13 posts tagged “justin rudd”

Funny how a bunch of good looking men can improve your mood. The crowd really surprised me because not only did I run into people I haven't seen in 10+ years but all of my divergent social groups knew each other. We all spent a lot of time saying, "Wait, you know each other?? How do you guys know each other?"

When I couldn't figure out what to wear, I went with a bright pink bra, soft pink nightie (as a shirt), pink eyeshadow, and big bright pink eyelashes - which did not flatter me but got a lot of attention.

Walking behind/with Grand Marshall, Justin Rudd - representing HauteDogs.org.

Ralph told me that he got footage of me dancing to the drum corps. That better make it into the video footage!!

The Belmont Shore Christmas Parade* is a mildly cheesy, but very cute, little community affair that I LOVE. Far superior to the sad & somewhat embarrassing debacle put on in my neighborhood (thankfully, I miss that one this year), the Daisy Lane Parade. Though a close tie with the Naples Boat Parade (which now turns out to be my 4th event occurring on the night of Dec 15).

Will try to moblog from the parade.

*remind me to tell the story of the year I was on camera, broadcast to all of Long Beach (at least 3 times a day) without knowing it.

And I give it a C. Maybe a C-.

The holiday concert by "Men Alive Chorus" (aka: gay men's chorus of Orange County) was... uhhhmm... yeeeah {said ala Office Space}.

They sang okay - not great but also not bad. Definitely not anything I'd rave about. For me, their production left a LOT to be desired. I felt like I was watching an episode of The Little Rascals, when they get that "let's put on a show" wild hair and do a production in the barn. Parts were good(-ish). Parts probably seemed good on paper, or in rehearsal, but were painful with a live audience. Basically, I was expecting something more polished & professional... and couldn't seem to snap out of that expectation in order to just go with the flow of it being amateurish. As a result, I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out if the person in the middle of the chorus was a woman (I'm pretty sure it was - they're non-discriminatory that way - but I really couldn't tell).

It was also another instance of it being TOO FUCKING COLD IN HERE for me to enjoy ANYTHING.

THANK GAWD I got my tix through GoldStar, for less than 1/2 price. I thought it was a bit of a ripoff at $20; I'd have been PISSED if I paid full price ($45). Lesson learned.

The South Coast Chorale (aka: Gay & Lesbian Chorus of Long Beach) is doing a holiday show in 2 weeks. Maybe I'll give them a try. I'm likely to know some of the singers (due to brunch bunch) and, even if not, now know to have realistic expectations. But I know at least 1 thing, and maybe 2, is already on my calendar for that night - so I need to find out what's already booked - and how that compares to the $35 ticket charge for the SCC.

Highlight of the night: It was still raining (18 hours of rain - I can't believe it!!) and the UCI campus had lots of good puddles on the path back to the parking structure. By the time I got to the elevator, thanks to my zealous puddle stomping efforts, I was soaked from socks to knees. TOTALLY worth it!!

2nd Highlight of the night: Got a email that Justin is looking for some extra volunteers, without dogs, to march in the parade with him. 2 people to carry his Grand Marshall banner and about 6 more to hand out candy & HauteDogs info cards (the parade's theme is "Dog Days of Christmas"). I might be too late but, if not, I might be in a holiday parade (my favorite holiday parade - it's tiny but fun) Saturday night!!

Pic taken at 6. Hit nearly all green lights and my coffee was free cause even the cash registers at the coffee house didn't want to be awake at 5:30am.

By 7am, this parking lot was a ZOO!! As usual, total lack of coordination from Justin. We were sending people to the race starts lines only to have the teenage volunteers, who were HOLDING THE START SIGN, send people back to us saying that the race started somewhere else. WTF?!?

Instead of checking in for an "official" job, I noticed a complete lack of signage and used my loud mouth to scream directions for checkin, food dropoff (there was a canned food drive for one of the local food banks), race starting lines, routes, finish lines, water, tshirts, bathrooms... whatever I could think of. Literally just screamed the same info over & over for about 3.5 hrs. Didn't even come close to losing my voice... that's how loud I am.

