• So, remember that time when I tried to do 100 pushups and ended up puking on the streets of San Francisco’s financial district in the middle of the day? It was like, a month ago or something. Anyway, I did it today. 100 pushups in an hour, no vomit, plus several sets of planks and several minutes of aerobic jumping.
• My LSAT score is in. I walked away with a 169. I wanted to break 170 (and did on most of my practice tests leading up to the real test), so I’m a little disappointed, but not overly so. I’m not getting into Harvard, Stanford or Yale, but I’m got an honest shot at anything else. Maybe a long shot in some cases, but I’m not out of the running yet.
  • I got a perfect score on logic games, though, which was my biggest struggle when I first started. 4 questions I missed because I’d narrowed it down to two choices and guessed the wrong one, so luck wasn’t on my side. I missed another question because I’m pretty sure I had the right answer, but marked the wrong bubble on the scantron.
  • Ironically, reading comprehension was my weak area, accounting for half of the 10 questions I missed - 3 coming from a single passage. This is ironic because I once scored a perfect score on the reading portions of the ACT, and I was therefor correspondingly cocky about it. I spent the least time prepping for reading comp because I thought I had it in the bag.
• I was relating to Jen the story of the stupid volunteer buttons I redesigned at work 4 times to get an okay from the “design by committee/micromanaging” team from hell just before my LSAT scores came in. I was starting to beat myself up about not doing as well as I could have on the LSAT and Jen relied, “Remember the buttons. Are you changing the world making buttons? Or are you impacting peoples’ lives being their lawyer?” I’ve made a cute little sign for my cubicle wall that says “Remember the Buttons” with all 4 design incarnations lined up next to each other. What a pointless waste of my time and talent.
• We got dismissed from work early today for the holiday weekend. I think I’ll make a trip to Borderlands to see if I can’t convince them to take back some of the books I purchased from them and earn some money. If I do earn a few bucks, I might indulge on a movie. I’m thinking of seeing Hancock (yes, I know everyone hates it, but… superhero!).

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I’ve still got a lot of work to do, but I’m getting there. I’m just bummed that I can’t pack Ben up and drag him to Cincinnati with me. He’s been the perfect match for me in terms of personality, motivation and patience. Even though I know he’s one of the busiest trainers at my gym, I feel like he’s really concerned about me and my goals. It will be hard to replace him.

I’m obviously being a bit circumspect about what I do and don’t say about the job right now, but I’m starting to regret giving 5 weeks notice instead of the standard 2 weeks. The cornerstone event for the organization begins in 50 working days and it’s almost completely unplanned at this point (two plenary sessions completely open, no entertainment at all booked, most featured sessions have topics but no speakers, workshops haven’t been selected, and they’re already short several key staff positions). I opened the door today to some freelance work after I leave, but we’ll need to negotiate before I agree to anything because I refuse to devalue my time and won’t take less than market rate for freelance work. Anyway, it’s a horrible environment to be in right now and I feel bad for my colleagues that are sticking it out.

I started kinda packing today. I started by sorting books that I’m going to try to sell to the used book store. I’ve still got too many books I can’t part with, and let’s not even talk about comic books. I think I’ll be tossing other things to make sure there’s room in the minivan for my books. I should also take some clothes to Crossroads.

So much to do… I need to cancel some subscription services, change my address on others, figure out where I’m going to stop between Salt Lake and Iowa (why don’t I have family living in Nebraska?), and make time to see some friends before I go.

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The Harlequin by Laurell K. Hamilton… I’m happy to report that LKH is finally giving us some plot that isn’t sex, sex, sex. This book comes the closest to capturing the tone and feel of her early Anita Blake books that I enjoyed so much. It’s not that she’s done away with the sex, it’s that it doesn’t overwhelm the plot… which features Anita solving a crime and fighting new monsters. It almost makes me want to go ahead and read the next book in hardcover. I won’t, but I’m glad to see LKH getting this series back on track. (See some of my previous Anita Blake series comments here and here)

Anyway, on to the big event…

Sunday morning I slept in until a reasonable weekend hour and made my way downtown without rush, which was a novel experience in itself. No rushing to meet up with friends, no being in charge of anything, no plans and no drama. I didn’t even care if I saw the whole thing. Even so, I still got to the Parade with time to spare. I stationed myself near the grandstand and was able to watch about 3 hours of parade. The weather went from gray and overcast to sunny and warm while I was standing there getting sunburned because I didn’t think I’d need sunscreen.

