Rip Skor

Epilogue A reader had written to me feeling like the story of Matt & Parker was leading to some momentous climax where someone dies or this whole happy relationship comes crashing to the ground. “Say it ain’t so, Joe!” After all, that’s what we’ve come to expect in most gay-themed movies and television shows of today, right? In entertainment today, there’s a fascination about gay couples facing all sorts of adversity from AIDS to gay bashing to untimely deaths, and then at the end, the

The Country Leaps to The Left First, please forgive the history lesson here, but it’s important to relate how everything happened and how it affected us. When we were married, never in a million years did we expect that the ruling in Massachusetts allowing same sex marriage would create a domino effect. It took a few years, but Connecticut, Iowa, and Vermont followed Massachusetts’ lead. By 2015, 37 states had lifted their bans on same-sex marriage. Then in 2015, the US Supreme Court a

Well we did get married and it was in the chapel on the campus where everything sort of began...and we did get to Paris. It is all romantic when you look back at it. But at the time, it was immensely nerve wracking. We couldn't wait to get it over with...except the Paris/Amsterdam part. We could have stayed there forever! And Parker and I had our first (and last) encounter with marijuana tea. We couldn't stop laughing.

What Is It About Weddings? Weddings were always eventful for Parker and me beyond what we were there for. And it was usually due to seeing those family members that we generally did not see at any other time. When Ginny and Bill got married, Bill introduced us to his gay nephew, Kevin, and his boyfriend, Vince. We were all within a year or three in age and had many similar interests. As a result, we eventually became good friends. They provided a kind of touch point for our same-sex relatio

Game On! In September of 2002, Ginny and Bill had their marriage ceremony. It was a small, intimate affair since they both had already been married. I guess the second time around, people don’t make a big deal of it. So they had a ceremony and a reception with mostly close family and friends. Bill went out of his way to introduce us to his nephew Kevin and Kevin’s boyfriend Vince. Kevin had just graduated college and Vince was in his final year. It was eerily familiar. Needless to say, we g

As you could probably guess, this story is winding down. It has a beginning and thus an end, which ultimately brings it up to present day. I noticed other stories with images in them, so I figured there has to be a way. I played around trying to place an image in one of the chapters with no luck.

As Far As We Could Go When Parker graduated from college in 2001, I gave him a unique graduation gift. I asked him to marry me…which actually wasn’t legally possible. Though it really wouldn’t change much of anything in our daily lives, it would certainly escalate the level of commitment, and that was good enough for me. Parker was so excited, he started to cry as he blurted out “YES!” and he hugged me so forcefully it knocked me to the ground...and we had a good laugh. He had n

They do get to Paris eventually...twice in fact!

An Unexpected Offer When I graduated, I thought a college degree would open doors to many opportunities in the working world. Not so. Unless your undergraduate degree is from MIT, Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Princeton, et. al., you become one of the thousands of recent ho hum college graduates all looking for entry level work. The country club where I had seasonal employment didn’t care if you had a degree. They were interested in you showing up on time each day and that you were a hard w

Stay tuned...

College Wrap Up I’m going to cover a lot of ground here as I close out the college experience. The following school year I was a Senior at university, which meant it would be my last. Meanwhile, Parker was only in his second year which would make him a Sophomore. Now that we were starting a new school year and we were pre-engaged, we decided to be a little more open and come out to our closest friends. At the inaugural floor party of the semester when most of our friends were

The old adage that opposites attract may work in magnets, but in relationships, likes attract every time. Sure, I believe there may be more than one right person too. Look how many people are happily remarried after their first spouse dies unexpectedly. Having said that, I also believe that some right persons are better than others. The divorce rate is also high. I think happy people sometimes wish to be happier and may see another person as the way to get there. Yet two people who may be perfect together may live in two different countries and therefore never find each other. A lot of it is luck as you said. Yet Parker tends to be lucky. If Parker had patched things up with Steven, he might have been somewhat happy for the rest of his life. Yet having found Matt, Parker realizes he's happier than he's ever been. Matt knows that Parker is the hottest boy he has ever seen, so he's happy every day. Sometimes for some people, things just work out for the best.