This was a non-sanctioned (your time doesn't count toward anything official) race. I was a volunteer. I was yelled at by racers for the following:

• Registration process was disorganized.  Racers were still trying to pick up info as the race started
• note: They had options for pick up the day before and registration checkin started at 7am, with first "official" race starting at 8:30 (a completely disorganized "fun walk" started at 8). And all racers were allowed to run any damn race they wanted starting any damn time they wanted.
• Not enough bathrooms
• Nobody really seemed sure where the start lines were
• This is valid - a common prob with Justin's events is that he's the only person who knows what the hell is going on - and refuses to carry a cellphone or walkie talkies, or stay still (so we can find him).
  
• No official spot to store racer's extra gear (such as extra clothes they were wearing because the morning was cold, or the race shirts they picked up before running)
• People registering on day-of-event had to wait till after the races to get their shirts
• Although annoying, this is done because Justin preorders the shirts and wants to make sure that people who prepaid get theirs. He always fears that he's not going to have enough for everyone but I have NEVER seen an event where Justin ran out of shirts (in fact, last year we had about 2000 left over). Which reminds me - I need to see if he's gonna any XLs in reaching distance cause I didn't snag one.
  
• Not enough parking in the free city lots (well excuse me - we didn't think to pave over the city in order to give your lazy asses free parking for a 1 day race. Who doesn't know to either arrive early or plan to park & walk?)
  
• Start of kids race was a disaster area - with adults and older children (over the age limit for the race) plowing over kids and knocking them down.
  
• This doesn't surprise me. Saddens me - but doesn't surprise me. Even though the race was for kids (parents could go along as chaperones), I've seen the worst in adults at the annual Easter Egg hunt as they ran ahead of kids, taking ALL the treat filled Easter eggs. I don't go to that event any more specifically because of the nastiness & greed of the adults. Not much I could do here - any other start option would have had the same problems.
  
• Not enough people on the route, indicating the 5k & 10k turn arounds and/or where the route was modified this year, with a 100yd turn inland for the finish line
  
• Valid point. Caused by the abundant teen volunteers who ignored instructions on what to do & where to go and, instead, stayed in little clumps with their friends doing NOTHING but waiting for their free volunteer shirt
• Ran out of water at the turn around points.
• The Sr. volunteers ID'd that as a problem early in the morning. Nothing we could do. Another "complete lack of planning/coordination" issue.
  
• No announcement of winners
• As far as I knew, Justin wasn't doing anything about winning runners. But I later saw that he was taking down bib numbers. I have no idea what became of that.
• No announcement of JetBlue ticket winners
• Justin said the winners were already selected, from the pre-registrations, and he was going to announce them before the start of each race. I never heard it happen.
• Much more that I've forgotten

What a lot of racers seemed to forget is that this was a CHARITY EVENT and FOR FUN, NOT FOR TIME TRIALS. Unfortunately, it also reminded me of just how out of control Justin's events have become. They get bigger & bigger yet Justin hasn't adapted - and he was never organized to begin with. He needs to take courses on event coordination (I heard that the city offers them for free) and/or WORK AT SOMEONE ELSE'S EVENT so he can see how other people pull this stuff off. And if he can't find people to be Sr. Volunteers/Coordinators for free (I'm a perfect candidate but, like others, don't have the time), then he needs to start paying for professionals to help him with planning & day-of-event activities. Sure, it will cut into the money going to the NPO (we were expected to raise $80,000 today). But the smoother operation will also result in more attendees having a better time - resulting in more paying participants, which should easily compensate the cost of hiring the pros.

As for me, I love Justin but I think this was my last time volunteering for him at an event (I'll still run errands and do non day-of-event chores). I'm usually one of the first to arrive and last to leave. Today I "laid low" for the first hour - so I didn't have to haul shit around (didn't have the strength for it), then hit the limit of my patience at 10:30 and came home to nap before dinner... with the 5k racers still coming in and tear-down, cleanup, moving, and unpacking at Justin's still to be done.

