Earlier this week, I found out that one of my favorite bands, “The Avalances”
was playing at the Red Jacket on Friday.  “Oh my Gosh!  I’ve gotta get all
my friends together to partake in this grand musical concert.”  So, I squandered
up my friends “Lee”, John, Eric and Bill.  Part of the core gaming group
that gets together at either my or Bill’s parents house.

Anyway, most of the group meets at my house and we pile into my Saturn for a quick trip to “The Jacket“. 
We sit back and have a good time with some cheap drinks only to hear those
dreaded words, “The Avalanches will not be playing tonight.” 

NNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!  You people have no idea how much I’ve been waiting
for this.  How much I’ve been anticipating this!  How much effort into making
sure that my butt was inside the Red Jacket
so that I can get primo stage viewing for the only concert that I’ve ever
took an active role in organizing a group to go see!  Gahhhh!

Thankfully, I was with friends.  Not just any friends, but friends that
I KNOW that I will have a good time with…no matter where we are.  So, we
decided to go see “Signs“, the new M. Night Shyamalan
flick. (What’s cool is that he is a major character in the film.)  We showed
up 5 minutes before it started.  Which is very interesting, because a large
portion of the movie was about what type of person are you:

• Someone who believes that luck is just luck or
• Someone who believes that everything happens for a reason.

I, myself, am a person who believes that everything happens for a reason.  Now, I don’t know why the Avalanches
show was cancelled, but I admit that I had a GREAT time tonight.  And I also
believe that everything worked out so that we could see the very last showing
of “Signs” at Cinemark that night.

Now I don’t know if my belief is “The Truth”
or whatnot, but I do know that it gives me hope.  When things aren’t looking
so well, it’s good to believe that there’s some reason that it’s happening. 
Besides, I don’t think anyone knows “The Truth“,
therefore, you’re just making it up from your perspective.  Might as well
make up something that will forward you.  And believing that everything happens
for a reason does keep hope alive for me.

With that logic…you’re reading this for a reason.

Know why?  I don’t.  I just have faith that you are.

Sometimes, there are those days where the World just seems to come at you with no rhyme or reason and you have no idea why.  Well, this wasn’t one of those days. 

This was one of those days where the World came at me, but it was all because of my own doing.  Since this is Tax Free weekend, George and I went out to do some shopping and lunch Friday morning.  By the time I finally got into work, it was about 2:30.  I had some MAJOR catch-up to play in addition to finding someone to go see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with me.  Thankfully, Nortel (Greatest place to work, eva.) understands that there are people like me that don’t adhere to a normal sleeping schedule, or even a normal working schedule for that matter, and as long as I’m a good and prosperous worker (which I have confirmed with my bosses), I have certain liberties.  Yea me!

After a while of searching for someone to go with, I decided to take George as my “Man-date” (Just two guys going to see a play together.  No funny business.), and we both really enjoyed the play.  Due to popularity, they’ve extended it for another week.  Go see it!  (I think Lee’s planning a group watching next week, so talk to him.)

Then, we were onto Part 2 of the evening.  An inebriated watching of Strangeheart at The Magnolia.  A movie, along the same lines as Rocky Horror, where audience participation is, not just allowed, but encouraged.  So is drinking.  Which a number of us did.  George and I were accompanied by a slew of people I knew would make this a great evening:  Lee, Carolyn, Allison, Peck, Audra and Joe.  I brought my homemade “Gatorade” (Read:  Midori Sour).  Matt Peck had some tasty Buttermint Schnapps that he was passing around.  By the time, it got to me a 3^rd time, I decided to take a huge swig of it, only to find that he replaced it with pure Gin.  I nearly spewed it on Carolyn, who was sitting in front of me.  (I’ll get you for that Peck.)

Anyway, back to the movie.  There are the typical lines that you’re supposed to shout out at opportune times, but I found that our own improvisational lines, belted out mainly by Lee and a few others that were “taken by the spirits”, had the entire theatre in an uproar and were much mo’ betta.  Afterwards, a few of us went to Café Brazil for some after movie/drinking food.  I was dragging myself around until I finally got my French Toast and I was hit with my 3^rd or 4^th wind or something.

