Etiquette Question

So, I'm going a wedding in New Orleans. It's summer, it's hot, it's muggy. Can I wear my seersucker suit? The wedding is at 7:00, technically evening, but still light out. I'd love to rock the seersucker, but don't want to dress inappropriately. Help a brutha out! Let me know what you think. I've googled it, and I'm getting conflicting information.

UPDATE - talked to the bride-to-be last night at the party. She told me I'd better wear the searsucker, or she'll kick my ass!

New Orleans

The FW and I will be headed to The Big Easy this weekend for a wedding. I'll tell you all what the city looks like, 1st hand, and keep a photo journal.

Um, does this mean I didn't get that B in Astronomy?

In case you haven't heard, leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight. So, are schools going to go back and retroactively change millions of quiz scores?

Off the hook

Picked up Madden 07 at the store on the way home - it's awesome, especially on a big-ass screen!!!

Christ and His Saints Slept

While the media has become fixated on John Mark Karr (our local NBC affiliate didn't even mention Iraq until 10 minutes into the newscast last night), let us not forget those who have died for this senseless war.

More on high school

There were many people who I wanted to see that didn't make it to the reunion. The most obvious is Nancy, who's no longer with us. I was lucky enough to have been friends with Nancy since 2nd grade, and will never forget her. Now, I don't believe in ghosts and don't really think about what comes after our life here on Earth, but I have to admit that at least every few months, Nancy visits me in my dreams and gives me comfort and advice, just as she did in life.

I really wish that Hutch, David, Scott and Kris had made it to join me, Beth and Suzy. It would have been great to have seen Kathy Murphy, the one girl I was totally crazy about all through high school, though to this day I've never told her, though she had to have known. I had several crushes in high school, a few who did make it (Tonya Aguilar, Colleen Grafenstein), but none like Kathy. If I could change one thing about high school, it would be to tell her how I felt. What's the worst that could have happened, she rejects me? Seeing as how my strategy of keeping my feelings to myself led to the same result (not being with her), it couldn't have hurt. Aah, but that's the puzzle of being an teenager, isn't it? At least back in the 80's, which in retrospect where a much more innocent time than today.

I would have actually tried in class. I was a lazy student, I got A's and B's without trying at all. I would have taken many more risks - socially, academically, athletically. The hesitation I had in high school has followed me to this day.

I was looking through my yearbook tonight, reading what people had to say about me 20 years ago. One thing that hasn't changed is my politics - I was a liberal then (deep in the Reagan years) and I'm just as liberal today. Another thing that jumps out is how clueless I was about girls - reading what some of the girls wrote in my yearbook, I'd have to say that a few actually did have crushes on me. Man, was I blind!

So all in all, it was a great weekend. I've e-mailed some of the folks already, and invited a few over for poker this weekend. I am going to try my best not to lose touch for another 20 years.

20 Year Reunion

So the reunion turned out to be a big success, even though most of our class didn't make it. I have to admit, the site (the local VFW hall) had me expecting the worse, but it was really alot of fun.

Before I start, I'll give you a little background. My high school, Gar-Field Senior High, is in Dale City, VA - a typical bedroom community about 25 miles south of DC. My closest friends were Suzy E., Scott S., Hutch C., David S., Nancy S., Beth W. and Kris F. We did everything together, and Hutch, Nancy and I stayed together for college (UVa). Hutch is now married and living in SF with a 2 year old son, Suzy is married and living in Delaware with 3 kids, Beth is living in Philadelphia, Kris is married with kids and living in Stafford, VA. Nancy passed away a few years ago, and we have no idea where David and Scott are. The last I heard time I talked to Scott about 2 years ago, he was living in NC. I ran into David 4 years ago downtown. Bizzarre experience I'll write about some other time. Anyway, the 8 of us were all high achieving kids - you could call us Nerdy Jocks or Jocky Nerds. I was also close with other people, but the 8 of us were super tight.

Anyway, back to the reunion. I was a at a table with Suzy, Rendino, Struble, Drew and Beth. Beth looked amazing (much to the dismay of all of the women at the reunion, I'm sure) as did Kristy P. Paige D., Karen F. and Colleen G. (all played tennis and were cheerleaders - they were good friends of ours too) all came together - Karen is expecting her 3rd child any day now, Paige just had her 2nd and I think Colleen has one kid. They all looked the same, meaning "hubba, hubba", especially for 38 year old moms!

Tonya A. was their and is expecting her 5th child. She's born again and married to a minister (her 2nd marriage). She looked awesome and is still really sweet. I had a huge crush on her - we were supposed to go watch Pretty In Pink our senior year but never got around to it. Penny T. is married to Matt C., and expecting her 5th any day now - their oldest starts G-F in the fall! Ruel and Martha (the Haymond twins) both came - Ruel is in Utah, married with 6 kids and about to adopt their 7th. Martha is in California with 4 daughters. It seemed that the only people without children were me, Drew, Pat Cooper and Chris Daniels. Sophia Tracey was their and looks the same, meaning beautiful. She grew up across the street from me. She was their with Kathy Rich, Margaret Zawisa and Marie Ellis - her best friends from back in the day.

