Survived the week-long conference in Nevada. Actually had fun and got the drunkest I've ever been in my life. So much so that friends had to physically lead me (tied in a boss's backwards jacket like a straight jacket) a back way through the casino to my hotel room so I wouldn't do something stupid like kiss a particular friend in front of half the company.

Had fun-- drank the KoolAid-- learned a lot-- met great people-- laughed hard-- had great ideas-- hung with friends I haven't seen in a while-- drank a lot of liquor-- danced hard (photo evidence)-- and got a lot (I mean, A LOT) of catcalls, whistles and propositions. On my first night (no cleavage showing), in the space of the 150 feet between a bar and the bathroom I was growled at by 6 different men.

The week wasn't perfect but Jenna kept me from being too stupid or making too many mistakes. I feel more confident this year than I did at last year's, but definitely realize that I do need to loosen up a bit. Life is meant to enjoy. I've just got to figure out how to do it. Suggestions?

Wow, I haven't posted in a while.

Eek.

Um, life is going on. Work, flamenco, sort of sleep. Etc.

I'm going to be in Sparks, Nevada this week for a company conference. Woot. Bought a great dress for the fancy dinner, so that's good at least. I want drooling.

I've been watching stuff about Woodstock today and want to learn more. Can you imagine having something like Woodstock today?!? Would it be possible?

Alyssa Baine January 3 at 12:51pm Reply


P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: Bad news from France ...REAL BAD! for French Jews...

I received this email tonight and was asked to forward it on. please read!

Once again, the real news in France is conveniently not being
reported as it should. To give you an idea of what's going on in that
country where there are now between 5 and 6 million Muslims and about
600,000 Jews, here is an E-mail that came from a Jew living in France ..

Please read! "Will the world say nothing - again - as it did in
Hitler's time?" He writes: "I AM A JEW -- therefore I am forwarding
this to everyone on all my e-mail lists. I will not sit back and do
nothing. Nowhere have the flames of anti-Semitism burned more
furiously than in France .. In Lyon , a car was rammed into a synagogue
and set on fire. In Montpellier , the Jewish religious center was
firebombed; so were synagogues in Strasbourgand Marseilles ; so was a
Jewish school in Creteil - all recently. A Jewish sports club in
Toulouse was attacked with Molotov cocktails and on the statue of
Alfred Dreyfus, in Paris , the words 'Dirty Jew' were painted. In
Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish football team with sticks
and metal bars. The bus that takes Jewish children to school in
Aubervilliers has been attacked three times in the last 14 months.

According to the Police, metropolitan Paris has seen 10 to 12
anti-Jewish incidents PER DAY in the past 30 days. Walls in Jewish
neighborhoods have been defaced with slogans proclaiming 'Jews to the
gas chambers' and 'Death to the Jews.' A gunman opened fire on a
kosher butcher's shop (and, of course, the butcher) inToulouse, France
.. A Jewish couple in their 20's were beaten up by five men in
Villeurbanne , France (the woman was pregnant). A Jewish school was
broken into and vandalized in Sarcelles , France . This was just in
the past week."

"So I call on you, whether you are a fellow Jew, a friend, or merely a
person with the capacity and desire to distinguish decency from
depravity, to do - at least - these three simple things:

First, care enough to stay informed. Don't ever let yourself become
deluded into thinking that this is not your fight. I remind you of
what Pastor Neimoller said in World War II: 'First they came for the
Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then
they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was
a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.'

Second, boycott France and French products. Only the Arab countries
are more toxically anti-Semitic and, unlike them, France exports more
than just oil and hatred. So boycott their wines and their perfumes.
Boycott their clothes and their foodstuffs. Boycott their movies.

Definitely boycott their shores. If we are resolved we can exert
amazing pressure and, whatever else we may know about the French, we
most certainly know that they are like a cobweb in a hurricane in the
face of well-directed pressure.

Third, send this along to your family, your friends, and your
co-workers. Think of all of the people of good conscience that you
know and let them know that you - and the people that you care - about
need their help.

The number one bestselling book in France is....'September 11: The
Frightening Fraud' which argues that no plane ever hit the Pentagon!

Please Pass This On, Let's not let history repeat itself, thank-you
for your time and consideration."

Things I adore today (in no particular order):

1) Wedding entrance dance YouTube video

2) Ana Morales Tangos video on YouTube

3) Alex and GiGi in "He's Just Not That Into You"

4) Seeing Babeland (yay Seattle!) in HBO's "Real Sex" show



This leads to several wishes:

(Again, no particular order.)

1) To be confident

2) To be able to dance half as good as Ana Morales and really pour myself into flamenco

3) Be able to give and receive romantic love, to find the One (cliche I know, but I'm allowed)

4) Have a great sex life (and make my own flogger from a deflated bike tire!)

"Victory should be naked!"




A quote so good it bears repeating a couple years later.




(Reloving season 1 of Doctor Who, when I really REALLY should be sleeping)

And so I'm off to Alaska for a two week visit!

Do girls get spank banks?

Well, I don't care if we do or not, crude as they are.

This is who's in mine:

Zachary Quinto
Alex O'Loughlin




And I've decided to be better at work and with my appearance, etc. Also, I've decided to ignore the rest of my personal life and spend money on redecorating my apartment (like fabric-wallpapering the walls!) instead as well as flamenco. Maybe if I get the apartment the way I want (organized and at least, for G-d's sake, not so beige), maybe then my life will work. (Doubtful.)

Triple digit temperatures during the day? Check.
Severe storms at night? Check.

I think monsoon season may be here-- is it about that time of year again?

On one of the days I (the reporter) was there, in early February, I was the only white Jew in the shul, and an old guy in front of me kept turning around and showing me the right page. There's a nudnik like him in every shul I've ever been to. I forgave him, though, during the Torah service, when a young man faltered over the blessings and looked mortified. "Not your fault, young man," the nudnik said. "The fire of the Torah burns so hot to where sometimes it just confuses your mind."

Happy note: I just watched the movie "Arranged"-- it's a gem. Loved it! You should all watch it. Movie about friendship between a Muslim woman and an Orthodox Jewish woman while they both go through the arranging of a marriage. Very sweet.



Beyond sad note: tomorrow (Monday) night is Yom HaShoah. How can we be an honor to their memory?