Happy Birthday to Me...

Happy Birthday, He-She,
Happy Birthday, dear Drag Queen,
Happy Birthday, Miss G!!


No, you didn't miss it!! It doesn't happen until February, 2013. But When it hits, it's gonna hit hard!  The big 5-0!  Over the Hill! Headed to Shady Pines!!  Oye!


But Miss G's not going down without a fight, so she has decided to throw herself a surprise birthday party!!!!


"Huh?" How can you surprise yourself?"  Well, it's easy!!  The party is going to be in New Orleans... who doesn't want to go there?  And, since her birthday falls on a Friday night, February 22nd, the date is easy to pick!  So how's it going to be a surprise?!


Easy- she has NO IDEA who's coming!!!  She might be there all by her lonesome,  tears draining into a warm beer at the Bourbon Pub.  But you wouldn't let that happen to our gurl, would you?


So, if you wanna come, all you have to do is email my brother John at JCBurch@msn.com.   Or our friend Sonna at salton77@yahoo.com.  They are both in on the idea.  Once they have an idea of the number of participants, they will work out details of the where, the when, etc.  Then, they can also contact hotels in the French Quarter to see if they can get a group rate.  The sooner you let them know you're on,  the more time they have to work out a deal.  Of course, you're welcome to stay wherever your little heart desires!  Bring yo friends! Bring yo kids!  Bring anyone who's up for a party!! 






I can't WAIT to see who loves Miss G enough to find their way to NOLA for the party!!  It may be her last hurrah before she's over the hill!!

It's That Time Again!

It's time for everyone's favorite "run for the roses!" (And what queen doesn't LOVE roses?!)

Hosted, once again, by your's truly, Miss Ginger Grant!

It's our 5th annual, and this party has grown to be QUITE a hoot- so if you can't make it to Kentucky (and why would you want to?) then make it to EJ's! 

Do You Remember?.....

......Melissa Sue Anderson from "Little House on the Prairie?"


All that fresh prairie air must have been kind to her because she looks great today!

That prairie air was great for more than just the kids!  Even though Pa Ingalls didn't fare so well,  look how great Karen Gassle, who played the mother, looks!

How about Nancy McKeon, who played Joe Polnicek on "The Facts of Life?"




She's looking better than ever as well!

Some did not fare quite so well. Remember Irene Cara from "Fame?"

She grew up to be Maya Rudolph's mother, I think.

The Captain and Tenille where America's Sweethearts back in the Love Boat days, and even Momma G knew the words to some of their songs!  Poor Tenille looks like she grew up to be the wife of an orthodontist rather than a former pop star! And "The Captain?"  He looks like he's been selling hot tubs and garden sheds out on Highway 6!

The men did not fare well, at all.  Check out former B-52 cutie Fred Schneider, who apparently developed that nervous disorder where you pluck your eyelashes out....

Perhaps the most unfortunate is Donna Douglas, who played Ellie Mae on what, IMHO, was  the funniest television show of all time!  If you've ever wondered "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", here she is!

And what about the most FABULOUS movie star ever?!  A beauty and talent beyond compare?!

Naaah, that's just Tina Louise, a bedraggled old TV star who played a movie star on TV!

 Here she is!  Looking timeless, radiant, and youthful as ever!  Check out all the other "ageless wonders" on TMZ!!!

Meanwhile, check out one of Miss G's favorite new numbers:

Happy New Year from Miss Ginger Grant!

Before her balls drop and she forgets all of her acquaintances, Miss Ginger wanted to take a minute to say Happy New Year to all the GingerSnaps out there who have made her what she is today: an overweight, aging sometimes drag queen with a drinking problem and a bad back!  


But really, the new year is a great time to reflect on the things we like about our lives, and the things we don't, and to determine which ones we are going to do something about!  I'm not talking resolutions: those are just begging to be broken!  She really means general ideas and practices that might change more than just one person's dress size!


So, putting it out there for the universe, here are Miss Ginger's "great ideas" for 2010:


1. Wouldn't it be great if we all just believed what we want to believe, and stop worrying about what others believe?  Miss Ginger, for one, will no longer vacillate on the whole Jeebus thing: she doesn't believe it and she won't pretend! And honestly, what she does believe is really nobody else's business but her own! Miss Ginger promises she will not recruit your children to become drag queens if you stop recruiting people to become christians! 


