Angela and I volunteered at LA Pride on Saturday.  It was the first time I'd been and I honestly don't know if I'd go back.  It felt like any other street fair but with more outrageous outfits.  I was quite impressed with the turnout considering we left by 6pm.  I'm sure the real partying didn't start until nightfall.

I did, however, get to time one of our breaks so that we got to see the Upright Cabaret perform.  They ended their set by letting Eden Espinosa sing a couple of songs.  She closed with "The Wizard and I", which made me extremely happy for the rest of the day.

I took a few pictures, which you can look at here.  Unfortunately there is no audio on my video clips.  Sadness.

This is probably the gayest week I've had in a long time, and I don't just mean watching From Justin to Kelly on Wednesday.

I went to a Power Up party with a couple of friends last night and there is just a completely different vibe to a place when 95% of the people there are gay.  I don't know how to describe it, but it's definitely a unique feeling.

This weekend is LA Pride.  I am volunteering with Angela on Saturday afternoon and I'm really excited about it.  I've never gone before because no one else ever seemed interested.  I've been curious, but afraid of the crowds.  I'm hoping being a ticket taker for a few hours before I go exploring will help alleviate that concern.

I am not the best LGBT example in the world.  I don't read afterellen.com unless someone links me to an article.  I don't have a rainbow sticker on my car.  I don't dress butch, or femme for that matter.  I just kind of am who I am and the people who know me are fully aware that I prefer women over men (although some men are nice).

I've noticed that there's an almost required allegiance to all things queer among the LGBT community.  I think that's sweet, but not everything with a gay theme is going to rock my world or deserve an accolade.

I don't know that I will ever fit into the LGBT community any more than I fit into the straight one, but I am finding myself more curious than I used to be.  Hopefully tomorrow won't disappoint.  =)

I somehow missed this yesterday:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-LGBT-Pride-Month/

Can I just say again how much I like this administration?

Today my friend Laura and I made our way up to Fresno, CA, for a "Repeal Prop 8" rally called Meet in the Middle.  Prop 8 was near and dear to my heart, which anyone should know if they read my LJ at all, but this was the first group event I have attended.  I felt that protesting after Prop 8 had already passed was too little too late and while I did intend to go to the rally right before it went before the California Supreme Court my life was pretty much completely fucked up at the time and I didn't want to risk going and having a mental breakdown in the middle downtown LA.

The event today was all about hope.  I found it inspiring, truthful, and a beautiful thing to watch unfold.

An initiative is being held to repeal Prop 8 in 2010.  The LGBT community is still debating whether to rush it onto the ballot next year or wait until 2012 when there will possibly be more resources available and more time to get a grass roots effort out to the areas that voted in what I consider a horrible civil rights violation.



I'm not in a relationship.  The chances of me getting married are actually quit slim because it's not something I aspire to or need from anyone I may end up with be it a man or a woman.  However, I absolutely do not believe that it is okay to deny someone that priviledge.  I find it ridiculous that who my heart tells me is the right person to marry isn't enough for my statesmen if it doesn't fit in their safe little box of who they think I should end up with.

I know that many people struggle with the religious aspect of this issue but I'm tired of having the same argument with them because most will agree that it doesn't make sense under any logical reason.  They simply believe it's wrong because their priest, or men who lived thousands of years ago, say that God said it was wrong and therefore it must be so.

Marriage is a State right and as such should be held to the same equality rights as any govermental program.  Civil marriage licenses are issued by the state and are legal documents.  If that union should end in divorce, then that is handled by the State court system.  The marriages in the churches of California are a ceremony.  Most often very joyous and revered events and should be honored as such.  They are not, however, legal in their own right.  Without a marriage certificate approved by the state, then you may be married in the eyes of God but you will not be able to file joint taxes or make life and death decisions in an emergency for your spouse or possibly even your children if you did not bear them directly.

All of this to say, please keep your church out of my state.

Allie and I went to go see two 1-act plays last night.  The first was called Marry Me a Little and pretty much just reaffirmed the fact that I don't care for Stephen Sondheim that much.  It's a confusing tale of two people spending the night alone in their apartments but the apartments overlap so you're never quite sure if these two have actually interacted at one point and it went wrong or if they're thinking of other people as they sing their tales of hope and despair in the world of love.

