tom's trip part 1: the overview

for a description of tom's trip: the series click here

la la la... i sing my music too loud, i drive my car too fast, and i eat too many gummi bears. i'm on my way to omaha. and for one of the first times in a long time i'm excited for the trip - i'm going to san diego dammit!

steve is a bitch

lunch w/ my parents on thursday was fun - but i was ready to fly out of town. after getting done w/ that, steve was tired so he napped, i headed downtown for a little walk down memory lane (actually, i went to the adult bookstore, but that's a whole nother story). in my absence i guess drama broke out between steve and his ex... he called me and (yes) asked me if he could go on vacation alone. alls i could think of to say was "um... ok... but what the FUCK am i suppossed to do now!?!?!" he just said i don't know. he bought my plane ticket... he could eat it i decided.

family ties

so's i call my parents and give them the great news! i'll be seeing them again REAL soon! like in 20 minutes! dad asks what i want for dinner, comfort food you know. beer and brats - and stat! no more than 1 hour later mom and dad walk in the door, dad pops a beer open and thrusts it at me, i do the next logical thing... i go to the front porch and smoke. still bitching about steve.
i stayed w/ my parents for a few days. i was liberated! i had freedom! and i was no longer upset w/ steve... hell, he gave me a gift... an unexpected vacation that i was going to have a killer time on!

god i love hotwire

my mom is an online freak. i mean, a real freak. she almost instantly got a crazed look in her eyes when she realized i had almost an entire week to go out on vacation, she jumps on line and finds me trips to everywhere from nyc to florida to toronto to vegas. i love my mom, but by this time i had already decided that my destination would be chicago/steamworks (which i tactfully chose not to tell her) and so the searching went from looking for destinations to looking for flights and hotels. cause of my financial situation i wanted to only spend the money in my pocket - driving seemed the best bet. a stay in the burbs on saturday night and then a couple nights downtown turned out to be a really good deal! the hotels were booked, i went out w/ my sister to the bars and oogled over her gorgeous boytoys, and i went to bed toasty warm ready to leave for my next big adventure!

on the road again

saturday morning, say good bye to the parents, saturday afternoon, say hello to chicago, illinois! there i was, a mere 3 days after driving to omaha, back on the road again. it was hellish thinking of a 7 hour trip ahead of me, but then i realized that this was the beginning of something exciting and new (communial sigh). i was off to see the wizard, or at least find the wizard in me. i was going to go on vacation, forget about the snags that started the trip, and live like i've never lived before: without apology, without accountability, without anyone to answer to, and without care... the world was mine, the road was mine, and chicago... well, that was going to be mine when i got done with it = )

...

fringe update

whoo hoo for the theatre mojo fringers! and congrats on a sold out house!!!

last night's show was amazing. smooth running, tight dancing, and an audience that made all the difference in the world - this show could seriously go down as one of the top fringe shows for this year.

see the show! go to the website and review it! tell all your friends!

come see me do fog!

on a cig and a prayer...

all my friends, please forgive me in advance for my distance for the next week or so.

fringe is taking a TON of my evenings for the next 10 days.

work is crazy as i'm covering for 1/2 the team who are out on vacation or teaching for a week at at a time.

karma is nippin' me in the arse for leaving all these poor folks for a week while i went on vacation.

my only salvation is cig -n- coffee breaks and the almost constant prayers for my sanity (please god... just let me keep my sanity for just a few more days).

Miss Biracial upper Midwest

destined to be the 2004 fringe festival favorite, miss biracial upper midwest is a fantastic show about a beauty pagent in superior, wi, and all the wonderful cattiness and bitchiness that ensues. guaranteed to make you laugh at you and your own nationality, this is a MUST SEE!

not to mention that i'm crewing and know first-hand that this show kicks ass!

remaining shows:

monday, august 9th - 8:30pm

thursday, august 12th - 5:30pm

friday, august 13th - 4pm

sunday, august 15th - 7pm

all shows are at the red eye theatre, 15 west 14th street, minneapolis.

