TetRefine

Well I guess since I was born gay, I was "gay" in the 90s. Lets see, my gay 90s life consisted of being potty trained, learning to ride a bike, graduating kindergarten, and playing with cars and GI Joes. Such an exciting and sexy gay life I had back then, haha.

And Cam Newton is a crybaby bitch.

Beyonce and Bruno Mars ruined what could have been an awesome performance by one of the best modern rock bands.

I still wear my suede New Balances.

This song gets me every time.

Ha this is so true. Where I grew up, the restaurants would always be full of people in the middle of snowstorms, stores were all still open, and people didn't buy $10,000 worth of groceries just cause a foot of snow was coming.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. A friend and I went up to New York last night and went bar/club hopping till the wee hours of the morning. It was fun.

Love the X Ambassadors.

Growing up, I was always playing all kinds of different sports. At one point or another in my life I played football, baseball, basketball, hockey, skiing, snowboarding, Tae-Kwan-Do, and soccer. Now I play flag football (both in a recreational league and a competitive team), play on a rec dodgeball team, and still ski in the winters (although not as much as I used to now that I live in the city). I also go to the gym 4-5x a week and have taken up running to help stay in shape. Skiing was always my #1 passion growing up though. I was put on skis at three years and have been skiing ever since. It was the one sport where I was better then almost everybody else, and I was even a ski instructor/supervisor for 9 years in high school and college.

By far the dumbest and cheesiest Christmas song ever.

My dad took me to the theater re-releases in (I think?) 1997 or '98 when I was 5 or 6 years old. I remember thinking I was so cool because my brother was too young to go and my Dad and I used to sneak out the back door so he wouldn't notice. My dad worked a lot back then and wasn't home much so it was cool getting to spend that time with just him and I. On a side note, my dad and I recently went to see Creed over Thanksgiving break at that same movie theater where we saw Star Wars and it was the first time in 17 years we had been to the movies with just him and myself. It was fun reminiscing about him bringing me to see them way back in the day.

One of the best dance songs ever made.

Still hate it too. Reminds me way too much of the rural redneck culture I grew up around and fled from the first chance I got. One of the few exceptions is Darius Rucker's version of Wagon Wheel. Edit: Okay, after watching it a few times this particular version is actually pretty good. Though I still really don't like country music in general.

DeAndre Yedlin.

If your a bottom, I'd suggest being upfront and honest about your virginity and expectations. Also make it clear you want the other guy to take his time and be in tune with how it feels for you. If your a top, it is easier to fake (at most) novice experience because you aren't taking it up the ass, lol. In my own personal experiences, I'd suggest the first couple times having sex to be with someone you know and trust and is willing to take their time and respect the boundaries. I'd only suggest starting one night stands after you have a couple experiences under your belt, because most of the time that kind of sex is more about physical passion and getting off. Both kinds are great and I've done my fair share of each, but I think drunken bar and Grindr hookups are better left till after you've learned a few things about your body and how sex goes. Its never as easy as porn makes it seem (well, most of the time).

My brother and I were close growing up. Then, when I was 18 and he was 15, we had a very hard falling out not long before I left for college. I left home and went 350 miles away, and the next thing I knew, 4 years had gone by in which we did not speak or acknowledge each other's existence even once. When we finally did start speaking again, he was 19 and I was 22. We were both totally different people and it was like I didn't even know who he was anymore. We make small talk and are polite to each other now, but we only ever interact when we are together at family gatherings and such. We never speak or hang out or whatever on our own. It is what it is, and we'll probably never be close again, but stuff happens in life.

TWINK!!! haha

I have become pretty much immune to homeless people or junkies begging on the street. Every single day I get asked by at least 4-5 people on the streets for money. I either ignore them completely or if they persist, I just give them a firm "no" with an angry look. They love to make up sob stories about how they are down and out on their luck, and they are trying to get back on their feet. The truth is, most of them are just junkies panhandling for their next fix.

The only way I can get my boyfriend to watch football on Sundays with me is his hope of getting to see this commercial. We have so many hot players in New England.

