Rainy Days and Mondays

Horror of horrors. My passport expired last week and I forgot all about it.

I hate knowing I can’t get out of a country run by Dubya on a moment’s notice. I really hate that. I’m filling out the forms right now to remedy such a precarious situation.

__________________________

Winter has marched in like a big ‘ol lion here in Illinois. It was raining this morning here in Chicago but it's supposed to change to ice and snow.

So, this morning, I cancelled my staff meeting in Springfield since it will be icy down there today and four-to-eight inches of snow are forecast for tonight. I don't want any of my staff jeopardizing their safety on icy roads. Besides, if any of them had had an accident, my job would be toast.

On one hand, I’m kinda bummed out because it takes SO much planning to schedule a statewide staff meeting. Hotel reservations, meeting room, catered lunch, close-caption interpreter, getting speakers lined up and on board, etc. I’ll have to do it all over again.

On the other hand, I’ll be all snuggly in the bosom of my own apartment tonight. Bosoms are good that way.

___________________________________

Oh, and the case of Sortilège is being delivered today and I’ll be home to receive it. I’ve no intention of drinking a whole case of Sortilège – it’s just that the pretty, 375 ml. bottles of this difficult-to-obtain liqueur make such good hostess presents and Christmas gifts.

Like I said, this stuff is difficult to obtain but I found a distributor here in the U.S. that sold it for less than half price at $11.99 a bottle. I checked back online and now they no longer carry it. Apparently, I cleaned them out.

I just LOVE finding good deals like that. I'm feeling kind of "Sortilegious" at the moment.

If you really want to buy it, (and I highly recommend it) go to Froogle.com and do a search for “maple whisky” or “Sortilege” and a couple of places will pop up selling it anywhere from $22.00 to $29.00 per bottle.

_______________________

Right now, my dad and step mother are on their way to Las Vegas for three days. Dad went online and got half-price tickets to see Mama Mia. He said Bette Midler was sold out.

Rock on, Dad!

I reminded him that “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” even though I doubt they'll get into too much trouble listening to lots of Abba tunes.

I'm Cheap -- Sometimes

I hate to see anything go to waste. Sometimes, I find myself being pretty cheap.

For example, I stay in lots of hotel rooms while traveling for work. You know those little bitty shampoos and bars of soap that are on hand?
I save them.

After all, I use the little shampoo and bar of soap only once and you know the maid service will just throw it all away when they clean the room.

I don’t take the conditioner or body lotion. I don’t use them so I seriously doubt that it gets thrown away if it’s unused. But I just hate knowing that my once-used shampoo will be thrown away, so I take it and pour it into a big bottle of shampoo when I get home.

However, there is one thing I won’t scrimp on:

Tickets to see Bette Midler. (Please refrain from saying anything about gay stereotypes. . . .

Okay, go ahead. It’s too easy).

I first saw Bette Midler in The Divine Miss M in New York City when I was only sixteen years old. I was with a group of high school students on a theatre tour sponsored by the American Thespian Society.

Her show wasn’t on our pre-paid itinerary but our sponsor said we could go if we wanted to. However, we’d have to shell out the exorbitant sum of (are you ready for this?) twenty-five dollars. Gasp!

I had saved up for this trip by working a lot of hours at the Dairy Queen after school for $2.20 and hour. I didn’t hesitate one moment to see Bette. Somehow, even though I was only sixteen, I knew that paying lots of money to see her was what My People do.

In 1993, I was living in Dallas and Bette was performing in Austin. A good friend of mine lived in Austin and we were both big fans of Bette. She and I had even performed several Bette Midler tunes together over the years. So, naturally, we had to go.

We paid for the best seats in the house. I think we paid about eighty bucks for our seats. As a matter of fact, while we were waiting for the show to begin, this woman with big, platinum blonde hair sat right in front of us. It was Governor Ann Richards, who I might add, thoroughly enjoyed the show.

The same friend called me last night. “You have to promise me something,” she said immediately.

“Umm. Okay.”

Apparently, Bette Midler’s new show, The Showgirl Must Go On, had just opened in Las Vegas at the same huge theatre that Celine Dion had just finished using. (It seats 3,400 people). Bette will be performing there for the next two years.

So, I promised we’d go to Las Vegas even though neither of have any interest, whatsoever, in ever going to Las Vegas.

I checked it out and the best seats in the house are about three hundred bucks.

No problem. We’ll be sitting in them.

After all, it’s Bette Midler. You don’t scrimp when it comes to Bette Midler.

(Okay, you may begin with the gay stereotype jokes now).

Oh, and I’ll be returning from Vegas with the little bottles of shampoo from the hotel.

Vote!

Hey, look!

I just added a poll-thingie to my sidebar thingie.

I'm so surprised it worked. I can mess up a website with HTML pretty quickly.

Regarding Rosie O'Donnell leaving "The View," frankly, I don't think she's really appropriate for that program. While I wholly support her views, I think the spat with Donald Trump was a sad display of two adults acting like five-year-olds.

Frankly, I'd love to see Whoopi Goldberg slip in to fill the vacancy. She's funny, articulate, and can voice her political opinions with humor and a clever wit that I love so well.

While a lot of the gays like Kathy Griffin, I think she's pretty pathetic in that her entire schtick relies on the slamming of other celebs. What's worse is that when the tables are turned, she's the first one to bang on her high chair.

So? Who would you vote for? Take the poll and let's see how it goes. If you have any other ideas for polls, just let me know.