Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay

Good Evening Ladies & Gentlemen,

First off, I'd like to wish a very happy birthday to my Wingman yesterday. Yes, I'm aware that it's a day late (and possibly a dollar short) but I did a really short one yesterday...and I did tell him happy birthday...just not on my blog. Besides, he got third row tickets to Les Miserables from Mrs. Wingman...so there was really no way for me to compete with that.

Last night, I watched "Vantage Point" with Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, and a bunch of others...and I'm not going to lie, I only rented it because I got a free Redbox rental promotion (thanks Alisa) and it was the best thing left that I hadn't seen. The plot is that the President of the United States is at a meeting of world leaders in Spain...and he's about to give a speech...but gets shot in the chest...and chaos & explosions & car chases ensue. However, the fairly unique approach to the story is...that it's told from different perspectives in a gradually revealing method to give more clues to what's going on...as opposed to just doing the straight-forward storytelling. There's a number of twists and turns...though if you're expecting them and/or pay attention, they're not exactly Bruce Willis being already dead...more like Soylent Green being made out of people kind of surprises. It is a fairly intriguing story though...and there's a great car chase through the crowded city streets...and Spanish with subtitles...so it may be worth a gander if you're into those kind of suspenseful movies that tell stories differently.

Training today was a lot of fun once again...and most importantly, educational. The morning started (early) with me picking up some coworkers for a carpool...and the commented on my Poor Man's Maybach as a "Pimp Car" as they relaxed in my sofa-like seats enjoying the smooth Otis Redding tunes, crisp air conditioning, and the soothing baritone driving them around downtown Slick City to our training. The training itself was a great opportunity for networking with other trainees from all over the state and just meeting new & interesting people which I really enjoy. Oh...and there were more movie clips too from the interview scene of "Night at the Museum" to Rodeo Drive in "Pretty Woman." However, there's one thing about that scene that always bothered me. Now, certainly the saleswomen at Louis V or wherever should've been able to look past her shotty wardrobe and offer her some customer service...but she didn't JUST DRESS like a prostitute, she really was one. I mean...think about the safety of other shoppers there...after she tries on a few things that she doesn't buy. Do you think that they disinfect everything after you try it on at those places? Now what do you think about it, ladies? Anyway, don't judge a book by its cover...but it really helps you out and gives you confidence if you have a pretty nice cover.

For your information, I was wearing my creme-colored suit with light gray shirt and red silk power tie from Shanghai. I learned a few things about my appearance and fashion that I didn't know. For example, my socks are supposed to match my pants...not my shoes. The belt is supposed to match the shoes. Now I know...and knowing is half the battle. We also did that "telephone" game where you line up and whisper a message into somebody's ear, then they pass it on to the next person, and so on and so on...and you'd be proud to know that I didn't include "purple monkey dishwasher" just to mess with people...though Lilie knew that I was thinking about it. Frankly, it really didn't need my help in getting muddled up. Good times.

We had a wonderful lunch at the hotel's restaurant (though the waiter was lacking), including Amelia who I hadn't seen in a long time. We also did role playing (the non-sexy kind) and I'm not going to lie, I tried to start a flirtatious conversation with one of the young ladies there...but before you know it, we were talking about her two young kids, her husband, and my niece & nephew. Schucks. The training was still good...and now I just have my certification is less than two weeks...then I'm sure that the job offers will be coming in so fast that I'd better wear kevlar, just to be safe. Oh...and while we're on that subject, my blind date Porsia has to reschedule because "something came up" this weekend...and now, my mom is trying to hook me up with a dental hygenist that she met today. Apparently, she's 28, gainfully employed, 5'9" with a cute face, lives by herself, and admits to being shy when on dates. We shall see how this turns out, I guess.

You know, I'm not going to lie. I've been thinking a lot lately about how much I miss certain things. What things you ask? You probably already know based on the tone of the last half of that last paragraph. I've pretty much forgotten what making out feels like. I miss it. The kissing, the giggling, the fondling, the slow steady build coupled with deep, passionate embrace, fingers in hair, running down her spine and basically feeling that electricity run through her body with my tender touch, the moaning, the gentle rubbing, the firm gripping, the sudden adjustments, even the awkward ones, the whispering of desires in one another's ears, the slow stroll around the diamond, her breath on my neck, feeling her heart race, sweaty bare skin on sweaty bare skin, wondering how the hell the clothes got off...then suddenly not caring, and...yeah, it goes from there..."time passes" as I would say at work...and it ends with our sweaty bodies intertwined and/or collapsed on one another...and then her head resting on my chest, listening to my heart and I gently stroke her as she goes to sleep having some of the greatest dreams of her life & I sit there thinking that mine have just come true...but I'm basically just frustrating the hell outta myself right now, so I'm going to stop typing. Anyway, I miss that stuff. A lot. It's only been...siiiiiiigh...too damn long. Bleh. I'm done with it...for now.

Let's see, gotta end on a high note. How about something to do with the Olympics? Organisers of the Beijing Games are hoping 100,000 condoms will satisfy the needs of Olympic athletes. While sex is not an Olympic sport it is expected to be an activity in the Beijing village housing 10,500 athletes, all of whom are in great shape and with plenty of free time on their hands once knocked out of the Games. Athletes have received free condoms at every Olympics since Barcelona in 1992 to help raise awareness of AIDS, and Beijing is no exception. "There are many young, strong, single people in the athletes' village and, like everywhere, some will fall in love or other things so we need to make condoms available," said Ole Hansen, spokesman for UNAIDS China. "A lot of these young people are not married or in relationships so we want to make sure they have the information and tools to protect themselves if they have sexual encounters." The UNAIDS, the Beijing organising committee BOCOG and International Olympics Committee are providing 100,000 condoms as part of a campaign on HIV prevention and anti-discrimination. At the Sydney Games in 2000 athletes quickly exhausted a supply of 70,000 and another 20,000 had to be brought in. The Foundation for AIDS Research, amfAR, said 100,000 were distributed at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002 after a plan to distribute 250,000 condoms met protests by religious groups and was scaled back. Yeah, that's Slick City, the environment that I was raised in. Maybe that's part of my problem...and once I move to Vegas, my stock shall rise (along with other things) and my streak of frustration may come to an end...and I can train for a marathon indoors. We shall see. In the meantime, at least all those athletes that you're watching on TV are gettin' some...and seeing a lot of those female swimmers, gymnasts and volleyball playettes, I can definitely imagine.

Enjoy the Olympics and wish the U.S. luck in their pursuit of medals...because China's really whooping on us with the gold medals this time around. USA!!! USA!!! USA!!! Have a great night everybody!!!