High Holy Mass of Contradictions

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I’m going to some shindig on Thursday featuring “microroasted artisanal coffees.” Really? “Microroasted?” I was aware of the home roasting trend (I started to call it a craze, but I think that’s overstating the case) but hadn’t run across the term “microroasted.” I’ve actually largely given up coffee (truly, you wouldn’t believe how much caffeine I’d been consuming and for how many years of my life) but this I just gotta see.

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Originally published at The Bee Hive. You can comment here or there.

Chris Wage is a freakin’ photography genius (even while drunk enjoying an adult beverage or two):

I LOVE that picture. It makes me feel like I’m back in that moment, in the late hours of the party with the die hard revelers still going strong, laughing it up with great friends. What a great moment.

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Originally published at The Bee Hive. Please leave any comments there.

Grace of Graceless in Love at tonight's blogger meetup at Blackstone's. Ain't she cute?

At the North End Night Out Against Crime: S-townMike, me, & Hutchmo. This is picture #2 because they wanted to suck in their guts. Of course, my own gut looks unjustly large in this shot, but I'm going with it because that's just the kind of crime-fighting neighbor and friend I am.

That's not me making the bunny ears, by the way. I'm being framed!

CeeElCee and girls,
originally uploaded by lesley s.

Doesn’t this totally look like I’m saying “mine, all mine”? After all, we’re talking about BadBad-mf’in-Ivy and Ginger-f’in’-SNAPs here, people - I don’t know why CeeElCee wasn’t fighting me for them. He must have known he was no match for my mad girl-claiming skillz.

Come to think of it, I may have tried to fight with CeeElCee one other time last night. I don’t remember why, but I kind of remember saying that he and my inner fag could take it outside, but CeeElCee wisely deferred, admitting he’d have his ass handed to him. I really don’t want to fight CeeElCee - I adore the guy! - but I’m thinking maybe he just brings out the scrappy in me.

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Originally published at The Bee Hive. You can comment here or there.

Doesn't this totally look like I'm saying "mine, all mine"? After all, we're talking about BadBad-mf'in-Ivy and Ginger-f'in'-SNAPs here, people - I don't know why CeeElCee wasn't fighting me for them. He must have known he was no match for my mad girl-claiming skillz.

Come to think of it, I may have tried to fight with CeeElCee one other time last night. I don't remember why, but I kind of remember saying that he and my inner fag could take it outside, but CeeElCee wisely deferred, admitting he'd have his ass handed to him. I really don't want to fight CeeElCee - I adore the guy! - but I'm thinking maybe he just brings out the scrappy in me.

Karsten and I went to the Send B to Beantown shindig last night where there was much karaoke and much too much to drink. But it was crazy fun, which is partly thanks to the people present and, let's be honest, partly due to the presence of karaoke.



I mean, the karaoke was wicked fun to watch. This is Nashville, after all, and there were some amazing singers in the audience, some of them from our own group. I didn't get up and sing anything, mostly because I couldn't think of anything I was really in the mood for. Ginger and I joked about doing a duet on "Don't Cha" (as in the Pussycat Dolls' "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me") but neither of us knew enough of the words to do anything other than read along with the cue screen, which is no fun.

And karaoke is definitely about fun, as Kat Coble amply demonstrated with an enthusiastic performance of "Werewolves of London." As I said in comments over at Nashville Is Talking,

what I love about karaoke is when folks get up and just sing something fun whether they think they can sing or not, and just belt it out with a big ol’ smile on their faces and get everyone in the audience to love them.

Anyway, as I said, I didn't sing anything, and neither did several others in the crowd. Chris Wage says he actually sings well, but couldn't be coaxed to get up and perform. Though he did take pictures.



And Jon, despite having been a professional musician and all for years, claimed that he probably wouldn't have been able to find a selection that suited him. And yet later, at the "after party" at Beyond The Edge, while we all chatted and "No More Mr. Nice Guy" was piping through the outdoor speakers, Jon cried out "You're all talking as if Alice Cooper isn't playing right now." So we quieted down and paid our respects to Mr. Cooper as Jon sang along. It may not have been up on a stage, but hey, he did perform a wee bit. Oh, and we also did a little duet of a medley of Styx songs from the "Kilroy Was Here" album a few songs later when "Mr. Roboto" came on. So yeah, sing-alongs were sort of the theme of the evening.

