Last Friday morning, I took Max to the Vet for his first boarding experience. For only five bucks more a day, I included Daycare as part of his stay. I pictured something along the lines of Vacation Bible School for doggies. Lots of hymns, bible verses and making pictures of Jesus out of various kinds of dried beans.
Max struggled when he was taken away, looking at me like I had just abandoned him for life. I was tearing up before I even got to the front door. By the time I was to the car I was crying my eyes out. It was like dropping off your child for the their first day of school.
I arrived in Denver around 3pm. It was wonderful to see Brian despite the fact that it took us 20 minutes to find each other at that God forsaken airport. Love Colorado, hate the airport. I had been missing him something terrible. We went straight down to LoDo to grab a bite to eat. His blood sugar was dropping and I could tell. After walking around a bit we headed back to the hotel, tested out the bed and got ready to go meet my nieces Mindy and Shawna along with our cousin Kammie and all their kids and husbands. We grilled steaks and sat around drinking beer and talking.
Saturday wouldn't have been complete without breakfast at Pete's Kitchen, followed by some shopping. He gave me a little tour of the city, we checked out some shops, hit the mall for a Kenny Cole sale and eventually cooled off with a beer before heading back for a nap and more testing of the bed qualities.
The girls hadn't been out for a night on the town since they both recently had children. In fact, neither one of them had ever been to a gay bar before. To start off Saturday night we took them to Hamburger Mary's and was waited on by one of the queeniest boys in Denver who was feeling quite tipsy from too much alcohol. Combine that with the fact that the airconditioner wasn't working properly. We leave 100 degree weather and found it in Denver. No break from the heat.
The food was so so, but it was the company was all that mattered. Afterwards, we headed over to The Wrangler for drinks. Nothing like baptisim by fire and taking them to a Levi/Leather bar for their first experience. While getting beers, I was tapped on the shoulder. It took me a minute, but realized it was a long lost friend from back in my grad school days. I find it scary when people can remember your FULL name after 15 years. I'm doing good to remember someones FIRST name. Quite a nice surprise.
It wasn't long before we met John who's been an avid reader for quite a while. He recognized Brian a while back from my blog and they hit it off as friends. It was good to finally meet him and his partner and get a chance to hang out together.
We eventually headed over to Charlies for more drinks and dancing. While sitting by the bar, a bartender walks over and sits down a round of shots. Come to find out, he's another reader. We never got a chance to talk much. Thanks for the shots mystery reader!
We felt like celebrities.
On the way back to the car, my niece tells me her boobie hurts and she needs to pump before heading home. This sent us into a fit of giggles and ended our evening perfectly. Never a dull moment with these girls.
Sunday we met up with John and his partner for lunch at Benny's. Patrick had mentioned for us to check out Pete's and Benny's. Thanks for the good suggestions! They took us to a Kenny Cole outlet store which is just like taking an alcoholic to a bar. After purchasing a few items, we headed back to the hotel to grab my things before heading back to the airport.
I got quiet on our drive out there. I didn't want to leave. I was already missing him and he was still right beside me.
I arrived home around 10pm and crashed. Traveling wears my ass out. This morning when I went to pick up Max from boarding school, he went nuts when he saw me for one minute then acted like nothing had happened the next. The staff loved him and told me how smart he was and that they were going to miss him.
I guess our baby got his first gold star this weekend.
I'm finding myself writing about absolutely nothing and wracking my brain for something, anything to write about. Can't talk about work. Nothing going on at home except for cooking dinner and watching TV. Puppy is the same, except for a bad case of the shits last night.
So when I find myself telling you what I watched on TV, cooked for dinner or the consistancy of my puppies bowel movements, I know I need a couple days off from writing. I leave Friday anyway for Denver, so hopefully I'll come back refreshed and filled with stories and pictures.
See you Monday.
Brian's job is going to be requiring him to spend a little bit more time in Denver from time to time. No longer will he be able to always leave on Thursday afternoon. At times he might have to stay until late Friday. So instead of him leaving late Friday and flying right back out Monday morning, the company is flying me out to Denver this weekend. It's nice to have your hubby work for a company that has partner benefits.
So I'll be heading off to the land of Rocky Mountain High. I can hear John Denver's voice already. I'm heading to the land of beards, flannel shirts, jeeps, 4x4's, hiking and something they refer to as "clean air". Am I stereotyping Colorado? Please. What's the first thing of when you think about Texas?