2. Wouldn't it be great if everyone were nicer?  If the whole world would SLOW DOWN and not always be in such a rush, we'd have way more time to be nice to people!  Even small gestures, like slowing down on the freeway to let a car in front of you instead of hitting the gas so they have to fall in behind! Miss Ginger is going to look for opportunities to perform such "random acts of kindness" every day!


3. Wouldn't it be great if we could resolve homelessness?  Boy Ginger spends a lot of time downtown in the office this time of year, and the blight of  homelessness weighs heavy on Miss Ginger's mind! She doesn't know the answer, and she needs to take on another cause like she needs another bra in her drawer, but she intends to spend some time this year exploring the problem and finding out what can be done to address the issue in her neighborhood!


4. Wouldn't it be great if everyone took responsibility for their own destiny, instead of looking to governments, institutions, and other sources for "relief"?  Miss Ginger is a woman of charity, but she believes charity should give a "leg up" rather than a "hand out"!  Let's stop bailing out industries, companies, and countries and focus our efforts on taking care of people who can't care for themselves!  Even in a tough economy, most people should be able to find a way to participate in some way! Rather than feeling sorry for ourselves about job loss, company failures, changes in ability, etc, let's regroup, figure out what we need to change to go forward, and get back on the horse- ANY horse! 


In closing, here's a little New Year's Toast:

Here's to the year that's ended, 

and  to the one that harkens-

let's put ideas in motion

before our outlook darkens!

Let' see that things get brighter

and ditch those that are daft-

and make sure life gets lighter

when Pailin gets the shaft!

Happy New Year, dear Ginger Snaps!  Hope I get to meet you all in 2011!!

Galveston, Oh, Galveston!

Almost 2 years to the day after Hurricane Ike tore across Galveston, Miss Ginger and her friends from the Krewe of Olympus spent their annual weekend retreat on the Island. Miss G had never been a real fan of Galveston- she always found it to be a bit seedy, run-down, and low-class. What a difference a little wind can make!

Newspapers and magazines were filled with images like this 2 years ago, so you might wonder

how the small Island has recovered since the storm. Very well, according to Miss G's recent observations! While you may still see the occasional "boat in the wrong place", and the venerable Flagship Hotel has not yet been restored, most of the Island looks like nothing

ever happened!

Most of the City of Galveston was protected by the Seawall, built after the devastating Hurricane of 1900 pretty much decimated the city. Prior to that, Galveston was an international trading city, on par with the likes of New Orleans, but the storm of 1900 wreaked so much havoc that much of the industry that sustained it moved inland. There are still vestiges of Galveston's Bell Epoque glory in the center of the city, along the Strand. The Seawall has become the resort destination

for the beach goers of South Texas, and is lined

with motels, hotels, and resorts of all ratings, from the practical Commodore to the ultra-chic San Luis Resort, Spa, and Conference Center.

Many of the cottages and homes along the streets that lead to Seawall Boulevard serve as vacation homes for fortunate Houstonians, and many also serve as vacation rentals. The Krewe's weekend adventure was centered just off the corner of

25th and Seawall, in a lovely 2-story owned by one of Miss Ginger's neighbors. This was where we ate, drank, cooked, drank, watched videos, drank, and sometimes slept. Did I mention that we also did a lot of drinking?

For a working-class city of only about 57,000 permanent residents, Galveston boasts a remarkable number of gay bars and venues, probably due its tourist trade. And like most small working-class cities, drag punctuates the landscape and defines the trade in each one!

After dinner a few of us, including Mee Maw and Miss Ginger's favorite lawnmowing lesbian, decided to make a little pub crawl. Right next to our beach rental was Robert's Lafitte, said to be the oldest gay bar in the state of Texas since the closing of Mary's here in Houston. It's a small place, kind rough looking from the outside, with plenty of patina on the inside. According the drag queen hosting the show, "there's a pool out back, unless you're from the health department. It's closed on Tuesday's for cleaning, so come on Wednesday if your funny about those things!" Locals tell me that it's filled with chlorine on Tuesday, which reacts with the ammonia in the water and creates a huge cloud that lasts most of the day. Miss Ginger chose to stay away entirely!

There's a drag show every night, and the four queens that entertained us Saturday night did a great job! It's a shame we couldn't stay until Monday, the anniversary of Ike, because the bar never closed when Ike came through, and even though the power was out and there was an inch of water on the floor, those girls did their show by flashlight, and every year since have commemorated the date with a "Flashlight Show" that you just know would be a hoot!

