TGIF!

This week has certainly seemed to drag on for me, and I know I'm not alone. I've been tired. Not shocking, since I'm on the go go go...as per usual. The start of a semester is always a bit daunting, don't you think? Starting at the beginning. All over again. 4 months laid out ahead of us. I'm planning trips, a surgery, and work on the house. (Admitted limited, by comparison) Homework and reading assignments. Buying groceries. Activism: crab dinners for Family Planning, AIDS Walk, and SafeZone. And taking more time for fun. Trips to Denver for dancing, conveniently bundled with surgery appointments. Bowling on Fridays. Volleyball will start again in March. Fun is an important thing, especially after a long week. So here are some things to help you have a little fun today.

• Tired of that famous face? Get your revenge on Britney? Hanson? Miss Cleo? Wanna box with Puff Daddy or bitch slap Keanu? Visit Assassin - the game where you kill celebrities.
• If you missed the game craze that was sweeping the labs this summer, check out Kitten Cannon. You launch a sweet innocent kitten out of a cannon for distance. Avoid cat-eating plants and metal spikes. Trampolines and explosives give you distance and speed. It's bloody and gory, and a lot of fun. Best with sound!
• Not so much with the violence, but a child of the 80's? Go visit Growing Up in the 80's. They have a host of classic 80's arcade games. You can also listen to 80's music, find song lyrics, and step into a time warp with TV theme songs. There's even a guessing game for TV themes. I stumbled onto this site YEARS ago, and still find new and fun ways to amuse myself there from time to time.
• Can't decide what you're looking for? Bored.com has many options for you. Music, games, humor, quizzes, trivia, sports. Weird stuff, dumb stuff, romance stuff. There's a little something for everyone. Squid...something tells me you should find the virtual bubble wrap. HOURS of entertainment, I tell ya. ;)
• And being my gay self, I can't help but hit you with a few VERY gay links in a final bullet point. The Gayest Skateboarder Ever. The Gayest Thing You've Ever Seen (their claim, not mine). The Gayest Pope Ever (this one's for you, Tessa). A blog post about "The Gayest Thing You've Ever Done" (seriously, read this one...there are only one or two sex posts. Linus...you must read this).

So take a moment and find some fun on a Friday...you've earned it!

HOMEWORK?!

I am not a 19 year college student. I have not been one for some time. As most of my readers know, I am sitting in on Beth's "Queer Theory" class this semester. This meant a trip to the book store...and $70. It also means having to do reading. On a time table. And writing assignments (though I get to avoid the nasty paper-writing trauma), as the field journal is fairly integral to the class discussions. Now I realize that I only have one class to juggle these days, and my full-time student friends will just scoff at me for saying this, but...I have to do HOMEWORK?! I haven't had to do that shit in years. It's a shock to the system.
Note: I also work more than 40 hours a week, and volunteer between 10 and 20 hours each week. Being a grown up sucks.

We've come so far

Brokeback Mountain opened in Laramie today. The Rainbow Resource Center has a new, larger, and more visible home in the Union. There are 121 people subscribed to the Spectrum email list. Spectrum was named Outstanding Student Organization last year. Wyoming AIDS Walk is celebrating its 5th year. There is gay TV all over the place. I'm starting the beginnings of a career as a professional homo.

It's 2006 now. As I reflect on the past year, I am amazed at where we are today. I came out 10 years ago, and it was a much different world. I remember exactly where I was and who I was with the night Ellen came out on her television show. I remember Tammy Baldwin being elected the first openly lesbian congresswoman. I remember when only 8 states offered employment protection based on sexual orientation...not 17. I remember when no states protected employment based on gender identity...not 7. And I still remember being terrified of people learning I was gay. Today, most of these things are remembered as history...ancient history by some. *grin*

I am simply overwhelmed by how much things have changed in the decade since I first told someone I wasn't straight. Things have changed a great deal, and not just for the country as a whole! I'm speaking nationally and writing textbook chapters, for fuck's sake! But this isn't about me. It's about change. Determination. Struggle. SUCCESS! We all have a part in this, gay or straight. The readers of my blog are all a part of "the movement." Or you wouldn't be my friends...or phantom cyber stalkers. ;) Thank you for that. And now...onward and upward!

I'm not a 21 year old...

...but I play one on TV. Ok, not on TV. But on New Year's I sure pretended. We partied like rock stars. We danced non-stop on New Year's for HOURS. Some interesting facts and numbers:

• 5: the number of days in Denver with "the girls"
• more than I can count: the number of cocktails I/we had
• 5: the number of different gay bars we hit while down south, some more than once (of course)
• 2: the number of gay restaurants we went to
• $10: the amount of money a random woman gave Jerry, Cory, and I each...just because she knew we were gay, and wanted good fag hag and gambling karma
• 1: number of men who asked for my number randomly after saying "You're hot." This would be the first time that's happened.
• 1.5: the average number of meals we ate when we were there
• 1: the number of hot tubs we were in
• 4: the number of hours of sleep I had in a 36 hour period
• 5: the number of naked penises I saw
• 0: the number of times I had sex - hey...statistics can't ALL be good ;)