Put our service to the test

I have some more pictures with which to beore you and some interesting life updates to make you say "does she ever let anything be easy?" and some even more boring updates about the vacation. There's a brief synopsis. Now you know how far you want to read, eh?

That's me, at the beach (well, lake) getting sunburnt.

That's Kitten and Guitar Hero lounging on the beach blanket enjoying the sunshine. I think I was sitting above them smoking and drinking root beer.

That's me and Kitten in the lake, enjoying ourselves very much.

That's me Kitten and Guitar Hero playing on some of the playground equipment at the lake. This is why we get along, we all do crap like this. I've got loads of pictures like this one: us on the monkey bars, us in the treehouse...its nice to know I'm not the only completely immature one in the group....

That's Weasley. He's new. Another stray. Soooo cute. And to my horror, declawed. Someone threw my big boy out. But he likes me and he like to cuddle. So he stays. Jinx is a little jealous, she will overcome it I am sure.

Right those are the pictures.

Well. So we went to the lake and had a fabulous time while we were there. We all got sunburnt. Even Kitten. But it was nice. We spent most of the day in the water and I've been exhausted for the last two days because of it. More exercise then I've had in ages. Kitten isn't a very good swimmer, so I was really impressed with how much she was in the water and not on floaties like everyone else. It was good. It reminded me why I probably ought to quit smoking. I like to swim and its harder when I am out of shape and my lungs are begging for mercy.

Kitten and I have asked Guitar Hero to move in with us. We offered her the back bedroom to stay in as long as she likes. I know it sounds odd since we're still in that honeymoon period and Kitten and Guitar Hero used to see eachother but I figure things will work out. I trust Guitar Hero. If they were going to fool around we'd have known it by now, and I think they'd have talked to me about it. Or they wouldn't haev split up in the first place. Second, Guitar Hero really respects our relationship, she actually sat me down and told me how much one day. She didn't have to, you can tell when she's over. Speaking of that - she's over all the time. Her college is in our town and she's been commuting to it for four years (she's working on a master's now) and she lves an hour and a half away. We figure its a good investment for her and for us. She's up two or three nights a week minimum anyway. Until she gets a good job or whatever it will be easier for her to stay with us and she won't have to worry about money for a while. We like the idea.

And now for boring honeymoon talk. We're calling the vacation our honeymoon, cause really, that's what it is. We're doing a private binding ceremony before we head out. I think things will work out well. The 90 day mark was earlier this week and I got to start making all of our dinner and recreation reservations. I called the itenerary planner to let her know where I was and see if she could book some other things for me yeesterday. She *apologized* for me having to make any calls at all. She was seriously distressed over the fact I made my own dinner reservations. She also seemed seriously distressed that our seating at Cirque du Soliel wasn't good enough. She called me an hour later to proudly inform me she got us the "best seats in the house" (front row of first balcony, dead center - you can see the acrobats really well) with no trouble at all. I was a little stunned.

I shouldn't be. This girl also has managed to arrange roses for our hotel room, customized restaurant menus (in some cases personalized with our names), Personalized keepsake maps to get us down to florida, back to home and around on the property with no trouble, champagne and wine sent to our tables for free when we go out, and special recognition at all the places we visit as newlyweds. I'm almost afraid of how happy and helpful these people are. But, it makes life easier. I won't complain.

There are some places on our (version 1 - as she noted) itenerary where there are personal notes for us like "be sure to take the ferry on this day, its faster, and in the morning, the view is lovely" or when there's a stipulation, like for the dolphin thing, where it says no cameras or jewelry, etc. she leaves a note "but I'm sending a cast member down with a photopass camera so we'll get some pictures of you anyway." Its cool. Frightening but cool.

So what's new in everyone else's world?

xx/AG

Now it chills me to the bone

I just did my own taxes for the first time. This year I was too lazy to pay someone to do them for me. Hooray. I can do it. And I get a refund, although I came perilously close to owing the state money. Bleh. Stoopid state taxes. I'm proud of myself. I feel super adult and serious now. ha ha.

In other news, we went out on thursday. Our friends bailed on us, which is good because we went into tunnel vision mode and ignored the world. I spent the whole of the evening staring at Kitten or dancing with her. It reminded me of when we first met 9 or so years ago. She's still beautiful to me. I felt like I was 18 again. It was great. I might have drug her outside to the place where she kissed me for the first time and made her kiss me again. Maybe.

