From the desk of a gay man on Craigslist.com...

My (straight) brothers in arms ... please let me offer you one key secret about meeting women. You fear approaching beautiful women because you fear losing something you do not have. You must understand and accept that -- before you even lay eyes on a beautiful woman -- you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Once you do, you will find it so very much easier to meet women.

"Ah-hah!" you say, "But what about the pain of rejection?" Pish-posh! Rejection still costs you nothing. A bruised ego, perhaps even some personal dignity, depending on your level of drunkenness. Such wounds are slight and the concern of only lesser mortals. You, my friends, are confident! You are brave! No fear!

You must simply unlearn that which plagued you in middle school. While you were being acutely embarrassed on the playground for your awakening sexuality ("Stop poking me with that stick in your pants!"), we gay boys were simply relating to girls as equals -- sharing stories, plotting fan clubs, and making scrapbooks. Our shame and embarrassment were relegated to the locker room before gym class, but that's for another post. The point is that your early relationships with girls rested on expectations that you had no right to form in the first place.

You expected girls to want you right off the bat, simply because you approached them. And if they didn't want you immediately, you felt that you had lost something. But in reality, you lost nothing. In fact, the only time you do lose something is when you fail to pursue an opportunity that attracts you.

You expected the pretty girls to already have boyfriends. However, keep in mind that -- unlike high school -- women in real life are not constantly surrounded by dozens, hundreds, or thousands of men constantly clamoring for attention. In high school, all the pretty girls were taken because ... well, they had platoons of boys to choose from and could pick the pretty boys who were well-mannered.

My point is this -- fear breeds inhibition in relationships, even the simplest conversation among people meeting for the first time. Overcome your fear and you will free your inhibitions. You might try thinking like we do -- when we approach gorgeous women, we don't expect sex, a kiss, or even conversation. We simply see a vibrant person who might be fun to talk to. Try anticipating nothing, expecting nothing, and then being surprised if something does happen. Trust me -- it will work. It's worked for all of my straight friends so far, in fact.

Mothers... lock up your daughters! I'm going out this week!

Did ya know there's a way to find out whether or not you won a free song off of Pepsi's itunes download promotion? All you have to do is find a bottle with a promotion on it for a free song download and tilt it. Upon doing so, you'll be able to look up into the inside cap of the bottle and read 'again' or 'free song'. Obviously you'll want to look for the bottles that tout the latter under the bottle cap.

So I win a few of these at work and Bob Parsons (the Owner of GD) happens to walk by my desk. Now I remember Bob saying at the Christmas party that he never downloads music off the web so I asked him if he ever downloaded music off the web still and he said that he didn't. Upon hearing that, I tossed Bob a winning bottle cap his way and he just tossed it back with a smile and said something to the effect that he doesn't do that download music mumbo jumbo stuff. Well, he probably didn't say 'mumbo jumbo' but I'm just paraphrasing here...

Today was a learning experience at work. Did you know that Mardi Gras is directly associated with Catholicism?

YEAH!!!

I didn't know that either!! So today I go to work and I put on a nice hawaiian shirt with some beads around my neck thinking I'm going to start celebrating Mardi Gras because I was under the impression that it started today. Apparently, that was not the case. It actually ended... YESTERDAY!!! So here I am looking like a jackass at work wearing my beads and a hawaiian shirt and everybody is excited to point out that I am a day late and a carona short for Mardi Gras.

Here's some history on Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras' Catholic Roots


Mardi Gras, literally "Fat Tuesday," has grown in popularity in recent years as a raucous, sometimes hedonistic event. But its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the "last hurrah" before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. That's why the enormous party in New Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight on Tuesday, with battalions of streetsweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter towards home.

What is less known about Mardi Gras is its relation to the Christmas season, through the ordinary-time interlude known in many Catholic cultures as Carnival. (Ordinary time, in the Christian calendar, refers to the normal "ordering" of time outside of the Advent/Christmas or Lent/Easter seasons. There is a fine Scripture From Scratch article on that topic if you want to learn more.)

Carnival comes from the Latin words carne vale, meaning "farewell to the flesh." Like many Catholic holidays and seasonal celebrations, it likely has its roots in pre-Christian traditions based on the seasons. Some believe the festival represented the few days added to the lunar calendar to make it coincide with the solar calendar; since these days were outside the calendar, rules and customs were not obeyed. Others see it as a late-winter celebration designed to welcome the coming spring. As early as the middle of the second century, the Romans observed a Fast of 40 Days, which was preceded by a brief season of feasting, costumes and merrymaking.

The Carnival season kicks off with the Epiphany, also known as Twelfth Night, Three Kings' Day and, in the Eastern churches, Theophany. Epiphany, which falls on January 6, 12 days after Christmas, celebrates the visit of the Wise Men bearing gifts for the infant Jesus. In cultures that celebrate Carnival, Epiphany kicks off a series of parties leading up to Mardi Gras.

