Oh look! I DO have a blog!

How is life? Mine, well, pretty good actually. My parents just left Saturday after a fun 7 day visit. Yes, I did say fun. My parents are young for my age as well as young for their ages (it makes sense, think about it). So we were on the go every day. I woke up early, well early for me, every day and took them on an adventure!

Saturday, after fetching them from the San Diego Airport we stopped off at C Level to toast their arrival and enjoy the view. Sunday we headed off to Old Town, where to my surprise there was an Art Festival! We looked at everything. After we were done there, Mom insisted on a trip to the Swap Meet. Ew… we capped off the day with dinner at the Turf Supper Club. Awesome place! What better way to follow up a meal in a dive than a trip to the shishy-est sky bar Altitude?? Monday was all about rest and a home cooked (by me!) meal. Tuesday we did the Geocaching with dad, since it was Richard’s day off. Plus, we wanted to try it with our iPhones. It works! So now we have a log in at the site and 7 caches under our belt. LOL. Obviously Mom had other plans, and was off for a Shopping Day with one of our friends. Later we de-parented at the big SDTweet-Up (#sdtweetup). That was, as always an amazing time! Wednesday my folks and I were off to Temecula Valley Wine Country for a day of tasting and scenery. Fantastic! Thursday was more Geocaching around town. That Geocaching is a great way to see some great sights you wouldn’t otherwise… That night I was pooped so Dad manned the grill and we dined out on the patio at home. Friday was when I finally had to sleep in! Well, till 9:30.. we lazed at the house till Richard got home. He had ditched work early so we shopped and hit up Bing Crosby’s Piano Lounge until it was time for the crowning jewel of the visit: dinner at Kous Kous. My folks got to eat well (very well! you MUST go to Kous Kous!) and meet up with our friends and generally have a great night out. Although we had drinks first at Martinis Above 4th, where the owner stressed me out when he KISSED Richard hello in front of my father. That’s when my father realized we had taken him to a GAY bar. OMG OMG OMG. He never would have known otherwise… Oh well. No harm was done. All was erased by the amazing food at Kous Kous!

As for Saturday… Well that was for packing and the Airport. Buh-bye!

You know what?

tagged: richard gay san diego blog shopping mom friends wine parents surprise

OMG. My parents will be here in San Diego, IN my house in just a few hours.

I think I am ready. Well, kinda ready. I mean, I put fresh sheets on the guest bed, cleaned, polished, scrubbed, vacuumed, and otherwise freshened the entire house. Richard trimmed the backyard to tropical perfection. The house is as ready as it will ever be. But… Am I?

I haven’t seen my parents in a year and a half. We get along great. I miss them a lot. However, there is always that nagging feeling that I will be judged. I hate that feeling. Last time they both told me I was fat. Nice, right? Well I have lost a few pounds, so maybe that won’t come up. Hopefully they won’t think we spent to much money in the nearly 3 years since they’ve been out. Hopefully my mother won’t be critical of our friends. Meh. It’s all probably a non-issue. They really are good people. But these are the things in my head. It’s my parents. They give me stress, That’s normal right?

Speaking of all my friends, I met them all through this blog that my parents know nothing about. How the hell do I juggle the conversations if I introduce them to people? As soon as I turn my back Mom will ask “So how do you know Dan and Richard?”. So?? What do I do? Ask all my friends to lie? Really?

Oi vey. So much to stress out about. 

tagged: san diego stress friends parents visit

So here we are again, on International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Do you love it? I do!!

So anyhoo, What has been new here? Well other than being “All Pirate, All Day”? Well, I’ll tell ya. Not much. Between working all those weekends in a row, Richard’s birthday, and getting ready for my parents (who arrive Saturday) I am a busy and tired boy! You never realize how much time you spend at work until you try to have a life outside of work. This November and December will be the toughest yet, for that very reason. I will want to spend lots of time with my peeps, but will be working more than ever! *sigh*

So what do we think of fall decor. I have a few changes that I make around the house every fall. It’s a tiny bit early, but I think it will be fun for my mom to see it all *fall-ish* around here. I don’t think they do fall in Florida. At least not well anyways… LOL. So what? Do I put it out for mom or what?? Who knows… Tell me with a comment? 

tagged: work blogging friends parents work-life balance international talk like a pirate day visit

Now that the stress of Birthday Week is over, I was thinking. This past week has been pretty awesome. Amazing even. None of it, or even some of this past year, would have been possible without our great friends and “San Diego Family”. You people are amazing! Whether you’ve been in our lives since we arrived here in San Diego for the first time or if we’ve only gotten together a few times. None of the laughs and good times would have happened without you.

Thank you so much for changing our lives for the better.

tagged: friends family thank you thankful

Whew! What a week! What a summer!

