"You can't leave footprints in the sands of time by sitting on your butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?"

That's probably my new favorite quote. And it leads to the questions we should ask ourselves every night: "Was today a footprint day, or was today a buttprint day?" If you ever answer "Buttprint", you have to hope to do better the next day.

I did not have a buttprint day yesterday or today. I'm not sure it was particularly footprinty, but I was sure busy and definitely covered a lot of distance.
After just an hour and a half of sleep (I was having insomnia somethin' awful!) I woke up at 8:00, finished packing and prepping, and then...Meghan arrived! An hour later we were off and running. The road trip had begun!

We only stopped once, three hours in, two eat and switch drivers. I worked in an hour "nap", but it was one of those naps when you're still kind of aware of what's going on so it didn't really help. Then I drove for the next while til we got to Meghan's boyfriend's house. He, his parents, and some of his friends were there. We stopped for a few hours, went out to dinner, and just sort of chilled. We even got to see the tail end of Cinderella Man on TV, which made a surprising amount of sense even though we only caught ten minutes of it. I left there at 8 pm.

10:30 saw me finally getting off of the horrendously paved Pennsylvania Turnpike (yes, the road even has a frikkin' website, but they won't pave it!), and in a foul mood (mostly due to the paving, plus it's an awful long drive to do when you're exhausted and by yourself.)
Still, I pulled up to the window and cheerfully said "Hi." to the guy in there as I passed him my ticket. There wasn't much traffic, I thought he was probably bored and a friendly face is never bad, right?
Wrong. I received a scowl in return and then a very disgruntled "That's $7.25."
I checked my wallet. Three bucks. Fuck. "I, uh, don't have that much. What should I do?"
"How do you drive on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and not have that much?"
"Well, I stopped to eat!" And I didn't think it would be that expensive since you clearly don't make enough to spend on PAVING YOUR GOD DAMN ROAD.
"Pull over into the parking lot. I will be right back with your-" he paused, glared at me, and almost spat the word "Paperwork."
Five minutes later, I'm in the parking lot (I've just been on the phone and I'm sure I was looking like I was the damsel in distress, I even called people so I could flip a shit about this). He comes over to my window and demands "Sign the line." I did, quickly as I could, and handed it back to him. He hands me a copy. "You have to mail it within ten days. The address is here." He starts to walk away.
"Thank you!" I call. No answer. He's a crotchety old guy, and honestly, I would have been perfectly happy running him over about then. Instead, I glanced at the paper.
It said I owed $8.25. (Which I'm sure is true, that wasn't him being a dick but it still pissed me off.)
He was right behind my car. It was so tempting. I revved my engine, still in park. He moved a hell of a lot faster and got back in his booth. Yeah, that's right fucker, don't piss off the person with the CAR when you're not in your safe little box.

Anyways, so I got to York about 10:30ish, and called my friend Josh in a panic. My hair wasn't done. So I stopped by his house, borrowed his shower, had him do my hair (he's amazing with my hair...not so much with other people's, but mine he does good with!).
We made it to the club, took the very last parking spot, and rushed inside. Well, I rushed. Josh waited in the line that went out the door. Yeah, the club was FILLED, and I worked it hard. I danced, I wore these sexy new booty shorts that I got, I worked the crowd...and I made about $70. I thought I'd only made $65, but it turned out that (skimpy as they were!) some of my money I'd missed until I was going to go to sleep that night. I might've made more and lost it, as I was dropping money all over the place (no time between tips to give them anyone, so I had way too much money in way too little clothing. :P)
Anywho, continuing this tale of travel...
I was spending the night at my friend Brendan's house.
In Towson. Maryland. So we drove down to Towson! I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow in his more-than-accomodating guest bedroom. I meant to wake up at 11 so I could beat the rush back to school today, but I didn't stay awake long enough to turn the alarm on after I set it. I woke up at 1 and rushed up to school.

But I have to say, it is GREAT to be back.
(My entire route is pictured below. Although, Mapquest's directions were totally wrong and these are totally forced to match up with what I actually did.)So, maybe I didn't make footprints exactly...but I sure left some tire tracks!

