Random Thoughts In My Life

Elvis' birthday

2012-01-25T19:27:00.000-08:00

Celebrating the month of his birth...

Guys wearing rings

2012-01-24T23:04:00.000-08:00

Do you wear a ring?

I did for many years - I had even as a kid from practically the day I was born. I had a neighbor who was from South Africa and said it was a tradition and sign of good luck. She always made sure I had a ring. I wore one up until at least high school I'd say, and then again in junior year when I got my class ring. I stopped around the end of high school, but have been again recently. I found my class ring a few weeks back, had it resized, and it fits. I know I graduated several years ago and it isn't current - I don't have a college ring, but I have a beautiful white gold ring with a blue sapphire stone that is very different from the traditional rings, and the topic of guys wearing rings/class rings came up in one of my classes when a kid asked what they were. I told, and promised to wear mine. The kids think it's the coolest thing... next to my watches...

Maybe I need a new ring... like a ring on my finger... lol.

I've seen so many guys, guys I know who are not engaged, married, just wearing rings. Is it in? Have they been doing it all along?

He met my closest cousin

2012-01-23T06:05:00.000-08:00

WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Headed to Mike's after work. We went out and about in the city as I recall. We went shopping at F&E I think for quesadilla makings.

THURSDAY NIGHT

Ordered a Domino's Pizza about 4p.m. We slept on the couch from about 5pm to 7:30 after Ellen was over. I cleaned the bathroom while he slept. We fell back asleep from 7:30-9, then watched whatever was on, or the DVR.

FRIDAY NIGHT

I had a frustrating day at work since the A/C was out in my room, I had to cover another teacher on my prep, I had a bunch of work I didn't get done. I left work about 4. I leave work and head to Ralphs for tortillas, cucumbers, tequila, y más. The house is clean when I arrive back and Mike is showering. I spend a few minutes trying good margarita recipes and whipping up Ina's, Alton's, and Robert's from Food Network. My cousin showed up around 7:15- a little late. I introduced her to Mike, and we all seemed to hit it off. We talked about my dry (from alcohol) family, work, family, and Catholic school. My cousin leaves about midnight. I fall asleep almost instantly on the couch as I am exhausted.

SATURDAY

Mike and I wake up about 9, then he fixes breakfast, we browse around on the internet. We go to Fry's about 2, then down to Whittier, then off to Fry's to return the iPod watch he bought. We find a sushi boat restaurant/conveyor belt in Rollind Hites. We were in a restaurant with only Asians- we thought it was amusing. There were also only 3 American cars in the parking lot we saw. Stopped at Target and got vegan sausage. get home about 7 or 8. We watch some super boring movie and I fall asleep on the couch. We head to bed about midnight.

Forgot to mention Mike, my anti-country boyfriend has fallen in love with this woman, and she serenaded us throughout SoCal...

SUNDAY

Up around 9, watched the news, played with the kitties, showered, Mike made the sausage that was eh. About 2 I needed ice cream- he didn't understand - I craved it- I needed it - he joked about me not getting any yesterday because it was too cold. We go over about 3 cities and stop over near The Guy's for pizza and a delicious ice cream shake. I was satisfied. We headed home. I headed home about 5.

Strange Baby Names

2012-01-22T19:00:00.000-08:00

I have several friends/acquaintances whom I've just run across on Facebook who have had babies. All of them have had some interesting names - no joke - here's a few that seem to be the cream of the crop:

Boys

Harrley Andersson

Pryme Carson

Girls

Buffalow Raven Ravvel

Shirleesue Lyves Bythe Sea

Rainey Dayy Jordann

(Spelling changed to protect myself)

Where do they come up with these names?

One day when I am rich

2012-01-20T20:34:00.000-08:00

Inspired by a lunchtime conversation with coworkers - we tried to outdo each other with our "when I am rich" scenarios...

I will buy my BF and I matching laptops.

I will buy some ridiculous item like LV or Coach men's tennis shoes

I will buy some ridiculously expensive Coach or LV messenger bag

I will buy a Lexus, Acura, or Cadillac (hey, I'm a sucker for the sexy SRX and CTS)

I will buy a LV or Diesel iPad case and wallet

Enough of the brandwhore...

I will go skydiving

I will go drop $500 in Vegas

I will take cooking lessons

I will send my parents on a cruise vacation - actually hope to do that in the next year or so

I will pay off my student loan debts

What are some your "when I am rich" 1 liners?

Stay on topic, damn it!

2012-01-19T05:01:00.000-08:00

Sometimes kids raise their hands and have completely off topic questions/responses, like this gal, whom we shall call Mustache due to her obsession with facial hair:

I am standing in the front of my room giving the students directions for the long term project I am assigning when all of a sudden...

Mustache raises her hand: Mr. Teacher, I found something out.
Me: Ok...
Mustache, very matter of factly: Mr. Teacher, I was driving one day............ and there were a bunch of cars going beside us along the freeway................. and we passed a farm. Did you know that there are cows on the farm? Do you know what sound a cow makes?
Me: Off topic.
Mustache: Moo.
The class starts giggling and it is everything I can do to get them back on topic. Grrrrrrrrr. And I have 10 other girls just like this! Gah. Ok... rant over... they're pleasant girls... but some days they drive me crazy.

What I'm feeling this week

2012-01-18T16:24:00.000-08:00

I remember my sister watching their music video for hours on end on the computer, on TRL, and on the Disney channel

My Jam of the week!

Movie Weekend

2012-01-17T19:01:00.001-08:00

Weekend wrap up

FRIDAY

- Mike was supposed to come in at 12am, but got his flight changed to avoid not being able to make it out of Chicago due to snow. He got his flight changed, but he flew into a different airport, so got a rental car for the weekend. We had a Camaro.

I am fast asleep when he gets in about 12:30 I think it was. I have been so stressed at work I think it is causing my back to hurt. It felt just like the growing pains I would get as a teenager. Maybe I'm growing? My lower back feels inflamed and I get a shocking tingling sensation when I move my lower back. I took an 800mg motrin and muscle relaxer, so I was out of it. He came in and I didn't hear the car pull in the garage. I remembOer kissing and babbling for a few moments before drifting off until 8:30

SATURDAY

I laid in bed while he showered, then got up and ready for the day. We played around on our computers/iPads, then he asked where to go. I mentioned LA, the beach, or Palm Springs. We go to my city to pick up his package at FedEx, then go to LA. Initially he didn't want to go, but he drove that way. We go to Pershing Square, walk around that area, go to Grand Central Market, then stop for some belgian fries, then off on our walking tour to the toy and fashion district. We get back in the car and head toward Santa Monica. We look on yelp for a sushi boat, which the only one we found was a 3 star rated, and we wanted good sushi. We opted for the sushi place in the Colver City mall, then head toward Hollywood. We decided to go to El Capitán to see Beauty and the Beast. It actually looked pretty good in 3D, and it was nice to hear some of the fun songs that are so memorable from that. The organist was pretty cool too that played prior to the show. It seemed done in true Disney fashion. We head home after. We fall asleep on the couch around 9ish. I sleep past 12:30a.m. when there was a pizza guy at the door who had the wrong house. I had no idea this happened. He kept ringing and Mike finally got up to get it. I had no idea and joked with him the next morning I didn't hear it.

SUNDAY

Up at 9:30. We slept on the couch all night. WOW. That was bad. We were both in pain. Mike's neck hurt and my back still hurt. We make our way to Mickey D's. We then head out to Palm Springs. We stop at Kohls, a thrift store, and then on to Banananana Republic in Palm Dessert. The PS Film Fest was going on, so we decided to go back home. We stopped at F&S for groceries, then off to his house for some pasta. We catch up on our housewives and relax.

MONDAY

We are up at 8:30 and spend the day relaxing on the couch. We go to see Joyful Noise, that gospel movie, ya know. We ate at Loosill's and Mike read the reviews about how all these churchgoing people thought it was so wholesome minus Dolly. We wondered if we should go- it was cute, but a bit churchy. We drop the rental car off and I drive his car over to the drop off place. We talk about the issues in the Camaro. We go back home and do some more TV watching. I eat some pasta and a slice of toast because I'm starved. Mike wasn't hungry. We were both horny, or I was, he determined, but we both ended up being, so jacked each other off, and made out.

TUESDAY

He was up at 6 and I was up at 6:30. He found out his business trip was off, so he could relax. I shower and head off to work by 7. Had an ok, yet stressful day at work.

Making me fall in love

2012-01-13T16:49:00.000-08:00

Here's some excerpts from the past month or so together that have made me fall in love even more with Mike

1. The quality time

2. Seeing the resemblance in each of his parent's to him

3. His mother asking him if he wanted wine in the warehouse club was cute

4. He took me to see Rockefeller Center, despite not wanting to, then passed it off like it was his plan all along to go, though he vehemently denied wanting to go

5. Our NY Day kiss since we missed NYE

6. We were able to have an open conversation about little habits we notice about each other like my similarities for my mom, yet we're respectful

7. Not wanting to do something, I suggest it, then it was like it was his plan all along

8. His know it all personality.

9. His respect for the job I do - I don't represent all teachers - and I pass the test in that I talk about my kids enough

I feel like I should update

2012-01-12T23:01:00.000-08:00

I'm just getting back into the swing of things after vacation. Work is going really well, but it has been a stressful week. I've been at school until nearly 5pm each day as my partner teacher told me Sunday night to discard whatever lessons I was planning on teaching and to follow her lessons. I looked at them, but didn't understand them due to her technology issues. She gave me the information 5 minutes before class started Monday morning, so I muddled through it- consequently I was at school until nearly 5 preparing for the next day. I was at school until 3:30 on Tuesday - I left early only because I had an appointment. On Wednesday I was winging it from period to period because I realized her lessons didn't work for my students. Every minute of my prep period was spent preparing for my final periods of the day. I was at school until nearly 5 again. Today I was much more prepared and prepared a bunch of handouts for today that made my job 1000x easier. Partner teacher loved the handouts I created and was insistent to get her hands on them. I had been planning to do this regardless of whether it was her lesson or mine, because we were both eventually doing the same thing. The next 2 months will probably be this stressful and it isn't for a lack of preparation, it is the nature of the unit we are studying, where you can do the best job trying to anticipate what will happen, but due to unforseen issues like technology, slower learners, and the many different behaviors I am just doing my best.I know the end results from this unit will be amazing. I am looking forward to the end result and going through this process with partner teacher.

I was in bed at 7:30 on Wednesday night - I was that tired.

Compare and Contrast

2012-01-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

-----------Same name, different genre, same title, different/same lyrics----------

Tim McGraw and Katy Perry must have been working together... sorta... I was hoping it was Katy's version prior to hearing it

Valerie

Sukiyaki

Don't Dream It's Over

Ringing in the New Year

2012-01-09T23:08:00.000-08:00

THURSDAY 12/29

- Mike changed our flight so many times that he finally got one early Friday morning, but it meant we needed to stay the night at LAX to be able to make it on time. Drive there about 5-6pm, rock out to MYFM 104.3, although they don't have the most LA traffic reports, which Mike was wanting. He just wanted traffic reports, but I told him KOST does them more often... lol.
- Get to LAX and we go to the LAX restaurant, which we'd both wanted to do for a long time. I figured it was a great time to do it when it was dark and you could see all the airport's lights. It got foggy and socked in fast.
- Beautiful view at restaurant, but very overpriced, we had calamari and a glass of wine a piece for nearly $40
- That meant afterwards we run to a place clients had taken him to on a business luncheon in that area. The food was not good for dinner as there was a totally different crowd and we had our food within 5 minutes of ordering, which says something about the quality.
- We go to the mall in Colver City to the Target and see how weird it is as Mike termed it
- Go to hotel about 9:30. Check in es loco. People everywhere, elevator not working, having a hard time getting room keys to work. We get in hotel, chat it up with a couple from back east and their kid, then they end up having a room across from it. We try to open our room, and they did too, but they keys didn't work not once, but twice. Mike had to run down both times for that. Oh, and then the room smelled like smoke. We weren't happy.

FRIDAY 12/30

- Up at 4:00a.m. to go to the airport. Dress, drop car off, and shuttle to airport.
- Get in with relatively little problem, but I did get the full putdown at the airport, which as usual, Mike was long done getting through security because I had to wait to be screened
- Enjoyable flight to San Fran
- Arrive in San Fran and am checking Facebook. I see a gal, Ally, I went to middle and high school with said she was at the airport too. I told Mike of the coincidence. She was the sweetest thing. We exchanged a few Facebook comments back and forth and discovered she was in the same terminal. I tell her we'd be right to where she was having breakfast, walk up behind her, say hello, and then chat. She tells me how she was going back to where we live, how she was coming from Idaho, how she was so happy for me, could hardly get a word in, but did introduce her to Mike and told her about what I'm doing these days.
- Bad Wendy's breakfast after
- Flight to Puerto Vallarta was nice. Listened to music most of the way.
- Arrive in PVR and go through customs, which was a breeze, but again selected for additional security screening through their random press a button and if it lights up, you have to have your bag searched.
- Go to ATM to get pesos, which was daunting. We were confused like $5,000 pesos seemed like so much. We got our bearings and flirted with the waitress at the hotel bar who made us 2 margaritas deliciosas. She told us to take the bus and not the taxi to the hotel since it wasn't too far. $.65 beat $8.00
- Get to hotel and have an hour checkin - it was a time share place and they were trying to sell lots to us
- Get in room and then decide to hitch the bus to go downtown again. Rickety ride, but it was a part of the true experience in my mind
- We get off in the downtown area and walk up the hill to this quiet restaurant we see. OMG. IT WAS SOOOOO ROMANTIC!!!
- The hunky Spanish guy who owned the place kept coming to our table, talking to us, asking us how we were, brought us lots of free appetizers, the gal from our area who lived in our area 20 years who was so attentive to us, the wonderful view, and delicious filet mignon was great. It was under $50 for the 2 of us, and we left a great tip for her in American dollars since she spoke of her want to go back to the US and the conversion was in her favor.
- Back to the hotel where we criticize everything about the room like the nasty floor. It was a brick tile, but as we walked across in our socks our feet turned black. Uncomfy bed too.

SATURDAY 12/31/11

- Wake up and shower, prepare to go to on the next leg of our journey
- Try to check out the hotel wants us to check out, the line is super long, so we say screw it and leave
- Hail a taxi on our own to pier
- We have some quesadillas as I'm hungry prior to departure
- We then get the boat and head off to a more remote part of PVR
- 45 minute ride - it was on the cold side
- Jump off the boat - no pier- and off to our open air hotel
- Concierge greeted us as did the porter to get our bags off boat
- She makes us some tart margaritas and shows us the entire hotel, gives us the details about what to do, where to go, and answers all questions
- Go to cafe at pier for lunch where Mike has some delicious rice salad and I have a ceviche
- Add some tequila to make the margaritas better once she is gone, freshen up, and she lets us know about dinner plans, then makes reservations for us at the yot club
- Tequila shot time!
- Shower and dress for dinner, hop on the boat, and off to the club
- Few people there, we find a seat, and listen to the music, order some margaritas. The service was ok here, not great. We eat in candlelight. Had steak, lobster, and rice, dessert was pie
- Fireworks after dinner
- Back to hotel on boat and then prep for bed once we arrive. I'm brushing my teeth at 11:55.
- We hop into bed and fall asleep quickly, no New Years kiss for either of us, so we did it at like 12pm instead when we both brought up how we didn't remember kissing each other

SUNDAY 1/1/12

- Eggs and guac for breakfast - delish! Great bread too!
- Walk through town and around
- End up on the beach where we are hounded by a guy there wanting to get us drinks and invites us to sit at his restaurant, and we agree
- 2-3 cervezas y a passion fruit margarita later we are hungry for lunch, which was nachos for him and a chile relleno for me
- Chat on the beach with a cougar from Canada and her younger guy, who were on the boat with us the day prior. They were super friendly.
- We decide to do parasailing since it was only $30 and was about 10-15 minutes
- Parasailing was so fun and freeing, relaxing
- Back to talk with the couple who is insistent we try the margaritas she was drinking. We each order one, then they ran out when she wanted another, but were able to find her one. It was a tart fruit margarita.
- Take boat back to hotel where we relax and play on our iPads
- Prep for dinner in candlelight, a private chef came to our room, a lady who owns a restaurant in town, and made us guacamole, salsa, breaded tuna, and rice, which was good. It was a nice experience, but we probably wouldn't do it again
- More tequila shots after dinner and relax
- Bed early

MONDAY 1/2/12

- Walk around town and up to the water fall after breakfast of omelets
- Take photos, visit the beach, relax on the beach
- Chat with another Canadian couple for about 3-4 hours about her being an ESL teacher, her travels every year to this place, the fact she speaks Spanish
- Back to hotel about 5 to relax
- Wind down and I attempt at making the perfect margarita for dinner, which I did a pretty good job at we discovered
- Bed about 10 and we were up most of the night thanks to the waves crashing on the rocks below us

TUESDAY 1/3/12

- Up and around, shower, off to the bay cafe for breakfast with delicious pancakes. I had a burrito, though
- Back to hotel where we wait for the boat to get us to go back to PVR
- Nice and warm boat ride back- warmer than the last time
- Off to boat we get a taxi to the hotel
- Go to hotel bar near pool for lunch. It was close to $30 for these icee style margaritas that were hardly drinkable
- Decide we need to try a gem for dinner
- Walk around the hotel area
- For dinner Mike suggests we take a taxi to a restaurant that didn't seem to far away, but was way up on a hill, so we were glad we did. Food was good, very Americanized, though. Had a sexy cawfee, which was sooooo fun. They flambé the alcohol.
- We walk down the street from the hotel and grab a cab to go home
- Fool around that night

WEDNESDAY 1/4/12
- Up and adam, shower, then off to explore the town after spending the morning reading
- Go to downtown via bus where he buys house numbers, tequila, end up in a tequileria where we sample numerous tequilas and spend mucho en it. Puedes decir margaritas?
- Stopped for chips and guac at a 2nd story restaurant with 2 for 1 drinks and other specials
- Bus back to hotel where we relax for a few hours
- Off to dinner and take a cab to a delicious fish place in the gay area of Vallarta. I had mahimahi and he had red snapper. We had the freshest mussels too with delicious sourdough.
- Back to hotel to play some more

THURSDAY 1/5
Some day our friend's ship will come in...
waited around in the morning for J and B to arrive in on their cruise ship. It was a coincidence that we were in a foreign country together on the same day. We decided the hotel played too much on the all-inclusive thing, which was not our thing. We surprised them, they had their new shoes on, but thankfully had sandals, that we were taking them back to the paradise we had just spent 3 days in. They were shocked and B was worried. J was intrigued. We took the boat ride, I sat next to J and chatted with him.
- Arrive, hop off boat, find bathroom for B
- Meet our ESL teacher Canadian friend
- Dine on Pacificos, ceviche, and salsa
- Feeling a little tipsy, so it was time to walk through town
- Do a short walk through- Mike wasn't hungry, so no restaurant, no water fall
- Meet our concierge as we try to get the boat, she was going to PVR
- Chat with J about his dad's health, my dad's health, etc., share pics of our trip, talk about his trip
- Take them to the romantic restaurant we went to. OUr waitress saw us and hurried back up to help us. Hunky guy was there too.
- We spend the better part of 3 hours dining and catching up.
- We grab a taxi and go back to the cruise terminal, then off to our hotel
- The 2 of us hardly sleep as the beds are so uncomfy

FRIDAY 1/6/12

- Up early since we couldn't sleep
- Check out of hotel, get everything together
- Get taxi, Mike forgets passport, driver turns around, go to bank, taxi driver waits for us, but it was confusing to get help, so Mike returned and we were off to the airport
- Ate some nasty place in the airport on the 2nd floor with horrible Mexican food
- Flight home
- Customs was tough in our connection city
- Made it back home, stopped at a fish grill for dinner
- Watch TV at his house until 11:30. We made it home about 9:30. Got off flight at 6:30. Baggage claim didn't start until 7:15, which made for 2 very unhappy passengers whose bags should have been taken off the plane immediately.

