leftovers

It was a very hot memorial day in Kansas! Sam and Jake came over from Lawrence for brunch although we didn't all get up and around until it was pretty much already just lunch time. Mom made a french bread casserole that was SO yummy. Dylan made sweet potato hashbrowns and dad grilled sausages and then we had a make-your-own omelet bar set up on the back patio. Mom also steamed some handmade tamales that she had gotten from one of her students at school, and someone had chopped up a whole bowl of fruit. It was actually a ridiculous amount of food for 8 people, plus it was so hot out on the patio and the grill being on didn't help. We set up a fan which was nice but we were still sweating, but that didn't stop us from playing a round of croquet with Sam and Jake. We also set up the cornhole game (where you throw bean bags into a sloped wooden ramp with a hole in the middle of it) and played that a little. Jake had to get back to Lawrence but before he left, we moved ind...

Today was a pretty lazy day. We didn't do much of anything for most of the day so I played Bully on the wii in the basement. Mom and I went shopping at Wal-Mart later to get food for brunch on Memorial Day since we ended up making plans with Shelley Nondorf, and her daughter Samantha and husband Jake who we had just recently hung out with in Hawaii over the holidays. My parents have been friends with the Nondorfs for years but I hadn't seen their kids in ages until Hawaii. We also bought a croquet set for the backyard since neither one of them could remember what happened to Grandma Strecker's old set, which dad insisted had either fallen apart or had been sold at a garage sale. I find it hard to believe they would have sold anything of Grandma's at a garage sale. We also stopped at the Dollar Tree and got some drinking glasses and other assorted little things. I wanted to get a new outfit for Spike, but he already had all the ones they had there. Just like the D...

Adrienne drove us over to Katie's parent's house so we could go swimming in their pool. It was a gorgeous day and I pointed out to Dylan how nice a Kansas City afternoon could be poolside! Katie's parents had several dogs who all enjoyed swimming, and so did Katie and Dan's dog Cuzco, so we wanted Maddie to swim too. It took her quite a while to warm up to the idea but she was a natural at it. At first we would have to sort of push her in, and then she would just start swimming as fast as she could to the other side, so we would have to turn her around so she could go back to the steps so that she could get out. But eventually we would be in the pool and Adrienne would call to her and she would just jump in on her own and swim out to Adrienne! It was so cute. I felt so happy to be there for her first swim just as if I was watching a kid take his or her first steps. For now the Strecker family is content with dogs in lieu of children! We swam there for most the a...

Adrienne woke up early to go get a spray tan so Dylan and I tried to sleep in but Maddie and Rocco apparently like to just bark all day while Adrienne and Emily are gone. So it was hard to actually sleep in. We got up in time to help Adrienne clean up her house when she got home and bring everything in from the backyard. Dylan had done a bunch of the dishes last night so it was actually pretty easy doing everything else. We packed Maddie up in the car with us and drove to mom and dad's in Olathe which is just about 15 minutes away, stopping at Dunkin Donuts on the way since we don't have those in LA and Dylan and I love their coffee after we had it in Boston. Ronnie, Lisa and Caitlyn had already gone back to Hays so we missed them. When we got home we just had time to get ready to leave for Lawrence with mom. We were going to meet all the Strecker cousins for lunch. We joined them at Free State Brewery, one of my favorite places in Lawrence, and all of the cousins with t...

Today was the big day of Adrienne's BBQ. Adrienne started planning it way back when we got our plane tickets and she was really excited to show off her house which she had bought recently and I hadn't ever seen yet. She had to work in the morning, so mom and I went shopping at Hy-Vee to get the groceries and I got stuff to make my veggie burgers and Leland Palmers, a new drink that is like the Arnold Palmer but with alcohol, named after the character from Twin Peaks . The veggie burgers, which I've only made once before, are really complicated and involve a lot of prep work so I did all that at home before we went over to Adrienne's. She invited a lot of her friends and co-workers and of course Ronnie, Lisa and Caitlyn came with mom, dad, Dylan and I. Her house is really cute! I'm so proud of my little sister and sometimes it's so hard to believe that she is now an attorney and owns her own home. With Brandon I don't think about it so much because we ar...

