Staying Put For Now

I met with my supervisor on Monday. He gave me the details of my promotion and while the substance of my job is not expected to change, the fact that I'm replacing a very capable manager and still doing my own job means the reality will probably mean that I will be putting in more hours, at least immediately after the transition. I also gratefully received a generous salary increase and a new "title" (still not officially Duchess) that takes effect next week. We took a couple of minutes and talked about the direction the venue is likely to take. While he could offer no guarantees about the future, and really who can, if things play out as the powers that be intend, it will either be an exciting accomplishment or a colossal flop. And I'm OK with that.

I also had a first interview with the organization looking to hire me away. To say that I was less than impressed with the experience would be an understatement. It was a phone interview, and the woman conducting it couldn't have been more inept and boring. It was 1/2 hour of the most basic questions: "Tell me about this job", and "Why did you leave?". Over and over, with out any kind of follow-up question or even an acknowledgement that I was speaking. I literally bored myself. I was fishing about for any sense of where she wanted the conversation to go or what she was looking to hear about and got absolutely nothing back. I finally gave up and tried to extricate myself from the interview as fast as possible. And to think, the headhunter that was "sponsoring" me called in advance to tell me to "bring some enthusiasm" to the interview. I could get a better reaction from a lamp. At this point, even if they decide to pursue the interview process I'm planning on calling it quits.

Best to dance with the devil you know.

As Seen On TV!

Sitting around Sunday afternoon with a half-hour to kill. This is what I end up ordering. I don't deserve to have money, I have serious impulse control issues.

Greetings From The Catbird Seat

In an interesting turn of events, I find my services suddenly very much in demand. It seems through 100% reliable sources that I am about to be given a promotion and a raise. This was confirmed from a "private" courtesy call from my boss yesterday. I have a face to face scheduled with him on Monday in which specifics will be discussed. This is great news. What's also quite interesting is I'm currently in talks with another corporation that feels they may want to pay me to drag my increasingly saggy white ass a few blocks south and come work for them. The exact position hasn't been offered but they have already assured me they can "easily beat" my current (pre-raise) salary. And then words like "incentive bonuses" and "opening new stores" and "travel" where bandied about. I love to bandy.

Several meetings are in order with both parties before I come to any final decision. Believe it or not, money will not be the entire deal breaker. Between my new sobriety and my ongoing love affair with HIV (and Ben & Jerry's), it's the quality of my life that is and always will be my main focus. I will find a quiet spot on a walk with Jet and try to get in touch with my "higher power" and hopefully come to a peaceful decision that feels right for me right now. The future will out. And you can quote me on that.

If You're Stalking Me ... (2)

This is where I'll be on Sunday evening. I'll be putting in a rare totally civilian appearance at my workplace as I just plan on letting the other managers run the show as I sit sipping a cranberry/club soda and hopefully, occasionally shouting "BINGO!" to score some Broadway show tickets or a nice dinner somewhere. It's for a good cause, Broadway Cares is one of my favorite charitites because as a side bonus it usually attracts cute boyfriend material. Dancer butt is good.

This will be a monthly event so if you can't come tonight do drop by in June.

If You're Stalking Me ...

This is where I'll be Friday morning. If you're in NYC, you should drop by. Good cause, gorgeous furniture and great bargains.

Good News!: My new bike arrived this morning. Also, I don't have tuberculosis.

Ooooooooo, Girrrrrrrrrlllllll!!!!!! It's ON.

“It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book. It speaks to her true character.” --Star Jones to Us Magazine about Walters' memoir.

Damn! Miss Star learned a thing or two about being a cunty queen while she was married to that fag.

Doctor Visit

Not a whole lot to report if you don't count my fat ass. I waddled on to the scale at 167lbs. That's 7 more pounds than the last time and not the 10lbs. less I was hoping for. Free advice from me, if you're an active alcoholic it's probably best not to quit. You get fat. You stop wanting to die a slow and lonely death, but you get fat.

Blood sugar and kidneys and liver are all cooking with gas. Also, I frequently have gas, but that's another story. I'm also still kind of anemic. OK not kind of, just anemic. And I have been skipping my vitamins as well as my iron supplemenents so I came up even more anemic-y than usual. Back on the pills and some red meat just for fun. I'm going to try and take a supply of vitamins to work as I frequently remember I forgot halfway through my day. Cholesterol is still too high for my taste, but again the HDL mitigates it a bit. Not sure what I could stop eating since I'm not big on the bread and donuts. Ice cream has nothing to do with that, right? Maybe my about to arrive bike will improve those numbers.