In fact, where did summer go? I mean srsly? It’s already Back to School! (I capitalize it, because in my industry it’s more than period of time, it’s an event.) I have to say tho, I have been having a blast. Every weekend off Richard and I have had places to go, things to do, and met new folks all along the way. It has been the Summer of Twitter, as we have made a few Twitter friends into real friends. That’s always odd at first. Going from contacting someone online thru Twitter, to actually dialing them up on the phone and getting together for drinks or meals. Heh. I love Twitter. Anyhoo, I think my summer is coming to a bit of an early close, as my work schedule has me booked the next three weekends. I don’t socialize much on my working weekends because the hours are just to extreme, what with the 5 and 7 AM starts or the late closing shifts. After the 3 weeks of work my parents arrive. 7 days of tour guide. Wee! Then we are already into October. Bam. holiday. 2 months of loooong work days, few days off… Another year passes.

Do you see why I am always tense? The passing of time is so cruel for us career retail people! Gawd I am stressed out now. Heh.

tagged: work holiday twitter people retail time friends weekend parents summer

Since moving to San Diego Richard and I have been very lucky to have become part of a circle of friends. We all hang out, separately or all together all the time. We always have fun. Whether it’s our weekly SYTYCD parties, movie nights, BBQ’s, or going out to Hillcrest or Downtown and “painting the town”. I consider these people my San Diego family! But lately we have been noticing that we are a bit of a clique. There aren’t really any new faces (well, since Richard and I). No fresh blood. We just aren’t meeting any new people and that makes it tough for the single kids in the group. Not that we want to be matchmakers. Good gawd no! But when you hang out with new people you meet their people… Maybe one of their people might know another single guy and through just getting together our single kids will be exposed to more quality singles? Cause let’s face it, when you hang out at bars every week to meet people you are going to meet people that like hanging out in bars. And aside from all of that, we are a group that likes to entertain. It’s more fun with more people! Right? We decided that Sheila’s BBQ was our big event. We were all to bring new people.

So for me, I am not surprised by any of this. I have been trying to meet people with interests like mine lately, going to the SD Tweet-ups and Blogger Meet-ups, and actually going out and meeting the people I have been talking to on my various online social networks. My goal has been to get some friends who understand what the hell I am talking about with my SEO, CMS, tweets, plurks, and whatnots. People who understand why I constantly check my phone! In the meantime I have met a fair amount of people that I see or talk to regularly enough. So for this past BBQ I was pretty confident that I could get some new folks to come around. As it turned out, not so much. I do understand tho. One I asked at the last minute, and the others, well I mean given the choice I think I’d pick existing friends over newbies… I guess.

tagged: richard gay online sytycd people bbq friends family meeting networking

Today is a shitty day. And we are just 22 minutes in. I should actually be in bed, but I am all worked up.

I got drama coming and going lately. Apparently there is actually drama in RL. I have no idea what is going on with that really.. But I don’t wanna air the laundry here. So there’s that. Then iTunes still hasn’t approved my podcast feed, that they are making me resubmit for mysterious “technical” reasons. I have ran that feed through everything. It is now flawless. They still won’t take it. So I had to turn to feed burner. Sigh. Never ending. Now I await their approval so I can fix my iTunes download link. All for a podcast I never do anymore. Silly. But I feel attached since I was motivated to fix my SEO… Heheh.

Speaking of, the creator of that particular podcast stopped by dp.com. He even commented! Even though I was kinda bitchy in the post. Hi Wes! Now I kinda feel bad about the post… I mean, I am not going for podcasting fame. I don’t care to be “first” really. Who needs labels? Right? But now Wes has removed his label, and he works really hard on his show, whereas I just sort of talk… Sporadically.

Dude, you can totally be first.

Anyhoo. I sent him what was hopefully a nice response. He is a local guy after all. I am always looking for new local peeps! 

tagged: podcast drama itunes friends today life live it up seo

Do not text all your friends at once. Chances are that you have got it all wrong and are making a fool of yourself… No mater how innocent the subject matter.
(Yet I can Twitter all day with no remorse?)

tagged: friends oops sms text embarrassed

I admit. I left the party kinda early. But srsly tho. I lasted longer than I thought I would. It was actually a housewarming, not a ‘garden party’ like I mentioned earlier. But it was in our Sheila’s backyard, which is becoming garden-like. Whatever. You get the idea. I embellished about the garden party. So it was a great little gathering! It’s always fun to meet your good friend’s other friends, right? It was a fun group. Kinda awkward in my regular group though, since there are those we haven’t seen much in a long time. Like a really long time. Like months. It was like hanging out with new people. Plus, I was a bit introverted as it was, what with all the meeting of new people. I don’t ‘meet’ well. That’s Richard’s niche. I can bond, but meeting is tough… Not that I can’t be social, but there is a difference with that. It’s more fake and totally temporary. THAT I am good at. Meeting people I may see again is like total pressure.

Anyhoo. So one of the people at the party I had met a few times. She was getting a bit tipsy, granted. But still, with all the touching! She was constantly touching me. (And swearing. I mean, I love a good f-bomb, but that is a separate issue and a whole other post)

tagged: party friends housewarming garden touchy-feely touching