The second play was The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown.  I have a new crush and it's on this musical.  The songs are amazing and the actors killed it.  There was a piano player, a guitarist, and a couple of chairs on stage.  That was it, but it was riveting.  If you have a chance to check it out, I would highly recommend it.  Oh, and if you YouTube the show you'll find the guy lead was originally played by Norbert Leo Butz so I can't help but imagine it being performed by him and Idina now (because everything comes back to Idina).

The play is a he said/she said but the twist comes from the fact that the female character (Cathy) starts at the end point and works her way back to the beginning of the relationship and the male (Jamie) goes in the normal chronological order so halfway through the play they switch at their engagement so there is always the juxtaposition of the build up to their relationship with the end of it.  Brilliant.

( Breakup thoughts... don't read if you don't want to know )

The TV season is quickly coming to a close and for me this means rooting for my faves in the Reality TV world.

I pretty much always expect my picks to lose, although this is not always the case.  Take for instance the last cycle's winner of Biggest Loser, Michelle.  I loved her and could not have been happier to see her win.  On the other hand, my fave for this year (Tara) did not fair so well.  She looked stunning, though, so eat your heart out Helen.

I was also going through a phase on ANTM where my favorite person would get eliminated around the Top 5.  This year my girl Allison made it to the Top 2 so maybe next cycle I'll actually pick the winner!

I am pretty much a true fan of The Amazing Race now, but I could not bring myself to seriously root for any of the final 3 this year.  I was good with who won, but I pretty much would have been okay with anyone but the cheerleaders.

American Idol shocked the hell out of me last night.  It's still not my true wish of a Top 2, but for who was left?  It absolutely is.  I can't wait for the finale next week.

I'm also reluctantly pulled into Survivor.  I'm pretty much okay with anyone but Coach winning.  If he somehow manages to win, I will stop watching the show.  It's that simple.

I'm a little bit scared to face the summer with pretty much only So You Think You Can Dance to entertain me.  I'll do much better when they finally announce what's going on with Chuck and Dollhouse.  The suspense is killing me.

As I was coming in today, I saw one of those Christian fish on the back of the car in front of me.  This isn't unusual.  I see at least 4 or 5 of them on the commute everyday.  What made this one different is that it had the Star of David in the belly of the fish.

What does that mean?

Is this a bid for religious harmony?

Did the Christian eat the Jew?

I'm so confused.

I figured I should get this last day up before my mom actually buys a ticket to LA and kills me for not doing it...

Our last day in New York started with breakfast at Zabars.  I also grabbed a beef sandwich for the flight home.

If you ever want to get a kid fix, go to the American Museum of Natural History.  There were children of all ages roaming around in packs of 10 or more.

AMNH was yet another huge museum.  We only had a few hours there so we took the speed tour through the top three floors and skipped the bottom level.  There were bones everywhere on the top floor:  dinosaurs, turtles, evolution of the horse, etc.  The hallway of scenes was probably my favorite.  I believe this was on the third floor (and 2nd as it's two stories).  They are windows into an animals natural habitat and it was fascinating and beautiful to me.

We also spent half the time trying to figure out what was and wasn't in Night at the Museum without much success.  Everything looks vaguely familiar.

At noon we kicked ourselves out of the museum so we had plenty of time to go grab our stuff at the apartment, taxi it to the airport and catch our flights back to LA.  Other than a slight traffic jam at JFK, my flight was smooth and passed more quickly than I expected.  I lucked out and had two seats to myself so I could spread out a bit and sped my way through a J.D. Robb book.

So now it's back to reality in the land of make believe.

After the late night, we slept in until almost noon.  Matt was a trooper and actually got up first with Ange lagging the most.  We started off our day with the Empire State Building.  Matt and I paid extra to go up to the 102nd floor.  Hardly anyone does it, so it was nice.  It's enclosed up there, so it was warm and there was no pressure to move so you got to stare out and really take in the city.  Angela stayed on the 86th floor.  She also got a baby surprise on the elevator ride up to the observation level.  She had been playing with the baby in front of us while in line and once we got into the elevator, he decided to lunge for her.  She held him the rest of the way up and partway down the hall until she was able to give him back to his mom.

