Moving to WordPress

I've enjoyed using Blogger, but I'm going to move my stuff over to Wordpress. It's an awesome blogging site. I've used it for school because I can include attachments.

http://meanderingsofscott.wordpress.com

Interesting Blog Post about General Cinema

If you've never checked out the Pleasant Family Shopping blog, you have missed a real treat. I was pleasantly surprised one evening to find out that the author had published some lengthy articles about the history of General Cinema. GCC is long gone now but it has a fascinating history.

Here's a link to some of the blog posts, if you're interested.

• General Cinema Feature Presentation
• The Premiere of General Cinema
  

All Fall Down

Poor Karen came back from her trip to Pampa just sick as all get out. She picked up a virus that has really knocked her for a loop. Then yesterday, I started feeling bad and woke up with a cold today which hopefully won't stick around too long. And to top it off, Robert has either (1) developed a case of food poisoning from dinner last night or (2) picked up the stomach virus that Karen had. I spoke to him not too long ago and my poor baby sounded so miserable. I hope he gets a good night's sleep and feels better tomorrow. I hope we all do!

Ugh!

I woke up feeling a bit sickly this morning, and in the interest of keeping it 'just a bit sickly' as opposed to 'just a lot sickly', I stayed home today and slept for an additional six to seven hours. I had a bit of congestion and a low grade fever, and felt just generally yucky. Ugh! But I'm going to try to get a good night's sleep and maybe I'll be back 100% in the morning. It's no fun just being wiped out and not wanting to do anything!

General Cinema V is now gone

This is sad to me, but such is progress. I worked at General Cinema, Cinema V (that's how we used to answer the phone) from March 1988 to May 1989. It was my first job, and even though it was tedious at times and I longed for more money, I didn't always appreciate what a great job it was until I had moved on to greener pastures. Sometimes when I was having a frantic day at work, I longed for the simpler days when I was dishing out popcorn or taking tickets at the ticket stand. This theater opened in 1979 and stayed in operation into the 1990s. Before I left, they had become a dollar theater. The last big movie we had as a first-run theater was Die Hard in 1988, and it was a huge hit. I saw it many times and I have it on DVD today. We schlepped up and down those back stairs, bringing down bags of popcorn (it was popped once a week, on Tuesdays) in day-glo yellow bags that we emptied into the popcorn warmers. I did just about everything there except run the place. I used to love sneaking up to the projection room and watching the screen from up there.

The theater has been vacant for at least ten years, if not more, and it had just fallen into ruin. On December 23, 2009, demolition started on the building, and it was captured by this YouTube video. I'll always treasure my memories of working there and the fun we had.

Uh, Mrs. Robinson...

We had our monthly movie group yesterday, and we saw The Graduate. I don't think I've ever seen the entire movie. If I have seen it, it has been a long time. I enjoyed it. I knew Dustin Hoffman was just a bit too old for his part, but he's winning and earnest and it's easy to overlook it. Anyone who has graduated from college -- or has come to any fork in the road and needs to make a decision -- has felt what his character is going through. He has worked hard and he has graduated from college. The big question: what do I do now? Most of us knows what happens; he meets the wife of his father's business partner: Mrs. Robinson, superbly played by Anne Bancroft. She plays on so many levels. She is cunning, manipulative, seductive, aggressive, and yet, you sense her insecurity, her desperation, and her vulnerability. She is also jealous of her daughter, played by Katharine Ross. While Dustin Hoffman became a star with this film, Anne Bancroft's performance sticks with you.

Anne Bancroft was one of the top actresses of the last 50 years, and she had a fairly brief starring career in the 60s and 70s. She took a bit of a break in the early 70s, but had memorable performances in The Prisoner of Second Avenue and The Turning Point. I've always liked her tremendously. I first fell for her when I saw To Be or Not to Be on cable television. She and Mel Brooks sang "Sweet Georgia Brown" in Polish! I loved anything I saw her in. She won an Oscar for The Miracle Worker in 1962, reprising her Broadway role as Annie Sullivan, the tough but loving teacher and friend to Helen Keller. In a side note, the Oscar drama that year was intense. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford had just struggled through making their last big picture, the macabre-yet-amusing What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? without having any major blowups. Much to Joan's disappointment, she was not nominated, but Bette was. And Bette had made comments that Joan was a mere movie star while Bette was a real actress. And much to Bette's disappointment, Joan arranged to accept the Best Actress award if the winner couldn't be there, and Anne Bancroft won. Joan got to sail onstage at the Academy Awards, looking like a million bucks, and Bette went home empty-handed.

