Good Grief

You know, sometimes in life you have to just shake your head and chuckle...though it is a patronizing chuckle this day, for today I was flamed on Facebook. Yup, that social networking site so many people know and love.

Personally, I'm on Facebook because Jill told me I could poke people. I mean who could resist a cyberpoke? Okay, get all those dirty thoughts right out of there! But as I have a page just for the poking I don't do a whole lot with FB. I dislike my info being shopped out to download an application, so if you've ever sent me anything and noticed it fell flat, well it wasn't personal, I just don't snowball, plant, pass the word on about world peace, play games, adopt kittens (though I think Andi did get me to adopt a bunny)...all those fun things. I pop on to poke Jill, put up the occasional picture and talk to Aly.

And I'm picky about friends. My general theory is that if I don't know you I don't need to accept your friend request. Reasonable I think. Now there are people out there that I know and still don't accept the request, like my ex-husband. I don't care what he's up to and he doesn't care what I'm up to and that's the way I like it. This category also extends to people I went to high school with and either don't remember or never actually had a conversation with...or that I found annoying. Again, except for the annoying group, it isn't anything personal. I just don't feel the need to have 5000 friends. Maybe if I was a band...anyhow, lets get to the flamage.

A girl I went to high school with sent me a friend request ages ago and I chose to ignore it. Why? Because my senior year was interesting and when I stopped hanging out with another friend (long story) this person decided to become a stereotypical teenage girl and be nasty. It didn't bother me much, she was much more the other person's friend than mine, we didn't hang out nor were we in the same classes. Once she was nasty it was incredibly easy to just not be around her.

Time passes...

And we are back to FB and me ignoring her request, which must have been months ago. Today I get a message from her, "Screw you sweetie". I'm finding it amusing that she cares enough to still be snotty, and a bit surprised, but hey I'm sure someday I will regret not accepting her request to be my friend. I'm sure someday I will lay awake at night thinking of how my life could have been different if I'd just clicked "accept..."

Or maybe, just maybe, I'll chuckle and blog about this silliness because much like only I can grow mushrooms on a car battery I'm probably one of the few people who would get flamed on Facebook.

Hee hee

PS...Spell check didn't flag "Flamage"

Ho Ho Ho

It's that time of year again, where I deck my hall and put up the tree. This is the second year I have had a helper elf, and I must say Frank is a very good one. I think I'll keep him.

Saturday was the annual Christmas gathering in Ambler. While I'd hoped to get the Gaian Mind crew out, the monthly gathering at Zot turned out to be the same night so no GM for us. We had some early cancellations due to illness: Clan Lester was hit with the plague, Matt's date's father had a heart attack, and Don was sick and/or found something better to do. This was also the first year we didn't have Clan Wentzel, but I've tempted them over for cocoa and booze tomorrow night so it's all good.

Folks were due to arrive around 4. At 4:10 I realized the Lesters were going to bring the beer so I ran out to the beverage outlet in a slight panic. When I got home Monie, Lydia and the kids had arrived. Lydia whisked the beer out of my arms and it was nothing but hugs from there on out. Zoe and Jack were terrific as always and Frank had everyone settled with drinks and was busily pulling things out of the oven. He is a fantastic co-host.

On my heels were Megan and John bearing beer, ziti and the most evil-yummy brownies! As I said to Amanda earlier, we may not have had Jill's crack, but these were a pretty good substitute!

Greg arrived with a disturbing Yard-o-Beef and a smile having been elected the only healthy member of the family and sent as envoy to the party. We loaded him up with gifts for the kids and made sure his tummy was full. Much to my surprise Matt and his date did make it, though his date was a bit over excited. That is a whole other story though. I was glad Matt could make it out, he doesn't really socialize a whole lot since his divorce.

Clan Reisse arrived and Charlotte was soon zipping around from room to room with Princess Dora in hand. Connie arrived as the kids were opening presents and was just in time to see Julie open their card and gift for little Molly, the proto-Reisse. Charlotte made a wonderful Santa, though at one point started giving Bill money meant for her dad so that raised some eyebrows. After that Greg had to leave us to see to the sick folks, we'll be making a date for a private showing of the Gingerdead Man.

Lydia was her usual brilliant self and brought little stockings for the kids to make. And there was no mess! I have no idea how she did that! Charlotte set up the traveling play area, beginning in the living room, moving into the kitchen, recruiting Megan to carry the toys back to the living room and then settling in the hall. It was quite fun to watch, especially as Megan explained that she thought Charlotte needed help getting the little people into the car then too late realized she was just piling everything into her arms!

Amanda and Jen stopped by after another party bearing Amanda's wonderful humus, mint Baileys and a poinsettia. Coffee was made and spiked and after the little folks left we settled in to watch Gary Busey as a 12" homicidal cookie in The Gingerdead Man. It was as good as it sounds...hee hee. It only ran an hour and I have to say didn't have the entertainment value of Jack Frost, but it was campy if gross fun and that's what we were going for.

Amanda was off to yet another party and Jen was turning into a pumpkin so they headed out. Matt's date wanted to get home so they too said good night. That left Connie, Bill, Frank, Megan, John and I to chat away the rest of the night. Around 3 Frank called the evening and goodbyes were said.

Another lovely pre-Christmas gathering with my favorite people, big and small. There are even pictures!

There once was a phone from Verizon...