PS, I'm trying to narrow down the labels I use on my posts, so you'll be seeing fewer on my entries and much more general labels.

"You've got so much to do and only so many hours in a day..."

So my weekend, which was crazy as per usual, began early. It began on Thursday night, and what an adventure it was!

You see, Brendan, Cody, Jason, and Josh were planning on visiting Club Apex in Washington D.C. I had not planned on going with, because of Friday's road trip back to Rhode Island.
But I ended up having a very frustrating day on Thursday and I decided that, since every plan I'd set out for that day had been screwed up and twisted in a way that was not fun...I was going to screw up one of my plans in a fun way. And I was going to be spontaneous.

So, 7:30 Thursday night, not a thing packed for the return to RI, I jumped into Cody's red convertible (not as hot as it sounds, trust me. :P) and we left for York. We picked up Josh, and flew down the roads to Maryland to meet up with Brendan. We piled into Brendan's sleek and silver BMW series five (which is plenty hotter than it sounds) and headed down to D.C. where we going to meet up with Jason -- and Chris, who dances with me on weekends!
We went to Soho, which was right near the club, and got food and coffee. I myself got a White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake which is pretty much heavenly/orgasmic. Not even kidding, try it some time.
So, then we went to Club Apex. I made some new friends -- three. Two of whom I look forward to seeing next time we go down to Apex. Cody also took a video on his camera...if you look closely, you can see me occassionally when the light is right. I was dancing right in front of him, a little to the right, though sometimes I'm definitely dead center in front of the camera. Thankfully, Cody is taller than me so you can still see stuff. :P
(The picture is of Josh and I.)

Now, I really can't tell you what the point of taking videos inside a club is because you can't see anything...but hey, since it's there, I figured I might as well post it! :P

We got back from D.C. at six in the morning. I set my alarm for 10:30, packed in an hour (I'm discovering now I didn't bring enough clothes that I like to wear out...oh well. I'll do a lot of laundry. :P), slept til 11:30, threw my stuff in the car, got Meghan, said my good-byes....
And then by 12:30 we were off. I drove for a while, we switched when we got to New Jersey. She drove til Connecticutt, and then I drove the rest of the way. We got to my house at around 7:30 that night. Pretty good, since it's an 8 hour train ride and we'd had to brave rush hour near New Haven.

So, I powernapped -- exhausted, and then I was off. I'd gotten a spontaneous invite (well, okay, he sent out a myspace bulletin asking if anyone wanted to go with him) to a party his friends were having. So, I went and met Scott in Providence.
...and I drank more than I should have.
And I think I annoyed Scott. Which, well, I guess he doesn't like me drunk. Oh well, it's not like it happens with any frequency.
But...I made some new friends!

I left there at about 5, got home at 5:30, and slept. Then I woke up and proceeded to get ready for a Christmas party my friends Big Bill, Little Bill, and Chris were hosting. Even though I ended up two hours late (thanks to my mom :P), it was a great time. And, following the theme for the weekend, I made new friends! Most importantly though, I caught up with old ones. And then I stayed to help clean up, and then I went and found out that no matter whether or not where I parked was legal...I didn't get a ticket. :P

Today was interesting because an old friend of my parents came by. You see, my brother and my existence hinged entirely on this person's behavior when he was sixteen. My parents spent a year raising him in his mother's stead.
Apparently, he's also gay and has been with his partner for 14 years. How impressive and inspiring is that? It does happen! :D

"Gays of Our Lives"

My life is sometimes compared to a soap opera. I won't lie, sometimes it seems like it would make a good TV show. Most of the time though, I laugh at those jokes.
Not so much this weekend. This weekend has been very, very soap operatic.