Big Hair
Rednecks
The Alamo
Gravy
Mexican food
Nascar
Boots
Cowboy hats
Starched jeans
Just to name a few. I didn't mention Bush because I'm just like the Dixie Chicks.
I know that one night we'll be hitting the town so if there's anyone that would like to join us, let me know.
Since I don't have much to say today, I leave you with this:
A man joins a very exclusive nudist colony. On his first day there he takes off his clothes and starts to wander around. A gorgeous petite blonde walks by and the man immediately gets an erection.
The woman notices his erection, comes over to him and says, "Did you call for me?"
The man replies, "No, what do you mean?"
She says, "You must be new here. Let me explain. It's a rule here that if you get an erection, it implies you called for me."
Smiling, she leads him to the side of the swimming pool, lies down on a towel, eagerly pulls him to her and happily lets him have his way with her. Later, the man continues to explore the colony's facilities. He enters the sauna and as he sits down, he farts.
Within minutes a huge, hairy man lumbers out of the steam room toward him, "Did you call for me?" says the hairy man.
"No, what do you mean?" asks the newcomer.
"It's a rule that if you fart, it implies that you called for me." The huge man easily spins him around, bends him over a bench and has his way with him.
The newcomer staggers back to the colony office where he is greeted by the smiling, naked receptionist. "May I help you?" she asks. The man yells, "Here's my membership card. You can have the key back and you can keep the $500 membership fee."
"But, Sir," she replies, "you've only been here for a few hours. You haven't had the chance to see all our facilities."
The man replies, "Listen lady, I'm 68 years old. I only get an erection once a month. I fart 15 times a day. I'm outta here.
Another weekend come and gone. Three days with the hubby and he's back on a plane to Denver.
Due to major storms in the midwest, Brian wasn't able to get home on Thursday until really late. Even one night cuts back on our time together. We tried to make the best of what time we have, but there always seems to be some place we have to go, a party to attend or friends to see.
We were able to see the movie Lady in the Water on Friday, grab some dinner and relax at home. One night without all the normal hustle and bustle that usually accompanies our weekends. Saturday was filled with cleaning house, waiting for the arrival of our new bedroom furniture, hanging with friends by the pool and attending a huge birthday bash for a close friend. After the party, we headed to the bar followed by a late night swim and hot tub party. All I have to say, is it was lots of people we didn't know with many wandering hands.
Sunday we spent doing absolutely nothing but lounging on the couch watching TV. Brian headed out to see another movie with friends, but I just couldn't find it in myself to even get dressed. I received a phone call last night from Michael's little brother. Twenty three days after his death, they finally buried him and had a small memorial service for him in Atlanta. From what I understand, the family didn't want to follow Michael's wishes to be cremated and fought with the man in charge of his will. Luckily, he didn't cave in and flew Michael's remains to Atlanta himself and attended the service. He asked me while driving to the airport if I wanted to go.
I was kind of hurt and a little angry. I've tried to contact people to find out what was going on, when the service was going to be, who's writing the obituary for the Dallas Voice, what would be done with his belongings, etc. I couldn't get a returned call from anyone. Michael's irresponsible little brother was impossible to get a hold of. The executor of his will was always too busy to talk and constantly promised to call me back. I finally gave up and just stayed out of it. I heard there was lots of fighting between some of Michael's friends as to what should be done and when.
His obituary showed up in the Voice last week. His funeral was yesterday.
Tommy, his brother and I talked last night about the service. He apologized for not calling me ahead of time but figured I wouldn't be able to attend. A small amount of family came, they read the story of his life, a few people said some nice things and that was it.
It's finally over.
I'm torn. Part of me wishes I was a part in all of the decision making and was able to attend. The other part of me is glad I didn't have to deal with all the bickering and fighting and dealing with his family. Part of me is sad that he's gone, the other is glad that he's not still here suffering. Part of me misses all the fun times we had, the other doesn't miss the drama, the fighting, the worrying, the anger and the hate that often accompanied our friendship.
For the first time in 15 years, I feel like this part of my life can finally move on.
This has got to be one of the longest fricken weeks in history. I never thought that Friday would ever get here.
Maybe it's the heat. Over 100 degrees for 11 days straight.
Maybe it's the anticipation of new bedroom furniture. We ordered it in March.
