SLUT?!??! SLUT???!!?

I have all but been accused of being xenophobic. I find it ironic-al.

Please explain to me how I am xenophobic when I ask that people, of every culture, knock before entering my office. I seem to have offended most people here on staff at the very suggestion that they should.

I don't consider it foreign, nor culturally backwards that people should respect my workspace as I respect theirs. Even if they have a cubicle, I do not pass the threshold until I have knocked and acquired permission to enter. Why is this xenophobic?

Why is it xenophobic to ask that people,of every culture knock to see if I am inside instead of leaving things outside my door for me to trip over later? I realize I am perceived as a guy who would like to sit in his office and just do his job. I fail to see why this is regarded as a bad thing.

I do have to say that I feel I owe my employer work that is as good as I can do at any given moment for the compensation and consideration they give in return. Beyond that I do not feel obliged to anyone within the organization for any social activity beyond work related discussion.

In other words work is work and home is home. Now, the guy I work with in the office next door said that very thing last week when I was approached to donate toward a baby shower gift which I declined to do. His feelings on the subject are reflected in his statement. I concur with them.

I don't really know the guy who the baby shower was for, I certainly don't know his wife. I will never have a baby shower, or a wedding, or any of the other thousand things they try to hit me up for, so that's just money I'm pouring down the drain. Cause culture aside I guarantee you no one will think to say "Hey there S! I hear you finished your PhD last month, here's a gift certificate to Amazon from all of us!" Not gonna happen! It unequivocally never occurs to them that us single people are getting screwed on this deal.

But back to the xenophobia, which has obviously got me bugged. The two people with whom I work most closely are located in offices next to and across the hall from mine. We're a good match, we're all democrats, we're all pretty quiet, and we all live in our heads. I have been here the least amount of time at just under 4 years. They have been here a minimum of ten.

Neither of them attends the "parties" here at work. Neither of them engages in the gift exchanges. Neither of them is even asked to contribute to gifts for others! I follow their lead because I think they're right. How is this xenophobic?

I get the very distinct feeling that the issue is being clouded by those who are trying to bully me into doing what they want. And it ain't in my job description.

So, if you're inclined to do so, please tell me your feelings on the subject. I really don't want to be a xenophobe, and if I need to correct that I will. But if I'm just getting pushed around I want to know that too. It's a little hard to tell with all this guilt pumping through the air ducts.

I should have stayed on that damn horse.

Weekend Update

Well, I said I hoped I'd have a good weekend but I had no idea it was going to be as much fun as it turned out to be.

I suppose it actually started on Thursday when I ran into my own HB, (I'm co-opting the acronym, I hope you don't mind Bigg. for those of you who don't know what it means you'll just have to go to Bigg's blog, My Confessions and find out.) at the liquor store and we spent the rest of the evening together. He's one of those people I find fun in small doses, so a few hours once in a while is PLENTY!

I wrote all about Friday afternoon at work already. Everyone was gone, so I made quick work of my necessary stuff and played all afternoon.

I met up with my friends K and J, after work and we had a few drinks and then went to the Power and Light District for a concert. Man those people were old! And I'm referring to the audience. The bands were even older than we are. The lead singer for Dr. Hook was smoking a cigarette while he was singing. It looked to me like he has COPD pretty bad. I was amazed he could sing at all. The sound system BTW sucked. He couldn't hear himself and we were treated to the results. Mostly it went fine, but once in a while it sounded like me up there. And it wasn't cigarettes or age that caused it. It was obvious they couldn't hear themselves.

The headliners were Three Dog Night. I'd forgotten how many hits they actually had! There were quite a few songs I hadn't heard in years. I also was under the mistaken impression forever, that Goldie Hawn was married to one of them. I can't remember where I heard it or how long I've thought it, but I did and after the concert when I looked them up online I realized I was totally wrong. The Hudson Brothers were never associated with Three Dog night. Mea Culpa K, my bad. But we had a great vantage point pretty close to the stage so we saw everything. Great crowd, and a great show. I hadn't been downtown since the district was under construction and I had no idea where I was for a little bit. It was amazing when I looked up and saw the roof of the Empire theatre to my right and suddenly realized my surroundings. They've changed it a lot! Some of it for the better, I could do without the variation on a Mall theme, and $27.00 for three gin and tonics is a little steep, and would someone please tell me why a restaurant would close at it's normal time (10pm) when a concert with thousands of drinking people is literally outside your door? All that aside we had a great evening and we piled back into hoodad (J's 1983 BMW 733i) and headed for home. By the time we ate and I got to my place and to bed it was almost 1am. MUCH later than I'd planned.

So 7am came frightfully early for me, particularly since I chose to sleep in the apartment (I'll talk more about that later) and my neighbors were pounding and stomping at 4am. I'll miss them so when I move next month. Anyway I got up and managed to get out of the house around 9 and headed to the stables. I ran into S, the guy who owns the place, and he told me to take Little Boy out for a ride, that he needed someone to take him in hand and he also needed hours on the trail. So I saddled up an unfamiliar horse and headed out.

