This was a week of special shows.

I had to be in Cerritos on Tuesday for an afternoon meeting. Usually I schedule these meetings in the morning so I can be on my way home early in the afternoon and thus miss the worst of the Orange County and north San Diego County rush hours. It is amazing to me that a 15 minute difference in the start of the trip can mean a 45 minute difference in the end time; I’ve found that if I can be on the road by 3:30 I can be home by 5:30, but if I don’t leave until 3:45, I don’t get home until 6:15.

With an afternoon meeting on the agenda, I asked my friend Chuck who lives near Disneyland to stop by in the morning and pick up a ticket for the new water show, “World of Color”. That meant missing a speech class at UCSD Extension, but I thought it was a reasonable tradeoff.

In short, Disney has re-defined the water show. The first time I first saw projections on water ‘screens’ (Expo 2000 in Hannover), they required big overhead apparatus; now the water that forms the ‘screen’ seems to rise effortlessly out of the lake. There are plenty of new effects, such as projecting a waterfall, but having a fountain where the waterfall should be, so the water is actually moving. Even old standards such as waving columns of water are given new life – in one segment, lasers create a comet head in the column and tail in the wake mist. Projections make the surface of the lake appear as solid land at one moment and as a tidal wave approaching you the next moment. Laser beams appear to have finite lengths and change their direction as they move. Real columns of fire are even coordinated with projected images of fire.

We packed a lot into yesterday. We got up early to meet some of our square dance club buddies at Comic-Con. John had never been to this mega show; I’d only been once and it wasn’t on a weekend day. There appears to be a plethora of ‘secret knowledge’ one is supposed to know for this show – for example what the ‘black panel’ is or why it is important that it is ‘now family friendly’, or that the sign saying ‘autograph area’ is where you queue to get into the main exhibit hall. Most of the show is rather lost on me because I don’t watch the television shows that are promoted, am not impressed by scantily clad big busted women, and have no desire to purchase collectible action figures. I was particularly disappointed with the ‘art show’ area, both in the quality of some of the pieces and the subject matter – I don’t understand why I would want a bloody zombie on my wall, no matter how well executed the painting. The security people insisted that you keep moving, so it was nearly impossible for the group to discuss what to do next. After about three hours we had had enough. I may consider going again another year, but not on Saturday.

After a relaxing lunch away from the craziness of the convention center area, we met some friends at their place to get ready for the third show of the week, an Elton John concert. Since we had lawn tickets, we wanted to get there early to be among the first through the gates so we could stake out a good spot. This meant packing a meal to eat in line and taking blankets, etc. for the evening. This was our first time to see Elton John. It was a great show – he played for nearly three hours with only a quick unplanned break about three songs in. This was sort of a greatest hits tour, with almost every song one that I recognized. Elton was low key – he stayed seated at the piano for most songs, no outrageous costumes, half meter high shoes, oversize sunglasses or the like. We stayed through the encore, so there was a lot of traffic getting out, and we didn’t get home until about midnight.

This week should be little quieter, but there’s still a show on the horizon – the premier of a stage show based on a classic gay porn film from the 1980s. Sounds weird, but the writer/director is a friend of ours and some of his other work has appeared just as unusual in the written description and yet played beautifully, so we’re looking forward to it.

I’ve sort of taken the summer of from my reviews – the timing just hasn’t work out for me to attend some of the press nights. One of my to-do list items this week is to plan shows for the rest of the summer.

So that’s my week.

Upon returning from Chicago, I did one more heavy workout before the weekend. Friday we ventured to the Qualcomm stadium for the opening ceremonies of the CA State Games. There were seven of us representing powerlifting, one of the few adult sports in the games. The next day I did the meet; the results are elsewhere on the-bear-den but suffice to say it was lower than I planned when I started training three months ago. Still I feel like I redeemed myself with the last deadlift – a twenty second ride of a weight that I didn’t even get off the floor on the second attempt. Our powerlifting friend Dave came down from OC to give me some coaching and encouragement.

During the week, our friend Chuck came down for an evening showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” sponsored by Filmout San Diego. Although I am rusty at the lines, it felt really good to do it again; felt like being back in college again…well maybe it was the short shorts that made me feel that. Between Chuck, Lou, and myself we pretty much stole the show.