Maybe it's because i'm still dealing with Brian being away most of the week.
Maybe it's because I ordered a new piece of art glass and like I little kid, I want it NOW!
Maybe it's because I haven't gotten laid since last Sunday.
Maybe it's because Papa has been taking care of a VERY rebellious (but oh so loveable) puppy the past few days and needs Daddy to take over now that he's home.
I have this constant feeling of Antici...............pation going on for some reason. I find myself looking at the clock every 15 minutes, thinking that an hour has passed. No such luck.
Hope everyone tries to beat the heat. Go out and enjoy a swimming pool. Preferably naked if you can. I'll leave you with a pic of the glass I purchased which should be arriving soon and a pic of the next piece we'll be ordering from them. I LOVE their work!
Enjoy your weekend. I know I sure as hell will.
I haven't noticed until recently, how much I daydream.
I catch myself doing it while driving down the freeway, although I know that's probably not the smartest thing to do. Then again, have you seen Dallas drivers? I find myself staring out my window at work or sitting at my desk staring at my computer screen. I'll do it while I'm standing at the stove making dinner or while i'm in the shower.
I noticed it last night while I was painting the accent wall in our bedroom. Luckily no paint ended up on the ceiling or wood floors.
I dream of what it would be like to win the lottery or inheriting tons of money from some long lost dead relative. I think about exotic places I want to visit or buying the entire line of Kenneth Cole. I dream of past vacations and experiences. I relive my college days. I think about people who I used to know or who have passed away. Wondering where they are now or what they would be like if they were still here with us.
Honestly, I'm surprised I get anything accomplished at work or at home with all this shit floating around in my head constantly.
What do you daydream about?
I spent the majority of my evening last night picking out paint and watching faux finish techique video's at Homo Depot. Talk about one of your better evenings. *rolls eyes*
I stood there forever trying to decide whether or not to spent 60 bucks on a gallon of Metalic or Suede finish Ralph Lauren paint. After I found out I had to buy their specific rollers and brushes I almost said to hell with it. I stood there for almost 30 minutes trying to match colors to the tiny little strip in our new bedding. Normally I can pick out colors in a heart beat, but t his time I was struggling. Of course, the 70 year old man behind the paint counter was NO help at all. He couldn't even tell that the color I was trying to match was a silvery, pewter kind of blue. He saw nothing but grey.
I was desperate for someones opinion. Finally, two lesbians walked up with gallons and gallons of ivory paint. I asked them for their opinion as to which one of the 8 paint examples matched the bedding. One responded that they all would work fine. Gee thanks lady. The other was plain hateful and totally ignored me. I guess I should have told her I was trying to paint my car engine or was thinking of remodeling my tool shed. Maybe if I had started off the conversation with the topic of Melissa Ethridge. Now don't get me wrong. I love me some lesbians. But here in Dallas, they're either really friendly towards gay men or they act like we're a boil on the butt of humanity.
I was struggling under the artifical lighting. My eyes were playing tricks on me. For a moment there, I felt like my Father, not being able to distinguish between greens, blues, browns and greys. I finally grabbed the young hispanic guy behind the paint counter and asked his opinion. I was desperate. I know Max probably was crossing all four legs, needing to go out and pee.
All I got was a shoulder shrug and, "ah....I dunno!" said in a very thick accent.
Normally there are 100's of gay men fluttering around the fucking place trying to pick out the perfect accent lighting or plants for their patio, but as my luck would have it I must have been the only one. Maybe I should have checked the bathrooms.
They always seem to be full of action.
Finally I just picked out a semi-gloss paint that matched almost perfectly for 20 bucks and said to hell with the rest.
Like I said, as exciting as watching paint dry.
This coming weekend, Brian and I will finally have our new bedroom furniture that we ordered way back in March. There are times where I would actually forget that we purchased it. It's a cherry set, with a high, padded headboard (which should come in handy), chest of drawers, mirror, couple of end tables. The usual. It's the one room we've been wanting to complete since we started this whole remodeling process.
Over the past couple of years, we've always purchased the infamous "bed-in-a-bag" or found something on sale that would get us by until we decided to take out a 2nd mortgage and purchase something nice. Because bedding is the most fucking expensive shit to buy! Please tell me why a teeny tiny throw pillow costs 60 bucks??!! Last night, I headed to Linens 'n Things and purchased a very simple plain white set trimmed in a pewter colored blue, complete with a new duvee and a few throw pillows. We'll finally have a big boy bed, not something reminiscent of our college days.
