Dive! Dive!

Russell's been nagging me to make more effort into moving forward with my life. He thinks I'm wasting my 'human potential' these days. In an effort to think outside the box, I stumbled across a posting for Intelligence Specialists in the Naval Reserve out of San Diego or San Francisco. The thought of joining the military is rather strange (for me, at this stage in life), but somehow intriguing. And with a current master's I would end up in the officer track, which means I would get one of those sexy uniforms to wear!

PUPPIES!

One of the little gifties I got over the holidays was a book called I Can Has Cheezburger? It is a collection of photos of cats with funny captions on them. The collection originated on a website, named (of all things) www.icanhascheezburger.com! Well, since I am more of a dog-person, I noticed a link there to a companion site that features doggies, called www.ihasahotdog.com! Below is my favorite. It makes me laugh way more than any of the others...

Rise and Shine

I tend to sleep in late every day. Somewhere between 10am and 1pm, unless I have a specific reason to get up, such as giving Nauber a ride to work, or going to an appeal hearing! Here is an aid to help you visualize:

No Worries

I was starting to get a little worried about my bank balance. I had transferred cash twice out of my savings account. As I mentioned a couple days ago, I did win the unemployment appeal, however. This morning the money was deposited into my account! No more worrying about hitting zero! Happy days are here again! So, here's something else to make you happy. It works on me...

Relief

Friday was my appeal hearing for the unemployment money. Today I got the letter in the mail with the results. I won! They are giving me money!! I checked my bank account, and the direct deposit has not gone through, yet, but it's only a matter of days now!

I am SO happy!

I am SO SO happy!!

Lovely

After spending two weeks in warm, sunny weather, I returned to the Northeast amid a mild storm. How exciting...

Friday is my appeal hearing for the unemployment. And, while I was away, I missed a notice from the state health program saying they never got my clarification form (back in November I mailed that stupid form in because they couldn't figure out why someone who worked until September would have income in the third quarter). So, now I have to fix that problem, too. May have to go through an "appeal" process, as well. Sigh.

Nauber came over last night. That was nice! To make up for lost time, I'll post another Parade of Hotties entry. Here is a (wait for it...) hot Brazilian! Ramirez Allender.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING

I scrapped the plans to drive out west, though it turns out that I should have just kept up with that idea. The Unemployment office has not yet rescheduled my hearing after their cancellation. I got ahold of someone Monday afternoon, and her response was "Oh that hasn't even been rescheduled, yet!" So, that evening I booked a one-way on Southwest to visit my family for the holidays.

My roomie will be watching the mail, and will let me know when the letter arrives, and what date it says I need to be here for the new hearing date. Then I will jump back on the Southwest website and book the return flight. Unless it takes even LONGER than a couple weeks, in which case I will probably be back anyway.

So, tomorrow I fly out to the parents' place, which means no posting of hot shirtless guys for a couple weeks! For now, have a Merry Christmas, and hope to see you soon! Here's the Caco picture that was discussed in the previous post.

Waiting

Still here in Mass. And it has begun to snow. Big storm forecast for this evening, in fact. And Christmas is just a couple days away, and I still have no idea when I can leave for home. As you can imagine, my mother is not pleased.

Today I will not post a picture, but a photo montage in a YT clip. I was displaying some of my collection, and one of the pics was of Caco Ricci, a famous Brazilian model, so Nauber recognized him. I pulled up the linked website, and looked at some of the attached video clips, and decided to post one of them. The title of the clip itself is just too perfect!

Brazilian Men - The Most Beautiful In The World

Two Scoops

This has been a very Brazilian week. Sunday I got a call from Diego (former "ewwww troll" guy) asking for help. He was going to take the driver's license exam, and couldn't exactly show up driving himself there, and couldn't find anyone else. I said sure. Monday I was at the mall with Nauber, and we stopped at the food court for a morsel. While sitting there sating our hunger, this cute guy walked past, who then did a double take. OMG! It was Marcelo (Mr. I'll Call You Tomorrow)! He is recently single again, having been with a jealous type who stayed home all the time. That's why he fell off the face of the earth for a while. I spent Tuesday driving Diego around. He said we should grab dinner sometime, and invited me along for NYE in NYC. I think it was not intended to be an accepted offer. He said he's been really busy with work, and that's why he's been unavailable. When asked how much he works, he said 45 to 50 hours a week. Ummm, when I was working the club door, I put in that many hours, and I still socialized.

The big (annoying) news, though, is that my appeal hearing with the unemployment office this morning was postponed. We had a nasty ice storm last night, and the hearing office couldn't make it in, so they called this morning to say Not Today. I will apparently receive another notice in the mail. That means I can't leave Tuesday morning for NM now, because I can't miss the hearing, and again do not know when it will be. My mother will NOT be happy to hear this. I may not make it out there before Christmas... My sister is arriving on the 25th. I may end up flying in on the same day (Priceline?).