Anyway, I enjoyed myself immensely, even if I'm paying the price a bit today. And Karsten got to know a few more of the local bloggers, even if Mack mistakenly thinks he's smarter than Karsten.

(More pictures are up at my "Send B to Beantown" flickr set.)

Just got back from a Nashville Pride fundraiser where both mayoral candidate David Briley and Al Gore's gay cousin Doug were in attendance. I guess maybe we're finally getting established enough here to get invited to the interesting parties.

Any other Cheekwood members (or interested non-members) out there going to this?

Yes indeed, I went to a baby shower. For a guy. Well, for a guy and his wife, but it's the guy I knew. His wife is awesome and reminds me of one of my cousins, but I didn't know her before yesterday.

Anyway, it was way fun. Got to see many of my favorite local bloggers all in one place again, including Hutchmo of Salem's Lots (and my up-the-street neighbor), Sista Smiff of A Whiff of Smiff, Aunt B of Tiny Cat Pants, my alternate-universe wife Bad Bad Ivy of the Bad Bad Ivy Experience (and who, as she was leaving, made sure to tell me how beautiful I am, the smartass), CLC of The Dry Spot, Brittney of Sparkwood & 21 as well as Nashville Is Talking, Jag of I'm About To Be Brilliant, Dr. Funkenswine of Mothership BBQ, Kerry Woo aka Wonderdawg, Mack of the Coyote Chronicles, Kat Coble of Just Another Pretty Farce, Ginger of Gingersnaps, Slartibartfast of Shoot The Moose, Kathy T of various blogs including This is Smyrna, TN, and, of course, the impregnator himself, Sarcastro of Watching The Defectives. I even got to meet the Lynnster. One of the highlights was getting to hang out with Aunt B again, who points out the advantages of this particular co-ed baby shower:

in one room, they were talking about the Bible; in another room they were talking about kids; and in the third room, we were talking about sex and porn.

Or, as Sarcastro himself put it:

It struck me, that like the internet itself, one was never more than three clicks from porn.

At one point, it was determined that Dr. Funkenswine needs a reality TV show, and it was further determined that I should be his nemesis. I didn't get the details of what the job requirements are other than wearing a sexy outfit and sitting on his lap. I don't think those people really understand what "nemesis" means, but it sounds fun, so I'm in.

Karsten and I went to the Young Professionals / Brian Ritchey / The Katies show at Mercy Lounge with a bunch of my coworkers last night. (This was after we'd been to Lyrix to see our buddy Joe Hendricks play a writers' round, which was after we'd been to Cabana with the coworkers for happy hour.) The show was great. All three acts were great, even if I'm especially partial to the latter two who are friends of ours through day job connections.

Anyway, I saw JD of Gypsy Cab Co. rockin' out with his new haircut and funky vest. Small blogosphere. No pics because it was just too damn dark in there for my Treo.

After the show was over and everyone had had their fill of after-hours dorky dancing to cheesy '80s pop, my colleagues and I sought drunk-dining options at Hermitage Cafe south of downtown. Wow. I'd never even heard of it, but apparently it has quite a following. Wow. That place was... um... an experience. Wow. You know the kind of dive where the cook is flipping hash browns with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth? Where the waitress looks about 80 even though she's probably only 40, and she says "hon" a lot? This was even divier than that. When I asked for decaf coffee, the waitress answered that it was Sanka, apparently giving me a chance to back out of the deal. I said, "well, ok" and she cautioned me again, this time more clearly: "It's not very good, hon." I reassured her that I would face the consequences bravely and she moved on to someone else's drink order. My shoes were sticking to the so-called "carpet" which was so worn it looked as if it had become a single trodden-down layer of matted grime and grease. I've never seen anything quite like it.

Naturally, the place was overrun with drunk songwriters. (Including several of us.) Heh.

