Recent Dialogue with M.D.

DM: Do you love him?

MD: Yeah, I love him.

DM: How can you love him already?

MD: I love him so far.

…3 letters: WTF

Six Degrees of Unification

It's a small world after all,
It's a small world after all,
There's so much that we share,
It is time we're aware.
It's a small small world.

I’m sure you recognize those lyrics as part of a song made famous by a Disney attraction where hundreds of children from more than 100 different nations sing, dance, and entertain guests to the disturbingly happy tune. And even though the song is incredibly stupid, it’s so ridiculously true.

Surprisingly, I didn’t really become aware of how much we share until I moved to the island of Manhattan. Day after day, I’m consistently amazed by exactly how small this world is after all.

Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries.

I got to thinking today about all the people I’ve met since moving here (going on) 2 years ago, and how I met them. It’s crazy to think how cyberspace has made this world so much smaller in the past decade. And I found it intriguing to remember how the vast majority of the “intimate” relationships I initiated when first moving to New York were via Internet. I can’t even begin to articulate how important I find virtual communication to be in my life!!

As humans, our social networks crisscross and intertwine to become an unrecognizable web of first handshakes, awkward glances, and meaningful exchanges that unify us as a species.

It’s a beautiful thing :-)

'Tis the Season...

...for lingering leftovers, excessive online shopping, and best of all:

HOLIDAY PARTIES!!!!

You know, those little things that the companies we work for throw in order to lighten the blow when they decide against that bliss-inducing bonus you’ve been counting on for months.

I’m excited to announce that two weeks from tomorrow night, the harem of alcoholism that is KBP will ascend to the roof of the Gansevoort Hotel in the Meatpacking District to get our drink and dance on (and I’m hoping for some tres fancy whore- d'oeuvres)!!

Not that you should care, or that I would take you if I opted to take a guest, but I thought it would be at least fitting to share this with the world since I’m tres pumped about it.

Oh, memories of the booze-cruise still seem fresh in this fried brain of mine! This one should be one for the record books. :-)

That's a pic looking southeast from the Soho House deck with the Gansevoort Hotel in the background. Wave at me bitches!!

Thanxgiving in the District

I arrived home earlier this evening from a long holiday weekend spent in D.C. with B.C. & M.S. at their condo on Mass Ave. It was a welcomed change from the traditional celebratory routine of blood-induced emotional stress.

Quick Recap:

• Went to see Rent…special shout-outs going to Rosario Dawson & Idina Menzel for their performances.
• Enjoyed a luscious spread of Turkey Day goodness.
• Spotted Arnold Schwarzenegger & Maria Shriver shopping in Georgetown.
• Got wasted and woke up one morning with chewed gum all over my back! LOL
• Drove by the WWII Memorial (my grandfather was involved in a little thing called D-Day).
• Danced my ass off at 80’s Night at Nation.
  
  Back to reality tomorrow!

Is Thanksgiving Overrated?!

Many things in this life are, but something tells me this holiday has its heart in the right place!

“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.”

(Tecumseh, Shawnee war chief and pan-tribal political leader)

This year I give thanks for my friends, family, and for the fact that they are one in the same. :-)

Translation

"Minor Victory" = Job Security

Please Tell Me...

...I’m not the only who tunes into the last 15 minutes of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition every Sunday night just to get in a good cry. :-)

Just David

So, sometimes I like to take pics of myself. It's weird, I know...

...but since I'm currently struggling with a new piece for a post, I thought I would throw something up here for you filthy gorgeous people to look at!

"I’m Giving Up On Love Cause Love’s Given Up On Me"

So, I would normally scoff at the thought of anyone, god forbid myself, tuning into the CMAs (Country Music Awards)…but they were held last night in New York (represent), and I knew Carrie Underwood was scheduled to perform (so I thought, what the hell). Little did I know that I would come away from the first two hours of programming with both a Carrie fix AND a the knowledge of a great new song/artist!

Check this shit (link to the video) out and tell me Miranda Lambert isn’t FIERCE:-)

Kerosene Lyrics

I'm waitin' on the sun to set cause yesterday aint over yet
I started smoking cigarettes there's nothing else to do I guess
Dusty roads aint made for walking, spinning tires ain’t made for stoppin'
I'm giving up on love cause love's given up on me

I gave it everything I had and everything I got was bad
Life ain’t hard but it's too long to live it like some country song
Trade the truth in for a lie, cheating really ain’t a crime
I'm giving up on love cause love's given up on me

Forget you high society, I'm soakin' it in Kerosene
Light 'em up and watch them burn, teach them what they need to learn HA!
Dirty hands ain’t made for shakin', ain’t a rule that ain’t worth breakin'
Well I'm giving up on love cause love's given up on me

Now I don't hate the one who left
You can't hate someone who's dead
He's out there holding on to someone, I'm holding up my smoking gun
I'll find somewhere to lay my blame the day she changes her last name
Well I'm giving up on love cause love's given up on me
Well I'm giving up on love HEY love's given up on me

Too bad that tool, Dierks Bentley, beat her out for the Horizon (favorite new artist) Award!

The Essence of Love Begins When Infatuation Ends

What makes us so hungry for attention and affection that we become so foolish and unrecognizable when we receive it from a person that catches our eye?

In the past, I’ve definitely been the victim of the syndrome properly known as Infatuation. However, I’d like to think that I’ve learned (or at least am learning) to both keep my emotions from getting ahead of reality and to always keep an outside perspective when it comes to human relations.