Going to bed, I knew that my biological clock was going to keep waking me up, telling me that it’s time to go to work, but thankfully, I was able to press the internal Snooze button and get my 8 hours of sleep from 5AM – 1PM. J

–Snoopy Kiss is glad that he’s not a giant.  Because then the only movies he would be able to see is at the drive in theatre.  And then, I’d probably crush some cars.

Thankfully, there’s lots of things in this world that makes me happy. One of which is helping Lee to update his site so that it has all of the articles from our old Radio Possibility site up and getting the dates correct. I’ve been ever-expanding my knowledge of PHP and MySQL through this website and my work at Nortel. My new banner makes me happy too.

What do I have to write about? Today? Nothing. It’s just been a good day. Lots of things are wacked righ now (like the Saturn dealership having my car for many hours and them not being done with it), but it just feels like a good day. One of those days where you’ve got it handled. One of those days where you’ve got tickets to Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat and then are going to hang out with some friends aftewards to go see Strangeheart. You might have a sense of what I’m talking about. I dunno.

I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new play-thing, the Treo 600. My existing Treo has taken a beating and is ready to be replaced. And as much as the flippy top looks cool and has that Star Trek feel to it, it gets annoying after a while. Yeah! New Technology!

–wondering where all the Cowboys have gone.Mr. Falgout

Some hobbies are expensive.  Some cheap.  Others, like swing dancing are cheap, but if you really want to go crazy with it, they can get really expensive.  But now that I think about it, I’m sure you can say the same thing about every hobby.  So, nevermind.

My latest expense, justified towards redeveloping the growth of the world economy, was my trip to Vancouver for the Lindy Exchange.  As some of my close friends know, one of my deep dark secrets is that I have a Canadian Fetish.  I don’t know why.  I just seem to be drawn to them.  I call it “Eh-dar”.  (Speaking of that, look at what I found!)

In any case, while I was there, I had some really amazing dances.  All too many to single out.  (Mostly because I’m afraid that I’d forget someone.  I’m also really bad with names.  So, chances are, if I danced with you, told you “Thank You.”, I probably enjoyed it.)  While I was at it, I finally purchased new clothing!  Something I don’t believe I’ve done in about 6 months. (Check out the Gallery for pictures of the city and of the dance.)

Unfortunately, there weren’t too many quotes at the exchange, but I updated the quote page, with other mindless ramblings.

In other news, my Pool of Pudding Pictures have become quite the rave.  I’m getting calls from managers really high above me asking for the password to get in.

–Just a boy looking for your love.P.S.  I love my friends.  They’re insane.  But not insane like this.

You know, I really wish that I could say that I had full control of the God and Goddess party yesterday, but I’ll have to admit…there was no holding it back.  “It turned that knob to 11.”  Oh yeah, when I woke up, there was an octopus in my sink.  That’s how you know it was a good party.  We also did have a cop come by, but thankfully the God of Bad Instructions waved to him with his beer bottle and he waved back and drove off.

The party went till about 2PM, the next day as some of the hard-core partiers (read:  People too tired/drunk to drive home) went to the Original Pancake House for doilies and good grub. 

I’ll also have to admit that this was one of the most fun parties to invite people to.  How often do you actually get to be the God or Goddess of your choice for a night?  We even had prizes which I bought, but never gave out.  Two of the un-official winners were Jenna as the “Goddess of One Night Stands” who had a table, night clock, and other items attached to her.  And Lee, The “God of Arrested Development” whose favorite X-mas gift in recent years was a K’Nex rollercoaster which he proudly wore on his head and was even functional!