Epiphany is also traditionally when celebrants serve King's Cake, a custom that began in France in the 12th century. Legend has it that the cakes were made in a circle to represent the circular routes that the Wise Men took to find Jesus, in order to confuse King Herod and foil his plans of killing the Christ Child. In the early days, a coin or bean was hidden inside the cake, and whoever found the item was said to have good luck in the coming year. In Louisiana, bakers now put a small baby, representing the Christ Child, in the cake; the recipient is then expected to host the next King Cake party.

There are well-known season-long Carnival celebrations in Europe and Latin America, including Nice, France; Cologne, Germany; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The best-known celebration in the U.S. is in New Orleans and the French-Catholic communities of the Gulf Coast. Mardi Gras came to the New World in 1699, when a French explorer arrived at the Mississippi River, about 60 miles south of present day New Orleans. He named the spot Point du Mardi Gras because he knew the holiday was being celebrated in his native country that day.

Eventually the French in New Orleans celebrated Mardi Gras with masked balls and parties, until the Spanish government took over in the mid-1700s and banned the celebrations. The ban continued even after the U.S. government acquired the land but the celebrations resumed in 1827. The official colors of Mardi Gras, with their roots in Catholicism, were chosen 10 years later: purple, a symbol of justice; green, representing faith; and gold, to signify power.

Mardi Gras literally means "Fat Tuesday" in French. The name comes from the tradition of slaughtering and feasting upon a fattened calf on the last day of Carnival. The day is also known as Shrove Tuesday (from "to shrive," or hear confessions), Pancake Tuesday and fetter Dienstag. The custom of making pancakes comes from the need to use up fat, eggs and dairy before the fasting and abstinence of Lent begins.

Source: http://www.americancatholic.org

So yeah... I should have given up the beads and the hawaiian shirt up for Lent...

:( my friend passed out at work today. :(

i hope she gets better.

GET BETTER JACKIE!!

Sex and the City is over now... :( I'm bummed.

I want to get all the DVDs... I've never been so interested in a show like that before. I think the show has a huge fan base because so many people can identify with one of the women on the show. If they can't identify with just one of the women, I'm sure they can see a little bit of themselves in each of the 4 main characters of the show.

So my buddy comes over and we happen to be talking about satellite and cox cable for TV... He opens his wallet and flips out his DirectTV card that has already been pre-programmed with all the channels available on the DirectTV network.

WHO THE HELL CARRIES THE CARD WITH THEM??

Haaaaaahahaha!

My friend Eric is THE MAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!

c.

The past few days have been somewhat odd...

- The satellite reciever at home broke... so Brian Riley and I thought about getting some hookup for free TV somehow...

- I had a get together at the house for the family and had children running around the house. I can't think of a better form of contraceptive...

- My battery in the car had to be replaced... (shit just keeps breaking everywhere damnit!) I really think I'll be getting a 4runner around my birthday.

So it's Tuesday and Justin and Teresa left for California today. Brian Deck went with them to film their honeymoon night so I'm sure all of us here back home will be in for a treat with a crazy porn video.

ok- maybe not.

Brian really went to help the Kartlers move and he'll be back on Thursday.

I'm super sleepy.
nites

c.

Through observing my friends, I've noticed something about relationships. If you have to convince someone that you are the best person for them, then it was never meant to be...

The race is on!!!



Eric got married first...
Brad got married second...
Justin got married third...

Now it's up to Brian and Clifford to see who will be the last bachelor standing.

It's on!

Today one of my best friends got married. I'm not sure how to digest that information because I'm still in shock and confusion. I'm really happy for the couple because I know them really well but I guess it's something that I never anticipated happening as far as having friends that go out and elope. If I had to sum up the day, today is just a really odd day.

Today I found out some interesting news...

I have a wedding to go to here in Phoenix on March 27.

I have another wedding to go to in San Diego on March 28th.

That weekend is going to be a wild weekend.

This past weekend was a lot of fun. It's been a while since I've been able to intellectually let go and hang out/party with good friends.

Mike came into town with Britt and Jackie. We went to have breakfast Friday morning at this small little shop on Tatum and Cavecreek and it was SOOOOOOOOOO SUPER GOOD!!! Mmmmmmmmmm- paaaaancake. I already plan on kidnapping my parents one of these weekends and going for breakfast up there.

After breakfast we golfed. Well, most of us golfed, the rest of us (Jackie and Britt) drank beer and drove the golf carts.




Friday night we went over to see Andrew and Amy's new house out in Anthem. Congratulations again Andrew and Amy, that's an "MTV Cribs"/"Baller status" house!

Saturday we woke up and went shopping. I bought a red tie from Banana that goes smashingly well with my blue and white Brooks Brother's shirt. It was only 10 bucks so I knew I couldn't go wrong. We went to Kona for lunch and then headed back to the house to prepare for one crazy bachelor party.

Mike and Jackie have been quite a couple for a long long time and so it's pretty cool that they finally are going to tie the knot but not before one final celebration in Mikey's honor...

Check out Mike Got Married-dot-com!

Congratulations Mike and Jackie!