Oh and my viral load is still woefully supressed. Poor, poor viral load.
What's that you say? T-Cells? 1009. I said, 1009.
Don't hate ....

A Check On My Package

Courtesy of the fine folks at FedEx, reveals that my bike has begun it's riderless journey across the country. It was picked up in Ventura, California on May 2nd and as of 6 AM this morning it was cooling it's wheels in Henderson, Colorado. If this seems like a blog post of dubious import you are absolutely correct, but yesterday's 15 hr. shift left me completely drained and almost mute. I will say this without elaborating, people, that is the public, pretty much suck.

Also, I tried to see Iron Man tonight and both of the late shows were sold out on a Sunday. Which means the opening box office numbers will be pretty huge. Instead I dialed up I Am Legend on PPV. NO LIKE! And yes, that's my official complete review.

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

But I can't. It seems I picked a bike that has proven to be exceedingly popular. So much so that the re-seller and the original company I found it on both are sold out. A fact I didn't find out about until they had already charged my Amex. And they wouldn't even put a back order in for me because they are unsure of when or if they will be getting a delivery. All hail E-Bay, as a 10 minute search not only found another seller for me, but at a price with shipping that was $13 dollars cheaper. Unfortunately, I had to wait several days for the credit to show up on my Amex. My financial picture has improved but there's not a lot of wiggle room. I finally sent the payment in Tuesday and received shipping info this afternoon. Delayed gratification until next Wednesday, so the earliest I will be pedal-powered will be a week from Sunday. Still plenty of spring left considering we're stuck in the rainy 50's lately.

The Story Behind The Picture

So Deborah had left the building for the night and our karaoke singers were getting ready to wrap things up. We were about 1/2 hour from closing. I was in the office doing my closing paperwork and puttering around by the copy machine when one of the other managers walked through and casually mentioned that "that guy from Dancing With The Stars, Mario something, had just come in with a group". I swear, it was like that movie shot where the camera pans in as I look up and stare with a retarded look on my face. Everything around me went all fuzzy and out of focus. I realized later that was because all the blood rushed from my head to various parts of my body that suddenly required my complete attention. I think I heard a chorus of angels off in the distance. I grabbed on to some furniture to steady myself as someone else inquired "Mario Lopez?" I immediately flashed to his Nip/Tuck shower scene. I think my mouth watered a little.

Of course, I dropped what I was doing to go see immediately. And of course, there he was, looking fine as hell. Some people commented later that they thought he was taller, but I never imagined he was anything other than exactly my height. The better to get lost in those cute brown eyes. The funniest part of this story is I only found out the next day that supposedly Carrie Ann was also part of the group of 6 or so people he came in with, and while that would usually prompt me to at least check out what she was wearing, I totally failed to even notice she was there.

Now normally, I have a pretty strict no picture policy with our celebrity guests. I absolutely abhor people who fawn all over celebrities when they should be working, and I try to remain professional in most of my dealings. We also have a "no bother" policy for the staff when dealing with celebrities, so I try to lead by example and not act like an idiot everytime some B-lister wanders by. Obviously, that rule didn't apply to the former President of the United States. I mean, it was the President for christ sake! And I suddenly and inpulsively decided it didn't apply to Mario Lopez either.

I also think the rules can be broken when the guy has been giving you a hard-on ever since he was AC Slater in a locker room scene. New rule of thumb: If my enjoyment of your career has ever caused me to want to rub one out, my no picture rule is officially out the window. So I grabbed my camera and worked my way over to the bar where our entertainers had intermingled with his group. I have to say as an aside that the man stopped and posed for countless pictures, often getting inturrupted in the middle of sentences. He was incredibly patient. So I quickly slid in next to him while simultaneously shoving a camera in one of my employee's hands. "Would you mind?" Like he had a choice. As you can see from the picture I made sure we were standing right next to each other as opposed to just snapped in the same room. Almost like we were on a date. Except not. And here's one more fun fact I doubt anyone but me would think to tell you. I could feel his body from where we were standing next to one another. His skin is hot. I knew it would be.