To be in England in the Summertime...

last night i dreamt that i moved to London with little more than a backpack. Took the tube from Heathrow to Bayswater station. the station had been rennovated since i was there ten years ago-- the entire station was decorated with tiny, light blue tiles that were already showing considerable wear. i walked down Bayswater Rd looking for Inverness Terrace where my hostel was but i was having trouble finding it... all the streets looked more like aisles at Home Depot than London streets.

i got back on the tube and headed to Chelsea to find a welfare office. the stop that i got off at had a park just outside the station. i stared to cross the park, and Billy Connolly (actor, played the Union sergeant in "The Last Samurai") threw a baseball at me. i don't know why... he yelled something at me, but i don't remember what. he threw just the one baseball though.

the welfare office sucked of course. i get my turn in line and the woman sniped at me for not having the proper forms filled out ahead of time, but i had no way of knowing that there were forms i needed to have filled out ahead of time... but i get my forms filled out, and with much ado i am approved for welfare.

i think that Billy Connolly was waiting for me outside the welfare office, but i don't remember if he threw another baseball at me, but i made my way back across the park to the tube station, with nothing but my my backpack and some cash in my pocket. i hope to be more prepared than that if i ever actually go back...

the morning after

okay, yes, it's actually afternoon, but i'm finally out of bed...

woke up around 9am with my arm feeling like freshly tenderized hamburger, so i dug out the heating pad (which made me very popular with the cats). i know that moving around will help the pain work away faster than just lying in bed, but lying in bed was SO MUCH EASIER...

talked to the owner of the Tazzbah, and he definitely wants me back. Great Lakes Harley Riders all want me at all of their club nights. with the holidays coming up, we might not do anything until January. The bar is having it's anniversary party in January, so that will be a definite. i've got some simple modifications to make to my chair, but other than that i am ready to plunge back into bootblacking regularly!

it IS good to be the bootblack!

i'm home, i have beer in my tummy and i have polish on my face! The Tazzbah and Great Lakes Harley Riders were AWESOME to me tonight! until i got there tonight i had no idea that part of the GLHR theme for their fliers advertising tonight was "IZZY IS BACK!" i blacked boots tonight that haven't been done since i got canned from the Harbor Room nearly two years ago. THAT is loyalty. but the bar wants me back and so do the Great Lakes Harley Riders!

(and i was nervous... worried that people wouldn't remember me...)

the time is now

in a couple hours i leave for the bar to bootblack for the first time in Milwaukee at a bar in close to two years. i'm actually getting nervous. in other recent bootblacking settings i was a "celebrity guest", which i hate to call it that but i can't think what else to call it. when i was in Atlanta, i was there to teach and to bootblack for as long as i wanted to because of my title. but here in Milwaukee, am anyone anymore? i was at my last bar for a year and a half, but i don't know how amny of those people will be there tonight. i know that i have one cusxtomer for sure, someone very special to me, and that will help kick things off.

it also helps that this is a club night, so there is a guaranteed large crowd.

i've got a great chair to work with, my kit is packed, and i've got tomorrow off from the day job... so i can stay as late as i like tonight.

now all i have to do is get there and get working.

so many quizzes...

Numenorean


To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
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the right track?

well... my website is back up after being down for a few months, i've got a bootblacking bar night coming up in a few days, and i just got some yummy new pipe tobacco... are things in my life shaping up? it's really cold out but my car started just fine; i found a shop that will be able to install my radio for fairly cheap; i am doing leathercrafting and what i'm making is looking nice; my apartment is staying fairly clean; i've been sleeping pretty well... i'm hoping that all of the bad stuff that has been happening (expensive car repairs, illness, travel expenses) is going to pay off karmically and now the good stuff will start happening again. dare i dream that maybe a beautiful and single woman will come sit in my shine chair Friday night?

just following orders

got this from my friend's LiveJournal:

"if you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you & me. it can be anything you want, either good or bad.

when you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog & be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you."

so, yeah... just do it...

izzy gets a bar night in MILWAUKEE

after a nearly two-year "retirement", izzy finally has a place to
black here in Milwaukee!

Friday November 18th at The Tazzbah, a bar that has been open about
ten months: http://www.tazzbah.com/

they only have leather nights once a month, so even if they let me
black for every leather night, it still won't be a LOT of business,
but it's SOMETHING, and it's LOCAL. i'm also hoping that if i have
enough support and demand, maybe i can black on non-leather nights.

during the last two years i have worked one night at Cell Block in
Chicago IML weekend earlier this year; a half a dozen times at The
Exit, a BDSM-friendly club in Chicago; and here and there at events
that i was also teaching seminars.

WOO HOO!

gun play ain't sexy to me

let me just preface that YOUR THING IS YOUR THING AND MY THING IS MY
THING. there is "Safe, Sane, Consensual" and "Risk Aware Consensual
Kink" and they both have their places.

as a marksman and archer, for me weapons are not sexual toys. No
matter what anyone says, guns are created and designed to KILL.
Hunting, military protection, whatever. Guns have no purpose but to
KILL. Yes, you can target shoot... TO IMPROVE YOUR KILLING SKILLS.
i've not been in the military nor am i a hunter, so i have not killed
with my weapons nor do i hope to.

yes, i own firearms-- a .69 cal pistol, a .45 cal rifle, and a .75 cal
musket, all which will rip GINORMOUS holes in a human. and i own two
recurve bows, a compound bow, and a crossbow. Oh, and i own knives
and swords, too. i'm not anti-weapon. but for me, weapons are not
sex toys. Weapons are tools to be respected and "feared" (if you want
to own a weapon, the worst thing you could do is fear it. respect it,
yes, but if you fear it, it will control YOU and that is where
problems happen).

all i can say is that IF YOU GUN PLAY, DON'T BE STUPID. respect the
power of the KILLING tool in your hand. if in gun play you point a
gun at someone, don't point a gun at someone that you wouldn't point
at yourself. think about it that way and hopefully no one will get
killed.

izzy
who bought her first firearm at 15, and after 20 years it is still my
favorite firearm...

"Family Feud" is a test of mediocrity

if you have to tell someone that you are interesting, you probably aren't

if you have to tell someone that you are smart, you cannot demonstrate it

if you have to tell someone that you are unique, you spend too much time being "different"

if you have ever described yourself as "ecclectic", you DEFINITELY spend too much time trying to be "different"