Hey everyone...sorry for the long time between posts.  I have officially given up home internet.  I am getting so much done!  Here's a quick rundown:

*I have a show up at Stella's Diner (Broadway and Barry in Boystown) and am doing a huge mural for outside the building, as well as in talks to do much more art for the building!

*As you know from the last post, my grandma died in September.  That was so hard, I'm just now starting to realize it's true.

*I went to NYC with someone whom I will call a former friend.  Had a great time, finally met Pedro, who was so awesome I can't stand it!  I really wanna move there next year.

*I Got a commission to do a portrait of Louis PRima, and there is a guy interested in three of my other pieces.

* I went out for Halloween as (Saturday) a giant vagina, and (Sunday) as JErri Blank.  I won the contest at Jackhammer as Jerri Blank!  50 bucks and a few gift certificates!  YAY ME!

I am in Iowa...not by choice.  Last weekend I was in NYC, living it up.  More on that next post.  When i got back Monday, my sister called and told me that my Grandma had died.  Needless to say, I wasn't expecting it.  She was 92, and had apparently been having a few bad days leading up to Monday.  So I am staying at my sister's house until Friday night. 
    My favorite memories of my grandma are her cookie jar (ALWAYS full)  brunches at Bishop's Buffet on Sundays with her and my mom, then going to Target and getting toys, and all the parties on her patio on the river. 

     So a few weeks ago, I sold a Strangers With Candy T Shirt to Mark, the bartender at Jackhammer.  Last night I saw him at the bar and he told me he showed pix of it to Amy Sedaris and David Sedaris (He did Second City with them) He said she LOVED it, and took my card and told me to expect a call from Amy.  Wouldn't that be RAD?????????????????????  I heart her!  I will keep you posted  :)

Tonight I received an email from someone I used to date when I lived in Iowa.  Things ended sorta badly.  He cheated, I found out, pissed in his car and we sort of didn't recover from that.  Well, he didn't anyway.  BUT ANYWAY...he told me that he was going to be in Chicago and asked if I'd like to have dinner with him.   Now my first instinct was to say hell  no and tell him that he could lick my butt. 
    However, that being said, I started thinking about it.  I'm about 70 pounds less than when I left Iowa.  I've gotten my priorities straight(er) and I know where I wanna be in 5 years.  Which is a lot more than I can say for how I was when I lived there three years ago.  Alec was a chubby chaser who was more concerned with quantity over quality.  He picked guys who had no self esteem and would do whatever he wanted them to.  That WAS me.   But not anymore.   So who knows, I am still ambivalent about the whole thing.

