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So last night, after writing that I was about to go out and was very excited about that, I laid down for just a minute...and woke up 20 minutes later, just after 11pm. I figured I still needed to get ready, then take the train to the Castro, and of course, I had to be up by 7 this morning...so, it just didn't happen. I realized if I was that tired, that I was already falling asleep, that perhaps I should stay in so that on Saturday I could be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for work...which of course is the reason I'm here.

But I just got in and I AM going to dinner in a little while, and I am determined to go out tonight and catch a bit of this town's spirit. I've been cooped up with a bunch of professors this week (thank goodness for Carol and Giacomo...we could rag on other professors over lunch, something I can't do with too many other people). Anyway, it's OK to stay out tonight even though I'm up at 7 tomorrow...after all, I'm not the one flying the plane.

My panel discussion today on couterterrorism went really well. The other speakers have done some very interesting research and we got a good discussion going after all the presentations. Everyone in the audience and on the panel seemed to have a good time, which suggest I'd be a good party planner if I ever need a job. I was a little nervous about it as I was supposed to comment on their work and some of what they're doing is a little beyond me, but it all worked out really well and they seemed to appreciate my comments, so yay.

And as I was going to lunch, aiming for the place Carol told me about, I ran into Carol and Giacomo (yay!!). Turns out they were already at the place she'd told me about...I'd misunderstood where it was and would have walked right past, becoming hopelessly lost. Fortunately they were sitting outside and yelled very loudly...twice. I should really pay attention when someone yells my name, but of course I always assume it's the paparazzi.

It's been a good week work-wise, but I could use a few days off here to just enjoy the city. I do like San Francisco and I forgot that when I go to conferences like this, the conference is about all I get to do. Good grief, I've been to 4 conferences in Chicago and have seen almost nothing beyond the hotels! But I do need to get back to work next week so I'll just need to schedule some off-work time out here sometime.

This is my second trip to the west coast in a couple weeks and I have to say I'm liking it more and more. Portland was so laid back, San Francisco has such a nice energy...as I sat in the restaurant on the 46th floor of the hotel this morning and looked out at the Golden Gate Bridge rising up through the mist covering the bay I thought "yeah, I could live here."

Labels: Travel, Work

San Francisco is going very well. It is mostly about work...I am in the conference from 8:30 - 5:30 each day and then have had work-related meetings most evenings, either over dinner or something like that. Tonight I had a really interesting dinner with some professors from Singapore.

Best part has been seeing Carol over lunch Wednesday, and she looks FABULOUS. (oh, and she's smarter than me, too)

Tonight I'm going to venture out to a club for a little dancing and Saturday night I am hoping to as well, before flying home Sunday. Oh, and I am finally speaking at this conference Saturday afternoon.

I realized today that I've seen very little of this city this week. Other than a couple hours down in the Haight-Ashbury area after arriving Tuesday, I haven't been away from Union Square. Fortunately, that will change in about 40 minutes.

Labels: Travel, Work

Last week I was too busy having a life to blog about it.

Tuesday night I was thinking I'd go out but ended up just running errands instead. But then a friend called around 10pm and wanted to go for coffee, so off I went. Hey, it's not as if I had to get up and go to work the next day. Oh, wait a sec...

Wednesday night I dealt with DC traffic for an hour then met up with Stan to go to an art opening. It was a photo show by The Sartorialist who, in addition to being a photographer of random fashion, is also a monthly fashion columnist in GQ. He had a great show, though the photos started at $1200, so they were a little out of my league. He was in attendance, and Stan thought he was hot, so the night was a success.

We went out for Indian food after that, which was very yummy, and very filling...Stan ordered chicken and I'm pretty sure he got a whole chicken. After getting him home I headed out to meet danny around 11pm, after he got off work...and naturally, he was hungry, so off we went to IHOP. He had a big omelette, I had decaf, and we both had a bad waitress. We talked for 2 hours, much of it about AQUA...because of my background Danny occasionally bounces ideas off of me about how to manage the group...then i think he does the opposite, I'm not sure. (ok, truthfully, he has done some things I suggested and they've actually worked out well).

Thursday I was a tired bitch and was an hour late to work. But since I don't like my job, I wasn't too worried about it. I was determined, though, that Thursday night would be a quiet night here, and indeed it was. So yay that. Oh, and I had lunch downtown with Linh, and we did some good catching-up.

Friday night I went to a birthday party for a friend. It was at a straight place (where he works) that tries to gay-it-up about once a month...but this time the straight people really outnumbered us. I encouraged Linh, Danny, Justin, Hai, and Khamla to go, and they all did, which was good since together we comprised about half the gay boys there. We had a nice time, it's fun to get my various friends together in one place.