Funny how all of the old clicks gravitated to each other - the tennis team, the cheerleaders (though they were kind of interchangeable), the "freaks", the Mormons, etc. The only black folks from our class to show up were me, Chris Daniels, Pat Cooper and Ebbie Hutson. Strange.

I didn't recognize alot of people, especially the ladies. Some looked amazing, others, not so much!

That's it for now. More later today.

G-F 20 Year Reunion

See my Tabblo>

Back in Time

My 20th high school reunion is tonight! I'm feeling a little anxious, to be honest. A lengthy post and pix will follow tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy this little piece of 1986:

E-mail

I just received the following e-mail:

By now you've probably heard about the remarks recently made by Senator George Allen at one of his campaign events, aimed at a young Democratic volunteer who was attending and videotaping the event.

Watch Senator Allen's stunning remarks here.

As you can see in the video, Senator Allen calls this young Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent "macaca," which means monkey, and is a racial epithet used in some European cultures for people with dark skin. And he doesn't use this term once, but twice. On top of that, Senator Allen tells him, "Welcome to America" as if he's some kind of outsider.

Well, this young Webb campaign volunteer has a name, and it's S.R. Sidarth. Senator Allen should have known this because Mr. Sidarth introduced himself to the Senator before the event. Mr. Sidarth is a student at the University of Virginia, and he's an American, born and raised in Virginia.

This is just one more example -- a very visible and disturbing one -- of how out of touch Senator Allen is. So far he has only offered a half-hearted apology to Mr. Sidarth, claiming he had no idea "macaca" was a racially charged term. The facts belie this explanation.

This feeble attempt at an apology is simply not good enough.

Let's send Senator Allen a strong message from our PAC for a Change community that America deserves better. If George Allen can't appreciate the diversity of Virginia, then he simply doesn't understand that this is what makes America so strong.

Stand up and reject Senator Allen's divisive politics -- Please contribute to Virginia Democratic nominee Jim Webb's campaign for U.S. Senate today!

http://www.actblue.com/page/boxer4webb

As you know, Democrats have a great shot at taking back the Senate this year. And even before George Allen's recent gaffe, Virginia has already been a huge potential pick-up opportunity, thanks to Democratic nominee Jim Webb.

Jim Webb is a decorated Marine, winner of the Navy Cross and two Purple Hearts, and former Secretary of the Navy. As a soldier, Jim was a legendary fighter. As a citizen, Jim has been a principled and persuasive leader. An early and frequent critic of the Bush Administration's foreign policy, Webb opposed President Bush's invasion of Iraq from the very beginning, while Sen. Allen has been the chief cheerleader of this war. Please contribute $50, $25, or even $10 to Jim Webb as he takes on Senator George Allen to win back the Senate seat in Virginia!

http://www.actblue.com/page/boxer4webb
If Jim Webb wins on November 7th, there's no stopping us! With your help, Democrats can -- and will -- take back the Senate this fall.

In Friendship,

Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senator

P.S. After contributing to Jim Webb's campaign, please forward this email to everyone you know! Help us expose the truth about Senator George Allen.

Moving On

Today, my folks are moving from the house I grew up in and into a brand new house in a 55+ community. Pretty weird. I'll write a nice piece on this later, but just wanted to say goodbye to Kurtz Road. I loved that house.

I told you so

Remember my post last week questioning the timing of the terrorist/airport scare? Seems I may have correct in my skepticism. Here we are, a week later, and no charges have been filed yet. None of the "terrorist" had made a bomb or purchased plane tickets. Hell, some of them didn't even have passports. But W and company pressured the Brits to make these arrests, even though there was no imminent threat, to scare us all to hell. Why? Because and election is coming up, stupid!

Folks, we have become a nation of punks. We're scared shitless over everything. It's getting to be a joke. And no, I'm not belittling 9/11. I just remember growing up with thousands of nukes pointed at us. Did we run around panicing at every little thing? No, we kept on living life as normally as possible. After Oklahoma City, did we start freaking out every time we saw blonde white dudes in U-Haul trucks?

What's happened to us?

Secure

Feel safe yet? Vote for change this November!

Look behind the curtain

So yesterday, Cheney says this about Lieberman's loss in the Connecticut primary:

Mr. Cheney offered warm praise for Mr. Lieberman, who was his opponent for
vice president in 2000, though he said he did not want his remarks to be
construed as an endorsement of Mr. Lieberman.He cast Mr. Lieberman’s loss in
ominous terms, suggesting that it would hearten American terrorist enemies.
Terrorists, he said, are “betting on the proposition that ultimately they can
break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the
fight and complete the task.

And today, we go to Code Red terror alert, the highest we've ever had, because of a terror threat against passenger flights between Britain and the US.

I'm not at all a conspiracy theorist, but connect the dots folks.

Congrats, Tribe!

Congratulations to William & Mary's 2006 Capital Alumni Network Softball for a top 6 finish in this years tourney, our best ever! Go Tribe! 

Headed West?

If any of you are headed to beautiful Monterey, California, you should really check out this site - Monterey Tourist - to see what to do, where to go, and how to have a great time.

Images

It's hot here in DC - 101 degrees. Hot all over the US, actually. Here's a question for you all. Why is it that whenever there's a heatwave, local TV news and newspapers show white kids playing in pools, and black kids playing in sprinklers or fire hydrants?