viv

My Sweetie is gone for a week, I miss him and it's been one day. I miss him to the point that I'm sad enough that I hope he's not feeling like I am (which happens to us a lot) and entertaining fantasies that he's secretly coming here to surprise me. My Angel is off with hot boys in itty, bitty pants while I have something of interest to tell him. At least I know that in five more days I'll be hugging him for real again. My Luvuh ... well I have no idea where he is, and I guess by all rights, I can't really whine too much since I saw him last weekend and I'll be seeing him again next weekend, but still. Rich has been working like crazy, leading to me having to go to bed alone at 1 am and then just as I was FINALLY falling asleep, he came in and then I was so, I don't know what, that I hardly slept at all. He's home now though so we're gonna wach a movie in a minute. I saw this in the newspaper today on my break. I don't normally read the paper, or comics for that matter, but this one was SO freaking funny/right on that I had to share it with you guys. I recently, FINALLY, saw The Broken Hearts Club, and I LOVE that movie! Fantastic! Hugs, Viv

"Mom?" "Hmm?" "What do all beaches need?" "Sand?" "No..." "Water?" "No, I'll give you a hint. It starts with L." "Uhh... Light?" "NO! Lifeguards." "Okay... good idea." "Except, sometimes they have to go." "Go where?" "Out." "Out where?" "With their hotties." "Did you say hotties?" "Yeah." "Umm... what's that?" "You know... their wives." "Umm, okay, but that's not very nice." "Yes, it is." "Well, it's not very respectful then." "It's nice." "Well, I'm your dad's wife, but you don't call me a hottie." "Well, yeah, you're my mother!" "Mom?" "Hmm?" "What does every wedding need?" "Uhh...?" "Three people." "Three?" "Yeah. A pronouncer and a bride and a groom." "What if it's two men, or two women?" "Then he says, 'I now pronounce you wife and wife or husband and husband." "Okay." Hugs, Viv PS. 7 days...

One last thing I beg you please, just before you go I've watched you fly on paper wings half way round the world until they burned up in the atmosphere and sent you spiraling down Landing somewhere far from here with no one else around To catch you falling down And I'm looking at you now And I can't tell if you're laughing Between each smile there's a tear in your eye There's a train leaving town in an hour It's not waiting for you and neither am I Swing for the fences son, he must have told you once That was a conversation you took nothing from so Raise your glass now and celebrate exactly what you've done Just put off another day of knowing where you're from You can catch up with yourself if you run And I can't tell if you're laughing Between each smile there's a tear in your eye There's a train leaving town in an hour Its not waiting for you and neither am I Is this the life that you lead? Or the life that's led for you? Will you take the road thats been laid out before you Will we cross paths somewhere else tonight? Somewhere else tonight... And I can't tell if you're laughing Between each smile there's a tear in your eye There's a train leaving town in an hour It's not waiting for you and neither am I And I can't tell if you're laughing Between each smile theres a tear in your eye Theres a train leaving town in an hour Its not waiting for you and neither am I Rise Against - Paper Wings... So my angel told me to listen to this song and... I'm not sure which emotion I feel the most when I listen to it (over and over again cause I'm weird like that and have musical issues ) but there's just something about it. Mostly it sounds like someone who's fed up and giving up on someone else... then again, maybe the person they're giving up on, is me. I dunno... So in 8 more days, I'll be hugging my boys!!! I cannot freaking wait! There's only a few things that would make this trip to San Francisco better... one is if Dave and Chris were gonna be there, and the other is if it wasn't just some vacation for them... I'm gonna go against the general population here, and talk about something that is probably nothing you want to hear about, but... I need to get this off my chest. Motivational tampons... :wacko: I'm not kidding... they come in these wrappers that say things like 'Don't let your period be captain', 'Win or lose, all that matters is that you play', and 'Be strong'. By the end of the box, I was like... f**K OFF! Ugh... what idiot thought of that?! Moving on... I spent last Saturday night with some guy named Jason who said amazingly inspirational things like 'Prepare to continue going straight' For the directionally challenged, like me, it was rather obtrusive, but whatever it takes to get to my Luvuh right? Anyway, he saw me in 'mom mode'... hope it wasn't too scary, though it couldn't possibly have been any worse than the sqwalking chicken in the back seat so... I think the cuckoo clock has the right idea Laptop update... Rich bought a new hard drive and installed it, but since it had Windows XP preinstalled when I bought it, all I have is a Windows Vista upgrade disk that I was too whiny to actually use before, so now I'm forced to use it and it's weird and different and I'm only halfway lost around my own computer... so I'm being mostly babyish about the whole thing. We have the old hard drive still with ALL MY STUFF on it so we can go get the data retrieved for the low, low price of somewhere between $150 and $500, depending how much Rich managed to 'break it some more' while trying to 'fix' it. Hugs, Viv