Saturday Stan and I did some shopping...hooray for H&M! But the week was starting to catch up with me. That night a group of us got together to celebrate Vu and Troy's 10th anniversary, and I had fun but knew I couldn't stay too late...fading fast...

Sunday...oh yeah, I slept in. Until 10am, which was about 9 hours of sleep, and yes, I needed every minute of it. I was determined, though, that this would be the day for my 9-mile run. In two weeks I'll be running in a 10-mile race, and I haven't run that far before, AND I'm out of town next weekend. so this week was my chance to see if I could handle something like the race distance. The weather was great so it was a really good chance to get out there. I was feeling like I had a pretty good pace until a cute young guy passed me about 2 miles into it. He had a cute ass so I stayed with him, until he stoped by the side of the trail to puke. heh heh I finished my run in either 75 or 85 minutes...I thought it was 75, but that seems fast...could I have misread the clock when I started, and maybe it was actually 85? Either way, it's good enough for the race...the main thng is, I know I can finish a distance like that, because I wasn't totally dead when I came in to the finish.

Sunday night, of course, was the new Futurama...Stan and Khamla both came over for pizza and Chinese buns (food, not Stan's) and Bender. Yay for Bender!!

So now it's Monday night, and I've packed, and am headed to San Francisco tomorrow for the rest of the week. What the hell, I'll have plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead.

Labels: Bars, Friends, Stuff

I have plenty to write about tonight, since I need to get caught up since Tuesday, but I'm still orgasmic over watching this on Comedy Central tonight:



Seriously, I need a towel.

Labels: Stuff

ETHAN (talking about guys): You know me, I never say never.

ME: Hell, you barely even say "no."

***************

MARY (in my office): I'm talking to a friend, she's about to have a baby, I can't believe she's still at work. She's saying "get this thing out of me!"

ME: If she'd said that 9 months ago while having sex she wouldn't be having this problem today.

(ok, they were funnier if you were there)

Labels: Friends, Stuff

The ironic thing about receiving this video today is, it was just last night that Stan and I went to an underwear party at a bar downtown.

Oh, and I was told in a SMS this morning by a friend overseas that I have a perky ass, and that totally made my day.

Labels: Music, Stuff

Went out with my former student yesterday after arriving, and that was very cool. We grabbed a couple beers and got caught up on all we've done since we last saw each other nearly 2 years ago. I came back to the hotel and did some work while he ran errands, then we got together with his girlfriend for dinner...after that the three of us met up with some of his friends and we went to shoot pool and have some excellent Portland beers. A good time was had by all, especially by me when his friends thought I was a student, too. heh heh heh

This morning I had a minor problem with my alarm clock...somehow it was turned off, I don't know if I did that or not. Anyway, I woke up 10 minutes before my first meeting. I'm proud to report I made it on time AND i looked sharp!

Labels: Bars, Friends, Work

I am heading to Portland, Oregon, for a quick business trip. I have a meeting all day Saturday and will come home Sunday. I feel like I will spend more time on airplanes than i will spend awake in Portland.

This is my first time there and I'm excited to visit. Also, one of my former students -- who left our school in Colorado and transferred to a university in Portland -- is going to hang out with me. We've been talking online the last few months and it sounds like he's doing well -- I'm excited to see him and get to know him outside the classroom!

Stan came over last night for dinner and Lost. Then there was a new episode of South Park. We were going to follow that with a movie I'd gotten but Stan, being the mature one, said he should probably go home and let me go to bed, seeing as I had to get up at 5am to fly out. I'm glad he did, I kinda needed the sleep!

Labels: Teaching, Travel, Work

Yesterday I went back to the University of Virginia to present a guest lecture in a class. I went to UVA for my undergraduate education, of course, so going back there to teach -- even for just an hour -- is a big deal. UVA was the defining place in my life, an experience that created a new "me" and set me on the path to the great life I've enjoyed these last 20 years. Also, I did not have the best grades there, so teaching something is, shall we say, a little ironic.

I gave a class on combating terrorism. One interesting part of this is that the last time I spoke at UVA was back in November 2001, on the same topic. The 9/11 attacks had happened only a couple months earlier and my presentation focused on the likely US response. I had a chance last week to go back through my notes from that discussion and see which of the things i predicted came true and which ones I missed. Hmmmm, invasion of Iraq...didn't see THAT one coming.

It's kind of cool to go back and be welcomed by the students as something of a University success story, even though many of my classmates have done far greater things than I. I like that because, where I used to teach in Colorado, returning alumni were often met with a "so what?" attitude from the students. Here, they made me feel like I still belonged, and they looked up to me. And that was nice.