I'd say more about it but I got so little sleep I think I've overstretched my ability to articulate. Off to make dinner and then go see the WJ Cunningham opening at the Estel Gallery. I think it'll be an early night tonight, though. I can't imagine staying awake much past 9 PM at this point.

Hope everyone else is having a great weekend.

It's my coworker Thomas' birthday today. I mean, I know mine was only two days ago, but the 25th? Yowch. I have another coworker, Pat, who's birthday was yesterday, too. And my office-mate, Andrea, had a birthday on the 20th. That's definitely the first time I've known of that many Christmas-time birthdays in any workplace. We had a cake on Wednesday for Andrea and two cakes on Thursday (most folks were due to be out on Friday) for me, Pat, and Thomas. Complete with singing birthday candle.

A lot of people ask about the whole "do you only get one present for both" thing, and the whole "do people wish you happy birthday and merry christmas" thing, and the answers I give are probably pretty much the same as anyone else you've ever known with a Christmas-time birthday. So instead I thought I'd offer some tips on how to properly celebrate MY birthday. 'Cause you know you want something else to celebrate at the end of December every year.

How To Celebrate Kate's Birthday

1. It is important that you begin the day with a good cup of coffee and something wonderful to eat. French toast is always fun (even if it veers from the nearly vegan diet I strive to keep) but a more authentic French breakfast is even better. I'm talking about croissants, people, and only the best. We're lucky enough to have a locally-owned French-style bakery and cafe called Provence -- we go to the one at the main library downtown all the time (it's a pleasant 20ish minute walk from our house) but since we had to do our grocery shopping for the party, we chose their original and larger location in the hip Hillsboro Village neighborhood. I had a fabulous croissant, a bowl of fresh fruit, and some wonderful Dancing Goats coffee. Try it, you'll love it!



2. Optional: go wander through a good grocery store. Seriously, I love natural/whole foods stores. Hell, I just love thinking about food at all. We chose Wild Oats -- if you have a Whole Foods or an independent store or a co-op near you, that'll work, too. (We also ran into one of our neighbors (we're talking about a store that's clear across town from our neighborhood, but that's how much demand there is for an upscale/natural market in or around our area -- investors take note!) and found out that he was planning to attend the party after going to the Predators game, so we ended up having a hilarious conversation about hockey and fang fingers and throwing various dead animals into the ice rink. Hockey is weird.)



3. Have something really tasty and indulgent for lunch. We chose the locally-owned Couva Calypso Cafe for their famous "loaded black bean nachos" and fruit tea, yum.
   
   
4. Thrift shopping is practically a must. We chose Goodwill. Pick your favorite. It is, of course, one of my favorite things to do ever.
   
   
5. Bake something. I chose to make gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and I decorated each one with a variety of festive sprinkles. All vegan, and quite yummy.



6. Take a romantic shower with the love of your life. Try not to run out of hot water.



7. This is important! Don't skip dinner. You'll be drinking a lot. I planned to eat later, but was always too distracted to eat much during the party. Big mistake.



8. Open a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin (my favorite champagne!) and make a toast with the love of your life. It doesn't much matter what you say, but it must be heartfelt and in the moment. I believe mine was something like "To you and your patience with my indulgences."



9. Throw a party. You should probably start planning this ahead of the actual day. Be aware that but a tiny fraction of the number of people you invite will be able to make it, and even some of the people who say they're coming won't or can't -- at this time of year, just seems like people just never know what's going to be happening at the last minute, and it's just as likely some will get sick right before the party. That's to be expected. Still, it's good to have WAY more food and drinks than you need, and you'll do just fine with, oh, say, the 27 people who do show up (out of probably 127 invitations). In our case, Aunt B and the Butcher were arriving just as a group of neighborhood carolers were standing at the bottom of our front stairs singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and then "Happy Birthday." It was a very nice touch, but probably not a necessary ingredient for your own party.


Other ideas if you have time:


10. Write a song. Actually, I didn't get around to it this year because of all the running around, but it's been a fairly consistent tradition since I was a teenager.



11. Visit kittens at the animal shelter. Again, I didn't get a chance this year, but this is always a fun thing to do, and kittens are just right for birthdays.