SATURDAY 1/7/12
- Up at 7:30
- SHower
- Eat omelets, take off for home about 10
- Spend the day with the family, celebrate my birthday, they got me an electric razor, which was perfect since mine broke the night before at Mike's on the tile floor in the kitchen as I got it out of my bag
- Went to CCG for dinner - it was so-so

SUNDAY
- Up at 8:30... I hardly slept... it was too hot or too cold
- Mommy made me breakfast... my favorite
- Off to Mike's about 12:30 when the power company stopped blocking our driveway
- Arrive at his place and open the huge bag of gifts- there were like 6 expertly wrapped gifts including margarita mix, 2 pairs of shoes, a brand name watch I'd been eyeing, a dog card (inside joke between the 2 of us), and toothbrush heads for my toothbrush
- He didn't have to do all of that, especially after our big trip we just had, but he's too sweet, and I love him
- He takes me to lunch for animal styol fries at In-N-Out. he'D never had them and thought they were pretty good. He can stop giving me grief over them.
- Went shoe shopping where I got my green shoes
- Go home and nap because now I'm old
- Wake up to texts from coworkers, deal with that, swap lesson plans
- Off to dinner at our favorite steakhouse where we ordered practically everything off the happy hour menu and finished with dessert... so good... 2 nice glasses of wine
- Home, lesson prep for a sec cuz my plans had changed thanks to my coworker
- And then he fucks me in bed, which was not what I was feeling last night, but it was fun
- he had to pack for work

MONDAY
- He was up at 4am to make it to the airport on time
- I'm at his place tonight getting my z's on and to ensure I get to work early mañana

New Years Songs

2012-01-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

Some good songs to start off the New Year!

Hopefully your New Years Eve crush was not the one that got away.
Her acoustic version is so much better BTW.

Hopefully your New Years Eve was a night you didn't want to end

This song has been stuck in my head since I heard this a few weeks back on Z100 in NYC

Radio Post

2012-01-02T08:08:00.000-08:00

I <3 iHeartRadio, radiopup, and Radio.com apps for my iPhone that let me listen to other stations across the country, and here's a few observations.

Many midwest country stations are much better programmed than KFRG or KKGO here in the LA metropolitan area as many play 80s, 90s, and today. I found one station in Montana playing Chris Ledoux, Patti Loveless, and others I grew up listening to when at my grandma's house.

Best programmed stations in my opinion:

Jersey 101.5 - Jersey's talk station, but in the late night hours they go to a classic hits format with a lot of Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons and Grassroots mixed in.

WSOC 103.7 Charlotte - Interesting DJs and an excellent mix of country songs have had me listening in the early morning hours out here in Cali

Z100 NY - I like their song previews prior to every commercial break and frequent traffic reports make me feel like I'm in NYC even if I'm not. Elvis Duran's show has a lot of callers and is fast paced, which I like- the topics discussed also interest me. A nice mix of old hits sprinkled in... A nice alternative to KIIS FM en Los Angeles

KCBS 880 - One of my other favorite late night listens that make me feel like I'm in the Bay Area with their frequent traffic updates.

Star 94.1 and Star 101.3 in San Diego and the Bay Area area are KBIG 104's sister stations and much better programmed in my opinion as there is much more variety. KBIG has been trying with a few flashback hits, but there's still a long ways to go for the repetition.

Many of the stations I've listened to in Chicago, Florida, and Phoenix, and Vegas sound very current and not a lot of variety regardless of genre.

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-01T00:03:00.000-08:00

May you have only the best in 2012!!!

This seemed like a great song for the New Year!!!

Awkward Tension

2011-12-30T00:36:00.000-08:00

I have ran into Keith 3 times this past month out with his boyfriend and company. Both times have been EXTREMELY awkward.

The first time was about a month ago the night after Thanksgiving I think, Black Friday, when I was meeting my lesbian coworkers at a gay bar. I walked in, took a seat at the bar, and voila, Keith was there in company with his new boyfriend, some young twinkie Arabic guy who was al over him. The guy was humping Keith, getting up on his back as he was sitting at the bar, and then the 2 of them were making out. My coworkers walk in and Keith looks over. He gave me several stares like I was not supposed to be there. I just nodded and chatted away with my coworkers before we decided to go on a walk instead around the hotels downtown looking at Christmas lights.

The second time I ran into him was at Target or somewhere similar- I can't remember. I was shopping and scrolling through my phone looking at my Christmas shopping list- who I needed to buy for- as he walked through the aisle. He said, "Hi Mike," in a stern voice and walked past me. I looked up and said "hi" as he turned to go down a different aisle.

The third time was Christmas night. I met my cousin in downtown to go Christmas light hunting and go through the hotels decorated for Christmas. She told me to meet on bar row, so I agreed, and was in the middle of giving her a call when I am walking and I see Keith and his boyfriend who was walking behind him with his arms around him. I am standing at the crosswalk and I see in the distance it is him. The light turns green, I walk across the street, and near where he is. He turns around, acts like nothing is going on, and says, "Hi Mike." I nodded and walked past him, past 3 bars to the one I was meeting my cousin. As I walked up to it I could feel his eyes on me staring. He then yelled "bye Mike." I was nearly in the bar by then and I didn't wave.

I get a text from him a few hours later that just said "awkward." I haven't replied.

Birthday Thoughts

2011-12-29T14:06:00.000-08:00

My birthday is coming up, and I'm super excited. I have the day off work, it is on a weekend, and I will be getting to spend time with good friends/family. It is so nice!!!

Little could be better than last year's birthday that was so nice...

Unlike last year, I know what I want to do. I would like a little bit of surprise mixed in...

One thing I would like to do would be to:
- Do dinner with my good friends like Darla, Gonzo, The Guy, his boyfriend, JO Buddy, and his boyfriend - and no qualms this year because Mike has met all of them with the exception of Darla and Gonzo --- this will probably happen the weekend after my birthday

- I do know the boyfriend gets an invite with my family whatever restaurant I decide. Right now I'm deciding between Spanish and Italian.

Regardless, I'm anxious and looking forward to a day of surprises and spending time with those I love.

I have a thing for Lisa Marie

2011-12-28T11:33:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's that she was Elvis' daughter? Maybe it is that she is so mysterious? Maybe it is she is sexy?

Because I was a kid of the 90s...

2011-12-26T15:42:00.000-08:00

I had to think about what the top toys of the 90s were prior to reading this story. 5-6 came to mind and here's my list:

1. Tomagotchi's/Nano's
2. Furbies - 1998
3. Pogs -1st grade for me
4. Tickle Me Elmos- 1996
5. Beanie Babies
6. Nintendo 64, Sega, Playstation
7. Gameboys

... And here's what the "researchers" said... I got several correct, but no Furby? No Tickle Me Elmo?

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!!

I wanted to share my family's Christmas tradition with you to see if anyone does the same thing as this dominated much of my bf's and my conversations this week:

CHRISTMAS EVE, DECEMBER 24

1. We bake tons of Christmas cookies.

2. We have a big nice dinner on Christmas Eve that my dad preps. Usually it is steaks or a rib eye roast.

3. After my dad cooks dinner we clean up, then get ready to open gifts.

4. My mom is usually insistent we sing a Christmas carol or two before opening up gifts. I mouth them. That's not something I enjoy. Put the holiday station on in the back and I'm good.
MY BF thought this was the weirdest thing and none of the people he talked to had ever heard of such a thing. He questioned everyone we met if they did that, and the response was overwhelmingly no, what planet are you from>

5. We open up gifts on CHRISTMAS EVE. It is something we have always done- my mom has done it - her mom talked about the tradition starting back in the 1930s when her husband proposed to her on Christmas Eve. My dad's side of the family does it too- a Roman Catholic family. My best friend does it too as it is a German tradition.
Does anyone else do this?! I can think of probably 10 people I know who open all of their gifts Christmas Eve and then get stockings/pajamas etc. the next day on Christmas Day. Some people I know get a small gift on Christmas Eve, then they open up everything the next day, which my BF thinks is normal. These are all of the family gifts after all that we have bought for each other, so it seems appropriate, then the "Santa gifts" are for Christmas Day. My question is when things are wrapped and under the tree prior to Christmas, how are they from Santa?

6. We get stockings every year and it is full of gift certificates, candies, Life Savers, even though Santa is not real, my parents fill them.

7. We only have stockings and maybe 1 leftover present for Christmas day since of course Santa is not real.

8. My dad makes a nice breakfast or we snack on candy and cookies before going to the relatives.

Met his parents

2011-12-24T09:10:00.000-08:00

SUNDAY

Arrive at 7pm at Mike's. We exchange gifts. We filled each other's stockings and bought each other gifts. I got him a brand name watch, which was funny since he bought me the same watch, but the cheaper brand of it. I found a great price for his on amazon. I also got dinnerware for him that he has been eyeing. He bought me a sweater that I wore on Friday that was brown and orange and perfect for NJ as he termed. He also got me a purple BN sweater, which I had been wanting. We got lots of candy for each other in our stockings. I don't think he'd planned to spend that much, but went out and bought stuff after he found I was serious about the gifts and a stocking. We wait around to leave until the town Santa comes through, but they were too far away and weren't going to get to us. We head out the opposite directions and I drive us to the hotel. While driving Mike wants to hear all about my family's holiday traditions, and then of course makes fun of me and tells me how weird that was. Every subsequent person we met throughout the week heard just how weird my family is. We get to the hotel, check in, then get Perrier water at the convenience store down the street, then back to the hotel to sleep. We go to bed about 11.

Monday
Get a text bright and early from Linda at 5am. We take the hotel shuttle to the airport in OC. We are in economy on our flight to NY. We arrive in NJ, get a rental car, go to Mike's parent's to surprise them - he told them we'd arrive Tuesday. When we arrived it was just like, "oh, you're here, you're early, that's nice," which was so different than the reaction I'd have had in my family, but it was cool to see the contrasts in our families. We get in to NJ about 3pm. We go to the hotel after for drinks and do some shopping in 2 outlets around his house.

Tuesday
We get up at 10:30, we slept in. We go to his mom and dad's house where we take her mom and her friend to their nail appointment. We go to Hallmark and Starbucks in the meantime. Then we go to the Jersey shore to Seafood Shanty for lunch. We had seafood. Then we drive around the area and suddenly end up at the Jersey SHore house. Of course i had to get out and take photos/get pictures of me in front so that I can show my kids at work. Afterward, we go to the mall, drop his mom and friend off, then we are off to babysit a friend of his twins', afterward we stop at Princeton Uni, and then to a few stores before going back to the hotel for drinks. Bed about 1.

WEDNESDAY
We get up about 10, then go to a Jersey snadwich place for a Jersey breakfast, which was pork, eggs, and cheese on a hard roll. It was pretty good. We go to his mom's afterwards and hang out with his dad who was home for a few hours from work. He wants to go pick up his tile for their kitchen, so we go there, then when his mom gets back we go to Sams, WalMart, and the outlet mall. I fell more in love with him as we went through Sam's and his mom was so cute as she asked, "want any wine?," and he said no, but it was so cute, I could never/rarely see my mom doing that, and how explicitly she asked was hilarious. I push her around Sams. We end up at the outlet mall later after we drop his mom off. We also go to an expensive $20+ per plate Chinese place that was really tasty- it should have been for that price! We visit the local mall where we get his niece and mom gifts, and I get my sister a few thingys too. They don't really exchange gifts, and he talks about how he doesn't have to shop for gifts, yet he bought stuff for his mom, dad, and little niece. Cute- that sounds like him. We go back to the hotel since bottles of wine were buy 1 get 1 free and split that between the 2 of us.

THURSDAY

We were up early to go to Jersey, but of course had to play around. We stopped by Mike's mom's, then we called his friend LaRa whom I'd met before. We picked her up before going into the city. We drove into the city and found the hotel, walked to the Chelsea Market, a large indoor mall, then to a pizza place called Artichoke Pizza. We went back to the hotel and changed for going to see the Rockettes. We walk down to RadYo City and watch the show. It was really good- the Santa parts were slow, but the Rockettes were fantastic- so in sync! We walk down to RockefFFFeller Center after to see the tree and take pictures in front of it. We admire many of the store fronts and stop in stores like Uniqlo. We go uptown to meet Mike's friend Kaytee who was a veterinarian. She was coming from work and we met her at a bar, the MickGee's Bar shown in the TV show 2 1/2 Men that is right below her apartment. We then go to a restaurant in Hell'z Kitchen called Nook that I highly recommend as it is BYOB and very reasonable- great salmon- and Mike and his friend brought the booze back. It was cute. Everyone made comments about who was the drunk- Mike. It was pretty fun. We go back to Rockefeller and down to Time's Square. We eat at a TGI Fridays and have dessert- vanilla bean cheesecake. We get back to the hotel at 1am- we take the train back and walk a little bit.

FRIDAY
We get up at 9:30, shower, and go outside of the hotel to find flowers for Mike's mother. We get the car and head out of Jersey to a diner shown on Guy Fieri's Diner's, Drive Ins, and Dives on the Food Network. I had an omelette and it was ok. Mike dropped me off at the airport about 3 and we kiss/hug. I get in about 8pm. It was so hard to say goodbye and I would have loved to stay with him throughout Christmas.

Press Your Luck/Whammy

2011-12-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

Does anyone remember this 80s game show? I just found out you can play it online and it is so addicting!!!

A new Montgomery Gentry song!

2011-12-22T23:49:00.000-08:00

Weeks ago I was wondering when they'd have a new album, and alas there is a new song. It took a while to grow on me, pero it meets my approval.

My Christmas Must Hears

2011-12-21T13:37:00.000-08:00

And it has to be these versions!

I actually didn't blog something!

2011-12-20T23:09:00.000-08:00

There was one thing, one side of my life, that I was so hesitant to blog about that I really wanted to over the past few months. I was struggling at work with classroom management. It ate at me for weeks and I spent a lot of time working hard to improve upon it. I had great classroom management where I came from, but it seemed that I wasn't fully prepared for what I experienced. I have been working hard and have improved greatly. It was something I didn't want to admit because the administration was looking down on me at the time and the thought loomed in the back of my head about the possibility of not being rehired, and I was scared. I am glad to say I'm doing much better. I didn't want to say much because I felt a tremendous loss of pride. I feared the comments like why did I become a teacher? Why am I failing the kids? Irrational, I know, but hey, I'm learning, and I'm improving with the kinds of kids I have. I was feeling so worn down and stressed, and Mike's constant critical eye had me hesitant to say anything. I was at the point I didn't care. But now I'm doing better... woo!

Dinner parties

2011-12-17T22:05:00.000-08:00

THURSDAY

I head over to my boyfriend's about 1p.m after doing lunch with Gonzo and running errands like returning the hideous snow boots my mom bought me in the morning. So great to meet up with Gonzo.

When I arrive Mike is busy cleaning the kitchen and I help by dusting and vacuuming the entire house. We spend about 2 hours cleaning. It wasn't messy, but we were just thorough and detailed in the cleaning. Wt head out shortly after to get groceries. We were having a dinner party with The Guy and his boyfriend. We go to the grocery store with pasta in mind, but then decide to use up the potatoes we have, and so we got some fish. F&S was out of fish, so we went to Stayters.

We cleaned a little more, then started putting the appetizers together. We debated over the prepping of the fish. We settled on some lemon juice, salt, and pepper. He puts the appetizers in the oven, some brie bites, and everything is ready when they arrive. I greet them at the door, hug, and let them in. They were so complimentary about what a beautiful house Mike has. We all came in the kitchen and made small talk as we waited for the appetizers. Then we went in the formal living room to eat and chat. We talked about our vacation, me getting to meet the parents, what Mike does for a living, my sister, Linda, and a whole bunch of other random stuff. Mike and I took turns going back and forth to the kitchen to check on the food, then we ate about 9:15. We chatted for a while at dinner about cars, it turns out The Guy and his boyfriend just purchased a car together - a $40,000 Audi. They had it for 2 weeks before it needed a new engine. I am floored he got a new car - wow. Mike wanted to show off his pride, his Audi, and so we head out to the garage. They both loved it. The Guy also liked Mike's other car, but was disappointed to hear Mike wasn't completely sold on it. We head inside, hug, and exchange Christmas gifts. Mike, I know, was thrilled to finally get to entertain; and it meant a lot to me that he came out and didn't flake.