Adrian was in town that day, he is on a driving tour of the South this week, so we had lunch at a restaurant just outside the University grounds (Adrian is a graduate as well). It was a little disturbing to hear the "oldies" radio station in the restaurant playing music from my college years. Then again, maybe it wasn't an "oldies" station, maybe it just played music from the 80s. Because I'm still a little too young to have my music referred to as "oldies."

Labels: Teaching

After crossing the finish line



The Gay Runners...though I'm sure we weren't the only ones!

Labels: Friends

Distance: 8 Kilometers
Time: 44:24
Overall Place: 1835
Gender Place: 1152
Age Division Place: 122
Pace: 8min, 56sec per mile

It's been 20 years since I last ran a race. In college I used to run to say in shape and would occasionally run a race...I'll never forget the "Fetus 5K." Anyway, after Ethan ran the Marine Corps Marathon last year he decided EVERYONE would run, so he convinced me, Adrian, and our friend Ramon to start running, among others. We all ran in the Washington DC Saint Patrick's Day 8K Race today, with my results noted above...not bad. I'm registered for a major 10-mile race in a month, and Ethan has it in his head that I'm going to do 1 or 2 others and then run the Marine Corps Marathon, which is going to require a lot of training over the summer.

We'll see, Ethan, we'll see.

Of course, a couple friends out there would gladly run with him, just to see Ethan in shorts.

Anyway, today's race went well. It was cold (below freezing, with wind) as the race started at 9am, and it didn't get warmer. I felt good throughout, though I started to get really hot under three layers of clothes and took my hoodie off halfway through...suddenly I remembered why I was wearing it in the first place!! There were over 4000 people running...it was crazy, but next month's race has over 10,000. I often run 5 miles anyway (8K is 4.97 miles) so this wasn't too much of a challenge, and I ran it as quickly as I expected. The 10-mile race may be a little tougher...I have some work to do before next month!

Afterwards we went out for pho. Isn't that what everyone does after a race?

Photos to follow tomorrow, Blogger is being poopy tonight.

Labels: Friends, Life

Last night Stan and I went to a discussion at a major think tank. We heard an author discussing a new book about changing relationships in Asia, about the nature of agreements between countries there, about the role of the United States and China in Southeast Asia, how India and Russia fit into all this. Very interesting stuff that ties in nicely with a research study I'm currently doing. The audience, as is common in Washington DC, was made up of professors, retired diplomats, senior government officials, and some other very smart people.

Afterwards, we went to a bar where, if you take your shirt off, you get free drinks.

Labels: Bars, Friends, Life, Work

I had an odd dream right before waking up today. I was in high school, and was at a table with some friends who looked suspiciously like Alex, Jin, William, David, and Adrien, all cute blogger boys from KL. We were eating donuts before class and I had a jelly donut, and wouldn't you know it, I dripped jelly on the center of my shirt. There was no way to cover it and no time to go home and change and in the dream I was stressing out. Then Alex said "I have a spare shirt in my locker," though he didn't look happy about loaning it out (I was just happy that I could fit in Alex's clothes!). Then it faded to black and I woke up.

I always figured Alex as the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back, but apparently he's only the kind of guy who'll give you the shirt from his locker.

Friday night I finally saw Eternal Summer. a cute Taiwanese film about a love triangle of two guys and a girl in high school and then at university. It was here during the gay and lesbian film festival last summer but I missed it. Stan was over and he'd spent some time in Taiwan so it was fun to have him point out different things and also have him check his Mandarin skills against the subtitles. Mmmmmm, and there were some cute guys in there!

Saturday night Adrian and I went out with our friends Paul and Maureen. Paul and I have known each other for 17 years and the four of us have known each other for 7 years...they were our "go to nice restaurant" buddies, and everyone needs those! great couple, nice restaurant, and Paul (who's a magazine editor) is after me to write a couple things for them. Since we discussed it over dinner, I think I'm writing that off on my taxes next year!

Sunday I was lazy getting up, then headed into town to meet Justin for brunch. The day was beautiful so we walked around afterwards and looked at clothes we weren't going to buy. He agreed to help me learn Chinese so now I have him and Stan ready to help me...now I have no excuses.

Today was beautiful as well, an even better day. Work sucked, so I felt no guilt about going out for a 5-mile run in the middle of the afternoon...yay for that! But I can hear the wind picking up outside now, and rain is coming tomorrow. Boo!!! Justin and I went shopping at a couple Chinese grocery stores tonight, him so he can get stuff from home, me so I can expand my horizons.

Labels: Friends

...if maybe, just maybe, I'm a chipmunk trapped in a man's body.

Hey, it could happen.

Labels: Wandering Mind