AFriendlyFace

awwww I'm so sorry you're sick, Viv Those are really awesome lines!! I hope you can find the backpack and good luck with all the car stuff!!! Feel better soon Kevin

Yeah! It's like if someone hired me to guard a chocolate cheesecake!

YAY!!! Happy Birthday! I hope you have a teriffic day and an awesome year! Kevin

Me too -Kevin

Hey David I'm so glad you enjoyed the video! Yep it's been crazy hot here too! I'm surviving though lol. Anyway have an awesome day and take care! Kevin

I agree! If only more people would do their part for the earth and be gay!

I really liked the last chapter of My Jump Off and I was unaware that you'd updated Bodega Bay, but I'm looking forward to reading it! Have an awesome time on your trip and good luck with the card game!! Kevin

I went to the Pride parade and festival in Houston this year. It worked out perfectly I'd JUST moved and gotten settled in when everything started happening. It was alota fun. I bet Amsterdam is a really cool place to live! I hope you have fun and be careful Kevin

There's many theories about dreams and whether or not they're believed to be significant varies according to the time and cultural period in which they're set. Frued and Jung (himself originally a disciple of Frued) placed quite a bit of significance in dreams. Today the trend in psychology is to downplay the importance of dreams. Personally I think it's a little of both and neither. Dreams might mean something on some level, but I mostly think it's impossible to figure out exactly what. If you can gain some insight or simply enjoy pondering it go for it. If on the other hand it's upsetting, non-recurring, and just doesn't make sense I'd say forget about it. For example if you dream about killing your parents or raping your friends it's highly unlikely that that's REALLY what you want to do. Why have a dream like that? For any number of reasons, maybe on some semi-conscious level you were thinking the previous day that you really love them and wouldn't ever want to hurt them....then when you go to sleep your mind startings thinking "so it would be REALLY awful then if this happened___" or, "So no way this could ever really happen___". More simply it might just be a fear that the bad thing could happen. Or perhaps it was just a random story your mind pieced together. Just because some dreams are significant and seem to make sense doesn't mean they all are! Sure you might dream about eating your favourite food or visiting with a dear friend and THAT really does imply that you want to do those things, but sometimes it's just random nonsense, or so opaque you couldn't really hope to figure it out! I remember having several long dreams last night. In the one right before I got up I was trapped in this huge bathroom with several other members of GA. Some of them I was fairly close with others I'd barely spoken too, and of course I just "knew" it was them since most of them I had no idea what they really looked like. Anyway we were all playing cards and reading magazines. What does this mean? Probably absolutely nothing. I'm quite sure I don't want to get trapped in a giant bathroom with a random assortment of internet people. On the other hand it wouldn't be horrible, it might even be kinda fun. So it doesn't make sense, it doesn't represent a fear or a desire, and I don't think it really means anything. I think my brain just pulled several random thoughts and images together and concocted an entertaining little story. Bottom line: if you hated the dream and it bothered you just try to forget about it. Take care and have an awesome day!! Kevin

No I'm not in love myself, but the guys in this video are: This Is Love by Jason and Demarco Check it out, I'm not sure how long that link will work though, right now they have the # 1 video there, but I'm guessing that changes daily or weekly, but you should still be able to find them in the list for a week or so I would think. I guess as far as love songs go it's fairly generic, but the video is so cute and sweet! It made me giggle in delight several times lol. It's also cool because you know the song is specifically a gay love song (even though there's really no way that I noticed to tell from the lyrics). Anyway it's just awwwww Here's their home page if anyone is interested in finding out more about them: Jasonanddemarco Their bios are pretty cool, and apparently they've been together a few years too. I read about them in the Houston Voice. While I'm on the topic of music I just want to say that I think the Chicago soundtrack is surely one of the best ever! As long ago as it's been since that came out I still listen to it regularly (especially recently like at least once every couple of days for the last 2 or 3 months). I think my favourite song is "I can't do it alone", but it used to be, "When you're good to mama". Here's something that will probably shock EVERYONE, in fact I probably shouldn't even confess it, but when I first saw the movie on the big screen I was actually somewhat sexually attracted to Queen Latifa in that number. It was just really sexual, especially the line "Spice it up for Mama, she'll get hot for you" where she does that thing with the handkerchief! I also got a big kick out of, "they say that life is tit for tat, so I deserve alota tat for what I've got to give" . Anyway it was just a passing attraction I'm not like obsessed with her. ******* In other news I had a really good day today. 120 push ups (as well as huge numbers of 8 other assorted exercises) and an extra lap run in the park and I'm finally caught up on my daily physical fitness from the time I took off for my 2 day trip I also got a completely free meal! I'd recieved this coupon in the mail for a free Burrito at this chain Mexican place. So I'm thinking, "well I'll probably have to add a couple of things", because most burritos aren't that big (plus I was really hungry all I'd had all day was a thing of yougurt). BUT when I went through the line and had this sucker made it was huge!! I got chicken, onions and bell peppers, salsa, guacamole (sp), rice, and corn in it! It actually ended up being so big I could barely finish. It was really good too! Plus since I only drink water that was free too lol! OHHHH and THEN on the way out they had free issues of the latest Houston Voice . heheh and I'm proud of myself for bringing this blog full circle. Although it was actually June's issue that featured J&D, but picking up todays edition reminded me of it and made me go home and find the video online! I was also really good about my housework. I did two loads of laundry and changed my bed. I also finished unpacking from the trip (I'm really bad about slacking when it comes to unpacking). On top of that I had a nice, long chat on the phone with one of my new coworkers. Her timing couldn't have been better either I was just getting to the park and that's when I love to do my phone talking. So I chatted with her almost an hour while I walked my first lap (they're REALLY big laps, like over 3 miles), then shortly into the 2nd one she hung up and I finished it jogging . Anyway so all in all it was a nice day...well except that I also found out I STILL likely had "two to three weeks" to wait before I FINALLY get my insurance license and can begin working. Honestly there's no point in calling anymore. I could save myself the minutes on my phone bill and just listen to piano music for 20 minutes then look in the mirror and tell myself, "two to three weeks". . See I took the test on June 25th, they sent the paper work, but the company that processes everything had relocated and failed to leave a forwarding address . SOOO by the time they got everything back and resent it to the correct address it was July 10th. Now I'm not sure what happened next, but something went wrong because they had to RESEND it on July 20th. So I'm still waiting from that. **Sigh** at this rate it really might show up around my birthday, which started out being a sarcastic JOKE. Well have an awesome day everyone and take care!!