If Robert's Lafitte is the oldest and "roughest" bar in Galveston, Stars Beach Club is probably the newest and nicest. The place is filled with fiber optic pinpoints in the ceiling and the bar, with as state of the art light show and a liquid gel dance floors filled with still more LED's. The dance floor was closed the night we arrived, however, because apparently the establishment has just discovered the floor has a 400 pound weight limit, as proven by that evening's entertainment! The gel is contained in rectangular "bays" under the surface of the floor, and this girl's weight had broken on of the dividers, allowing the gel to squish from bay to bay, rendering the surface unstable. Quelle domage! It sit's right across from the seawall and seems to cater to a mixed crowd of vacationers looking for a casual place to get their groove on!

Since we had missed the show at Stars, we decided to head into town to 3rd Coast, where we caught the end of a show hosted by Texas's Twins of Drag, Kara and Tara Dion. Twin brothers by birth, Kara and Tara have been rocking the South Texas drag scene as long as Miss Ginger can remember, and they are just a skinny and pretty as ever! There was quite a crowd, including several recognizable Houstonians, but after a short while, our little group became over-vodkaed, and it was time to make like a baby and head out!

So Miss Ginger has reconsidered Galveston a weekend destination- it's fun, diverse, and just different enough from home to make it worth the trip! Miss G's not much of a beach person, so the fact that the water is brown and the beach is narrow is not a problem for her! Pick a hotel with a nice pool and a proximity to the party and you'll have a gay ole time!

Dancing With the Studs!!

Miss Ginger's RoundUp is right around the corner, and this gurl needs to get busy rounding up some FABULOUS western duds to wear! This year, she's adding a C&W dance contest called "Dancing With the Studs" to see if we can get some tight-jeaned cowboys twirling around the BRB! That outta squeeze some dollars outta their pockets!!

There'll also be lots of food, booze, and community performances to make your weekend slip smoothly into Sunday! You can reserve a table for $250, and catch it all stage-side from a comfortable chair! Contact Miss G at ggrant008@aol.com for table reservations, or for performance or contest information!

Of course, the FABULOUS Miss Ginger doesn't do this for herself! It's all to benefit Legacy Community Health Services in their fight to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STD's in the communities that are most at risk!

Hope to see you all at the hottest shin-dig this side of the Brazos!!

Packinherbags.... AGain!

Miss Ginger is packing her bags... again! And this time it's a triple pack! 1st, she has to pack Boy G for a trip to Baton Rouge tomorrow. Smart boy actually routed the trip through NOLA and planned the sleepover there, so he'll land in NOLA tomorrow, hit the casino, and then drive the short trip to BR Thursday am for the workday, then fly back home that night. Then, she's got to get him and herself packed for DDBW II!! What an ordeal! He'll be easy to pack... a couple of pairs of jeans, some sweaters and a jacket, and he's good to go... he hasn't worn underpants in years!

Miss G, on the other hand, has got some work ahead of her!
It starts with the shoes... she's got to pick something FABULOUS and stylish, yet walkable... it's NYC after all! That schlep from the hotel to Esquelita could get ugly in the wrong shoes! Once the shoes are picked, she can choose an ensemble... something suitably FABULOUS to greet her NYC fans for the first time, yet not so flashy that she attracts il paparazzi! Why ruin an otherwise perfect evening with gawkers?! Once the clothes are selected, they will dictate the appropriate foundation garments... these thighs don't leave the house without lycra! She'll have to sift through the tackle box of spackle to find the cosmetics she'll need, because she doesn't want to haul the whole box on the plane! Then, there's la coiffure! OMG, what a hassle! It has to be wrapped in bubble wrap, nested into a corrugated box, and carefully place into a suitcase to be clearly labeled "FRAGILE- Handle with Care!" so those handsome luggage handlers will know to be particularly careful with Miss G's most important feature! No wonder the bitch doesn't get out much!
But, it will be worth the hassle to see her DEAR sister Mamie, the handsome Marker, and the ever chipper Sissy and his handsome hubby Joe! Oh, and Howard, Miss G's official DJ for the weekend! Gurl don't go nowhere without her soundtrack! Toodles, poodles! Hope you get to see me in NYC! Be there or miss Miss Times Square!!!!

Apparently...

.....Miss Ginger had a really good time yesterday!

