Here I am!
Yes, I'm still here. Alive and well, but not in a very pleasant time in my life. I've never worked harder, and never been as stressed out about work as I have been in the past few weeks. I am working long hours and even Sunday's. When I get done with work, I call Curt and we meet out to eat somewhere and to have a few beers, then I came home and either fall directly asleep or sit awake have the night tossing and turning. Sometimes I just come home, get on the computer and keep working. I haven't had time to read anybody's Blog lately much less write my own. I miss it. I miss reading about everyone. This is only a temporary slow-down though. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled rambling just as soon as I can manage it.

Thank you to everybody that's been writing to me. Sorry if I haven't gotten back to you yet. I promise that I will soon.

The cosmos slowed me down a little yesterday - I was overcome by a cold that is running through my office and spent the day (doped up by Actifed) dozing on the couch. I also slept soundly last night, and woke up this morning feeling much better. I've decided that today I will not be going into the office. Screw it. Today we will have brunch with friends and I will rejuvinate my batteries.

Oh, and happy Easter everyone.

Kylie on SNL
Just before I hit the sack last night I was channel surfing and happened on Kylie Minogue as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live! This means that she's definitely made it here in the States. Somebody big at SNL thinks so, or at least thinks she's too cool to be ignored. I was surprised to see her on the show, not because I don't like her (because, ya know, I LOVE her) but I would have never thought she'd ever be considered SNL musical guest material. The only thing I've got to question is her taste in background dancer choreography and costumes. What the???? It was like the Robot crossed with Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Love you Kylie, but your dancers need a re-vamp.

Oh, and speaking of hot chicks, something really weird happened yesterday - Curt and I both got really turned on by a girl! We were shopping for new blinds and the girl that helped us, Lisa, was absolutely gorgeous (very Kylie-esque, actually). I couldn't take my eyes off her body, and at one point Curt whispered to me, "She's got a great ass!" We were both getting turned on. Now, I've always preferred straight porn to gay, and Curt was even engaged to a girl at one point in his life, so neither of us have ever exactly been the kind of gay boy to be turned off by women, but I can't remember a time when both of us have been so taken by someone of the opposite sex. Bluntly, we both wanted to bang her and were talking about her in the car afterwards like two horny frat boys.

No need to be concerned about us though, we're still card-carrying members of the Homo-club (we were equally enthused by Josh, the manager of the store). It was kind of intriguing however, to think that under the right circumstances we'd be completely (and happily) capable of expanding our three-way partner choices. Still, one girl in 7 years that’s affected us like that – I don’t think it’s time to cancel our Unzipped subscription quite yet.

Don't waste your time reading this.
Another crazy day, but I mentioned yesterday that it would be like this for a while, right? So why should I be surprised? Actually, I got in at 8am and was out slightly after 5pm (no lunch break, just leftovers woofed down at my desk while reading e-mails), so that's not so bad. Could be worse. It will be worse, and I'm trying to brace Curt for late nights and (eeiks!) perhaps some weekend work in the next few months. I will just need to make sure that when I have my off time that I really and truly take advantage of it (read: sex, drugs, sex, drugs). Maybe I'll even get back to the gym. Strangely, I’m always the most dedicated to working out during the times that my life is the craziest. Since I have to be structured in order to get my work done, I guess it’s easy for me to throw in a daily morning workout as part of my regimen. When I can be less structured, my workouts lapse.

Although I was tired, I still managed to come home and make pineapple martini's (Stoli vanilla, Malibu rum, pineapple juice) and made a lovely dinner of broccoli and toasted garlic linguine (you ever noticed that I only mention what I've made for dinner if it's something I've got the recipe posted for? That's because I'm lazy. I make tons of food all the time but only mention it if I've got a link - I feel obligated to post the recipe for any meal I mention).

I'm blabbing. I'm sure no one is interested in any of this. Are you? I’m sorry.

I'm so tired!
So far this week has been a killer at work, and it looks like things are going to stay rough for a while. Today I worked for 11 hours. I had a massive headache and so slurged on a taxi to get home. Curt had a nice big salad made and a beer ready for me. That's love! At least, that's love when compared to the rest of my day.

I'm still a little sick but I'm better. Just an annoying cough and some morning sniffles.