As if the week wasn’t busy enough, this weekend was Gay Pride in San Diego. I’ve been asked to move up to the level of co-coordinator of the information booth (yes, that’s a title to encourage a larger volunteer commitment), so I spent 10 hours on Saturday and 4 on Sunday at the booth. I really enjoy working the information booth – always interesting challenges to solve and of course everyone eventually walks by the booth. I’m not on the hook for monthly Pride planning meetings, but that’s OK since I’m always interested in improving events and the processes that make them happen.

This is what happens when I have an airplane trip to write my blog rather than trying to do it in the evening just before going to bed.

The big event this week was our trip to Chicago for another gay square dance convention (my third, John’s fourth).

I started planning this trip last fall. Being “thrifty” (OK some friends might say “cheap”), i didn’t want to let a convention registration deadline (and accompanying price increase) pass without a decision. John was still living in Austin and didn’t want to commit, so I decided I would go without him. I immediately began to look at airfare, since I expected to get some deals so far out. The early bird deal was not to be found and after a while I decided it was ‘cheaper’ to use United miles for the trip. Since it was only me going, I chose the inexpensive two double bed room in case I wanted to take on a roommate to help with expenses. So I was set for the trip.

Fast forward a few months and John is back in San Diego and making noise about wanting to go to Chicago. He paid the higher registration fee but found airfare for the same non-stop flights as I had booked but less expensive than I had seen. So we were set for the trip.

The convention in DC last year was early – April in fact. Since most of the clubs had not finished their teaching season they had an ‘A1′ room, which was about our level at the time (Although John was doing some ‘A2′).

I have to digress at this point for those of you whose exposure to square dancing is “we did that in junior high”. Actually, you didn’t. You learned a few calls (i.e. sets of steps), maybe even the few dozen in what is now known as the ‘Basic’ level. Modern square dancing is organized into various levels, each requiring the proficiency of additional calls. Most clubs have a 7-9 month program to teach the first three levels (“Basic”, “Mainstream”, and “Plus”) comprising about 150 calls. The afore-mentioned “A1″ and the “A2″ comprise the fourth and fifth levels and there are is a whole series of “C” levels above them.

We wanted to dance ‘full A’ (i.e. ‘A2′) in time for convention and one of our club members who is also a caller offered to do a weekly blast class. So for months we have been dancing multiple nights a week to hone our skills for the convention.

Uncharacteristically, we were running late on Thursday morning and arrived at the airport with less than our usual hour ahead of the flight. June gloom was in force, and several flights were delayed. They were also overbooked. I volunteered to go on another flight but John said he “wants to start vacation as soon as possible”. I went to the commuter terminal and after getting through security found out that the flight they had booked me on had been cancelled. Commuter flights were getting out even though the big planes weren’t, so my re-re-booked flight took off while John had another hour on the tarmac. Of course I had a layover in LA, which I actually found relaxing.

I didn’t remember to change the room when John decided to go on the trip, so the reservation was still for two double beds. John thought it was a mistake and complained, and the HIlton graciously changed to a king for the same rate.

Meanwhile I arrived about four hours later than our original reservation – although with the delays on John’s flight, only two hours after him – with credits for a future flight. Dancing had commenced by the time I got there, and I quickly joined the dance. John and I met up with Dave, an online friend who started square dancing at my urging.

I alternated much of my dance time between the A room where John and I could dance and the Mainstream room where Dave was dancing. Interestingly, I found some of the callers in the Mainstream room were doing very creative choreography some of which was a little challenging even for this newly A level dancer.

One of the great things about convention is catching up with square dance friends from all over. In between dances we all chatted, went to dinner, went on tours, and generally had a great time. The clubs sponsoring upcoming conventions were of course out in full force promoting their events (John and I both registered for the 2011 and 2012 conventions). The Vancouver club had their members in rain ponchos selling raffle tickets. Atlanta (with their “Gone with the Windmill” convention theme) had their members selling raffle tickets decked out in the Carol Burnett curtain rod dress that so many of us remember as one of the best ever TV moments.

We stayed an extra day so we could go to the legendary show tunes night at Sidetrack (gay bar). Our friends Kent, Brian and Mike from DC joined us for that one and were sufficiently blown away by the audience participation elements.

Prior to the bar, our friends Jim and Kevin invited us to a home cooked-dinner at their place. I met Jim when I took a class for my CTT+ certification (vendor neutral Certified Technical Trainer program from CompTIA) last September in Irvine and we’ve kept up since.

So here we are at the end of a busy weekend relaxing…. oh wait, I have a continuing ed class tonight. I guess that’s just how it goes.

