Travel/Tourism

From the department of "Things that make you go hmmmm" comes this doozie :

Gay Aussie hotel wins right to ban heterosexuals, lesbians
The Peel Hotel in Melbourne won an exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act to prevent insults and abuse directed toward gays in its bars and nightclubs, owner Tom McFeely told AFP.

"The hotel predominantly markets itself towards homosexual males, towards gay men and we want to protect the integrity of the venue as well as continue to make the men feel comfortable," McFeely said.

"When large numbers of heterosexuals or even lesbians are in the hotel that changes the atmosphere and many gay men can feel uncomfortable."

I would love it if this where a joke given the owner's last name is one McFeely and all I think of him being the insensitive evil twin of Grey Anatomy's McDreamy, but no ... 'tis true.

Goes to show women end up being second class citizens even within marginalized communities.

I fly back to NYC tomorrow to begin interviews for my book; wondering what I can do to pass the time on the plane without being charged with treason.

Thanks for your help!

This is still my state of mind.
De-mojito-ing is turning out to be rather difficult.

  

Child entertainer and doll Barney stands accused of terrorism after emitting suspicious stuffing on a flight from Chattanooga, TN to Boone, NC. Both Barney and the unidentified blind child who boarded with him are being held in an undisclosed location.

Witnesses claim that a fight erupted when several stewardesses tried to take the purple dinosaur from the child. The child claimed that she didn't care about the dangers of "picious stuffin'" and was immediately placed in a choke hold. The pilot returned to Chattanooga where armed officers and terrorism specialists whisked the suspects into custody.

Officials speculate that Barney may have brainwashed the child into some kind of revenge plot due to his loss in popularity. An unconfirmed source stated that the other child on the flight had a Tickle Me Elmo doll, but it is not known if Barney had access to this information before boarding.

Meanwhile, the search for that guy that blew up those towers

This morning I was checking email and attempting to blog with the choppy wifi access I have here at the hotel. Instead of banging my head on the wall, I decided to get up up for a minute for a drink of water. When I come back to the computer I see a gorgeous familiar face I've not seen in 16 years. Debra Matos, my former roommate (and one of the few who lived to tell the tale), was standing right before me. Let's say I was way beyond ferklempt.

Of all the places I could bump into her, the Rincon Beach Resort was the last one I thought I'd find her. Debra has been living in France for all this time now and, my blog, I mean, it's just freaky that she was there hugging me after all these years. She has two lovely girls and just like with my two boys, this is also their first time in the island as 'sapient beings'.

Synchronicity. Coincidences. Karma works in mysterious ways.

What's even weirder is that a couple of days ago another former NYU friend of mine, Frances, had asked me about Debra. We were all together working on our MAs and PhDs in the 90's. Her life partner Jorge Morales is an avid blog reader and coincidentally had stumbled upon culturekitchen and thus me via The Agonist. Shout out to Sean Kelley --the network works!

So here I am in Puerto Rico and reconnecting with my peeps without really trying. I have not seen him but I did read Pedro Reina, who was a former BA classmate at NYU. The first day I got here I opened El Nuevo Día and out of it's editorial section came out his face.

I've been able to reconnect to two of the women whom I share with some intense memories pre-Mark, pre-kids, pre-blogging. I've been thinking about them constantly now for about a year; wondering how they were doing. Believe me people, if you're on my mind there is no running away. You will end up in my path and in my life.

My karma works in mysterious ways.

I swear, this whole red alert drama was created to indispose me. You think I am exaggerating? Then why is it that even though I was born in the United States, I have to carry my US passport in order to not be stopped and frisked at every gate in every airport of this great nation of ours ... including the it's lovely colonial Island of Enchantment ?

If the red alert drama was not created to make my life miserable while traveling, then why would anybody want to go to the lenghts of banning all liquids including hand lotions, hair glossers, medicines and asthma inhalers from all flights? I mean if George Bush hates black people the next logical step is to hate black Puerto Rican women named Liza Sabater. That would explain why he would want me to travel with ashy skin, split hair ends, and children with runny noses and wheezing chests.

George Bush hates me and that's why he called in the red alert.

This has been the trip from hell. Nothwest is the WORST airline EVER. And this thing they call an airport?

UGH!

Can you believe I am still NOT in San Jose?

First off, the flight was delayed yesterday 4 hours due to weather conditions. Ok. I can live with that. But the airline, instead of taking measures to ensure people got to where they were going or stayed in NYC until further notice, they took us hostage in the airplane FOR FOUR HOURS.

Yes people.

I was with hundreds of other passengers for fours hours on a Northwest Airlines airplane. Four hours which they refused to find a way to get us out of the airplane. Four hours they refused to get people to a non NWA gate so they could be at least out of an airplane and on the ground. Four hours which they decided were necessary so they would not have to go through the extra cost of customer service.

Not only that. The flight was supposed to leave at 5:30pm. It's 9:45pm and instead of getting to a gate as instructed, the pilot decides to depart to Minneapolis.

The asshole says something to the effect : "We could wait another hour and a half for one of hours gates to open up or we could fly. We're flying."

Hurrah, right? No.

I have that feeling again. I told my mum last night that I was running away to join the circus. I think I was only half-joking. I'm in the midst of trying to sort out a life that, once again, is not making sense. Call it a mid-life crisis. Call it a sense that everything is spinning out of control and I can only hang on for dear life.

Five years ago, I left Ithaca on a mad flight across the country. It's still not clear to me, 60 months later, what I was doing. The thing I remember from that time was the overwhelming urge to run, to leave--really, to flee--a life over which I felt I had lost all control. It wasn't that my life was without meaning--on the contrary, I would say there was too much meaning, too many things going on--and it was as if my brain short-circuited and the primal urge of fight or flight hijacked my brainwaves.
I had just left my marriage of 12 years, had just conquered an addiction to opiates that had enslaved me in a cycle of chronic pain and narced-out bliss, had decided to "become" a writer, and had just had my disability benefits run out. In short, my life was simultaneously chaos and re-birth, and being stuck in a tiny town in the middle of rural New York was not where I wanted to be.

Okay. This is weird and cool at the same time. And may be a once in a lifetime photo!

From Guysen Israel News:

The fifteen most famous Japanese Sumo wrestlers in the workd are on a three-day visit to Israel. Minday the visited the Azrieli Towers and met Tourism Minister Itzhak Herzog before carrying on to the Mount of Olives, the Kotel (Western Wall) and the Christain Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. This morning they gave President Katsav a demionstration of their talents. (Guysen.Isra×›l.News)

This trip is unusual because Sumos rarely travel abroad. This visit is entitled "Peace and Brotherhood" and is planned to promote tourism between Israel and Japan.

I have experienced how strict security is in Tel Aviv airport. But I bet no one bothered these guys! Are they eating chollent instead of chanko-nabe?