Hey Aaron! Thanks for the support! I'm sorry to hear about your boyfriend's situation too . You're right it sounds like he worked really hard and deserves to enjoy the fruits of his labour guilt free; I hope he's able to! I've actually once heard the "you were lucky, you got all the breaks" thing indirectly from my aunt once (she apparently said it to my mother who then told me). I'm not saying I didn't have a really good, enjoyable childhood, and I did get alot of "breaks"; I've been very fortunate. I really have tried to make the most of everything though. I do consider myself lucky, but I'd also like to think at least some of it is a result of hard work and prudence; I've seen people given more achieve less WOW! I'm so flattered! Thanks I hope you liked them! I know what you mean too, I read several of the other blogs and I really feel like I've gotten to know those people too! Anyway I'm really flattered and touched! Have an awesome day and take care!! Kevin

WOOO HOOOO!! Congratulations Vic!!!! Funny joke too I consider it a privilege to have read and enjoyed quite a few of those 1,000 posts! I look forward to the next 1,000! Take care (unregistered) Kevin

Same here, when I was in high school I used to frequently drink to the not being able to walk/passing out stage (and I don't want to hear about any of you teens doing that!!) and I've never had a hang over either. In college I drank much less (I guess it had gotten old by then), but once I went to a party and got pretty drunk and then had to go to work early the next morning. So I only got about 2 or 3 hours of sleep tops, that's the worst I've ever felt, but it still wasn't too bad. I had a headache for a little while but it went away with my first meal. Anyway if I had to guess I'd say it's because I drink SO MUCH water. I never eat or drink anything without drinking water and this includes alchohol. So if you see me with a beer, glass of wine, or margarita in one hand you can bet I've got a glass/bottle of water in the other. I also of course naturally would be drinking lots of water all day before consuming alchohol in the evening/night and I always have more water before bed and keep a glass by my bed (regardless of whether I've been drinking).....so basically I don't think my body has any idea what dehydration is like . I don't really know about the electrolyte thing, but I take a multivitamin and 6 additional supplements everyday so I'm usually okay nutritionally. I would never recommend painkillers before, after, or during a night spent drinking. I really don't think it's good for the liver...and mixing painkillers and alcohol is one of the things I'm most paranoid about. Actually I almost never take painkillers, maybe 5 or 6 A YEAR, and it's only if I'm sick in general and definitely won't be drinking I would think that would make getting drunk more difficult too if the alcohol doesn't reach the brain? Anyway take care everyone, and drink responsibly or not at all! Kevin