Once again it’s been about two weeks between posts, and as usual it’s been busy but not much has been going on.

Last weekend we had a sort of housewarming party. We didn’t call it a ‘housewarming’ because we didn’t want people to feel obligated to bring gifts – and the reality is that we don’t really want/need a lot of new stuff.

We did a lot of dancing the last two weeks – our regular A2 class, the club class graduation, a special 90th birthday dance for one of our members, and even an ‘exhibition dance’ at the San Diego County Fair. The latter meant that we were able to go to the fair through the “entertainer’s” entrance, which was pretty cool. Our friend Chuck came down from OC for part of the weekend.

The other news is that some friends are loaning us a Softub hot tub. It took a service call to get it running, but we’ve enjoyed it a few times since we got it running. I guess we’re real Californians – we have a convertible, a hybrid car, all the Apple accessories, and a hot tub. Fortunately we are both working so right now the budget supports it.

I spent this weekend in Palm Springs to help referee the USAPL Men’s Nationals. Usually when we go to Palm Springs we stay with our friends Ron and Norm, but this weekend they are moving to Tucson. Fortunately I was able to see them Friday evening. I stayed at a nice little gay B&B – a great suggestion from Chuck. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a big meet; I’d forgotten how impressive some of the guys are – I saw one guy squat over four time his body weight. My own workouts have not been going well, so it was quite inspirational.

Another week, another post, another city.

We knew the first quarter of the year was going to be a bit busy and we knew our taxes were going to be complicated because of all the 2009 events, so early on we called our CPA and asked her to file an extension. That means our tax trip to Denver is in June rather than March.

June in Denver is spectacular – everything is green and the summer festival season is in full swing. We caught up with several friends at a brunch before the Capitol Hill People’s Fair. The Fair was a bit more sparsely attended than we remember from previous years, an observation that was corroborated by others we talked to. Still it was a lot of fun and John bought a new hat. We went to several of our favorite restaurants and caught up with various friends.

This may become a tradition.

I’m in Bradenton for this post. I arrived Wednesday night and had a much too short visit with Mike & Kellie that evening. They flew out the next morning for Laura’s graduation, so I have their house to myself. I also had a way too short visit with Sandy & Chip; we met at the rehabilitation center where my mother is staying and then had lunch after before they headed back to the other Florida coast.

Mother has recovered physically pretty well from the stroke. She is able to use both hands, feed herself, and push herself in the wheelchair a bit. Mentally, she drifts. I had been told she sometimes is in the present and sometimes in the past. Even though I intellectually knew that it was a possibility, there is no way to describe how it feels to see your mother and have her ask who you are. I asked John to send me some family photos and she recognized most of them. When she gets tired, she drifts and talks about calling her mother to let her know she will be home late.

I decided not to tell any of my friends down here that I was coming. I expected that I would want time to myself, which, it turns out, I do. Spending a few hours at the rehabilitation center is very draining. When I get back home I do a little work on the computer or read, but I really don’t feel much like being social.

Last weekend while still in CA, I went with some friends to see the Eagles. That was a great choice – mellow music to “Take it Easy”. Which I need to do down here.

Apparently two weeks between posts is becoming my norm.

Today is the first Harvey Milk Day in California. It also used to be our anniversary – John and I met on May 22 and we celebrated our anniversary that day until we got married on October 11, 2008. Yes, we met on Harvey Milk Day and got married on National Coming Out Day.

I’m going to Florida next week. In my last post I said that my mother had apparently had a stroke. It turned out be somewhat mild and my brother reports that she is able to eat and walk as well as she was before. He says she has periods of disorientation though. We agreed that I didn’t need to rush there, so I was able to plan the trip around other commitments. It turns out that my brother and family won’t be there for part of my trip – they’ll be in Maine to see their daughter/my niece graduate from college. I’m feeling old.

Among those commitments was a visit from our friend Eric, who we knew in Denver. He came to California for a job interview; unfortunately he didn’t get the job. To get the cheapest airfare (the trip was on his dime), he had to stay a week, so we showed him the town.

Eric’s visit put some of the house projects on hold, but John did finish painting the living room and the dressing area of the the master bedroom. We’ve also been working on some storage solutions (specifically for the bicycles). We were hoping to work on the lighting in the hall, but the kit we bought had fixtures that were incompatible with the shades, so we’re waiting for the replacements.

Tamara, who I worked with the last time I worked for Global 360 contacted me this week and we had a nice dinner with her last night.