I hate my job

    Last night I had the strangest, most disturbing dream in a while.  My brother was trying to bring my mom back from the dead, and my sister was g oing to help him, though I think she was ambivalent about it.  I was convinced it was a bad idea, because I have seen way too many episodes of Buffy.
    My dad had a male companion who lived with him, but I don't think they were gay.  He was in on the plot, but I was still trying to convince my brother it was a bad idea.  He said I would help them and had no choice.  I ended up running to the police station, which was the old police station in Princeton.
    The police chief was soeoen I recognised, but I couldn't put my finger on who he was.  He told me he thought I just needed some rest, and I should go home, but I was kind of hysterical and he thought I was crazy.  Then my dad's companion came and said I was feeling sick.  That's the last thing I remember.
     I am writing this dream down for two reasons. First, as I said, it's weird that a dream stays with me like that all day.  Second, I think i know the reason behind it.  This past  weekend on vacation, I went to my sister's party in Davenport Iowa.  It was a great time, and my sister really knows how to throw a party.  I had originally planned to write an entry about it and the rest of my vacation, but it seems irrelavant.  The part  that really sticks out is my brother.
     My brother was always the jock in the family.  He was always the one my dad bonded with because he was into sports, hunting, fishing, etc.   I bonded with my mom over theater and art.   My brother was always the pragmatic one, the one who bought a house when he was 22 or 23, I forget which.   He was also the one who had everything laid out before him.  College, good job, marriage, blah blah blah.
    He married a girl named Laura, who comes from a pretentious family outside Park View Iowa.  Her dad was a farmer who lost the farm TWICE, and has pretty much lost all his jobs due to his own incompetence.  My brother has even bailed him out financially once.  My sister-in-law is a very judgemental person who has always had very unkind things to say about me as well as my family.  Most of my family cannot stand her, but in t he interest in family relations, no one rocks the boat.
     My brother and her have been married for 6 years, and they recently moved into my dad's house when he bought a smaller one nearby.  My brother and  I always had a fairly friendly relationship, while Laura and I remained cordial at best.  She knew i didn't like her sister, based on a comment her sister made at their rehearsal dinner.  (My mom was dying slowly and was confined to a wheelchair.  Her sister Lisa said to one of her friends"I hope she isn't coming to the wedding in THAT condition."  Needless to say, a LITTLE insensitive.  And I will forever hattte her for tthat commentt.) Now you get the idea on the kind of family Laura comes from.
       I have always been the one who does different jobs, and am not the one interested in having a high powered corporate career.  Or, as my brother and his lovely wife think, I've been a loser.  For  the simple reason that I do not want to work for some huge corporation.  I can see how that might b e construed as me being the antichrist.  But I digress.   Laura and Terry  bought my dad's house.  Because I have an apartment with next to no storage, my dad was storing a lot of my Star Wars toys at his house.  When they moved out, I was told that if I didnt get all of t hem ou t immediately she would throw them out.  My sister was also given an ultimatum.
     Not too long after that we were all at my friends' weddingt reception and she blew up at me about my toys in front of EVERYONE.  I replied "Ok Laura, maybe we can turn the bitch meter down from 11 to a three?"  That got a laugh, but it strengthened her resolve to hate me and everything I stood for.  She picked the wrong faggot to fuck with.  I ignored her at Christmas, and whenever I came home to visit.  My brother in law Mark and I have a good time when he gets a little loaded and she's around though.
    Now that I have bored you to tears, let me  tell you the last straw.  This weekend when i stopped by my brother's house with my Dad, my brother had a Bush-Cheney bumper sticker on his car.  I asked him if he was serious, and he said he was.  The Fox News Channel was on, so I figured e really WAS serious.  So I asked him the next day why he supported Bush.  He said a few reasons that all basically boiled down to greed.  I asked his opinion on a few things:
     Affordable health care:  "Get a good job and youc an afford health care."
      Gay Marriage: (BIG one for me) "You shouldn't be allowed to get married, it's a special right. (???) He supports civil unions.  Iasked what the difference was "Marriage is a sacrament."  This from someone who hasn't gone to church since our mom's funeral in 2000. 
     Shipping Jobs overseas:  "Why shouldn't comanies ship jobs overseas?"  When I asked him if he'd be upset if his company did that, he said "I'm in sales, I don't have to worry about it."
    I didn't get a chance to ask him about why my sister couldnt find a full time teaching job, because other guests started to arrive at the party.  He would have just had the same smug-Fox-Newscaster-on-a-high-moral horse look on his face I am sure.  And his lovely wife got ALL bitchy again later when I made a joke about her and her husband being yuppies.  Thankfully my sister's friend Megan was there to share knowing looks all night.
     Basically I think my dream was about my  brother and I and how we see things in completely different ways and how I think he is doing the wrong thing in supporting a president who doesn't support anyone but his oil company cronies.   And how he is so brainwashed that he is convinced he can do impossible things, and bully people into following him.   Am I totally off base?  One thing is for sure, I've pretty much decided that  I can't have a relationship with him or his wife And I know I should be sad about that, but my life is WAY too short to deal with people who don't support me in any way.
    