Actually I was going to point out that Scott was listening too. He might have been interrupting, but it was with something somewhat related to what you were saying. I can definitely see how being interrupted would bother you, but don't feel like it's you everyone everywhere is a potential interrupter and interruptee. Online you don't actually get cut off mid sentence, but think of all the times you were telling someone something or trying to stay on a specific topic and the other person typed and entered something else before you had a chance to say the next thing you wanted to say. It's also a little easier to hold back online, because if you start to interrupt and type something out the nature of the communication is such that you have more time to say, "wait a minute let him finish" and erase it (or copy it to be pasted and said at a later time...something I often do because I have a very slim chance of being able to recall what I wanted to say at a later point in time unless it's saved somewhere for me). It's often been said that most conversations are just two (or more) people waiting for their own chance to speak. That's why really good conversations are so much fun! But even two people who CAN have deep, interactive conversations are still liable to be susceptible to the occasionaly interrupting, waiting for my own turn to talk type of conversations. A couple of days ago I was having a conversation with my aunt when my cousin must have suddenly noticed my shoes and cut her off with the completely unrelated interjection of: "I like your shoes. Where'd you get them? are they "X" brand?" My aunt turned and glared at her and said, "I was talking" then continued where she'd left off. I was thinking, "my cousin really shouldn't have interrupted like that", "My aunt was rather rude to her with that rebuke", and most significantly I was also thinking, "You know I'd really rather be talking about my shoes." Anyway I'm not necessarily trying to defend Scott OR you. I can see where you're both coming from and I really think the majority of people frequently find themselves in both roles. That's why the pretend conversations we have with people in our heads never go exactly according to plan...the other person goes and thinks of something else to say instead of sticking to the response we've already scipted for them. I am really sorry if it's putting a strain on your relationship though . I'm also really sorry it made you feel bad . Anyway you're NOT just a piece of ass that can cook; you're a terrific, amazing, sweet person and don't let anyone (especially yourself) convince you otherwise! Kevin

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Val!! Sorry I'm a little late. I hope you had a teriffic day and are off to a good start of the next year!

So I got back late yesterday from my trip to visit my family and attend my friend's graduation party. Before I get down to other stuff here's an amusing highlight. I passed this sign on the way that was advertizing a restaurant two hundred and ninety-two miles away! As well as listing a few of the menu highlights they also raved in large print about their "Fabulous Restrooms". It's like, "well lets go there! I know it's like four and a half hours away and we're all hungry and we have to pee, but we can just cross our legs and gnaw on our fingers till we get there darnit!!" Anyway the graduation party was a lot of fun. Visiting with my family...well it was fun...sorta. It was good to see them again, but it felt like there was this black cloud hanging over everything; like everyone was unhappy and only waiting for things to get worse. My grandmother's Alzhiemer's is advancing. This is making her increasingly hard to live with. She's apparently getting progressively meaner too. I went out to lunch with my mom and, as she always seems to be doing when I've spoken with her recently, she was complaining about my grandmother's condition and the difficult, unpleasant position it left her (and my grandfather in). She was saying how she got absolutely no privacy or time to herself. How she had to explain (several times) where she was going, what she was doing, and when she'd be back. Finally she looked at me and said, "I hate my life". She also mentioned that while she's been getting worse lately she's always been difficult to live with. She even said she was one of the reasons she got married at 20 and moved away....then noted the irony that she ended up back in the same place anyway. (My parents were married 15 years before I was born, then they devorced when I was 2 - it didn't have anything to do with me my dad was having an affair) I also had a long conversation with my grandfather, who's still sharp as a particularly dangerous tack in fact he explained to me how to work the cordless phone. Anyway I've always been impressed with how well he's always handled everything, EVERYTHING. Apparently though she'd just said something dreadful because he said to me, "I just don't understand how a mother can say things like that to her children, or a wife those things to her husband". (I won't actually repeat the things). Anyway then he recounted a story of a few years ago when he was in the hospital for heart surgery and my grandmother was in a bad mood and first told him off, then told my mom off, then insisted that they leave. Apparently though the nurse overheard everything on the monitors or intercom thing or whatever and when she went back in she said, "Will you have anyone to take care of you when you get out, I mean besides your ex-wife." He was too embarrassed to explain otherwise too. I may be depicting my grandmother in a very unflattering light. I don't mean to. She definitely has her good points, quite a few actually. She was also easier to get along with before her illness. We were particularly close when I was a child. She's still consistantly nicer to me than anyone else in the family. Of course I suppose it's because I "play along" when she asks/tells the same thing over and over, and because I don't really "bite" when she gets ornery. On the other hand I only had to deal with it for about 36 hours much of which I spent away, and still my patience was definitely getting thinner by the end. I also visited my aunt and cousin. It was a nice visit but their situation isn't great either. My aunt....has a drinking problem. She quit her job several years ago and has spent the last few years drunk and running up credit card debt. She also doesn't seem to have any intention of returning to work...ever. I'm not entirely sure what her plan is, but I think it must be along the lines of waiting for my cousin to finish college and living off her. It sounds dreadful, but I'm sympathetic towards her...I think she struggles with depression. Granted if I had to guess I'd say it stems from her life situation and not genetics, but it's still pretty crummy. Then there's my cousin. I still think she's really a lesbian. I also just found out that the girl I was thinking she was secretly seeing (who seems even more like a lesbian) was moving to Houston (small world after all). So if I'm right it must be pretty cruddy for her ...even if I'm wrong it's still cruddy losing your best friend of the last 6 or 7 years. My cousin unfortunately seems to be getting more and more passive agressive. I'm sure this is a result of living with her strong-willed (and fairly controlling) mother for so long. The poor girl STILL doesn't drive and she's going to be 21 in Jan. As for Timmy, well I left him with them. He'd done a pretty good job of endearing himself with my mom and both my grandparents. On the other hand he was also completely freaking out. He cried nonstop the first night. Always seemed to be looking for something (we speculate it was Lucky), and also spent a good deal of time hiding under various furniture. They've decided to leave him in the house for a few days until he gets acclimated. I think his time inside will be short though as whenever I was in the room (and he apparently felt safer) he went straight to work returning to his bad habits . So I guess the more secure he gets the worse he'll behave. Still he settles down enough to go outside I suppose he'll be okay. Anyway as a drove away and began my journey home I realized something: I can't fix it for them. I can't solve their problems or take away the burdens. As always I was deeply concerned and sorry for them. I desperately wanted to make it all better, but I realized I couldn't. I could join the misery. Perhaps even buffer them a little against each other and the rest of life's attacks, but in the long run I couldn't really make the problems go away. I realized something else too: I'm happy, very happy. I love my life, I enjoy everyday. I'm constantly looking forward to doing new things or continuing to enjoy the old, familar ones. I'm not bored, and I'm not sad, and I'm not going to feel guilty about that. I'm sure this whole entry classifies as TMI and also makes me come off snotty and selfish, but I've worked to make my life into what I want it to be, struggled to remain positive in the face of unexpected problems, and I'm going to enjoy it darnit! I love them and I'll do anything and everything I can to help any of them, but there's no point in sacrificing my happiness to join them with their stress. So I won't.