Marc came and took us to the airport and we made it through security relatively quickly and soon we were on our way! The flight was delayed a little bit because of thunderstorms near Kansas City so we had to fly around in circles for awhile until the airport was reopened. Then we didn't end up getting in to Kansas City until after 6pm. Mom and Dad were there to pick us up and it wasn't raining anymore by the time we got there. Ronnie, Lisa and Caitlyn were at mom and dad's house waiting for us with Adrienne and her dog, Maddie. Royal and Maddie were very excited to see us and they both seemed to love the gifts we brought them, which was a little blue California bear for Royal and a purple California hippo for Maddie. Mom had made "Chipotle" style burritos for everyone for dinner and we all ate out on the back patio. Dad had just built a privacy fence around the back patio because their yard slopes down in the back so that everyone else around them who's...

I can't believe it's my last day and then I have a whole week off!!! I got a ton more resumes so I printed out the ones I liked the best out of all the ones we've gotten, and then we had an Executive Committee meeting at 3pm where they discussed how they wanted to proceed with my replacement. They decided they want Susan and I to send them resumes, they will look through and pick out their favorites, and then we will interview them together when I get back from Kansas. We got caught up on Glee before we left in between packing, and Marc agreed to take us to the airport in the morning, so I'm all ready for the trip! Hello 2010, goodbye junk! NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 144 "Sidekicks" by Thompson Twins, cassette album. I got this for Christmas, probably in 1987 or 88, from one of my siblings. Why did they shorten the name of the album (from "Quick Step and Side Kick") but increase the amount of songs - adding all those bonus remixes. Funny, h...

It's sort of crazy at work now trying to transition out of this job and get my replacement hired. I got so many resumes over the weekend that I had to sort through and send the best ones on to Susan. After work, I finished a demo of the "clown porn" song that Shitting Glitter is working on for our friend Ginny McMath's one woman show, What Not To Do . We'll be writing the songs and performing them with her during the show if all goes as planned. Amy and AJ are writing most of them but I said I would do this one, and Amy wanted me to try and finish it up before I left for Kansas. Hello 2010, goodbye junk! NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 143 "Queer" by Thompson Twins, cassette album. The story behind this is that, after years of being a die-hard TT fan, somehow the fact that they released this in 1991 snuck right up on me. I was in Wal-Mart, of all places, obsessive/compulsively checking the sections of all my favorite artists, and lo and behold - ther...

For a Sunday it was a pretty full day. We woke up and I had to get around pretty quickly to be up to Ben's for Invisible Material rehearsal. On the way, I stopped at 7-11 to get some beers, and got a 12 pack of "Game Day Light," which became somewhat of a punchline. We ripped through our set for Las Vegas a couple times and it was sounding pretty good. We still could tighten up the endings of some of the songs but overall it seemed that we're pretty much ready. Ben picked out the set list and he did a great job. After we rehearsed, Brandon and Robin left but I stayed for awhile to hang out because I was going to meet Robin and Michelle at the TV Academy to watch the new Ridley Scott Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe. Dylan didn't really want to see it, so he rode his bike all the way over to Brandon and Angie's, so I was going to meet them after the movie. As I was driving from Ben's to the Academy, it occurred to me that I was driving across t...

We went to see the movie MacGruber at the TV Academy today. I was going to go by myself, but luckily, Dylan decided to join me, and then we called Angie and Brandon and they decided to come too since Brandon didn't have to work today after all. Then we decided to see if Ben would go and he said he would meet us at the theatre, and then go to Brad's birthday party with us. So, Dylan and I took the bus to Hollywood and Highland to find a present for Brad, then we rode the subway up to North Hollywood and met Brandon and Angie at Big Wangs for a beer before going to the theatre. The movie was actually really funny, we all really enjoyed it. It was basically a lampoon of 80's action movies but there were lots of good one liners and jokes. Kristen Wiig was the highlight, of course. After the movie, Ben drove us home and he walked with us to Hamburger Mary's for Brad's birthday. We got there a little early so we could get a good seat, and Ron was the only one there...

