here's something to celebrate

2009 homicide totals plummet in the district

so it's not the end of the decade

my friend rightly pointed out that the end of the decade actually comes next december 31st and that we're all really bad at math. however, i rightly pointed out that we're not bad at math - we're just giving ourselves a mulligan in case we get it wrong this year.

george clooney, ben bernanke and the $2500 movie ticket

as usual, we spent our new year's eve with our friends and, as usual, it ended far before the strike of twelve. it's nice really because i'm able to be home in my warm house and blog in the new year. while all of that it interesting, i'm really writing to tell you this ...

we went to see "up in the air" with george clooney. i'm not sure what i was expecting, but i certainly wasn't expecting it to end the way that it did. although, i guess it would have been safe to assume that any story almost completely focused on people losing their jobs couldn't really be all that uplifting.

so here we are in a movie about the failing economy, the increasing number of people losing their jobs and the burgeoning market for layoff specialists and in an incredibly ironic twist - ben bernanke was sitting a few rows in front of us. we all speculated how he must have been feeling given the fact that many people blame him for at least part of the problem - the real-life, super-huge problem, not the "conflict" part of the movie plot. i'm smart enough to know that bernanke is not the issue, but i still wonder what was going through his head.

he shouldn't have been that depressed though because he was doing his part to contribute to the economy. not only did he purchase a movie ticket, he was accompanied by no fewer than 4 secret service agents. his desire to see a movie on new year's eve certainly put some extra cash in those pockets - and probably cost the tax payers a pretty penny.

the decade that was

it's almost unbelievable that the first 10 years of the 2000s are nearly over. it seems like just yesterday i was a closeted grad student hanging out in nyc with my friend waiting for the ball to drop. and man did the ball ever drop! in this past decade, i -

• graduated from grad school
• began my career in public policy
• came out
• met the love of my life
• moved to the district of columbia
• adopted two peculiar cats
• joined a church
  
• did time as a temporary doorman, temporary proofreader, temporary receptionist, and tutor
• survived a year of workplace hell only to come out better than ever
• bought a house
• became the flipflop fed
• realized that life is too good to be missed

here's to another decade of fantastic fantasticism!

the good in corporate america

i've been defriended

how can this be?! i don't update my status obsessively. i don't send notices about games that you should play - hell i don't even play the games. i sometimes go weeks without ever logging on and yet someone found it necessary to strike me from their ranks? i'm truly offended which i find interesting in itself because i hadn't spoken to this "friend" since 1994 before i friended them earlier this year!! BUT I AM!

there are assholes and then there are f*cktards

(i'll get to the post title in a moment).

remember last year when we thought hubert was having a stroke? (no? read here.) well, tonight was a real emergency. hubert decided to eat a mint candy (we think because it looked like a cat treat?!) and then began to have difficulty breathing. we rushed him to the animal hospital where they immediately did an ultrasound on his neck. then they informed us that they would be putting him in an oxygen tent. yep ... an oxygen tent (see below) -

they finally decided that the mint probably irritated his throat and that he'll be just fine.

then we came home. that's where we found that some person had taken our parking spot - the same spot that we spent about an hour shoveling out this morning. not only did the big-ass-yes-i-bought-this-because-i-question-my-manhood pickup truck take up our spot it also took up our neighbor's spot in front of ours. and that, dear friend, is what will elevate you from mere asshole to gigantic f*cktard!