My wonderful aunt Cheryl thought to send me some pictures from my trip to Vegas a couple months ago, what a gal! So without further ado:


My immediates: mommy, Denise, bro, Caleb, and sis, Alex


Us again


Mom replaced with cousin, Britton Ann


Alex (with for-the-camera pouty face) and Britton (with super model smile)


Britton again (Cheryl, the photographer is her mom), Aunt Lovey, and Sis-in-law, Paris


Me with Britton, and Caleb with wife, Paris


The kids tearing into presents. The guy with his back to us is Caleb Jr. (CJ), and this is the only pic I have of him, darn it. The guy on the left is his bro, Aiden. And the lil girl is aunt Lovey's Elizabeth. And of course, Britton. :)


Up close of nephew, Aiden. Such a cutie.


Elizabeth rolling around on the ground, one of her favorite passtimes. See more of her here: [inlink]terry,414[/inlink]


I love this picture. This is me and uncle Reiny (Cheryl's wife and Britton's dad). He is rather right leaning and I'm rather left. After the table has cleared of everyone else tired of hearing our nonstop opinions, this is what we look like. Notice the crossed legs, and alternate hand-waving/crossed arms. The speaker waves, extolling the virtures of his beliefs, the listener sits back and shoots skeptical glances. Much fun.


Here's my cousin Nicole, holding one of her chillins, and her mom (my aunt) Donna. Then my mommy. Then Britton, well duh, and the only pic of my aunt Cheryl, I think I took this one.


This is me, pretty toasted at this point, and Britton. She's almost as tall as me, like 6' sheesh.


Us again, looking happy. And we were.

Turned out to be a very nice weekend. The first pride not living on or right-off elmwood. I missed the rooftop gathering (and suppose I'll miss them for all the other elmwood centered events), but we still managed to round up a decent sized get together. So hot, though, I was seriously moist the entire afternoon, and not in a good way. The parade and the crowd seems to get bigger every year. Are more people gay every year? I don't think so, just that the overall social climate is moving in the right direction, all those closeted people are more comfortable getting out there. The whole day for me is always spent watching people. So many different kinds of people. Some truly bizarro people. Anyways, it was fun, and thanks to everyone who came over and played.

sidenote: "The Supreme Court ruled today that federal agents may raid the homes of Californians who use medical marijuana, holding that the strict federal drug laws prevail over the state's liberalized marijuana laws." from:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-060605scotus_lat,0,7645103.story?coll=la-home-headlines All those horrible criminals comitting crime like cancer and glaucoma, can no longer hide behind the veil of state's rights to do their illicit activities. Thank god. The strange thing is the justices who voted the way I would have (which is let them have their friggin dope) were the three most conservative. Strange to find yourself in the same camp as Rehnquist, Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas. Though I have to admit that many arguments that real conservatives have (as opposed to the right wing neo-cons and religious freaks) are compelling. Things like local power, i.e. state's rights and fiscal responsibility are sound ideas. It's just the current brand of nuts running our country don't seem to really be conservatives at all, they just use all the rhetoric with a sprinkling of jesus. OK, nuff said, gotta go treat my glaucoma. :)

Last night was very entertaining. But quite exhasuting. Miss Ajay-thang let us kick it at her place and spun retro hits throughout the evening (even surprised me with a little Joe Jackson [inlink]terry,405[/inlink]). We then proceeded to like 5 bars, many of which I didn't even go into, just loitered outside and gabbed. (e:Flacidness) was there, scoring compliments on the dance floor. And Geoffrey...well if you know who I'm talking about, you'll know what that's about. Didn't stumble into bed until around 4:30, and then couldn't sleep for a while after that. Now it's 12:30 and I've got to get to Pride. But I am le tired. Maybe a cup of coffee, and perhaps food. Realized my primary food yesterday was beer: not good. Must eat actual solid food today. See ya'll at the parade.

Born about two days ago. My favorite auntie Lovey's second little girl. How lucky she is for such a cutie. And the first, Elizabeth, is already so darn cute. Here's some pics.


Samantha a couple minutes after birth


Samantha a couple days after birth

I've been home from work for about an hour. This shift is strange. I can't ever just go to bed after work, so always do something first, a movie, a book, a video game, (e:strip)? I just watched a PBS documentary for a half hour or so. It chronicled the adventures of a Vietnamese girl who came for schooling to America. She lived in Georgia. Maybe that's enough said. There was a conversation between her and a friend about gay people and the hickbilly says that while being a lesbian is maybe okay, the thought of gay men is disgusting, just wrong. Maybe I should rejoice that lesbians at least are okay, though I fear some malecentric propaganda is the cause. Anyways, the Vietnamese girl has some money problems (she's going to figgin' Tulane, a school I wouldn't've tried to afford, fer heaven's sake) and is forced to get a job. At first as a farily harmless waitress in a Chinese restaurant, but then as the money situation tightens, she is forced to change schools and move to Detroit where she does nails. The last scene of the program is her doing some disgusting old bag's toenails. The lady calmly instructs her on how best to cut off her yellowing skin and nails, while asking questions like, "so how do you like America?" Then after instructing her that she wants the deep red, "cause it looks like the American flag," she explains that she would feel real bad if the girl had any negative impressions of our country. I'm thinking, is this not just about the worst impression of our country, the foreigner who is forced to scrub nasty women's feet in order to pay for her education? The girl even comments that she never expected to be doing the job of the shoe shiner back home. Ahhh America.

I hurt my back. I think it was the biking-day followed by the canoeing-day followed by the 4-hour nap on the couch (which is not all that big and also housed (e:matthew) at the time). I think it's getting better now, but oh how I hate being a gimp. While I made soup today I was seriously hunched like an old-old man. It's all in the way I sleep. My favorite position is somewhere between side and belly. I start out pure side (which I think is fine for the back) but then my leg slowly crooks and extends, until I am half-side and half-belly, which I think puts strange stresses on my back. I need to do a gandhi-stlye sleep on the floor thing. Tonight, at least.

Welcome back (e:springfaerie)!

Welcome back New York trippers!