Lavish

Dear Jack,

Last night OUT Astoria had a mixer at the new gay bar in Astoria called Lavish. There was a great turn out. The place opened for the first time last night. It is more trendy than Albatross, and had a more Latino feel to it, which is indicative of the changing community I guess. There were dancers, which is the first time I've heard of them in Albatross. It was almost like being in the city, only it's a couple blocks from home. Paul, Daniel, and Dirk were there. I had fun hanging out with various people. A group of us went to dinner around 10:30 to Cup Diner, and then I went home and Mikey went back for a final drink with the rest of the crew.

All in all, it was a good night.

Health System

Dear Jack,

I am on day 5 of a lingering migraine headache. I have no insurance yet, as it will not be active till December, and so I sit in pain. I headed to the clinic down the street where I've been able to get looked at fairly cheap, despite no insurance, but today it is not going to happen. They are booked till next week with insurance paying patients, and the lobby is full of people who probably are in the same boat as me or worse.

I am hopeful that President Obama will be able to effectually fix the health care problem and provide us with a plan that allows all citizens with basic health coverage, and all children, regardless of immigration status, coverage. I can somewhat understand people's fears that this will be similar to socialism, but I have to point to the non-socialist countries in Europe where there is health care.

Children, at least, who have no ability to choose their immigration status, their financial status, or get their own health insurance, should be taken care of PERIOD.

OBAMA

Dear Jack,

So Obama has been elected the 44th President of the United States. This is something that makes me feel proud, and somewhat jealous that I'm not African American. It must be something grand to see how a whole heritage can begin to overcome the prejudices. I feel the same way about the Jews. Unfortunately, my heritage is part of the group that tended to oppress :-/.

Anyways, I'm glad to have Obama as our future President. I am really hopeful things will improve here.

Scrappy Was Scared

Dear Jack,

So Katsumi brought Scrappy to work for Halloween. Jon brought Choco. The day was pretty uneventful, 'cept that we were all dressed up. I was in my Hogwarts outfit, going as "Dumbledore's Ex-Boyfriend". We handed out candy to the students.

So here is the weird thing that happened. Around 4pm we were all chatting in the open area, and out of no where, Scrappy starts freaking out. I mean he was barking frantically, and running in a circle, running back and forth, scared, jumping at Katsumi. Then he leaped up into Jon's arms and pissed on him. Still barking, and peeing, he was pushed into the office, and the door was closed. We had never seen anything like it before. Katsu said Scrappy has never behaved like that. We sent Jon home, because he was covered in dog pee. Scrappy began to calm down.

At 5pm Abigail came with Lucia and Stephanie. We were chatting, all petting Scrappy (Choco having gone home with Jon). We were chatting and then out of nowhere, Scrappy did it again. He started barking and freaking out, and this time not only did he pee, but he pooped on Alana, and we put him in the office again, and he kept freaking out.

The bark was such a frantic bark, and he was looking behind me when it began. Then, out of nowhere, my nose started bleeding...and it gushed. I haven't had a substantial nose bleed in ages. It was so weird. I can't help but hypothesize that the two are related, and if they are, I don't want to know how.

Later I went with the girls to the Halloween Parade. Then I joined Michael in Astoria, and we went to a party, and then Albatross, then a diner, and then home.

It was a busy Halloween.