We cleaned up, then headed to bed. We were tickling each other, but were too tired and fell asleep about 12:30a.m.

FRIDAY

We are tired, but up at 7. I was super tired. I make us bagels. I told him I needed allergy shots and he decided to go with me. I drove. He told me I was a nervous nelly while driving. There was a big accident on the freeway, so we took surface streets. We got there late only because of the accident and they said to come back at 1:30 for a shot. We went to Kole's where Mike bought hand towels and other random stuff. We went to an old El Torito after before going back to get my shots. We had time to kill, so we go to Target. We head back to his city after. We go the long way around since he told me to- and stop at Kirkland's, Petco, and a few other stops. We were both tired, but I head out, as I wanted to get a haircut since I didn't think of having my mom's friend do it like usual, so I had to pay for my first haircut ever... lol. I ran to the dry cleaner for my shirts down the street and ran into the lesbian math teacher and her partner. Talked to them for a while. They were so friendly. I get back to Mike's and fall asleep. He tells me after I woke up that I was gone for so long, but I explained who I ran into. He woke me up I swear- he tapped me or something- I was in a deep sleep. He made spaghetti for dinner and rolls. We watch RHOA, but I fall asleep and thus am missing key elements to knowing what happens next week. We went to bed about 12:30 and we were both horny that I cuddled up into him, he kissed and jacked me off, then I flipped around and fucked him.

SATURDAY

We were up about 7:30. I watched the news to hear the latest on the 60 closure. We go in the living room for bagels, to finish our little sun catchers we were making, and then bake them. I had never done those as a kid- my mom dismissed them as messy and that they didn't work well. I was so amused when they did. We play on the computers, then get showered and dressed, we head to Lowe's, and Subway. Yummy meatball marinara. We stop at Big Lots and then Stayters again. We were going to do steak for this next dinner party, but Mike convinced me to do a roast for his rotisserie. We also get some salmon.

We go home and assemble the table for the party, Mike works on the appetizers, and voila, we are ready. I do the potatoes and prep the meat/put it on the rotisserie. A few texts to make us think my parents were going to be about 5 minutes late, but instead were 5 minutes early. Mike lets them in, I invite them in from the kitchen, and finish working on my potatoes. My sister was along. She was having her own crisis - she was getting like 100 emails on her phone. OH NO! That was a conversation piece for a while, then we sat down, and enjoyed the first 2 sets of appetizers- brie and pizza rolls. Mike gets up a couple times to put things in the oven. One of those trips as we were finishing up he dropped some lemon juice accidentally on the door of the oven and it shattered. He was not amused and was thinking it is an excuse for new appliances. While sitting my sister talked about her job offer, wanting to move, Chicago, her travels. My mom questioned Mike about his travels, his Christmas tree, and a few other things. When everything was done we went into the dining room to eat. At dinner we talked about my mom's school, my school, Mike's town, what we are doing in NY when we go back, and a little more about himself. We served cheesecake bites and then dinner was done. My parents left about 7:50. As they left Mike poked me and told me they were cute, but some alcohol would have helped everything. Yay for parent visit #2. And he met the sister and didn't think she was that bad. He's the devil's advocate, however. We were cleaned up by 8:15, and Mike and I watched TV for 15 minutes while he looked at replacing the oven door online.

At 8:30, we hugged, kissed, and then I headed out. I came home and packed my bags. Ready to go...

Recap of last week for my sake

2011-12-14T23:25:00.000-08:00

FRIDAY
- I was so over work - we went to Home Goods and other random stores, ate dinner at the fish house, walked around the mall, got icicle lights for the tree outside, Target

SATURDAY
- Up early for home visits, went to Mike's after, went shopping to the city to the east and looked for more icicle lights/walked around the shopping center, Hallmark, Petco, dinner in the evening at Claim Jumper, Target, etc.

SUNDAY
- Up and off to Kohls, breakfast, Target
- Head home about 12:30 to meet Linda, her husband, and do Christmas with them, set up Christmas tree, go looking at houses with her, back to ours for dinner

MONDAY
- Up and off to work... long day
- Dentist after school
- Off to Mike's after where he makes some chicken strips, yummy potatoes, and some bread for dinner
- Go grocery shopping after and to Target

TUESDAY
- Over to Mike's about 3 to hang out until the awkward work Christmas party where no spouses/significant others were allowed to attend. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't a great party. It was ok. Stayed for a few hours to chat people up and then headed back to Mike's where i told him about the party, laid, and tickled him

WEDNESDAY
- Up and off to work... I did it! Woo!
- Got to his place about 2:30 and we chat, talk, tell him about my day, the homework I had to do, chat with my dad, and head home for his help

THURSDAY
- Excited for tomorrow and the weekend......!!!

Music Wednesday - Christmas edition

2011-12-14T23:18:00.000-08:00

I really do care for my kids

2011-12-11T23:06:00.000-08:00

I was up bright and early Saturday morning for home visits with my colleagues. We visited several students houses.

One student, KD, is one of my most difficult students in my most difficult classes. He has hates me, I'm mean, I don't know what I'm talking about, and he refuses to work in my class, and listen to me. I got written up in my evaluation because someone wouldn't stop talking- it was him.

I have called his house many times- at least 4- and spoken to his great grandmother about it. She has always said she is doing everything within her power, but at her age, 93, it was hard. I didn't deny that. She said she praises me for everything I've done with him and to continue being hard on her great grandson. I told her I plan to.

I tried to get to visit his house because he is one of my most difficult students and I felt I could make a connection during that home visit. I saw he was chosen for a home visit, but I wasn't able to go to his house since I was on a different team.

When I got back to the school after the visit, I stood around and talked to several teachers. When it was time to get my food, as we had a luncheon for all whose homes we visited, the lesbian math teacher, came up to me and told me that KD's great grandma was there and had something for me. I was a little nervous at that moment because I had nothing to worry about, but I have called expressing such frustration to this old woman I thought she'd be tired of me. Hardly. She made me 3 homemade tamales and told me how much she appreciated me. She made a special trip to the school to see me- how sweet is that? KD is always telling her how I am so hard on him and sound like her, as I always say the same things his great grandma does. I chuckled. She told me all about this student's home life, how his mom never cared for him, his grandma died, and she was the only one left. She is raising 4 kids ranging from 7-17 and 2 are real handfuls. She told me how this kid is not as outgoing as he seems- he has purple hair one day and is the class clown. He spends lots of time at home reading and drawing. She told me how someone broke into their house a few months back in October and stole his iPod touch that he prized so much, and how he cried for days. They also stole a bunch of photos from his childhood. That crushed me. I wanted to cry. She told me about the softer side of the kid, which I rarely see. It was good to hear that because it explained a lot of why he could have been acting up in my class. I guess his g-grandma has had a long talk with him and has said how I'm such a great guy - I was much younger than she expected because I sound so mature on the phone. KD has brought his grade up 14% over the past 2 weeks and is actually working in my class.

There's a lot more to his story - my team members think that the student doesn't like me because he is obviously very flamboyant and probably isn't around a lot of gay guys, and has pegged me as one, and its scary to him since so many people say being gay is bad, so he rebels and treats me badly. In all classes where this kid has a male teacher he has a much lower grade. Also, just imagine what the kid is going through being raised by his great grandma...

This was just such a nice gesture by this great grandmother to care so much for me, and even after I've been so tough on her great grandson, she sees that I really do care for him, and it just means so much to me. I was on the verge of tears most of the time she was praising me.

I am hoping that talking to grandma has helped with this student as I know a lot of new things about him, I see how he is already trying harder, and I know a lot more about his interests where I can tailor lessons to incorporate things like art/music to be able to make that connection. I learned his favorite singer is Lady Gaga, and have an awesome idea about the college assignment we are doing in the next few days to have him research Lady Gaga's college she attended- that would be NYU's art school - we'll forget about the part she didn't graduate from it.

Oh, and while we're on the topic of parents, I heard from a couple teachers about 2 parents that "hate my guts" and "hate my ass." Ok... lol.

Mannfriend

2011-12-09T04:27:00.000-08:00

FRIDAY

Spent with my mann friend, we went to Chilis if memory serves me correctly, or somewhere over near there... Olive Garden... I had what we thought was a $25 gift card, but we soon realized there was only $4 left on it since we'd used it before, so he paid for dinner. After we went to Sams Club for a tequila rifle for a gift I needed to buy. Mike joked I was going to get his dessert there and pay for it. We found none - except stuff in bulk. We went to the pet store where I fell in love with a persian kitty that I was so tempted in allowing Mike to get. It was precious and was blind in an eye.

SATURDAY

We ventured to Kohls in the middle of the day, as well as the pet stores. We went back to his place where we watched some TV and then headed out to dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant that was just so-so-ehhh. We blew down (because it was super windy and cold- like 30 degrees) to see the Muppet Movie at the mall. We go back to his house.

SUNDAY

We don't move too far until the late afternoon. We go to Chilis; Target where there were tons of people, an insane line; Cost Plus, and DSW. We also go to Marshalls and Joann. I didn't make it home - mi madre had been calling me several times.

We also went to the mall in the afternoon. We went to the one near school and 2 students in my homeroom saw me. I didn't hear until Tuesday. I would have thought they would have come up to me, but no. We went to all the stores including Bath and Body Works. Not sure what store they saw me in... anyway, on Tuesday one kid stood up after we were done testing to announce she saw me at the mall. I said, "Yeah, you probably did." Another said, "yeah, he was with his mannfriend." I laughed. She said "it's ok Mr., your secret is safe with me." I chuckled and said there's nothing wrong with man friends, he could be a neighbor friend too," but she knows I'm sure, and well, whatever. It was amusing and Mike got a great laugh out of my newfound ally.

My man friend and I changed positions in bed, and that was interesting... it had been a long time since I'd done that.

MONDAY

Spent the evening and night with him. He made some chicken strips and rice. It was pretty good. We watched lots of TV like 2 1/2 Men. Dumb show. Awful to watch.

TUESDAY

Dinner con mi familia- mis padres en particular y we went to Carrows. The food was horrid. I had a dirt salad- or at least that's what it tasted like.

Discovered my new favorite song in the car driving to dinner.

WEDNESDAY

Back at Mike's. He was working on expenses for work and whipped up some pasta after a while, as well as bread. It was delicious. He made me some for work today- love him! We both fell asleep on the couch and made it into the bedroom around 12:15

THURSDAY

Went to Mike's after school and he was watching TV on the couch. Told him all about my day- the meetings, the parents, etc. etc. Long day. Told him about the lesbians at work. He looked up the menu for Chevee's and we went for some quesadillas. Convo was all about work at Chevee's, which was fun, as he gave me pointers, suggestions, told me to kiss up to the principal, assistant, etc. etc. He was cute. We had a margarita and quesadilla, then walked around the mall. Joked about if anyone would see me at this other mall 2 cities away with my mannfriend. I found some zapatos en Nordstrom Rack y un regalo de polish for mi mom en Nordstrom. We stopped for bread at the market after. Driving back to his place i realize I didn't have the supplies I needed for this weekend for work, so I came home to do that. Visited with the family y my dad was excited to see me again.

I'm still here

2011-12-08T23:23:00.001-08:00

I'm in the final stretch at work, busy grading as the quarter comes to an end. I am trying to coordinate 2-3 events in addition.

I am enjoying most other waking moments with my man friend as he is termed by several students who spotted us at the mall together on Sunday.

Wednesday's 70s Female Songs

2011-12-07T00:52:00.000-08:00

Yes, Vickie Lawrence was the first to cover this song. That always is a random bit of trivia I love to throw around. And did you know what a Kangaroo court was?

Met my cousin

2011-11-30T18:57:00.000-08:00

THURSDAY

I had a "you can't make this shit up" start to Thanksgiving, but then the drama mellowed out thankfully, and got to enjoy all of my extended family

FRIDAY

Lots of Black Friday shopping by myself and with my mother

SATURDAY

Finally got to see my bf after texting him all week. He had a great time at home, b His flight got in after midnight Friday night. We met about 9:30 or 10. My mom had intended to spend the day with me when she figured out I was going to SD, but I had other plans. I made up a white lie and was off to see my bf.

I get to his place about 10:30 and he is watching TV. We watch King of Queens or Mike and Molly, and he books a hotel and I pick out a restaurant to meet my cousin at. I offer to pay for the hotel, but he says my AAA card would suffice.

We drive to SD, but stop in Temec for honey since his friend back home swore that was what I needed for my allergies, then we stopped at a Chilis for a margarita and lonché. We get to SD, find the super awesome hotel and then we go up to the room and fall asleep in each others arms for a few hours. I call the restaurant and make reservations, and seal everything up with my cousin.

We meet my cousin at 6 at an Italian restaurant. Our hotel was close enough to walk thanks to someone's great thinking. I see my cousin standing outside and the man she was with looked nothing like what I told Mike I had imagined him to be. He was a little surprised as we were walking up and told me so. We hug, shake hands, and introduce ourselves. I never told my cousin I was gay in text. I just told her I had a special someone I wanted to introduce her to. She hugs, meets him, and I check into the restaurant. She goes to the restroom to freshen up, text me, and tell me how cute my bf is, as well as his great smile. It makes me melt, let me tell you.

We see the campy humor of my cousin's boyfriend, my cousin asks me all about the family and I divulge. Mike ordered a bottle of wine, which he said later made everything much more bearable. He thought my cousin was super overly excited and asked if she was always like that- I said yes - and he thought the meet was interesting - my cousin wants to meet him again.

We texted afterward and I told her about not being out to her mom, and she agreed it was best not to be. She told me she can't wait to meet again and I told her what a great guy she found.

Mike and I go back to the hotel, watch some kids movie on TV, and fall asleep cuddled up to each other, which was so nice.

SUNDAY

Up, shower, and go to a brunch restaurant in NW SD. We talk about what a strange place it was, then we go to the outlets and don't find a lot. We head home. He makes a pizza for lunch, look at the ads, and I create lesson plans. For dinner he makes chicken marsala- vegetarian style of course. We go to bed about 10:30 and fool around, and I suck him off for a sec.

MONDAY

Up and off to work again... I figure I could do this. Rowdy kids. Grrr. Home at 4. Tell him all about my day and coworkers. About 4:30 he starts dinner and he mentions how we need to vacuum. I offer and get it out of the cupboard and start. I do that for about 30 minutes - and by the time I'm done, I'm warm, and we relax until his shepherd's pie is done. It was quite good. I'd only had it once or twice before. We watch some RHOBH and WWHL. He gets ready to pack for work to go to ATL about 8:30 and I watch TV. We fall asleep about 10:30 and he introduces me to some new 90s show I'd never heard of- I can't remember the name.

TUESDAY

My bf has to get up at 4:30 to catch his flight. He kisses me, tells me he loves me, and then is off once he is dressed. I fall back asleep and am in a deep sleep when I'm awaken at 6:30.

Wednesday Spanish Music

2011-11-30T18:11:00.000-08:00

Love the sexy sound of Aventura

I wanna go see him so badly Friday night.

Horny

2011-11-27T23:42:00.000-08:00

I've been off a week and not had the stress of work. I've been hornier and have only taken 1 anxiety pill... hmmm

Sexuality Survey

2011-11-26T23:57:00.000-08:00

1. How old were you when you knew you were gay?
Probably as early as 5-6, and I knew it was a fact in high school, but was too scared to act on it until I was 20.

2. Have you ever had sex with the opposite sex?
Nope, never

3. Who was the first person you came out to?
Gonzo

4. Are you out to your family?
Yes- immediate.

5. Do you want children?
No

6. Do you have more gay friends or straight friends?
I think I have more straight friends.

7. Were you out in school?
No... can't even imagine being for how some of the kids were made fun of in my high school

8. Is your best friend the same sex as you?
Yes

9. If your best friend is the same sex, have you ever had sex with them?
Nope.

10. Have you ever done crystal meth?
Nope

11. Have you ever been in a sling?
No, but willing to try

12. Have you ever done a 3-way?
Yes... it's been a while!

13. Have you ever dressed in drag?
Nope

14. Would you date a drag queen?
Not a chance

15. Are you ‘fixed in your ways’ as it were?
Yes and no

16. Cher or Bette?
Cher

17. Have you dated someone of a different ethnicity?
No

18. Been to Fire Island? Saugatuck? Key West? Ft. Lauderdale? Palm Springs?
Palm Springs

19. How many Madonna CDs do you own?
0 - I do have Material Girl on my iPod

20. Name of your first love?
The Guy

21. Do you still talk to them?
Yes

22. Does size matter?
To a certain extent, yes... it is also how you use what you have

23. Biggest turn on?
Face

24. Biggest turn off?
Arrogance

25. Ever been harassed due to your orientation?
A little

26. Worst gay stereotype that applies to you?
My voice

27. Ever been to a pride rally?
Yes

28. Would you marry if you could?
Whoa... that may be moving a bit too fast, though I do love him

29. Would you rather be rich and smart or young and beautiful?
Rich and smart

30. Do you sculpt your eyebrows?
Yes

31. Do you trim your body hair?
Yes

32. Ever had sex with more than one person in a day?
Yes

33. Ever been to an orgy?
4 guys

34. Which character in “The Women” best reflects you?
?

35. Favorite gay expression ?
Puhlease

36. How may ‘ex’ do you have?
Male and Female - 2

37. Do you believe in fairies?
No.

38. Do you have any tattoos?
No, and have no want for one; they're permanent

39. Do you have any piercings?
No... nipples or ears... one day

40. Would you date a smoker?
As long as they smoked in moderation/weren't a chainer

41. If you are male, do you know many lesbians?
Yes, as of late, I do

42. Do you know anyone who has died from HIV?
No

43. Are you part of a gay organization?
Nope

44. Is your gym cruisy?
No

45. Grindr or Scruff?
Grindr

46. Are your best years behind or in front of you?
Ahead

47. Got Porn?
Many pics and vids

48. Make out music?
I have a whole playlist devoted to sexy songs that are perfect for this. Unfortunately when I'm making out there is never music playing, but if there were it would probably be one of these songs. One song that comes to my head is "It's Your Love" by Tim and Faith... that's like song sex. Lady A's "Need You Now," Garth's "The Dance," "Someone Like You" by Adele, "Always Be My Baby," by Mariah Carey, or Benny Mardones' "Into The Night"

49. Ever been in love with a straight guy?
I have had a few crushes, but never love

50. Did you ever have sex with him?
No.

51. Have you ever been to a nude beach?

No... one day

52. Have you ever been to a bath house?
No... can't say I haven't been tempted to go

53. Ever had sex in public?
In a car

54. What gay gene did you miss out?
The ability to match clothing

Things I am thankful for

2011-11-24T11:31:00.000-08:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!!! Hope you are out spending the day with family, friends, and loved ones.