Welcome to my 300th Blog entry!!! It was a very busy day today. I have been so broke lately that I couldn't buy the stuff to make my costume for tonight until now. So on my lunch break I went to Hollywood Toy and Costume and got a cape and some hair color. I'm dressing up as Red Mist from the movie Kick-Ass tonight when I DJ at this event called She-Raw that my friend Annie, who was the singer in Ask Alice, is putting on at the Que Sera. Then I stopped by the Goodwill and the special store to get the rest of my outfit. When I got home from work, I quickly started sewing my costume. Brandon and Dylan went to boot camp but I didn't have time since I only had about an hour to get my costume completed, which luckily I did although I ran a bit late and was not quite done by the time Dylan got back. I told him we had to leave in 15 minutes, which was really wishful thinking since I still hadn't even gotten ready yet at all. Finally, we hit the road around 8:30 although...

I had bad news waiting for me in my inbox when I woke up this morning. My cousin Andrea is in the hospital with some serious issues in her little intestine. She had problems when we were little and was in the hospital for what seemed like a year, but it has been fine until now. They're hoping that it will work itself out but if it doesn't they might have to operate which is really risky for that type of surgery. I'm really worried about her. Today we had our first meeting since the news that I'm leaving so it was a little awkward. Some board members were making jokes trying to lighten the mood. It went pretty well overall though I thought. Boot camp was at Runyon canyon again today. We didn't have to jump rope but it was still hard. Hello 2010, goodbye junk! NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 139 "O3" by Sunscreem, cassette tape. This was an original tape that I bought when it came out, and became one of the main soundtracks to my sophomore year ...

I couldn't get to sleep last night so I had to take some NyQuil and then it was really hard to wake up in the morning. When I got to work, I called Susan and she said they were trying to put together an emergency meeting so they could discuss my job offer and whether or not they wanted to make a counter offer to get me to stay there. After I got off the phone with her, I thought about it one last time and finally realized that I just wanted to take the new job, and I really didn't want to put the board members through having to meet and debate whether or not I was worth trying to keep, and at what price. So, I called Kerry to accept my new job offer, and then called Susan to let her know that I was resigning and not to have the emergency meeting. My legs were so sore from jumping rope at Runyon yesterday, but I really was just in such a good mood, with so much to look forward to that it didn't matter. I talked to a couple of people who were interested in applying for m...

What a day! I hadn't posted anything about this before, because I wasn't sure I wanted to make it public and I didn't want to jinx it either. But, a week or two ago a friend of mine who used to be my boss had let me know about a job position available at her company that she thought would be a good fit for me. However, the company is in San Francisco. I went ahead and sent my resume and pondered what life would be like if I suddenly packed up and moved to the Bay City. Would Dylan come with me? Would I like living there? Would my friends in LA be terribly upset? So many questions swirled around in my mind. Until this, I hadn't thought about leaving my job, let alone LA. Well, then after I got my resume already and had already gotten used to the idea of making a big change in my career, I heard about another job. This one was much closer - Hollywood, actually, and is very similar to my current job. I ended up interviewing for it this morning, and by this after...

I thought my intern was arriving this morning, so I hurried and got to work a little early despite staying out late at the wedding last night. I didn't hear anything for awhile and then I got an e-mail from the intern saying he was still in Singapore waiting for administrative matters to be resolved. I had the most intense craving for A&W food for lunch, but unfortunately (or actually, probably fortunately) the nearest location is so far away as to be ridiculous. Then, my new conference table was delivered so I ended up setting the table up and then I went to get Panda for lunch. Amy's cat Henry got out over the weekend while she was away, because her roommate left the door open, so she is really worried about finding him. I designed a flyer for her so she could put them around the neighborhood, but luckily he showed up soon after that when some construction workers found him in the back of her building in the dumpster (alive). My table didn't fit in the small roo...