We also did the New York Skyride, which made me feel like we were back at Universal Studios.  It was a little bit like the Star Wars ride at Disneyland in that you sat in a car and flew over NY while Kevin Bacon told you what the buildings were.  Very odd and totally wouldn't have done it if it wasn't included in our NY Pass.

We couldn't find a White Castle for Matt, so we ended up hoping on the Metro and going to Grand Central Station.  We grabbed some Mexican at the Food Court and it was probably the worst meal we have in NY.  Even it wasn't bad; I was just spoiled by that point.

I'm a little unclear about the timeline for the next few events but we went back to Dylan's for more ice cream, picked up our free gift at Bloomingdale's (keychain, woo), and went to the Guggenheim museum (half of it was closed to put in a Frank Lloyd Write exhibit).  We also did Rockefeller Center, the Nintendo Store (where Matt geeked our for a bit), hit a Greek food cart called Kwik Meal where I had a super yummy lamb gyro, which we ate in Bryant Park.  From there we walked past the set up for "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" on our way to the other side of the block where the NY Public Library is located.  We got there just as they were kicking everyone out so we didn't get to go in but I did take a few pictures of the outside.

After that it was back on the Subway to go eat at Katz's Delicatessen, which was a Jewish Deli.  It's kind of a crazy place.  You get a ticket as you walk in the door and that's your running tab.  Everytime you go to the counter to get more food they change the total on the back and then you pay as you leave.  I had some yummy potato pancakes and a slice of cheesecake.

Unfortunately, we had to call it an early night so we could go back to the apartment and pack.  Angela and I also watched "Chuck".  Chuck and Sarah finally got to make out!  Man, I hope that show gets picked up for a third season.  I'm going to be soo sad if it doesn't.

Hm....  I honestly don't remember how Tuesday started.  Probably with grumbling about who had to take a shower first.  All I remember is being back in Little Italy and eating pizza at Lombardi's, which was the first pizzeria in the United States (1905).  Let me say, a hundred years later and the pizza is still top notch.  We split a basic cheese pizza and it's seriously going to be tough ordering Pizza Hut ever again.  There's just no comparison as to how much better Lombardi's tastes.

After lunch, Angela took off for Carnegie Hall and to meet her friend while Matt and I went shopping at Uniglo in SoHo.  I got a few new t-shirts and Matt would have proceeded to buy out the store if we hadn't needed to get back to Midtown for the Letterman Show.  The David Letterman taping was really cool.  Most of the staff had on letterman jackets, which cracked me up.  It wasn't as cold inside as we had been warned about, but it was still a bit chilly.  We were instructed not to "whoo" during the show.  This is a lot harder than it sounds.  I stuck to clapping.  The guests were Nathan Lane and Tinted Windows.  Tinted Windows is this crazy new band of random professionals who decided to play Rock Band together, but with real instruments and maybe record it.  They're fascinating. 

David Letterman is a big kid.  For his intro, he ran completely across the stage before taking a question or two before the show started.  He also took his coat off every commercial break.  Once he even spun around in his chair with one knee on the cushion and the other foot pushing him around.  It was adorable.

After the taping, Matt and I walked down to Broadway and hit a couple box offices looking for discounted tickets.  We ended up with 3 tickets for In the Heights.  Ange had an hour to get there from where she was and Matt and I squeezed in some dinner at McDonald's (how this ended up being my Broadway tradition I have no freakin' clue).  I loved the show.  It won the Tony for Best Musical 2008 and I can totally understand why.  It's by a fresh new playwright, the music was awesome, and it was choreographed to the hilt.  A few of the jokes in Spanish flew over my head, but for the most part I could even follow those random transitions fairly well.

Matt was dying to go to a bar called PDT (Please Don't Tell) located in the East Village on St. Marks Pl.  It's an unmarked holdover from the speakeasy days that you get to through a hot dog restaurant.  You go into the phone booth, dial a code and viola.  The back of the phone booth opens and the hostess lets you in.  The had crazy, crazy drinks.  Matt stuck with three of them (repeating often).  You can get hot dogs or a cheeseburger or, like me, some fries with nacho cheese and jalapenos.  We finally left when the bar closed at 2am.  It was a seriously fun night.  The atmosphere in there was perfect and we had an awesome waitress.  I kind of wanted to take her home with me, but she had made some crazy pact with a friend to never step foot in California.  Oh well, she'll just have to continue being adorably straight in NY.  More's the pity.  At this point, we probably should have grabbed a cab but it was so automatic to head to the Subway that we took the long way back home.  My feet were killing me (and one toe apparently bleeding, but I didn't find that out until the next morning when I looked at my socks) but we finally stumbled safely home at about 3:30am.  To say we crashed hard would be an understatement.