Craig seems to be warm for my form* again, so that's good news. I know, every time I post it's hot or cold, but at least right now....all's well that's going well for the time-being. :-P

This weekend was...WOW. I went to work Friday, and brought two dear friends of mine who were fully intending on getting shitfaced. And oh boy did they ever!
When we got into the car to go home (this is after the bouncer Nelson helped me bring them to the car in the first place) the vomiting started. We'd been smart and brought bags. But that was when my number one fan, also drunk, decided that he should get in the passenger seat of the car next to me and try to convince me to go home with him. Now, he's like seventy, so I was pretty much like "Pop your Viagra, get a facelift or six, and come back fifty years ago. Then we'll talk." For a number one fan, he hadn't even tipped me that night, so I decided if he kept it up he was going to become my number one restraining order.
My friends vomited the entire hour ride back to school. They were still vomiting for a good long while after we got them into the dorm that I was dropping them off in.

Needless to say, I slept most of Saturday after a night like that.
Then I headed on over to the mall to get my car fixed (as I've been driving on a spare since I blew a tire two weeks ago). They had the tire. They had the rim. They were all ready to stick on my car. "Fifteen minutes," they said, "Stick around."
So I stuck around.
One hour I stuck around. I was not pleased.

So, just by sad coincidence, I was supposed to be at the theater exactly when that hour ended. So I called my stage manager for my one act and professed my profound apologies at the incompetence of the Tires Plus people. Not incompetence -- lack of time management skills.

The one acts went marvelously, and then went and struck the set. I left strike early, and went to go get ready for work. So I'm mildly shocked when Cody gives me a call and asks for Jason's number.
Now, how had he missed the little game or whatever it was where Jason refuses to give me his number and totally toys with me and my gullibility over this? C'mon now, let's be real. So I say no, and ask why.
Well, what was going on was Josh's own personal issues so I won't go into them but let me just say that this kind of shit belongs on television, not in real life. End of discussion. Get me a camera crew if this gonna keep up.

So I got to work and Cody called me to let me know that Josh was okay and safe. Cody had been out looking for Josh for at least forty-five minutes and he stayed with him until Josh's parents arrived. Then Cody came out to XS because of something else major going out:
Our friend from last school year, David, had disappeared in June when he started dating this MAJOR creepy asswad. They broke up (I think) last week, and David was just now coming back to us. Like when a character comes back to life in a TV show. It was very exciting, very good. He's shaved his head...but, hey, whatever works for him. He has a nice car now so that's an improvement. :-P
I also made a few new friends, although I didn't manage to get all their numbers so I'm hoping they'll be back for the big party that is next Saturday!

The three of us crashed at a friend of David's place. Cody slept on the floor, and David and I tried to share the couch but that wasn't so much happening. Noting my discomfort, the friend invited me to sleep in his bed with him. He warned me he was a cuddler.
Cuddling, however, led to shirt-removal, which led to making out....you know where I'm going with this. It meant nothing, it really was nothing. Just a hook-up. So incredibly just a hook-up, that it is the most hook-uppiest hook-up I have ever hooked. Which I think I'm oddly okay with, although I do feel kind of like a slut.

Today, Cody and I hung out. He brought me Oreos. Big mistake. I've been battling my addiction to those cookies and for three weeks I've not had any in the room. He brought two packages. He's a friggin' enabler. These are normal ones, but next thing you know...it's Double Stuf. Then it's the chocolate covered, or peanut butter, or caramel, or white fudge, or the funky red-cream holiday ones! And then before you know it, I'm back to spending all of my money on Oreos and not on important things!


*Credit for this phrase goes to my fabulous friend Mel!

"I can hardly stand the thrill..."

So after I went and got my underwear and got ready for work on Saturday, I got in my car and headed for the club.

And then, after a rather sharp (and badly handled) turn on a back road I have to drive on, the rattling started. Thudthudthudthudthudthud. The car vibrated, worse and worse as I kept driving. Moronic as I am, I kept driving.

Finally, on a straight stretch of highway that I didn't realize was actually a bridge until I had already pulled over, I stopped to see what the hell was going on.
I had blown a tire. I'm thinking "Great, this is an omen...tonight's gonna suck, I shouldn't go!"

But instead, I called Cody to see where he was. He was at Josh's house, which is not too far from the club (and I was like a ten-fifteen minute drive from the club) and, since Josh works for AAA, they heroically came to my rescue.

