curse or blessing: who'd have thunk ...

... that nearly 25 years later, i'd be reunited with a college chemE buddy (man-with-hat) under circumstances that were somewhat reminiscent of nearly 25 years ago? curse or blessing?!?!

jeez louise man-with-hat ... when ya coming back to visit the bay area so my "social" life can pick-up (no pun intended) some more?!

two data points ... when man-with-hat is around, perhaps similarities in the whole cause & effect thing doesn't quite pan out 100% in this case, but it's kinda sorta the same. nevertheless ...

december 1985 ... my morning after a bit of a walk-of-shame. (really? i wore that sweater?! shit! i probably had leggings, also.) regardless of being haunted by the vocals of both sides A and B (repeatedly!) of freddie jackson's rock me tonight 1985 album (yes, vinyl on a turntable!!!), i managed to bolt from point a (with some shred of dignity) to point b (with my self-respect regained) - all the while with my head-a-throbbin' from some serious alcohol intake the night before at henry's.

"forgive me man-with-hat for i have ..." ... i put my walk-of-shame, post-freddie-jackson-you-are-my-lady, voices-in-my-head to productive use! i footed it over to meet up with man-with-hat to confess my sins before he was headed eastward. deal is - man-with-hat (along with the other fellow chemE peeps) totally discouraged me from engaging in a potential walk-of-shame with a another fellow chemE peep. oops! my bad. fast forward ...

july 2009 ... no chemE walk-of-shame or serious alcohol intake involved, but i recently did get "validated" (oh yes, indeed i did. indeed.)

needless to say, after nearly 25 years - what was the first of many stories out of my mouth upon seeing man-with-hat ?!?!?! that i had a wee-bit of a drive-of-shame (albeit in an awesome way!) after being validated last wednesday.

got chuck norris?! ... yester eve's dinner gathering was at pizzaiolo OVER HERE, with a fabulous cabernet franc (thanks cal gal pal!), fabu conversation, catching up a little here and there, and trying desperately to piece together the individual bits and pieces of our failing memories.
as a for instance, we each had a piece of this failed memory - in 1984, four chemEs went on date night to watch chuck norris in missing in action. it is believed that the missing chemE from yester eve's dinner table was the instigator of choosing chuck's flick. (yes, i've google stalked the missing chemE in the attempt we may all reconnect.)

but i digress ... at this point, i am certainly tempted to believe that with 2 data points - one in 1985 and the other in 2009, it is only a matter of time that a 3rd data point reveals itself.

(note to self: always "be prepared"
when i find out that man-with-hat is in california.)

blessing!

BA dating ... aka landfill-potential (pt. 2)

yesterday's 1/2-dozen is joined by the following 1/2-dozen. before we begin, let's have our little daily mantra moment -

"Then again, if you spend your whole day
walking through a landfill all the time,
you might come to the conclusion
that the planet stinks."

• here we go!
  
  7. . . . endless love: disclosed as part of pr5air epi5-therapy, for those not interested in heading to the hyperlink - here is the short story:
  confession: (in the best calligraphy i could as a 17 yr old) i wrote the lyrics to the sappy song "endless love" for a dude i thought i was totally in love with my first love who deflowered me.
  theoretically "the first"?! (ewww ... i'm grossing out!!!) he and i attended the same college; we never hung out or kept in touch. several years ago, i was linkedin-stalked by endless love dude; we met for dinner - one of those sociology experiments or something. dinner good. conversation meh. didn't keep in touch after that. i hear from mutual alums that he divorced and married/hooked-up with another gal from college who had a HUGE(!!!) crush on him. not much more to say. will close this with a friend's response:
  sactofloyd: "After reading that confession, I was blinking so fast, if you shined a light in my ear you could have used my eyes as strobe lights. You calligraphied endless love for the dude who Round-Upped you? Waste of a good stroke, if you ask me."
  (o.k. - 'nuff said.) pig quotient. 7/10.
  
  8. . . . jerr-bear: speaking of sactofloyd, he "rescued me" after my din-din date with jerr-bear. jerr-bear and i were partners in an art class, so we hung around each other quite a bit - in class and outside of class when doing little assignments. jerr-bear was actually a pretty good friend. well, when the school term finished up, he asked me to din.
  
  here's the din-din deal ... 2 bottles of wine - a red & white. it went something like this - jerr-bear said, "let's order wine - two bottles of wine - one red & one white." when server brought over, jerr-bear said to the server something like, "break 'em both open. ... oh now. pour more [red wine] in her glass ... c'mon. top it off!" and then there was the soft shell crab appetizer that i asked if he wanted to share; he said he loved soft shell crab. well, he loved that crab lots. so much that he separated the soft shell from the crab so the soft shell wouldn't interfere with his eating the crab.
  
  fast forward during the date... when he dropped me off and invited himself over with the whole - "i gotta go pee" excuse - i let him in and quickly SOS-phoned sactofloyd to head over. sactofloyd called back just in time after jerr-bear relieved himself, i answered, then i told jerr-bear sactofloyd was coming by to drop something off. while we were waiting for sactofloyd and talking on the couch, sactofloyd rang the doorbell just seconds after jerr-bear reached over to run his fingers through my hair. i mean, really!!! wouldn't you wanna run your fingers through that hair? of course, back in the day, the hair came with fashionable high-tops and EXTREMELY tangled SPIRAL-PERMED HAIR. ... anyway, don't know where his is. don't remember his last name. pig quotient? 3/10.
  