That a fed up Liz had her eyes on
It came in the mail
but web access did fail
Now she wants a tin can to talk on.

I seem to be in phone hell.

For the past 2 years I've been saddled with an LG Chocolate slide phone. I have had to suffer through "soft keys" and having a strange woman's voice float up from my pants every time I sit down demanding I enter a voice command. Never mind the phantom calls it's made from my coat pocket while well out of my reach. Frank, Jill and sadly my landlady are all too familiar with my phone's loneliness.

So I decided to us my new every two deal with Verizonwirelss to get a simple flip phone. I found the Moto Limerick had just what I was looking for: Low price, simple design, mobile web, flip close and even a camera. In short, everything the Chocolate had but flippy instead of slidy. Yay!

It arrived yesterday and I excitedly activating it, saying farewell to the Chocolate. Next step was to transfer my contacts. Simple with Verizon's backup assistant...or it would have been if the phone would connect to the network. Now sometimes Verizon has a lot of traffic so I thought maybe things were just busy. When I got home I tried again. No luck. And I couldn't get onto the web. In desperation and curiosity I grabbed my old phone to see if it could connect, not knowing if the features were turned off or not. Well I couldn't make a call but I could surf the web. Great. If I carried all the phones I now have (Frank sweetly gave me his old pda) I have the perfect phone...and a really heavy purse.

So this morning I called tech support and spoke at length to Lisa, a really funny woman who had me pop the battery, update, and finally do a master reset. Nothing. She was puzzled that the Chocolate still had web access. She put in a network trouble ticket and they were going to get back to me. 10 minutes later I get a text saying the problem had been resolved and to try the application. Nope, still no luck. I call back and talk to Ethan. Another nice person confused as to why my old phone could still surf. Ethan does the battery pop and after a short interview determines we've done everything he knows to do. He thinks the phone is at fault, but he can't make that call so he bumps me up to Lester in 2nd tier service. Lester was also very nice and very close to not believing the Chocolate was still accessing the net. He too thought it was the phone but wanted to try one more thing. He had me turn off the phone while he did...something. He told me to turn it back on...and it wouldn't. So that pretty much answered that question.

He gave me my options on sending the phone back, 3 had me paying more money and one was just to send it back and wait for a replacement, but their stock was low so it could be a while. I suggested option 5-giving up. I decided that my Chocolate was pulling a fatal attraction so I was just stuck with it. I'd send back the Limerick and just stick with the annoying phone. Resigned to my fate (why does this sound like I'm in an abusive relationship with my phone?) I set the Limerick on my desk so I could scowl at it through the day.

An hour ago I decided to poke at it. I took out the battery, put it back in and tried to turn it on. And it came to life! And it now does everything it's supposed to! I think it's possessed, at least that's what I told Sara at Verizonwireless when I called back to tell the story.

I think I want a land line again. Sigh.

Diabolique

For those that don't know Diabolique is the annual fetish ball in Philadelphia who's proceeds go to charity. This year's benefactors were Bread and Roses Community Fund, Women's Therapy Center, and Woodhull Foundation. As the slogan says, "come be bad for a good cause".

My last experience at the ball was much different than this year's. Back in 1997 (I think) the ball was very much a true fetish ball. You got the definite feeling that this was a big, not so public part of the lives of the people you were meeting. There was a timidity in the air mingled with joy...that these out of the mainstream behaviors had found a place, for one night at least, to come out and play in an environment where all were accepted. The music was fun, the fashion show just incredible. It was a very interesting evening for a 23 year old me (damn I feel old now).

Flash forward to this year and my first ball in 11 years. Frank and I were both jazzed about going, just because it is such a different experience. The theme was Super Heroes vs Super Villains. I was the Pink Avenger. Frank was Stripper Boy. We got there around midnight, and since it was at Shampoo my expectations were already a bit lowered. We'd gone to the Libertine Ball there earlier in the year and it was pretty much a bust. I partially blame the venue, not that it isn't a great space, but I keep looking for 16 year olds because of the "club" feel.

Perhaps because of the lateness of the hour we were greeted at the door only by security (usually there is a greeter). Tickets were handed over and body parts stamped, but no one checked for costumes (they have a policy of fetish, formal or stripped down to avoid people in street clothes who just come to gawk...at least they used to). Still, I was vaguely surprised when a few guys wearing jeans and t-shirts wandered past later in the evening. I don't believe that would even pass for a normal evening's dress clubbing, but it's been a long time since I did that so who knows.

The Super Hero/Villain theme seemed perfunctory, there were some, but most folks were just in various costumes. And sadly the over all feel was of a costume party where people thought they were being naughty. Not quite insulting, but not really a feeling of safety if you did have a fetish you were displaying. But happily the music was a good bit better so there was dancing and there were a lot of interesting costumes. Who knew you could actually walk in fetish boots?

For fun and a charitable donation I spun the wheel of torture and was tickled by a very nice young lady while Frank refused to come to my aid...as he said, he didn't want me not to get my money's worth...hee hee.

Shortly before 2 we hit the road, stopping at the diner in Norristown for what has become our usual post party coffee and fries. Sadly the oddly friendly waitress who gets such a kick out of our costumes is no longer working there.

But though there are no cameras allowed in the club we did get a photo taken...those are $5 in my hand. It seemed appropriate.

December

Get to Work:

You aren't being paid to believe in the power of your dreams