I definitely regretted all the drinks I had last night when I made myself roll out of bed this morning so I could get ready for Invisible Material rehearsal, which was pretty difficult to get through in my condition, but I got better and more alert as it went on. Then I drove across the valley as Susan was getting married in North Hollywood. I stopped at Sears on the way to get a photo album as a wedding gift, and then Dylan texted me that he was having a drink at Bullet and asked me to meet him there, so I did. I hadn't been to the Bullet in ages. It's right on Burbank Blvd., just a few blocks from where I used to live with Dudley on Vineland. Back when I lived there, it was one of several gay bars on the strip that I used to walk to, including Rawhide, which is now Cobra; Jox, which is now a straight bar but was where Shitting Glitter's first two gigs were; Silver Rail; and Moonshadow, a lesbian bar we played at several times which is now closing. I think the last t...

This morning I had meant to get up early, but ended up sleeping in pretty late. I'm never sure if my sleeping in late means that I was really tired and needed the sleep, or if it's just the fact that I've allowed myself to sleep and sleep whenever it's not imperative that I wake up. We got up and walked a couple blocks up Laurel to our friend Joe and Sunny's place because they were having a garage sale. Marc was also there, selling some of his stuff, and Dylan's co-worked Nicki was too because she lives in the same building as Joe and Sunny. It was fun but we didn't buy anything. There was a lot of crazy costume stuff since Joe and his partner Cindy have an act called the Boofont Sisters and they were both selling some of their old costumes. But since Dylan hasn't really been dancing as Coco Ono much lately, he wasn't really looking for dress-up stuff. We walked down the street looking for a place to have brunch after that. Joey's was too b...

Since I was out at the LANI forum yesterday, we postponed Business Watch to today. I was frazzled trying to get everything ready this morning cause I had quite a few things to do before the meeting, but it all worked out fine. We didn't have a guest speaker but I was hoping that maybe because it was Friday that we would have a good crowd, but only a few people showed up. Kylie Minogue's new song, "All The Lovers" debuted on the internet today and I found a way to burn it from youtube onto a CD so I could listen in the car. I can't wait to buy the album when it comes out! Marc, James, and Brad all rode down to Long Beach with me for Shitting Glitter's show at DiPiazza's. It was pride weekend in Long Beach but unfortunately we didn't really get the pride crowd to come out to the show. But it was nice because AJ's mom, stepdad, and little brother were there and they loved the show. I had a lot of fun and they recorded it too so hopefully I'l...

I got up early this morning so I could make it down to USC for the LANI (Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative) Community Forum. I know about LANI because they manage one of the BIDs in Los Angeles that is part of the BID Consortium and so I met Monica there who works for LANI and she is so nice. I had been invited to the forum before but this was my first time attending. As soon as I got there, I ran into people I knew, including a friend from the City Clerk's Office and one from the Office of Community Beautification. So I sat down with the latter for the free breakfast and the keynote speaker, who was Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries. Now, you all probably know how I normally feel about people with religious titles affixed to their names, but this guy was really inspirational. His company helps former gang members become productive members of society, getting jobs and educations. He had a lot of really wise things to say about how without kinship, there is no communit...

Well, this day will forever live on in my memory as it was today, just short of 10 years after I moved to Los Angeles, that I finally made it into the LA Times, the main local newspaper here! While doing our Homeless Registry last month, a photographer and reporter accompanied my team so I was hoping that I would be included, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. First off, I was just honored that those in charge of the registry chose to have the Times people go out with me team. But the fact that there, in print, was a photo of me - sitting on the sidewalk interviewing a homeless person - I was just dumbfounded and completely honored. I got the e-mail from Kerry Morrison, Director of the Hollywood Property Owner's Alliance (and one of the driving forces behind Hollywood 4RWD, who organized the Registry) with a link to the article. There were a few pictures of me on the online slideshow, but it was my friend Josep who commented on my Facebook Page that I was also in the pri...

Dylan took a half day off work so he could take his mom to a Doctor's appointment, and to get her car out of impound. I can't remember if I mentioned that her car had been stolen while parked in North Hollywood; on Mother's Day, LAPD called her to say they had found it, but that it had been involved in a wreck on the 5 freeway. We were worried that it was totalled, but Dylan said it wasn't as bad as they had said and that she was able to drive it home. I went to Susan's to cut checks today, but she was out with Jeff picking out their wedding cake! They are getting married on Sunday. I'm really happy for her. As I was leaving, Laura called me and said she was stuck downtown. She had gone down for her background check and interview for the security job with Hollywood Media District that I referred her for, but when she came out to put money in the meter, her car was gone. She said it had been stolen, but knowing what I do about parking in downtown LA, I figu...