The party was also paid a visit by Cleopatria, The Goddess of Water, The Goddess of Fire (completely unplanned), the Goddess of Fashion and the Goddess of Fashion Faux Pas (I kid you not, also, completely unplanned).  George Lucas’ Goddess of Marketing, The God of Turn Tables, The God of All Things Shiny (your truly), The Goddess of Unfinished Projects (who went quite well with the God of Unfinished Party Decorating, as I was late on the preparations), The Goddess of All Things Naughty, God’s Gift to Women, Goddess of Common Sense (who should also win a prize for spending 3 hours hot gluing about 300 pennies to her already shiny dress), The God of Turntables who kept spinning his live mix till about 3AM and too many other deities to name.

It was a truly divine party, that I was proud to host; because there were so many cool people there.  About 10% I met at that day.  And another 10% I met the day before. 🙂  Pics are up! (Unfortunately, I didn’t take too many pics myself, and will get other people’s pics up as soon as I can.)

Oh yeah, and for those interested, I have the Pool of Pudding Pictures up.  Although, due to the “Nature of the pictures” they’re password protected, so shoot me an email if you want in.  BEWARE!  Not safe for work.  (That means you too mom.)  If you want some of the videos, let me know.  This was one of those parties, that I had no idea what I was getting into.  How often do you get to see 60 gallons of pudding with people wrestling in it?

Yeah…that’s what I thought.

They say that God/life will never throw anything at you more than what you can handle.  I agree to that; however, in this past week, I think that I’ve thrown about as much as my body could handle.

The weekend before, I went to Salt Lake City for a Lindy Exchange.  That was a hella lot of fun, even though the cops came in and busted us for holding a dance past 2AM.  It was pretty upsetting as Salt Lake City is trying to be seen as a “normal” city, but still doesn’t allow organized dances past 2AM.  As an outcry, I’ve created http://freenate.lastcoolnameleft.com where we hope to raise money for the Free Nate Foundation.  (Nate being the person who organized the SLC Lindy Exchange, and is going to court, because of it.)

As for this few days, here’s a lowdown:

• Parents came to town and brought my two nephews, Evan and Charles.  It was interesting to have the little rug rats running around the house to see what a real family would be like, but I can definitely see that I’m not ready for parenthood.
  
• To spend some quality time together before she headed back to Baltimore, Melissa stayed at my place for about a week.
  
• The Master shower drain pan started to leak and my preciouuusss (read: House) started to leak and have all sorts of water problems.
  
• Earlene Falgout, my grandmother passed away after a lengthy battle with Lung Cancer.  She was almost 90.  May she rest in peace.
  
• Falgout Family Food Festival!!!!  W00t!  If you missed out on it, make sure not to do that next time.  There was more seafood and other food that we didn’t know what to do with it all.  Thankfully, I’ve got a big stomach and appetite.
  
• And of course, Melissa’s departure from Dallas.

I took a sick day today, to let my body recuperate from all of the stress and it’s feeling much better, but my tummy’s rumbly.  I think that there’s been a lot of loss for me recently; however, I’m quite proud of how I’m handling myself and not losing focus that life does go on and that these types of things happen.

BTW, if you’re a Matrix Fan, I HIGHLY recommend watching Animatrix.  “The Final Flight of the Orisis” kick MUCH holy arse.

Carry on,

-Me.

So, I’ve realized that I haven’t posted here in a while, and I think that’s because I usually spend a lot of time working on getting all sorts of links in with my stories, which takes a considerable amount of time.  However, since I want this to be more of an online journal and less of a online link-fest, I’m now resolving myself to posting more often but less links.  Except for really cool ones.

As I’m sure most of you know two weekends ago was the Dallas Lindy Exchange.  I was one of the team leads and had a freggin’ blast.  It wasn’t until the Saturday night dance that I finally got my groove on, but once I did, I was ready to jet.  Lots, and lots of pictures and even three different albums!  (Thanks Greg and Jerry!)