In between, we did our usual square dance nights, had a lovely dinner with our friends Mike & Mike, and I started training for two sports events this summer – a half marathon and a powerlifting meet. I also installed a new backup disk (this one can do the backups over the network – very cool).

The big news of the week is that John got a contract job doing mainframe assembler programming. He’ll start after we get back from Denver next month.

All in all another (relatively, at least by our standards) uneventful two weeks.

Yup it’s been another two weeks between posts. This was sort of expected – as noted last time we had houseguests coming for two weekends in a row. Add in the fact that I am starting to train for a powerlifting meet and the fact that last week I was in a church production of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, and the schedule filled up fast.

Our first guest to actually sleep in the guest room was Scott from San Jose. We met him when we lived in San Francisco. He lived in San Diego during college, and enjoyed visiting his old haunts, and a few new places we showed him.

Both our friends Dave and Chuck have stayed in our new place before, and they came down from Orange County again to see the play and a new show at the Photography museum in Balboa Park. There’s no one on the schedule for this weekend, but next week a friend from our Colorado days will be staying with us while he interviews for a job in the LA area.

Doing the play was a great experience. I had a very small part in last year’s production of “Miss Witherspoon” – that was the first time I’d been on stage in a play since 1984. This time I had a major role – I played Bob, the bad guy. Like any local production, there was some unevenness in the experience, but I was fortunate to be able to work with several of the principals in between official rehearsals to hone our collective performance. I took a beginning acting class at a local university in the spring, and I’m starting to feel a little better about my abilities in this area. Still, I blew a few lines each night, so I have a ways to go. But I definitely want to do more acting.

Meanwhile, John as been playing the role of househusband. He’s been doing several projects around our new place – landscaping, painting, etc. The upside is we’re seeing a lot of progress on several fronts; the downside is he’s not spending as much time looking for work as he thought. That may not be a bad thing. I’m encouraging him to consider alternatives outside the computer industry. He works on mainframes, and San Diego is not a place where a lot of companies use mainframes. He ended up in Austin to find mainframe work last

Also in the last two weeks we traded dinner invitations with some friends in the neighborhood. It felt good to begin building a suburban social life.

On the house front, we bought a few solar light kits and John has been actively updating the gardens and the patio with lighting. Today he started painting the “spine” of the house – a wall through the hall that defines the center of the house. Our friend Tom helped us pick the colors – a little rich and deep for John, not quite bright and deep enough for my preference, but I guess that’s Tom’s job – finding a balance.

Unfortunately, today brought some bad news – my mother had what appears to be a stroke this morning. In some ways it wasn’t completely unexpected since she has several ongoing ailments and the treatments for some make the others worse and vice versa. The doctors are still evaluating how severe it was and what the long term prognosis is.

OK, OK almost another two weeks without a post. We’ve been busy getting the house together – including lots of postings on the ‘stuff for free’ section of Craigslist.. This means we got rid of the ugly patio light that was falling off the wall and the even uglier ceiling fan in the kitchen. (Side note – why would anyone put a ceiling fan where it doesn’t do anything but collect grease from the stove?) As of this week we even have a functioning guest room, although there are some boxes against one wall of it. Being an old house, there are always projects, but at least, with pictures on the walls, boxes confined to one room, and landscape cleanups, we’re starting to feel like this is home.

Last week we started dancing on Tuesday night; our friend Richard agreed to do a ‘blast class’ to get people ready to dance the A-2 level at the convention in Chicago this summer, provided we found the space to do it. We are renting the party room in our condo complex to provide the space and it’s working out well. Still, between dancing, rehearsal for a play my church is doing and one night on the town, I drove to Hillcrest five days last week.

We sort of had ‘Greek Weekend’ recently – Friday we watched one of our Netflix entries, “The Gospel at Colonus”, then Saturday we met our Mira Mesan friends Larry and Phil to see the new version of “Clash of the Titans” in 3D at our local dodecaplex, and then Sunday we watched the old version of the same film. And we even ordered calamari when we went to dim sum on Sunday morning.

The next two weekends we’ll be hosting friends staying in our guest room, so I guess we’re making progress. Still, our measure of settling in is the ratio of Home Depot trips to grocery store trips and right now that ratio is running about 3:1. We’re looking to reduce that ratio in the next few weeks.

Reviews from two shows I’ve seen recently:

Alive and Well at the Old Globe.

Speech and Debate at Diversionary