Here's a list of things I am thankful for this year:
- My dream job
- My fun new colleagues
- A mostly gay friendly environment at work
- My sexy boyfriend who is cute, easygoing, and we don't always agree, yet are respectful/never have major arguments
- A caring boyfriend, at that, one who listens to me complain about work and likes to give a different perspective to everything... lol
- A loving family
- Getting to introduce my boyfriend to the family
- My mom helping me to be prepared for this school year
- All of the travel I have been able to do this year like Mississippi for my friend's wedding, my first visit to Mexico, my 2nd visit to see the Mayan pyramids, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Sequoia, San Diego, and more...
- Getting to see my cousin from Oklahoma more this year than in the past 5-10 years
- Good health
- Mostly good students
- Getting 2nd row concert tickets to Adele

- Great friends like The Guy, Gonzo, my bestie in MS, Jack Off Buddy, Darla, and several others

The great bloggers I have met and loyal readers who provide support/feedback, as well as bloggers whom I enjoy reading:
Dan in OKC
Mind of Mine
Closet Professor who constantly educates us about gay history
Vic de Vixx
Joey at Who's Life
New Day, New Life
Marvin at Mostly Unfabulous
Aek at The Masks We Wear
Kelly at Rambling Along
Dean at Exploding Doughnut (and that he knows how to spell doughnut instead of donut is hot ;-)
B at All Mixed Up in Ca

Wednesday 70s and 80s music

2011-11-23T11:04:00.000-08:00

One of my favorites...

Sharing our significant others

2011-11-23T00:35:00.000-08:00

My cousin who frequently visits Cali has officially moved out here and wants to do dinner Saturday night. She is moved in with her boyfriend and wants me to meet him. She made a proposition for dinner Saturday night after texting back and forth over the past week or so, and she wants to meet. She wants to introduce me to her man, and I want to introduce her to mine. The problem? I'm not really out to her. I think I've sort of hinted.

I haven't replied to her proposal for dinner, but I want to say something along the lines of, "are we bringing our significant others? I'd like to bring mine, but you should know that he is a guy, and that I am gay." Awkward much?

Or maybe my reply should be like "I would love for you to meet my boyfriend."

Maybe I should call her because coming out over text is so impersonal?

Our weekend adventure

2011-11-22T23:09:00.000-08:00

THURSDAY

My weekend adventure started Thursday night. I knew Mike was getting home from his flight about 5pm and I was planning on being at work extra late. I popped out in time to stop by the store to find something to cook. I debated about attempting a vegetarian version with fake meat of my family's stroganoff, which sounded delicious. I then decided on some tomato basil tortellini from Taste of Home. I text him, find out when he is off the plane, and start cooking. I'm finishing up as he walks in the door. I think he is surprised, gives me a kiss, pours me a glass of wine, and we catch up. I hear about work and his plane ride. We fall asleep on the couch in the evening and make our way to the bedroom about 12.

FRIDAY

I had an all night field trip to chaperone to an amusement park, so I had a crazy day. I had an evaluation at work, had crazy kids due to the excitement from the field trip, and had lots of grading to do. I left work at 3:15 to sneak to Mike's where he had made peppers stuffed with cream cheese. I have a few of those, then head back to work at 4:35 when Lipstick Lesbian calls asking where I was. The all night field trip was pretty chaotic because the lady who organized it was not the most organized and a few people bailed on chaperoning, but I was in for it. OMG. So much fun. The organizer and I had a blast riding the rides. I enjoyed going on the scary rides with my kids and bumper cars. I get in at nearly 5am and sneak next to Mike in bed.

SATURDAY

Up at 9:30am since I couldn't sleep any longer. Mike makes me an egg/toast while I tell him about the field trip in detail. I shower and then we take off. We go over to the OC to Nordstrom Rack, Kohls, and stop at TGI Fridays for an appetizer. We also stall killing time at Rite Aid and Trader Joes before heading to J and B's house. We chat, they talk about their house projects, school, and work. They give us the options for the evening. We head to Downtown Orange to a brewery for a drink and bad service, then across the way to a small restaurant for a pork chop. We then head to another brewery for beer tasting. We sample each other's beers. Mike uses the excuse he has to drive to pour alcohol in me. We were both very touchy in J and B's back seat as we drove to Fresh & Easy for pie, then to their house. We ate pie and talked more about random stuff. We head home about 11 and get to his place about 12. We both fall asleep after we brush our teeth, exhausted.

SUNDAY

Up at 9:30, breakfast at Mickey D's, then to Banananana Republic, JCPenney, and a few other stores. We get back to his place about 1p.m He makes us veggie burgers and I try my first- it wasn't bad- it was pretty tasty. It could possibly satisfy a burger craving- maybe. I enjoyed a coke with breakfast btw, which was yummy; Mike didn't think coke for breakfast was good and suggested alternates. We watch Bravo all afternoon, clean the kitchen, and he uses my tortellini from the other day as a base for his tomato basil pasta he serves with dinner. He added pasta and olives. It was yummy. It poured rain all afternoon and it was romantic as we laid watching the X-mas tree/TV. About 8pm the AMA's came on and we watched TV. We bet on each category as they came on as to who would win. About 9:30-10, he gets ready to pack to go home for Thanksgiving.

Best AMA performances were Kelly Clarkson's Mr. Know It All and Katy Perry's acoustic version of her song The One Who Got Away. Kelly was best dressed in my opinion. Katy Perry and Christina Aguilera were worst.

We head to bed about 11:30, cuddle, make out, and then have sex.

MONDAY

Up at 7, he showers, and I lay in bed. I like that reversal from the usual. I bragged about how nice it was as I played with the kitty. He made his final preps packing and I got my clothing ready to take home to wash.

Met my dad at 9 to set up my retirement plan at the bank. Took my car for service after at a mechanic nearby. Being a commuter I should take much more care of my car and so I don't have to dump tons of money into it at once. The car was really sick as it is still in the repair shop healing. I am out about $1,100. Hopefully I get CarCar back tomorrow.

TUESDAY

Went to LA con mi papa and there was a lot of silence during the trip, then this evening we sat in my room and watched TV.

Dad's depression

2011-11-21T18:04:00.000-08:00

My dad has severe PTSD resulting from Vietnam. I hate to mention it because it has been something that is apart of the reason we have never been close. It has been scary at times living with him as a kid. There are several situations I can think of from the past that could go to demonstrate that.

My dad's PTSD has gotten worse in recent months, and one of the reasons is me. I found a letter where my dad wrote down notes that was rather depression and scathing that he wrote for his doctor's appointment that showed how upset he is with me that I'm never home and I don't pay attention to him. He wrote how he believed that he is the one who caused it because of the way he treated me in the past and I'm using my 20s to retaliate against him.

I overheard a phone call when my mom accidentally redialed my phone number a few months back. She was talking to someone and she said how I was telling her that I'd never be hard, and she understood that I was older, but it was taking a toll on my dad and he is in a depression over it. I held on and she just said how much it is paining her.

This afternoon I was sitting on the couch with my mom talking about Christmas gifts that I would like and she said that I would be lucky to get my dad out of the house. I asked why, and she said he is so depressed over me never being home that he hardly leaves the house. He has to be convinced by my sister to go to the grocery store on weekends. He has stopped calling me each day to ask if I'm going to be home for dinner because he can't stand the rejection. He only goes out when asked several times. Today when my mom and I went out shopping he didn't want to go and she said it was because he doesn't think I'm being genuine about wanting to be around him.

I don't know what to think about this, but I hate to think that this is the case...

I know it is probably a response to many things and he is probably displaying his frustration in the wrong way, but he has to understand I'm growing up... maybe we'll just have to schedule time for each other.

Best NYC Restaurants

2011-11-20T18:07:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I'm looking for suggestions. Do you have any favorite NYC restaurants with a great happy hour, cheap appetizers, or great food for under $30 a person?

Thanks, as always!

To go or not to go to OKC

2011-11-17T16:29:00.000-08:00

To go or not to go to OKC during Thanksgiving Break is the question. 25,000 rewards miles. I have 26,000. It would be fun to see my little cousins.

Tickets are about $500... had I purchased earlier...

Wednesday's music finds

2011-11-16T17:11:00.000-08:00

This may be my favorite Rihanna song

All I Want For Christmas Is You

2011-11-14T20:41:00.000-08:00

Well, I do have my "you," so I'm quite content and happy, but what do I get him is the question?

I am about to start my holiday shopping as all the stores have their holiday decorations out and I want to get in the mood.

Some thoughts include a watch, some nice speakers for the bedroom for iPods, concert tickets, and a few other things.

What is a good gift? I'm thinking $250 and under...

I am also thinking 1 big gift and a couple small ones like when we are in NY together to make things special.

He is the one who has to work during the weekend...

2011-11-13T11:19:00.000-08:00

WEDNESDAY NIGHT

I had every intention of going home after work, but Mike was back home and said he would see me shortly. We went to Chilis for a margarita and a sangria swirl that was pretty intense. We go to Sams Club for a few bath and beauty products. After dinner we head to his place for some Top Chef and other shows. We both fall asleep on the couch and I text my parents I won't make it home. Mike did find me some clothes in his closet i could borrow for Thursday. We wake up at 2:30am and make our way to bed.

THURSDAY

Up early and off to work. Got off work and headed out ASAP along with my partner teachers. I call Mike and leave a message, then head to meet my mom, Linda, and several other teachers I used to work with for dinner. Done with dinner about 6:30pm and head home to get clothes at home. Get clothes and back to Mike's about 8:30. Traffic was a mess. We both fall asleep on the couch and head to bed about 11.

FRIDAY

My bf was up at 7, but he encouraged me to sleep in. He showered, drew the curtains on the room for me, and closed the door while he handled a business call. I got up at 9 and showered. At 9:30 he sent me a text saying that he wanted to go to Panera, but my phone was in the bedroom and I missed it. I ate a slice of toast, but agreed we would go to breakfast when he came out. We spend about 2 1/2 hours at Panera. Lunch crowd comes and it is BUSY. We stop at Petsmart and drive to the one in the next city over looking for animals for adoption day, then go to the house and he continues to work away. About 5 we head to the steakhouse we enjoy for dinner. I had some gurdwenheiser or some other German wine, along with Pino Grigio, and we chit chat about NY, my sister, and my coworkers. We go to Sears Grand after, then Ralphs for wine and ingredients for taquitos, then home.

SATURDAY

My bf gets up at 8, and at 8 I am in a deep sleep. I wake up at 8:30 or so and the covers are over my head, which he makes fun of me for. He had made coffee and then made us eggs and toast. He encourages me to try his coffee, which he made in a French press. I make it "like hot chocolate" and it tastes pretty good (I put lots of sugar). Then he goes to shower. He mentioned cleaning up the house, so I took out the vacuum during this time and vacuumed/cleaned around the edges of each room/vacuumed the furniture. I was in the kitchen when he was done with his shower and he let me continue. He mopped the floor and did some laundry, as well as took out the Christmas tree because I joked it was too early. I shower. We go to Petsmart to look at more animals. We decide to go to Ikea for wine racks and I mention the Lyme Food Truck was at a church in a city we would be passing through, so we stop at this church, which I had also seen a concert at a few years ago, and tell him about this big fundamentalist place. LOL. The Lyme Truck's prices were ridiculous. We had a tuna nachos for $10.50. It wasn't that great... we expected something big and great for that price. We head to Ikea and walk around there, find the wine racks, and a table for the Christmas tree. We stop at Cari's italian, which was nasty. While there I learn a kid I went to elementary-high school with died in a car accident Friday night. I got a text from my sister. I tell him about the kid- I hadn't spoken to the kid since probably 7th grade. We head home and finish putting up the Christmas tree, I make vegetarian taquitos, which turned out pretty good. Good guac helped. We sit in the dark with the Christmas tree light and eat. It was romantic. We go to WalMart after dinner to look and get a few odds and ends like a strainer for the sink. I drove. We head home and watch the Jason Bateman switching places movie, The Change Up, which was pretty predictable, but Jason and Ryan totally did it for me. It is about 10:30 when it is done, King of Queens comes on, it is a repeat, then we go to bed about 11. We brush our teeth, then Mike takes me in his arms as we are laying in bed, we jack each other off, then I fuck him, and we clean up. We both fall asleep.

SUNDAY

We are up at 7- and I'm tired. I move about 7:40 when he is done showering. I shower after and then we go to Panera. He forgot his charger to do some work there, so we ended up back here at his place rather quickly. Going pretty well, though.

A followup to students are beginning to think I'm gay

2011-11-13T11:05:00.000-08:00

I know I didn't say much in this post, and I was scared to, but it seems all is ok right now.

Here's what happened-

It was a Thursday morning about 2 weeks ago and we just had a staff meeting. I'm walking to the restroom when lesbian math teacher comes chasing me down- literally- and went way out of her way to do so. She stops me in the staff room and tells me that she had been doing classroom observations a few weeks back and overheard a group of girls chitchatting. The girls said that they are sure I am gay. I am such a nice guy, though, there is no way that I could be gay. The teacher told me how refreshing this was to hear that the students were so accepting and that they were convinced gay guys couldn't be as nice as me. I was just taken aback by this whole thing and told her that was great.

I walked into the bathroom nervously afterward and then started texting all my friends for support...

The majority of the staff is supportive. There are close to 10 gay/lesbian staff members/many allies, so it would be ok. I just hate to make waves like that in my first year teaching.

More Music Wednesday

2011-11-09T16:58:00.000-08:00

Snow Day!

2011-11-08T21:54:00.000-08:00

Friday
Go out to dinner at an Italian restaurant we always see, but never tried in Rancho. Met a former coworker, Mrs. M, from my old school while Mike and I are sitting at the bar. We chit chat and have some funky bruschetta and calamari. The restaurant was forgettable. We go to Marshalls at the mall after and I make fun of him for forgetting to make certain turns.

Saturday
Icky training at work from 8-1. I was up at 7 to get there on time. Get back at 1:15 to Mike's and he is watching TV. He spent the morning doing that. We look online for a while for somewhere to go and just decide to watch TV, then grab lunch at Olive Garden- or try to. Olive Garden was packed in the bar. We go next door to Red Lobster only to find a lack of waiters and waitresses, and tons of open tables. We go next door to the next restaurant, Chevy's Mexican, where we have unos amigos serve us some buenas margaritas y quesadillas. Muy delicious- one of the best quesadillas we've had. We go across the street to Sams Club and activate our new memberships. Then we walk through the store and I buy a cushy bath rug for when we get out of the shower. We go across the street again to the mall to see "Ides of March," which had good acting, but was a horrible script- it lacked suspense and the ending left you hanging. We fall asleep on the couch and make our way to bed about 12:30 where he holds me and jacks me off, then I jack him off and get off a 2nd time... fun times... love it!

Sunday
Mike was up early and planning a trip. We thought 6 Flags, bought our annual passes, but there was rain. He said we could grab Mickey D's, then decide where to go. We look at the weather maps while there and decide to get a rental car and go elsewhere. Mike was insistent to get a 4WD rental because he had a free rental. We wait for a rental like that to come up, a Jeep Wrangler. We get in and drive toward LA. We circle Fairplex thinking we would go to the pet show, but change our mind. I say we should go to the mountains since it was probably snowing and we had lots of jackets in the car.

We are suddenly heading to the snow. I'd only driven through snow or experienced the little flurries here in my city every few years. Mike puts it in 4WD and we head up the mountain. We stop so I could get out and he could snap photos of me standing in the snow. We make our way to Big Behr Lake and stop in the village for a late lunch of so-so salad and clam chowder. We also have a strange bruschetta with bread and lumps of cheese in the middle of the plate that we had to cut and put on the bruschetta. It was messy. We go to Starbucks and admire the snow. Mike complains about the coldness. WE stop a few more times and take more photos. We head to Layk Airowhead where we shop in the village.

We head back home and stop to get groceries. My ears wouldn't pop going down the mountain, which was incredibly painful. I could barely hear in the grocery store. We grab dinner supplies and head to the house. He opens some wine while I lesson plan and he cooks some pasta. It was good. We watch some Real Housewives and Desperate Housewives. We both fall asleep on the couch and head to bed about 11.

MONDAY NIGHT
I get to his place about 3:30 and he is out mowing. He complains about the yard, the grass, etc. Then we go in and he handles a few things from work. We go to dinner at our Mexican restaurant we like. The service was lackluster and we deem it a Friday thing, but we did enjoy $1.99 margaritas. We go to Target after. We go back to his place for some NeNe and Shiray on RHOA. I start falling asleep at 8:20 on the couch and he is not far behind me. I wake up once about 9, then we both sleep until 12:30a.m. It was crazy. I was shocked. I thought we both may be there all night.

Tuesday
He was up at 6 for work to head off on business. I got up at 6:30 and used the spare shower. We kissed and said goodbye.

Will you take a message?