But back to The Graduate, which was the reason for this post. I think it's a movie that you have to be a certain age to appreciate. If you're just out of high school, you might not think much of it. But if you're the right age, you'll appreciate it and admire it for the stylish and moving film that it is.

Another semester is almost gone!

As my friend and roommate Karen said to me tonight, "It's been a hell of a semester, hasn't it?" Indeed, it has. I've moved, I've started taking better care of myself financially, and I'm managing to hang on in an increasingly insane work environment. I'm getting closer and closer to Robert all the time (almost six months later, and we're still giggly teenagers). As of tomorrow evening at midnight, the semester will end. All work will have been submitted and I'll await the final results. I don't think this will be another 4.0 semester, but if I make B's, that's fine with me. In grad school, you can't graduate with honors anyway.

I'm looking forward to a nice break -- just in time to go Christmas shopping! I have a membership to Amazon Prime, so I can order stuff and get 'free' 2-day shipping.

Reflections on Self-Revelations

Watching the video of Meredith Baxter coming out to Matt Lauer on the Today show made me think back to when I discovered I was gay. Really gay.

I was about 22, I think, and while I had been around sexually for a short time, I couldn't just admit to myself that I was gay. Part of it was shyness and part of it was a conflict with my upbringing. I grew up in the Southern Baptist church and had always been taught that homosexuality was just wrong and one of the most abominable of sins, so I really had a difficult time reconciling what I had grown up with and the dilemma I faced at that time. For anyone who is gay and who has come out, this isn't anything new. And even though I hadn't gone to church in a short while, I still felt strong ties to church, particularly when it came to the big stuff. But I finally had a true heart-to-heart with myself and did some soul searching. Ultimately, I came to believe (and still do) that God would want me to find love and happiness during my lifetime, and that romantic love and happiness would most likely be found with another man.

Speaking of church.... Eventually, my mom outed me to her entire church, and I felt comfortable attending a wedding recently with my sweet Robert. Everyone knew who he was, and he was treated well and made to feel welcome. We even held hands in the back pew!

I had been on dates with women, and while they were generally pleasant, they were awkward and uncomfortable in many respects. I never got beyond a good night kiss. But when I first went out with a guy, everything snapped into focus. I knew that this was how it was supposed to be. It felt truly right for the first time. After that point, I only went out with guys. A gay co-worker took me to my first gay club, and I made out with a gorgeous guy directly under a spotlight.

Cristy was the first friend I told. She knew, but waited patiently for me to tell her, and she was very happy for me. I had met my first boyfriend (we dated for an amazing two weeks during my senior year of college) and I include him on my dating resume because he was a really cute guy and he was the first guy who told me he loved me. And shortly after graduating, I met my first partner, and we were together for almost seven years.

I can't speak for Meredith Baxter, but I'm sure she feels like an extraordinary weight has been lifted. She made a late discovery about her homosexuality, but as individuals, we're all on different wavelengths and timetables, and late discoveries are not uncommon. The main thing is that she did come to terms with that aspect of herself. I'm glad that she has come out and I'm glad to see that she seems extremely happy.

A Night at the Opera

I'm fooling you with this post. Opera as an art form is lovely; I have yet to attend one, but I plan to do so one day. But this post focuses on the Opera web browser. Opera has been around for a while. It is used in a mini-format on many smartphones. I hate Internet Explorer. I use it at work only under duress. It takes forever to load (both on startup and loading web pages) and as is the case with most computer users, I prefer browsers to load quickly, particularly when I'm paying for DSL. I've been using Google Chrome a lot, but it has been behaving oddly lately. I downloaded Opera, and off I went. The pages load quickly, and the browser has a minimum of toolbars to maximize screen space. I'd recommend Opera if you haven't checked it out. There may be some websites that don't work well with Opera, just as there are those that don't work well with Firefox or Chrome or Safari. 

Life in Fab-Euless!

Can I just say this? I'm loving the new place. Karen and I are having a high old time in Fab-Euless. I can't claim credit for the pun on Euless, the charming burg where I now reside. There's a sign posted outside the rental office that proclaims that the apartment complex won an award from some city commerce office about best landscaping or something like that. But they used the word Fab-Euless and it has stuck. Before moving here, I was familiar only with the less-fresh parts of Euless, but I've discovered that I'm in a quite lovely area of town. We're in the Bear Creek area where there are lots of parks and lots of beautiful TREES. And the best part of all: my work commute has been cut in half!

