Summering in Provincetown!

Cape Cod was amazing! PROVINCETOWN:

a) pilgrims landed in 1620 before Plymouth Rock

b) gayest town this side of anywhere, gayer then PV, Palm Springs and South Beach combined!

c) quaint fishing village

d) Tennessee Williams among others wrote famous plays there

e) artist haven for over 100 years, with 80 art galleries

f) all of the above!

THE ANSWER IS "F" ....it is all of these things and more! What an amazing weeks vacation with my dear friend David (and his lovely fiance Doug) from New York, and with Noel's band of friends from Chicago (from Bernard and Michael, to Chip and Gordon, to Jun, and Mike & Brian who stayed with us), all surrounded by picturesque 200+ old cape cod shaked homes, New England lighthouses, sand dunes with swaying beach grass, party circuit boys galour and 101 drag queens from messy to magnificient!

So we went this week of August because it is Provincetown's "Carnival" week (their sort of Mardi Gras/Gay Pride celebration), and to give you an idea of the crazy spirt of it all check out last year's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj6gEzabNsE

So here is our week in a nutshell below...

(ok, P-town Carnival parade pics)

The Chicago contigent brought all the goods and tools to be an entry in the town's Carnivale parade...and shockingly they talked me into it. Cardboard, tape, 2nd hand ladies pumps, tule, bandanas...they thought of everything...though I wasn't about to be shirtless with all those brown Flip boys (can you say sunburn? can you say be white whale?) If was quite fun after all being part of the community. Everyone loved us...and we got 3rd place in the Creativity category! We also passed out tootsie pops and bubbles to the kids which was so fun. Yippee Cayay!

(okay, it's been 10 days, and I am now adding to this entry...I've/we've been so busy with the house, and life in general)

So to break out the "nutshell" by day... we flew from Seattle to Baltimore on a red-eye (ick!), then Baltimore to Boston. Sidenote: AirTran sucks and we will never fly it again, outside of our booked Toronto trip in two weeks...the planes were dirty and trashed, and the night crew were rude. Anywho... We arrived at Boston and had 3 hours to kill before the P-Town ferry pulled out...so off to the city we went. Boston is really cool. I have been wanting to go there for 40 years, so it was nice to get a taste of the downtown core, and Little Italy. We didn't get to Cambridge and such, but we did dip our toes in. We saw Paul "The British are coming! The British are coming!" Revere's house, along with the original markets and Cheers ("where everybody knows your name..."). Can't wait to go back and visit for a longer period of time. Really beautiful.

So the ferry ride took 1-1/2 hours from Boston across the huge bay to Cape Cod (that big flexing arm off of Massachusettes)...and what a beautiful ride it was with lighthouses and as we got closer on this sunny day, we entered a lightening and thunder show ahead right over P-Town. Provincetown sits on the furthest tip of land on the Cape a feels and acts just like an island in the Atlantic. It's not humid because you always get the ocean breezes, but you do get crazy ocean storms that pass right on by. The pilgrims landed here first in 1620 but only stayed a short while because they realized it was all sand dunes and no tillable soil or water for that matter (sand straight down to granite)...so off they went across the bay (opposite of what we did) and settled in Plymouth (just south of Boston). So cool to be in a place with so much history (unlike Seattle).

So every morning we would roll out of bed at 10am-ish (I think we never switch from Pacific Standard Time...bodies thinking it was 7am...at least no jet lag)...so at 10-11am walk down 2 blocks to the main drag, Commercial Street, and run into my dear ole friend David sitting on some park bench with his friend Carol both working, composing music. So cool, so cool what they were doing in such an amazing setting, but even more so cool to run into David day after day...what a privledge! Love that guy more and more...

I'll never finish this entry on P-Town (it's now Sept.8th at 12:48am)...so I'll just finish with... Our trip had amazing visits with friends. Great hanging with David and Doug. A blast being part of the Chicago gang and hanging with Bernard and Michael, Chip and Gordan, Brian and Mike, Gil & Nam, Tom and Philip, Jun, Ronnie and all the rest crazy Flips! Great art galleries! Yummy seafood! Beautiful scenery! I'd like to call it a "Murder She Wrote...with Drag Queens"

A picture tells a thousand words, so check our my 3 facebook albums if you can:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50377&id=635956769

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50492&id=635956769

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50498&id=635956769

Dolly & Carrie!

My friend Carrie Akre would crack up if she saw that I blogged about her and Dolly in the same entry, but... I forgot to mention last weekend, Friday night the 8th I went to see THE Dolly Parton in concert, meeting up with Mel and Mark at the WAMU Theatre in SODO. Dolly was friggen amazing! She is so sweet and funny, whether you like country music or not...her story telling was so fun. Every other joke was about her boobs. She just has such a great perspective on life, I just want to have dinner with her...better yet a week's vacation hanging with her. Then there is her 40 years of music from "Here I come again" in the 60's to of course songs like "Islands in the Stream" and "9 to 5" in the 70's and 80's...but when she sang "I will always love you" there was seriously not a dry eye in the house (including me)...take that Whitney! She did do a cover of the Fine Young Cannibals "She Drives me Crazy" which I wasn't crazy about "uh, uh, uh..." but other then that... Her beautiful blue grass ballads and her playing a different instrument every other song (fiddle, to guitar, to harpsichord) was cool! http://www.dollyparton.com/

Watch "Shinola" from Perez Hilton: http://perezhilton.com/tv/?videoid=0829eafbec022

Then the next night Noel, Heidi, Andy and I drug our old butts to the Showbox to see our Carrie in the reunion show of Goodness that she use to lead up. I love Carrie solo, but this show was awesome too. Check out this link for more details:





http://threeimaginarygirls.com/liveshowreview/2008aug/goodnesspacifymyheart
(yes, Noel and Heidi were up front with the short peeps and right next to the "John" talked about in this write up. and were involved in the throwing out of his ass).