This morning was Tristan's funeral. It was at a catholic church, St. Pauls, down on Washington and Bronson. I picked up Marc and James to go with me, and we met Ben and his parents who were already there when we arrived. Ben told us he had gotten the wrong information to us, and that the service started at 10:30, not 9:30, so we had an hour to waste. First though, James and I did go into the church because they were having the viewing. I was sort of surprised that it was an open casket as those seem to be rare these days. Marc and Ben are both Jewish, and Marc said they don't really do that so neither one of them wanted to go see him, but I still remember going to my first open casket funeral for my great uncle Ted when I was very young. We all went to Starbucks to hang out for awhile before going back to the church. We sat sort of far back and we were definitely a distinct group and I wonder if the family wondered who we all were. Regrettably, I never really got to kno...

Today we went up to the Valley to take Dylan's mom out for Mother's Day. She had just moved into a new place, a sprawling ranch up in Granada Hills just a couple of blocks away from Dylan's sister's house, and very near to his Aunt Renee and his dad. It's a really nice place and the lady whose house it is seems very nice. The house is a sprawling ranch with a pool and jacuzzi in the backyard and four little doggies (shitzu/poodle mixes). I think Robin will enjoy living there. We took her out to Soup Plantation in Porter Ranch which was really yummy. I tried to not pig out too much but it's hard since they have so many different foods there - soups, salads, breads, deserts, etc. Afterwards, I convinced Dylan to take us to Wal-Mart since we were right there, and we needed serveral household supplies. Normally we don't go to Wal-Mart for the obvious reasons, but it does remind me of home when I go there. We just needed some things like paper towels, body...

Journal Entry May 8, 2010 I slept in pretty late, thinking that Amy or AJ was going to call or text when they were going to brunch at Hamburger Mary's since we had made plans the night before. When I finally got up, I hadn't heard from them so I texted them. Still no answer, so I just decided to cook brunch at home which was fine since I had milk, eggs, and veggies. Finally when we were almost done, Amy texted saying they were at Hamburger Mary's but they were already done eating. So much for that I guess. Then I started working on the computer and got pretty deep into editing on one of my songs. Sometimes I get on a roll and today was one of those times, so when Amy called later to invite me over to Rich's (from Chachi) to jam with them I had to decline. To continue our weekend with Revenge Club, we were playing with them again tonight only this time in San Diego. Dylan didn't want to go down there and back in one day, and Marc was dog sitting for Princessa ...

Shitting Glitter had a show tonight at Mr. T's Bowl in Highland Park. We had put the whole night together, and when I say we, I really mean Amy and AJ because they did the work. Amy's friend from high school, Sean, is in a band in San Diego called Revenge Club and they wanted to come up and play a show with us, so Amy and AJ put the night together which also included Rough Duchess and Chachi, both bands we have played with before and really like as people and as bands. So, even though Mr. T's Bowl wasn't really a place I wanted to play again, it turned out to be pretty fun since all of us bands get along so well and we all watched and supported each other. Brad came with Dylan and I so that was fun too. I thought that a couple of the members of Revenge Club were going to crash at our place so we had cleaned the whole apartment before we left for the show, but they ended up going back to San Diego and we ended up with a clean and organized apartment for the rest of t...

The student from Singapore who is going to be interning at the Hollywood Media District wanted to chat on Skype since he'll be here in just a little over a week, so I agreed that it would be a good idea, even though I had never used Skype before and didn't want to admit that I was so un-tech-savvy. Luckily I downloaded it and figured it out yesterday, so I was already for our session this morning at 9:00am. The first thing that surprised me was that he looked nothing like I thought he did. It turned out that when I was going through the resumes of the students, there were two with the same first name and I got them confused; one of them had a photo and that was the person I thought I was going to be speaking with and it wasn't. Anyway, we had a nice chat and he had a few questions that I hope I was able to answer to his satisfaction and so now he will be arriving here on May 17. I got a lot of other work done today, including figuring out the assessment formula for a pr...