Every year, Waxahachie (sp?) is blessed with two special events.  One of which is the Hallowween Fright show, and the other is Scarborough Faire.  This is a grand Renaisance Festival from April 12th to June 1st.  I went once and I’m determined to make it to every one from now on.  Gene, Becky and I herded on over there at the bright hour of 9AM.  (yeah, I know it’s not early, but for me, that’s harsh on a Sunday)  Mine eyes did feast upon many beautiful costumes and I also had a slight revelation:  Not all breasts look good squashed together in very tight costumes.  I did end up running into a number of people like the security guard for my building at Nortel, an old friend from Landmark of 4 years ago, and Erin Finn and Teel Flemming.  (You might remember these two from a Mardi Gras, and Food and Spirits Party from a while back.  They’re cool peeps.  Just trust me.)

Now, the pictures are uploaded and I’m ready to crash.Good night everybody!  (Good night Tommy!)

Being from Louisiana, food is a major topic of conversation with me and my friends, and I constantly hear, “You know, I make the best ” Well, I gave those people a chance to put their food where their mouths are.  Or someone else’s mouth to their food…anyway, you get the picture.  Plus, I made it into a contest with prizes!

Also, since a few of us were so inspired by what we saw at Lindy Gras, we knew that we had to re-enact parts of it.  Naughty us.  And speaking of naughty…my pig had a good time too.  Ride the pig!  (or Erin.  Either way is fine with me.)

Back to the food…Some of entries were:

• EXP appetizers (brought 3 hours after the party started! 🙂 )
  
• Couscous a la Melissa
  
• Girl Scout Cookies
  
• DA-BOMB Sushi (Some in reference to previous mischief at Chef Tommy)
  
• Gourmet Mac and Cheese
  
• A most tasty Filet Mignon
  
• Taco Salad
  
• Mucho Alcoholo!
  
• 125 Jello shots!
  
• …bunches of other things that I have forgotten, or didn’t eat because I was quite toasty that night.  (Many mega super happy thanks to Andre and Angie who brought me liquid happiness:  Smirnoff Ice!)

One of the more interesting events was when Matt M. bet me $5 that I couldn’t eat one of his Sushi rolls without blinking.  Scoffing at his offer, I got a big crowd to watch me as I threw the tiny morsel of seaweed in my mouth.  For about 5 seconds of chewing, I was fine.  Then it hit me.

Once everyone was satiated, Teel whipped out:  “The Tingler”.  Words themselves cannot describe the sensation of being “Tingled.”  Next time you’re out dancing at the Sons of Hermann, ask Teel about it.  Just make sure that you’re sitting down and don’t get too carried away, else you’ll contort it and then have to pray to the “Tingler Diety” for forgiveness.

We then sprawled out the always-faithful party-enhancer Twister.  Except Helen had something else in store for us:  Jello Shot Twister.  If you landed on a spot that had a shot, it was yours. 

The prize for winning the Twister match?  Once again…Tommy’s house.

I tried defending my title, and almost succeeded.  I got too anxious and knocked everyone down (including myself), so the judges defaulted to me, the defending champion.  (Studio 54 Party)  However, it was then noted that Helen took the most amount of shots and was on the mat the longest (we didn’t start at the same time), so in the spirit of the Olympics, Helen was the declared the winner.  But it’s now been 24 hours and she hasn’t claimed her prize, so I get to keep the house.  Woohoo! 🙂

After some more drinking, it later hit me, “I should stop.”  So, I did.  But the room didn’t.

Many many glasses of water later, I was ready to bed, which happened around 4AM.  There were still people on my couch chatting, but like I tell people, when you come to my house, you’re family.  Which also means, don’t expect me to fix your plate. 🙂

When I woke up, those left over from the party, (Myself, Melissa, Lee, Janice and Brian) were treated by the master cooking skillz of Monsieur Gibson.  Complete with homemade waffles topped with strawberries and syrup. 

For those that missed out…next time bring a pillow.

Some of the more interesting quotes overheard:

• 
  
  On how to have the most out of life:  “The more you eat, the more you can drink…the more you drink, the more you throw up…the more you can eat”
  
  
• 
  
  Let’s not do that again:  “Wiskey always makes me butch.”
  
  
• 
  
  Let’s do that again:  “Whatever you do, you can always do it better with more women.”
  
