Euro 2008

Did you see the match today?!?!  WOW!  Great fun as Germany and Spain faced off in the final game of the Euro 2008 tournament, and it was 1-0 for Spain with Torres’ goal in the first half being all Spain needed to take the game.  WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I watched the match in ample good company—present at my immediate right was my soccer teammate Martin from Germany who objected strongly to my calling the German team a bunch of “cheating fouling mofos.”  But as he finished his beer about 20 minutes into the game, I encouraged him to drink up, he’d need the alcoholic cushion to handle the blow of his team losing.

Good times, good company, good game!  And now I’m off to the last game of my season—wouldn’t it be sweet if I could pull off the Torres goal for us? (really, if that would’ve been me, I’d never have made that graceful leap over the German keeper on the ground, I would’ve fallen face first over him, splat).  Dream a little dream, and play on…

duh

So there’s this book out by an Asheville native and she’s making all the rounds of the book touring circuit and good for her for getting published and making money and yadda yadda, but I have to say the general premise of her book 365 Nights is a big honkin’ DUH, people, DUH!!  To me it’s so DUH! that I can’t believe people would buy it, but more power to them and the author if it helps them get a clue.

Ok, so here’s the premise: the author decides for her husband’s birthday that her gift to him will be sex every day for a year.  Her book documents this one year journey–not necessarily all the naughty bits, folks, but the emotional aspects of this effort to spend time together privately every day.  Good for her and him for doing this, but come ON!

This is where your Katster gets up on the soapbox…(wait for a sec while someone scoots the soapbox over my way…)

Ahem.  If you are in a commited relationship, you should be putting aside a window of time (almost) every dayto nurture your relationship.   Episodes of the stomach flu, death in the family and other such disasters might thwart the “every day” aspect, but as a general rule, you need to make that connection often.  And it doesn’t have to be sex, folks, but it needs to be a no bitching, no whining time of being the couple you are.  Why do you think it’s so awesome when you’re dating?  It’s great because you spend little windows of time together just enjoying the beejesus out of yourselves…getting freaky and most importantly of all, laughing.  And then eventually things get, well, ordinary.  You stop laughing, you stop making time…or you let complaints about who loaded the dishwasher last get in the way of what should be “your time.”

Your Kat does not believe that things everhave to get ordinary.  EVER.  I believe in the every-single-day-connection, even if it’s only 10 minutes of undivided attention at the very end of a long day when the younguns are finally asleep, as it is critical.  I can say the recent demise of my marriage was largely in part to Mr. Kat 2.0’s unwillingness to focus even 1 uninterrupted minute a day on us; every little thing falls apart if that connection’s not there, folks, and one partner can’t pull the weight alone, one partner can not do all the work, it’s painful and unrewarding to do it all.

A few years ago, maybe it was on Oprah, there was a relationship therapist that insisted that you take the time to kiss, reallllllllllllllllllllly kiss, at least once a day every single day of the week.  That counts, too.  This doesn’t have to be nasty bondage and feathers to work, friends, although that’s fine!  It doesn’t have to be deep heartfelt speeches every day either.  It’s simply happily acknowledging who you are together in the whirling swirling mayhem of parenthood, work and the rest of the real life stuff that closes in on us each day.

So buy the book if you want to ponder it further, or you can just take Kat’s word that you need to connect daily, really. 

The next Mr. Kat will be the right man for me if he knows that no matter what, we have to put the disagreements over who used the last of the peanut butter aside, put the grouchiness over wet bath towels on the bedroom floor aside, put the stress of hectic workdays aside, put it all aside for just a few minutes every day to just freakin’ appreciate each other just a little bit.  I believe in it.  I believe in giving the appreciation, I believe in receiving the appreciation, and if it gets all shagadelic, baby, that’s great, too.  Every day.  I’m serious.  Kat has spoken.  So be it.

that better be produce in your pocket

So it was a night of much rock.  I started my evening at the Orange Peel with local metal gods Ironside.  There was a great turnout, heads bangin’, fists in the air…and there were some younguns with perhaps the lamest mosh pit I’ve ever seen—they could only manage to throw themselves around for 15 seconds at a time before they had to stop.  Why, back when I was kid, we moshed for entire concerts non-stop!  Silly hooligans.  Anyhoooo, Ironside kicked ass as usual and they were a great start to the evening…and then it was off to Stella Blue for Southern Trespass, Blackheadz  and Crank County Daredevils.