The Contest Some people go through life as if they have a horseshoe up their butt (not literally). What I mean is, they are perpetually lucky, not like they win a million dollars every day, but everything always seems to turn out in their favor without much intervention. Sure, these people may go through a rough patch here and there, but they come out of it better in the long term. I believe it’s called a charmed life. Although he might disagree, I have always attributed this char

And I lived an entire life thinking toboggans were invented in Scandinavia.

Number Nine I awoke in the morning with a big yawn. In my field of view, I noticed a set of expectant blue eyes glued to me. I turned my head toward them and said, “Hi there.” “Hi, what’s up?” I heard from behind those eyes. “Not me,” I joked. “Well, that would be a first,” he shot back with a smirk. “And you are usually the cause of it, you little minx,” I reminded him. “I’m not complaining. I always like when you show it off, especially in public.”

Well, there are more benefits to staying indoors on new year's eve.

Happy New Year (Part II) Greg and Julie said their good-byes to everyone and took their leave at about 9:30. They said they had a second New Year’s Eve party to attend, so they were making the rounds. After dinner my dad, Parker, and I settled down in front of the TV. We were treated to the annual Three Stooges marathon that is shown on a local channel every New Year’s Eve. My mother, who was not a fan of the Three Stooges, had moved to the living room to knit and watch the New

Matt wasn't trying to shock the parents. Matt and Parker are often teasing each other (good naturedly) and that one kind of slipped out. During their little wrestling match, Matt was so focused on the battle royale that he momentarily forgot where they were. Kind of like when you drop a tray full of glasses and you yell "shit!" in front of a group of children. It wasn't meant for the children but they heard it nonetheless.

Happy New Year When the fabled date finally arrived, Parker and I made plans to cut down on me having to drive back and forth between homes a bunch of times. He took the commuter rail train to the station near my parents' place, and I picked him up. We parked out in front of the house to avoid having to move my car in and out of the driveway all day. “Wow, Matt, you didn’t tell me you live in a mansion,” he said when we were parked. “Mansion? It’s not really a mansion,” I r

People love to label things. Think of all of the cliques in public schools: the jocks, the geeks, the cheerleaders, the drama crowd, the in-crowd, the brains, and however many other groups may be at each school. Some people keep that same outlook into adult life, and other people grow and become more aware. Labels are very useful when they are on the shelves in the supermarket.

Pre-fiancés? I woke up on Christmas morning with the proceedings of the previous night still fresh in my mind. Parker and I were pre-engaged, which may seem like no big deal, but in fact it was. You see, there was always this elephant in the room—OK, maybe more like an elephant in the closet—that lingered in our relationship. Parker was always a little apprehensive that I was going to go back to women one day as soon as the right one came along. I compensated for that by frequently r

Thanks. This chapter is where I was originally planning the story wouild end. Of course, we do have a couple of loose ends that need to be tied up. Less than one year (1997) in the life of two boys equals fifty something chapters. If I broght it up to present time (+20 years), how many chapters would that be? More than I care to write. Plus life eventually becomes mundane as we get older. But I've found mundane isn't all that bad.

Merry Christmas Eve Christmas Eve with Parker’s family for me culminated in the giving of two gifts—two very important gifts. Now I’m not too much into flowers, but I saw this particular display that caught my eye out in front of the florist in the mall. If I took notice, then this was a damn nice bouquet. Knowing I didn’t want to simply hand Ginny our test results—that would be weird—if I gave her a flower bouquet along with the results, it would make for a better presentation.

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Matt doesn't realize it but he is Parker's rock. Parker knows he can count on Matt and that adds to his strong attachment. Parker also knows he can have his way with Matt in a good-natured manner. It also doesn't hurt that Matt is handsome and has a firehose in his pants. Matt is often too self conscious to recognize that he is exactly what Parker wants in a guy. And Parker is a boy who knows what he wants and isn't ashamed to go after it.