One thing that I'm working hard on is getting my finances under control. When I was with my ex, he did the finances because he seemed to manage that better than I did. However, when I moved here and started adding up credit card balances and payments, I noticed the total was stratospheric. There was no way I'd be able to make those payments. I really didn't have a good grasp on what my financial picture was like, and I can't blame Jeff for that. What happened, I think, is that we went from a dual-income couple to a single-income couple, and we didn't make the necessary adjustments. And I didn't know what the hell was going on. But I can't cry over that now; it would be pointless. The problem has to be fixed. And I've taken definite steps to do that. I'm taking charge of my life again, and I feel empowered. Jeff was very controlling in many ways, and I should have spoken up, put my foot down, or whatever so the insanity could have been brought to a halt. 

Fortunately, I'm surrounded by people now who value living a simpler life. My roommate Karen has been living on a tight budget for years and can squeeze a nickel until the buffalo poops, as the saying goes. My parents have lived simply for years and therefore they were able to adjust to their retirement and reduced income with little or no drama. Life just continues for them and they are better off than many others. And finally, my sweet love Robert has shown me how it doesn't matter what we do or where we go, we're doing okay as long as we can spend time together and enjoy loving each other. Would he rather go to a trendy restaurant and spend $150 on dinner or eat at a local favorite for $20? The local favorite would probably win unless it's a special occasion and we have the money. Karen and I buy our groceries at SuperTarget or a SuperWalmart because, quite simply, we can get the items cheaper. We also supplement our purchases at stores like Dollar Tree and Dollar General. And I'm really thinking hard about every dollar I spend and asking myself if I really need to spend the money and if I'm spending it the best way I can. Why spend $6 for a toilet brush when I can get one for a dollar?

Final Lewisville Days

Today is September 8. Do you know what this means? Before you say, "Well, Scott, it generally means that it's not quite September 9 but no longer September 7," I will throw another date into the discussion. September 26. That is the date that I am scheduled to move from Lewisville to Euless. Sheesh, there's a lot to do between now and then. I have moved many times over the years, and one thing is consistent: it's never, ever fun. I need to lay my hands on some boxes to start the packing process. I found a place online where I can get about a good set of boxes for about $80. Fortunately, I'm not moving an entire apartment. I do have the movers set up. I've never used them before, but they had some good Google ratings, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. For the first time, I'm paying hourly rates for movers. Usually I do one of those 'move by the piece' jobs. My move is costing me about $277, before gratuities. That's really not bad at all for a three-hour move. And it shouldn't take them three hours to move me from a ground floor apartment in Lewisville to one in Euless that is less than thirty minutes away.

It is odd to think that in just a few weeks, I will no longer be driving to and from Lewisville. This will cut my work commute in half. I am happy that Karen and I found a place that is still centrally located so we can get just about anywhere fairly quickly. It's close to the airport, but after growing up in White Settlement, plane noise doesn't bother me anymore. I've been driving back and forth from Lewisville for just over five years now, so getting home in 30 minutes (or less, usually) will be a real treat.

Maybe I'll have an extra 30-60 minutes for blog entries! :)

Health Care - What's Going To Happen?

Gosh, I wish I knew.

I heard a story on the McNeil-Lehrer news hour tonight on the way home where senior citizens were being told that they all were going to be visited by representatives of the government to be asked how they wanted to die. Now, to me, this sounds like undiluted horsepoop for several reasons. First, how would the government have so many representatives to fulfill this task. Second, would the same rule that we have to abide by when talking to government representatives (ask three times and see if you get the same answer) apply in reverse? And third, it's just plain ridiculous.

One of the stories I've heard floating around is that you should get more input in how you want your long-term care to be managed if you have a terminal illness. If that's a true story, I think it's a good idea. Because I would want hospice care. My grandmother suffered a stroke in 2003, and when it was determined that she would not be getting any better, she was transferred to a hospice facility (this one was inside Baylor-All Saints Fort Worth) where she (and my family) received wonderful care during a very difficult time. It barely seemed like a hospital at all, and the nurses were there to make sure that not only was my grandmother able to face her final days with as little discomfort as possible, but that my family had the support necessary to deal with this impending loss. I wouldn't want to spend the rest of my days on life support.