Southern Trespass is a helluva lotta fun!! It’s just shame the audience wasn’t quite “loose” enough yet to give them the full enthusiasm they deserved.  You’ve gotta see Gordon from JFK’s Good People tattoo rockin’ out–with all that crazed energy, he was born to be onstage.

The Blackheadz from Atlanta, oh my gawd how I love them! I wish I’d known they were playing, I would’ve dragged out some newbies to introduce them to powerhouse rock punk funk soul insanity that they are.  They are freakin’ fantastic!  And I appreciated that they added in some old Johnny Prophet tunes (a previous incarnation of the band), particularly “I Like it Like That.”  Check out their myspace page and the tune “American Arrogance.”

And last but not least, the Daredevils…new guy on the drums, new songs in the lineup and just beer-spewing sweaty nasty rock, sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!  It’s been a long time since Crank County’s played their hometown, and the crowd was smashed up against the stage at Stella, body to body in a sweaty tangle, which in a lovely Jager-infused haze, I didn’t mind at all…until the verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry last song (an A+ cover of “Let It Bleed”), when one of the guys behind me pushed what better have been a squash from his garden into my backside, and shouted something about how he’d been “feelin’ me all night long.” BLAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH! ICK POO BARF!  I scrambled out of that tangle to enjoy the rest of the song from the side of the stage, feeling violated, repulsed and generally just gross.  Earlier in the evening, some chick had felt me up in what appeared to be her routine from Xcapades or something, and I let it slide without freaking out too badly because the whole slutty girl on girl dancing thing has become so common—but don’t do it on me, ok?  And don’t rub my cleavage, thanks.  But the girl quickly sensed my ick factor and moved on, whereas our produce wielding man friend was looking for me when the show dispersed, spotted me and headed my way—don’t know if I’ve ever split so quick from anywhere.

Anyway, God bless local rock, support your Asheville bands!  Rawk on…

i admitted…

…to reading Missed Connections on craigslist.  I also read the Casual Encounters posts, too, I admit it!  And I want to know, do people really “hook up,” if you know what I mean wink wink nudge nudge say no more, through these ads??

I won’t be answering these ads, but I would love to offer some guidelines for the men posting them:

OH MY GOD CHECK YOUR SPELLING!  You are not sticking anything of yours near anything of mine, clothed or unclothed, with spelling and grammar that bad.

Why in the hell would you post photos of your weenie on the Internet unless that in and of itself is your thrill?  I don’t know a single woman at all that bases how much play a potential suitor is going to get on the appearance of his weenie.  Put it away at least until you’re on a first name basis.

Please don’t describe yourself as “good looking and super fit.”  We know you aren’t, and we’re ok with that.  Regular people are far more attractive than arrogant assholes anyway, truly.

And what’s with “I’m looking for petite Asian women only” and similar posts?  This isn’t the drive thru at Burger King, there is no menu to pick from to have it your way.  If you’re that picky, just buy some porn or hunt down a brothel.  Your posts that rule out 99.99999999999% of the people reading it are narrowing your booty call chances significantly!

I’m just going to suggest a post here.  Again, I won’t be responding to these posts, I get my cheap thrills just reading them and trying to figure out who really posts these things!  But , here’s a sample “casual encounters” post:

“Regular guy seeks regular girl.  Only photos I have are of me leaving my high school prom, so subtract 80% of the hair and add 80% more weight to visualize me now.  I brush my teeth and shower daily, have gainful employment and don’t live with my mom.  I’d like some hot action–no stunts, no props, no fetishes–just the usual normal good stuff without having to buy you flowers or meet your family. Interested?”     I think that sort of post will up your chances of getting some random nookie tremendously.  Boasting is a turnoff, especially when we know you’re making it all up!!

I’ll go back to reading now…

You know,

I’m pretty fond of saying there are no do-overs.  And I mean that in the ‘this life is not a dress rehearsal, this is all there is’ sense.  But for Management Bestows You One Wish Day, hey you, I’m giving you a do-over on that if you want!

SH*T

OK, so I’ve lost most of the blogs from June in my abrupt eviction, posts about life and love and passion and heart failure and cancer and all sorts of deep stuff that I’m not normally good about sharing.  SH*T SH!T SH$T.  But on the bright side, my page looks nice, so I’m pleased with that part.

Sigh.

Anyway.

Here’s to a new beginning, and thanks to The Dog for putting back what he could and sprucing up the place…he’s a good man.