I got some blessings just last Saturday myself

I was going to write all about how my son came home with these papers in his backpack that say that a first grader, thus far into the school year, should be reading 30 words in 60 seconds and that when tested, he reads 27 words in 14 seconds. Now I know that I'm math challenged, I'll be the first to step up and say so, but if I'm right... that means he reads four times faster than he should. Further, by the end of the school year, they should be able to read 60 words in 60 seconds, which he, again if my math is correct, is reading twice that many right now. Can't do that however... because I remembered hearing somewhere that you get your intelligence from your mother, and so I went and Googled that, to double check and randomly came across this other thing which I found SO humorous and utterly necessary, that I had to link it here. It's a LOT of reading, I'll admit, but it's the opposite side of the coin for most of you, and someone needs to tell these people this information! I believe, most, if not all of the time, that the best way to deal with an uncomfortable and potentially argumentative situation, is to understand the other person's side and then you'll know better how to combat it and what motivates their opinions and thoughts. That said, this might be useful for some of you... The Straight Person's Guide To Gay Ettiquette So the anthology is up, YAY! Steve is missing *POUT* but you know... priorities, right? I'm proud of him for doing what he's doing, so I suppose *sigh* I can deal with his name being absent from the list. I thought I was gonna have to be without my Davey for a few days, but as it turns out, he got stormed in and had to miss the ridiculously unnecessary training meeting he was scheduled to be at. Come on people! The man is The Captain after all! Sheesh! My daughter and I decided that Justin Timberlake looks a LOT like my brother, the older one, especially when he smiles. Silly really. GASP! In weirder news... Randomly the other day while I was bored, I searched my name on Yahoo, and there was a link to Wikipedia so I was like WTF?! I clicked the link, and there my name is on a list of famous people in California as an Author!! Imagine my shock and surprise right?! So you know, one of my friends was like, "Viv, that's badass!" and another was like, "That's cool." I told him it would be cooler if it were, oh, I don't know, true perhaps... and he said, " It's on wiki, that makes it so!" I love him and I guess I am an author, even if not in the sense that I get paid to write and publish my books for people to buy in bookstores and hold in their pretty little hands. Anyway, so there my name is under lots of famous others, and when I clicked it, there was no information listed about me. So, once I got over freaking out about how someone added my name to this list and wondering who the hell would do that, I wondered if I should add some info about myself there... what do you guys think? Anyway, I whined to Dave and he went all detective on my ass and told me it was someone in Baltimore that added me, which coincidentally is where my Justin Timberlake, look-a-like brother lives, but I don't know if it was him, or some weird random coincidence that his neighbor did it. Laptop = STILL broken When I got home this afternoon from work, Zoey woke up when I walked in the door and stood up and stretched and jumped off the couch and trotted, as only a kitten can, across the living room and jumped up on the other couch before climbing up the back of it to get to the shelf I was standing by so I could cuddle her and then proceeded to purr for the next twenty minutes through me changing clothes and checking email and messaging my Sweetie, and she was all snuggling and lovey, and We love Zoey! I'm glad my angel is going to San Francisco with us... maybe his fancy new camera can make me look good and you know.. .not pregnant like this young 17 year old girl I work with, who I'm trying very hard to convince myself doesn't know any better, asked me if I was, and when I looked appalled and said, "NO!" she had the class to say, "Are you sure?" Tomorrow is hump day so take full advantage, kay? Hugs, Viv