    

     Hello again poppets...just got home from a movie.  Well, half a movie.  I went to see The Village with a 'friend'.  For the first forty minutes a 'gentleman' in the back row, as well as his apparent common law wife and their daughter and son in law, talked the entire time.   Said gentleman had the voice of Barry White.  After the second time I looked back and asked them to be quiet, I finally turned around and said "If I wanted the commentary, I'd have waited for the DVD!"      So they kept talking and finally we got up and walked out and got free passes to see it again.   Maybe next week, I dunno.  I have also started to paint clothing.  It started when I painted an Andy Warhol on a shirt, it turned out so well I was inspired to do even more.  So we shall see.
     We are having an 80's theme costume party at the end of the month...gotta go send out the Evite now...more later

     It's 3 am and I just got home from Market Days.  Saw Pansy Division and chatted a bit after the show with John and Chris, and Luis gave me a drumstick.   We reminisced about the show we did together in Ames.  I can't believe it was so long ago!  Hung out with Dan and his whatever he is and his friend, then met up with Carlos and Ryan for a bit. 
     Steeeeeeve called and I decided to go over and talk with him for a while.  He was  the smart one and decided to call it an early night, so we sat and chatted for a bit about everything.  He is trying to get me a Warhol print from a friend...so that's cool. 
     Andre and I wore the Jerri Blank shirts that I made, and I gave away about thirty business cards for people who want shirts...so maybe I can make some other cash before NYC.  I really  hope so, because I wanna go to the Pop Shop real bad.   Also talked to this boy at MD who is from Manhattan and gave me his nuber and told me to call him when I get there, because he is here a lot on business.
      I wish it was the early 80's again.  And that I was like 21 then, so I could go to NYC and meet up with Keith and Andy and J-M.  Wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one comes true first, as my dad always says!   I just reread this entry and realized how boring I am  :)

      I'm tempted to use this forum to bitch about the bad things that have been happening lately.  BUT...I think I'll TRY to stay positive about things that are looking up.    I was going to rant about getting involved with another stupid Latino with a daddy complex, but I think I have already given them all the time they deserve.   And work, well, it wouldn't be called work if it were playtime, now would it? 
     I'm getting excited about going to New York, since I have never been there.  And now I am going to have Friday all to myself.   I'll have to see what kind of trouble I can get myself into.  I seem to be pretty good at that.  John's planning a lot of things for us to do, and  Patrick and his husband want to take me out Friday night.  Should be a blast.
      We're planning a party for the 28th of August.  I hope it's as much fun as the last  one.  Well, in a different way, because this time I can have more fun with my friends than last time.   I won't feel like I have to entertain any one person too much  :)

Art is words from a friend.  It's P!NK. It's Keith.  It's Andy. It's Jean-Michel.  It's Madonna.  It's Saturday nights dancing at Jackhammer.  It's seeing Jordan on cam.  It's waking up with Martin on top of me. It's having kind words from Ronnie.  It's having one day where money doesn't matter.  It's 'Strangers With Candy'. It's turning the corner at Midway and seeing a Keith Haring mural.  It's No Doubt. It's Liz Phair.  It's Duran Duran and Culture Club on the stereo at work.  It's American Life. It's a two hour hike in the woods.  It's the really hot naked guy at Touche.  It's 'The Lovely Bones'  It's Queer as Folk.  It's Zombie movies.  It's scary Zombie dreams.  It's finding Star Wars toys when I want them.  It's the train on a nice day.  It's the hope that it will all be okay. It's a cute Latin guy across from me.  It's an unexpected birthday gift.  It's leaving a half  hour early. It's Kill Bill.  It's lilacs at my bedside. It's Trading Spaces.  It's hits on my website tripling.  It's the beach on a beautiful day.  It's Impressive Instant.  Freddy Vs. Jason.  It's WILD STYLE.  It's Downtown 81.  It's Kool Aid.  It's Courtney Love.  It's Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  It's resident Evil.  It's Revenge of the Sith.  It's Pansy Division.  It's a new puppy. It's Augusten Burroughs.  It's David Sedaris.  It's Amy Sedaris.  It's you.  It's me.