PrivateTim

Sorry, underage drinking stories can not start, "when I was 20...." An underage drinking story starts, "The night we graduated 8th grade....." ************************************************************************ One concept that seems to elude people sometimes in CAP is the Gatsbyesque, “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me." The Dutchess of Alba The Dutchess of Alba is the 18th of her line and has lived her whole life in ratified circumstances and circles. JJ, Will, Darius, etc are the first of their line to grow up this way. It would take the Schluters and the Cramptons until the year 2550 to get where the House of Alba is today, but be that as it may, Will and the rest of the Schluter/Crampton kids don't know a life any different than the world of private airplanes, private security, yachts and complete self indulgence where the rules are for other people. Let's hope Stef ages more gracefully than the Dutchess has

What? There's an age limit of some kind on drinking???

You need better sources hun...... everyone knows hipsters drink Pabst Blue Ribbon.

The NFL has its first openly gay athlete. Michael Sam, SEC Defensive Player of the Year to the St Louis Rams.

Difference between Manhattan and The Loop? “Gives you more options in Chicago,” Will joked. “Shit, you could buy a whole building.” In Manhattan $15 million only buys you a nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath place...... I think the club apartment is a bad idea on so many levels, but it is easy to sound proof the condo from the club.

Interesting end to the chapter. I am going to guess that the return of the rings was based on real events? I think Will is still heading for disaster because I am not sure if he can go along to get along for the foreseeable future. If they were just kids waiting for high school to be over to feel "safe", that would be one thing, but if Zach is really good, John Elway good, he is looking at 20 years of this or more. I just don't see that fitting his personality. it is hard enough for high school love affairs to survive college, but the circumstances here would put a huge strain on any relationship.

I always preferred Please Don't Eat the Daisies. <media>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNxWnXeKKFs</media> Happy birthday doll!

The Los Angeles flood of 1938 killed 115 people in Los Angeles alone and many more deaths in Orange County, and both my grandparents remember it well. It was that flood that led to the cementing if the LA River and all the other major rivers in So Cal. Before the LA Flood of '38 was the Pasadena Flood in 1914 that killed 43 people. So flooding was/is a problem What you don't understand is that Los Angeles is a naturally arid climate so the streams and rivers are very low most of the year, but when the winter and spring storms hit, because of the very high mountains that ring the LA basin, water comes screaming out of them and are extremely dangerous. Here is a video of how the LA River can be. <media> LA County Fire has a Swift Water Rescue Team because every year people wind up in the culverts. I remember one year just before the Rose Bowl I was in the Rose Bowl parking lot and a bunch of firemen were standing around a culvert and the water was raging. Normally there might be an inch in it, now is was ten feet deep and moving at 35 miles an hour. Anyone falling in would be gone in an instant. Some tourists from Ohio walked by and started looking too, but wasn't sure what they were supposed to see. Finally they asked what we were looking at. I said, "the water" and they looked at us all like we were crazy. So I asked them, "do you know where you are?" and they said "sure, Pasadena." I said, "no, this is the Arroyo Seco. That means 'dry creek'. There wasn't an inch of water in there three days ago. I am not sure they believed me. So while it would be nice to see a restored river, it is really not worth the cost or risk.

Is it me or does it feel like this book is winding down? Which would be fine with me, I think shorter books gives you the chance to get more narrators involved..... Anyway, it is nice to see Matt coming to self knowledge he should have come to a year ago or more and could have saved himself some grief.

Any game that can end 0-0 and the fans call the game "brilliant" has serious issues.

Water polo is much more physical and brutal than wrestling. Wrestling is hugs and kisses compared to what goes on in the water.

Seriously? As if caveman Grok who had 20 rocks and 3 mastodon pelts didn't lord it over Ugh who only had 3 rocks and half a musk rat pelt

These characters are "meh" because they are rich and rules just don't apply to them. Are there any rules or laws they haven't broken?

High school athletes and college athletes still don't have agents, they have advisors and consultants that are paid for their service. Wally and Clara are not aware enough to suspect Will and Zach are having a sexual relationship and they have not been around them enough. I am sure Frank is aware of Zach and Will's "special friendship", but since Zach just made his first declaration to Will, no one knows he is gay. I am also pretty confident in Will and Zach's ability to pull off "buds" and "cousins" in public. I don't think they are doing the sappy moony looks that always do in gay kids and give them away on Nifty.