I have no more tolerance for the complete disorganization & excessive crowds. Plus I don't want to be there when something bad finally happens (and it's going to), and I'm really over being bitched by strangers for things that are out of my control - especially when I've been there since 6 o'clock in the morning and am running on 2 hrs of sleep. I realize people need to vent - I'm no longer willing to be the person who takes it.

and Justin is named Grand Marshall of the annual Belmont Shore Christmas Parade!!

Happy 10th Birthday, Rosie!!

Interfaith Blessing of the Animals is this Saturday, Sept 29, noon, at Heartwell Park (corner of Carson & Clark) in Long Beach:

The Interfaith Blessing of the Animals presented by Haute Dogs is free to the public and their pets. Seniors, families, singles, and children, are encouraged to bring their dogs, cats, birds, lizards, rabbits, pot-bellied pigs, fish, tortoises and turtles and other well-behaved pets. After brief words from each of the seven faith leaders, the menagerie of participants will have the opportunity to line up single-file to be blessed by the faith leaders who will be dressed in traditional garb. Olive branches and holy water will be available. Choose one, or get blessed by all of the clergy. More Info.

In bed with C this morning, knowing I'm supossed to be getting ready for the big 100th Beach Cleanup (coinciding with California Coastal Cleanup day), I send a message to Ralph, Justin's partner, asking "what time am I supposed to be there?"

I get back:

Clooney party is tonight at 8 at hotel bel aire (or aide, as he wrote it)

I tell C - "OMG, I think I just got invited to a party with George Clooney. Seriously! THE George Clooney."

I write back to Ralph, "I was talking about beach cleanup. What's the deal with the Clooney party?"

Ralph writes back:

Oh sorry.. That was meant for pollack [as in Sydney Pollack, Ralph's boss] beach cleanup at 10 am.

Disappointment... though I knew there was no way I was actually meant to party with George Clooney's crowd!

Anyhooo... George is throwing a party for the movie he made with Sydney, Michael Clayton. And, how sad for Justin and Ralph, they're "so over the Hollywood scene" and "have New York premiere to attend in a couple weeks" so they're probably not even going to the party tonight.

I told Ralph that he owes me a George Clooney autography for psyching me up like that. He said he'll get me one of the autographed movie posters when they do them. (you reading this Ralph? It's in writing now so you HAVE to follow through!)

Ralph also said that Clooney "couldn't be nicer", that he was wonderful to work with and nice to be around. And that he drinks Belvedere vodka straight up (just in case you have him over to party).

There was also some sad news about Sydney but it's not public yet - probably will be in the next couple weeks though because the Enquirer already knows. Let's just say, send him your good juju - he very much needs it.

Back to a lighter note, how many people can say, "I was invited to a party with George Clooney. Oh, wait, no... It was a mistake. I accidently got a message intended for Sydney Pollack."

Oh, and I might be on the 10p news (local station came out to do a bit on the cleanup)

Sometimes I love my bizarro life!

What are some charitable causes that you support or would like to support?

Timely question. Just 2 days ago, in a dept meeting, we were discussing that some of our employees will soon be retiring as millionaires (or mulitmillionaires) due to a company buyout - and what each of us would do if in the same position.

I said I'd be a Philanthropist. I was slightly stunned that no one else thought the same (and that they were so impressed with my answer - and knew it was true) because helping others is such a part of who I am that I take for granted that most people have the same instinct as me:

That said... I currently, regularly, support:

• Community Action Team / Justin Rudd - A local not-for-profit that/who works to help everything in our community -from people to animals to ecology
• Kiva.org - Loans to independent business people in developing areas
• Human Rights Campaign Fund (aka: HRC) - gay/lesbian rights
• Whichever group is outside my local Walgreen's when I go shoppping - Usually the Friends Church/Mission or the Compton Outreach Ministry
• Dave - The guy who asks for money at my freeway offramp
• Other charities as needs arise and I have means to help

 

Too cute not to post!!

Another Justin Rudd / Community Action Team event. I missed volunteering at this because I was still sick.

 

I was proud to be part of this on Sat. We went to 3 shelters. In addition to the generous amount of donated food & toys, Community Action Team also provided $1750 in check donations.