This horse was sah-weet! I hadn't been on a guy like this in a long time. He loves to go go go, and we were fast friends. Literally. He does have a few bad habits that I need to address, but time will take care of most of that I think. I'd been out about half an hour and we'd made a few turns onto a section of the trail that I don't know that well and suddenly I realized we were headed back to the stables LONG before I'd planned to, so I turned to head another direction. Little Boy had other ideas and the fight was on. Fortunately for me he didn't fight too long once he got the idea I intended to have my way and we got headed the right way. His response was to have me wear a few trees occasionally, but once he got over it we were friends again.

No sooner did I take him back than S stopped me and asked if I wanted to go out again in a bit. Without any plans for the rest of the day I quickly said yes. He had a ride scheduled with some guy and his daughter and her friend for a kids birthday. I quickly realized that Little Boy was not going to be a good mix on a walking ride with kids so I saddled up Rosie and when they got there I found out they had horses of their own and rode dressage regularly. This was at least going to be fun instead of a mind-numbing experience in the woods with large animals and oblivious parents.

So I took them out for a couple hours, they'd only paid for one hour, but I wasn't getting anything but riding time out of the deal and I figured why not give them their money's worth. Rosie was her usual reliable self and we had a nice time.

After I got back I put the horses away and headed back into the city. It was carwash, store, post office, cleaners, farmer's market time, and when I was done I went home to shower and headed to my favorite blues jam on Saturday afternoons for a couple more moderately priced glasses of gin than I'd had the day before, along with some great blues.

They took a break at a perfect time and I watched the Preakness. Big Brown was like, "Seeya!" and left the rest of the field standing there in the dust like they weren't even moving, it was amazing.

I ran into a friend there and we headed out to dinner around the corner where we watched the less than thrilling Royals game, (read team wal-mart.)

Those guys were actually running into each other! It never ceases to amaze me how bad they actually are. It's proof positive that you get what you pay for. But we had fun anyway and then I went home and watched Atonement.

(***SPOILER***) I loved the movie right up until I realized that Briony was a complete bitch and never did really do the right thing. After that I had trouble with the whole thing. I brought it back this morning glad to be rid of it.

Sunday was no less fun. I planted all the herbs that I got at the farmers market Saturday and did my morning Tai Chi, and meditated for a long while before heading out on my bike. I have no idea how many miles I rode but I was out almost 4 hours. It was a beautiful day and I just couldn't resist. I did realize however, that I will not be ready for the Cottonwood 200 next week. With the cold weather extending way into May and then being sick I simply didn't get to train enough to go 200 miles in 3 days. Maybe next spring if I'm still here.

Then I came home took a nap and read for a few hours. I came across this amazing article on Joemygod by this guy who went to Iraq and interviewed gay people who have to live totally closeted lives and meet secretly and hookup on manhunt or some such thing. It makes you realize that though things have a long way to go, we've got it pretty good. These people would be executed if they were caught.

I ended the weekend by having a few fiends over for dinner and canasta and then watching In the Valley of Elah. I'd brought all these movies home, it seemed foolish to just go out and see one when I had those sitting on the dvd player. Tommy Lee Jones was amazing, it was obvious he was totally into that part. Now I know why he wanted that Oscar so bad. I made some killer salmon on the grill and we tore up some card playing. I did not win, however. I talk too much and don't watch what's being played. C'est la Vie!

Today it's back to the grind and perhaps implementing a procedure to torment my neighbors when I'm out of the apartment. I have some ideas, I just need to commit to using the energy on an issue I only care about at 4am. I hate to waste energy on them. In fact I've found out in the process of getting the new place that my current complex is only recommended by 22 percent of the residents. Also I noticed a new sign this week that they're offering $399 Studios. Now we all know that $399 studios only attract the mentally deficient and crack ho's, so it should be an interesting month at chez falls.

It's amazing to have watched that place go downhill so quickly. Last year when I got there the courtyard was filled every weekend with hot young shirtless guys playing football,playing fetch with their dogs, and frolicking in the pool while the girls (and a few of us guys) watched. This year there hasn't been one person out in that courtyard. It's so obvious that they're trying to fill it up so they can then sell it to developers and go condo. They started construction on more garages and storage units last week. One does not build new garages for mentally deficient tenants and crack ho's. One builds new garages to make the place more attractive to potential buyers when they start selling these places. But the mentally deficient and the crack ho's don't know that.

No longer my problem, I just have to sit it out for another month...I can do that.

I recently started checking visitors reports on this blog. I find that I have hits from all over the world, which is soo cool I can't tell you. Thanks for reading everyone, I appreciate it.

I'm particularly enthralled by the number of Canadians who stop by regularly. Up until recently I had one in a place called Fort Nelson B.C. I think. How cool is that? To have a reader who's almost in the Arctic Circle! I also have hits from Thailand, Africa, and South America. St. Petersburg Russia is way high on my list of favorites. As I said thanks for reading. It makes me feel more connected somehow. I hope you enjoy it here.