We skipped going out most the rest of the weekend. It was nice. Kitten is starting to read the twilight books and I am working on another go around with pride and prejudice. I keep falling asleep though, reading relaxes me.

Yesterday Kitten and I had dinner with my mom. It was the first time they'd actually sat down and been around eachother. If any of you recall my stories about my mom you'll know just how nervous I was. Seriously. I normally wait until there is no doubt its a long term relationship before they meet my family. My mom, as usual, had to go and mortify me. Kitten took it in stride. I love it when she's charming, and she charmed my mother, which is great. Hopefully she'll come off the ceiling now and stop giving me a hard time about Plush. She did mention grandchildren, but...she'll overcome. There's always Punk....

Anyway. She tried to get me to talk politics, a surefire way to pick a fight with me, and I was adult enough to let it go. Yay for me. She did talk about her restaurant that she works at and, god save me, made me wish I could drop through the floor. She made a very direct reference to the "beaners" that work in the back of the restaurant cooking. (its a slang term for a mexican american, in my part of the country, a rather unflattering one, at that.) I'm sure you've noticed from the pictures, Kitten is a mexican american. I almost cried. My girl, never one to pick a fight, only smiled and was nice enough to tease me after dinner about it. My mom is so on my crap list right now.

I'm going and getting my hair done today and we're having dinner with Kitten's mother tonight. I'm nervous as all hell about it. I don't want to embarass her. I want to make her proud. I know enough about her mom to know she's an intelligent woman and Kitten is intimidated by her. *sigh* At least the restaurant we'll go to will serve alcohol. I might need a beer.

Enough talk about relationships. Other things I'm excited about right now:

Rachel Maddow is gay!!!! how did I miss this? I've been crushing on her for quite sometime. I loved when she covered for Keith Olberman on Countdown when he went on vacation and I love her show. Did you know she doesn't watch television? Anyway, she's smart and funny and now I'm happy to disover, a sister of the inclination. I read this is "Curve" the last issue. (Kitten subscribes to Curve and The Advocate. Now I need a subscription to the New Yorker and I'll be all set.) Anyway, if you haven't seen her you should check out her site on MSNBC I'm putting her twitter page in the sidebar. Because I can.

Books I've read recently:

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

The Four Feathers, AEW Mason

Little Women, Lousia May Alcott

Peter Pan, JM Barrie

Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

Books I'm working on but can't seem to finish

War and Peace, Tolstoy

Anna Karennina, Tolstoy

Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

A Picture of Dorian Grey, Oscar Wilde

And that's the news kids. As far as I can tell. Love you all.

AG/xx

ditry dancefloors and dreams of naughtiness

Yesterday was fantastic.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I only have one day off a week from Casa Bueno. Yesterday was my day off. I spent most of the morning cleaning house, you wouldn't believe how much laundry kitten and I manage to generate in the course of a week. Then again, I'm a freak and like to do laundry, so I played happy housewife all morning and had a grand time.

In the afternoon we went and had lunch at a local cafeteria with Mysterym who seems to really like Kitten. It makes me happy. Mystery is the kind of girl most people need in small doses because she can't sugar coat anything and she's very opinionated. I like her because she is a great story teller. I always end up laughing when I am with her. I like that. Apparently so does kitten. After we ate we went to a coffee shop downtown. The girls ordered seriously girly coffee drinks. I contented myself with Jasmine loose leaf tea. I love tea. A lot. I also had a cuppa Irish breakfast tea with cream. Yum. We told stories until it was nearly dark. When we got home I changed clothes and Kitten banged on her guitar for a bit before we headed out to a local hole in the wall for drinks with Mystery and Charlie Brown (her husband) Incidentally, I need to steal some pics off her site so I can show you the wedding. I was in it. Fun.

We're going out to Ladies night at the biggest and longest runnning local gay club tonight. I haven't been to it in years. I can't wait to show her off. She's so beautiful. And she runs with the "phone tree" that I used to idolize when I was a young lesbian. The phone tree girls are all those girls I thought were cute but was too afraid to ask out, and then when I did work up the nerve they laughed at me. Young people can be cruel. I'm afraid I'm passive aggressive. I want people to see me out with her. There's a pretty healthy amount of younger girls that had been giving me the eye the last year or so but never made a move (well, most of them never made a move) becuase they knew I was with Plush. Iwon't be disappointed to see them there either.