2011-11-07T21:52:00.000-08:00

Carla called the other night. I was in the mood to lead her on, so this is how the conversation went:

Me: Hello
Carla: Hi, is Pamela there?
Me: No.
Carla: Well, is she in the room with you?
Me: I define here as the entire house.
Carla: Don't get an attitude with me. I'm done raising kids.
Me: Should I give you a gold star?
Carla: Well, is she washing clothes?
Me: And she wouldn't be "here" why?
Carla: Well, will she be inside soon?
Me: No.
Carla: How late is too late to call?
Me: Anytime you call.
Carla: How late is too late to call?
Me: Anytime you call.
Carla: Your mom isn't home then.
Me: I know, and that's why it is perfect, bitch.
Carla: Well, I don't need anymore of this. Can you take a message? I'm going to tell your mom about your mouth.
Me: You think she can control my mouth?
Carla: I want you to tell her the AVON order is going in tonight and you should write it down. You should also write down about your sinful mouth.
Me: Dumbass. Dumbass. Dumbass.

I hung up the receiver and felt a sense of accomplishment.

Students are beginning to think I'm gay

2011-11-04T21:27:00.000-07:00

Just what I needed...

Caller 104

2011-11-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

This song helped me win $200 this week from a radio station contest. I feel like I'm walking in fields of gold...

Music Wednesday

2011-11-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

I just recently learned the song's title after how many hundred years of being out... and now that I found the title out I was able to put it on my iPod.

Constant Craving

And I'm back... and similarities

2011-11-01T21:26:00.000-07:00

WEDNESDAY NIGHT
Went over to Mike's because I needed to be at work super early since I had a sub Wednesday and had to get my room back in order. I went back to chaos- a bad last period of the day and so much needing to get done for Thursday

THURSDAY
Got to Mike's about 9:00pm after a long day at work. Brought him some dessert a 15x15 bar that a teacher had made, but he didn't like it. He said in his text to bring something sweet. I brought something sweet. It was delis, but he wanted chocolate chip cookies. He missed out. I ate the treats myself. We both went to bed about 10:30.

FRIDAY
I was at work until 4 and could have stayed until 5 or 6, but it was a Friday. Go to dinner at our favorite steakhouse. While there we talk about everything from work to family to meeting his parents to his ex. While in the middle of dinner, our 2nd appetizer the power goes out in the restaurant. It was very busy. No one really screamed - some pulled out their cell phones and ate by cell phone light. We had a good time. I was rubbing his leg and moving closer. It stayed out for maybe 5 minutes. We left the restaurant about 8. We go home and both crash on the couch watching Tivo.

SATURDAY
Up early and he does some cleaning. We go to breakfast at Panera. I drive and I forgot my iPad. I take my computer from work to lesson plan only to realize I forgot the power cord at school. I caught up on Facebook on my phone instead.

We go back to his house and get our bag ready for a night out with his ex. Stopped at the outlets in the desert where we enjoy Banananana Republick. He's good friends with his exes parents and really helped him as he moved to California. We get to the hotel they are at and we check in for the night, I work on something for school, then we meet up with them. They were so welcoming of me and there was really no connection between Mike and his ex. They were cold toward each other. I was not ok meeting them at first, but sucked it up and did it. We chit chat on the patio and the learn about me and think I'm wonderful for Mike. They gave their seal of approval. Then we go with his ex, his ex's best friend, and his ex's sister to dinner. Told them about NY for Xmas and they thought Mike needed to take me to all the touristy stuff. As we were sitting at dinner at some bad bbq place in Palm Springs named after a pig I realize how much his ex seems like me. Look was somewhat alike, both are ambitious, both of us have indecisive patterns. Dinner was weird as he gets along so much better with the family than his ex. We go back to the hotel and drop them off. We then take a bus to the main hotel to get our drink on at the main hotel. Amaretto and coke, thanks.

We go back to the hotel room where Mike gives me a hard time about wanting to get a bath, but how can you refuse when you have a 2 person jacuzzi tub? We poured some wine, kissed, and sat holding each other in the tub, then made out, jacked each other off, and well, it was hot. I had a fun time. Mike felt dirty afterward and had to shower. He did. We went to bed on our small double bed. Mike first had to call and argue about the TV not working with the hotel staff- they swore it did and that people only watch DVDs on it... wtf?

SUNDAY
Up at 8 and relax in the room. We shower and head to a French cafe with french people and have crepes. Good stuff. Good service. We go to the Bananana Republick in PDesert and enjoy even more cheap stuff. We both spent about $400 at BR this weekend. We stop at the grocery store on the way back for wine and frozen pizza. I didn't mention that on Saturday we bought about $200 worth of wine at Ralphs. Eat pizza back at his house, doze, and watch Top Chef shows etc. For dinner we head out to Joann Fabrics first because he was looking at draperies. We then decide on Chilly's where we have some great service and great strong drinks. We ate lots! Back to his place where we both fell asleep about 10:30

MONDAY - HALLOWEEN
Work was alright. Head to Mike's about 3:15. Talk and catch up, he's laying on the couch. He does some work off and on in his office. I do the dishes and clean the stove while he does that. He makes spaghetti squash and chicken for dinner. The spaghetti squash was interesting. I fell asleep on the couch for about 10 minutes before we head to bed about 10.

TUESDAY
Up at 6:30 and off to work... long day at work... reconvened with the family.

Music Wednesday

2011-10-26T19:52:00.000-07:00

Inside joke...

Approval

2011-10-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY
Got to Mike's about 3:30 and we headed to get his car at the repair shop. After the repair shop we go to Chilis where we have great service- bartender remembers us from a few weeks back and was awesome. We have the nachos and chips/salsa. We go back to his place afterward and watch the TV we missed from the week like Top Chef Desserts. We both fall asleep on the couch.

SATURDAY
We got up at 7 or so. Mike had to rearrange his flights for work and so he does that while I watch the news and play with the kitties. He comes in when he is done and we take turns showering. He spends the morning cleaning and doing clothes- I had offered to help, but he refused. We go to IHOP for breakfast since I had a gift certificate. The food was mediocre at best. I had the Nutella crepe.

We drive around town after looking at the councilman's house and exploring random neighborhoods. We go back to his place and watch TV. We head out a little later to get groceries for The Guy's party. We get mushrooms, hummus, spinach and artichoke dip, celery, and carrots- a few other basics. I pay for all that stuff. We decide to do stuffed mushrooms with spinach and artichoke dip and hummus with carrots and celery. We go back to his house and have a glass of wine while we arrange the food.

We head to The Guy's about 4pm and get there at 4:30. It was pretty fun. We walk in and there is a lot going on- everyone is in the kitchen. We set our food out and the party is on. The Guy explains the rules- it was a themed night. There was picture taking, judging, then you got to pick your pumpkin, and then you carved your pumpkin. The pumpkins were judged, and those with low scores had to sing for their life. Mike and I stayed pretty reserved mainly sitting and chatting on the couch. We made comments and jokes about random stuff like The Guy's decorating, his walls, and the queeny people at the party. We take our photos together for the judging part of the competition and I had a pretty awesome photo- I got to pick the 3rd pumpkin. Mike had an advanced design he was carving and it didn't turn out so well- his pumpkin caved in- but he was the one ahead of everyone telling them how to carve their pumpkin. He was awesome! The judging started at 8 and our pumpkins were ready to be judged. The Guy was the judge and he shouldn't have picked the ones he did to win. The winner was Zach, his best friend, whose pumpkin was late for the judging. He just did a generic happy face. The gal who did the intricate wolf in moon design should have won. I should have been 2nd, but I was 3rd. Zach won an iPod nano. Runners up got a $25 iTunes gift card and those who had to sashay away got $15 iTunes gift cards and candy. The event was pretty fun, although Mike was mad I didn't win and The Guy picked his best friend. Before we left, The Guy, said how nice Mike was and how happy he was for us.

We chat all the way home about the people there and The Guy's decorating. We both fall asleep on the couch.

SUNDAY

Up about 7 to go to Kohls and go to breakfast. WE head to McDonalds. We chat about random stuff like my cousin moving out here from Oklahoma. Mike buys several pairs of socks on clearance at Kohls. We head back toward his place and again do some exploring on the other side of the tracks. We watch some random Bravo show he Tivo'd while I lesson plan for the week. I am feeling hungry, so we head to a sandwich shop that he heard good things about. We wonder why... it wasn't that good. We watch some more TV and relax. I finish reading "The God Box" by Alex Sanchez, which was a pretty good story. I went on gay erotica downloading binge after. I have lots of new readS. Mike asks me if I want to go to New York to visit him for the holidays with his family. Yes. OMG. A New York Christmas!!! CAN IT GET ANY BETTER? I AM SO EXCITED TO MEET HIS FAMILY AND POSSIBLY SEE SOME SNOW... LOL.

We go to Loosill's BBQ for dinner and shop around the mall afterward. We went there since my bf wanted a veggie burger. We had a good time just walking around the mall. He bought a sport coat and polo at Banana Republic on sale.

We go back to his place and he packs for his business trip. We head to bed about 10:30 watching Old Christine.

MONDAY

He is up at 6 to shower and head off on his trip. I wake up at 6:30 and rush to get to work. I got out of the house about 5 minutes than earlier since the shower water was already hot, which was nice since I needed every minute at work today. Crazy day at work. Good day, but crazy.

Home now...

Break me

2011-10-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

I feel I am at a breaking point. I am only teaching one subject, but I have 3 groups that are at 3 different levels/spots. 2 are my advanced classes, 1 is my mostly 6th and 7th English learners, and the other are my 8th graders who are a day behind the 2 advanced classes, but are at a different point.

Within these classes, admin wants me teaching something different, so technically it is like teaching 2-3 different preps. Just tonight I have had to modify and change my lesson for different classes. The 2 slower classes need a more intensive reading based class, so I am having to delve into the language arts textbook and basically make my class a language arts class. I am having to write 2 different sets of plans and create 2 different sets of activities. The fact that the students are at 3 different levels my mind is spinning. I

guess it'll just have to be...

More Music Wednesday

2011-10-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

Favorite songs of the week - no particular era or genre-

I want to win the MYFM Halloween Contest to get to see Daughtry. I'm trying. I want to see him in concert badly.

Not a fan, but someone was listening to him all weekend...

Toasted

2011-10-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention, but The Guy and I hung out last Monday. I had himwork on my computer. I had a minor faux pas that I was hoping he could correct, but it left him perplexed. A trip to the Apple Store is in order. Mike and I are going to his party this weekend.

FRIDAY

Mike and I were texting during my lunch break and he asked if I wanted to go to Yoooosemite. Sure, why not? We'd talked about going. I told my coworkers who were in the room at the time, Lipstick Lesbian, and Hangs on Every Word. They were jealous. I just said it is a perk of a great guy- a guy who takes me where I want to go.

After work I head to his house. I tried to get out by 3:30, but it didn't happen. It was a tough day and I had several battle scars... lol. I am the biggest klutz. Once I am done head to his place. We take off a few minutes later to the airport for a car. We think about a Ford Edge for a moment, but decide on a Volvo XC60 despite his dislike for other Volvos, but we figured if we were going to be outdoorsy, we should go all the way with that AWD vehicle. We go in to change his reservation a bit, then we are off.

We drive to a basque restaurant we went to last time where we both dine on fried shrimp and other fun stuff. WE had about a 30 minute wait in a bar. One guy at the bar, a hick cowboy type, asks me if I was the one hit by a car outside of the restaurant earlier because of my battle scar from work earlier. All Mike could do was laugh. We eat, then as we are leaving, we both use the bathroom. I am walking out and one of the cowboy guys puts his hand on my dick as I walk by him- like he feels my package through my jeans- he has a beer in his hand, and I am walking out to where Mike is. I tell Mike and he just laughs. He tells me I was toasted because I had several glasses of wine. He gets some pleasure that I feel violated. Don't grab my dick unless you are my boyfriend, thanks.

We make it to Frezno where we stay at a hotel for the night. We both fall asleep shortly after we arrive. We are up at 7 on Saturday. We take some time getting ready, then leave about 9:15 to Panera. We go to Fresh & EZee for wood, plasticware, salads, breakfast, and cookies. We also stop at Rite Aid. We are then off to Yoosemite.

It is about a 2 hour drive, but it is fun. We talk and pass time pretty easily. We get to the park and start out exploring at the top looking at the Half Dome and other points of interest. We drive down to the bottom after a couple of hours where we find our campsite and set up for the night. We unload the car and then catch the bus, get off the bus, and make our way to a hotel for a bar. We have awful chips and salsa that we douse in salt and pepper. Then we go across the way for some so-so French onion soup and Caesar salad. I am toasted yet again- or so Mike thought- so we head back to the campsite.

We set up our fire where Mike pours wine, and I am again toasted. We go through 1 1/2 bottles of cheap wine from Fresh & EZee. We talk about my boy scout years as we sit at the fire, his camping experiences, family, and a few other topics. Fun stuff. We are watching fellow campers go to bed 1 by 1. We make it to bed about 10:15, but we play around and cuddle for a while. It was fun to play and know that there was a couple with a kid on the other side of the wall. We were quiet. We both fell asleep until nearly morning. I think I had my hand surrounding him the entire night. We woke up and I was again horny and insisted that we play. He was too, thankfully. We are by now wet and need to shower. We head to the shower. He passés me the soap and other items as we take our showers. Fun times.

We clean up at our campsite and talk about how "eco-friendly" we were in comparison to other campers- never mind the 4 bundles of firewood. We drive around and check out the big Awahnee Hotel.

We leave about 12 and head to the outlets in Tularee. We stop at Basss so that Mike could get a few shirts since he liked the ones we got a few weeks back. We decide to do a late lunch at Bravo Farms, the cheese place at the outlets. IT WAS SOOOOOOO GOOD, and the guy who served us was so friendly. Indee-in tacos are my new favorite thing.

We get back home about 8 and I stay at his place since I still have clothes around. We watch Desperate Housewives and Real Housewives before bed.

MONDAY

I'm up early for work and shower. I have a pretty good, yet busy day at work. I leave work earlier than usual to pick Mike up after taking his convertible to the repair shop. We head home and watch lots of Ellen on Tivo and have some more wine- I don't get toasted this time. He makes his proscuitto bake again. Delish! Lunch for the week for me! Woo! We both fall asleep to Desperate Housewives about 9:30. We go in and brush our teeth, and I fall asleep quickly after.

TUESDAY

I get up and have a fashion emergency. I picked up the wrong pants last week and these pants are 3'' too wide around my waist. I borrow a belt of his and then decided to wear my shirt tail out to fix that. It was no bueno. I felt so dumb.

After work I head home for shots and to visit con la familia. We dine and get flu shots.

So now I'm home and working on lesson plans for school..................... woo.

Thanks for waking me up at 3:37

2011-10-14T03:57:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I thought I'd blog since I am now awake and have nothing to do. My sister couldn't sleep and thought she would make it a point to let everyone know. She sleeps with her bedroom door open and pushed it shut loudly to wake everyone up to show her displeasure that she was still up I guess, then walked in to tell my mom that my dad was snoring in the living room where he fell asleep on the couch.

So now that I'm up, here's to hoping for a good Friday!

I hope I didn't make him mad

2011-10-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

I think my BF was expecting me to be at his house tonight when he got home from his business trip. He asked me when he was on his layover if I was at his house, and I told him no. He texted me when I got home and asked where I was. His texts seemed short after. Ugh. I want to bring it up to let him know I'm sorry- thinking of texting him in the morning, and just saying something like "wish I were there waking up next to you," or something like that to show I wish I were there, or "wish I could wake up every morning next to you." Or should I come straight out and say, "I am sorry about not coming over last night and meeting you when you got home from your trip. I hope you weren't mad," and wish him a good day. Ugh. I hate being the overanalyzer.

Luke Bryan made my day

2011-10-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

Got caught up on Tivo with my bf the other night and I couldn't help but notice how Ellen is like a giant promotion for groupon and Tide. That is all she seems to talk about- like "As the Tide Turns?" Giant ad for Tide cleverly disguised.

But the good thing about this one was I saw Luke Bryan's chest, and well, it was hot!

And I love the sound in this new song

Favorite positions

2011-10-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

I feel at a loss - my boyfriend and I tend to not talk about sex and other things - and so I guess this is why I'm blogging about it.

His favorite position is to be held/squeezed as he is fucked, so I lay on my side and we spoon, which is totally hot. I play with his chest as I do that and his dick, but his nipples aren't really an erogenous zone. We've tried missionary once and that wasn't that great. I felt like I was all arms...

Suddenly I feel at a loss of new ways to please him...

I do want to have him ride me one night...

Bringing up the taboo

2011-10-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

How do you bring up taboos in random everyday conversation with the one you love, such as, oh, I don't know... road head... or sexual positions... or... lol.

Kitty psych

2011-10-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

It was a fun weekend...

THURSDAY

Thursday afternoon I planned to head to Mike's, but some family drama made it so I had to rush home to handle that since my mom couldn't be reached. It was nearly 8pm before I was done

FRIDAY

Friday at work was pretty good. I learned and got some clarification on some policies, which was nice.

Friday afternoon I headed over to my love's house. He was starved and was cleaning when I arrived. He was running the vacuum. He put that away and we headed to Chilis for a margarita, chips, nachos, and spinach & artichoke dip. I told him about the issues with my dad on Thursday, the conference for work, and about my favorite lesbians. We went to Ontario Mills after to shop. He didn't say where we were going, but I am glad we did. We went to Marshalls, then I told him I wanted to go to Nordstrom Rack despite it being halfway around the mall and him having to walk. He tried to give me the keys so I could get the car for him.

We go back to his place where we both fall asleep on the couch. He hadn't been feeling too well this week. We go to bed about 11 or 12. We kiss and he holds me as he leans over on me as we fall asleep, which was so romantic.

SATURDAY

I had to get up and go to work on a Saturday. I signed up to do home visits for several of my students with 3 other teachers from my department. There were about 15 of us teachers in total. I was up at 7 while someone who didn't have to work on Saturday laid in bed. I showered and headed to work. My favorite teachers were there, so we had a good time. It was really eye opening to see the kids and where they live- a 2 bedroom apartment with 10 people, a relatively nice house, a new house that looked to be falling apart, a house with a ton of dogs in front and windows shot out. It would have been great to see more of my kids. Went back to school when we were done and had lunch with our students/parents.