  9. . . . drive & ditch: while on a formal 'first date' - dinner + play + dessert - in short, after dessert (not a euphemism), he drove me to my car on the rather empty 3rd level of the sutter/stockton SF parking garage at 12:35 AM; we hugged across the stickshift (not a euphemism), i opened the passenger door while i'd started also fishing for my car keys, i started to step out of the car - and maybe i'm making up the next memory, but i could swear the car was moving a little (just ever so slightly).
  
  anyway ... before i even got my key into driver side lock, d&d took off, didn't circle back ... so i thought, "hmmmmm? that's kind of - not cool. he seems polite. he's probably waiting downstairs." nope. just me safely in my car as i waved to the parking attendant on my way out of the garage. where is d&d now? hopefully learning manners. pig quotient? 5/10.
  
  10. . . . alberto v05: my, oh my. another sactofloyd moment. where to start? highlights and tidbits. let's see ... we were set-up by a client, his car broke down as he was driving up to meet me in the state's capital, so we met formally (in the let's date rather than just be friends kind of way) at a hotel somewhere in/near the raisin capital. (btw, this was the continuation of my "long distance relationships" that had actually started in last year of college.) we dated for 2+ months. i ended it for many reasons, with one of his notable traits - quite a stereotypical machismo thing going on. so my ineffective attempts at breaking up lasted over a 3 week period. we ultimately "really" broke up, and he moved farther away.
  
  a few months after the break-up ... he called and wanted to return 2 of my white/cream sweaters. i didn't want to see him, so as timing had it, sactofloyd was was going to be in v05's town. v05 handed a cardboard box to sactofloyd, sactofloyd played mule, and 2 days after the mule received the goods, the box sat closed in my home for 2 weeks. i opened it up ONLY because i got an irate call from v05 asking why hadn't i called him about the box, blah-blah-blah. WHOOPS?! turns out he had a nice card & some roses - now dead roses. dead roses leave marks on white/cream colored sweaters when cooped up in a cardboard box for 2+ weeks, did ya know that? now you do. (so don't do that. don't.)
  
  and where is v05 now? ... oh - that is SOOOOO another story and a really interesting story. i'll just say that the world is VERY, VERY SMALL. i believe karma has served v05 and me very well in this lifetime. he is now married. would we be cordial? yes. pig quotient? 8/10. (uh ... maybe 9/10, if you count ... stuff.)
  
  11. . . . wb#1 (errr ... #1a, #1b): this will be short. just the little f=m+c in this post. having reconnected with cal gal pal and thinking that maybe we may do a reunion of sorts with other folks, wb#1 came to mind. just google-stalked. still in BA. pig quotient? 4/10.
  
  12. . . . school teacher-frat boy (st-fb): this will be short enough. agreed to go to din-din with my friend's frat buddy. (clue #1) st-fb was a high school teacher. his students worked at the black angus where we had dinner. (clue #2) still fully-clothed, i left his place quickly upon his rico suave attempts. [note to self: good thing i didn't take my shoes off; that would have added a few more seconds to my get-a-way.] afterwards, my friend asked for the download, "how'd it go with st-fb? was he a pig?" apparently, i was my friend's sociology experiment. i think my friend won a bet or something. i don't know where my friend is now; i don't care where st-fb is. pig quotient? 8/10.
  

now up to a dozen ... this share-therapy is kind of interesting. sort of. maybe not. but i promised billn i'd provide some non-pr5air a la the little recipe o' BA dating. more later.

BA dating is not so much lately ...