I admit its childish, but then again, I never claimed to be anything but petty when it comes to my affections. I love my community but there's a pecking order. Kitten rather moved me higher up. Its true. With the women anyway. I've always been up on the food chain with gay males, drag queens and bar tenders and owners. but lesbians? They don't like me. I'm too fag for their unsubtle midwestern minds. Kitten was always a part of the phone tree, even when we were both younger. (in case anyone cares, she's 29. Two years older than I)

I'm sure I'm going to enjoy tonight, she promised to dance with me all evening. I love to dance, and she's good at it. So life should be beautiful. Like it has been.

I'm sure an update will be forthcoming. And pictures. I want to take lots of pictures.

Will you still love me tomorrow?

Right. So I don't even know where to begin with where I'm at. I was thinking of how many bloggers I have and haven't kept track of in the last couple of years and it makes me feel truly horrible. I loved everyone so much. Silly, isn't it? That you can lose track of something you think is important? Well, push comes to shove sometimes and its always the luxuries that fall by the wayside. Unfortunately, blogging (nay, thinking about myself) became a luxury for a long time.

Now I find myself in the peculiar position of being able to consider how I feel for the first time in a long time. I feel a lot freer than I did. I feel a lot better than I did. I'm still going through random moments of guilt over hurting Plush, and I worry about him taking care of himself. But I'mnot his mother, and I think that was part of my problem all along. When I asked myself why I shouldn't leave him the reasons all involved me not hurting him or him not being able to manage without me. He's codependent. And I was accustomed to him being codependent. I think I liked the idea of being needed after Beloved left because she definately did not need me.

But Plush and I can be friends, and I'll be his biggest cheerleader, always. But it doesn't mean I have to marry him. It cerainly doesn't mean that. All that time I was trying so hard to please him. I love him, no doubt about that. But its not enough. I'm sure my married bloggers will tell you, love doesn't make a marriage. I know. I've seen that from my own family.

Living with Kitten has softened life around the edges for me. Everything feels a lot sweeter. A lot more beautiful. Hell, I feel beautiful and that's something I haven't felt in ages. I'm not ashamed to wear my glasses around the house. I don't straighten my hair for hours anymore. I willl every now and again but I like it curly just as well as I like it straight. I don't worry about looking perfect all the time. And yet, I like to pull my hair down as I drive home because I know Kitten likes to play with my hair. I like to put on her boxers instead of my shoe string undergarments because I know it cracks her up to see me running around in them. Il ike to go shopping and buy things I know will cause eyebrows to raise. She says to me sometimes that only I can pull off some of the things I pull off, but really, I can because I feel confident enough to do it.

Yes, life is better than it was. And I shouldn't feel sorry for it. I feel like Jane in "Pride and Prejudice" why can't everyone be as happy as I am, its almost too much to bear.

So, the basics of me. Now. Almost, what three years later? I still work at the local Mexican Restaurant Casa Bueno. I waitress three nights a week and bartend three nights a week. I still work with Rogue. We've managed not to kill eachother yet. Well see. I never thought I'd meet someone as passive aggressive as I am, but she's got me beat, hands down. And she doesn't like my Kitten, which I resent. I love most of my coworkers, still, which I also didn't think was humanly posssible. I am a little nervous because corporate thoguth it would be a brilliant idea to start random drug testing. We're going to lose half our staff. (and honestly, as long as they don't come to work all spun out, who cares?)

I am still no closer to my degree than I was. I could say "the sacrifices you make for love" but excuses excuses. January is looking like the time to go back, as soon as Kitten and I come back from Florida. And then I *will* get it done. I will it so.

I smoke still. I quit for a period of about three months and then I picked the habit right up after my mother had a heart attack (I know that should make me want to quit, but there you are, do I ever do anyhthing that makes sense?) Cute thing is she blamed it on me. Said my wedding plans were stressing her out. Well, no more. Although I thought she was going tohave another one when I told her about leaving Plush. And when Itold her about moving in with Kitten. Yeah. Its not my fault. Anyhow the smoking habit has picked back up. The drinking habit, not so much. Well, not picked up anyway. I cut back after spending 90% of my summer drunk. Bad idea. The older i get the worse the hangovers are. And with the hypoglycemia I shouldn't be pounding too many cocktails anyway. Not too many.

My brother Punk STILL lives at home. Hes 25 now, for the record. My mom says he's moving out any day now. Ri-ight.

My cousin Lovey is out of state in college and her family moved away too. I miss Priestess and the rest of her family. A lot. I do.

I have a full ten tattoos now and I'll be sure to have Kitten take pictures so I can post them. My newest one is a pin up. I love her.

And that's all I can muster in one go I think. Still boring, right?