At one time, I thought that socialized medicine would be the way to go, but now I don't think it's the best option. I've heard reports from other countries where government-run health care doesn't necessarily equal quality health care for all.

Can they identify why the health care costs keep rising here and why it is so hard for so many adults and families to afford even basic health care coverage? My brother, for instance, works full time at his job in retail. I'm not sure what he makes now, but I know it's a struggle for him sometimes, and retail jobs do not like you to work overtime. He is having to really look at the coverage offered and the costs involved to see if it's something he can afford, because the coverage is very expensive and would take a big chunk out of his hourly wage. Fortunately, Shane is only 36 and is healthy, but I know he wants to have some kind of health coverage. We all want him to do this. Part of the issue is that his company is not such a large employer that they can command such low benefits for their employees. Small businesses -- at least, the ones that offer benefits -- really struggle to provide this for their employees.

One of my Facebook friends posted some thoughts about letting the free market help contain costs. Sounds like an interesting idea. The power of choice is mighty. In today's economy, so many businesses are struggling because there's so much competition for the reduced amount of dollars floating around. Would insurance companies be fighting to hang on to their customer base? And for that matter, would doctors?

Gosh I miss this show...

I LOVED The Nanny!

Becoming a Eulessite?

This weekend, Karen and I went looking at apartments, and we stumbled across a very nice complex in Euless. Previously, I had never really given Euless a sustained thought. I drive through it every day on the way to work, and I remember the old Hiney Wine commercials from the early 80s. Hiney Wine was supposed to have been, um, bottled in Euless. At least, that's what I recall from the radio commercials. But come September, unless something goes awry in the application process, I will move to Euless and bid adieu to Lewisville. Fortunately, this complex is right at 360 & 183, so it should be an easy drive for me to get to Garland to spend time with Robert. And it should cut my work commute in half.

Update: The application was approved. We take possession of the apartment on 9/26. :)

Love via Facebook

OK, I'm just as surprised at this as anyone. But I fell in love via Facebook, and I'm damn glad that it happened. And I'm also surprised that I'm like a giggly teenager whenever my boyfriend and I exchange text messages throughout the day. Life is full of surprises -- some are horrible, and some are wonderful, and some of them are middle of the road. This happens to be one of the wonderful ones.

Robert and I actually met on Facebook several months ago. I had created a Facebook profile, and a doctoral student from Texas Women's University had spotted me and began to pursue me. He was a nice guy who was incredibly intelligent, but he was coming on in such an intense way that I immediately began to backtrack. I was checking out his Facebook friends list and noticed Robert. I thought Robert seemed like a nice guy who was really damn cute, so I sent him a request to add me as a friend. Robert accepted, and we began chatting with each other. The person who had contacted me from TWU eventually got frustrated with both Robert and me and de-friended us both, but Robert and I stayed in touch. I found that he was great to talk to, and that we shared many common interests. After a while, I started to flirt a bit with him, and he seemed like he was responsive to that. After all, I still had a little crush on him. Finally, I worked up the nerve to just ask him out, and he said that he'd love to meet me. We went out on June 17 and had an incredible evening. We had some follow-up dates very quickly thereafter that confirmed my initial feeling, which was that I had found someone truly special. Fortunately, he felt the same way about me, and we've begun spending as much time together as we can.

He is a sweet, wonderful guy who is beyond cute, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this adventure is going to take us. I'm not seeing anyone else besides Robert, nor do I want to. I've canceled all of my subscriptions to dating sites. He has captured my heart. This all happened very quickly, I must say, but we're both completely fine with this.

Now that I'm thinking about him again, I'm turning into a giggly teenager again. I didn't really get to do this when I actually was a teenager, so I'm enjoying it now.

So, you're 39?

When my mom called me on Friday to wish me a happy birthday, I could hear my dad in the background saying, "Tell him he's working on 40." Well, I guess I am. Though I prefer to say that I'm sitting under the shade tree of 40. I'm saying the same thing, but taking the Southern prerogative of expressing it a bit more lyrically. Today, I went to my aunt's and uncle's for a family cookout. She and I have birthdays that are fairly close together, and I think we had some other events to celebrate, but it really doesn't matter too much. What matters is that we got to eat hamburgers and hotdogs off the grill! And Mom made me a birthday cake! How cool is that??