We'll finally find out what it's like to sleep on 500 thread count sheets.
Now I just have to match the blue and get paint for the accent wall behind the bed. Then comes the curtains. An area rug. A shelf system for our books, pictures and tv. Accent chair and ottoman. This decorating shit is for the birds. I about crapped my pants when the lady told me my total last night. I could have made my car payment. Twice.
Now I'm just sitting here picturing the first time Brian and I make sweet monkey love in our new bed and bedding.
I wonder how much a years supply of plastic tarps cost?
Entertaining the In-Laws is exhausting. We had such a good time with them and they really seemed to enjoy themselves as well. They loved our new place and fell in head over heels for the puppy. They recently lost their dog of 15 years. If they could have snuck Max in a suitcase and taken him home, I think they would have tried.
We treated them to good food and shopping, which Mama J loved the most. That woman can shop circles around me. We were even treated with a surprise. Ma and Pa have a 5th wheel trailer which they might give to us to put permanently at Rainbow Ranch, complete with golf cart to drive around.
We almost peed our pants. So we took them out there to see the campground and they loved it. We'll keep you updated on how this progresses. They headed out Sunday morning. After they left, we headed over to a friends house for a small pool party and drank beer in this 105 degree heat. We were so tired when we went to bed last night at 9pm.
Work is kicking my ass today so I have to keep this short. My donations have reached $1890. I'm totally amazed and so happy. Anyone wanting to donate, please click on the link to the left.
Here's a few pics from the weekend:
Craig, Kelly, Mark and Brian
Pappa F, Mama J and Brian
Pappa F, Mamma J, Brian and Mark
The pool party had some surprise guest who were quite friendly and honestly wouldn't leave us alone. At one point I had three of them one me and I'll have you know I didn't scream like a banshee once!
A few weeks ago as you remember, Brian came home with me back to Nebraska to meet the rest of my entire family. This weekend, Brian's parents are coming to Dallas to visit their son and see our new Condo. Now, I've already visited his parents a handful of times and of course they love me to death. Who wouldn't? They're only human.
So last night I spent most of my evening making sure the house was spotless, laundry was complete and pictures of us in drag for Halloween were safely put away from prying eyes. No need to put Papa Freddie in hospital. Mama Judy would be totally fine, but Papa Freddie would need a few beers under his belt to handle certain things. Hell, I'm sure sleeping in the room next to us is going to make the man have a coronary. At first we thought that they would be staying in a hotel. Oh no. Papa F said, "Nope, we're coming to see YOU and staying with YOU."
Papa F is a good ol' West Texas man. He's the manager of a local Tire Shop and loves to go kill Bambi on the weekend with his hunting buddies. He asked me to go hunting the first time I met him. I think I won him over though. Last time Brian was home, he was asking about me and how I was doing. We'll make sure we get the parents a little toasted this weekend and take them to a drag show or something.
Mama J is your typical southern woman with big hair and wiglets to pile the hair closer to Jesus. Mama J is a soft spoken woman who's retired from the oil business and attends church every Sunday like a good Christian woman should. She cooks a mean Red Beans with ham and Cornbread. Her closet is full of clothing that you swear she stole from Cher. She likes sparkly, shiney things.
It's always a treat seeing these two.
First off, let me just tell you now that if you want to go see a movie with some great one liners, tons of fashion and Meryl Streep at her best, go see The Devil Wears Prada. Better yet, grab all of your gay friends, THEN go see the movie.
After seeing the movie last night, I headed home to watch the season finale again of Project Runway Season 2, then tried to watch the opener for Season 3. Unfortunately, things went fuzzy ten minutes in to the new season and I had to re-record it. I'm totally addicted to this show. I normally can't stand any sort of reality shows, but this one has me totally hooked. It has since day one.
I'm not sure what it is other then the fact while in highschool and my first year or two of college, I had big dreams of being some sort of fashion designer. A dream that fizzled quickly. I remember buying all the men's and women's fashion magazines when I was 15 or 16 years old. I would spend hours sketching out various designs and maticulously painting or coloring them in. In highschool, I remember one of my best friends was also into fashion design and we would work together on projects before and after school. We talked and dreamed of what we wanted to do.