Head back to Mike's and tell him about my day. He was a little scared for me going on those home visits. We watch "Big Bang Theory," and I text my coworker, Blondie, my lesbian coworker, about going to dinner with her girlfriend. She and her girlfriend had a fight, which put that in jeopardy, but they reconciled, and we went about 5:00pm. We also watched some pet psychologist or cat doctor or something weird like that on Animal Planet who was giving all of these suggestions about cats socializing, so Mike heeds their advice and blocks all of his anti-social cat's hiding places and closes off all of the rooms in the house. She was nervous it seemed, but she was out and about.

Mike and I got to PF Changs at 5:30 and we were to meet at 6. We grabbed a margarita and green bean fries at the bar while waiting for the table. They arrive at 6 and we sit down at the table. A good 2 hours or so of laughs, making fun of each other, and lovers quarrels. We were getting very touchy, had our cute little lovers quarrels, talked about cruises, drag queens, and vacations.

We leave about 8:15, hug, kiss, and then head back to Mike's where he packs for his business trip. He showers. We fall asleep about 10pm snuggled up to each other, which I loved. The alarm goes off bright and early at 4am and he snoozes for 15 minutes. I hug him, see him off, and tell him that I love him while I continue to sleep.

I wake up and do some lesson planning. Woo. I've just been hanging out at his house this morning. The cat seems a little out of place, but so far is out more than usual.

Suction

2011-10-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY

WHAT A WEEK... OMG... I HAD AN AWFUL WEEK. I was out 3 days due to jury duty and a conference. I was not happy. I came back and my kids were off the wall. I had to get out of school ASAP, but knew that I needed to do lots of planning during the weekend. I left at 3:30 and went straight to Mike's. He was working on his expense reports for work, so he did that until nearly 5:30 and I created 2 Powerpoints and my lesson plans for the week. It was productive and in an environment I was much less frustrated in. We spent some time chatting about our days, Adam Levine, and how we both assume he is gay despite him dating girls. Sure, part of the reason was to move like Jagger, but Mike is convinced after seeing him on Ellen the other day that it is not the case.

After, we head to the French restaurant we went on one of our first dates to. We had to spend at least $100 to use our restaurant.com gift certificate, so that meant imbibing on a nice $40 bottle of wine, a steak with shrimp, and he had a vegetarian deal. We spent about 2 1/2 hours at dinner- sit down, wine, dine, good stuff. Lots of talk about frustrations at work.

After dinner we head home and relax on the couch watching Ellen. We both fall asleep on the couch.

SATURDAY

We both wake up about 7:30 or 8. We shower and eat breakfast about 10 or so. We go to the dry cleaners to drop off our clothes, then go to Kohls to price vacuum cleaners. We also go to Target to look for clearance and don't find much. We went grocery shopping at Fresh & Easy, got a lot of squash, a cake for me to make. I went back to his place and made the cake- it didn't turn out well. We didn't have a cake for dessert as the center wouldn't cook even after an hour +. We had some leftover spaghetti that he made for dinner. We both fell asleep on the couch- we watch the Bravo Top Chef Desserts, Food Truck Race, and more.

SUNDAY

We woke up, showered, watched Anderson on Tivo, then ended up cuddling on the couch. He made an egg and bread for breakfast, but then we went back to cuddling. I laid up against him and on his lap for a while until we decided to move. We went to Kohls and Home Depot. We bought an LG vacuum at Home Depot since they price matched Sears saving him $75.

We went to Lake Arrowhead after. We walked around the village and ended up in a Mexican joint where we ate tortilla chips, tacos, and enchiladas. There wasn't much to see and I was disappointed not many of the trees were changing for fall. We went to a few more mountain communities while we were up there just to drive around and see what was there.

Back down in the city at his house we try out the vacuum and discover how disappointing it was since it doesn't suction well. We decide it has to go back. We have leftover spaghetti from the other night for dinner, then spend some time lesson planning.

MONDAY

Up at 6:15 since he had an early day. I had another awful day at work- a headache compounded with an observation, compounded by stress from testing, plus a few wacko kiddos.

At 3:30 I head home to get clothing and visit with my dad for about 30 minutes before turning around to get back at Mike's at 5:15. I come in, put my clothes in the closet, and he is showering. I go in the living room and text a coworker, Blondie, who was under the weather. Mike comes out dressed and we go to return the vacuum. We look at 2 Kohls for the new vacuum he wanted, but they didn't have it, and refused to match Walmart's price, so we give up. We go to Olive Garden for the never-ending pasta bowl for dinner. We enjoy chatting with the guy at the bar who encouraged me to get some pasta to go for lunch- that was nice. While at the bar he buys a vacuum online for less than what he would have paid in a department store.

We go back to his place and watch Desperate Housewives and Pan Am, and sort of doze on the couch.

We go to bed about 11. We brush our teeth and kiss each other good night. He's getting into the habit of saying "I love you" when we go to bed and he was so tired he didn't realize he didn't say it and 2-3 minutes after we went to bed he poked me and rolled over to kiss me so he could say it. Too sweet. I was the one that started saying it as we went to bed... lol.

TUESDAY

Back at work and more chaos...

Sister's Quality is 2.6

2011-09-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

Easiness: 3.2 out of 5 (being the best)
Helpfulness: 2.5 out of 5
Clarity: 2.1 out of 5
Overall Score: 2.6 out of 5

My sister didn't fare so well on ratemyprofessor.com according to the 5 ratings. So much for being a good professor... hahaha

My passive agressive sister

2011-09-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

We are having the main bathroom redone, and the plumber who was here the other day used a microfiber cloth that was in the bathroom that my sister considers HER towel to block the drain so that water could not go down it since there was no pipe below due to the repiping going on at the same time.

She was upset that HER towel was down in the drain and she put this note inside the train. Um. I took it out and threw it in the trash, she wrote another, and then I saw it later and told my dad. He told her that would only make the plumber mad/cause for bad service and it was good since microfiber towels absorb a lot.

Ok dad... and you wonder?

2011-09-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

My dad went in to go to bed about 9:05 tonight. At 9:20 my sister goes in the room, lays down on the bed where my dad is trying to sleep, and starts playing with his ear and saying how cool the cartilage in it feels. Um... sure the TV was on, but he was trying to sleep. And did we not have a blow up a few weeks ago about how he is fed up with someone keeping everyone up? I don't get it.

Put your damn foot down, dad.
And dumb sister, what the hell are you doing?

Olive you glad we went?

2011-09-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Wednesday Mike sent me a text asking if I was doing anything this weekend, and that he had a surprise. We were going to Phoenix. That made an awful week awesome.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON
- Tried to get out of work at 3, but it was 3:30 before I was out, and then still had a lot to do, which I managed to tackle on the car ride
- Drive to the airport for a rental, a SAAB 9-3 Turbo... 32mpg not bad... great acceleration and handling- and I could tell from the passenger seat - styling is not up to par with other luxuries, but no doubt the rental company got it cheap given Saab's situation
- Stop for fish tacos after deciding a margarita and chips at Ap-pole-bee's was not cutting it
- Stop in Co-Chella to use the restroom
- On to Phoenix where we were at a hotel just outside the airport
- Stop at a liquor store for a little bottle of something to get the party going
- Got lots of freebies like drinks, appetizers, breakfast, all due to Mike's status... pretty sweet
- Go down to hotel bar for drinks and appetizers... jack and coke, thanks
- Nice bartender, but not great drinks, but they were free, and we got time to chat, so it was a win-win
- Up to the room for some vino
- Brush teeth
- Tickle, poke, tickle... we were so horny... we were watching something on TV with Ashton Kutcher, then next thing you know we are making out, which was soooooooo fun and enjoyable, and then more happened
- He was insistent on tickling me afterward, and we cuddled up afterward and I fell asleep in his arms, which I miss doing I realize

SATURDAY
- Up at 7:30, cuddle until 8, then more cuddling. He touches my woody, and we were at it again... too fun!!! He didn't last long, so after he came, I jacked myself off and he played around with my chest, and we made out, which I enjoyed
- Shower
- Down to hotel restaurant for breakfast... football team was there... a couple annoying patrons too
- Off to olive farms
- Tr tons of different olive oils... who knew there were so many flavors... tour was disappointing, but learned some, and found a lot of stuff to try
- Scarf down some delicious cupcakes made with olive oil... I'm a believer now... must try olive oil in my baking
- Off to Downtown Scottsdale where we went to a Mexican restaurant where I had an enchilada and margarita, then walked around and Mike bought a few figurines, as well as a necklace for his mom's birthday... Mike seemed a little buzzed, which was cute, and we became very flirty
- End up in another olive oil store and balsamic vinegar... found lots of other flavors to try, and the lady was super sweet who was helping us... bought some more
- Back in car to the hotel- saw a car accident happen on the freeway... a blow out... a car went spinning... scary stuff
- Shower at hotel and sort of nap
- Off to the swanky restaurant in Tempe that Mike picked out... heard about how Tempe is where he first drank and got drunk... so cute!
- We park the car and pay dearly because of the football game going on
- Go to a gay pizza joint... seriously... every guy working there was gay... and they were the flamboyant stuck up type... it was not cool
- Wine was so-so
- Off to the restaurant, which was mostly outdoor
- We had patio reservations for 8:15 and grabbed a glass of wine while on the patio... tried abarino, which was pretty good
- Mike was chatting up the lady next to us who was the owner of the restaurant we found out
- We had reservations for a table on the patio, but Mike said the service was great at the bar, which it was, so we opted to stay there, though a table would have been romantic
- All of a sudden a dust storm comes and it seemed like a rain downpour, but then we realized it was blowing, Mike lost his contact, and people went scrambling. It all happened in under like 30 seconds and lasted 4-5 minutes. It was nuts, but I stayed out there and lived through it and the bartenders kept pouring. We were both covering our glasses of vino, but we were Californians living it up and experiencing this new thing to us
- We felt sandy and gritty afterward, Mike got his contact fixed, and we ordered our food. That was crazy. People either flocked inside or just stood around after
- Dinner was interesting... chili and asparagus... flat iron steak and potatoes with a very contrasting seasoning sauce, and key lime pie for dessert
- Espresso martini for dessert, Mike shared that with me, as well as a glass of wine
- He was buzzing again I'm pretty sure
- Back toward the hotel, but he didn't know exactly where he was going, and I just told him he went the wrong way and justified my reasons as to why... I was right... whatdya know? I loved flirting with him through all of this... lol...
- In our room we sip wine and decide it was no bueno, so brush teeth and get in bed
- "Will you give me your foot?" "Will you please give me your foot?" The persistence in him asking that made me melt. He was cute. I gave him my foot, but that meant I got tickled. "Why would you give me your foot?" Geez. 20 questions. I couldn't resist, though it meant being tickled. I tickled back. We both fell asleep snuggled closely

SUNDAY
- Up at 7:30
- Mike realized he had to fly out tonight, so head back toward home
- Shower
- Grab some Dunkin Donuts since we can't do that in Cali, and America runs on Dunkin, you know
- Mike isn't feeling so great :( headache and nausea
- Head to the Salt-in See where we see all the salt on the ground
- Stop at Subway in Mecca for lunch
- In Salt-in See we see all the crazy towns, Mike gives me a tour and a synopsis of everything I needed to know
- Visit Salt-in Sitee too
- Lots of randomness... lots of vacancies and a city that was supposed to be developed, but never was because the sea's issues prevented it. It was cool to finally visit that place as one of my mom's former students whom she is still in contact with moved out there, so that was cool
- Back to Mike's
- He packs for his trip
- We chit chat
- Watch Food Truck Race
- Head out, hug, kiss, thank each other for the weekend, and see him off
- He speeds on the freeway to catch up to me, and when he does waves, which made me melt... so cute!
- Home about 8:15, Debrief and tell the family about the weekend

Songs from the weekend:
- Mike's new jam

Most overplayed and worst songs of the weekend... anything Natasha Bedingfield

Sometimes I swear his iPod only has 3-4 songs... mine has like 1800 ;-)
- Best songs of the weekend:
This was surprisingly romantic as we jammed in the car Friday night heading to Phx... it was dark... and JLo has a sexy voice

Skidmarks on the pavement

2011-09-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

My neighbors annoy me. See that car at the bottom of the hill? It is always parked there. The wheel is missing on it. See how it looks like I'm driving in the middle of the road on a windy road? I am. See, there was a car parked next to me. I live off of an extremely windy road and the neighbors see no problem parking on this street, parking around corners, making it extremely dangerous. All of these skid marks are from near misses and accidents on this street. You'd think someone would learn to park in their driveway with all of this... I'm always afraid I'll get hit from a car going too fast that is on the wrong side of the road because they tried to avoid a car parked on one side of the street.

Jabbing Keith

2011-09-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

I run into Keith 2-3 times a week at the gym. I ran into him Tuesday night as I was working on the bicep machine that looks across to the bikes he was sitting, and waved at me. I ignored him and turned my head. I walked by him later and he went out of his way to wave and put his hand in my face- I mean about a foot from my face and put his body forward to make sure I saw him. I just smiled.

I ran into him again Wednesday night in the parking lot. He said "what's up Mr. Mike-eeeee?" I said, "nothing." Then this is how the conversation went... OBVIOUSLY NOT WORD FOR WORD... BUT GENERAL IDEA
Keith: What's new with you?
Me: Nothing.
Keith: You always seem so busy and preoccupied. I tried to say hi to you last night.
Me: Oh, I didn't notice. I was thinking about something.
Keith: Durrrr.
Me: Is there some law that said I had to notice Keith? I guess I see you 2-3 times a week and it is getting hard to ignore you.
Keith: Someone's got a tude tonight.
Me: Damn right.
Keith: Well, I've been busy. Work has been slow, but I have 2-3 good projects coming up that will supplement my income... it's so hard being self employed you know...
Me: And here we go again, all about Keith. Is it ever about Mike?
Keith: Well, how are you?
Me: Fine.
Keith: What is new with you?
Me: Nothing.
Keith: Well that's good.
Me: I guess I'll come clean and tell you what it is that is bothering me. It started back in probably November or December when we went to dinner and you stuck me with a bill after you said that you would pay after spending the afternoon with you working on a project.
Keith: Yes, oh, that, you could afford it.
Me: No, not when I was in the middle of my student teaching, not when I hadn't been paid in 2-3 months, not when I was saving for things like Christmas, etc., and was relying on my parents.
Keith: Oh, you should have just asked me later and I would have paid it after.
Me: Like come back to you a week or two after this? What does that mean? What the hell does it mean?
Keith: Well, I don't want to lose your friendship over dinner. I'm so glad you are telling me this. It is not a big deal. It already happened. I can take you out for drinks.
Me: It was more than that. It was that I was being used- your ride home from the airport after Christmas, you being so particular on splitting the bill when we went and got drinks at Islands, when you asked me to dog sit and didn't really bother to thank me like you said you would.
Keith: Well, thank you.
Me: Um. OK?
Keith: Well I don't want to lose your friendship over this.
Me: Oh. Um. Well, I don't mind.
Keith: I look at it as favors. I do a favor for you, you do one for me. Friendship is all about favors.
Me: And being used.
Keith: Well, why didn't you just tell me this in the beginning?
Me: I can hold grudges. I don't forget. It seemed like a good idea. I'm still not forgiving. I was deeply hurt and am bothered.
Keith: Do I need to take you out for drinks? Dinner? Lend you money? You name it.
Me: And so you can just use me later? And are you actually going to pay?
Keith: Well, yes, I'm doing a favor, and that's what friends do.
Me: Oh. That's nice. I'm usually pretty busy.
Keith: I know. Well I'm in a relationship now, I'm preparing for the AIDS Life Cycle, I'm training with Eddie, and he's training me, and what's funny is he can run long distances, but I can out bike him.
Me: Oh.
Keith: I thought at the gym you were just preoccupied.
Me: It's so easy to ignore you, and felt so good, especially after what you did to me.
Keith: I thought you were in a new relationship and were being quiet because you couldn't hang out with me.
Me: I'm in a relationship where there is a guy controlling me? Please. No.
Keith: Well, I figured you could be in a relationship and I was hoping you just didn't need me anymore.
Me: It doesn't take me being in a relationship to see that I don't need you.
Keith: Well, I'm glad we talked.
Me: Oh. Ok...
Keith: Let's hug. Let's make up.
Me: Uh... no.
Keith: Ok... well that's splendipity. I'm so gee golly darn excited now to have talked.
Me: And I'm excited I can go home. We may have talked, but it doesn't mean I'm forgiving.
Keith: Well, now we know the problem wasn't that big...
Me: Bye.
We part ways.

He texts me about 20 minutes later saying how glad he was that we talked. I didn't reply.

A drinking kind of day

2011-09-21T06:02:00.000-07:00

Monday

- Work was stressful- an observation from my first year teaching mentor, rowdy kids to begin with, one kid who was extremely misbehaved I had to handle
- I was at work photocopying after school for nearly 2 hours with Lipstick Lesbian, and standing around waiting for a copy machine spitting out copies is unpleasant
- Left at about 4:30 for Mike's
- Get to Mike's and he is working in his office- I had a project to finish up that took about 10-15 minutes, so I did that too
- He goes in the kitchen and I follow... he makes a bloody mary and I make a piano colada
- Watch some Ellen and have a Facebook photo posing competition with our animals to compete with Lipstick Lesbian
- I drink that fast while he warms up the pizza from the night before in the microwave oven
- A glass of wine was also needed after... it was almost an apple juicy pinot grigio

- Watch some Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen ---- by the way, does anyone know how to get tickets to go and eat at one of the showings?
- Mike left to get a few quarts of ice cream, brings it back, and we eat that, then watch Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
- We both laid around until 10 before heading toward bed
- I kissed him goodnight before i fell asleep about 10:20

Tuesday

- He was up and awake at 6:15, as was I, but I laid until I really had to move at 6:30
- He was dressed by the time I had to leave and I hugged him goodbye
- Didn't know if I was coming back since today was shot day, plus we were possibly celebrating my sister's birthday, but that didn't happen, so we just did dinner, came home, and I had a major headache... it was not bueno... I was sad. I wanted to go back to Mike's since he'll be gone the rest of the week on business.