"ask me about miss biracial at the red eye!"

super yay!

sweet mary mother of jesus christ my super-duper friend, i just finished a huge project here at work!

i'm proud to say that the new "db2 advanced topics: visual explain" training will be available for all is associates to take as of this monday, august 9th!

freakin' yeah!

tom's trip: the series

in an attempt to blog my trip, i've decided to break it into four sections. this will not only categorize my trip for you, but will also allow me to continue my daily blog-rantings and randomly send out the trip posts throughout the next week = ) the series is as follows:

part 1: the overview - an overview the overall drama that made this the best vacation tom's ever taken

part 1 hilites: "steve is a bitch"; "family ties"; "god i love hotwire"; and "on the road again"

part 2: the shopping and food - a hilite of the shops and foodplaces i indulged in

part 2 hilites: "boystown"; "the magnificent mile"; "food, glorious food"; and "beatnix"

part 3: the moments i'll never forget (precious moments version) - a very hallmark, feel-good, make you sigh in contentment listing of the moments that really stick out in this trip as making it very special to me.

part 3 hilites: "the sun and moon and stars at night"; "stadiums of corn"; "fireworks across the skies"; and "ahhhhh"

part 4: the moments i'll never forget (the skank-a-dank-dank-dank version) - a no-holds-barred, skanky, slimy, oozey, goozey, melee of my most dark moments on the trip, guaranteed to bring blush to even the most perverted of my friends *evil grin*

part 4 hilites: it's all a surprise...

so there you go! let the adventures begin!!!

guess who's home!!!

yeah my friends, i'm home!

i had, quite possibly, the most fantastic vacation ever, who knew that it could have turned out so well.

but i'm at work, i have about 200 emails to go through, i have meetings all day long, and a project to wrap up. unfortunately i am not able to write much at all about the trip at this moment.

i promise to write a cubic ass-load of stuff when i get the first opportunity (maybe tonight?).

my hugs to everyone - it's good to be home. = )

Tom's doing well!

yes my friends, i'm doing well.

contrary to popular belief, i'm doing VERY well. i'm excited to spend some surprise time w/ my family, and i'll be on my way to chicago tomorrow at this time (sorry amber and jen... flights to denver are WAY too much right now, believe me, you were my first choice of destinations.)

speaking of destinations... here were my choices... and reasons for not going:

denver - jen and amber are there, but flights were too much and driving there would mean driving all the back to the cities on the way back... thats about an 15-18 hr trip just to go home... too much for me.

vegas - awe-jeah baby, but i've never been there, and a few days in vegas would be too overwhelming.

toronto - love that city, but didn't want to pay $500 for a trip deal there, too fun to go back there though!

nyc - i almost shit my pants when i thought of going back there, but alas, too much money and not nearly enough time to cover what i'd want to do.

seattle - randy and craig, but again, too late in the game.

sydney - pshaw! after the flight i'd have enough time to get a coffee in the airport and head back home again... plus, my passport is expired

chicago - it's close, i know the city better than any other city besides the cities and omaha, i can get a hotel there for $41/night, i've wanted to go there for a while alone, i love the night life, and for my "family" friends... two words: boystown and steamworks. *snicker*

so by the process of elimination (and financial introspection) chicago won. now... how long i'll be there or what i'll do there is totally up in the air... i'm a man w/ cash and vacation time... don't get in my way = )

till the next time! keep checkin in on me!

*hugs*

MAJOR change of plans my friends...

yeah... so in that ever so tom fashion, my life now has climaxed in drama.

this morning drama and crisis broke out in my friends house (the one i was going to sd w/)... long story short, through all the drama he decided he needed to go do sd alone.  quick disclaimer: steve and i are ok... the drama was with his ex.

so anyway, it's 7:33, the plane left an hour ago from omaha, steve should be landing in MY hometown any minute now... the bitch. 

so what do i do now you say???

well, i don't have to be to work till thursday of next week... i have $800 cash in my pocket... and i'm dying for a vacation. 

tonight i've decided to stay at my parent's place, right now we're making brats and drinkin' beer (i love my parents).  tomorrow they're trying to convince me to stay another night... i might, i guess i have no reason not to!  the ultimate goal is to head over to chicago now.  get a cheap hotel in the burbs, take the train in every morning, and just checkout chicago as i never have before.  sounds fun doesn't it?

i'm very disappointed that i won't be in sd this weekend, i've been estatic for this since may 7th when we got the tickets... but since i didn't bjy the ticket i'm not fretting too much - i've always wanted to be more spontaneous in my vacation plans... here's the chance for tom to have the ultimate experience in freedom - look out world... there's a possibility tom may have even more stories to tell when he gets back from THIS adventure  *evil grin*

as always... i promise i'll be safe, but i can't promise i'll be good.

i gots my celly w/ me... call me!!!

