Karma

I like the show "My Name is Earl" and not just because the title character drives an El Camino.  I saw one at the first hotel I stayed at on my way down to Little Rock and I saw a Ranchero on a car hauler on my way home today, but that's digressing.

My vacations this year were messed up for one reason or another.  The one in July by Mother Nature (the flooding that shut down my track weekend) and this fall's, well let's just say I let it get messed up by eating and drinking the wrong things.  I am a poor traveler at best and wanting to make it through the trip down I missed a lot of meals because if you don't eat, you don't shit.  I woke up Thursday morning with a headache, which wouldn't go away and I broke down and took an Advil to get it to go away and ate some breakfast type snack bars to go with it, so that seemed ok, but didn't eat anything else for the rest of the trip except for one more snack bar once I got there.  I figured there would be munchies at the meet and greet but there were not.  Only the bar.  I should have asked for water but I got ginger ale.  I had two of them over the course of the evening and I think on an empty stomach this was the mistake that made me a prisoner of my room the next day.  And scared to eat anything else.  So I slept and watched TV instead of attending events.  I was depressed and miserable.

Today (Sunday morning) I got up before six and packed and checked out so I could navigate my way out of town with little traffic. It was a trade off between driving in the dark with no traffic and waiting until daylight and dealing with traffic.  I only made one mistake getting out of Little Rock and the GPS got me back on track in little time.

I got real sleepy around noon and stopped at a Flying J and tried to power nap but in a black car in the full sun, that wasn't going to happen.  So I ate a snack bar and went inside to pee and bought a 5 Hour Energy shot to get me the rest of the way home.

So back to Karma.  We all laugh at those bozos who say the queers cause floods and hurricanes and tsunamis but maybe I shouldn't be laughing at the stuff that's going wrong in my life since I started dating again.    Either I shouldn't be dating at all or the desire to burn through as many women as possible before I die is wrong.  Maybe Karma is kicking my ass for trying to go poly with mono people.

I was thinking Thursday night that I could probably get another notch on the bedpost from the woman I was talking to, but Karma made sure that didn't happen.  No sex for you!

Right now I just feel old and ridiculous.  And grateful to be alive.  Driving all that way, I'm lucky I didn't die in a fiery car crash, like Dan Wheldon.  God rest his soul.

First Night

There was a meet and greet with a bar and a DJ.  It was hard to have conversations over the loud music and a lot of people- not just the smokers- went out on the balcony to visit.  I spent most of my time visiting with a woman who lives here in town.  I walked up to a few people and introduced myself.  Most of these people have known each other for years, though.  So they have a lot to talk about.

The speed dating was cancelled because there weren't enough single femmes.  So they started up the karaoke and we watched that.  The woman asked to be walked to her car, since she had parked a couple of blocks away, so I did.  I went back for about another 20 minutes of the karaoke.  I was impressed with the people who are brave enough to get up and do that.

I am tired.  Socializing is hard.  I suck at it.

dumb hick in the big city

I didn't stay in Joplin last night, I stayed in Carthage.  The GPS doesn't say the towns.  Carthage is pretty close to Joplin.

I woke up with a headache like I'd had a few beers, which I hadn't.  I went to breakfast at the last possible minute and took my time getting cleaned up and checked out.  I hit the road by 11.  When I stopped at a rest area in Arkansas, the phone rang.  My co-worker was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  I suggested the supervisors solve the problems.  She says she'll call me back.  She does, when I'm in heavy I-40 traffic.  I talk her through what she needs to do.  I should be paid for this but I know no one will be sympathetic to me, since they are leaving her to sink.  I guess that's what they want.  I am not down with this mindset in my company's culture.

I arrived at the Peabody at about a quarter to four.  It's not like a regular hotel.  A guy took my keys.  There's no big parking lot, so I don't know where they took my car.  I had to unload everything there and I forgot my suit and nice shirts.  Valet parking costs $20 a day.  So I'll have to find out how to retrieve them or go to the prom looking really scuzzy.

There are two bottles of Fiji water by the ice bucket but it costs $3 to drink them.

The ducks will be marching in about half an hour.  I guess I'll wander around and see if I can find the River room, where we are supposed to register for the event.  And I'll take my camera in case I get a good spot to watch the ducks.