What are you reading?

2011-09-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

Joey, over at Whose Life answered that question, and he had me intrigued with some gay oriented fiction books that he had read. What are some good reads right now? I tend to like realistic fiction and biographies, so read his post with great interest.

I finally finished reading Pride and Prejudice, my first big kids' book in a while, so I was proud, but was looking for something more to read.

Based on Joey's recommendation I downloaded The God Box by Alex Sanchez, as well as Desert Sons by Mark Kendrick, and the sequel to that Into This World We Are Thrown.

Are there any other good LGBT realistic fiction books to read, or any good biographies out there? My last biography I read was "Yo," or "Me," de Ricky Martín.

Left my shoes at his house... lol.

2011-09-19T06:50:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY

- Met him at his house about 3:30
- We watched Ellen on TV, then took off to the LA County Fair about 4:30
- Stopped at an Italian restaurant in La Verne for dinner... we are glad we did after seeing some of the fair food
- Go to LA County Fair... parking was crazy... we made our own spot cause that's how we roll... we snuck out of the line to park and found our own spot
- People standing outside wanting us to sign their petition... one was about teaching tolerance... it wasn't really, but that's what they said, it was about a law that discriminated against gays, set Mike off, so he filled out a complaint form as we got to the fair.
- Set off looking for farm animals... I never knew where they moved them after all that remodeling.
- Cute and not so cute animals
- Go through a few buildings and decide it is crowded and the same ol' same ol'
- Decide to head home since the ski ride was expensive
- Watch random TV on the couch about 10:30 or 11. We fall asleep on the couch and wake up about 1:20 suddenly. We both huddle to the bedroom

SATURDAY

- Up at 10:30am... his alarm went off at 8, but we turned over and slept until 10:30... the day was already half gone
- Shower and by the time we are done it is nearly noon and we have English muffins/eggs for breakfast
- Watch Aarti on Food Network and decide I need spinach and artichoke dip, but he puts me down saying how unhealthy it was... also decided I needed lasagna
- Go to The Alley, Tai Pei Trading Company, Kohls for pillows, and Olive Garden
- Had an Italian Margarita, which may be my new favorite drink... you can't beat tequila and amaretto... sooooooo good and cuts down on the typical bite of a margarita
- Got my spinach dip and lasagna fritta
- Stop at Fresh & Easy for lasagna ingredients
- Stop at Stater Brothers for the rest of the lasagna ingredients
- Stop at Big Lots for lots of wine
- Go back to Mike's and have pina coladas, as well as wine.
- One wine I picked out, some Bulgarian wine, had a 14.5% alcoholic content, and well, after 3 glasses I felt the buzz
- Lots of tickling, kissing, and poking as we ate the lasagna cups, and laid on the couch
- About 10:30 we made our way to the bedroom and I was very adamant we were going to fool around... I was buzzed... his body felt soooo incredible... it was a nice time

SUNDAY

- Up at 8, shower
- Breakfast of muesli that we bought at Big Lots
- Head off to Oak Glen for apple season... stop at an apple donut place I'd never been... donuts were sooooo tasty
- Not much going on and lots of people, though not as crowded as it could have been, so we headed down the mountain
- Went to Route 66 Rendezvous to say we've gone
- Lots of classic cars
- Go to his place and have more pina coladas
- Watch TV
- We fall asleep about 3 and wake up at 5:15 when my dad calls
- Watch TV, though very tired
- Dinner of Dominos super thin crust pizza that was crispy
- Head home about 7:30... it was dark out!
- He recommended I leave my shoes that he bought me the other day at his house so I always have a pair there... yay!

Getting instant cred with my students

2011-09-18T16:57:00.000-07:00

Liking their music... here's some of the songs I've admitted to knowing that has helped me create a connection with them...

Letting them listen to the above in class was fun...

My ELD kids didn't know I was secretly Mexican

Of course I knew Big & Rich were at the LA County Fair, and I was just so gosh darn sad I missed it.

Of course the one above required that I sang out "1-2-3-4 HEY! Just you and me moving at the speed of light..." had to sing it to confirm with the kid. He laughed. Good times.

But then I lost some of it by playing this...

You can think whatever you want about the above song.

Media Update

2011-09-17T23:44:00.000-07:00

Since it has been MONTHS since I have told you all about LA news... I haven't been watching as much since I'm with Mike... lol

KCBS/KCAL
- New hunky anchor Rob Schmitt is their weekend guy from Florida
- Sandra Mitchell from the afternoon news on KCAL has breast cancer and is blogging about the experience. Always liked her. Best of luck to her through this fight!

KNBC
- Sean Murphy needs to go ASAP. Still can't stand his no suit jacket look and no personality.
- Byron Miranda is back and is entertaining, very professional, he should replace Elita in the morning
- Lucy Noland, their new anchor from Texas is now anchoring at 12 and 6pm
- KNBC brought back their midday newscast at 12

KTLA
- Wendy Burch, Wendy all about me Birch is now the host of the KTLA Morning News weekend... joy
- Their weekend morning news, as does their morning news, seems to lack content

KABC
- Lisa Hernandez is on her way to Texas and no longer can my dad say John Gregory and she look like brother and sister
- Indra Petersons is still gone... good... Jennifer Robbins is doing weekend morning weather and is much better in my opinion than Indra
- KABC also just hired a new behind the scenes blond weather girl from Texas whose name I can't remember

KTTV
- KTLA has a new 5pm news show that is not your dad's 5pm news... this is Good Day LA meets TMZ and is horrid with Liz Habib, Jeff Michael, Lisa Breckenridge, and Ed Laskos... hard to watch

The ultimate Mike playlist of the moment

2011-09-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

My favorite songs at the moment... some old and some new... take a listen and download

Only the LIVE version is great... the other is alright, but this one is beautiful

only the live version... it just has such a different sound that I love

A country song my grandma used to sing to me that I just heard on Pandora recently after years and years

Another great country song my grandma used to sing to me

I hate finding visible spelling errors on well-known websites

2011-09-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

Notice "LIttle Rock"

Shame.

This may be what causes me to move out

2011-09-14T20:02:00.001-07:00

This may be a cryptic post, and it is, I'm being vague, but I want to think about this as I write and get my thoughts out.

It can be seen on 2 fronts-

My dad has raised a monster, my sister, whom he takes no responsibility and will not stand up to. She is the princess who can do no wrong. Now that she has done something wrong, something that is destroying my family, my dad can't stop it, and won't stand up to it.

I am staying away and distancing myself- staying at the boyfriend's- so when this does come to an even bigger head than it does right now I won't be the one who is there and said "told ya so," or one to have to deal with the ramifications.

The second front-

My dad is not a good communicator and does not handle his anger well. He can't handle this frustration and doesn't know what to do, so he resulted in something that could make it seem like his ultimatum to show people like my sister they need to shape up.

Third-

I am to share in some of the blame- when I am home- I do things that bother. But how often am I home? 2-3 nights a week as opposed to 7 of my sister?

Fourth-

It has to do with some of the health stuff my dad is going through and that can tax everyone.

Clearly I want my parents to see who is to blame in this... I just know it can and will get worse, and I don't want to be here as it does. I don't know if I'm in the right backing away, especially at a time when my dad does "need" me, and he does "miss" me, and has been somewhat depressed over this.

I just know when my sister's and father's actions finally come to a head, if they get really bad, I will be gone...

LA Foodie Weekend

2011-09-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

WEDNESDAY

- Met up at Mike's
- Brought in lots of gifts for him that were on his porch like his new toaster that was $150... it has an automatic button... so nifty
- We went to dinner at Loosille's BBQ where we had tacos, fried green tomatoes, and a margarita
- Walked around the mall, then off to HomeDepot for water purifier for him to install at the sink, plus cord to run it to ice makker
- Bed

THURSDAY
- Up at 6:30 for work
- Dentist at 5:30, so go to Mike's from 3-5
- Dinner after with my former boss and mentor, who I was SOOOOOOO thrilled to see... LOVE MRS. C
- Planned to go home, and did, but a pipe broke in the bathroom that resulted in the bathroom being flooded Wed. night, and no water, so he told me to go to my boyfriend's if I wanted a shower
- Head back to Mike's at wish
- Bed about 10:30 ish

FRIDAY
- Up at 6:30
- Lipstick Lesbian and I go to lunch where I come out to her, we chat, we talk about our significant others, and we get the dirt on what's going on, but also plan... business lunches are sooooooo productive... LOVE HER!
- After work we went to a ritzy restaurant overlooking the city where we thought we would try their happy hour, but their happy hour was only limited to the bar and we had to pay the valet we found out
- Planned to go there, then an upscale French restaurant
- The reservation paper for the French restaurant was rattling in the door my BF thought, and it drove him crazy, but it wasn't
- Restaurant overlooking city was alright- overpriced- but we would go back for the view- food was ok
- Not super hungry, so decide on Korean BBQ for dinner
- I had some Korean sushi and soup thingy
- I had some Korean water that my Korean student is always drinking in class with a marble in the glass and I never knew that it was a glass bottle, so he held the bottle extra carefully, but also he didn't want the marble to make noise, so held the bottle so it wouldn't... had to tease him about that Monday morning, and of course I was cool with him for trying it. Thank you iPhone camera pics.

- Went to see Contaygion at the movies after at a new movie theater
- Went to Tarjay afterward where we bought polos for $6.98... love me some Tarjay clearance
- Bed about 11:30ish

SATURDAY
- I woke up super early stressed about the changes at work, but let Mike sleep until 8:30
- Washed the convertible and I dried it as he washed
- Overcast out
- Planned to take convertible to LA, and did
- Started raining in Clayremont and so we crossed the dubl-yellow and exited the carpool ASAP to put the top up
- I got blamed for the bad wearer
- Drove to Younyun Station in LA

- Hopped on Metro to start our food weekend
- First was tacos at a well known LA taco place Bea and Arthur
- Margaritas at Cafe de G where we surfed on his iPad and looked at train travel
- Back on the Metro to next stop for tamales

- Back on Metro to Lil Tokee-o
- Lil Tokee-o was bigger than we thought, and an area we definitely need to explore... lots of eateries that aren't necessarily Azn, but a mix
- we had sangria there and hummus, that shows you
- Great happy hours there
- Lots of cruisy guys too in Lil Tokee-o
- Back on Metro and on a different line to go to Loz Feleez for pie at a well known pie place featured on the Travel Channel
- Butterscotch pie reminded me of marshmallows and butterscotch... good stuff

- Head back to Younyun Station for the car
- Private party going on at train station... pretty cool...
- Back to his place where we watched TV, but first stopped at WallyWorld for a few things, got a call from a friend who could help me with my class while there, didn't see any students... whew!
- BF enjoyed the day, and I planned it, he was just to sit back and relax, he did want to take control... hahaha... we had fun... he still doesn't love the city, but hoping that will change... he should... it has innovative underground subway in some places... and it is scary... especially in an Earthquake, but that's another story for another time

SUNDAY
- Up at 7
- Showers by 7:30
- Take the convertible out
- Go to Pasadena to Rowse Bowll Flee Mark-it
- Get lots of succulents to plant
- Run around looking for brunch/restaurant to eat after
- End up in downtown Monroveeuh at a bar where I have some carne asada and drop my knife nonstop... of course I'm messy, Mike
- Go to Target again for pots for succulents
- Watch some TiVo
- Head home about 7 to visit family and was planning on staying, BUT the water was still off and so they suggested I go back to my bf's house, so I did
- Back to his place at 9 where I prep for my new classes and make seating charts... bed right at 10 when I'm done

MONDAY
- Up at 6:30
- Shower
- Off to work, busy day
- Internet seemed out at work, but I hit the wireless off button on my computer I discovered after I got to Mike's, so I entered grades while he tightened his gas line on the stove that was leaking and he worked on his car putting sealant on the coolant box
- Head out after we are finished to Michaels and WallyWorld for rocks for the succulent plants
- Get 10 bags of rocks at craft store
- Head to Cawst Plus for caw fee
- Go to Redd Robbin for din-din
- Happy hour margarita and bacon burger... good, but underwhelming... good drink
- my breath smelled like onions all night... I complained
- Mike could smell me all night as we sat on the couch sipping wine, watching Tivo and our Beverly Hills Housewives
- Go to bedroom about 8:30 where we watch Lady Gaga and poke each other
- Cuddling in bed and sex was hampered by the onion breath I had... boo
- Played around
- Bed about 10:30ish

TUESDAY
- Up at 6:30, wash hair, shower, hurry, hurry
- Wish my bf a good business trip and I take off for work
- Text him during my lunch to wish him a good flight
- Lots of busyness at work with new classes

WEDNESDAY
- Blondie and I are getting juiced... more to come... hahaha

Invisalign

2011-09-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

To do or not to do Invisalign to fix my bite. My teeth were never fixed by braces round 1, so the doctor could put them back on. I refused. Invisalign sounds good- 18 months- $1,000 more than braces- no 100% guarantee like braces, but the doctor would be willing. With my new insurance it would be about $2,300 out of my own pocket. Is it worth it? Hmmmmmm... I am susceptible to the Jay Leno jaw according to my former orthodontist, which would be the reason for fixing it. Surely that's not attractive... been thinking about this for a few months...

Life update

2011-09-06T23:18:00.000-07:00

Odds and ends...

Work is going pretty well. I am keeping afloat, which is more than can be said for several. I will be swamped the next 2 weeks, so maybe I'm speaking too soon. Damn grading and unit plans.

Credential validation classes make me sad. Hate spending my weeknights in those classes with these overly fake people.

Relationshipwise things are going great with Mike. It is so hard to believe that I may be moving in with him one day... and maybe sooner than later. Never did I think it would happen where I would move into a guy's house. I thought I'd be the alone bachelor.

Family is tough right now. They are not liking me being gone more and more. My dad has had a couple health issues in the past month where he has been out of work. We are hoping my dad will get full disability so that he can retire, but every time he has an appointment the doctors never end up increasing it.

My mom is stressed with her new curriculum for her new assignment at work.

My sister is off in la-la-land or something, as always. I wouldn't know, I'm never home.

Parents also dealing with my Aunt in Nor Cal.

Aunt in Nor Cal, the one who preached veggies, and good wine, just suffered several major health issues that have the entire family worried. I have a couple appointments with my doctor set up because of it... trying not to worry, really shouldn't because I'm young, but I'm going to appease everyone... kinda nervous... not gonna lie

My cousin from Oklahoma will be moving out here at the end of October. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED and in disbelief. Never did I think it would happen. I am nervous/excited to introduce my special someone to her.

So excited for dinner with my favorite lesbians and our significant others.

Almost a week with him

2011-09-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

WEDNESDAY NIGHT
- Spent the night at Mike's- my justification was the early teacher's meeting
- We spent time in his office before getting ready
- We went on a drive for dinner. We were going to try Christophe's in Upland, but then ended up at some buffet after seeing how nothing sounded good. The steakhouse we like was a possibility. I mentioned Mexican. He was craving Chinese, so a semi-Chinese buffet worked. My mom and Linda frequent this buffet- it is over in their neck of the woods... It was alright... nothing spectacular... and as Mike declared it has filled his buffet needs for the next 3 years
- Stop at Lowes, JCPenney, and Sears Grand looking for lamps. JCPenney had 2 on clearance for $15
- Back to his place where we watch TV, then play around trying some new positions

THURSDAY
- Up at 6:30, shower
- 3:50pm I'm ready to leave work when Blondie asked if I could drive her home as she was sick. I did. We went to her house and had a "date" where her mom in law cooked for us. Tough night hearing why she was sick. We were laughing and planning our gay dates (we are going out as couples soon- Mike and myself, her gf and herself)
- Back home for a few minutes about 8pm to get clothes and break it to my parents I'm leaving for the night
- Mike calls asking if I could get cookies. I hear cooking on the phone, then I hear chocolate chips. I didn't know he said no chocolate chips. Dang AT&T. He was a little disappointed I got chocolate chips.
- Bed about 10:30ish

FRIDAY
- Up at 6:30
- Ready 2 leave work at 3:30 when Blondie asks if I wanted to go to Happy Hour. I text Mike and he said he had work to do, to go ahead. I asked him a couple times if he were sure and how he should come along. He said nah.
- Left Happy Hour at 7
- Get to Mike's and go to get food. Do dinner at Mimi's Cafe where I had salmon
- CHit chat about Happy Hour and what I learned about work
- Stop at Fresh & Easy where they had such a poor selection on stuff we needed

SATURDAY
- Up at 9 or so
- Shower
- Go to a place by the casino for breakfast at divey/steak place
- Go get the car washed and it takes forever, but the car was definitely Armor Alled when we were done... lubed
- Home to make chili for the party
- Watch TV between 2 and 5
- Pack a bag for the night and we head out to the Youtube Party
- I submitted 1 of the youtube videos i mentioned last week
- The party was a bunch of teachers of his friend M and A, and Disney freaks
- Jeff and Brian, his other friends from cruising were there, and we mostly chatted with them
- Mike and I sat bored watching awful drag queen youtube videos
- J & B invited us to their house to stay the night, so we went
- Lots of talking about school and our relationship
- B is also a teacher
- We chat until 1:30am or so, so a good 90 minutes
- Mike tickles me nonstop in bed

SUNDAY
- Woke up about 8:30
- Showered
- Sat out on the patio talking about cruises, coffee, friends, and school, talking about being cheap, hearing their stories about frugalness
- SUNDAY BRUNCH!
- Mike drove to a Chinese place that he vetoed after seeing the buffet as it was mostly meat and didn't look great
- Go to Don Jose that had a nice champagne brunch and our drinks were always full... mine was refilled 7 or 8 times and the joke became about how normal I seemed... Brian asked if I was always this normal when under the influence... Mike said no and had some far fetched story about my drunkenness and I just said I get really touchy. I walked just fine to the bathroom
- GREAT CONVOS about vacations and we're going to be vacationing in the same place after New Years, so hopefully we meet up. I REALLY enjoyed them- this was my 2nd time meeting them
- Stop at Banana Republic in Chino on the way home... Mike didn't get Chino... also visited Nordstrom RacK
- Nap on the couch when we get home
- Dinner at a pizza place down the street from the casino that was super disappointing- tons of cheese and no flavor- another disappointment on our list. I drove and paid.
- Back to his place where we fell asleep on the couch watching some On Demand movie he rented with Anne Hathaway and Goldie Hawn's daughter, Hudson, what's her name, the one where 2 girls are best firends and getting married on the same day
- Made our way to the bedroom about 1:30

MONDAY
- Up about 8:30
- Showered and watched morning news
- He made eggs over easy and toast
- Watch TV on the couch until 1:30 when we decide to go to Palm Springs
- Go to our favorite seafood place, but then decided to see what was out there. 2 other happy hours didn't start until 5:30 and Palm Desert was mostly dead, so we ended up in a Mexican place that is always super busy, but wasn't super busy.
- Had a 3 1/2 shot margarita that had us both tipsy and him too far gone to drive, so we had to walk around to kill the buzz
- We had a quesadilla there too that was pretty ok
- Stop at Kohls where he buys pants and ties
- Get back to his place about 7 and head home... home at 7:30... tell family about adventures... blogging now... preparing for my week

Weekend Getaways

2011-09-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

What are some good California weekend getaway cities?

