Category Archives: The Basics

Sometimes I’ll be at my computer and look up through the window just at the perfect moment to see something utterly beautiful like the smiling moon rising over the Mule Mountains. 

OK, OK, barf–ick, I know…

I have actually been writing lyrics for one of my freshly harvested guitar ditties.  I’m in a silly poetic mood I guess but, I have to wonder.  How can you not be in a silly poetic mood when the full moon is rising right outside your window?

Ray is on his way home.  The poor guy needs to sleep in his own bed.  He mentioned feeling like a cold was coming on.  The worse thing about late flights into Tucson is that you have an hour and a half drive to get home.  At night.  On I-10.  With nary a streetlamp. (tee hee)

Ever drive on the 10 at night with all those crazy fucking truckdrivers?

Well, the long weekend of dancing around in my skivvies with my guitar singing poorly and playing even worse is coming to a close.  It was productive.  I went to the gym twice, wrote two blog posts (with photos!), worked on lyrics and belted out quite a few tunes on the karaoke machine out in the garage.

I don’t have rehearsals for the next two weeks so I can go consistently to the gym three times a week for two whole weeks.  That’s six times!  W00t!

Yeah…part of the whole gym thing is to be enthusiastic about working out.  You have to believe it to see it.  Seeing is Believing.  Believing is Seeing.  Ain’t that the truth?  That’s the “Secret”.  Maybe we can all collectively believe the world will become a better place. 

You know what most God fearin’ people in America believe?  They believe in a book who’s final chapter is all about the end of the world.  The book of Revelations is full of predictions that many people believe to have become true today.  Could we have willed it into our world?  Could we have made it happen? 

You know what I think?  I think the book of Revelations predicts the final chapter of Christianity.  How can you possibly engage in a religion that is so totally flawed?  It’s like George Bush in the White House–we know, it’s fucked up but people keep believing in it. 

There is this great line in Jesus Christ Superstar coming from Judas as an angel after he hung himself.  “If you’d come today you could have reached the whole nation.  Israel in 4 B.C. had no mass communication.”

Touché Judas, touché.

I remember KTLA Channel 5 used to run that at Easter-time until someone realized it was written by a Jew and wasn’t exactly a sparkly account of Jesus Christ’s last days.  Idiots.

How would Jesus treat me?  That’s what I wonder.  What would I do if the Son of God rejected me for being gay?  I mean, he’s the liaison to the big guy in the sky.  Jesus, can you put in a good word for me?  Maybe you know someone who’s gay.  Maybe you’re related… 

And then I woke up.

The moon is getting high in the sky.  I think it’s time to grab the guitar and refocus my creative moonlit energy on the instrument. 

You know what I did this morning when I woke up?  Nothing.  I just maintained a fetal position in my warm comfy bed.  Sometimes when you wake up, you have to just lay there motionless for about five minutes–especially when life has been whirring around you like a spinning top with a lot of momentum.  It’s like an act of defiance.  I’m not going to jump up and move, move move!  I’m not!

Of course, it’s winter here in the high desert and the house gets rather cold at night.  The heater hadn’t kicked in which is another good reason to stay in bed.

The need for coffee soon overtook my desire to cocoon under the covers and the cat was getting restless for food.  When Ray is here, it’s like coffee, heat and cat feeding all happens automatically.  He spoils me so.  He’s just that type of guy who springs up and starts going at the crack of dawn.

My complaints about the cold certainly fall on deaf ears when it comes to Ray right now who’s in Chicago looking after Aunt Leona’s creaky old house.  The current temperature there is 3.

Ray and I once again have been on the move.  He was in LA while I was in New Hampshire last week.  He’s in Chicago right now and we’re both going to DC and Chicago next month.  Did I mention that I’m rehearsing for a play, working out three nights a week with a trainer, volunteering for the Mule Mountain Relay for Life, designing a logo for a startup and rebuilding the entire county website all at the same time?  Yeah, I’ve been a bit busy.  I’m trying to get my guitar practice and script memorization in whenever I can as well. 

It’s nobody’s fault that I am in this predicament.  The director of the play asked me months ago if I would be interested and, at that time, I had hardly anything going on so I said yes.  Oh, yeah, I play three characters in the play.  Just an added layer of complexity.

As far as the upcoming Chicago trip, Aunt Leona couldn’t really provide a time-line of events surrounding her death so she’s off the hook.  It’s kind of hard to plan things around death if you don’t know when a person is going to permanently check out. 

But you know what?  I refuse to compromise on the gym.  I have to go as much as I can.  It’s a promise to myself and I’m tired of being tired of my physical well being.  Besides, my trainer knows every guy there and introduces me to them.  She’ll have these buff–and very friendly–guys show me how to do certain exercises.  I’m OK with that. 

I like my gym.  It’s not glossy.  It’s not a meat market.  It’s mostly serious fitness enthusiast working out with the ubiquitous Pop-Hits radio station playing in the background.  There are a few women as well and they, like my trainer, are really into weight lifting.  My trainer is 50 and bops around like a 25 year old.  She’s doing something right because she looks hot.  I think I’ve gotten over the first hurdle of going to a gym–looking like an asshole because you don’t know what you’re doing.

So, I actually have today and tomorrow to do whatever the hell I want.  Blogging was at the top of my list.  I also want to get some work-work done.  I have a new docking laptop from the county so I can do stuff at home which I love!  I enjoy what I do and don’t mind putting in an hour or two from home on my time off.  The coffee is better here anyway and I have an office with a window.  Several windows actually.

The best part about being so busy is that I don’t have time to notice winter moving along.  By the first week in April, most of my busy stuff will be over and…it’ll be April.  Spring!  Pool weather!