  
• 
  
  Let’s make sure do do that again:  “You know you’re drunk when you don’t know whose navel you sucked it out of.”
  
  
• 
  
  On tough issues:  “Hit one little brown kid with a Stretch Armstrong and all of a sudden, YOU’RE the racist.”
  
  
• 
  
  No parking here:  “These (lift boobs with hands) are just for show.”
  
  
• 
  
  Bad girl, good girl:  “, you’re being a bad girl.  Go to Tommy’s Room!”  (I did not say that!  I swear!)

Now that I have been exposed to the deep, dark underground that is Swing Exchanges, I will admit that I have become addicted.  On Feb 14-17^th, I danced and partied my arse off in New Orleans for their first exchange, Lindy Gras.

I was hesitant to make the 8 hour drive there, since I waited too long to get tickets at a reasonable price, but Greg and I later decided that we’d make the hike together.  We finally arrived at our David’s (our host for the weekend) very shag-a-riffic house around 7PM.  Equipped with a dry sauna, pool, and a Jacuzzi, I knew that this should would be perfect for crashing after the 1-5AM after hours dance parties.  At this point the party was Gene, Dan, Craig, Greg, Helen, David, Jeff, and myself.  Needless to say, Helen enjoyed the ratio.  But we had a problem.  We were hungry. 

David, once again, had the great hookup because there was NO WAY we were going to find a restaurant with a decent wait time on V-Day…on a Friday night.  So, we went to a club with a live band and some home cooked jambalaya for a $7 cover charge.  I was in heaven.  Let the dancing begin.

With full stomachs we headed out to the Registration/V-day dance not too far from my Alma Mater, Tulane.  Met some people. Danced some dance.  The generous people of New Orleans even put on a “Dating Game” skit for our amusement.

But then the real dance fever came out…at the after-hours Pajama dance.  I was in my comfortable “Suga’ Daddy” regalia while others donned more fitting nightware.  Oh yeah, watch out for the Killer Frogs.  Not all were able to hang in till the bitter end, but some tried.

The following morning, David took us out to Jaegers on the Lake, for some good eatings.  It had been too long since I’ve had boiled crawfish, so I was quite content.  Thankfully, we didn’t get into too much trouble since Jeff was harassing our waitress and she swore that we just let him loose out of a Psychiatric Institution.

But my food craving were not to be completely satiated until I got my beignets.  Man, I miss Café du Monde.  Back in college when I had the only car, I would be my friends’ beignet/car pimp.  If they needed a ride, they would have to feed me.  Café du Monde was the standard payment.  Strolling around New Orleans, we felt the urge to visit Coyote Ugly.  Who knew that we’d find so much good clean fun?  (Complete with the down home hospitality.) Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves quite a bit.  Even Helen and Jeff.  Thankfully, Jeff didn’t mind us sticking him in the trunk since we didn’t have much room in the van by then.

Back to dancing!  We arrived just in time to watch them crown the King and Queen of Lindy Gras.  Lo and behold, the Queen was Dallas’ own Jamie!

But before heading out to the After Hours party for some more 1-5 dancing, Andre, Greg and I decided to be boys and visit Bourbon Street for some sights.  Believe it nor not, my favorite was the disproportionately sized truck.

Timing was apparently on our side, because right as we got back Andre jumped into a Birthday Jam for him and a few other Lindy Gras’ers.  But not everyone knew that it was Andre’s Birthday. J  Afterwards, Jeff and Atalanta did a good job of stealing the show. (FOCUS, Jeff!)

…sleeeeep…

My mom and sister (on left) were in town, so I went to the Olive Garden and had lunch with them.  Let’s hear it for free food! J  I then drove like a demon to Lindy in the Park.

Here’s where I’m going to get all sentimental on ya, so just brace yourselves:

Growing up, I was always the social outcast.  Everyone poked fun at me, and I didn’t seem to fit in anywhere, except with the other outcasts.  Even then, it didn’t always feel right.  When I went to college, I didn’t really do much.  I stayed inside, played on my computer, rarely partied, and only drank once or twice.  Needless to say, I’m making up for it now.  So, when I was dancing in Audobon Park, right across from Tulane, it was a truly spiritual experience for me.  It was a testament to how far I’ve come.  How much I’m enjoying life.  How rich of a life, I now have.  And how very grateful I am. 

