Defining the state of things

I suppose it is time for a general update: Things are good.

More specifics? Well, okay!

This weekend looms a little closer and with it comes my three day jaunt to New Orleans to relax, imbibe, spend quality time with loved and much missed friends, and in general get outta town for a brief time. Three days and two nights. That's not so long of a trip that I can do that much damage to myself, right?

RIGHT?

Sigh. We'll see how my disciplines hold out. I'm in NOLA from Friday 4pm through Sunday 4pm. The only set plans I have now are hanging with Michele for a few hours after I get in and then traveling with her to the French Quarter as she goes to work at the Erin Rose. I'll be haunting the Quarter on Friday night. (SURPRISED?)

Saturday night I'm at Todd's for a Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe drinking game party (if I remember those text messages correctly) and I'm keeping Saturday day open for spontaneous THINGS, sweeties. Sunday morn I'm supposed to play Greet the Dawn with Michele and possibly others at the Erin Rose, and then when Michele gets off work at 7 a.m. - well, um. I'm a little afraid. (Oh hai. I can haz dissiplinn? My resolv. Let me show u it?) I have to leave for the airport at around 4pm on Sunday so I need to reign it in and visit with friends sans over-indulgence. (The only thing worse than being drunk and trapped on a plane for numerous hours while traveling at 35,000+ feet in the air is being HUNGOVER for same.)

All trepidation aside, I CANNOT WAIT.

Already the calendar is pointing to the Ides of March and the spring equinox is creeping up on us. This spring transition will be all the more interesting because my work hours just changed. It was a welcome and surprise development! HR asked me if I'd be agreeable to working a slightly different shift, from 11:30am to 8pm Mon-Thurs (w/regular shift on Fridays 9-5:30) to help cover the overflow so as to cut down on overtime. Of course I said YES. Wow, 15 years ago I would have sold my soul for this schedule - hah! (All good things in time?)

Peering backward over the last couple months, socially it has been very busy for me. Among all the happy hour excursions and other events I attended, the first official Whorepod happened on March 1. Whorepod is a low-key social gathering concept/idea spawned by me, Scott and Terrance. It happens the first Sunday of each month at Sugar Lounge in the Hayes Valley. It's an early evening thing (7-11pm) (uhm...no excuses accepted from the Olds or the Tireds).

The premise of Whorepod is simple: Bring your iPod, cue up some music you want to hear, and deejays Terrance and Scott (Darky Dark and HomoSuperior, respectively) will play it. There are no stuffy rules regarding the type of music. Those lads will play anything (even Whitesnake).

Sugar Lounge is a great little venue too and Whorepod is meant to be a casual, relaxing event. Just socializing and laughing, hanging out with friends and meeting new people, sipping cocktails and suggesting/bringing all kinds of music for accompaniment. Oh and fair warning: there can be intermittent bouts of interpretive dancing (Double Dutch Bus - Terrance, I'm looking at you) and/or random sing-a-longs. (Sister Christian never fails to bring out the chorus revelers in some of us.)

So THAT's all fun and new. Other interesting stuff going on is that I've been reconnecting with quite a few people from my past, some of it decades past. All of this has been pleasant and intriguing so far. This is a side-effect of being on Facebook that I enjoy, in addition to be being able to track events and read the quippy, silly or serious doings of my friends via their status or other posts.

Facebook is also infinitely less annoying than Myspace (Myspace? What's a Myspace?). I have a special love for the fact that on Facebook you can customize your profile so as to ignore or block all those horrid little applications with which people waste their time. (These apps are even worse than all that self-love, promotional blingee, music and crap you have to wade through on Myspace.) So far my forays into Facebook have been rewarding. We'll see how it goes.

I also have lots of travel excitement this year! I'm heading to Ireland for a week at the end of May for a good friend's wedding, and a trip to Paris with Amy in September, for which our apartment in the Marais is booked. In the interim, I can succor myself with a mini-trip to the Gulf Coast.

See you on the other side of Friday, New Orleans!