...blog since it's been so long. For that I can only blame ALL OF YOU! KIDDING! Relax... I just meant that I've been spending SO much time in the last two weeks getting the last chapter of FBTE finished and then Part 3 of UTBOS done by the deadline for the anthology. It was down to the wire... literally! Like... type, type, type, send to Steve for html-ing (like my new verb?), shower, work, come home, name the thing, send it into CJ mere minutes before the deadline. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy it when it comes out on the 15th, cause I worked my ass off to get it done in time in the midst of GREAT STRESS~! :wacko: What GREAT STRESS you ask? Well, Rich had to go away for four days to Indiana for work, leaving me home with the kids by myself, which was fine. I took the four days off from work so I could be home with them. It was the first time EVER in the almost 15 years we've been together that we have been apart more than like... 36 hours? So it was weird... but the kids kept me company, cause the first morning I woke up with both of them in my bed with me. So, anyway, Rich asked if he could take my laptop with him and I was like :wacko: and he told me to quit being a baby, that he would take care of it, that it's not like he wants to have anything happen to it, that I could use his while he was away to write my story. So I left it with, "If you lose it, break it, change it, get it stolen... DEATH!!! ALL MY STUFF!!!!" Well first night he gets to the hotel and calls me up and says... "So, umm... something's wrong with your computer," and I was like... "You SO better be f**king with me right now!" and he's like "Uhhhh, wish I was?" Needless to say, four days later I picked him up from the airport with my BROKEN laptop and ARGHHHHHHHHHHH! So now we're trying to figure out how to save ALL MY STUFF before taking it to get fixed under my warranty. UGH! 3 weeks to the big San Francisco Summit. Hugs, Viv PS. Davey's home tomorrow! I need a dose of him.

Someone's gotta look after my cowboy... Come over and nap with me, kay? Viv

Happy Birthday, George! Hope it's a great one! Hugs, Vivian

Since you asked so nicely So there has been much penis talk lately... (in regards to the final chapter of FBTE) Thank you to all who contributed, since we all know I lack such parts... though I am rather fluent in... oh nevermind So I'm not sure how you guys are going to feel about 'The End' but it feels like it's time. There has been much debate about 'how' to end a story, or what is the best or most fulfilling way for the reader. Even Rich, who never reads , I know... trust me, has an opinion on this. One which I happen to disagree with So now that I'm ready to say 'The End' and I know what I'm writing, I'm interested to hear what you think on the matter. As a reader, do you prefer an ending that has every detail spelled out, no room left to imagine? If it's a high school story, which this is, do you feel it's a requirement to get the characters through prom and graduation? OR Do you prefer an ending that allows you to really believe that the characters are in a certain frame of mind or state of the heart, and just know that they are happy and fulfilled, and what happens beyond that is left up to your imagination? Also, side bonus for those of you who have waited, and WAITED, AND WAITED.... for 'The End'... It will likely be double the length of a normal chapter so get ready. Now's the time, too, if you are in the camp where it has been SOOOOOOO damn long since you read it and you need to refresh. I'll apologize for the... horrid things I need to fix and haven't had the time to do so yet. I HAVE to get started on UTBOS - Part 3 which is due in... 13 days :o OMG! I spent a HUGE amount of time yesterday watching 'So You Think You Can Dance' on MTV. It was the whole last season, one episode after another all day and finally ending at midnight. I LOVE dancing, so it was fun, even if the one judge had scary, humongous teeth, and I was sorta sad Neil didn't win, but if he had to lose, I suppose it's best he lost to someone who was amazing, and she deserved to win, also. Someone called me a writer yesterday He's pretty damn special to me, so it made me smile... I think I responded that it was nice he thought so, would be nice if some publishers thought so, too. I'm PISSED about some shit at work, it's a REALLY long and boring story, so I'll spare you, but the moral of this untold story is... It pays to be honest, and good at what you do, and know your shit, cause when it comes down to someone above you having to choose a side... you tend to win No worries... we all know how I hate losing. I'm off to write one story or another, and edit something, and wait for my sweetie Hugs, Viv