After the parade, I made my way into the Festival for a little while. I quickly came to the realization that without a radio in my hand or friends to entertain, I have no idea what to do at Pride. I wandered by some booths, had a couple drinks, talked to a few cute guys, then called it a day. In fact, I had time to go to the gym, do some shopping (groceries and new sunglasses), and head home for an early evening with Safeway sushi for dinner.

Anyway, there are a buttload (bigger than an assload, smaller than a truckload) of photos from the parade after the jump…

It started, as always, with the Dykes on Bikes…

Rather quickly, it became obvious that there would be an overriding theme to this year’s parade…

Marriage, marriage, marriage! It’s enough to make a single guy side with the freakshows protectors…

All kidding aside, there was definitely a greater sense of celebration this year than I’ve ever experienced in 11 years of Pride events.

We had our celebrities like Margaret Cho…

Gloria Allred…

The legal team that won the CA Marriage case…

Cyndi Lauper…

And Mayor Gavin Newsom, who inspired more enthusiastic screaming than *Nsync circa 2001…

And the usual assortment of outrageous costumes, political and social advocacy groups, fun, and hunky men…

You can see the whole Pride Weekend flickr set

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Also, I was a good ally today. As the march was getting underway, I picked the same spot for watching and taking pictures as a bunch of reporters. They were looking at signs that said “Burn the DSM” and had no idea what it meant. Thank goodness I’m one of those professional queers who pays attention to these sorts of things, because I was able to give them some background on the current controversy and stress its importance.

My favorite part of the rally and march, though, was Margaret Cho’s appearance. I was right in front of the stage and could totally make out her nipples through the hoodie she was wearing (it was cold and windy - there were a lot of visible nips).

Anyway, some video and photos…

2008 San Francisco Trans March

See all 73 photos.

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Anyway, it’s still more intelligent writing than this blog has been lately. Sorry about that.

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Work is dragging on. It’s going to be a long four weeks.

I’m anxious to get my LSAT scores back. Hopefully next week, but it might not be until the week after that. I need to get my letter of recommendation requests handed out, but I’m a little distracted right now. I’ll have a lot more time and energy in August once I settle into Cincinnati.

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You Are 55% Feminine, 45% Masculine

You are in touch with both your feminine and masculine sides. You’re sensitive at the right times, but you don’t let your emotions overwhelm you. You’re not a eunuch, just the best of both genders.

And I look just like that when I put on my thong and tiara, too.

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EDITED: I’ve deleted three paragraphs of angry and unpleasant things I had to say about the Mormon religion. Suffice it to say, if there was any lingering interest I might have ever had with reconciling with the LDS church (there wasn’t), it’s gone.

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Please accept this as official notice of my resignation. As you know, over the last two years, I have had many differences of opinion with upper management regarding the processes, objectives, and priorities for the organization. These systemic challenges have affected my ability to fulfill the expectations of my position and has left me feeling uncertain about the future of [[el jobo]]. Furthermore, I feel that the objectives both of my position in particular and the department in general have become unrealistic in light of the chronic mismanagement of major projects such as the Summit. It is clear to me that we will not be able to resolve these differences. Therefore, I feel that resigning is the best option for me and for the team.

My last day at [[el jobo]] will be Friday, July 25, 2008. I would be happy to meet with you at your convenience to discuss the transition of my duties to my successor.

It looks like I’m moving to Cincinnati this Summer. Those are words I never suspected I’d say/write. Anyway, it’s been a rather emotional day, but I feel good about the decision. I’m pretty sure the top manager at the organization is the worst boss I’ve ever had in about 18 years of employment and over 25 different jobs. Stay tuned for more details.

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I’m trying to be really good about money over the next few weeks. If I’m really good about not spending money on silly things, I think I can have about 10K saved by the end of August - which will allow me to take my vacation in September, apply to law schools, and meet some other goals.

The temperature finally dropped this morning. Yesterday was almost unbearable without air conditioning.

I’m considering another movie this afternoon, but that violated my being good with money rule. It would be better to stick with my Netflix DVDs.

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