Tonight, Emily, Colleen, Lana, Belle, Katie W., Aaron, Ara, Phyllis and Natalia took Katie M. and me out for dinner as I am leaving Planned Parenthood Friday and Katie next Wednesday. All I have to say is I’m going to freakin’ miss these people something fierce!

Here are the rest of the pictures from the dinner.

Anyway, if any of you are reading this, thank you, thank you, thank you…Your friendship means so much to me.

Well, today was my last Capitol Day at Planned Parenthood (or, at least, as a staff member). It was a tiring, yet wonderful day and it just reminded me of how sad I’m going to be when I leave. It’s still surreal to me that my last day is on Friday. I can only imagine that this is going to be a week of tears.

But, I’m hear to talk about happy things and Capitol Day rocked! I actually want to talk about my two cohorts - Katie and Emily. I purposely planned my day so I could spend time with them. I spent the morning with Emily at three legislative visits and then with Katie at her workshops.

Being a team with Katie and Emily has been one of the best experiences of my life. I don’t know how it happened…perhaps because we were like a band of sistahs who fought the battle over 85 and it drew us closer together and made us a lean, mean, fighting machine (did I just make military references?).

Emily is the hardest working person I know and it is always a pleasure seeing her in action. I always tell her that if I can be half as good as her, I would be one incredible person. But, what’s funny is that I don’t think she realizes how awesome she is…although, ironically, she would say the same thing about me. Emily was somebody that took me a little longer to warm up to. It wasn’t that I disliked her, but I think Emily takes her time opening up. I consider it such a privilege to be a person who she let in.

Katie, on the other hand, is one of those people who I knew was a kindred spirit from the start. You know how you just know you’re going to get along with somebody. And, that’s the power that Katie has. She has this incredible way of relating to people. I’ve been at Planned Parenthood for five years and have seen people come and go, but I have never seen anybody who can build that kind of trust. I think if she asked people to jump off a building, they’d do it just because Katie asked them to. And, as a grassroots organizer, that is such a powerful tool.

I know I was going to talk about Capitol Day. But, for me, the day is all about being able to experience it with Katie and Emily. So, I guess I did talk about Capitol Day in many ways…I’m quite content singing their praises.

I’m just going to say that this is hilarious and leave it for your viewing:

Ach! I’m going to be starting a new job in Los Angeles on May 12 and I have so much to do! I’m really excited about the move, but I just don’t know where to get started with packing. I’ve been trying to consolidate boxes I have in the garage, but it’s like a hydra. For every two boxes I feel I’ve consolidated, four more appear in their places. WTF?

**Seats self on floor in a meditative position and chants, “It will all get done, it will all get done.”**

Breathe…

So, I have finally decided to take up blogging again after the year from hell known as 2007…

Tonight, my friend…no, friend is not even a description for it because she’s like family…like my little dyke sistah…Jennifer (or JENNEPAIR as I like to call her in my best Filipino accent) came out to visit me in Tracy before I leave for Los Angeles. Jennifer and I spent the best part of our early 20s together and, as such, we’ve had many of an adventure together. We’re both storytellers and weavers of the tall tales, so, whenever we get together, it’s just a laugh riot.

I decided to record some of my favorite stories with Jennifer here. So, once in awhile, I’ll spin one of these yarns. But, I’ll start with what is perhaps my favorite story — the Northridge quake of 1994!

It was January 17, 1994 and I awoke to my bed shaking. In my haze, I watched all my CDs being knocked off the wall and things falling down. I must have been in shock, but all my survival skills went out the window at that moment. I remember thinking, “This building is probably about 14 years old, so I wonder when the ceiling is going to fall on top of me.”

After the shaking stopped, I hear Jennifer screaming, “Loren! Are you okay?!?!? Where are you? Why aren’t you under a door frame?!?!?!”

I simply replied, “Oh, yeah…I need to find some clothes to put on.” Which was funny because I was wearing clothes at the time. I got out of bed and I see Jennifer pacing around the apartment putting things in her backpack and checking off things on her mental checklist. I remember her mumbling, “I got my granola and cereal and we can just go to the middle of the desert until this is all over.”

“Oh, hi, Jennifer,” I said.

“I have a flashlight in the car! Come with me to get it,” she said, racing around the room.

And, suddenly, I became the gayest person ever and replied in shock, “Dressed in this?!?!?!”

Now, you have to understand that Jennifer was parked in the garage and nobody would have seen me even if I was dressed in a chicken costume. But, I refused to go out dressed in what I had on. The lights had been knocked out by the quake and I couldn’t see anything, so I handed Jennifer a lighter and instructed her, “Flick this on and off while I find an outfit to wear.”

While she was frustrated, she did it. And, at one point, I remember her flicking the lighter on and me asking her, “Does this hat match this outfit?”

That’s when she stopped flicking the lighter and exclaimed, “Oh, my god! You are such a fag.”

As we headed to the car, our neighbor across the way, who was, by the way, a Cher impersonator, peered into our apartment and said, “Oh, my god! You’re place was destroyed!”

To which Jen replied, “Actually, this is the way it normally looks.” Jen and I both agree that it was even probably an improvement.

How I look back and laugh at this.

Good times, good times…

Wow…one of my favorite classic movie stars, Glenn Ford, died today at the age of 90. He starred in many movies, including two of my personal favorites. The first one is actually my favorite movie ever and that’s Gilda (1946) in which he co-starred in this film noir with the beautiful Rita Hayworth. The other movie was Superman: The Movie (1978). Many people will remember him as Pa Kent. He will always be Pa Kent to me in my kind.

Mr. Ford, you will be missed. May you rest in peace.

Today, my friends, I find myself the ruler of a nation in the middle of the East Pacific. It’s a little country by the name of Loroniajavierington and our flag is suprisingly exactly the same as Vietnam’s.

Come visit me in my new country. We can go searching for the winged dragon foxes which roam my forests and eat Pizza because we’re all about pizza delivery. Then, we can help the poor people when we’re through, because that’s what we’re all about.

Currently, we are supporting the freedom to choose whether you vote or not in our great land.

And, in the end, all we want is to “MAKE IT WORK!”

Come check out my visitor’s center at:

http://www.nationstates.net/loroniajavierington

I was visiting my grandmother today and my uncle asked me for some help.

“Your lola wants to watch this program that she watches on Sunday but don’t know how to find it,” he said.

“What’s it called?” I asked.

“Mac Driver,” he responded.

My mind began to fill with visions of Apple computers and questions such as “why is my grandmother into Mack Trucks?”

We both kept repeating it over and over again…Mac Driver…Mac Driver…Mac Driver.

Then I realized that he was looking for Macguyver. My grandmother likes Macguyver.

Okay…sorry, folks. For those of you who ONLY follow me through this Web site, I am alive and kicking and actually doing better than I have in a LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG time.

I’m thinking about starting this blog over from scratch (as I am with my geek blog Adventures of a Gay Geek) since so much has seemed to have happened since the last time I left off.

In the meantime, just consider this v. 1.5 of this blog.

Just a quick update, though…I have been very active on MySpace and, if you have a MySpace account, add me as your friend. My MySpace address is http://www.myspace.com/manoksadagat. I’ve also been writing an online column on the diversity of comic books and the comic book industry. Come read my column ONE DIVERSE COMIC BOOK NATION.

That said, I’ve been a busy little bee. I don’t know if I can handle so muchblogging all the time. So, I think I’m just going to use this space for funny little anecdotes…really short stuff…

Alright…and away we go…