The Trio took our first rush-hour Subway ride.  I have a feeling it was not your ordinary experience because after the first stop, I was able to claim a seat and by the 2nd the other two were able to join me until the train ended at Battery Park.  We rushed to the ferry and just barely made it on the 9:00 am boat to the Statue of Liberty.  It's a short ride over and once we got fairly close I stepped out onto the deck and took a few pictures of the Lady.

It was an absolutely freezing day with rain hovering in the air, but we spent about 20 minutes walking around the island taking pictures of the statue from different angles before heading through security once more (we had to go through on the docks too) to go up inside the monument.  There's a small museum inside and we were allowed to climb up to the Observation Deck of the statue.  You can't really see the statue from there, but there were some good views of Manhattan, New Jersey and Ellis Island.  You could also see up to the top of her head and those stairs looked crazy.  I was kind of glad they didn't let people up them anymore because just looking at them made me exhausted.

The next stop on the ferry tour was Ellis Island so while we waited for a boat, we grabbed some lunch at the restaurant on the Statue of Liberty grounds.  The food was okay, but they had the most uncomfortable seating/tables ever.  If my feet hadn't been hurting from walking around the past two days I would have just stood.

My great-grandparents on my mother's side did come through Ellis Island.  One set from Hungary and one set from Lithuania.  I could not remember my great-grandmother's surname, but I did look up my great-grandfather Michael Santa.  He arrived from Hungary in 1905.  Matt was nice enough to use some of his time in the registry office after he finished looking up his relatives who came in from Russia.  It was starting to drizzle, so we cut our time short on Ellis Island in favor of heading back to Manhattan to see Ground Zero.

The space where the Twin Towers stood is massive.  It's all blocked off due to the new construction going on, but there is a view from an elevated walkway where you can see the new beams going up and all the activity happening there.  The first time I ever visited New York was in June 2004 and it still felt too soon to go see the area.  Now I wish we had.  It's great seeing the area, and city, moving on but I missed my chance to really pay my respects.

After a frustrating 20 minutes in the Subway trying to find the line we needed, we made our way through Chinatown and into Little Italy for lunch.  We ended up at Il Cortile where I had truly fabulous gnocchi stuffed with chicken, spinach and mascarpone cheese with a vodka sauce.  Total heaven.

We were really close to a dessert place that Matt wanted to check out called Rice to Riches.  It was like a gelato store, but with all different flavors of rice pudding.  We settled on two types and took it back to Cynthia's to get ready for dinner.  (Yes, we ate right before more food.)

By the time we left for Morimoto it was truly raining.  It had been raining ever since we stepped off the ferry that morning, but this was just ridiculous with the wind.  Our pants were completely soaked by the time we got to the restaurant.  I had never been so happy to be wearing black slacks.  Angela and Matt were like kids in a candy store and went to town ordering.  Cynthia went for a more conservative approach and got the duck trio while I had the Angry Chicken.

Cynthia and I cut out a bit early so we could make it to the Dramatists Guild Fund Benefit that was happening at the Hudson Theatre just off Times Square.  It was a line up of artists pulled in by various writers who performed a 3-5 minute piece.  The stars we got to see was truly astounding.  This is by no means a full listing, but here are some of the artists we saw that night:  Idina Menzel (Defying Gravity - Wicked), Angela Lansbury & James Earl Jones (Driving Miss Daisy), Nathan Lane, B.D. Wong (5-minute reenactment of M. Butterfly), David Hyde Pierce, Brian Stokes Mitchell (Ragtime), and Bernadette Peters (Into the Woods).  Seriously the best $35 I think I've ever spent.  Our seats were perfect.  I can't believe more people didn't hear about it.  It was truly a taste of Broadway by all the greats.

