leftovers

June is always a fun, busy month for me, not least of which because my birthday is on June 22. It's also the first month of summer, gay pride month, and usually my favorite weather in LA (not too hot yet, but plenty of beautiful, sunny days). This year has been no exception. Kicking off with the video shoot for "Winnipeg Beach" the first weekend in June, we were expecting it to be cloudy and cool which I thought would be appropriate for the video since the initial concept was that I was bringing home part of Winnipeg back to LA in my luggage. However, we were all pleasantly surprised when we got to the beach and it was a gorgeous, warm day! The next weekend was LA Gay Pride and it was a fun one. It was a little mellower than in past years which was probably good for me. We didn't have any out-of-town guests, no gigs or parties, but I did celebrate in the festivities each day. Friday we went to the Purple Party, which was a new free night at the festival grounds ...

No one was at work when I got there. Turned out Joe and Kerry were at a meeting with the Sherriff downtown. Sarah and I took the subway to meet them at Phillippe’s for lunch. Worked on the websites and an ad for the HBT fundraiser dinner. Stayed until after 7 and then went home, Dylan had a new book so he was reading that while I read “Blown for Good,” the 2nd Scientology expose I’ve been reading this year. I made baked Salmon and roasted veggies for dinner and then we watched SNL with Jane Lynch and Mad Men. Worked on importing video from the show on Saturday and editing “Digital Representation” for Vimeo.

Carrie had to get back to San Francisco, so we went to brunch (her treat) at Cafe Muse and then she started her journey on the bus down to Union Station, where she caught the fly-away bus to LAX and then a flight home. It was a great visit with her and I am so proud of all her accomplishments at law school and her life in San Francisco. If you had told me 8 years ago that she would be living there and about to finish law school, I would never have believed you. Kudos, Carrie! Work was fine, I finished moving everything back in to my office and getting things put back in order; I still have some organizing left to do but it may take awhile as I am working on other projects too. I had a couple hours of downtime at home after work to catch up on TV (I watched Parks & Rec and The Office) before I had to head to Cascade Studios for Invisible Material rehearsal. It was a good rehearsal; I had stopped at 7-11 and got beer for everyone beforehand. We worked on our set and did a little...

I was surprised by how late I slept in today, but I guess I needed the rest. When we finally did all get up and around, we piled into my car and we headed downtown for the fashion district because Carrie wanted to check it out. She hadn't been there for a long time, she said. It's funny because one of Carrie's many nicknames is "Downtown" which stemmed from a story that she told us once about riding a bus and hanging out downtown. I don't even remember much of the story but the nickname somehow stuck. So, we went to where I usually park and walked around the area near Michael Levine's which is the store I usually always end up visiting. It had just been featured on RuPaul's Drag Race so we all went in and went crazy looking at all the amazing fabrics they have. Dylan found some red and white striped swimwear fabric that he bought because he's been looking for the right fabric for a long time now to have a custom-made retro one piece swimsuit....

I got up a little before noon and was less hungover than I thought I'd be, but still felt pretty crappy. I felt bad since Carrie was here and I had slept in so late, I know she's an early riser so she must have just been hanging out waiting for us to get up. Anyway, I made some breakfast burritos for brunch so that made things better. I had some turkey spam, so I combined it with some green onions, garlic, blue cheese, cheddar cheese and red bell pepper, then put the eggs in and put them in tortillas which I then grilled in a pan. They were good. Dylan's mom called and I guess she was bored and wanted to come over. Dylan told her we were already going to a party, for Robin & Michelle's housewarming, but she just sort of invited herself to come with us. So, after she came over we all got ready and headed over there, stopping at Target so I could run up and buy a couple nice towels as a housewarming gift (Robin and I had talked about this night before at Brandon...

Today we went to Dylan's cousin Shannon's place in Brentwood for her girlfriend, Suzanne's birthday. We had walked over to French Market and Dorothy's Surrender (or whatever it's called now) to get a card and gift certificate for her. When we got there, quite a few people were already there but we weren't late by any means even though we thought we were. It was nice seeing Dylan's cousins and friends that we don't get to see too often even though we all live in LA. After awhile the party moved outside where they were barbecuing and playing volleyball. It was a beautiful LA day and there were lots of children and puppies around. When it was finally time to eat, the food was delicious! Dylan's cousin Melissa was grilling and Shannon had prepared most of the food; there was carne asada, pork, and chicken and tortillas and stuff to make tacos. It was very nice. On our way home, Dylan and I stopped at Diddy Reise which is the ice cream shop near UC...

Now that I'm pushing 33, I can really feel the effects the day after hard partying. Ugh! I was so hungover today. When I got to work, the carpet had been ripped out in the hallways but my office was still just like I had left it on Friday, which was kind of irritating since I had gone to so much effort to get it ready for the carpet layers on Friday afternoon before I left work. Dylan had to work late tonight so I came home to an empty apartment after work, which gave me time to finish up the Naked Highway remix since I hadn't been able to finish it last night obviously. I also watched some TV; I watched "Life After People" which is a really cool series on the History Channel that I had seen bits and pieces of before but finally told Dylan to record it for me because I find it fascinating. I also watched "How I Met Your Mother" and J Lo was a guest star. I steamed and artichoke to eat but this time I left it in the steamer for 55 minutes or so, and it tur...

It's almost incomprehensible to me that over 10 years have passed since Y2K. Although so many amazing things have happened since then, it still seems so recent. It was a time of such optimism for me; knowing that I would be graduating from college and moving to LA in a few months put me in one of the best mindsets of my life back when the ball dropped at New Year's Eve 1999. I remember that night very well - cavorting around Hays, Kansas with a white streak sprayed in my hair; glow-bowling with my brother Brandon, my cousin Andrea and our friends; and ending the night at Village Inn. On Jan. 1, 2000, I began a journal to keep track of every day of a year that I believed would live on in my mind forever. Now, ten years later, I'm going to do it again. Unlike back then, when I would write my thoughts down each night in a rose-scented diary (complete with a lock and key), this time around I'll be blogging each entry. In 2000, the Internet was fairly new and nobody had he...