The doors opened at 8pm, but there were two bands opening for Goodness, and they weren't going on till 11pm-ish so the four of us went to our favorite Saturday night Happy Hour (8-10pm on Sat.s) right across the street in the Pike Place Market behind the pig...Maximillien's. $2.50 buckets of muscles and $6.00 buckets of French beer! MERCI BEAUCOUP!!! http://maximilienrestaurant.com/lounge/


Ahhh, the Showbox...I tell ya, sometimes I start to feel old when I am sitting there watching all these young folks drinking and dancing, and meanwhile my foot aches and I am yawning! LOL.

We had a blast!!!

Olympics...amazing! Vacation...countdown!

The Beijing Olympic opening ceremonies were truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen! WOW! http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b23040_olympics_ratings_medal-worthy.html They are trying to show the world that they are modern and ready for the 21st century...and I think they did that. I just hope it's not all show and a lie. Though they have much to still work on outside of their politics and oppression in Tibet and otherwise...like figuring out their pollution! DEAR GOD!!! Scarey what over a billion people in one country can do...and now they have cars, 1000 new a day adding into the mix of coal mine smoke and such. This is an email excerp from a Chinese work peer of mine, Gloria Chen: "I personally love it. I watched twice.. Heard the opening ticket was $2,000.. I think it’s totally worthy!People in the Chinese blogs also think it was a big joke for China government..since they were trying to trash all the Chinese culture back in the culture revolution and now they are trying to bring the culture back. "

Still loving the Wikipedia...check this out too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Summer_Olympics

Last night was SOOO exciting, but more so funny between the girls team gymnastics and then the guys swim relay Noel was screaming and cheering all the way to midnight. Like seriously screaming!!! It was quite exciting when the U.S. beat the cocky French in just seconds at the very end of the relay...WOW!!! (and that Michael Phelps is a Hottie McHotster! grrrrr)

Changing the channel...I AM SO EXCITED...by the end of the week we are leaving on a red eye Friday night for Boston! Provincetown, Cape Cod or bust... STAY TUNED FOR ALL THE SHINANAGANS...

I heart hello kitty!

This blog entry goes out to beautiful Kumi!
...So I had lunch with Kum today, and she mentioned that she actually reads this blog...hee hee. So here is my tribute to my great friend. I start with a pic of her and I at the Fremont Solstice parade 2006...


She is such an amazing person, busy lawyer, busy Mom, busy wife...but still looks fabulous. I am so glad that from past relationships and situations, whether job or ex-partner you get great surprises, people good for your soul. When ever I see Kumi, over the last 8 years, she always, ALWAYS makes me feel special and attractive and worthy. No matter how tired she is or how pre0ccupied life may be. So I thank you Mook! "Arigato chica", He says as he fans himself softly talking in a Geisha voice. LOL.

I also forgot to mention when we barely knew each other for Halloween 2000, and the then new Charlie's Angels movie had just come out, she was cool to play a Chinese of all things (hee hee) and be Lucy Liu to my Drew Barrymore. What a fun Halloween that was! And then there's my nickname she coined me "ebb" for "Eddie Bauer bunny", which I think was based on the acutal wild rabbits on the EB campus in Redmond (which are no more :-( , let's jus say they were put on a bus, destination heaven)...but also ebb was because I was the bunny to my ex's "king cobra" when he got mad. Kumi's a funny girl. Here nickname 'hello kitty' is obvious, but Mookster/Mookasai/Mook is not...long story.



Along with Kumi comes her handsome hubby Tony (seen in the photo with her and my cheesy Noelcito). They are a great couple and I am so previledged to have them in my life. And then there's their little guy...Niko! Tomorrow night I get a second dose of Kum (yes twice in one week) and am having a dinner date in Eastlake with Kum and Niko (Dad's out of town...more pizza for us then!)...I haven't seen nearly enough of the little Baruffi. Bad Uncle Scooter!

So friends from past lives! That's partly what makes up our fabric, our lives, fills us up and keeps us going. Along with Kumi, another friends which comes to mind is Sidira (from my Bon Marche' days, AKA Macy's). I am having dinner tonight with Sidira and I love her so. I don't know how I timed it, but am getting the love of two of my awesome chicks both in the same day! How much more could one guy take? (how about a sweet loving hot boyfriend to boot?!)


Actually speaking of dinner (okay drinks and food)...it's about time to schlep over to Belltown and meet Sidira at Marjorie's on 2nd and Battery. She is going to introduce me to her new boy...the bartender there (that's hot!)...stay tuned. CHEERS!

Sunrises are amazing but...

...but it's too bad sunrises happen so early in the morning. Hee Hee.

Yes, I am a 'night-owl' as it is put, as a pose to a 'early-bird'. WHOO, WHOO! Here I sit at work at 5:30am, but it's not what you think. There is a skeleton crew, I included, that came to work on beautiful 7th and Stewart downtown Seattle at midnight last night and physically took down Nordstrom's Anniversary Sale off of nordstrom.com. So here I sit on the 16th floor in the semi-dark killing time with Rai, Michael, Brandon, Dianne and Josh, while we have waited a good 3 hours for the site to come back up so we can check all our pages we published/unpublished/shifted/promoted, etc. Once we feel good about it, then we will all go home and sleep all day (which is suppose to be gorgeous, sunny and 80F). So I went to the gym at 3:30am...and just got back to find the most AMAZING sunrise!!! Too bad I am not a morning person because it will be a long time before I see God's glory like that again!

oooops, sites up! gotta run...HAPPY AUGUST!