The pic below will hopefully cheer you up. It's cheering me up a little... His name is Sean Lamont, and he plays rugby. This is from the Dieux du Stade shoot. Check out the comment in the wikipedia entry...

Sandwiches, anyone?

I do not know for certain, but my sensors tell me these two are Brazilian. Not the darkest skin-tone, but the one in back especially looks the part. And the website I found this on routinely features Brazilian guys.

I was at IHOP with Ronny the other day and a really cute guy walked past. He was wearing a bright blue shirt that said "BRASIL" across the front. Ronny said that when I do get down to visit Brazil I will probably just have a heart attack!

Scheduled

I know I missed the Friday post. I should have a good excuse, like out shopping, or spending the day in the arms of a Brazilian. But it's more mundane than that. I was on the computer most of the day (WoW), but just forgot.

However, I must note that on Thanksgiving morning, my free Sirius satellite radio came to an end. Seven months after buying the car, I will now be forced to subscribe if I wish to continue listening. However, $13 a month for one or two stations (I can't stand most of the rest) does not seem worth it - even if I had income!

And, trumpet fan-fare please, I got the letter in the mail from the unemployment office scheduling my hearing date! So, in two weeks I will be pleading with the government employees for money. Wish me luck!

Official

Saturday night I went to the club with Nauber and his best friend Michael. At one point, Nauber made a comment about people always thinking he and Michael are boyfriends because they hang out together so frequently. Michael made a reference to me being the boyfriend, and Nauber replied, "Really?" He was of the opinion that I've never said anything, so how was he to know. I mentioned that I've been referred to as "o namorado de Nauber" more than once, and figured that was his idea. So, long story short, we had a brief "talk" and are now official. I immediately reminded him that I may not be around much longer. He's not sure where he wants to be, anyway, so I guess he's not letting it worry him any.

In addition to all that fun, the other day I was dropping Nauber off at his house. I pulled into the parking lot, and parked in a spot on the end. Nauber noticed a young guy and girl making out behind a shed across the neighboring lot. They were pretty much out of sight of anyone, except for anyone who happened to be in the parking lot that we were in. Next thing you know, we see her drop to her knees and start blowing the guy. After a while of this activity, they appeared to notice they were being watched and stopped, turned toward the wall of the shed they were in front of. Shortly after, though, you see her arm pumping away, so he was back to getting pleasured. Next thing you know we can see her back to her knees, bobbing away. At this point I left, and Nauber went inside. He mentioned it to his roommates, who then went outside 'for a smoke' and watched the rest of the show. According to them, the girl had by this time dropped her drawers and he -uh- was bangin' her against the wall. And they accuse gays of indecency...

Hottie Time

Slurp

I actually have an old pic of my ex Sergio standing on the beach holding a coconut with the top chopped open and a straw sticking out. This is quite common in Brazil, and they all seem to love coconut water. I've tried it, and would rather have the Brazilian...

Feliz Aniversario

It's birthday time again in the land of Brazilians. There seems to be a particularly high percentage of November birthdays. I've been told this is due to the fact that it is nine months after Carnivale (which goes by Mardi Gras down in NOLA). Carnivale is celebrated pretty much nationwide, and is all about dancing, drinking, partying, and -uh- gettin' your groove on. So, they have a lot of November babies!

Friday was Nauber's. He wanted to go shopping, so we went to the outlet mall. He spent a fair chunk of money, the majority of which was at the Calvin Klein store, and a good three pounds of chocolate from Lindt. Saturday we went to the Roxy to dance. Sunday we went to see Madagascar 2; I thought the first one was better, but it's fairly funny. It was also Cris's birthday that day, so we ended up at their house later for cake. (Monday was Sergio's BD, but since he longer speaks to me, that one passed by unmarked.)

Saturday morning I made French Toast, which he said was very good. I also tossed together a banana cream pie. Monday I made pasta for lunch, and these little almond cookie things I picked up from an episode of Paula Deen's cooking show. Everybody likes those! (Except for the few blasphemers out there who don't appreciate the flavor of almond extract.)

Another Hottie already

Well, it was a slow week, not much to report. I mostly sit home and play WoW (WotLK next week!!). But this weekend is Nauber's birthday, so I was busy yesterday, and didn't get a chance to post.

So, here's something to make you need to wipe your lip.

Hot Hot

Aside from being very attractive, I just love the look on his face!

Hospital

I had several people nagging me to go to the doctor to get my 3-week old cough checked out. Monday I went to the hospital that I've been told most of the - uh - undocumented residents go for their health problems. I was one of very few native English speakers. Lots of Latino, Brazilian, and Armenian.

I now have an application in for MassHealth FreeCare. I need to go back with my birth certificate. My friends told me AFTER the fact that I should have brought my passport along. (What US citizen ever thinks of needing that to go somewhere here in the US?) I have to go back anyway for them to "read" the tuberculosis skin test. Since I was overseas, they figured they should double check. So far, it looks every so slightly bruised, and that's all, so I think that's a negative. I hear positives are blatantly obvious!