We went shopping on Charles street for furniture last Saturday, and ate at Artu (great food, not so great atmosphere). That led to a trek to Newbury Street and a visit to (among other places) Pottery Barn. We are on the hunt for an elusive perfect bookcase, and leaving no stone unturned. Anyway, while strolling through Pottery Barn I pass by this cutie sitting on a chair who says, "Excuse me, are you Cory?" He reads the site, and recognized Curt and me! How fun is that?!? Anyway, I think we work near each other. Hopefully he'll be contacting me soon for lunch or to meet out for a drink (are you reading this, John? E-mail me!). Naturally he saw me when I was sick, starting to feel run down, and having just eaten a huge garlicky pasta lunch. Great first impressions, eh? Curt pointed out afterwards that I also had some sort of vegetable matter stuck in my front teeth. Lovely. You think that's ever happened to Madonna? Curt was really tickled about the whole thing though - he thinks it's funny when I get "recognized" (this has happened before). I told Rob and Wendy and they said it was too bad they weren't with us too, then almost the whole cast could have been there (for extra CoryCNC sighting points)!

Saturday night we stayed home and rented Blow, which was okay. I was feeling a little run down and was actually in bed by 9pm. Sunday we went with Rob and Wendy to finally see Lord of the Rings. Good flick! I can't wait to see the other films, and now I'm interested in reading the books. Somehow, all during my geeky childhood, the Tolkien books got by me.

After Lord of the Rings we all went out for a few drinks and some nibbles. We landed in a bar that actually has Sazeracs on their specialty drinks menu! I was thrilled, you just can't find bartenders who know how to make Sazeracs in the Northeast. But although their Sazerac is close to the real thing, it inexplicably included soda water instead of simple syrup, which watered it down. Very disappointing. However, I think I could ask for a substitution next time, which would make it pretty authentic.

Judging from the week so far, I may be visiting that bar and asking for those substitutions sooner rather than later.

Everybody Wants To Know What I Think
Before we went to Florida, we were contacted by the Nielson TV Ratings people and asked to participate in a week-long survey of what we watched on TV. When our logbook arrived, it was accompanied by five crisp one-dollar bills with a thank you and a suggestion to spend the money on a deserving child. Curt instantly thought of using the money for a pack of cigarettes, but then after reading the note realized he was selfish and that what he really should do is buy a pack of cigarettes and hand them out to the neighborhood kids, thereby making many children happy - why pick just one? Personally, I wanted to save the dollars for strippers.

We started keeping our logbook before we left and then continued it in Orlando (I'm sure this was probably against the rules). You'd think it would be easy, but it caused quite a bit of anxiety over what we were going to watch (we took this very seriously). For instance, I asked Curt if he really wanted the logbook to reflect that he watched COPS every single night. I mean, he does, but that doesn't make it right. It made us both really stop and consider the sorts of show we were potentially boosting ratings for. I think we upped the ratings for the Food Network and Home & Garden Television pretty well. MTV, the Today Show, and NBC Nightly News showed up in our log book frequently also.

No sooner had we finished with our week of being a Nielson family than we walked into the Universal Studio's theme park and got asked to participate in a taste-test for a new cereal. Since we were from the same household, only one of us could do it so I was elected. I had to taste 3 variations of the same cereal and rate each on different criteria (sweetness, apple flavor, etc.) Had to take a bite of a saltine and take a drink of water between each sample to "clean my palate". For my 15 minutes of trouble I got two bucks which, I might add, will buy you absolutely nothing at Universal Studio's Orlando theme park. I wanted to tell them that Nielson had given us $5 and that obviously cereal surveys were not where the money was at.

Hot blooded!
Check it and see, I've got a fever of 100.3! Obviously, I'm still sick.

Boston’s little Diamond.
Once upon a time there was a cute little Asian boy who would often visit the sex/video/leather/fetish/lottery store I worked in part-time several years ago. He would come in to buy cigarettes and say hello. The little boy was friends with many of the nice men who worked at this little shop of horrors. He would show me the latest club clothes he’d bought, or talk about the latest remixes he’s heard, or how such-and-such club had been the night before. The cute little boy, you see, worked in a bank during the day as a teller, but loved to go clubbing more than anything in the world.

One day, the cute little boy met my boyfriend, and thought that my boyfriend was very tall and cute (cute little boy has excellent taste). With my permission, little boy liked to jump up into his arms and make out with my boyfriend when he saw him. Little Asian boy also had a very cute boyfriend who was an actor. He had actually been on a soap opera for a while. His boyfriend, when he was in Boston and not acting, often worked as a bartender and liked to make us potent shots called "Black Outs", often not charging us for drinks at all! This made us like the cute little boy’s boyfriend very much.