Today was Cinco De Mayo, a holiday that I'm pretty sure I knew little or nothing about when I lived in Kansas but it's usually a pretty big deal here in LA. After work, I went home and did a little tweaking on some music before I got ready to head over for Robin and Michele's for a dinner party. I got almost all the way there, which is clear across town on Vermont and 6th, when Robin called to say the party was moved back to Park LaBrea where it had originally been scheduled (he had just told me a few hours earlier about the change to his place). So, I turned around and headed back west. The apartment was Aaron and Mark's, and I got there first (Robin and Michele were the only other guests). I met Aaron a few years ago through a mutual friend but I didn't know him that well, and I don't know if I ever met Mark before, so it was nice to hang out with them and get to know them better. Aaron made a really awesome Mexican meal - fresh salsa, guacamole, tacos, ri...

After work today, I finally got all my music stuff set back up. It has been way too long since I've been able to work on recording. Since I finally got my computer back and my data was saved a few weeks ago, I just haven't had the time to hook everything up again until now. I meant to work on this Clown Porn song for Shitting Glitter that we are doing for Ginny's show, What Not To Do , but I ended up messing around on this new song I had done a little demo for called "So Dystopian." Once I got into it, I just ended up going for it, and I did all the instruments and vocals, finishing the entire song pretty much in one night. It's kind of an ambient type of song, with the vocals done as a round. I really like it. Here are the lyrics: So Dystopian It's true - it feels so dystopian with you (I think I'm going to add another line in here but for now I just repeat the first one) Is it any way to spend the day not knowing what to do? Is it any way to p...

I already hate Mondays, but today my internet wasn't working in the office, so I couldn't check my e-mail or do anything. I felt helpless. I went home on my lunch break and took the computer with me so I could check my e-mails and stuff. I wasn't going to go back to work, but I thought maybe the internet would be back up so I went back in. Still no internet, though! For dinner, I made grilled sandwiches with salmon salad and cheese, and a split pea soup, and salad. Dylan told me he'd take me out for dinner tomorrow night. Hello 2010, goodbye junk! NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 121 "Electric Youth" by Debbie Gibson, cassette tape. I'm sure this is the original tape I had back in the day, and as much as I favored Tiffany over Debbie, I did really like this tape when it came out, especially the title track, the video for the title track, and the perfume.

I slept in and then at some point (1:15pm!) I finally got up and said "why did you let me sleep so late?" Dylan said "you better be talking to your alarm clock." I warmed up some leftover from brunch yesterday and then Dylan and I got ready and picked Marc up to go to Amoeba's first "garage sale." We didn't know what to expect but our friend Adrienne who works there did text us to let us know it would indeed be in the garage, after having told us the other night at El Coyote that she didn't think it was. Dylan had some records in a crate that he wanted to trade in so I helped him carry them in but then I went right down to the sale. I ran into Adrienne and her boyfriend Quinn while I was entering the garage. There were so many people down there and there were boxes everywhere, many of them on the floor, and the lighting wasn't the greatest so it was kind of difficult to really go through everything. I went through quite a few boxes of 4...

Mayday! It's the holiday where we used to go put flowers on people's doors, and then run away after knocking. I think that's a midwestern thing 'cause no one out here has heard of it before. I made brunch for me, Dylan, Marc, and Viktor. I made beanie weenies with veggie hot dogs and a BBQ I made from scratch, and Soyrizo and Egg burritos. They were all yummy! It was so cute because Viktor brought Princessa, his tiny little chihuahua over. Shitting Glitter had a gig at Whittier College for Psychedelic Circus, put on by the Poets Society or something like that. It was an outdoor afternoon show on the upper quad. Marc rode with me, and we picked up Robert on the way. I totally missed the exit for the 60 East and ended up taking the 710 all the way to Long Beach! I was already running late, but that set me back even more, and then when I got to Whittier my directions were really bad and I ended up going in the wrong direction again. I called Laura and luckily he...