*hugs to all*

3 hours and counting...

till i head out for omaha!!!

well, the morning is over, so is the i.s. summer picnic (in which i was in the i.s. band).  now all i have to do is deal w/ this place for a few more hours and then bow out officially.

my plan is to blog from san diego a bit if i can get access to the internet from where we're staying.

until then... i PROMISE to be safe... but i won't promise i'll be good  *evil grin*

adios!

EEK!!!

tomorrow i'm going to san diego!!!!!

i can't freakin' wait - stuff has gotten so out of hand at work and in my personal life that this vacation gets more and more anticipated by the very second.

GOD i gotta leave.

side note - i hate what coffee does to my system... not pretty, but so difficult to give up.  but that's another whole blog.

Whell peoples,

3 days till i'm basking in the so-cal sun... ahhh, how did i get so lucky!?!

this weekend was fun.  the basics:

thursday - fun night w/ the straights

friday - second to last show, and an 'encounter' w/ the pianist

saturday - what the hell did i do on saturday?  oh yeah... i woke up at the pianist's house then ran off to breakfast w/ him, then went home to do lots of prep work for my vacation, then did our final show (yay!) and drank w/ my girlfriends  = )

sunday - the perfect day.  coffee at my coffee shop for a couple hours in the beautiful fall-like morning, went to work for a couple hours, finished some laundry, did some shoppin', ate w/ jess and two of her sisters, then home to do more cleaning and watching of extreme makeover: home edition (bawled like a baby too... it was the one where the kid's parents died).

so as you can see, busy, but relaxing and fun weekend.  so fulfilling and so great.

3 days!!!  god i can't wait...

***mark this date***

july 22nd, 2004... amy praught of saint paul, minnesota told me that she noticed kerry and edwards look like bert and ernie!

this is (hopefully) the first cyber-entry of it's kind on this subject - now we see how long it takes for people to pass this on and realize they look like our first favorite gay puppet couple!

kudos to amy for this great ephiphany!

p double-o p

that's what i feel like this morning...

last night was the bday party for a new friend/co-worker of mine at fahrenheit night club in minneapolis.  and what a hot time  = )  first of all, it was ladies night.  so all the gals in the group were drinking these overly phu-phu highly acidic appletinis... actually they were really good, i'm just jealous that i wasn't able to drink them for free... stupid penis.  but the plus side was guys got $3 bacardi cocktails, ooh girlfriend - yipee!

we opened the place up and had a wonderful time - then the bday gal's freakin' HOT husband bought us into the vip suite in the dance bar... a bottle of nice bubbly and shots all around later and tom had decided he was having a fun time!  oh, and a very nice (partially expensive) cigar.  i had really never partied at a 'straights' club before and i must say this was an amazing first-time experience.  hmmm, you straight people aren't so bad afterall... huh.

when it become obvious to myself that i was the only person left in the group that had to work the next morning i decided to go home (circa 1:30am).  i grabbed the two most important women in my life, amy and jess, and walked through the nice, cool, minnesota summer evening back to my car and we drove to my place.

somehow in the course of the next 45 minutes an amazing thing happened - somehow i went to the bathroom and ended up on the picnic table in the front of my building eating ketchup-only quarter pounders and a big mac w/out the mac... now note that it's 2:30am.  what a great time!  amy, jess, and i just couldn't hold our bladders, nor our hunger, so we went to my place to leak then turned right around to go to the 24hr mc-d's.  god bless 24hr mc-d's... and to think they both thought i was kidding when i said it was 24hr - *grin*

so my evening left me w/ 4 1/2 hours of sleep before waking up... it also left me with a freakin' HUGE headache... but of the $50 i went into the night with, i only spent $34.  totally those straights can really party!  and i love the rockin' moroccan!