I got to the club an hour late. And made $20 more than I had made Friday night -- that's sixty bucks. There were some interesting anecdotes I would share, if the rest of the weekend weren't also such a saga! They include being forced off my box by a nearly comatose, utterly oblvious, drunk fat man who thought he should strip, and having a guy who refused to tip try to lick whipped cream off of me (I pretty much just shoved the whipped cream in his face instead...customer service may not be my strong suit when I'm not getting money :-P)
(The picture is of myself, the other go-go boys and a drag queen. From left to right: Eddie, the Baltimore drag queen Vanity Star, Mike, and Chris.)

Anyways, I realized later in the night that I had forgotten my overnight bag for the rest of the weekend's adventures...
At the end of the night, Cody, Josh, and I convinced Jason to come on down to Maryland with us for a shopping spree with our friend Brendan (who is quite wealthy). He agreed, and Cody told him it would be better if we left my car at the club (to avoid extra driving on the spare that got put on) and if he drove.
Jason, as it turns out, is a really awesome and super cool and very interesting guy, I'm glad we're becoming friends! He's even able to get me to have a conversation in a car, which for some reason is the only place I'm usually quiet.

So, we got to Brendan's very nice house and he showed us around and then, lo! He opens a fridge full of gourmet-to-go, which we devoured a lot of. Jason and I then provided a bit of unforgettable comic relief:
Jason: "If we eat before we go in the hot tub, won't we get cramps?"
Me: "Only if you're planning on swimming in the...hot tub."
Okay, maybe it is forgettable, but I still remembered so I wrote it down here anyways. :-P

As you might have guessed, we all got swim suits (Jason and I borrowing some of Brendan's) and jumped into the hot tub. Well, not jumped, but you know what I mean.
It wasn't long before Jason announced he was the first one -- and tossed his swim suit onto the side of the hot tub. The rest of us followed suit. We spent a good long time all just chilling in hot tub and it was awesome to be so comfortable around all the guys.
Then, Jason and I both being wiped out, we decided to go to bed. We pushed together the two twin beds in the guest room to make a bed that could fit all four of us with a fair amount of ease. Jason and I got into the bed and started to doze off....when Josh and Cody jumped on us!!! They stayed up a while talking loudly and obnoxiously and then I was asleep and Lord knows what else happened.

The next day we went shopping!! Our friends Adam and Jeff joined us as well. Brendan insisted on paying for everything...and we collectively cost him $1500 dollars!!! WOW! He's one of the most generous guys I have ever met, and he didn't seem to mind much at all.

Then we returned to Brendan's abode and we all ended up having a nap. Or, I did.
Now, I don't intend to talk about sex much on this blog but this was so bizarre for me that I just have to say. You see, all four of us (Cody, Jason, Josh, and I) are laying down on this fold-out couch bed in Brendan's basement while Adam, Brendan, and Jeff danced upstairs (I think they were doing that anyways.)
Now, I'm having kinda weird, pretty sexual dreams. Which, y'know, that happens sometimes. Except, when I woke up my hand was in Josh's pants. His hand was on mine. Josh is my best friend Cody's boyfriend. I sat bolt upright and was like "Wha?" only then noticing exactly how turned on I seemed to be. Cody, meanwhile is laughing. Jason too is awake. Everyone's turned on, but fully dressed.
Apparently, this sort of psuedo-fooling around had been going on for a while, and I'd been asleep for most of it. I woke up in the middle. I guess I was participating despite being asleep? What the hell, I miss all this good stuff. :-P

After that little...episode, we went upstairs, ate, and then had to leave so I could get to a meeting for work at abercrombie in time. I made it, and have been ridiculously busy ever since.

Tonight, I went out to the club to party on their 18+ night. It was pretty dead, but I think that's mostly because people are planning on going out to their HUUUGE pre-Thanksgiving party tomorrow night.

Now, I'm packing for the eight hour train ride I have ahead of me tomorrow to get home for the holidays. Craig and I are talking like we used to, so now I'm not so sure...could we go back to being more than just friends? I think so, he's acting like he does too. Is it a good idea to try again? Certainly we'll lay out different ground rules this time if we try...like how there will be no lunch dates!

(The pictures of me dancing are totally not the best pictures of me, but whatever, they'll do. :-P)