Rudynate

I think Lori is a troublemaker. She should have realized that it was none of her business whether Trish brought a present or not and said nothing. I'm curious - why isn't it sufficient that your friends show up to share your birthday with you? Why do they need to bring presents?

When I graduated from law school- I threw myself a big graduation party. I invited about 40 people, had it catered in a nice restaurant in the financial district, open bar, passed hors de'oeuvres. full-course dinner. I hired a friend who had really nice-handwriting to do hand-written invitations. In the invitation, I specified that there were to be no gifts. It was really a blast - one of the best times I have ever had.

I don't expect birthday gifts from anyone - not even from my husband. I enjoy being taken out to dinner. I think a lot of people assume that, by age 60, you have outgrown needing birthday gifts.

I haven't been to San Diego in a long time, but I remember that Hillcrest was a nice little Gayborhood.

I should have recognized Javier Ray - he was Mateo in Velvet - a very lovable, very complicated character.

I liked the history lesson - I have never known much about the Spanish Civil War.

FUNNY YOU SHOULD MENTION THIS, BECAUSE... My parents didn't shop at the A&P much, but I do remember the Jane Parker brand. In our town, the A&P was a big, dingy old store right on Main Street. Sometime, early in the 60s they relocated to a new building on East Main Streer. The new store was one of those silly faux-colonial buildings so popular then - red brick, white trim, "early American" theme, American eagles over the doors.

I'm having a serious problem getting the fruit for the fruitcake - supply chain problems? In years past, Safeway always had a big display of glaceed fruit - hardly any this year. The employees at Whole Foods had never heard of it, even though their website says they have it. I got some from Amazon, but they aren't delivering as promised. Oh well - life in post-pandemic America I guess.

If you saw him you would.

Yep- completely agree. Because I was exposed to a differnt social stratum from the one I grew up in, I saw possibilities that most of my siblings didn't.

We just started watching this on Neflix. It's very good - definitely worth watching. I have a real thing for steamy Spanish leading men and this show doesn't disappoint - Javier Ray and Tamar Novas are both stunning and great actors.

Yes, I have achieved it. I grew up in a lower middle-/working class home and I had 8 siblings. I was very precocious and did well enough in school without much effort and started college on a Regents College Scholarship from the State of New York, even though I loathed school from the first day of kindergarten until the day I graduated from high school. I dropped out of college after a semester and joined the Army. After the Army, I settled in Colorado and attended the University of Colorado on my GI educational benefits, while working during the day. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do and I was pretty aimless for a decade after college. I moved to San Francisco and everything changed - things just took off. I went to graduate school and became a research librarian in the biotech industry. I studied to take the Registration exam in the Patent Office and became a Registered Patent Agent. The patent attorneys I worked with kept telling me, "You really ought to go to law school," so I did and ended up a Silicon Valley patent attorney. I'm 71 - past retirement age, but I don't want to stop, it's too much fun. My sister is the same way. She is a CRNA (certified registered nurse anesthetist) and doesn't want to stop. She retired a couple years ago, and only lasted a few months before she started to miss the intellectual stimulation from her work and came out of retirement.

Doubtful that she paid that much for it - they may even have given it to her for the publicity.

Right - I think of those "older men" as boys.

LMFAO!!! Right - an internet group has a "resident doctor." He is a retired doctor who can't think of anything to fill his time with except giving unsolicited medical advice.

I had a spine surgery in June - and they did something novel - they did the check-in with me sitting on the edge of the operating table and the surgeon standing next to me, introducing the members of the surgical team. After that I sat chatting with the anesthesiologist for a few minutes, and she slipped into the converstation that she had just given me a sedative, and then I woke up in the recovery room. It felt as though I had just gone to coffee with them.

That doesn't mean they were hanging out feeling sorry for themselves- I have been to more than one holiday celebration in a gay bar and they were always a blast - you'd better have cleared your calendar for the day after.

I don't think so. What I was trying to find out was what I was like, not what the market is like. If you're not up for it, it doesn't matter what the market is like.

I get a fair amount of attention from guys into muscle worship, and I began to wonder if I could become a pro just doing muscle worship. I deliberately made a date with a guy that I wasn't attracted to to see if I might be able to find the right mindset for it. He liked it - called me back a couple times - but I didn't like it, decided it probably wasn't an option for me.

Years ago, gay bars used to be very busy on Thanksgiving and Christmas and the bar would usually serve a holiday meal for patrons. Back then, there were so many guys who were alienated from their families and spending holidays alone that the bar owners stepped in to fill the void.

Was it mysogynistic? I thought just the opposite - that he understood that women have challenges that men don't.

Most are interested in meeting - it's how they make their living, after all.

These are competitive bodybuilders - they don't have the baggage around food and eating that some others have. So what it's called isn't that important.

Oh - I'm done. pinching myself with glee tho.

Why am I not surprised?