Actually, I think 39 is an interesting age to be. I'm still young enough to have goals and dreams, yet I'm old enough to have -- hopefully -- learned from my past mistakes. I have a friend who turns 56 this year. She and I are most likely going to be roommates come September, but to me, she seems ageless because she's always up for new experiences and is always looking to broaden her horizons. I hope I can age that gracefully. They say life begins at 40. But isn't 60 the new 40? So, do I have to wait for 60 for my life to begin? I think life begins when you want it to begin.

I'll have to get used to saying I'm 39 now, after finally getting used to saying I was 38. Do you know what I think? I think it would be really cool to get in awesome shape and say that I was in the best shape of my life in my 40s. By the time I'm 40, I will have finished one graduate degree and possibly started another one, so I'm expanding my mind as well as my student loan debt.

So, I guess the point to all of this reflective mish-mash is that I'm perfectly okay with turning 39. And I'll be okay with turning 40. I'm curious to see what's in store for me each year that I'm here.

Stingy With Napkins

If I were Greta Garbo and if I were visiting my local Subway sandwich shop for my early afternoon sandwich of choice, I might say something along the lines of:

"Gimme a turkey sandvich...
Extra napkins on the side...
And don' be stingy, babee"

Movie buffs will recall Garbo's first words on-screen in Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie (1930).

I don't know if it's a 'think green' thing, or a 'think cheap' thing, but I've been displeased to note that fast-food places have become rather stingy when it comes to napkins. I don't know about you, but I need a few napkins when I eat some meals. For instance, when I get my favorite turkey breast sandwich from Subway, it invariably falls apart at some point and the light mayonnaise tends to get everywhere. When I eat at the new Subway downtown, they give out one napkin per order unless you specifically ask for more, and you can only get them from the people at the counter. One time, I was feeling rather reckless, and right when I was handed my change at the Subway counter, I reached around past the cashier and snatched an extra napkin or two, and I thought she was going to slap my hand. She had that look in her eye and I swear I saw her hand twitch. I've noticed the same thing at Taco Bell. They'll give you an entire sack full of hot sauce, yet just one or two napkins. And the napkins and sauce are in their own little plastic sack, as though they were prepackaged so employees couldn't get napkin-crazy and just pass them out willy-nilly. Maybe it is a good way for them to cut costs, but jeez... would one or two extra napkins really hurt anyone? If so, I think they should make the food less sloppy.

A Return to Silliness

To celebrate my dear friend Cristy's birthday -- not that she asked me to do this -- but I'm going to return to silly, entertaining blog posts wherever possible. I've lot some of my zing with this blog and I'd like to get it back. So, hold on to your socks!

Happy Memorial Day

I'm going to make this post short and sweet, since I've seen so many other posts in a similar vein, but here's a big warm salute to all veterans, past and present, who have sacrificed their time, their energy, their abilities, and unfortunately, their lives, for the safety of all Americans. I give thanks not only to you, but to your families as well. My father was in the Air Force (got out just in time to avoid going to Vietnam) and several of my uncles were in other branches of the service. My former partner is a veteran, and if he was any other kind of linguist besides Russian, he might have been called back into service at any point.

I remember when Desert Storm began, and I was working retail at Levitz Furniture. The day of the first airstrike, I was manning the sales counter, and an older couple came up to pay for their purchase. The man looked at me closely and said, "Son, you'd better get ready. You may be called up to go over there." I'm sure my eyes got huge at that, since I hadn't really thought that much about it, but if a draft was called up, I would have had to go. I hope that I could have made that same sacrifice with the same grace and courage as so many others have. 

Transitions

I've been in a wistful mood today. I've met someone whom I think is a serious dating contender, and he's definitely interested. When I got home from my second date with him, I spoke briefly with Jeff and discovered that he had a date for tonight. It made me pause a moment and reflect on how our lives have changed and how we're both moving on, even though we're still temporarily tied together financially. I found myself remembering the early days of my relationship with Jeff, and the time when he first captured my heart. And I guess because I'm going through this process again with another man, it has made me wistful and, yes, a bit sentimental. In September, we'll both go our separate ways, but I know that I will always fondly look back on my time with Jeff, and I learned a lot from him. He probably does not have nearly the same view of me, but maybe that will come with time. Or maybe not. In September, I'm sure I'll be wistful again as we take that final step and split up our possessions for real (right now, it's all essentially a theory, since everything is still in the apartment). I'm moving in with a friend in September (not with a boyfriend) and I think that is a wonderful thing. We can help each other heal and be strong, and I can truly rediscover who I am and get back to the things I love to do.