The lumber-sexual look in gay world is another attempt at exerting masculinity and "manliness" so as not to look "too gay". Its the same concept behind why gay men obsessively go to the gym and use the term "straight acting". Yet no amount of muscle or beard or chest hair can make you "straight acting" when your voice is that of a 12 year old girl and your taking a dick up your behind. It's a vain attempt and isn't fooling anyone. I hope it dies out quickly.

I remember (like it was yesterday) walking past the World Trade Centers on Sunday, September 9th, 2001. We were in New York for a Yankees-Red Sox game and went into the city early to do some sightseeing. We walked in and around the towers. Two days later, they were reduced to a pile of jagged steel rubble. It still creeps me out to this day. I also remember visiting family out on Long Island about a month after 9/11, and when the wind blew right, you could smell the debris smoke 50 miles outside Manhattan in Suffolk County. The new One World Trade Center is a beautiful building, and I highly suggest anyone who can go and see it. It's inspiring and a symbol of American pride and strength.

We should be encouraging billingalism in the United States. My boyfriend is trilingual in Spanish (his native language), English (which he speaks as well and unaccented as any other American), and French (which he learned in high school and became fluent in while living in Paris). It makes him incredibly marketable in the jobs market. The amazing thing is, so many foreigners have to be bi-lingual to get ahead in the world. So many Americans never had to be because everyone else learned English. But out absolute dominance is fading, and those of us who are only English speakers are going to wish we paid more attention in Spanish class in high school.

I got a new job. It pays better then the last one I had (so thats a plus), but there are also a lot of drawbacks to it also. First off, its across the river in New Jersey, and there is no train connection near where I'll be working. That means I have to keep the expense of having a car, paying for gas, and the tolls every day to cross the bridge. I also HATE driving. Its even worse because its in heavy traffic both in the morning and afternoon commute. At my old job in the city, I hoped on a subway, transferred to a trolley, and in 35 minutes I was there. I could read on my phone, listen to music, or whatever the entire commute. Now I'm spending 30 minutes in bumper to bumper traffic where I can't do anything but honk my horn in a useless attempt to get the guy in front of me in the left lane to go faster. To most Americans, the car is their freedom and the thought of having to take public transportation is horrifying. To me it is the other way around. I moved to a city in part so I could get a job IN the city and not have to drive. This job is also working with a population of students who are very challenging and I have no experience in this particular field. I really liked working with inner-city kids, and I had experience doing it. Now, I'm going into working with a population of students who have totally different backgrounds but are challenging in an entirely different way. There are so many rules and regulations and laws I need to learn, and I'm getting incredibly nervous about starting. So that brings me to the point of this. I've wanted to live in New York City since the very first time I visited it in December of 1997. I just remember loving everything about it: the crowds, the noise, the hustle, the urban canyons of skyscrapers, all these different kinds of people, food, the smell, the list goes on. I've wanted to be a lot of different thing growing up, but the one thing I've consistently wanted through my life was to live in New York. The city is in my blood, as most of my family lives in New York or did at one point. The energy and non-stop 24/7-ness of the place is intoxicating to me. Having been to a fair number of diverse places in the world, I can easily say there is no place like it on earth. Paris and London and Buenos Aires are amazing cities, but New York is king. The great thing about living in Philadelphia is that we are very close to New York, and it makes visiting easy on the train. I've grown tired of Philadelphia. It was fun for a while, but now I want something bigger and better. I get it, New York is insanely expensive and competitive, but there is so much to the city that makes the sacrifices of not being a 1% New Yorker worth it. I've decided that come next year when my work contract is up, I'm taking the plunge and moving there. If I fail and have to leave, at least I can say I tried. I don't want to keep waiting and waiting for "the right moment" and suddenly be 30 and settled and not able to just pick up and go. My boyfriend is applying to medical school there, and has a pretty good shot of getting, so that would make the move a lot easier. Keep your fingers crossed. To be cliche and quote Frank Sinatra, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere".