in them that make them appear at the moment you most need them.

Just in case Don is not an angel and is actually a flesh-and-blood man, the search continues. If you happen to know someone who lived in Jersey City, NJ in September of '01, whose birthday is 9/11, and who "looks like Blair Underwood around the eyes," tell him that a girl named Sarah is looking for him, and that her readers are looking for a happy ending.

Image of Blair Underwood shamlessly boosted from his official website.

Happy Happy

Congratulations, Jon and Vinny!!!

Signs to slow down, and other random thoughts

I'm sitting at Grand Cru, and the work network is down.

Actually, I'm not sure if it's "down down" or if it's just not letting me on. Either way, I'm taking it as a sign to slow down, drink some wine, and blog before I pay my bill and move on to Cafe Hon. The food may not be great, but at least the network is secure, which means I can get on to the work network.

Like that's a bad thing. Then again, that means lots more hours tomorrow....

In the meantime, I'm flirtexting with a boy in Charlotte. Of course it's strictly professional and won't go anywhere, but still. :)

The highlight of my weekend was singing at my friend's wedding reception. I sang "Fever" at her real wedding in February. Of course, the music (both copies) then didn't work, so I sang without music. Still, according to the small assembled group of guests, the Elvis hired for the occasion looked at me, singing her up the aisle a cappella and had a look on his face like "Yeah-I-should-just-pack-up-now."

This time, I sang "Making Whoopee" for their "first dance." They're such wonderful friends that it was an honor to do that for them. J told me I was "pitchy" when I was practicing at the house, but the bride was happy and everyone who didn't realize I was a recording told me I sounded great, so I'm thinking I did something right. After all, this was the girl (J) who told me, as I was walking into the American Idol auditions to switch the song to "9-5." Bad idea, that one. ;)

Then, as I was walking off, the Groom's Grammy walked up to me. She hugged me and asked if I would sing "Fever" again. She had told me in Vegas that Peggy Lee was her favorite singer, and when I put the music together for the party, I had included the song on the off chance "Whoopee" didn't work in the DJ's equipment. Not that, upon reflection, the second song on the SAME CD wouldn't suffer the same fate, but at least I tried.

Needless to say, I met the request. I checked with the bride and groom, and both of them had the attitude of "whatever Grammy wants, Grammy gets." She's such an awesome lady that I was glad to do it for her and them. Seriously, the groom reminds me of my dad in ways that I can't quite believe and the bride is the type of friend that I thank God daily that I have in my life. Though, I still had to focus away from everything when I looked out of the corner of my eye and found the groom's hot-but-young cousin and cousin-in-law snapping across the floor like extras from West Side Story. Otherwise, yeah, I would have laughed my ass off. ;) Still, this time I had music and Grammy was happy. Yay!!

My next "gig" is Walt's Inn this Friday. Come by, bring your vocal chords, and let's boogie!! ;)