... however, there will be a turn of events.

meanwhile, in the spirit of yesterday's promise to billn for a non-pr5air post, as well as in the spirit of several exchanges with cal gal pal, ice man, sacto floyd, and skateboard dude ... the result, as mentioned yesterday, is a half-baked IJAM-esque tale (recommend you read for context purpose) about my kinda-anemic BA dating with a splash of green a la mode. today's recipe revealed:

• 1/4 t. peeing on a stick
• 1/4 c. #11 asian girls
• 1/2 c. BA dating life
• 1 T IJAM
• 1/2 c. enviro-stuff
• 1 c. napkin life planning
• 1/2 c. apartment therapy
• (optional) 1/4 c. google-stalking
  

[ACCEPTANCE SPEECH: ... and to the former boyfriend, skateboard dude, who (just yesterday) offered up an extremely very blatant offer (with specific examples) to "fix" me of the "dry spell affliction" in the dating department, i thank you for providing me with fodder and inspiration to fulfill my promise to billn.

for whatever reason, you truly believe that last year, at the 80s reunion, when i agreed to temporarily lower my self-respect kiss you because you were freaking badgering me about how i could never have met anyone else who kissed better than you after 20 years and i wanted to get you off my back just wanted to see if i still felt the urge to vomit a spark, ... that my saying it was "awesome" was ACTUALLY THE TRUTH?!?!? honestly you silly, silly, boy. how cute is that?! ... and that you are still the narcissistic man that i remembered as the narcissistic boy? ahhhh!!! because back then, i was too smitten by charm and "flash over substance", i'll admit.

and then just yesterday, your trying to compel me to take you up your offer to "fix" me?! kudos to you for relating why i should revisit an encounter with you for the sake of the environment.

what is it that you said? ... oh yeah! "baby, c'mon. you're green. ya gotta reuse and recycle so you can reduce your dry spell." corny? yes. clever? no. points for trying to stick with a theme? sure, i'll throw you a bone.]

context: a smattering (part 1) of select encounters that lasted longer than a happy hour former boyfriends (or at least interesting dates) identified with occasionally telling affectionate monikers to respect and maintain their anonymity (until you ask me who they were). in other words, given my anemic BA dating life ... WHAT IF i reused or recycled my past encounters/relationships? rather than answer the question, i'll provide the "she said" side for potential landfill options (in no special order) ... that - and a little self-therapy.

"Then again, if you spend your whole day
walking through a landfill all the time,
you might come to the conclusion
that the planet stinks."

(so write-eth ice man)

1. skateboard dude: [a.k.a. the inspiration for this topic]
   more than 20 years ago, in between classes when a friend and i were deciding whether we'd kiss/sleep/touch randomly selected men among the sea of men walking past us in front of dwinelle hall (..."how about him? over there? that one? okay, guy with red backpack? for a second? if you were hammered?"), my friend pointed out skateboard dude, who was flying downhill toward us. i said "no f**king way!" AND of course, several months later, i was crawling surreptitiously under a slow-closing, apartment garage door with his OTHER girlfriend in order to confront him with OUR new found knowledge - that he was two-timing us. D'OH! joke was on us. BONUS of this pseudo-james-bond-ish move? when we knocked on his apartment door and the door opened, it was his THIRD girlfriend. fast forward to the 21st century? look - he pulled that "kiss me" when he was living with a gal. (i know. i played along. his deal, not mine. cold? oh well.) not going there. but we remain friends. pig quotient? 7/10.
   
   
2. meow-meow: living in SD and now married, clearly not on the radar. dated back in '99. however, someone asked "what if meow-meow was on the radar? you guys got along really, really well!" my answer - he fell off the radar after "date" #4 ... awfully charming, funny, and sensitive, he also was an atheist-thumper (think bible-thumper-on-steroids and then flip it over) and a bit too heteroflexible for me. kinda that simple. oh! the moniker? petula-award, 2nd place. pig quotient? 3/10.
   
   
3. purple-pleated-pants (p3): back in the day, some 20+ years ago, p3 was a totally fabulous dancer - a disco dancer, that is. and back then, that was solid gold! turns out ... i was the doppleganger of his ex-gfriend - and i would like to believe i am the 'good' vs. the evil one. the attraction? i don't remember - maybe it was the 7 pleats per pant leg (front & back) and quite the dancer body. fast-forward to the 21st century? my just-this-afternoon, google-stalking may have him as a dance instructor in the BA. pig quotient? dunno. don't remember.
   
   
4. 976-boy!: an accountant by day. a musician by night. i met him on the commuter bus nearly 20 years ago. we got off on the same stop - day-after-day. one day, i decided to sit next to him ('cuz he looked cute; again, that's how i rolled back in the day) and chat it up. a few days later, he was making coconut curry shrimp for me and my roomie. a few weeks later after that, i was waiting for him to get ready to head out to brunch. so while i was sitting around his apartment, i saw (plainly on the coffee table) his phone bill total of $376.43 (or some number like that). it was very close (if not exact) to the phone bill totals i used to have when i dated someone who lived in hawai'i while i was in college in california. of course, i HAD to look at the phone entries out of sheer curiosity - just to see if he was dating someone in hawai'i. (ha!) but i digress. long story short - 976-boy! was completely addicted to 976-porn stuff. wonder what he's doing now that we have the internet? pig quotient? 4/10.
   
