becky haycox

Tag: postaday2011

  • goodbye “summer”

    Illegally crossing the trestle to get to the secret beach spot

    Me, yesterday, experiencing the outdoors after three days improvising inside a small hot theatre. Bless you, Lamar, for suggesting an outing to the special beach spot, accessible only by trespassing over the train trestle. I only had a couple clammy, panicky Stand By Me moments as we crossed over the water, while I imagined the afternoon Amtrak Surfliner roaring through a few minutes early. And flattening us.

    Some nice updates, written by friends, that appeared this summer on Facebook:

    Somedays my niece makes me laugh so hard. Today she was extra funny. What an actress. Insane hair day and riding her tricycle up and down the street with green hipster shades.

    Favorite summer dish: grilled peaches.

    Enjoying some quiet writing time in New Mexico.

    Beautiful Sherleen on her wedding day.

    A couple parties, peach pie, a swimming hole, and skateboarding. I wish this weekend would never end. Thanks for an awesome weekend everyone.

    I want a pet capybara.

    The Boyfriend leads the way

  • machisma

    winnah!

    This picture is so ludicrous, it just makes me laugh every time. My friend and fellow Ventura Improv member Brittany took this fabulous RAWRRR shot.

    I think I’m actually gaping at the audience like “I can’t believe it/I don’t deserve it”, but it seems to read as a macho domination sports moment.

    I am pleased that our team (Girl’s Night Out) won the Smorgas-prov Improv Festival yesterday, but not in such a seemingly crushing manner.

    The details of the show already are beginning to fade (as improv is wont to do), but it was a grand and silly night. My team was a wild-card team and we actually won the show by  a coin-toss game, so really: we were lucky.

    Now I am tired. Now I rest.

  • caffiend

    I need a cup of coffee. What better way to accomplish this but to surf the internet? Coffee jerks! What a strangely enduring trend in commercials. [direct link] Early Muppet action. You can hear how adorably young Jim Henson was. [direct link] The coffee ring effect. Since my coffee’s not making itself, I will watch this till I get soothed back to sleep. [direct link]

    PS: OMG click this link

  • partial points awarded for honesty

    Tonight at the local gay bar, after the trivia game (our team won again!)

    E: Becky! Hi! What can I get for you? A drink? A shot? What are you having?

    Me: Aw, you’re sweet, but no thanks. I have to go soon.

    E: How about a drink of water? A ride home?

    Me: No, really, I’m fine. Thank you!

    E: Coke? Meth? Pills — oh, how about some pills!

    Me: Ha ha ha. Ha.

    E: What can I get for you??

    Me: Nothing!

    E: Then how am I going to control you?

  • fashist

    I like clothes and style and all that. I’m not a magazine-reading, credit card-maxing label ho, don’t get me wrong. I try to use my sister Ann as my style beacon and role model — a girl who never spends anything but deep bargain/thrift prices, but always, always dresses well.

    Now look at this excellent video, 100 years of fashion:

    [direct link]

    Now read this excellent blog, Fashioni.st. I love that Mai lady! We used to be colleagues without knowing it, way back when. Thanks to this blog, I feel like I’m keeping sneaky surveillance on what the cuties are wearing in SF.

    Now read this other excellent blog, nerdboyfriend. It’s genius — they post a picture of a Hot Boy then offer up suggestions, fashion-wise, of how to recreate the look. I fall in love several times a week. Go through their archives and find that picture of Paul Newman on a boat. Holy mama.

    That’s Lucian Freud. Hot Boy, RIP.

     

  • little guy

    Dad's baby shoes

    My dad’s baby shoes. I would like to go back in time and give him a little squeeze.

  • night visitor

    I purposely didn’t write about the fifth anniversary of my father’s passing yesterday. I couldn’t really think of what to say or how to say it. I think I am still getting over the various horrors that dropped in 2006, and sometimes can’t muster up the muster.

    But suddenly last night I’m inside a madcap dream in which I am in an a capella trio — Dan Savage (the sex columnist), Molly Ringwald, and myself. Showtime’s at 8pm and (in tiresomely typical dream fashion) we had not rehearsed and it’s about 7:45.

    I am in a big open-air motorized gondola thing heading to the recital with Dan, Molly, my dad and stepmom. I do not have direct contact with my father, but I’m surprised and pleased that he is coming to my recital (this was not always the case in real life).

    I was pleased, of course, until I realized that it was going to be a complete disaster, since we were completely unprepared.

    Oh, dream hijinx and dream-ghost visits. Will it never end.

     

  • 3 word-related thingies

    1. The Spanish word for carrot is zanahoria. Zanahoria! Makes me chuckle every time I see it. Such an elaborate, exotic word for our humble little carrot. Zanahoria!
    2. Bedclothes! So much better than the word linens. The bed is wearing bedclothes. So fancy. I wonder if the bed pretends the flat sheet is a cape.
    3. I like how other languages call seafood fruits of the sea. Sea fruit! Cute, and a little weird.

  • prideful

    It’s Ventura Pride weekend and I say hooray to that. I’ve been extra connected to the LGBT community this past year, both socially and through work, and that has enhanced my life in every single way. I have found a missing component for happiness here in the burg in which I live; my friends who share this circle with me are progressive, tolerant, full of activist spirit and a lot of goddam fun.

    This is the first year there’s been so much support from local government for Pride, and that makes me extra extra proud! Many of us can remember when this county’s mind was small and unenlightened; not that we’re free of bigotry (oh yes, still the hate crimes and the killing), but so much has been accomplished.

    Perhaps as a result of spending a majority of my adult life in San Francisco, the whole gay thing is simply a non-issue for me; I am completely unable to care about, let alone judge, anybody’s orientation. Of course, there was a whole lot of other things going on with the gay community in SF in the 80s and 90s, which activated my fighting spirit and my commitment to support and help and be there every way I could.

    So, friends. I command thee as an officially designated honorary gay male. Go out there and have fun and be proud and take the long view of all the good you’ve done by being you!

     

  • and i’ve been chasing it ever since

    It’s the Fourth Friday Challenge for August. My friend Paul and I, both posting daily in 2011, decided to give each other a job once a month to keep things spicy. In his words, “we want to push ourselves to do something more interesting than we might otherwise.” I will put his challenge to me at the bottom of this post — it’s your choice to read the challenge or my response first.

    – – – – –

    When I was struggling to transition from a hard-living art-school degenerate to a socialized grownup, I gussied up and went with my friend David to La Folie, a fancy French restaurant in San Francisco. We saved up for weeks for this event. We dressed in our best, somewhat classy clothes. Somehow, when David and I got to the restaurant (via the 21 Polk bus), the maitre d’ thought that we were newlyweds. This made us chuckle, but we played along.

    The meal absolutely sang. I had nothing like it before — or since, really. In the middle of this feast, the sommelier approached us and asked us if we’d like to try a very special wine. Apparently, someone else had ordered less than a bottle, so there were two glasses worth of wine for us, gratis. I believe he offered it up to us as congratulations to the happy couple.

    I remember that it was a cabernet sauvignon, but I remember nothing else. Except that there was an explosion of pure flavor as soon as the wine touched my lips — I actually saw stars as I experienced the full taste of the grape. I looked at David and there were tears in his eyes.

    In that moment, I saw the full potential of food, of wine, of love, and of adulthood.

    – – – – –

    This post was in response to Paul’s Fourth Friday Challenge to me, August 2011:

    Tell me about your favoritist drink.

    Read Paul’s response to my challenge here.