Hilary was a very quiet, shy girl who never wore anything but t-shirts, chuck taylor's and jean jackets. She never did anything special with her hair and hardly ever wore makeup, yet she was stunningly beautiful I thought. She didn't have a models body. She was maybe 5'5" and a bit overweight. Her and I often talked about her self esteem. Something that she didn't have.
I lost track of Hilary throughout most of my under grad studies. I remember running into her once and she had lost a lot of weight, cut her long hair and was wearing makeup. She was dressed perfectly. She looked like a model. She seemed so happy. We exchanged a few words, hugged and kissed then went on our way, promising to keep in touch with each other.
A year later, I came back home from Grad school and remember walking down the sidewalk doing a little windows shopping downtown. I noticed this adult woman walking towards me who probably weighed no more then 65 pounds. Nothing but skin and bones. How sad I thought to myself. Why would anyone let themselves get this bad? It was obvious this person was anorexic and had been for quite some time.
When I got closer I was horrified to see that it was Hilary. I stopped her and said Hi, asking her how she was doing. She could barely focus and seemed in a daze. She honestly had no clue to who I was and seemed very confused. Moments later, a woman out of nowhere who I assumed had to be her Mother gently came up behind her and guided her away.
I stood there shocked.
From what I understand, Hilary passed away a few weeks after that. The first person of many from my graduating class who have died.
It's too bad that some people can't see the inner beauty that they posess.
Last night I came home, took Max for a long walk so he could sniff every fricken bush and tree he could find, came back home and undressed, checked my email, watched some TV, made a sandwich, watched my Bravo TV shows, ate some more, played with Max throughout the night, visited with our friend Kelly and finally crashed around 11pm.
Seriously, not much to report when the hubby is away. I'm finding myself being a hermit and not wanting to do much of anything or even get out of the house.
Oh, and I took pictures of our fast growing puppy, who SHOULD be growing into his big paws. Oh hell no. They're growing along with him. I'm not even sure he's going to be a medium sized dog anymore.
So when I have nothing to say, expect pictures of Max.
This one needs to be framed.
He's finally chewing on his toys rather then me, our shoes or the furniture.
Naked puppy shot.
Brian and I went shopping this past weekend, which we all know is not a good thing. Authorities should always be alerted. No, I didn't head straight for the mall and start shooting my wad all over the Kenneth Cole store. We actually headed to Best Buy for some ipod accessories.
Thats right. I crossed over to the dark side and bought my first apple product. A 4GB iPod Nano. Don't worry, I won't be getting all crazy and shit, buying some G4 computer with a 96" wide monitor.
While shopping around, we ran into some friends who were in the market for a new camera. Of course, we offered our expert advice since we've probably taken approximately 5000 pictures since we started dating. We engaged in some small talk that eventually included work.
I mentioned how stressed I had been recently. Then our friend said something that I needed to hear. "I lost my father a few months ago. Only then, did I realize that work is not the most important thing in our lives. Family and Friends are. Work will always be there. Everything will get done eventually. Problems will happen on occasion. Nothing we can do about it. Stop stressing."
I was thinking about what he said while Brian was shooting his wad all over the computer section of the store. He's right. Certain things just aren't worth stressing over.
I didn't stress when I went into the doctor yesterday for my check up, although my bloodpressure was 131/92. My tcells were up to 1162, viral load below 50 (undetectable), cholesterol hovering 235, triclycerides lowered to 450. Despite a few minor numbers, everything was great.
I checked my donation site and saw that I had surpassed my $1500 goal already after 3 days. I'm currently sitting at $1705. I'm truly blessed with some of the best friends. Y'all rock!
To end my non stressful day, I watched a Vin Diesel movie. No I didn't have the remote in one hand and my dick in the other. He played some older, heavier mafia guy. He was still cute though.
Puppy even was being relatively good despite him deciding that it was ok to stand right next to me while I was sitting on the floor and just.........pee.
Not every day can be perfect.
I can't believe that I have never been to a water park during my 40 years on this earth. Fun as hell. The eyecandy that shows up to these places is about the same as the amount of trash that shows up too. It's definately a people watching place. The boys talked me into going down this extremely tall slide that I swear drops you straight down. My screams could be heard throughout the park once I got up the nerve to go down it. By the way, screaming your lungs off while going down a water slide with water rushing into your mouth isn't an easy thing to do. I still have to wonder though. How can these places charge so much for food and drinks and still sleep well at night?