Sometimes, the cute little boy would go to parties dressed in drag with his friends. They would come into the store, giggling and all dolled up, and have their pictures taken with us poor shop schleps before heading out. The funny thing was that the cute little boy made a very, very, beautiful and convincing woman. Everybody always said so, and cute the little boy began to realize that it must be true.

Eventually, the cute little boy started working in the clubs. He worked very hard and did many dirty chores and eventually even started promoting a few nights. He would put us on his guest lists and was very nice to us. Sometimes he would have drag shows on these nights, and eventually we started seeing the cute little boy in women’s clothing more and more. His boyfriend told us that he was really getting into dressing in drag (his boyfriend wasn’t quite sure what he thought about this new turn of events).

For a long time, we did not go out much and we lost touch with cute little Asian boy completely. We’d still see him in the gay rags, photo’s of him appearing here or there doing drag shows. Eventually, we discovered that he had quit promoting club nights, and was one of the new main attractions at Jacques, Boston one and only drag bar. Our cute little boy had blossomed into a beautiful and well-known Boston drag queen! A show girl! Now Diamond Dunhill (his drag name) amazing and amuses patrons several times a week, and today I discovered that she not only has her own (slightly outdated, but I'm sure she's working on it) web site, but her own Yahoo club, too (I joined immediately, of course)!

We’re so proud! It makes me REALLY feel guilty that we’ve never gone and seen one of her shows. Diamond honey, we’ll come and see you soon, I promise!

I'm Sick.
In retrospect, I suspect I was sick even as I started our vacation last week. The body aches I was feeling and blaming on the horrible mattress in Orlando were probably actually from the start of whatever malady I'm now experiencing. The nausea I felt on that horrible BACK TO THE FUTURE ride at Universal Studios might not have been entirely attributable to the ride. Still, I held out until just last night to completely let myself fall apart. I went to bed cold and sweaty early (after initially drifting off on the couch), and tossed and turned all night with aches and pains. Woke up this morning with a low-grade fever and decided to stay home from work. I've done absolutely nothing all day long except watch TV. You know when the backs of your knees are sweaty that something is not quite right. Y'know? (I've tried to feel guilty about not checking my work e-mail, but the truth of the matter is that I just simply don't. Is that so wrong?)

Hopefully I didn't get anyone I encountered during our trip sick. Let's see, did I make out with John at all? No, I don't think so. We'll have to remedy that next time. I was really thrilled that he came and met us out. I've only ever been involved with one other "Blog-meet" and even though you think you have a pretty good idea what someone is like from reading their Blog, there's always the chance that you could be caught totally off guard. Everyone could potentially be a psycho-Blogger, I suppose (or at least, boring in real life). Turns out our handsome Akafrankgreen is handsome, intelligent AND funny. Unfortunately, tentative plans to meet out with him later on Friday night for even more party games didn't pan out. We were way too bushed and drunk to even consider a late-night meet-up at Backstreet. Oh what a wild ride that would have been though, I'm sure! I can't wait for this summer when he heads up to my part of the world for a little R&R in Provincetown. I'd better warn the town.

Too bad Walt was busy whooping it up in NYC. Hopefully fate will put us in the same place at the same time soon.

Curt is on his way home now. He is going to make me grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner. Yum!

Memories of our trip.
Orlando: Tanning by the pool and soaking in the hot tub our first day (our one and only day of warm, sunny weather the whole trip) then going out and having a nice dinner with Curt's parents. Making huevos rancheros for breakfast, shopping, and driving through Celebration. Making a big dinner and smoking cigars. A fun day at Universal Studios and a romantic dinner at Emeril's with Curt.

Atlanta: Lunch with friends Stu and Chris, meeting up with John at Blake's (more on that to come), being taken to East Atlanta for some barcrawling (including here), lucking into a cab to get back to Midtown to meet Rob and Wendy. Driving all around Atlanta the next day, lunch with Wendy's Mom, sister and friends. Getting a tour of Wendy's parent's house in Peachtree City, toasting Chris' new condo in Little 5 Points with champagne, a quick dinner before heading to Swinging Richard's for some eye candy and then back to Blake's. Ended the night at Backstreet with drag queens, club kids and lots of liquor.

Flying home and having Boston a lovely 60 degrees - the warmest weather we'd seen since our first day in Orlando. Falling into our own bed last night at 9pm and sleeping like a baby for almost 10 hours. It was fun to be gone, but it's good to be home!