When I entered Vivian, I am The Lovers, a very apt description of me... and when I entered Viv, I am The Sun, also very apt. I think of you more as the second... maybe different aspects of our lives require different strengths from us... Hugs, Viv

So, gosh... it's been a long time since I blogged. Both my kids had a birthday in the last week leaving the tally at: Daughter - 12, Son - 6. So, Friday was my daughter's birthday and we were going to take her out to dinner at a restaurant, her choice, and we were waiting for Rich to get home from work so we could go. My daughter comes running inside to tell me that this girl that used to live next door to us for a few months, but has since moved out into a hotel, put makeup on my new car. I go running out there, and sure enough there is liquid foundation in several spots on my new car... (out of curiosity, how long do you get to call it your 'new car' for?) so I take some pictures and then clean it off so it won't ruin the paint, at which point, Rich called to say he was on his way home from work and I told him what had just happened and he was MAD and said I should call the police, and after much discussion, I do, and then proceed to stand there and wait for an hour and a half for them to show up. I explain what happened (again) since I had already explained it all, down to what the girl was wearing and where she lived now, to the lady on the phone when I called. They looked at my picture and said they would 'try' and go talk to her mother and that if I see her in the neighborhood again, that I should call them (and presumably wait another hour and a half for them to show up) so they can tell her she doesn't belong here since she's no longer a resident. Now if you want to know *why* this girl would put make-up on my car... that is another story entirely. From here on out we'll call her 'J' a.k.a. Hooker Girl. So 'J' and her family moved in next door and she is a year older and a grade ahead of my daughter making her, at the time, 12 and in the 7th grade. So my daughter and her best friend, who lives three doors down and across the street, tried to befriend her, thinking 'she's our age and goes to school with the best friend', but as it turns out, 'J' is a pot smoking, cigarette smoking, dresses like a hooker, told my daughter she was going to the doctor to have an abortion, boy crazy, can't even go to the regular Jr. High cause all the girls there want to kick my ass for being such a... child. So my daughter's best friend was told by her mother that she wasn't allowed to hang out with 'J' and I agreed, too. Thing is... it's pretty hard to make that happen when you live next door without keeping my own kids shut inside which isn't really fair to them, so I said that she should be nice, but stay in our yard, etc. Well it turned into a whole 'I can't play with you if she's there' thing with the best friend, so my daughter ended up saying she couldn't play with 'J' either, which was just fine with me, and then drama ensued. Name calling, threats, acting like... no 12 year old should ever be allowed to act, and my daughter and her friend asking me to watch them walk three houses down and across the street cause they don't feel safe in their own neighborhood anymore. Well, they finally moved out into a hotel, and then it was summertime, and 'J' kept showing up in the neighborhood to 'visit her friends' I was told, and my daughter would want to play outside and ultimately ended up trying to be nice and talk to her again. Again, drama ensued in the form of older boys stopping to talk to the 'Hooker Girl' and one boy riding past on his skateboard and yelling at her, "You're an H!" and she asked, "What did you call me?" and he repeated himself and she said, and I quote, "You're so dumb, it's WHOR..." and I was done... FINISHED! Of course, it came with the standard, 'that's not fair'; and 'it's not my fault' complaints which resulted in the 'it's my job to keep you safe and hanging out with her is not safe, so the answer is NO!' speech accompanied by the one that goes ' you know the boys only like her cause she dresses like a hooker' speech. Harsh, I know, but totally true. Anyway, so 'J' is obviously mad and hurt, but whatever... not really my problem, and I have gone WAY out of my way to be understanding and nice to her and talk to her Mom, etc... moving on. Anyway, Tuesday was my son's birthday and we were grocery shopping the weekend before and I asked him what kind of birthday cake he wanted me to make him and he said, "Strawberry, with pink frosting." Now, the beauty of this is, that for, gosh, a long time