I’m really happy with how some of the Park pictures turned out.  But then again, some of the best pics are done with the cooperation of Mother Nature.  Good dancing too, next to a lake.  Just had to make sure that I didn’t fall in, or do a swing out and find my partner all dripping wet.  (And not in a good way.)  This was the “say goodbye” dance for lots of people. 

Nap time.  Then the last dance of the schedule:  Rock and Bowl.  Take an old fashioned bowling alley, add some very tired, but party hardy swing dancers, and a DJ, and you’ve got Rock and Bowl.  (Plus a little celebrity endorsement.)  A brief, but fun finale to the scheduled dances…

And that’s when the cat’s got let out of the proverbial bag…

Bourbon Street.  World renowned for it’s drunken fests, parties, good music, great picture ops and dancing.  Now add people who know how to get drunk, get their party on, deal only in the best of music, love attention and traveled hundreds of miles to dance…that might give you some small sense of the intensity of the night.  I could write an entire journal entry just on Sunday night, but I’ll only give highlights.

• Some dude asked to see girls boobs.  Got punched in nads.  Hard.
  
• Andre went in search of a Pimp Daddy Hat
  
• Heard my favorite Teenage Lipstick Lesbian Russian Band, Tatu, playing at the Cat’s Meow.
  
• 6 person Charleston
  
• Lindy Bombing every 2 blocks
  
• Andre’s Hat gets around
  
• Pat O’s Piano Bar Revelries
  
• Mary and her dips
  
• LindyChef gives HyprChick a B-day dance.
  
• LindyChef tries to re-enact his stripper experience and dances for LindyPhil.
  
• Jeff strikes a pose
  
• Piggy Back Body Rolls

Needless to say, this was one of the grandest times of my life.  It’s two days later and I’m still trying to catch up on all of my sleep. 

Some of the more memorable quotes of the weekend were:

• “What better way to say someone you love than with beer?””Say it with a lager.”
  
• (After the lights came on at 5AM and people were screaming and running away)  “We’re like roaches!”
  
• “Munbah netch kha””You read my thoughts!”
  
• “Full contact Lindy Body Shots”
  
• Insight:  “Demons are spawned from (chocolate) Jeff’s loins.”
  
• On a church outside sign:  “Stop Drop and Roll doesn’t work in Hell.”
  
• “Hey Baby, wanna go out?””Save your breath for your inflatable date.”
  ”She cancelled.”
  
• In reference to Jeff’s loins:”Bring the Devil out.”
  ”Is that what you call it?”
  
• Heard from someone who needed to talk to a fellow Lindy Hopper that was driving away:”Stop the wedding!!!”
  
• “There will always be auta’s, shoulda’s and woulda’s”
  
• Count the boobs: “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them both.”
  
• Spoken by the lead singer of the Blues band after mentioning that it was his birthday:Murmur from the crowd.
  “I’m a pussy?!  Oh, a pieces.”
  
• On kissing:   “Have y’all kissed yet?””Not officially.”
  
• “Don’t hate the player…hate the game.”
  
• “Sometimes, it’s good to be the bitch.”
  
• “This weekend raised the bar.  But then again, the bar is now at lesbian booty.”
  
• Passing by a cop from Venus, TX:  “I’ll be damned.  There is a guy from Venus.”

I wish I had a more profound ending to this story, but all I can come up with now is:

Thank you, New Orleans.

Now I’ve just gotta get myself ready for my own “Food and Spirits” party this Saturday and practice giving Penalty Shots.  Then, another possible trip back to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.  Phew.  It’s a good and busy life.  Gotta love it.

And when I got back, my new toy was waiting for my at my doorstep.  I’m so happy.

You can see all of the pics here, and the best of the pics here.