Our name is our virtue...

truer (more true?) words have never been penned. I've been thinking a lot lately about character and integrity.

Earlier this month someone accused me of not showing character. Even though the circumstances had little to nothing (okay...absoLUTEly nothing) to do with me and I could seriously give a shit about what the accuser thinks of me, it still gave me a moment's pause.

Over the past few months I've really put my name, my face and my reputation on the line by being more involved in the community. With this increased involvement comes increased scrutiny. As I've mentioned before, I'm quite content with where I am socially. I'm involved, but still consider myself on the periphery with no intentions of scaling to the upper echelon. In fact, after this past week's events, I had an extreme moment of clarity. I know what I need to do to make myself happy while still maintaining my current level of involvement. I've realized with the help of some pretty damned smart folk that I have the respect and support of many, many people in this city and saying this with as much humility as possible, they'll turn out if I decide to host a fundraiser or participate in a show. That's amazing to me.

I'm standing in a place where I have the ability (and responsibility) to make a difference in this community. I don't need praise, accolades or baubles to affirm that I'm on track: friends and strangers alike have thanked me for what I do and have encouraged me to continue; that, my friends, is more than enough incentive to keep going.

Things are going quite well at my new location. I enjoy the new people I'm working with and they've extended a warm welcome to the team. It's a relatively young store and at 39+, I'm on the high end of the age scale. I've been bringing in my EW every week and leaving it on the table for mass consumption. The mag has provided topics of conversation in the break room and talk of future movie outings. Some of my co-workers seem impressed by the fact that I read during my lunch. Maestro and I stopped by Borders Sunday evening and I picked up "Barrel Fever" by David Sedaris. I can't say it's holding my attention like his other books have. I'm finding it hard to grasp the character essays. I much rather prefer reading about his family and his ongoing battle with neuroses and OCD. After a conversation with one of my co-workers, I brought in my ratted, tatted and torn copy of "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim," for his consumption. I'm curious to see what he has to say about it.

Last night was the 8th Annual Skaree-oke Contest at Metro. RoqStar, Summer, Maestro and I judged. No offense to RockStar Promotions, but DAMN did the competition suck this year! After our judging duties, we all agreed that we had basically given away the contest prizes based solely on who sucked the least. There was little imagination or effort that went into any of the performances and nothing that just reached out and grabbed us. Congratulations, however to Awizabeph, the little 3 year old who graced us with her stirring rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Invest your $200 wisely, baby-cakes.

All in all life is pretty grand right now. Nothing spectacular going on. I'm ready to be done with the October events and thankfully, only have one more in which to participate. Summer and I have agreed to do dinner Sunday night to celebrate a month with nothing to do (November 2 - December 14) involving dresses. Halle's a great gal, but she's way too busy for my liking as of late.

I started back on the Abs Diet on Monday. I know I've been driving the roomie nuts because I've been doing so much late-night cooking. Sunday night I was in the kitchen cooking chicken curry with brown rice. Monday night I made up a pot of "Yo! Soup for You," and tonight I'll be making chili con turkey. I've done a good job of getting up and having breakfast, getting meals together the night before and limiting my intake of soft drinks. I'd gotten to the point where I was drinking regular soft drinks instead of diet (DAMN YOU AND YOUR SUGARY REFRESHMENT, PEPSI!!) so I've cut those out.

When I weighed in a week or so ago, I was at 201. 2 0 fucking 1!! I'm going to strive for 170, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I'll be doing more posts going forward, so I'll be sure to keep you apprised.

Well, that should just about catch us up. Let's chat again soon.