now, Davey and a few of my other boys have been joking around that he is 'so gay' and mostly it's little stories and sterotypical occurances that they pick up on and joke about and we have fun. So, I told Davey that my son wanted a strawberry cake with pink frosting and he said, "That's my boy! " and Jeff said, "LOL, little queer!" and we were all having a good laugh about it and Rich was like "You guys need to stop before you give him a complex or something." But he knows in the end, he'll be what he is, regardless, plus it's not like we're saying it where he can hear it, we're on the phone or chatting so, no worries. So, I make the cake and frost it and I put sprinkles on it, and Rich is like.. sprinkles? So I said, "Heck yes! Us queers like things sparkly!" and he was like So we're sitting down to eat and I ask my son if he wants to know a secret and of course he does, so I lean down and whisper to him that I put sprinkles on the cake and he was SO DAMN excited. So excited, in fact, that he has to get up three times while we're eating to check if the cake is still in the refridgerator So while we're eating, we're discussing a birthday party for them and possible themes, and out of nowhere my son says, "I want a rainbow party!" so I smirked and looked right at Rich who was trying SO hard not to laugh and said, "Rainbow you say?" HAHAHAHA! So today I had jury duty, first time ever. I get there at like 7:20 a.m. and park in the parking structure and then walk the block over to the courthouse and check in and pick up the blue brochure to read, and read it as instructed to do and wait, and finally at 8:15, some girl comes out to go through some power point presentation about how it all works and the rules and show us a video for all the idiots who didn't read the blue pamphlet. They call some people, not me though, and I sit there reading my book that Dhruv sent me for my birthday all the way from India and then they call some more people, again, not me, and I read more and then they dismiss us for lunch so I walk the block back to the parking structure with Kathy, the lady I met on the way in and spent all day with, and we went to lunch for two hours and then walked the block back to the courthouse where they told us they still weren't sure if they needed us and to expect another announcement by 2:30 p.m. So at 2:45 they come out and announce that another courthouse in our county called and needed more prospective jurors and so if we lived in one of the following cities, which I did, that we were required to go there and check in. So I drove over there, 45 minutes in traffic to get there, and check in at 3:30 p.m. and at 4 p.m. they took us to see a judge who explained the case would be three or four days long and if anyone couldn't serve he would listen to their reasons why and decide whether or not to excuse them. After I listened to about ten people say financial hardship, business owner, health problems, my grandma died, etc... I raised my hand and said, "I'm a mother with two kids and work nights so I can pick them up after school while my husband is at work, and they are 6 and 12," and he said, "You're excused." at 4:30 p.m. and I was home by 5 p.m. So since I was there all day, Rich had to take a two hour lunch today, as opposed to the normal half hour he takes, so he had to stay late and just called me at 9:30 p.m. to say he was on his way home. So I didn't cook, and instead opted for fast food tonight, and needless to say my choldren are now grounded for the weekend, my daughter for the exact same thing as last time and my son for lying to me. :wacko: In other, much more exciting news, the last and final chapter of FBTE is halfway written and will be extra long for all of you have waited such a long time to see what happens to Stephen and Jesse. I hope it will live up to all your expectations... and should hopefully be done in a week, and then I can get UTBOS - Part 3 done for the anthology! So, about this book Dhruv sent. I'm horribly invested in the story now, and a third done, and while it is set in a different culture and therefore hard to follow sometimes because of my lack of knowledge of that culture, it's not hard to figure out and I'll say that in the 104 pages I have read so far, I have been more saddened than I have been in a while. I have another 200 pages to go, so we'll see what happens, but for anyone who's interested, the book is called, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. I'm off to argue with myself about which I should do, read more or write more... Hugs, Viv P.S. Gigantic welcome home hugs to Jonny and Chris!

