Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone. If 2005 wasn't such a great year for you, then I hope 2006 is a better one. If 2005 was a pretty darn good year for you, then I hope 2006 is even better!

Joe & I decided to spend the 3-day New Years weekend at the beach. We both worked a 1/2 day on Fri, then after throwing some drag in a bag, we hit the road, reaching the beach shortly after 4. We made our usual rounds (WalMart, K-Mart, grocery store, and video store) then went back to the house. We had dinner at Adriattico, an Italian restaurant in the Midway plaza, where Cathy Gorman was singing 'The Oldies'. She wasn't bad, but it was a little comical to see her standing there in front of her karoke machine-looking sound system, singing Patsy Cline and Leslie Gore songs, with her platinum highlighted hair and her silver lamay blouse. Then we went home and watched 'The 40 Year Old Virgin'. It was pretty funny. I love the lead guy, Steve Carrell, who is also the lead guy on the TV show 'The Office'. Before going home we stopped in the Dollar Tree, the last on our list of usual stops.

Sat it was overcast all morning, and when we decided to leave the house around noon it began to rain lightly. We drove to Milton, since we'd never been there before, to see what it was all about. Milton is an old historic town with beautiful Victorian homes that sit very close to the narrow streets. There's really not much 'business' there, other than a dry cleaner, a CPA, and the usual small town support structure (police, fire department, etc.) One definitely wouldn't move there for a job. I'm sure everyone who lives there does so because they love the Victorian architecture, and commutes elsewhere to work.

After our little Milton excursion we drove into Rehoboth and had lunch at Tijuana Taxi, a Mexican place. We'd had dinner there before and thought it was okay, but neither of us was impressed with our lunch. Then went home and watched 'Saving Face'. (See my post on Nov 14 for a synopsis.) This is a film I saw at the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival back in Nov. We rented it because I knew Joe would enjoy it. Joe took a nap and I read a little, we got Chinese take-out and ate dinner at the house, and then watched 2 more films. 'March of the Penguins' was a documentary-style film that was in the theatres several months ago. Joe had been trying to get me to see it, but I thought "What could they possibly put in a film about penguins that could fill up 90 minutes? Its not like there's going to be clever dialog..." Turns out it was worth the rental. Its all about the mating habits of the arctic penguins and the amazing marches they must make. After that we watched 'Almost Normal'. This film is about the laments of a 40 year old single gay man who just wishes he were "normal". One day he wakes up and the whole world is gay and straight people are the exception. The premise was kind of cute and intriguing, but it just fell apart. For some reason, when the gay man realizes that the whole world is gay and that straights are the exception, he becomes straight! Joe described this film as "barely watchable".

The movie ended at 11:40 and we watched 20 minutes of the New Years Eve countdown TV shows on several of the networks. That was it - 2005 was over, and 2006 had officially begun. Then we went to bed. Really exciting New Years Eve, huh? I tried to get Joe to agree to going to one of the NYE parties at the gay restaurants/clubs in Rehoboth, but he had no interest. He hates going to clubs. I, on the other hand, enjoy getting out there with "my people" now and then. Its a bone of contention for us.

Sun the weather was much more pleasant so we went for a long walk on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk. It felt good to get out and move around, after having such a lazy day on the sofa on Sat. After our walk we had lunch at my favorite lunch spot: Cafe Sole. We chatted briefly with the waitresses who've been working there as long as we've been coming there: Penny and Amy. Joe had his usual, the Turkey Stuffer. Its basically Thanksgiving dinner on a roll. I broke out of my shell and ordered something different, a cup of their home made tomato artichoke bisque and a piece of coconut custard pie! Since I've been fighting with my sinuses since Christmas, my appetite just wasn't up for my usual fried oyster BLT with melted brie on focaccia. That is heaven on a plate, but too much for me to eat that day. After lunch we went to the theatre, believe it or not, and saw 'Walk the Line', the Johnny Cash story. We both enjoyed it a lot, even though I am not a country music fan. We thought the performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were actually better than the plot. Only, Reese is 1,000 times prettier than June Carter. After the movie we had dinner at Crabby Dicks.

Mon we cleaned the house and came home. It was raining again. Our dog Jordan was in the yard for a while, and when we called her to come in, she came bounding up to the back porch and slipped on the wet cement and fell and hurt her leg. The rest of the day yesterday she would not walk on it. Poor thing... Joe carried her outside about 3 times last night, trying to get her to pee before we went to bed, but she wouldn't do it. She didn't want to stand on that hurt leg. She tried to hold it all night, but finally at about 5am she got up and limped across the room. Joe got up and took her outside and she unloaded. Today she didn't eat her breakfast, which is very unlike her, but I'm guessing she did it to prevent herself from needing to go to the bathroom. Joe gave her a glucosamine tablet and an ibuprofin this morning, and this evening she is doing some better. She will limp around a little, and decided she'd eat her dinner, and pee in the yard - both encouraging signs. We're going to limit her mobility (although she's been doing that herself) so she can heal.

Lately Joe & I have been talking more and more about him resigning from his job and going into private practice full time. Today he had a particularly frustrating and demotivating day, so we talked over dinner about this topic again. We're both scared about him not having a regular paycheck, but at the same time we're both confident that he could have a great full time practice. Of course, it will take time to build up his current part time practice to full time, including getting a website set up and selecting some additional places to market and advertise. We've got some money in savings to carry us through a few months, plus access to other money if worse comes to worse. Tonight we talked about an aspect we'd never discussed before: the date he will turn in his resignation and the effective date of it. I think he is really ready to do it now, and I am tired of seeing him unhappy, so I am being supportive of his decision, eventhough it makes us both nervous. More on that as it develops.