But the doctor listened to my symptoms and said it sounded exactly like Mycoplasma Pneumonia, and gave me an antibiotic prescription, stronger than the penicillin I had for the strep. I should be feeling well again by Thursday she said.

And I got home that afternoon to find the bill from the Melbourne ER in my mail. After exchange rates are taken into account, it should be all of about $75. The one here would be way more than that if I end up having to pay for it.

How could you Not?

I admit I have an addiction. Brazilian just seems to match what turns me on.

Hong Kong

October First, I boarded a flight to Chicago, then connected to Hong Kong. That flight was about 15.5 hours in a coach-class window seat next to an older Chinese man who felt his elbows needed more space than allotted by the airline. I spent most of the time curled up against the window, trying to ignore him.

Customs was a lot easier than I expected. Then followed Phil's directions to get to his place. Train to subway to department store to apartment building. The worst part was wandering around the subway station trying to find the customer service desk because the HK$10 and $20 bills I had were too large for the single-ride machines, and too small for the card-issuing machines. I got to the department store, and was a little unsure about the directions, but sure enough, go through the toy department, and there was the door to the apartment building. Hong Kong is a mall. A series of interconnected malls, actually. As Phil said, it's possible to live in HK and never actually go outside. By now it is about 7:30 on the Second. We ended up at an Outback for dinner. It's a mall, so the choices are surprisingly mall-like.

Friday, the Third, I was kind of tired from the time-shift, so I lay around while he was at work. We met up with this kid from Boston that another friend had put me in touch with, but we ended up at a sports-bar, and the only food available was appetizers. I had coconut shrimp.

Saturday I had a sore throat. Sunday I was miserable, and said I had strep and needed antibiotics. Monday, ditto. And the coughing started. Phil was of the opinion that penicillin was available OTC in HK, but apparently not at the chain drugstores.

Tuesday we flew to Melbourne. Phil had booked us on business class for the Australia trip. I have to say, flying is such a different experience in the expensive seats! Almost pleasant! Our hotel was not far from the hospital, so the first thing I did was head to the ER. I had strep, and was given penicillin. They said they'd mail me the bill. I managed to drag myself to eat a couple times, and went to one museum, but mostly stayed in bed taking medicines and feeling miserable. Then the hiccups started, and continued to jerk me around for two days. I was SO uncomfortable I wanted to just die.

Friday, the Tenth, we flew to Sydney. Great downtown location. I mostly lay in bed feeling miserable. Dragged myself to go eat a couple times. Monday I was starting to feel a little better, so we took a trip out to a wildlife park. I figured, if I'm going to only see ONE thing in Australia, it should be the unique wildlife. They let some of the animals wander loose.




The little girl in pink was some random kid whose parents seemed unconcerned that she was wandering around completely unattended. We were waiting for the ostrich to get annoyed and bite her, but it never did. They also let you pet the koala bears. You can't hold them, but you can pet them.



On Tuesday, we headed back to HK. Wednesday we took the train ride up to the top of Victoria Peak. Guess what. It's a mall. They built a mall at the top of the mountain from which you can look at the city below. Thursday we took a guided bus tour of Macau. Like HK, it's a colony that was returned to China a few years ago. But Macau was Portuguese, not British, so all the signs and names are listed in Chinese and in Portuguese. The tour was a little hokey, and some of the historical sites seem a little forced, but it was a fun diversion. This is the remains of some famous church that was blown up my mistake in the late 1800's.



And this is a Portuguese family was saw at the museum. I think the boys were boyfriends, but Phil thinks they're just brothers. Who goes on family museum trips at that age?



And on Friday, the Seventeenth, we packed up to head back. I realized that morning that I could not find my cellphone. The last I had used it was in Sydney, so Phil ended up calling the hotel to see if they had it and could ship it back. The strep seemed to have subsided, but the cough was still going strong.

When I landed, Phil's friend Dan picked me up, and brought me over to Daemian's house. He had been watching my car for me. Since I was without cellphone, though, and he was not home, it took about 45 minutes to get ahold of him. I ended up calling his work (he had left for the day already) and asked his boss to relay a message for me. Losing a cellphone is a huge pain, since I no longer know anybody's phone numbers from memory. Drove home, and picked up some Mucinex. It seems to be helping, but the cough has not gone away. My roommate had bronchitis while I was gone. I hope I hadn't picked that up, too. I don't seem nearly sick enough for that to be the case, but as of today (10/23) I am still coughing.

Mind you, I lost my health insurance on 9/5/08 when I quit my job. Six years of weekly premiums, and I did not sick once (other than self-medicating a couple minor colds), and a month after leaving, I fall apart.

My unemployment claim get rejected, because the claims lady called me that Wednesday I was in HK, and I didn't call her back. (I didn't check messaged until after I was back home, and had missed her imposed deadline.) So, now it's going to have to churn through the appeals hearing process. I may run out of money. Which will make signing up for health insurance difficult. Which will make this nagging cough a serious problem. And thanks to recent MA state laws, may screw up my tax returns for the 2008 tax year.