If you ask me, the 80’s were the golden age of music, commercials, television shows and general pop culture.

Just sayin.

had a wonderful evening with wonderful company at a great new wine bar in midtown. yes, Midtown is the epitome of gentrification hell, but hey…..they gots the BEST pizza, bread pudding and now, wine bar.

plus, the bartender looks exactly like Trinity from the Matrix. I tried my best not to stare, but I dunno if I did a good job. none of my happy hour buddies had seen any of the Matrix movies, nor Momento (the horror!), so I was alone in my “gee she really looks like Carrie Anne Moss” moment.

we started off with a Shiraz, ate pizza with a Zinfandel blend and finished off with a Pinot. I wrote down the exact names of the wines, but I’m too tired (read: drunk) to get up and find the piece of paper I wrote them down on. I topped the night off with a Negra Moldeo, my new favorite beer. mmmm….Mexican beer.

SAB was kind enough to drive my car over to his apartment, out of the prying eyes of the Midtown patrol cops. as he sat with me in my car with the radio turned on, he discovered an embarassing secret…….i am a classical music fan. there’s no denying it.

so, what did we learn tonite?:

- farrago’s makes some fuckin good pizza.
- zinfandel can actually be a good tasting wine.
- wine before beer, never fear.
- the next world cup will be held in Germany, according to the Spanish guy sitting with us at the bar, wearing the SCOTLAND t-shirt.
- the crowd at the Midtown wine bar is younger than the crowd at the Uptown Park location.

losing steam. going to bed.

does anyone know how to embed a video file into a blog post?

whew. It’s been a crazy busy week. Work, life, etc. Finally have a breather, so some [hopefully] quick updates:

• Went to a wedding last Saturday in a little town 1.5hrs north of Houston. Supposedly. It took me ony 45 minutes, which really scared me. I think I might drive too fast. Anyways, the chapel was cute, the wedding was sweet and the town was small. The drive was beautiful, though. 
• Bought a new desktop computer to replace my sad little P2 333MHz. yay.
  Dell Dimension 8400 Desktop; Pentium 4 Processor 540 with HT Technology (3.20GHz, 800 FSB, 1MB); 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz (2 DIMMs); 160 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM); 128MB PCI Express ATI Radeon X300 SE; Integrated Gigabit Ethernet. I’m especially excited about the 3.2G processor, the HT and the PCI-express slots. whee. The PC comes with a bunch of apps, but they’re all getting deleted when I reformat the HD to install XP Pro. I’m also installing a Lite-On DVD drive. Dual layer, baby. rawk. 
• Li’l Bro is graduating this weekend from the Plan II Honors Program at the University of Texas in Austin. Relatives from the East Coast are flying in, and we’re spending the weekend in beautiful Austin. In August, Li’l Bro’s moving to Galveston, TX to start med school at UTMB. *sigh* They grow up so quickly.
• Kirby the cat is coming back to stay with Skokie and me for the summer. Skokie will be estatic. Kirby will be less than pleased.
• mmmm…..yogurt.
• Huge report due next week. ack.
• I really, really, really want to go to the beach over Memorial Day weekend.
• I’m replacing the sunk faucet in one of my bathrooms and it’s driving me crazy. But the faucet looks super nice, and the project is almost done. oooh, I should have taken before/after pictures.
• It’s 5:20pm. I’m outtie.

Laters.

love,
Skokie

I should probably clarify a key point about Bipolar Woman. She does not work in my office. In fact, she does not work at the County. My job involves working with non-profit agencies and community members. Bipolar Woman is a community member and volunteer. She’s usually pretty put-together, but lately she’s been having more frequent manic episodes.

And while she easily becomes a disturbance during the workday, she’s a reminder that the public health care system has wide, gaping holes. People who need access to mental health services aren’t getting it. The guidelines for MHMR now state that only people diagnosed with major depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are eligible to receive services from community clinics. But, this doesn’t mean people who receive one of these diagnoses can walk into any community clinic and automatically receive care…..community clinics are overburdened already (thanks to budget cuts and reorganization within MHMR), so people who try to access services from clinics are either given a new diagnosis (that isn’t one of the three priorities), or put on waiting lists that can span anywhere from 6 to 8 months. That’s a long time to wait when you’re in crisis. And I would say that based on her behavior today, Bipolar Woman is definitely in need of some immediate care.

On a lighter note, as I was leaving the office, Bipolar Woman happily reported that Bill Cosby is coming to Houston on Monday…..and that his visit was a sign that she was protected from the forces of Satan.

“Super!” I said, before running out the door.

Bipolar Woman had stopped screaming in my coworker’s office. I pressed my ear against the door. Silence. I knew it was a bad idea. My brain was saying, “no no no” but my bladder was saying, “It’s either the bathroom or right here on the floor. What’s it gonna be, biatch?”

Slooooowly and without a sound, I turned the handle and opened the door. (more…)