I'm Baaaaaaaack

and I'm definitely bringing sexy back with me.

A less eventful trip back to North Carolina on the 1st. I usually hate to travel on the 1st with all the idiots and drunks, but this year necessitated it. And overall it went fairly smoothly.

So much to tell so I'll do it in short blurbs:

Xmas with mom was nice. Got lots of small goodies. Christmas eve church service was funny to me, as much of it is still the same traditional stuff from my childhood, yet they have also 'modernized' it. There was some arm-liftin' "praise music" added-- and a big video "sing-a-long" screen too that didn't QUITE keep up with the words (like bad karaoke). I also forgot how WHITE my old church is!

Xmas with dad was nice. Got lots of small goodies. Played various card games, ate chex mix, drank beer, farted, and generally had a good time.

K-dog from stageleft came down to Iowa and visited my family. He met both my mother and father/stepmom/stepbro combo. We had a good time, he played games with my family, my father farted in front of him, etc. The usual. Warning: do NOT play cranium with K unless you are extremely patient. We still won, but it was somewhat arduous... I'm just sayin'.

Spent last part of week with K-dog up in Minneapolis. We did some cool things like see the British Advertising award winners-- all the winning commercials for the year were shown back to back at the Walker Art museum. There were some awesome fucking commercials! Also, we saw the Wild win a hockey game. We went to a party where I managed to alienate nearly all of his friends single-handedly, except perhaps Scott (who was my favorite anyway). Evidently my "fire off a barb and see how the person reacts" approach didn't work so well.

SIDE NOTE: This is how I operate. When I meet new people I do a little verbal sparring. I lob them a few softballs, and see if they swing or duck. If they swing, I like them. If they duck or get beaned... well, I tend to write the person off. They may be nice, but not really good 'friend' potential. The best are the people who catch and then fire back a fastball. THOSE are the people I love. And date. Evidently a lot of the people I met at the party were 'duckers'.

K-dog took me to the Eagle/Bolt (gay bars) in Minneapolis. It was there that I ran into two people that I haven't seen since Grad School! Yes, this one guy I knew named Jim saw me and recognized me. I, however, did not recognize him. His hair was shorter, and he had a goatee. He also had taken off like 20 pounds and replaced it with about 15 of muscle. He looked pretty good-- although his accent had somehow mysteriously turned into that of someone from the U.P. or northern Minnesota. Along with him, I saw Kyle- a guy I used to have a crush on 12 years ago. He also looked good, but I thought he looked better 12 years ago.

New years eve was uneventful, as a snowstorm blanketed Minneapolis with snow and ice and the driving became treacherous. We stayed in and watched movies, ate pizza and drank beer. Which is my preferred way to spend New Years.

That's about it for now.