Journey through a rainy land

It was raining this morning when I got up.  I ate breakfast and started packing.  My mammogram appointment was 9:20 and the Dexa scan was at 10:00.  When they set that up, I thought they were cutting it close.  The instructions for the Dexa scan said don't wear clothes with metal parts.  So I wore my gym shorts.  I had a fanny pack to put my keys and wallet into.

I got into the mammogram before the appointment time and we were done in no time.  I didn't want to hang around the waiting room for forty minutes, so I ran over to the post office and picked up my mail.  When I got back to the hospital, I put my keys in my shorts pocket instead of the fanny pack and sure enough I only remembered them once I was on the table and snatched them out before she started imaging my hip.

I was on the road by noon and the sun was shining then but after I was past Des Moines it was rain off and on, sometimes so heavy the visibility went down to nothing.  Or it was sunny and it was like some one was dumping buckets on you.

I had toyed with the idea of taking the GoPro camera and do movies on the highway but I have so many toys with me I decided against it.  But the cloud formations heading towards Joplin were very interesting looking.  And I spotted a lot of Mustangs, MINI's, BMW's, a Jaguar Xsomethingsomething and a couple of smart cars.  I think those smart cars might be ok for tooling around town but on the interstate, you should have a real car.  I'm just saying.

I got a call from work, an issue I noticed on my way out of there sure enough caused some problems.  You try to convince your boss about what problems can arise and they just smile and tilt their heads like adorable Golden Retrievers but instead of petting them you want to beat them into unconsciousness.

I am staying in a nice Best Western.  In fact, it is the Precious Moments Best Western.  The Precious Moments Chapel is around here somewhere.  There was a gift shop with Precious Moments type knick knacks and some frozen foods fit for a microwave and since I had a microwave in my room, I bought a small pizza and three postcards.  I didn't have any napkins or paper towels to put the pizza on so I tried Kleenex, which really isn't suitable but it worked ok, you just have to make sure to peel all the Kleenex off the bottom of the pizza.

I got a call from Dad and another from someone at astronomy club.  I didn't tell Dad where I was.  Is this coming out day or was that yesterday?  We just had our usual chat.

It should take five hours or less to get to Little Rock tomorrow.  I really am going.  I'm exhausted.  I wonder if I can find some Farscape reruns to fall asleep to.

Vacation

I fell into my routine of not getting dressed-forgetting to eat-not leaving the house.  I had a big old Farscape watching marathon and I played games online endlessly.  My resolve to go to Little Rock is seriously weakened.

I finally stepped outside today to do some long overdue yard work.  I remembered I needed to change the wheels on my car.  The Focus may get better gas mileage for an 11 hour drive but it doesn't have cruise control. And I don't think I'd want to drive all the way down there on the Falkens, the Nitto Invo's will be a lot more comfortable.

The neighbor came over and asked a favor.  He doesn't have internet because he's changing providers and he guessed the signal he was seeing was mine because it had a car themed name.  He only needs to be on it for two weeks for school and then he'll have his own after that.  So I found my usb drive with my router key and let him have it.  And promptly shut down every computer in the house.  Especially the one with all the naked pictures on it.  It has a Google screen saver which uses a slideshow of pictures from my hard drive and sometimes I walk in to a picture of someone's shaved pussy.  But usually it's a picture of a car.  I have lots of pictures of cars.

So I'll leave all the computers shut off but the router and the modem on.  As long as there aren't any power failures, he'll be fine.

By the time I got the gardening done and I got to work on the wheels, it was getting dark and I had to do the last two tires with my lighted cap.  I remembered the centering ring on the first wheel, forgot it on the second and sure as hell remembered it for the last two wheels.  Thank God for the impact wrench making taking the wheels off more speedy and less exhausting.  I took the helmet and the rest of the race kit out of the car.

I haven't packed.  I have what I will wear to the prom, a blue blazer with blue chinos and Doc Marten wing tips. A shirt with french cuffs and Ford cufflinks and a Ford tie. Some guys have tuxes.  I wish I had the guts to get a tux. The rest of the time I'll wear boots and jeans.  I'll take my leather jacket but I bet it's hot down there.

I decided not to pack the BDSM stuff but yes to the safer sex stuff.  And the strap-ons.

I have a mammogram and a bone scan tomorrow morning and planned to head out once they are done with me.  Unless I crap out and don't go.