12. Live-blog the birthday celebration. I wasn't up for it, but you might be!



13. Volunteer where you're needed. Since it is, after all, the Christmas season, there is always a need. One year I helped out at a food pantry, sorting cans and other food into batches for distribution. That was fun, and it felt good. Maybe next year we can do toys or something fun like that.

By now, if you've followed my instructions, you've had a pretty good celebration of my birthday. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy day. It worked!

I'm not sure who the photo credit should go to, because I don't remember who took the picture. But here's a pic of me and my coworker Joni, who was sporting the coolest red bob wig and really workin' it.

I know, I know: I should have been wearing a wig too. I'll just have to hit the costume shop earlier next time.

I've got one more party to attend this weekend, and if you count them all separately, it will have been 9 parties in 3 days.

But you can't really count them all separately: the first three were Official Company Party, Non-Official After-Party, and Very-Non-Official After-After-Party, so those were more like one 14-hour long party.

Yes, ( 14 hours )

After all that, I woke up super-early yesterday morning to pull a double shift of monitoring the new systems for work, and then went to a fun ladies' brunch at our neighbor's house complete with gossip and champagne.

Then it was off to the costume shop to get wigs for one of the parties last night, but the costume shop was closed! Shoot!

Back home to get showered and dressed for the ( Blogger Meat-Up )

It was really awesome and tough to tear myself away, but we had two neighborhood parties to get to. And as it happened, we only got to one of the two Germantown parties. It was pretty subdued and sophisticated, which was kind of amusing to me and Karsten after our last 36 hours. We made the rounds, had a few drinks, toured the historic house, chatted with some neighbors, and exchanged a few party invitations for a few weeks down the road, but then we said our goodbyes and headed off to the ( wig party )

Anyway, now that I've done my weekend recap, had my coffee, and relaxed a bit, I should go get ready for the next party this afternoon.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful mid-December weekend!

Well, here it is: the day I've been dreading. It's been one year since my dad died. I thought I would have a lot to say about that, but I find myself oddly quiet on the subject. The only thing I'll say is what I wrote in an email to my sister this morning:

I still miss Dad very much, of course, but I'm also amazed at how much healing happens in the course of one year. Then again, I'm equally amazed at how much still hurts after a whole year has passed. It's almost like time and healing can be measured in two different dimensions, on two different scales, with one exceeding my expectations and one falling so very short. Or whatever. I guess that's why it's easier just to say "life is funny." ;)

Shawn Colvin already summed it up for me, anyway, with this song:

( One Small Year )

Yesterday, the Race for the Cure came through our neighborhood, and I stood outside with a cup of coffee and watched them, thinking of my dad, and how he lost his race. But it was encouraging to see how many people turned out to help raise money for the cause, so maybe someday cancer will be a thing of the past.

Speaking of raising money for good causes, last night, we went to two fundraisers. The first was for the Nashville Humane Association: Anipalooza. Heh. We went to the one last year, too, and I'm sorry to say that this year's wasn't as good as last year's. Last year they had doggie speed dating, which was just about the cutest thing ever, but that was gone this year for whatever reason. The music in the main tent was also too loud, meaning you could barely hear someone shouting next to you, and you sure weren't going to casually mix and mingle and get to know new people.

On the plus side, there were kittens inside the shelter, which just about makes up for any shortcoming in event planning. Just like last year, Karsten was in one of the cat rooms playing with kittens most of the time we were there, and drew a crowd watching him get the kittens all excited. You should have seen these kittens crawling all over Karsten. I took pictures but they only hint at the stinging cuteness of it all.

After that, we went to back to our neighborhood for the "Heart and Soul" benefit at Werthan Lofts, for the American Heart Association. The contrast was stunning: someone there must be a professional event planner or something. They gave out wine glasses to each attendee, along with maps of the building showing the lofts that were open for the event. And then they had signs up on the hallway walls and balloons marking the entrance of each open unit to help people find their way through the somewhat confusing layout of the building. Plenty of volunteers, plenty of wine, plenty of cool people, and plenty of music ensured that it was a great party. A lot of folks were there from the Germantown neighborhood, too, which was fun.

