Its Saturday

So, Dina and I are about to go to Long Beach for Pride down there. My next blog will hopefully be full of the stories from the weekend but until then, here's Jodi with a little assistance for drinking by the pool Long Beach, here we come.

And this is just a preview to what the next Dina and Gregg Show will intail.

Get ready.

Some new things going on with Dina and Gregg

So here's some things happening with The Dina and Gregg Show
Keep checking out dinaandgreggshow.com so you can keep up with all of our latest antics
http://http//hottalkla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=137&Itemid=211

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

I have a longer post from today that needs to be edited so that will be up tomorrow. However, I wanted to at least leave you with a little entertainment for taking time to check out the site today.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

and to the rest of

HAPPY MONDAY TOMORROW

(oh, and keep in mind, the serial mom clips use dirty words. But they're hilarious)

My Mother, and Her Mother

I have these pictures of my mother and me from when I was young. I was maybe two years old in these pictures and these pictures are of the two of us in a photo booth. I cry any time I look at these pictures because I see the happiness in my mothers eyes. It's a happiness that I don't get to see out of her nearly enough. Its a happiness that only comes when life isn't sitting right there on our shoulders aggravating us, forcing us to get involved with a billion other things that really don't matter. In these pictures, I get to see my mother in that happiness.

My mother was home with me through early childhood and I am so lucky that she was. All the good in her heart, how she reads people, how she talks to people all was digested in those early years. Some of my best qualities came out of those years. My amazing patience came out of those years. A patience that is so trained, it is aggravating sometimes to the people around me. These things I got from my mother.

Of course, this doesn't even include my manners, my behaviors that now, as I grow older, I see coming out more and more every day. One of these behaviors is how I can force the people around me to move quicker without even saying a word. All they know is that there doing a particular task more quickly and are shocked.

I also was educated those years at home with mom. She had the time to teach me and direct my curiosity so that it bloomed into intelligence and personality. Now, today in my 30th year on this planet, my mom is one of my best friends. She knows me best and is the first person I call when something really amazing happens or I need to be talked down off of a cliff.

After my brother was born, my mother had her hands full. From the point of my brother taking his first step, he hasn't stopped. He was a full time job and about the time he started school, she went back to work. I was self propelled by that time so she was less hands on with me. Please don't get this confused with bad parenting, she was still very active in my life, she just had some other major obstacles such as raising my brother, parenting my stepfather sometimes and working to help support our family.

About that time, my grandfather, Took Potter, passed away. Him and I were close. He was the main male role model in my life until this point. Well, this was the era where my grandmother and I really formed our bond. Despite my mothers intelligence and superior witt, my grandma is socially adept, has not only her degree but has been very successful in graduate school and is a sought out person in her field among her colleagues. While my mother was busy with the household, I began learning from my grandma. My grandmother influenced my young adulthood on formed how I treat people, respect people, and find hope in people.

While I was going through my adolescence, so was my grandmother. She had to redefine herself, not only as a widow, but as an independent woman in the prime of her life. The years that followed her husbands death, she bloomed into an independent, professional, nonstop power house whom repeatedly conquered goals, taught people around her, and showed people that there is so much that they can do for themselves and others all the while developing herself into the next phase in her life. I got a ring side seat for all of this and because of it, there is a language that my grandmother and I speak that is in and of itself. She has been my touchstone and I am excelling so much further in my life because of the influence she had on me.

I was home from college the summer of 2003 and I stayed with her at her house. Grandma still to this day is the best roommate I've ever had. She sometimes didn't stay at the house because she had her boyfriend, but when we were together at night,it was always a party. We had the warm summer nights, wine and candles on the deck, and conversation for hours.

Well, that is my mother and her mother. The two strong willed, selfless and beautiful women whom raised me. When anybody wonders why I am the way I am, you can thank them. Or blame them. It really depends when you get me....

It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge. ~Phyllis Diller

Last week in Long Beach

Last week I was in Long Beach for Christine's Bachlorette party. Oh was it a debacle. I got there Saturday morning and from the moment I arrived at Nordstom Rack to do some shopping, it was off. We then had lunch, on to a couple bottles of white wine, and then to pedicures. That night our friends Karen and Mo threw an amazing, impromptu party where we bar hopped, got on a bus with about 50 high school cheerleaders, landed at the best blues bar on the west coast. We then arrived at dueling pianos where all the ladies and the single gay man couldn't put the drunken bachlorette together again.
Finally we ended up at the gay bars where I managed to not only get into a fight, but I took someones trick and brought the cute boy back to Christine's. It was a spectacular evening and here are some of the pictures. Thank you again Karen and Maureen!!!