What happened to us as a World on September 11th, 2001 was something horrible and selfish and we lost many people that were someone's mother, father, child, lover, friend... There are no words you can say to explain to someone why you felt your cause was so important, or so just, that you think several million people's lives should be ripped apart and have taken from them people they loved. I was lucky that day... not only did I not lose anyone I knew or loved, nor did I have to live in fear or worry until I knew they were safe, but instead I gained someone new to love that day... my son, who turned 6 today and is really great at living and loving life to the fullest extent, perhaps a way to honor the so many people we lost that very same day. I was in labor in the hospital giving birth while the towers were falling down and we watched it on TV. Our local newspaper here did a story a year later as a tribute and contacted me asking for my memories of that day and how it effected me. September 11th is a good day for me, even though something horrible happened to so many on this date 6 years ago... even to myself as a citizen of this country and as a human being. So to everyone who is remembering, or mourning, or NEVER forgetting today, I'll never forget either, but I'll be glad to remeber parts of it for years to come. Hugs, Vivian

Happy Birthday, Jeff! Hope it's a great one! Hugs, Viv

Happy Birthday, Robert! Hope you have a great day! Best wishes, Viv

Happy Birthday, Jared!! Hugs, Viv

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!! Hope you have a great day and a wonderful year!! Hugs, Viv

Sending happy thoughts your way, Vancey, and here's hoping you feel better REAL SOON and can enjoy your two weeks of TLC from that hot nurse of yours! PS. SAM!!! Thanks for taking such good care of him! Love you guys!

Happy Birthday, Drew!!!

FOXY!!!! Wishing you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Make it a great one, you deserve it! Love ya, Viv

My angel ... Dezlboi, surprised me today with something that really touched my heart. Maybe it's cause I know the circumstances from which this was born, but it's also so much more than that. You know when you know someone, you love them, and you watch them struggle and grow through hard situations only to come out the other side stronger than before? It's like... I'm PROUD of him for doing what he needed to do, and though he's not singing to me, he means every word. I can feel the bravery, the struggle, the want in him as I listen to his amazing voice tell me the story. So, he is playing the music, and singing as well, a song that's one of his favorites, and when you peel back the layers to see it for what it really is and what it stands for, I find it beautiful and I was so touched that he did this for me... little me Listen and hopefully you aren't crying like I was, but totally good tears. Thanks, Angel! I love you bunches! The song is "Work" by Jimmy Eat World.

For anyone who's wondering where he is, I got a message from him today that said he was in the hospital and that I could call him, so I did. Turns out he's pretty sick, and in more pain than anyone should be, but he'll be fine in a week and be home. I'll probably call him again tomorrow if anyone wants some messages relayed and I'll leave any updates that I get here. Feel better, Kevin!

FANTASTIC!! I love seeing so many of the people here grow as they write Congratulations! Well deserved! Hugs, Viv

