Thought That Came Unbidden

Winegasm: (noun) that nearly indescribable feeling of pleasure you get when drinking a glass of really good wine.

Example: That pinot we had at dinner was so good I had a winegasm before I’d even swallowed the first sip.

Why do I need last year’s tax return to do this year’s taxes?

I know I’m not dumb, and if I wasn’t convinced before of this Bush administration’s malevolence, I am now. The number of “worksheets” you have to do to claim all the credits offered to low-income people is astonishing.

And yes, I am getting a refund.

With the week-long February vacation to some place warm precluded by the fact that I have zero vacation days until April, this year’s late-winter amusement was a long weekend in Sin City (aka: Las Vegas). It may not be gonzo journalism (a moment of silence for Mr. Hunter S. Thompson’s passing), my impressions of America’s adult playground in the desert.

• What is the most important thing for you to know when you’re in an airport but have absolutely no way to find out? Yes, that’s right, I dare you to find a clock in an airport.
• Despite what the idiots at the metal detectors say, you are not required to remove your shoes when going through security. Until they change the rules, waste their resources and make them wand you. I got the TSA lady to laugh.
• Airports in the midwest just plain suck: they don’t have any windows or amenities.
• To the Depaul women’s basketball team: I thought you’d be taller.
• Always arrive in Las Vegas at night when the city is at its most impressive. During the day it just has to work too hard to look good.
• First Elvis sighting: 10pm Thursday night before we’d even checked into the hotel.
• Second Elvis sighting: about five minutes later and we still hadn’t checked in yet.
• The Bellagio fountains should never be choreographed to anything but American standards, classical music, or opera.
• You’re only a 24 hour town if I can get breakfast at 7:30am. I shouldn’t have to wait until 10am for my eggs and toast, people!
• It frightens me that Celine Dion is someone’s mother.
• Not as much as the bust of Zigfried and Roy and the tiger that looks like bronze but is really plastic.
• In every casino you can smell the one guy who is smoking a cigar.
• Cirque Du Soliel is incredibly French in a very strange, makes you want to back away slowly sort of way.
• Perhaps I’m jaded from too much time in gay bars but it seems to me that what passes for shocking displays of sensuality for middle America is pretty damn tame given what’s out there.
• It’s just amazing what can be done with poured concrete.
• Who brings a 10 year old to Las Vegas? What, exactly, is the poor kid supposed to do while Mom and Dad are gambling and sucking down free drinks?
• Third Elvis sighting: Saturday morning, about 10am.
• It is possible to spend $200 on dinner for two and have it be worth every single penny.
• Despite the light show, Freemont Street would probably be neater if they hadn’t put that canopy over it.
• Hunter Thompson was right about Circus Circus. That’s one scary clown at night.
• It’s just amazing what you can do with poured concrete.
• Hey, American Airlines? You have an 8am flight from Las Vegas to Dallas. This means get the plane out of remote storage before 7:30, OK?
• Beef jerky and pretzels do not a lunch make.
• There’s no bed like your own.

Check out the photoblog for my photo-obsessed take on the Las Vegas strip.

Stifled. I’m feeling stifled for no apparent reason.

The job, henceforth known as the Think Tank, is not turning out to be all I wanted, but neither is it turning into something that is onerous. Life chugs along at a pleasant, undramatic pace, and while writing isn’t all that I want it to be, I’ve rather pleasantly stumbled upon an idea for another novel. The news still frustrates; indeed, things are so bad that we’re seriously contemplating putting next year’s taxes into a trust fund and instead of filing sending the IRS a nice letter that says “When I get full rights, you can have my money. Sue us.” (To put this in perspective, it wasn’t my idea and you know the frustration level is high when a Ph.D candidate economist with 16 years experience in the field suggests opting out of the economy.)

Perhaps it’s simply February, that most horrible of months that is both the shortest in days and the slowest in the passage of time.

Perhaps I need more stimulation. I’m certainly not getting enough shuttling from the job to home to the job to the grocery story and around and around.

But how does someone like me, happily (enough) in a relationship, more than slightly introverted, entirely over the bar scene, and still burned out on volunteering learn to live juicy again? And did I ever do it in the first place?

Since now seemed as good a time as any, I’ve made a few site “improvements”

• Upgrading to MT 3.15
• Upgrading to Blacklist 2.04b

Comments are still a bit messed up. I can’t figure out how to turn automatic comment moderation off or the comment pending template on. When you post a comment, trust me, it’s there, I just need to approve it before you’ll see it. Working on it as fast as I can but my damn feet are cold and I’m tired so it may be a couple of days before I get the kinks worked out.

We now return to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress.
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