I was disappointed that Frank and Isidore weren't in on the meeting as they are Zach's defacto guardians and Frank has proven to be solidly in Zach's corner. Will and Zach got the "I love you" faster than I thought. I can't help but wonder where the blindside to their happiness is going to come from.

Dude, I think you have Stockholm Syndrome. You are starting to identify with your captors (Matt's eyes). I love seeing Matt's POV again, but our own POV is always rosy on our actions and harsh on others. Matt feels excluded in Boston, but if we were seeing this from Wade's perspective he'd think Matt was being standoffish and distancing himself from the others. Just because I like seeing Matt's POV doesn't mean I have an iota of sympathy for him. He made is own bed, now he has to lie in it. He has already eaten his cake, so he can't have it anymore. He ran his flag up the flagpole and no one saluted because Elvis had already left the building..... Okay, no more cliches and mixed metaphors. Matt had the ability to lock down Wade for life and he blew it through selfish, small head thinking. At anytime Matt could have woken up to the fact that getting laid is vacuous and leads to nothingness. The senior in college trying to cram in those last lays and days of fun is not my experience, especially having been around Berkeley and Stanford seniors. Most of the guys I knew at these two schools were done with partying and skirt chasing at the end of their junior years. Being a senior was about focusing on the future and being burned out being around "little kids" who just wanted to party. When I was a freshman in my fraternity house I couldn't believe what fuddy duddy old men the seniors were and three short years later I was one. While I hold out hope for Matt maturing and fulfilling the potential we saw when Matt was a senior in high school, I am not going to forget that he forged these chains that now bind him (okay, sorry, one last cliche) or blame those whose patience wore thin.

I like that Wade seems to be not liking that now Matt is actually moving on. Like his mother, he has a control thing. It may not be as evil or as sinister as hers, but it is there. The undercurrent that they may have a future together in 3-5 years is there. Or not. But I think yes. Or not.

I like the story and I really like seeing Matt's POV again. I assume in a future story is that we will see Wade's POV again. But is it pretty obvious that I am going to have a problem throughout the entire story when there are parallels drawn between Sam & Jake and Will & Tony, because it is either bootstrapping or shoehorning the storyline to pretend that the "family" argument was brought up when Brad and Wade slept together the first time two or three stories ago. I get where Matt might have a problem with it because Wade got too into Brad because he was so much better in bed than Matt, but the rest of the family never had an adverse reaction. I am willing to accept that the storyline needs this tension..... I am just not done giving Mark shit about it yet

Dude..... look at that guy.....

The danger for Will & Zach is the unguarded moment. They can not be a couple for a moment any place in public; not London, not Paris, not anyplace. De La Salle is a very affluent school pulling from some of the East Bay's tonier areas. It may not be Sacred Heart, but still plenty affluent to the extent that it would not be out of the realm of possibilities that they could run into De La Salle kids in Europe and definitely Menlo School kids in Europe. If Zach keeps blowing off hot chicks who want to rock his world, that will send up more red flags than how much Will and he hang out.

I think people forget how very young Matt and Wade are. Yes they have been through a lot together, but this isn't the 1950's where you marry your college sweetheart. So many people, straight & gay don't get married until their late 20's, early 30's. Of all my first cousins, 25-35, only 2 of the 10 are married and only a couple are in serious relationships. As to Zach and Will, I find it interesting that Frank wasn't there, given that he is now Zach's de facto guardian and that he seems to be the one who can tell Wally the way things are and Wally is afraid to push back. Did I miss a chapter? I don't recall a Matt/Wade/Tiffany hook up?

Ben

Well not to be a pissant, but how is sleeping with Brent, now that he has been with Zach different from sleeping with Zach after he had been with Gathan?

The most interesting part of the whole chapter is Brent's "project". I've been driving myself nuts trying to figure out what it is and why Will will be interested in it. Maybe it is one of Robbie's old cars..... Anyway, an interesting tease that there might be work arounds for Will & Zach, except of course if they do stay together that just makes for more drama down the road when one of the chix sniffing around Zach figures it out or flat out catches them in flagrante delicto and that ruins Zach's future and he blows all over Will about it. It will make the phone call break-up look like high tide compared to a tsunami.

On my continuing line of confusion....... first Wally and Clara were simple bumpkins, now they are Machiavellian geniuses? (based on the reviews I read)