"And the last thing he saw on this Earth was the sparkling lights of Laramie, Wyoming."

This is more like it.
You may recall last weekend was kind of dull for me, not in a bad way but it was unusual.

But before I begin, a question for discussion: do all of you talk about blogging and/or your blogosphere pals in the Real World? If so, when does the topic come up? What do you say about it? How do you refer to other bloggers? "My friend"? "This guy who's life I read about online"?
I'll give you my answers after I see a few of yours. :)

No such thing happened this time! Oh no! Last night was spectacular!
To begin with, I went to see The Laramie Project at York Senior High School -- a production which the Westboro Baptist Church was protesting. Now, I figured that the Phelps clan would be entertaining but oh, I had no idea.
First of all, two of the looneys were in the road and we almost hit them. Then we saw the signs. Some of them were exactly what we expected, gays are evil blah-blah, BUT there were some unexpected signs.
First and most hysterical among these was the sign that said "You will eat your children". At this point, I lost it completely. Hysterical. It's not even directed at anyone -- it's directed at EVERYONE. Not "Gays eat their children" or "Americans eat their children". No, you. As in, you all.
The next sign that left an impression on me was another one aimed at "you all" and not any particular group of "sinners". Oh no, it was a message to everybody. "God is your enemy" it said. So, call me crazy, but if God is the enemy...why would anybody worship Him?
Earth to Phelps, maybe you should read the signs you give your disciples to hold up and make sure they actually say what you want them to.

Anyways, we got inside to see the play and I ran into some more friends there (Jason, David, and Danny). The play was AMAZING. First of all, mostly I'm sure thanks to Fred Phelps publicity efforts (so he can do something right...), the high school's auditorium had not only sold out the thousand seats but there was at least 50 people doing the whole standing-room-only thing.
Second of all, it was absolutely the best acted high school production I have ever seen. Okay, the tech needed a little bit of work (mostly the spotlight) but it was GREAT. Astounding. If I hadn't been concerned about getting a ride to work later, I would have stayed and pitched my school's theater department to them.
The play, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is about the town of Laramie following the brutal beating of Matthew Shepard. It is basically a series of interviews, over 200 of them, combined into one theatrical masterpiece created by the Tectonic Theater Company. The play shows how the attack on Matthew Shepard disrupted an entire town, and how many people's opinions and lives were changed because of it. It shows the denial the town went through, the attempts to seperate themselves from the crime, acceptance of ownership of the crime.
It talks about Fred Phelps, which is one reason his cult goes so far out of their way to protest at its productions. He is a character in it, and he gets OWNED. By angels no less.

If you can't find a production near you I highly recommend checking out the movie or the book. The story, the entire piece, is intensely moving and something no one should miss out on.

So I hitched a ride with Jason to get to work. He stopped by his house, and then we hit up a hotel for a pre-party because some of his friends from D.C. had come up for the weekend. David came as well, in his own car, although Danny disappeared at some point between the play and this. There I discovered the friends of D.C. were actually people that I knew! Alphonso and Ryan, as it turned out, who I had met down at Apex. So, we were there for like 10 minutes and then we headed off to the club.
The club was PACKED. It was great. I made a lot of money and the crowd was actually well-behaved (except for my oh-so-shitfaced friends, but I love them anyways! :P) There was this one woman who gave me this blinking light she was wearing, just because I complimented her on it at the beginning of the night and, when she was waaaaaay drunk, she remembered that I'd said something and she gave it to me. I clipped it on my undies!

Another guy, who was a big fan, approached my holding a snap c-ring. Which he then offered me. My first thought was "Dear lord, I hope this was just randomly in his pocket!" Then he told me he wanted to see if it fit me. I told him I could go try it on. "I want to try it on you," he replied -- at which point I told him it would have to wait til after work and when work ended I left as quickly as possible so as to avoid having that...uh...tested.

We adjourned back to the hotel room where we pretty much lazed about until I decided I wanted a shower. Now, of course, I didn't think to lock the door to the bathroom. So, it really shouldn't have been a surprise when David came in a talked to me while I was getting undressed. Whoops.
Then Jason came in to tell me he was leaving. He was in there telling me he was leaving for about five minutes while I showered, which was kind of odd. More to the point, he didn't seem to remember that he'd seen everything before when we'd been in Brendan's hot tub so obviously I wasn't going to by shy about him (where as with David I'd been like pulling down my shirt to cover up). Then Alphonso came in because he wanted a shower so I scooched out and dried while he jumped in. It was interesting. Note to self: ALWAYS lock the bathroom. :P

You know, something terrific though?
Today is the one year anniversary of what is to date on the most devestating things any guy has put me through. Our break up was horrendous, scary, and all kinds of bad. But the good news? I didn't even realize that it was that day until I realized it was my friend's 22nd birthday today, and then I recalled her last birthday, at which I got totally drunk for the first time ever, which was entirely because I was flipping out over my ex-boyfriend.
So, happy birthday Lily!
And, one more time, good riddance apeface! :)

"Tell me what you like..."

So, right now I am on hold with my doctor's scheduling office and they have a voice over that is SO bland talking about all kinds of medical stuff, and it's just really funny. I want to call this place and be on hold more often.

Anyways, I'd been having a good day and then I called mom and she went all parental, and we argued, and it pretty much killed the day...except for this whole being on hold thing which is HYSTERICAL. It's telling me all about how their students practice colonoscopies on life-like models right now. Okay, breathe, Graham, breathe. Wow.

As I was saying, don't really have anything to report today. So here's what I want to discuss: crushes.
Yeah, we all have them. Sometimes they pan out into something bigger, but most of the time (for me anyways) it's just a little teeny thing that's ignorable. Sometimes you can tell ahead of time when they aren't going to turn into anything (story of my life :-P).
It's interesting, crushes can be purely lusty, based solely on looks, or sometimes based on personality, most of the time some of both. You can have crushes on people you know, people you blog with online (that's new for me, but whoa! turns out it does happen!), celebrities...anyone. No way to tell who you'll fall victim to next. What is a tendency you've noticed in most of the people you crush on? A certain age, a certain way of speaking, a certain look?

For me, it's a certain level of confidence that tends to get me going. Insecure people turn me off completely. Also, an attractive face will trump absolutely anything else.

So what is everyone's most impossible crush story? That crush you didn't have a chance with. Did you go for it anyways? Did someone else ruin it for you?
Likewise, what is your most successful crush story? How did you meet? How long did you last? Did you think it was one of those times when you didn't stand a chance? This is the juicy stuff, and I want all the dirt!

My answer to "most impossible crush" is going to throw you all for a loop because I'm not entirely gay, you see. And my most impossible crush was on a girl, in high school. As pathetic as this is, I liked her for almost three years: freshman year, sophomore year, and most of junior year. She is still, to this day, the most talented female I have ever been on stage with and she is the epitome of a triple threat: she sings, dances, and acts superbly.
But, of course, she wouldn't give me the time of day when we weren't working together on a show. Sooooo, that went nowhere.

My most successful crush? I dunno if we can call any of them "successes" at this point. I guess I'll get back to ya'll on that one. :-P

Those of you in successful long term relationships are NOT off the hook, by the way. Those started off as crushes, so I expect to hear from you too!