Next up:  more food, Letterman, and Broadway

As most Sundays should start, we woke up late and headed straight to brunch.  Angela and I went to Perilla in Greenwich Village while Matt and Cynthia checked out MoMA.  Ange and I got there a little early so we did a quick tour around Washington Square Park, NYU and strolled through a mini street fair.  I almost bought some cute socks, but I didn't want to have to carry them around all day.

The restaurant was fabulous.  We decided to split both our dishes so we started with the duck burger and fries.  I have never had a hamburger that good before.  I loved Harold from Top Chef, but seriously...  that burger made me want to marry him.  We also had the buckwheat blueberry pancakes, which served as our desert.  They were yummy too, but my heart belongs to the duck.

After Ange and I put our name in at Serendipity (hour and a half wait), we moseyed over to Central Park and got a much better taste of it than Saturday where we just went to the zoo.  We found the fountain they filmed Enchanted at and took a lot of pictures.  On our way back to Serendipity, Ange managed to get pooped on by a bird.  It was fairly hilarious, especially since we were only about 10 steps away from the restaurant at the time.  Cynthia and Matt made it in time to join us and we shared two frozen hot chocolates among the four of us.  The service was a bit shoddy, but the dessert was tops.

To walk off some of those calories, we headed up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (leaving Cynthia behind).  None of us are true museum people, but you can't help but be impressed by the size of that place.  We made it through most of ancient Egypt, American Paintings and Europe Paintings.  Chinese calligraphy was pretty but not the largest display.  Just as we hit the Japanese art section they kicked us out of the museum.  We swore we still had 15 minutes until they closed but they were adamant about getting all of us the hell out of there so we peacefully made our exit.

There was a group performing on the sidewalk just outside, so we grabbed seats and listened to them for a spell.  They had amazing voices although I'm still not sure what language they were singing in most of the time.

Keeping up with our eating, we next headed to Otto's where Cynthia rejoined us and we got some good bruschetta with beans, I had an arugula salad that I want to have every other day for the rest of my life, and I had a marinara pizza.  I am quickly becoming a fan of thin crust.  Wood oven pizza just really can't be beat.

By now the temperature was starting to drop and you could tell it was going to rain the next day, but it was still early so Matt, Ange and I decided to go to Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center.  The city is beautiful at night.  It's not often you get to stand on the roof of a skyscraper and run around taking pictures for an hour.  I was in heaven.  A freezing heaven, but still.

The Subway line we needed to get back to Cynthia's was down, so we had to walk back through Times Square to catch a different line.  It worked out perfectly since we had promised to pick up Diana a glass from the Hard Rock anyway.  I think we finally stumbled into the apartment about midnight.  It was definitely time for bed since we were determined to hit the first ferry to the Statue of Liberty the next morning.

I was never around a computer long enough to type up my journeys in the Big Apple while actually there, so a day by day recount after the fact is going to have to suffice.

We (Matt, Angela, and I) arrived at JFK around 8:30am Saturday morning.  We took a taxi to Cynthia's place over on the Upper West Side and proceeded to nap for the next couple of hours.  Cynthia forced us up around 12:30 with the promise of a fabulous brunch and delivered by taking us to Thalia.  The food was amazing and Matt got to start his trip with a mimosa, so everyone was happy.

Cynthia headed off to her normal life for a bit while the rest of us went to check out some stores.  We wanted to see the Apple Store, FAO Shwarz, pick up an ice cream bar at Dylan's Candy Bar and Matt wanted to see what Takashimaya was all about (turns out super expensive Japanese clothes and furniture).

Since we were in the area, we decided to go check out the Central Park Zoo.  It's a tiny little place with a pretty amazing Rainforest section.  They closed up fairly early, so we walked back to Cynthia's by cutting across the Park.  After a fairly intense food conversation, we decided on Indian.  We took the subway up a couple stops to a place called Swagat.  I was quickly learning that food in NY is just fabulous no matter where you happen to stop in.  I was stuffed, but wasn't going to leave a drop of Marsala sauce behind.

We walked back to the apartment and on the way Cynthia and her friend stopped to get ice cream (the crazy girls) and we hit up a Rite Aid for some soda and water to last us our stay.  We briefly contemplated going to a rooftop bar that was nearby since it was a gorgeous night and the weather was supposed to be all downhill from there, but we were exhausted and decided that calling it a night at 11pm wasn't too wimpy.

