Wrapping things up...

My life has been crazy. I am trying to tie up loose ends here in Rhode Island while I can, since I leave for Pennsylvania on Friday morning. Eeeek!! I haven't even started packing yet! (Okay, well, I have a little bit but not much!)

My aunt and her husband who live in Arizona were visiting this week. Don't get me wrong, I love them both...but, they are hugely pessimistic. Usually when they visit I get brought down from my normally happy upbeat self and get all depressed because of the gloom and doom they bring up so frequently. And, of course, my mother has to complain because, well, because they are sisters and they can't just get along perfectly.
Fortunately, this visit I was busy and preoccupied enough with other stuff aside from their visit that I didn't get brought down at all. It was just a nice visit.

So, what else has been going on? Other than packing and trying to see everyone? Well, y'know, not much. :P Work, both at Abercrombie & Fitch and at the Dark Lady. And there was that pool party.
(That's a picture of me and the Bossman from Dark Lady!)
Now, the pool party would've been fantastic if fewer of my friends had had to work on Saturday. It was cool though, the people who showed up all had a good time I think. It was mostly people from A&F, Grace came. It was fun!

Then at the end, James showed up. We'd arranged that, since he was passing through RI on his way to Maine, he'd visit. He and his friend Brad were going to crash at my place (cause it's free and because, duh, they didn't make reservations at a hotel.
Those of you who've been reading this blog for forever know this about James: he disappears for months, resurfaces when I think I'm over him and then it turns out that I'm not. Pattern continues to hold true. I made a concerted effort to try to be interested in other people though, so I'm patting myself on the back for that...I think.

Brad, James, and I hit up Mirabar (which was having its 60th anniversary this weekend!) on Saturday night. It was a great time. Everyone was out for it (except the large crowds of people who were at Dark Lady, which we also visited). Billy and Jamie were having their own "good-bye" party since they are leaving, about the same time I am, for Los Angeles! Mirabar's photographer was out too, so James Brad and I will be on the club's website at some point. James has this habit where he attracts a lot of attention. It might have something to do with the fact that he's taller than basically everyone.
They had a "hot underwear contest", which essentially was people stripped down to their underwear and then the names of these people were drawn. James, Brad, and I all participated. Brad frikkin' won! It's a 100 dollar prize!

(James on his phone at the beach...)

So, Sunday, we went up to the beach. Most of the usual crew wasn't there, but Billy and Jamie and their friends all were so we hung out with them. Joel was there, though he was tired so he left early, and Daiv and Preston with their friend Jane showed up as well. It was a fantastic time and there may or may not have been beer and energy drinks with 6.6 alcohol in them called Tilt...I plead the fifth.

(That's Billy on top of J.D and I think Adam...)
(And this other one is Preston and Brad...how cute!)
We spent the afternoon there until the sun started to set. So, we headed to the 99 -- which is a restaurant that's kind of like a pub. We had a great time there too and the food was excellent. If anyone ever finds themselves there, I highly recommend getting the Imperial. It's a seafood casserole with crab meat, lobster meat, and scallops. Now, I don't know what they did but I hate scallops, but I ate these ones and I liked them!
(That last picture is the whole gang...me in front of course!)

We came back to my house quick to shower and change and then it was off to Mirabar again! Brad and Preston had really hit it off at the beach, and as soon as they saw each other at Mirabar they were off together again. My friend Chris, who hasn't been out in Providence since Pride (cause he's from Connecticutt and spends all his time at the clubs there) was there too, so that was super exciting. I saw a guy that looked like how I imagine Roman Heart would look like if he were thin like me, and tall. Obviously, I was attracted to him so the two of us (and James) ended up dancing together most of the night. Part of my efforts to be attracted to other people. After he left, I danced with James for...y'know, the whole rest of the night. It was a lot of fun.

They're off to Maine now and I...I am packing. Wednesday night is my last night out in Providence, as I've told everyone repeatedly. It's not that I'm self-centered.....it's just that I want to make sure everyone is there to see me off. :P

PS I will be adding pictures to this post soonish!

How Do I Taste?

So, in my family there is always something (at least one thing) that we will tease a person about until they die. Actually, a person doesn't need to be a member of the family even, but it helps. Today, little Brady got his first one: he slept through my Uncle Tony's 80th birthday. (Granted, he is only 9 days old...) (And he is SOOOOO CUTE!!!)

Other people in the family have their own little things they get teased about. For instance, my father will never live down the cheese-filled sausages. And I? I will never live down a few things (one of which happened the other day and we will not discuss). I will never live down my first frozen pizza.

Much like in the sausage story, mom was not home for dinner. For whatever reason, Dad and my brother were out for the afternoon and were coming home late. They called home, where I was alone. I was roughly eight years old at the time, but responsible enough not to burn the house down so I was sometimes left alone.

As per usual, I let the answering machine get the call and heard who it was before I answered.

"Hi Gray," Dad said (there's that name again.)
"Hi Dad, where are ya?" I asked in my cheerful eight-year-old voice.

Dad answered, "We're on our way home but we're running late. Can you stick the pizza in the oven? Just follow the directions and use the oven mitts."

I followed the directions, I used the oven mitts and the Digiorno (not delivery!) cheese-stuffed crust pizza was going to ready by the time Dad and my brother came home. I was excited that I had done it on my own.

I should have known that nothing with cheese inside it is ever going to end well when it's just the three of us. Except for when it's Mozz Sticks...mmm...

Anyways, to continue on...
Dad and my brother came home a little before the oven timer went off to announce the pizza was done. Dad took it out of the oven, got our pizza slicer out of the drawer and went at it.
"God, this is a tough crust," Dad groaned, pushing down way harder than usual on the pizza cutter.

My brother decided to take a turn at cutting. We all took turns. We sliced the pizza, except no one could get through the bottom crust. My brother decided to try to tear his piece of, because the pizza was clearly done.

There was a silence as his hand slid under his piece of pizza. "Gray, did you remember to take the cardboard of the bottom?"

"What?" I asked.

"There's cardboard on the bottom of a frozen pizza. Did you take it off?"

There was about a minute of silence as I realized what was going on. "It wasn't in the directions...." I just followed the directions. Whoops.