Here's what she remembers/knows for sure:

We got together around 11am at Su Central to assemble the Su Sisters.

Miss Ginger was Su Zuki, and she had to get motorcycles and such glued into her wig! There were fish to inflate (Su Shi), pigs to inflate (Su Wee), and food to inflate (Su Flay)! and vodka. Lots of vodka!

And we had our "pit crew" to help us get ourselves together!

Once we got the girls together we hit the streets for the parade. Miss Ginger remembers that part, too. There was a little rainstorm, so we went inside for a while at the Golden Lantern, aka the Golden Latrine. It cleared quickly, and then the parade began.

It starts to get fuzzy around that part...

Miss G does remember lots of cute costumes, lots of cute boys, and lots of vodka. She kinda remembers running into Dan and Luis, and there's a Decadent Duck necklace on the desk in the hotel room as evidence.

The rest is a blur...but there are a few things she can deduce from context clues...

apparently she was "done" early... 'cause it's 1am now and she just awakend.... rested. Her back must have been hurting when she got home, because there's a ziploc bag of ice and the ensuing wet spot in the bed with her. She must have been hongry, because there are the styrofom remnants of a chili-cheese meltdown from Clover Grill. And she must have been thirsty, because there are about 4 Diet Pepsi bottles from the minibar scattered about the room. Other than that... kind of a blur...

She suspects the phone will begin to ring at some point tomorrow and she can fill you in with more embarassing deets!

The Gingers Take Separate Vacations!

That's right, folks! Boy Ginger is going to NYC this weekend to visit his beloved DD and the Mistress Maddie! 5 days and 4 nights at Manhattan's FABULOUS Sofitel are just what the boy needs to unwind and relax! Then, he'll dash home, work for 2 days, and transform into the jet-setting Miss Ginger for her trip to NOLA for Southern Decadence!

Usually, the Boy goes to SD and Miss G stays home, but this year she's been invited to participate in a command performance of a sister act that she just couldn't pass up! Plus, she can't wait to meet Northwest Dan!

We promise pics from both trips!!

A Few Pics...

Aunt Tonya has arisen and has almost pulled herself together for breakfast, so Miss G decided to take a moment to post a couple of pics of Amsterdam Pride from the last few days. First is a shot of the awesome crowds in and around the canal for the parade. This canal actually circles around the city center, so this scene was repeated for miles. Miss G hasn't had time to dig through the "weareproud.nl" website to determine the number of people viewing the parade, but it wouldn't surprise Miss G to find out it numbered around a million! If you dig around the website, click on the british flag for English. I guess the Brits do far outweigh the Americans here!

Next is the hottie who was hanging out with his pals in the boat right below us. As a teaser to keep you coming back to TFBOMGG, I will throw out there that Miss G has video of this hottie. Shirtless! Stay tuned!

And just so you know that we really were here, I present this shot of Miss G, Aunt Tonya, and MeeMaw. Though looking at the pics I realize that it could be taken just about anywhere in the world! And it was actually taken in Dublin! But we were so busy "oohing" and "ahhhing" at the parade it never occurred to us to snap photos of ourselves!

More later! Off to brekkie!

The FABULOUS Life of Miss Ginger Grant...

... according to Linda Eder.

Here's a fun little meme I've been seeing for a while, but haven't done it because I either a:) didn't have time or b:) couldn't think of an artist someone hadn't already done.

Then I had an epiphany: DUH! Linda Eder! She's my fave, and pretty much the voice of Miss Ginger Grant!

So, check it out and play along if you want! Just pick an artist and answer the questions based on the titles from their work! Post it on your blog or facebook! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

My Life according to Linda Eder
Male or Female?
Someone Like You
Describe yourself:
I Am What I Am
How do you feel?
It's No Secret Anymore
Describe where you currently live:
They Are The Roses
If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
Havana
Your favorite form of transportation is:
The Most Unusual Way
Your best friend is:
Over the Rainbow
You and your best friend are:
The Impossible Dream
What's the weather like:
Waiting For the Fall
If your life were a TV show, what would it be called?
We're All Alone
What is life to you?
Gold
Your last relationship:
Almost Like Being in Love
Your fear:
If I Should Lose My Way
What is the best advice you have to give:
Never Dance
Thought for the day:
Love Has Come of Age
How I Would Like to Die:
All the Way
My soul's present condition:
A New Life
My motto:
Love is Forever