The stunning conclusion...

what happened you ask?  well, let's just say sa has the best ham salad sandwiches around and i love starbucks doubleshots  = )

yeah... i got tired, decided it was kinder to my body and soul just to go home and go to bed... sometimes going out and partying and being a crazy boy just isn't the funnest thing to do - sometimes my pillow is much more inviting than a beer next to a cute boy.

well folks, it's a terrible day to be at work... i must leave you once again and join the craziness of mn life!

smooches to all!!!

(ooh, and 6 days till san diego!!!)

yes...

the posting time is correct... it's officially 11:21 PM central standard time.

phantom of the opera was kick-ass amazing... even for the 5th time.  but it wasn't amazing enough cause i'm back at work.

now don't think i'm doing this for sympathy though... i'm doing this to let you all in on my major dilemma... you see, i haven't eaten since lunch and i'm starved.  i'm also dry as a whistle and want a beer really bad.  there's an sa down the street and also a gay bar (trikkx). 

now do you see my dilemma?  you don't?  well let me spell it out for you in plain ol' english:

I'M HUNGRY, HORNY, AND PARCHED... THERE'S WORK THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE... BUT IT'S ALMOST TOMORROW AND I WAS GOING TO COME IN EARLY ANYWAY.

sorry... caps lock was on  *sheepish grin*

anyway... what's a gay man to do?  i've got loyalty to my job... but i also have loyalty to my throat and stomach... oh... why me!?!?!?!?! 

ooh!  i wonder if they'd deliver a couple miller lites and a burger to 400 robert street north...

hmmm.....

Overtime... again.

yeah folks, tom's working overtime again tonight.  i guess that's what i get for getting myself into a job that requires so much of my being... but damn, overtime on an exempt salary?

exempt, for those of you who are unfamiliar w/ the term, means that i don't get paid for overtime.  supposedly the 'big bucks' they're already paying me somehow figures in that i'll be working my ass off past 40 a week occasionally during the year  *shrug*

wanna hear something funny?

well, i don't have anything funny to say... so if you're really that desperate for a funny... well... go look in the mirror.

HA!  i just made a funny!!!

301536 minutes and counting...

TILL CHRISTMAS!!!

i got totally freaked this morning when i realized that x-mas is around the corner... all morning i've been listening to my slew of christmas music on my ipod... go jesus!

My blog

lately i've gotten complaints from friends that my blog is, well, simply put - boring.  one of my favorite movies in the entire world has one of my all time favorite quotes in it... and i quote:

FUCK OFF!

he he... so funny  = ) 

but seriuosly folks, i follow quite a few blogs on a daily basis, most of them are political in nature - people venting their everyday frustrations and somehow trying to make a difference in cyberspace.  other blogs are regurgitation of a person's daily events.  others are an attempt at making people constantly laugh at the goings-on in their lives.  and yet others create blogs simply to be sure that everyone in the world has the opportunity to hear their bitching - the more the merrier i guess.

MY blog... well, i don't know what category it fits into.  MY blog is for mere purposes.  he he, mere purposes.  i crack myself up.  really though, it's one and only purpose is to combine all those things from above together!  i'm here to make myself laugh and make myself cry, and make myself proud of what i've done... MY blog is to bring you all into the personal universe i live in.

i've had many a person try to figure out what's going on in my mind, have i come up with a way to describe this universe?  HELL NO!  but i figured the best way to get you to all understand me is to simply write what's going on in my universe as it happens.

i apologize if the blog gets back-logged (he he... B-logged)... but sometimes that's what happens in my personal universe, i just get too busy or too crazy to care what's going on around me - my life then revolves around my work, my music, my cigs, my gym, and my porn... oh, and gin  = )

please don't hate me because my brain doesn't work like yours... but celebrate in my differences!

here's to many more blogs... some multiple times a day, others a couple a week... but i promise that it will ALWAYS give you wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) insights into my personal universe.

amen

ouch

i bit my lip...
 
damn lip.