   
5. wb#2: already paid homage to him in this smooth skin blog post with a most memorable quote of "mmmm ... look at that asian p***y" - that encounter was actually just last year. with no communications for nearly year and then an e/m from him just this april, i seem to be hovering at the entrance of the landfill, and i seem to stare at him from afar. just being truthful. as i told ice man, "i don't mind a little smut talk, but it's a little disturbing when it appears to be intended to be more of a soliloquy [than a monologue]." petula-award, 1st place. pig quotient? math is hard.
   
   
6. big meat: well, don't make me state the obvious. a former 2-time felon (way before i met him), what a fun guy whom i "dated" earlier in this decade. "dated" is in quotes - as it should be - over a 2 year-ish period and on/off around when the conan o'brien show was on the tube. ('nuff said) i was once reminded by him - "it's not like i'd do anything criminal anymore." i believed him, well, except for his chasing way pain killers (in quantities way more than the prescribed amount as a result of a car accident that he had) with some other drugs of choice (available when it wasn't a totally dry season). during the 2003 christmas season, i received a step #9 phone call. another notable moment? when he flaunted/flailed his attributes while in assless chaps after i had repeatedly thrown-up. i know this is not him, because a friend facebook-stalked him, and he's still living in the socal area. good to know that he won't be featured in intervention. pig quotient? 7/10.

half-a-dozen little IJAM-esque tales should be fulfilling enough of the promise i made to billn. i need to have another reason for a non-pr5air, therefore more later as i think of some other tales.

r|break: ... when blog posts collide, it may be a recipe for disaster (or not)

... or at least when tangents run amok and get swirled around in my grey matter on an early saturday morning.

although it may be considered tmi, deal with your conservative threshold. here's what happens when i'm at a loss of how to fulfill my promise to billn that i would write a non-pr5air post. (WARNING: hyperlink hell post with trying-too-hard bad puns and some blue-ish prose)

in the spirit and with the intention to keep my promise to billn - AND - with a somewhat limited creative bent this weekend, i asked myself - "what can i throw together for billn?" ... turns out, as i age i have learned, my memory not being what it used to be, i may simply draw on this past week's memorable-enough events - - - previous blog posts, e/m exchanges with iceman, sense of nostalgia with my 1-yr work anniversary coming up, telephone conversations with friends, dinner with cal gal pal, and work stuff. "ah-ha! i'll hyperlink the hell out of sh** (or repost) and mash-up my week to serve up a post for billn!"

the ingredients? ... just like a tasty baked good blueberry muffin recipe, here's my test-kitchen, weekend recipe (with ingredients and portions that may later vary) -

• 1/4 teaspoon ... peeing on a stick - with yesterday's t.v. ad, current reality is i can use my pennies for something else that may result in needing to pee on a stick (?!)
  
• 1/4-cup ... #11 asian girls - was talking with a friend about the yellow fever yesterday (and how i also may see wb#2)
  
• 1/2 cup ... BA dating life - it's why i don't need to worry about peeing on a stick for now
• 1 tablespoon ... IJAM - i sent to iceman a link to the monikers-r-us SD dating moments and also had an oracle-ish moment
  
• 1/2 cup ... enviro-stuff - it contributes to my passion in life, so i strive to reduce, reuse, recycle
• 1 cup ... napkin life planning - one of the many reasons why i so **heart** and cherish sactofloyd!
• 1/2 cup ... apartment therapy - with a bit of home organizing still afoot and getting caught up on my fave magazines (which includes cooking stuff)

directions (just like the little muffin recipe!) ... preheat oven at 375 deg F. make sure your prep station is nice, tidy and clean. consider, perhaps spit-shining wiping clean the countertop(s). then, in a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. cut in the wet ingredients. stir until moistened. fill paper-lined or greased muffin cups (... i choose to use both, just in case) to about two-thirds full. comfortably situate the pan in the middle of the rack for at least 69-minutes depending on your elevation and all ... (i know, i know!!! - stop trying just a little too hard (bwahahahaha!). knock it off, already!)

how will i know when it's ready to serve? ... take a toothpick and poke the top of the tasty-treat to see if there are any crumbs sticking to the toothpick or not? and you just keep poking it until the toothpick comes out clean. and unlike the blueberry muffin recipe, remove the pan with a towel (or something) and let it sit for a while to just air dry. while this is going on, get all the utensils nicely cleaned up and put away. and make sure that kitchen countertop is spit-shined wiped clean again, just in case you wanna serve up something else!

yield? ... an IJAM-esque tale about my kinda-anemic BA dating with a splash of green a la mode.

for now, i'll end this with the rather inspirational (or at least thought-provoking, to say the least) iceman oracle-ish moment:

"Then again, if you spend your whole day walking through a landfill all the time, you might come to the conclusion that the planet stinks."

enjoy your saturday
while i figure out what ingredients i'm really going to mash-up.