Aww, Luc, She's so lucky to have someone like you to love her

... and Fresno is weird. I waited up for Rich Saturday night till 2 am, or at least I tried to, and then we slept about three hours. I got up and took a shower and got ready to go, woke Rich up to get ready, who took considerably less time to get ready, didn't even shave, and so he had that sexy, scruffy look going on. We get in the car and I drive to Steve's thinking I'll be sweet and he can sleep longer, but apparently when I drive, he can't sleep since he's too busy looking over his shoulder every time I change lanes. Anyway... Steve joined the '7 am is WAY TOO f**kING EARLY' camp but smiled and got in the car, too. So the three of us, possibly altogether with enough sleep for one adult, pile in the car and now Rich is driving cause he prefers that, and I don't want to spend the next four hours listening to Howard Stern and Rich whining about how I drive. We stop for breakfast at McDonald's where they screw up Steve's order after he waits longer than any person ever should at a place termed 'fast food'. Get back in the car and they thought I was joking when I said we were going into the middle of nowhere, but the scenery is like dirt, cows, dirt, grapevines, dirt, tree, dirt, tractors, dirt, mountain, dirt, broken down shed, dirt... I think you get the idea. We keep passing these signs that list the next three major cities and how many miles until you reach them, and they update these signs every five or ten miles and Rich keeps saying, "We only went five miles?" So all the while I'm texting back and forth with Jeff and Davey who was SO missed, and we actually arrived in town at about the same time cause Jeff's calling saying, "Turn at the sign and I'm parked in back by the bookstore." So we do, once Rich passes it and says, "Oh, I guess that was the sign I was supposed to turn at." So we finally end up there and park and I jump out and snuggle my angel and OH MY GOLLY! SO great, seriously, it was like... perfect. Not at all odd, or weird, or uncomfortable, just two good friends snuggling. So I have to pee! cause like hours in the car can do that to a person, so we go in the bookstore and I leave Jeff, Rich, and Steve to talk while I run off to find the bathroom and when I come back Jeff is telling them how Fresno is a weird city, and I agree and cite the directions on how to flush the toilet in the bathrooms as example number one. We decide to eat lunch and walk over to a restaurant that is good, but there is a forty-five minute wait so we decide against it and walk across to another pasta place that is good too and they seat us right away They messed up Steve's order, too! We're eating, and talking, and laughing, and Rich and Steve are a bit quiet, but I expected that, and neither Jeff, nor I, have any trouble having a conversation and bringing people into it, so it was fine. We walked around this World Market store, which is like a Pier 1 Imports, where they sell all kinds of things you would use in your home, like pillows, rugs, candles, furniture, cookware, and enough wine to make my sweetie a happy man and we tried on hats and jewelry and then we walked over and walked around a clothing and skateboard type shop and played around some. I mentioned to Jeff that I told Rich in the car that we should take a picture and send it to someone who wasn't able to meet us there and we missed terribly! and so we do and he said we looked so cute, but Steve corrected him and said, DAMN SEXY! We found the Jamba Juice! We ordered and then Rich and Jeff went outside to grab a table while Steve and I waited for our juice, and it was pretty entertaining to watch Rich try to sit there unnoticed and not talk much while Jeff was clearly pulling conversation out of him. We giggled about that from inside while I think Jeff sat out there likely wondering what we were laughing about and looking at. We sat outside in the shade at a table and talked, and laughed, and drank our juice, and people watched till some over-zealous kid selling mostly melted chocolate bars asked us several different times if we'd like to buy some, so we opted to get out of the heat and away from the kid, so we walk over to the movie theater and decide on 'Superbad' which was hysterical and totally sweet. "I love you, man" *Boop* So while we were waiting to get into the theater, we were talking and I was telling them about this show I'm totally hooked on on VH1 called 'The Pick-Up Artist' and how I love it because it basically takes your average men, nothing really wrong with them, just that they are insecure about something and maybe they aren't strong conversationalists, but basically this guy and his friends are master pick-up artists and they are going to teach these guys how to do it, too. SO great! I love it cause it's like classic men... being men, and this guy teaching them to be confident in whoever they are enough to be able to meet people and make connections. Anyway, once the movie is over and we respectively check on our situations, via cell phone, with the people waiting for us back at home, we head for the cars since it's another five hours back home for us and we're walking through the parking lot and I bump Jeff with my shoulder and he looks over and I'm pouting at him cause I can't believe he has to go home the next morning when it seems like he just got here. So I hug him and he says thanks for driving out to see him and I'm still hugging him and ugh, ten weeks is a long time sometimes. Anyway, so I finally let go and I get in the car and just as we're driving away, I get this text from him that says "Thank you, Sunshine " and I went, "Awwwwwwwwwwww " and Rich started giving me the 'are you crying now?' look which mostly doesn't help the situation, but I didn't cause I was more happy than sad. So, I was the luckiest girl in weird Fresno, cause I had three fantastic, gorgeous guys to laugh with, and have fun with, and hug, too. Also, they had a Jamba Juice, and a Borders, and we saw several gay guys walking around so it gets my seal of approval. Meanwhile, while we were all off having fun and missing our other best pals who couldn't be there with us... Davey is stressing out like crazy! Trying to get the rest of everything in his flat sorted and either packed up, or thrown out, so the new renter can move in this week. I snuggled, and pep talked, and cheered for him via text message, but really, I would have liked nothing better than to be there helping him, not that we would have gotten much packing accomplished hugging each other constantly. He has a LONG boat ride home tomorrow so wish him quiet and a quick ride, no super hero antics this time sweetie! Hugs everyone, except Chris who thinks they're evil, for you my friend you get... what? A high five? Lemme know. Viv PS. P-fat... We SO have to talk about what you missed cause OMFG!

Oooooh! Look guys, we have a new member!! FANTASTIC! Congratulations CJ, proud to be in such good company! Hugs, Viv