The rest of the weekend was spent having dinner with friends (Brian drank one too many margarita's), seeing Pirates of the Carribean (not a bad movie, but way too fucking long and not as funny as the first) and spending my last few days with Brian and Puppy Max before he flew out this morning.
The other thing that made my weekend had to do with all the donations that came in for my participation in the AIDS Walk. After only three days I'm only $105 from my $1500 goal. I still have until October 1st to continue raising money! At one point this weekend, I opened up my email alerts to see the totals and just sat there and cried.
I can't begin to tell you how lucky I am to have such good people in my life. For anyone wanting to donate, see Saturday's post or click on the link in the top left hand corner.
Thank you everyone! It's going to be a good week.
I can tell.
This years AIDS Walk in Dallas will be held this coming October. This years participation will have special meaning to me, more then in past years. Not only am I positive myself and have many friends who are as well, I have recently lost one of my best friends of 14 years due to this disease. This years walk for me personally, is dedicated to Michael.
If it wasn't for donations, Michael wouldn't have received the care that he did. Hospice Care made the last few months of his life more tolerable and comfortable. Not only did they comfort him, but his friends and family as well. I'm not sure what all of us would have done without their help.
No matter how big or small, each and every donation I receive is appreciated more then you could ever know.
Click here to donate to my participation in the AIDS Arms 2006 Life Walk.
Even though this week has been quite short due to having Monday and Tuesday off, it felt as if I had put in a 60 hour week. I have a few tell tale signs when my stress level has reached the boiling point.
-The veins on either side of my temple stick out enough to almost be embarrassing.
-I can't sleep worth a damn.
-I'm grumpy and find myself snapping peoples heads off, including the hubby. (Sorry Booboo!)
-My appetite isn't worth shit.
-I can cry at the drop of a hat.
Those are main things that I will notice when life starts stressing me out. Maybe Brian being gone during parts of the week causes me a little stress. Who knows. I know adding a new puppy into the household added to my stress level in more ways then one. Traveling home to see the family with Brian I'm sure caused me a little stress. I wanted to be perfect. Luckily, it was. Michael being sick and finally passing away I know caused more stress then I realized. Although I'll miss him, there's a sense of relief.
Work? Putting it in a nice way, let's just say that things have been a little hectic. I find myself bringing my anger and frustration home. I haven't been able to leave work at work like I did in the past. I need to find a way to do that again.
I knew all the stress had reached a new level yesterday when half of my head had this burning, raw sensation. I came down with Shingles about 9 or so years ago. Next to having kidney stones, this has to be second in line as far as pain is concerned. Shingles follows your central nervous system. Sores will break out on one side of your body, up the spine, down one arm, around the waist, one side of the face or head.
I was on the road, conducting a branch compliance audit. I hadn't been feeling all that well, but decided to go in to work anyway. After lunch, I sat down at my desk and a searing pain shot up my back. My shirt was wet. I didn't realize it, but the shingles had surfaced during the morning and the sores had broke open. I told the manager that I had to leave, telling her what was wrong with me. She knew immediately what it was and told me to get on the next flight home. Little did I know that she freaked out when I left and called the regional manager. For some reason still unbeknownst to me, the regional knew that I was positive and proceeds to call my manager asking her why she sent someone to his branch who could possibly infect his entire office with AIDS.
Ah, the ignorance of some people.
I think he received some sort of small slap on the wrist. I was in fear of losing my job, so I never pursued anything further.
The burning, raw sensation on my head yesterday kind of freaked me out. This has happened numerous times since that initial time 9 years ago, but it has never fully re-surfaced. Doctor told me once that my health and counts are good, that it helps prevents things from going further but it could re-surface if I'm not careful. He told me not to stress out so much.
Well, that's easier said then done.
Anyone want to join me for a day by the pool, a massage and a cocktail or ten?
You can view our entire weekend back home by clicking here.
Our trip was absolutely amazing. The familiy welcomed Brian with opened arms and loved him. He was quite the hit. My Mom and her husband treated him as they would their own son. My nieces and nephews fell in LOVE with him and was wondering why he never came to visit sooner. They all also want to visit Dallas now.