How can such a brief encounter produce such a conundrum of false hope? How can our minds get sucked into this black hole of neediness and desperation after experiencing one stint of intoxicating chemistry?

It’s as simple as this: it only takes one small spark to be burnt beyond recognition.

This is what I’ve found to be true about infatuation:
-It makes us foolish and leaves us vulnerable to the world around us.
-It blinds us from reality and places a wall between us and sufficient perspective.
-It hinders us from seeing the big picture.
-It is very unattractive to the world around us.
-It causes the world around us, including the ones we love, to fade away.

However, the syndrome makes us feel good for a time. And the reality which it blinds us from is often times one that is not worth being realized. Many people probably find it difficult to stomach the big picture, but I’m one that can’t survive without that (sometimes disturbing) portrait!

For those of you reading: if someone has recently caught your eye, and you think you might be infatuated with them, I suggest you take a step back and make sure the world around you isn’t being neglected.

Just a suggestion ;-)

A Blog Full of B’s

Here’s a BETTER-late-than-never shout-out to my BOIFS from BOSTON who visited two weekends ago. I’ll see you BOYS again the first week of December :-)

J, E, D, & Me

Here’s a "BRIAN’s last weekend as a New Yorker" shout-out to both BWC and J.S. (not pictured). B, can’t wait to see your place for Turkey Day :-)

Temple of Dendur (@ the Met)

Here’s the BUMMER: We didn’t get the BMW account :-( It went to GSD&M in Austin. BITCHES. Oh well, I’m not out of a job yet…then again, we only found out the verdict at 5:30pm earlier this evening. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for my well-being!!

Weekend Recap: Metrosource Magazine Anniversary Party @ Crobar, free alcohol, slurring words, sausage egg scramble, the Met, the park, Cafe Sabarsky, gouda, Garden State, Napoleon Dynamite, phone alarms, 7A, Krispy Kreme, Pride & Prejudice (let your imagination run wild)!

Returning to the Scene of the Crime

This past weekend was one of heavy debauchery prompted by my boy E.L. & his equally attractive counterparts D & J visiting the city and crashing at my pad. I awoke Sunday morning, however, to find the debauchery disrupted. A voicemail was discovered that would alter the next 72 hours of my life and it’s beautiful routine.

Fast-forward to Monday morning: 4am wakeup call…car service pickup at 5…flight out of Laguardia at 7…layover in Tampa, then on to P’cola…a drive to my parents’ house, a quick change & off to a 4pm appointment with the immediate family...reminders of how some things never change & how new additions like a gorgeous new baby cousin can help distract from the S.O.S. (same ole shit)…many familiar faces mixed with many strangely familiar yet confused demeanors, thinking “ is that guy with the crazy hair & funky glasses Darryl’s boy?” Old people both amuse & frustrate the hell out of me, but what are you gonna do?! Kill everyone at the age of 60?! I digress ;-)

A welcome refrain is the aunt-by-marriage that divorced my degenerate uncle years ago to pursue a better life for herself and for my cousin (who is now pursuing medical school to become a heart surgeon); a welcome aside are the kids I’ve known from infancy whose innocence reminds me of my own (and of the ignorance that could just have easily kept me from stretching my roots beyond Mobile rather than urging me to break away from it).

The biggest highlight, however, on this reel came during the 7 o’clock hour. One of my FAVORITE people in my universe walked through those funeral home parlor doors & instantly made my trip. V.N.M. is technically the first (straight) person I “came out” to (and coincidentally the carrier of one of the greatest hearts I’ve ever encountered)!

Skip to this (now yesterday) morning (after a much-needed decent night’s rest & a French toast breakfast at Le B&B Miller): 10am appointment with the fam at the church were I was raised from conception…a 10:30 cruise out to the cemetery where the remains of my father’s mother are waiting to be reunited with her husband’s body…I join the other pallbearers at 11 to transfer to flag-draped coffin from the white hearse to its assigned plot. Standing in the scorching heat & humidity that disturbingly characterizes an Alabama November, I zone out to comforting thoughts of my family & home that is far from confined to the place & time I find myself snapped back into. The promise-filled goodbyes of relatives are accepted but internally discarded.

A flight back to a welcomed reality brings me to the present. 1am.

Why, you may ask, doesn’t your story speak more of the man whose life & death initiated it?! The answer is simple: the man in that coffin was somewhat foreign to me…my grandfather was an emotionally unavailable man (at least during the part of his life I was alive for). I believe his inability to show affection, coupled with the intense dysfunctionality that has for decades existed among his 4 children (of which my father is the self-assigned diplomat), kept me from ever having that deep Agape love that many people feel for their grandparents.

The fact, however, is none of that matters. I traveled to Mobile to pay my respects, in my own way, on my own terms.

I’m EXHAUSTED & looking forward to recovery. I’ve endured another disruption that the world calls bereavement…I just call it LIFE!!

Refresher Course:
Sometimes life gets in the way of our best laid plans and our subjective expectations…& that’s just fine, if for no other reason than it has to be!
~David Miller, Reality Check Specialist

Everything Is A Matter of Time

So I finally received the news today that I have been waiting months to hear. My grandfather crossed over to the other side this morning before daybreak. What went down today reminds me that no matter how much time you have to prepare for the inevitable, the element of surprise can always kick you in the ass.

I was mentally preparing for the Christmas holidays with the fam in the Smokies, and now I find myself preparing for a 7am flight to MOB tomorrow morning…

I’m going to Mobile to pay my respects…

…to be continued.