Pictures are in the works.  I took about 500, so I don't want to upload all of them and need to cull them down a bit.  I'm working on it though, I swear.

With a horoscope like this one, I'm fucking hibernating the rest of the day as a precaution:

Instead of making amends for something you said or did yesterday, you might just dig your hole a little deeper today. Even with the best of intentions, you can still anger someone inadvertently. Of course, a heartfelt apology can do you a world of good, but only if you truly mean it. Staged social niceties will be quickly apparent now and only make matters worse. This little drama may still take another day to play through before you can get your life back on track.

I swear I didn't upset anyone yesterday, but better safe than sorry.

E-mail me if you need something.

I love the cheese that is the movie Mamma Mia!, but this weekend I had the chance to go see the stage version and reluctantly agree that it is indeed better.

It's impossible to beat the actual Greek islands where the film was shot, but the overall story is better told on stage.  The dads neither get stuck in the room over the goat shed nor do they hop on the boat to go back to the mainland.  Overall, they interact so much more with Sophie and Donna that it does make you wish they'd left a few more of the songs in there to help with the plot of the movie.

Everyone on the tour cast was fantastic.  There wasn't a weak one in the bunch.  The mother/daughter team was more realistic age wise and the only real problem was that the audio mix was off so most of the vocals seemed a bit weak.

I barely held back the tears during "The Winner Takes It All".  I don't know if the performance was just that more heart wrenching in person or if I empathize with the lyrics more these days.  Either way, I was so grateful when "Take a Chance on Me" started and Rosie had me laughing hysterically once more.

I will always love the movie, but I'm really glad I got to see it on stage the way it was originally intended to be enjoyed.

How can you watch a couple like Ellen and Portia interacting with each other on the Ellen show like this:
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And then still have people going, "This isn't a real marriage.  Calling it that is a threat to my marriage and my way of life."  There is a new campaign hitting the airwaves through National Organization for Marriage that is already starting the next fear campaign.

I knew I was having too good a week.  Something had to happen to piss me off.  I really want to punch something right now.

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.
  - Voltaire

I am well into my season tickets at the Pantages.  I've already seen Phantom of the Opera and Grease.  This weekend it's Mamma Mia!

I can't wait for this one.  I absolutely loved the cheesiness of the movie and am excited to see how it differs from the stage performance.  Especially since Melissa swears the stage version is so much better.

Next month is Dirty Dancing and then they start slowing down for the remainder of the year.  Hopefully I don't go into withdrawals.

I am a compromiser at heart.  I want everyone to be satisfied and usually end up giving the slightly bigger piece to the other person.  It's my nature and I can live with that.

I love this quote for the fact that it all comes down to perception.  A truly good compromise will work itself out to where both sides understand where the other is coming from so although they don't get exactly what they originally wanted they now understand why it's important to let a little more go to the other side.

There has been a lot of action in the news the past couple of weeks about Gay Marriage.  It is now legal (or will be once the paperwork clears) for gay couples to legally wed in Iowa and Vermont.  DC will now recognize those marriages if the couple chooses to relocate to their city.  I cannot even tell you how happy this makes me.

California is still waiting for the Supreme Court's decision regarding Prop 8.  At this point, all I can do is hope that these victories sway the judges on the bench to overturn Prop 8.  We had our celebration back in May of '08 and I would really hate to see that victory be taken away from the state I've come to love and call home.

For anyone who is curious about the breakdown of pro/con gay marriage in the States, this AP article sums it up well.

This is the craziness that was going on in Sherman Oaks last night.

I was going to actually put pictures up but LJ is not cooperating and I'm too tired to try and figure out why.

Suffice it to say that at about 9:50pm there were about a dozen cop cars, 3 fire engines and an ambulance all parked outside of our townhouse.  Apparently some guy was running down the street with a knife.  My roommate swears she heard gun fire when she went downstairs to watch from the garage.  All I know is that our entire street was blocked off by cop cars for a good 30 minutes.  Very rare for quiet city.

... is the freaking Internet.  I swear.  Millions of people use it and I still trip over the same people even when I don't mean to.  It's fascinating and just a little bit frustrating.