We ran into family constantly throughout the weekend every where we went. We even helped my sister pick up a new bed, tear down the old one and put up the new one. Brian was earning brownie points right away. Later that night, He even started a huge field fire when his bottle rocket was aimed the wrong way. We barely got that thing put out. The night of the potluck and fireworks on the farm was on of the best nights for the both of us. We had probably $500 in fireworks which took us about 6 hours to fully shoot off. Lots of good food. Home made icecream and cake.
We spent most of our time seeing the city, visiting with family, lunches, dinners, babyshowers. Even took all the nieces and nephews, along with their spouses out for a night drinking. My family is crazy.
Here's a few quick shots from the weekend.
-Checking out the farm
-Brian lighting bottle rockets in his hand
-Brian playing with sparklers
-Cutest great nephew ever!
-Mom and I
-Mark and Brian
-Niece and Nephew in Law
-Me and the Nieces
-Nephew and the nieces husbands
-Notice the shirt says "I heart BB"
-Nephew in law and Brian (I might have some competition with this little cub)
Niece, Brian, Mark and her hubby
-Me and some nieces and cousins
-Some cousin's hubby who's name I can't remember and a nephew in law
We're finally back home after a long 9 hour drive. You can ask Brian, I was pretty grumpy by the time we drove up to the condo. Our time with the family was absolutely amazing. This was the first time I had officially brought back a boyfriend or partner to meet my family.
My Mother and her husband love him and treated him like their own son. My Sister thought he was wonderful. My Brothers thought he was a great guy. Of course, my nieces and nephews were pissed that I didn't start bringing him home earlier. They couldn't get enough of him and even want to come to Dallas for a visit now. Brian even got to meet a bunch of cousins and aunts when we crashed a triple baby shower.
The weekend was full of good food, lots of visiting, drinking, tons of fireworks, a huge field fire due to one of Brian's badly aimed bottle rockets and inappropriate dinner conversations which included things like farting while being examined by your Gynecologist.
There wasn't a dull moment the entire weekend.
I'm swamped with 100 emails and tons of work to do today. Only drawback of taking a few vacation days. Brian is working from home this week which is a good thing. I'll update more tomorrow with pictures and possibly a ZeitCast if I get motivated enough.
Until then, thanks to everyone for all their kind words about Mike. There's no way I could respond to everyone. Reality hit me when I got back into town last night and sat at the computer, reading all your wonderful words. Crying is a good thing I guess.
Anyone ever tell you that you guys rock?
Well, I'm sayin'.
We met on a dancefloor, 13 years ago in Kansas City. He was a goofy kid who seemed to be like a lost puppy needing someone to take care of him. Many things never changed over the course of his short life.
He could piss me off one minute and the next we would be laughing our asses off, having the time of our lives. Many good memories and some bad ones.
He often made the wrong choices. Life never seemed to go his way and when it did, it seemed like a fleeting moment. A few years ago, life started going in a downward spiral. Often going so far, crawling back out seemed almost impossible, yet somehow he kept pulling himself back out.
This last time he couldn't. Mike passed away Saturday, July 1st at approximately 5pm. I received a phone call while shooting off fireworks with the family.
You'll be missed Michael. No more suffering, no more pain. Go enjoy the next phase.
Our last picture, taken only a month ago.
My little hometown actualy has a quaint little coffee shop where Brian and I currently sitting, having a cup of iced Chai and checking email.
First off my family loves Brian. Who wouldn't? They're only human.
Secondly, the puppy has to be 2nd favorite only to Brian.
Thirdly, I think they've forgotten who I am due to numbers 1 and 2.
Everywhere we turn we're running into my family. Ah the joys of a small town. Brian has pretty much met everyone at this point. We've just spent over $100 on fireworks. Put that together with the rest of my entire family's stash and our 4th of July celebration tonight at the farm should be quite festive. Of course, Brian buys some enormous firework to outshine the rest of the family.
It's all about size right?
The tent site was being ran by some boys from my old college. All cute as fucking hell. Of course, there was lots of flirting and Brian couldn't stop "tipping" the boys for helping us and being so nice. He said it was for a good cause and helping their organization.
I'm sure it had something to do more with some sort of an organ then an organization.
More to tell and pictures to show once we get back in town on Monday night. I wish everyone a wonderful holiday weekend. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers for Mike. I'm constantly being updated on his condition, which is basically the same except for more weak and non-responsive.
It really makes you appreciate and enjoy life.