A Vietnamese coworker of Karsten's used to say: so much good, so much bad. I think of that a lot, and I consider it a victory when the bad doesn't overshadow the good. Right now, as much as it still hurts to miss my dad, I know the good in my life -- like loving and being loved so deeply by someone as wonderful as Karsten, and having a job I enjoy, and being part of a community of great people, and living in a home we have the ability to enjoy and improve, and having good friends, not to mention that I was lucky enough to have had a dad as wonderful as he was -- all that good is as bright as sunlight and nothing can overshadow it. And I guess that should be enough to get me through another small year.

Oktoberfest looks to have been a big success for the Historic Germantown neighborhood, and our party was a blast. Thanks to everyone who came and partied with us, and my apologies to anyone I may have offended by suggesting they patronize the beer vendors while the festival was still running. We bought plenty of beer from the beer vendors ourselves. Yessir, plenty of beer. Yowch.

We probably had 80 people come through our house on Saturday. Bunches of people from the neighborhood, scads of coworkers and some former coworkers, quite a few songwriters and musicians, and some random good friends from who-knows-where. And 2 dogs. (Luckily, the cats were locked up in the office/studio/cat room for most of the day.)

We had drunk people climbing the scaffolding, but no falls. We had people from across the political spectrum, but no brawls. We had over a dozen people on our front stairs, and they didn’t collapse. All in all, a good day.

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Originally published at The Bee Hive. You can comment here or there.

You know life is too meta when you're linking to someone's blog wherein that person is linking to your blog:

4. So, I met this girl, Kate O at Amanda's birthday party and she was all "Oh, I have a blog but it's on LiveJournal so you probably don't read it." and I said, "Probably not." and then I got home and thought "Wow, I bet she's got a cool blog" but thought nothing more of it. Then, I was reading Bloglines today and what did I see?

[excerpt from my entry yesterday, which would be way too, oh, what's the word for illusion where a picture is a picture of the same picture within a picture within a picture, etc? anyway, that]

Yes, I read Kate's blog already! I'm just too "Aunt B., World's Worst Detective" to realize it when I met her.

Your turn, Aunt B.

Karsten and I went to a very important birthday celebration last night: that of Amanda, she who is Chris Wage's girlfriend and who has not her own blog so that I can give no appropriate linkage. (I could, perhaps, provide inappropriate linkage, but that would be inappropriate.) We enjoyed ourselves tremendously. Partied with the likes of Brittney from Nashville is Talking and none other than Aunt B of Tiny Cat Pants. As well as a bunch of other cool people who may or may not have blogs. And, of course, my new girlfriend: Strawberry Shortcake.

We got to feel all urban, too: we cabbed it over to the party and then, at 2:30 AM, walked all the way back home. And even got asked if we were models ("you're beautiful!") by a drunk group of what seemed to be government guys or something. And everyone knows you gotta watch out for those government guys.

One revelation: we determined that I'm older than Aunt B, who is older than most of the other party guests, so I guess all you crazy kids can start calling me Great Aunt Kate or something. Come to think of it, feed me homemade dolmas and some crazy delicious cheeses, and I really won't care what you call me.

So anyway, now we have less than a week until the Oktoberfest street festival and it's a race against time to get our house ready for the party. (Confidential to our favorite East Side hotties: hope we see you then!) Karsten has a mean hangover today but he's still helping, bless his heart, and I'm coffee-powered so I've been kicking clutter's ass! I've just got to pull myself away from the internets and get back to focusing on domestic goddessery. Maybe another pot of coffee will do the trick.

I am completely hung over after a wonderful dinner party last night hosted by some wonderful friends in the Werthan Lofts building. Karsten and I stumbled the three blocks back home around 1 AM, fed the cats, fell into bed, and are now waking up hurting this morning.

Ooof. Even the typing is a little too loud.

Thanks to tubenerd for encouraging me to take a picture at this art event the other night. It gave me something to post in Metroblogging Nashville, and I've been a neglectful blogger over the past 10 days.

But anyway, this was a way cool fun night of art happenings.