Below the pictures are the link to Cat Man Blue, the Blues Bar we love.

http://http//www.catmanblu.com/

U2 and the following preview

Have you ever had music completely relate to your life? When I was 21, it seems that U2's album "All that You Can't Leave Behind" parallelled everything that was going on not only around me, but inside me. I had really began to deal with my sexuality, my eyes were really opened to what we are shown in the media and the truth that we make for ourselves, and I was about to move to a place(Las Vegas) where I had never been before. Lots was going on and for some reason, U2 helped guide me at moments when I was dumbfounded on what to do next. The lead single from this album is "Beautiful Day", being the reason why I placed it at the beginning of this post. It still holds so much meaning to me and is a great reminder to be positive when things don't quite seem to be going our way.

This sample also references one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Coast to Coast. It really is one of the best ways to stay awake when driving in the late hours of the night. It is so ridiculous at times that you have no other choice to listen to what ever will be the next thing to come out of their mouths.

http://http//www.coasttocoastam.com/

Well, I hope you enjoy this sample of "I Have 3 Kinds of Hiccups". This part of my journey is definitely one of my favorites.

"Can a Bitch Get Out?"

“Can a bitch get out?” Holly exclaimed because she had been trapped in the back of the Acura for close to four hours and desperately had to pee. We we’re on our way to see U2 and this trip was getting longer by the moment. Here we were, the three of us, sitting in this gas station Subway considering if maybe this trip was a bad idea. Hell no it wasn’t!

“Where’s my brandy old fashion sweet with this order?” I was on my first shift back at Houlihan’s; back in the thick of the Wisconsin Dells tourist season, attempting to get my head out of the relaxed care free culture of Cuba and back into the neediness and demanding mode of America. The only thing that I knew for sure is that Corbin would be to work soon and he was going to reveal where we were going to go see U2 for their 2001 summer tour. Before I left the country, I told him to just get us tickets. Didn’t matter where, just get them. So, when he finally told me “don’t worry, I already got you the days off work”, I began to worry. “We’ve got tickets for next Thursday. In D.C.”

I just got done traveling for two months and the last thing I could afford was a trip to Washington D.C. This was the summer of 2001. This was pre-gay, pre-degree, pre-Vegas. I only had one response to this. “So what’s the plan?”

The plan was that I close the bar on Wednesday night, where then, we would get in his Acura Integra, and drive our asses directly to Washington D.C., see the concert, and then get back by Friday afternoon before we both had to work at 4pm. No problem!

I finished work that night like planned where we learned our friend Abigail was not going with us. “Who are we going to get to take this third ticket last minute?” Then, with the grace of god, or some other very powerful vivacious force, a slightly intoxicated Holly Ace wandered through the front door to find out why we were still at work.

“Holly, you wanna go on a trip?” as if we were talking to a child.
“Sure, where are you going?”

“Just trust us, you’ll love it. Just go home and get a change of clothes”

“You two better not be bringing me to some foreigner party because I’m not putting up with it tonight. Well, maybe I’ll put up with it. Just tell me where the hell we’re going!”

“We’re driving to see U2. In D.C. You so are you coming with us?”

“Of course I am”

So, after a quick trip to Denny’s to say goodbye to Abigail, Gregg, Corbin and one sobering Holly Ace began their trip to Washington D.C. The time was now 2:30am Central Standard Time and the concert was at 7:30pm Eastern Standard Time. Yeah, I know, stupid young people.
I had the first leg of the trip. I enjoy driving at night. I have a trick though. I turn on AM radio and listen to crazies call in and talk about everything from conspiracy theories to alien abductions. When that gets boring, I pop in any musical and start blaring along. I picked this trick up from Ayo the summer prior when we drove out to New York. Later, after my first solo drive to Vegas, I would add singular wrapped candies and Red Bull to the mix. Then I could stay awake for eternity.

We made it till morning, and had just entered Pennsylvania when we finally changed drivers. I figured it was best because I still had a speeding ticket in Pennsylvania from that trip with Ayo. Kids! We switched and I attempted to take a nap. Honestly, the back seat of an Acura Integra was not built for 200lb, 6’1” men. Especially if they decide they’re going to take s nap lying down. So, instead, Corbin and Holly decided to play a game of Silly Willy with me which, for an eight year old child, should have lasted hours. Unfortunately I was twenty one and it took me even longer.

So there we are, over half way to D.C. adrenaline wearing down, realizing that it was time to eat. The last filling thing we ate was at Denny’s, at bar time, and that’s what I have to say about that. Adding to that grease was all the shit that one eats on a road trip, (energy drinks, chips, candy, ect) it was time to find something a little more sensitive to our stomachs and that is when we stopped at a random gas station in the middle of Pennsylvania that happened to have a Subway. “Can a bitch get out?” as we all raced for the bathroom.

Nothing outrageous happened during this pit stop. It was truly one of the most lifeless lunches I’ve ever had. All three of us thinking, “this had better be a great fucking concert”.

There was surprisingly not excessive traffic when we arrived into D.C…............