Hey Aaron! I'm glad someone still reads my old posts My forearm and foot were very close in length. It sorta depended on where and how I measured each. Yes, in general my forearm seemed slightly longer, but I think that might have been from measuring technique. Gosh, I'm not even sure what shoe size to give you. I guess it sorta depends on the style and "cut" of the shoe. I have one pair of shoes that's an 8.5. I have some 9's, a couple 9.5's, even some 10s and 10.5s. Most of the ones I buy now are 9 or 9.5, but I generally try to buy the smallest shoe that'll fit (well same with pants, shirts, and underwear for that matter). I just don't really like loose clothes, and shoes in particular I feel less attractive in some big bulky ones. My foot measures about 9.5 inches long if that tells you anything Anyway take care and have an awesome day! Kevin

Hey James! Aww poor Boo! He sounds like quite a cat! Timmy's always been really skitish too, but I think he's pretty bright. I always got the impression he was choosing to misbehave and not that he simply didn't know any better. Timmy was a great cat in many ways, especially before we moved. I mean he was always really mischevious, but he's also always been really sweet. It sounds like he's endearing himself to my family though, so hopefully it'll all work out **crosses his fingers** Anyway thanks and take care Kevin

well she seems to be fine. She's behaving completely normally. Yes, you're right. Timmy definitely has alot of trouble adjusting to new situations. My family just tried letting him go into a new room...just a new a room...and he was too scared and ran out **sigh**...but hopefully eventually he'll get used to everything. Anyway thanks for the advice, Camy, I really did want to leave them together...but it felt like the right thing to do. I guess I'll wait and see what happens next. Anyway take care. Kevin

Thanks Viv! That is how I was/am feeling. **sigh** I sure hope you're right! It was nice to come home and find everything exactly like I'd left it! I guess in the long run Timmy will enjoy the extra space....he seems to be taking awhile to adjust though. But I'm going to stay optimistic about it, and you're right I can go visit! Anyway thanks! Kevin

Hey Tim, Thanks for the advice....Lucky does seem to be fine, but Timmy was very upset the whole time I was there and when I was leaving That's awesome that you got to have your cat for so long I bet she was a great cat! I hope you're right that he'll end up happier in the long run this way. Anyway take care! Kevin

Hey Nick! I'm so glad you're in a good mood! Congrats about being hosted somewhere new too! That's teriffic! You definitely deserve it! I read chapter 1 and 2 of Dom's new story. Are more posted yet? I'll have to check it out, but you're right it's off to a great start! Take care and have an awesome day! Kevin

awww thanks Viv! I did have a safe trip Hopefully I'm going to blog about it too. Glad you've been getting some great hugs! Here's one more just incase Kevin

Hey Aaron! Thanks!! I really appreciate what you said and I'm very happy that you enjoyed my entries This one is actually one of my favourites, so I'm especially glad that you enjoyed it Great meeting you and I hope you have a great evening. Take care, Kevin