You know my boyfriend and I like to travel, but I'm itching for a weekend getaway to a place we've never been. I have 2 cities in mind, but was wondering if there are places/cities that we have yet to check out that are worth visiting. Here's our list of places we've hit.

Things we've done in each city

LA/Vicinity
- Greek Theater
- The Grove/Farmers Market
- TV tapings of Hot in Cleveland and Ellen

- Driven through WEHO and Beverly Hills, but never really stopped... what to do there?
- Want to do Hollywood Bowl
- Want to do Griffith Observatory

San Diego
- Coronado
- Pt. Loma Lighthouse
- Mission Valley
- Old Town

What about the vicinity of SD like San Bernardo, San Marcos, Clairemont, Miramesa, etc.? Anything noteworthy there?

Inland Empire
- Victoria Gardens
- Ontario Mills
- Mission Inn
- Shops at Chino Hills
- San Jacinto
- Temecula wineries
What else are we missing?

Santa Barbara
- Visited Good restaurants

- Want to do the Santa Barbara Bowl

San Luis Obispo
- Shopping
- Madonna Inn

Paso Robles
- Wineries

Pasadena restaurants
- What is there to do that would make a good day trip in Pasadena?

Santa Monica Pier area
- Went to Border Grill

- What else there to do besides shopping and the beach?

Sequoia Nat'l Park

Palm Springs
- Fishermans
- Gaymart
- Lots of other restaurants
- Palm Desert
- Palm Canyon

What else is there to do there in Palm Springs that I'm missing?

Any day trips that I'm missing? This seems like rocket science... and it is not... I'm just stumped for ideas. My AAA travel book isn't much help. Boo

Going back into the workweek with stylin' new kicks

2011-08-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

Mike was sick on Saturday- we had planned to hang, but he had some sort of 24 bug going around. The sheets were washed and we were ready to see each other on Sunday.

SUNDAY
- Went to his house about 10:30, we watched several shows on DVR.
- Sunday evening we were trying to decide what to eat and Mike said he would make polenta and marinara with fake sausage. It was without the veggies this time around, but still good
- Enjoyed a glass of wine
- Got a little sleepy, but managed to stay up for Real Housewives of NJ
- Bed about 10
- Mike gave me a new pair of Cole Haan slip ons to match his. Dress slip on. Now we can be twins!
- As we are heading to bed there are 4 snakes outside of the house. He went into the garage and opened the door to look at something and there were 2 snakes right outside the garage door. He screams, I scream, and we run in the house. We try to go out the front door and I try to go out the front door to get my overnight bag when we see 2 more slithering side to side outside of his front door. HOW SCARY! We shriek, open the door to confirm, then watch through the peep hole as they take off. When the coast was clear I ventured outside, but I needed moral support, Mike to stand at the door to make sure I was safe.
- Fell asleep watching the VMAs and that awesome Adele performance

MONDAY
- Up at 6:30, shower, out of the house and at school by 7:10... that's what is so cool about staying the night at his house
- Work was long... it was a Monday
- I felt tired most of the day
- About 3:45 I get back to Mike's and he said he wanted to go to Target to get lamps to match the lamp shades like we had purchased the night before at Target
- We also go to Nordstrom Rack because there was a sale. MORE SHOES!!! I found a pair of black slip on Cole Haan's that I had seen before, but turned my eye away from since they were $79. They were on sale for $45.80!!!! TOO GOOD OF A DEAL TO PASS UP... sadly that was the only pair of Cole Haan's on sale.
- Mucho appetizers at Market Broiler where I bitched about kids at school and we talked about random stuff. Appetizers included California crunch roll, sauteed (really was just buttered) mushrooms, shrimp cocktail, and sweet/sour calamari. The calamari was pretty good. The happy hour was somewhat disappointing.
- On to Target where we don't really see what we are looking for
- Back to Mike's where we lounge on the couch, chat, and later try some new sex positions. Good stuff. I felt like all arms, though. Boo.
- Bed about 10:45

TUESDAY
- Up at 6:30 and at work by 7:10
- Work was good... got lots done... my ELD kids drove me insane today and I gave a detention. Probably should have given more...
- Allergy shots tonight
- Olive Garden for neverending pasta bowl for dinner
- Dessert time.................... yum

It was a depression

2011-08-29T00:59:00.000-07:00

One of the Mikes recently posted something on the internet I ran across. I was doing some facebooking one day, checked out his page, and ran onto his personal website. He posted about how there were several people he has hurt over the past several years and others that he has pushed away because he was depressed and didn't know how to handle it. He talked about his struggle and how he has a 42'' waist now, how he feels bad for himself, how he is on meds, and how all of his friends should come back to him. It was quite pitiful really. It was nice to read in that it did seem to explain things, but that friendship is gone.

New shoes!

2011-08-27T21:15:00.001-07:00

3 new pairs
Found the bottom 2 at Nordstrom Rack today! What a find!
- 1 white pair I got when out with Mike a few weeks ago
- a new pair of green shoes that were on sale for $12.54 at Nordstrom Rack - and they were mismarked badly- size 11
- A new greenish beige pair of Creative Recs to wear when I wear khaki pants so I don't have to wear my clunky Vans and can look dressyish without going Polo preppy - $44.90

Mission accomplished

Keith

2011-08-25T19:16:00.000-07:00

Keith- That man, he irritates me more and more everytime I see him. I saw him last week at the gym. He came up to me as I was working out. I continued working on the bicep machine as he asked me how everything was going- or I think that's what he was asking. I saw his lips move and so I replied with something as I had headphones in my ears and couldn't hear him. I finally took my headphones out of my ears and he was on some tangent about how life was so hard, how busy he was, and I told him straight out I was leaving and walked away.

He messaged me Monday night on facebook, which I ignored.

Last night I went to the gym and was again working on the bicep machine. Headphones were up, he came over and started talking, and I just said hi. He was talking, his mouth stopped moving, so I said "yes, uh huh, yep" to make it look like I had been paying attention. He went off on a 3-4 minute rant about how he has so much work and needs to get groceries, doesn't want to cook, needs wine, needs beer, and I didn't give a rats ass. I told him to he better get moving and get out of here (LA Fitness). He told me he would.

I go out to my car about 5 minutes later and he is lost wandering the parking lot looking for his car. He parked next to me. Then he tried to come over and start talking, but I had my window up and I made a hand motion indicating I was leaving/in a hurry. He made a sad face and I drove off.

2 Youtube parties

2011-08-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

I've been invited to 2 youtube parties this weekend where you are supposed to bring a funny youtube video to share. Anyone have any suggestions?

Here's my thoughts... lol

Yea or nay?

Which are your favorites?
#1
http://youtu.be/OC3acoZ3zVk
#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

I don't think so

2011-08-24T05:58:00.000-07:00

That was my response to everyone yesterday. Nothing seemed to go right.
Do you want to go on these classroom observations?
No, i don't think so.
Teacher, can I do this?
No, I don't think so.
Can you do this now?
No, I don't think so.
Young man, don't do that, I don't think so.
But, but...
Are you sure you posted everything?
No, I don't think so.
I need to go to the bathroom.
No, I don't think so since you have done nothing. Remember the rule- you cannot go to the bathroom while I lecture.

Maybe tomorrow I'll know so...

IHOP on over to ITOP

2011-08-23T16:16:00.000-07:00

Getaways

2011-08-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

THURSDAY AFTERNOON
- Head to Mike's to pick him up and then drag him to dinner with the teachers from school. We had open house and about 10 of us gathered for dinner beforehand. It was good and he got to meet several of them and put names to the faces. Took Mr. W and Mrs. W, no relation, back to school and chatted. Good times.
- Open house was a success y hablé mucho en Espanol con los padres. Had 16 parents total.
- Back to Mike's where I told him about my night, he was trying to load software for work on his computer in the office
- Bed about 10:30 or so. It was good to feel his body next to mine. Of course after a long hiatus, we had to play around some.

FRIDAY
- Alarm did not go off at 6:30 like it was supposed to. I happened to wake up at 6:37 and sprinted to shower, grab a slice of toast, and run.
- Difficult 3rd period... I love my partner teacher, Lipstick Lesbian, next door who came to my rescue.
- Lunch with partner teacher, Lipstick Lesbian and the lady in the room next to her. They're a fun bunch.
- Got to Mike's about 3:30 and he was snoring when I came in - did not even notice me. His phone rang and woke him up- he thought it was me being facetious
- About 4:30 he asked what I had planned for the weekend- I said nothing- he said San Diego, he booked a hotel, and we were off
- Major traffic leaving, so we followed his navigation system that lead us on a scenic trip... let's leave it at that... I learned a few ways to get around a few cities I didn't know about, so it was fun
- Stop in Old Town Temecula at an Italian place for dinner... it was pretty good... uncooked Spinach is so not the biz
- Mike and I got to talking about cell phones. I said I am never on mine at work. The only time I pull it out is on my prep period or at lunch, but he went off on a rant about how I am a public employee working for him, and he didn't want me on my phone. Yet it was perfectly acceptable for him to log onto facebook while he is working. And who says I'm not being efficient?
- Get a milkshake for Mike and malt for me at a diner, then off to San Diego
- Rocking out to Adele reenacting the concert from the other night and jamming Nicki Minaj

- Get to the hotel about 9pm and strip down, lay in bed, play on our iPads
- Bed about 10:30 and we spend most of the night cuddling in each other's arms... how I miss that when I'm not around him

SATURDAY
- Up at 9:30
- Shower
- Go to Old Town to explore, breakfast of chilaquiles for me and huevos rancheros for him at a Mexican restaurant
- Buy incense and other exciting stuff in Old Town
- Mike asked for directions how to get to the 8 freeway and I didn't know leaving Old Town, but knew how to get to Hotel Circle, which wasn't good enough, so he gave me a hard time, but he was just looking for a fight
- Go down to Mission Valley to the 2 story Target and Nordstrom Rack
- Look for shoes for me, but he vetoed everything- they had a bad selection. He thinks I need a rounded slip on dress shoe. I like the square end. So I'll ask you guys- which shoe do you like the best? I plan to buy the one that you guys vote is the better of the 2... hehehehe... I won't reveal my favorite or his favorite of the 2

- We go to Pt. Loma Light House and watch a boring documentary on whales, watch planes take off from the Naval base, and enjoy the tide pools
- I said I wanted to hit other Nordstrom Rack in San Marcos, so we do, as well as a Marshalls where I get a wallet just like his, but still, bad shoe selection, especially the 2 rows at Marshalls of men's shoes
- Head home
- Email my sis about dinner... dinner with the family Sunday to celebrate my dad and uncle's birthday
- Stop at Fresh & Easy for food

SUNDAY
- Up at 8:30
- He tells me to make breakfast, but he didn't like my over easy eggs. I can cook. I swear.
- We look at cruises for somewhere before or after Christmas
- We narrow down a few that look good
- He has another idea of a place to visit, which should be perfect for this time of year, since it will be warm there. I said that sounded good, and he booked it
- WOW! This will be romantic I am thinking...
- Shower about 2:30
- Look at shoes and chat with Mike about which shoes- the 2 shown above
- Head off to dinner with my family, aunt, and uncle
- Dinner was pretty good- went to a steakhouse at the casino nearby- the buffet is the better choice there, but I can now say I've gone since Mike has been curious.
- Came home to get reacquainted with the family for a few hours

Favorite quick breakfast

2011-08-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

What is your favorite quick breakfast? I'm stumped for ideas. Breakfast is my least favorite meal of the day and one I am least creative about - maybe because anything good takes a really long time.

Making a quiche is not hard on a Sunday night, but I'm not in the mood for it as of recent.

I've made breakfast burritos in the past on a Sunday night and made enough to last the entire week, but those sound so unappealing right now. Same for breakfast sandwiches with ham, cheese, and egg.

Ideally I need something that can be made in under 7 minutes and eaten in 5-6.

I ate English muffins with Nutella or peanut butter everyday last year. I'm tired of that, and will probably continue, though. If I eat it at 6a.m. it will usually last me until 10a.m. or so.

I'm also looking for something filling. I don't really have time to deal with the midmorning hungries when I'm in the middle of class.

So what do you like to eat that lasts a good 5-6 hours in the morning for breakfast and is quick to make?

Lesson planning

2011-08-18T23:41:00.000-07:00

I seriously dislike lesson planning. I don't mind so much creating the activities, ordering them, backward planning. My beef is with weekly lesson plans that highlight every different type of instruction we are doing and unit plans that don't even show what we are teaching, rather unpack the standard to determine what it really means. This sounds like a departmental thing, nothing that will help me teach my unit. Shouldn't how I am going to teach my unit be what admin wants to see?

Le sigh

Fell in love a little more

2011-08-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

With Adele and my boyfriend!!!

MONDAY
- Out of work ASAP to get to his house by 3:15
- Arrive as he was doing laundry, kiss
- He shows me his new digital remote and showers
- I change pants and get ready myself
- He tells me to put on sunscreen since we are taking the convertible
- Leave at 4
- Dinner at Pei Wei - it was pretty good - I wasn't in the mood for anything heavy. Next time Mongolian beef for sure
- Arrive at the Greek at 6:30
- Stack parking... eek... we thought we might opt for VIP, but missed the turn
- Wait in line at will call for tix- a big no-no I know now thanks to Mike's informing
- We get our wine and head to our seats
- Sit, post facebook pics, update facebook status messages, and he confesses his love for me on facebook
- We had THE MOST AMAZING SEATS
- Concert starts late
- Wanda Jackson was the opener - we weren't familiar with her- my dad was - but she was amusing. She did her version of Amy Winehouse's "I Know Your No Good"
- Intermission
- Then the most amazing concert began... it was like being up close to him
Thank you youtube! My seats were better, though!!!

- I had only heard this one 1 or 2 times, but it was pretty great too!
- Loved having my arm around Mike near the end of the concert as we stood swaying to the music. Loved sharing a few kisses during "Someone Like You" - absolutely amazing!!!
- My favorites were "Hometown Glory," "Turning Tables," "Chasing Pavements," "Someone Like You," and "Rolling in the Deep" was one of those songs that is waaaaay too overplayed, but the feeling when it was played was incredible and everyone felt so close.
- She opened with "Hometown Glory" and then the encore included "Rumor Has It," "Rolling in the Deep," and "Someone Like You" finished the show
Loved Adele's retro look - loved her wit and humor
- We didn't say much when we left the concert other than WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW
- We go back to the car, answer natures call, and wait for the icky stack parking to clear out
- Mike tries to direct the dumb LA blond behind us to back up so that we can get out, but she was clueless
- I try to fall asleep and manage to sleep until we get off the freeway and are almost at his house
- We get back at 12:39a.m and concert let out at 10:40
- I was the envy of the staff room today at lunch. I bragged. The teachers were surprised I made it in to work. Those teachers on my facebook were showing the staff just what a lucky guy I was. LOL

2nd row seats tonight

2011-08-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

To Adele under the stars at the Greek with my bf. What could be better?
This is going to be romantic! Off we go! At last he is getting his birthday gift! lol

When and if I finally get paid there are some must buys

2011-08-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

1. a foot massage... I wore some Apt 9 shoes from Kohls last week that absolutely killed and pained my feet. I have been trying to work the pain out since. We have a place that advertises an hour foot massage for $19. I absolutely love foot massages. I am going to check it out. After standing on my feet 6.5 hours+ a day, they deserve a treat. I'm thinking this may become a bi-monthly indulgence.
2. Green Vans shoes $45/Red Vans shoes
3. Pay off my credit card $400
4. A new black belt $30-50
5. New pair of slip on dress shoes. Cole Haan maybe? A trip to Cabazon is in the works I think... $100+
6. Treat Mike to a really nice dinner for treating me this summer when funds were low +60-100
7. More shoes! $200+
8. Gray producer pants from Express $60
9. Sport coat? Mike has me toying with the idea. We found one at Banana Republic that has an awesome fit and it beige. I don't know I could pull it off or would actually wear it tons. $100
10. Clearance dress shirts at Macys... they always have so many for like $15 if you have lots of coupons
11. Black Chuck Taylor Converse... I've never owned a pair. Gasp! $40
12. Make a student loan payment to get ahead on that... it will take about 10 years to pay off my loan

National Left Handed Day

2011-08-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

Do left handed people really have this much trouble with electronics? I am left handed and have only ever had issues with trying to play instruments like the guitar, or learn to play baseball. My dad could never teach me/not that had he had the want to either. My uncles who were left handed all batted right handed, tried to teach me, and I just couldn't do what they tried to teach me. It wasn't until like 2nd grade when I learned to play baseball. Boo.

Happy hour, out and proud

2011-08-12T23:34:00.001-07:00

Wild group of new coworkers. Good happy hour tonight. Officially out along with Blondie. We play so well off of each other!