The worst part about being so busy is blog neglect for which I am very sorry.  I will make an effort to blog as much as I can.  Blogging is not a thing that I can do quickly.  I’m too wordy.  It takes me a while to compose my thoughts.  That being said…I’m going to keep on blogging. 

I love that.  Let’s just keep fracturing the republican party even more.  Perhaps Giuliani can win the next one.  Ick.

Now if only the Dems can get their shit together and stick to either Clinton or Obama–sorry Mr. Edwards no one is paying much attention to you.  Besides, just a hint of your Southern drawl evokes a visceral reaction in the general public.  You can thank George Bush for that.

I’m undecided about Hillary & Obama.  I hear so many people talk about Obama and how “real” he is.  He’s not real.  He’s a young politician.

At this point anyone (or anything) would be better than our current president. 

Radio silence.  My blog has been in a state of suspended animation.  I, on the other hand, am not. 

 The meeting went well today.  They liked what they saw.  The week of training and extra hours of attention to detail have paid off (for now).  I did not realize how much I was putting into this meeting until it was over.  I’m almost dizzy–but in a good way.  There is now a great deal of momentum in my ginormous work project.  It’s liberating.  I’m kind of stressed but not really. 

…and I’m actually having a great time. 

It’s hard not to blog when there is so much to talk about but I have to put my energy into the project.  Once it’s done you’ll know why (doesn’t mean I’m going to not blog). 

Onward and upward!

Ahhh travel, travel, travel.  Seems like I just can’t avoid it.  Next week I’m off to New Hampshire for the Primary–actually I’m in New Hampshire for a software training class.  It just happens to start on the same day as the Primary.  Thank goodness I booked my hotel room way in advance. 

The nice thing about going to New Hampshire is that I have family nearby so I plan to stay an extra day to hang with the rellies.  I was originally going to visit my uncle Bob who was quite ill but alas, I didn’t quite make it in time. 

In early February, Ray and I are going to Washington DC to attend the Studio Theathre’s 30th Anniversary Gala.  My cousin Janet is the chair for the board.  I am very excited because I will get to see some more family.  I am very fortunate, my family gets along really well.  We always have a great time together.  I’m looking forward to the Anniversary Gala too!

I’m not looking forward to flying back East twice during the winter months.  

Ray and I have had such good travel karma.  I just hope it lasts for the next two months.  Nothing is worse than getting stuck somewhere due to bad weather.  One time we were flying back to Chicago from LA after Thanksgiving.  I had come down with one of those bugs where you puke so much it feels like your stomach is going to deploy from your mouth like an inflated airbag on impact.  We landed in Kansas City and all flights were cancelled–at the end of the Thanksgiving weekend.  We ended up renting a car the next morning and driving home.  It took nine hours. 

Ray and I have also been toying with the idea of an international trip in the early Autumn–and no I’m not talking about Mexico.  Greece would be nice.  So would Scotland.   Who knows where we’ll end up.  In some ways, I don’t care where we go outside of the continental United States.  I just want to see everything!

Happy New Year!  The holidays are over.  Life can get back to normal and with the dawn of a new year, we can all be optimistic that things will get much better. 

Let’s have a Britney-free 2008 shall we?

Ray, John and I went into Old Bisbee for the New Year celebration.  First we stopped over at Montefalco to have dinner with Terry.  Ray made a light meal of baked tortellini and salad.   We had a lovely time toasting to the new year and scarfing down the food.  After that, we made our way down to Brewery Gulch.  I was kind of cold, full and tired.  There were a lot of people out.  You know when you’re supposed to be in the mood to party but just don’t feel like it?  That was me…and Ray.  I can’t speak for John, he’s all young and was supposed to be in Vegas for New Year’s but had a little trouble getting there carwise so he was stuck with us.  Thankfully,  our friends Peter and Renee saw us from inside of Santiago’s where it was all warm and cozy and they had a table with room for three more people.  I had not seen either one of them for a while and it was fun catching up and being a dork with Renee.   We heard there was supposed to be some cool event going on in City Park for the midnight countdown and planned to go there…eventually. 

After hanging around there for a while, we went up to the park to see what was going on.  I was surprised to see so many people there.  The place was filled with people, music and laughter. 

Ray, John and I huddled together to keep warm.  It was kind of fun, the three of us just pressed up against each other like a little three-man fortress.  Finally the countdown began…or did it?  It’s kind of hard to tell in Bisbee.  There’s real time and then there’s Bisbee time. 

People who live here know what I’m talking about.

The music got really percussive and kind of hypnotic and the suddenly a giant–I mean GIANT–bunch of balloons took off into the night sky.  There was some sort of creature attached to the balloons and it was tethered to a few people on the ground.  Everyone started cheering and cameras were flashing like Studio 54 on a Saturday night.

I love Bisbee.  My funky little town. 

After the balloon creature flew across the park to the main stage, it did some sort of interpretive dance thing with some other creatureettes.  I don’t do interpretive dance at 12:00 AM in the park huddled together with two people for warmth.  We decided to go to the Bisbee Grand for a drink.  Yes, I drank.  It was New Years for chrissake and I was cold.

We went there for a bit and said hello to some friends.  After that we made our way back to the Copper Queen Hotel where we ran into Rene and Peter. Ray didn’t last much longer after that.  John and I hung out for a bit and then went back to Montefalco and ate some leftover tortellini and pecan pie with extra creamy Cool Whip (Extra Creamy partially hydrogenated trans fat if you ask me).

We all crashed out.  All was well. 

Happy New Year world!  I am forever optimistic about what lies ahead. 

Here are some photos from the evening:

Cobban & John

City Park before countdown

Happy New Year!!  Yay!

Isn’t that the sign for fuck?

The next morning, Ray and I took a walk around our place.  That’s Stolen Horseshoe int he background.