Hunter Thomson

Yay August Pride! VanPride 2017 babies! I ended up being sick for Denver Pride, so I'm promising myself that I'll march and be visible for hometown pride, and I'll make sure as rain that all my LGBTQ people around the world see me there!

And here comes the drama. Chapter 18 is going to be where all hell breaks loose. Which is fine, it'll give us the climax we need and a great chance to watch Chris get thrown out on his ass.

The most damning, soul destroying part of this is that I know without a shadow of a doubt that things like this happen in real life. This story is fiction. But it is real for someone. I left the non-profit I was on the board of directors for to escape these kinds of stories. The people who commit these heinous acts do not deserve mercy. They do not deserve forgiveness. There is no condemnation that can be given that will equate to the atrocities William and Carl have committed. No matter what ending you have for them, they will never suffer enough.

Hopefully it comes up here for VQFF, that might be enough for me to get tickets for this year's festival.

A very happy birthday to you!

Canada doesn't celebrate pride Month, per se, though many cities will indeed have their pride celebrations at some point in June because the weather is decent for a few weeks of the month. I'm actually spending next weekend in Denver for their pride celebrations as part of Outsports, so I'll be marching in the parade with Nike and the Outsports crew. When I come home, Vancouver Pride won't be until August. I'll probably attend the parade, as I don't have anyone I feel comfortable marching with anymore, and all the groups that I would normally join I'm persona non grata. I'll probably use the parade and festival as an opportunity to try and rebuild some bridges with LGBTQ organizations and the LGBTQ wing of The Party, give myself some good graces to return to after my year away from home. If there was a rally I'd consider going to it, but I doubt there will be anything up here in Vancouver. There's always the street party... but I'll probably just end up spending most of Pride weekend curled up with my ex and feeling connected with him.

Happy birthday darlin'!

I needed this today.

Craftingmom, this is a wonderful story you've created about overcoming bias and lack of understanding about others. The fact that you've shown it through two very different points of view, and how those two people converge on each other is amazingly done. I appreciate the sports side of things and the ability to see myself in the athletes. How they react and how they try to challenge each other is something I grew up with and have firsthand knowledge of, and it plays off the characters perfectly. On a personal note, reading your story chapters each week serves as a reminder to get my butt back in shape. So there's that too I guess. Probably not what you were planning on when you wrote this, but here we are.

More than anything else it's a distraction. If Bailey cuts himself and feels that physical pain, he's not thinking about or feeling his intense emotional pain, which Craftingmom has alluded to a few times when Bailey resolves to do it. And it is awful, I can only imagine what it would be like to have so many devastating life changes happening all at once.

I found that a little bit unnerving, actually. They've only just started getting to know each other, and as far as they're concerned they're just friends. Declan getting this protective of Bailey wouldn't make sense in a typical teenage friendship, even among gay teens. We know Declan is starting to have feelings for Bailey, but I don't think Bailey fully realises that at the moment, and is likely to be put off by the extra protection, as though it's some kind of statement against him. It makes Declan look a little bit like a clingy boyfriend, which he isn't at the present but could be someday.

This was a chapter all about learning the truth, and because of that there's going to be a lot of drama ahead for both boys. Bailey knows about his mother's past with Daniel. That was more than a surprising twist in the plot. But it explains so much of how they were able to connect so quickly and move beyond the lawyer-client relationship so easily. Having that past connection would have made it easy to move past simply being a job for Daniel, though it definitely raises a few conflict of interest issues that probably have to be resolved. Considering how surprising the information was (though it shouldn't have been, since his mother apparently mentioned it before), Bailey responded pretty well to the new information, at least at first. Needing it after dinner wasn't too surprising to me. If it were me I would have had a strong reaction as well. One thing that this does bring up is the fact that Bailey isn't really listening to his mother. That's understandable as well, he's feeling pressure from her and other directions, all while trying to heal, so he's not focusing on other people as much right now. Declan knows about Bailey's injuries now. He's not going to let it go now that he's seen the bruise and felt some of the other injuries. He doesn't know about it yet, but that's only a matter of time until Declan demands to see Bailey's injuries and everything gets figured out from there. I would expect that Declan is going to accuse Chris and Eric of causing the injuries, and that Bailey isn't going to willingly explain that the cuts are from his own hand, so there's going to be drama there when the accusation comes out. Chris and Eric are probably going to respond by attacking Bailey again, maybe even trying something against Declan. Which should lead to the football team waking up and realizing just how awful Chris and his little minions are. Lots upcoming, but this was a wonderful setup chapter to get everything prepared for those major events.

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Itchy people unite! Also, most literal kind of quid pro quo EVER. Literal back scratching favours

The slower pace is part of why I enjoy this story. It's given more time for the plot to develop and characters to be fleshed out, without having to put in sexual scenes. sex is titilating, but it doesn't usually help us understand the characters more. So it's nice to have that time to learn who everyone really is. Almost like dating.

@Renee Stevens Oh my gosh, I completely forgot about the socks! Having said that, no new scratches which is a surprise considering my dreams last night. It doesn't happen every night, it's quite rare actually. Just a bit worrying when it does actually happen.

Waffle thief!

For those of you who read my #BCPoli election blog, thanks. It was fun, never doing it again. This is a postscript for those of you who read through everything. The BC Liberals nominally won the election with 43 of 87 seats. However, the NDP won 41 seats and the BC Green Party won 3 seats, and they have agreed to a written accord (not a coalition, which is a formal governance agreement in Canada) whereby the NDP will govern with the tacit and supporting votes from the BC Greens to achieve a majority. It is not a coalition, in that the Greens reserve the right to sit in Opposition to the NDP government they are propping up, and have agreed only to vote with the NDP on matters of budget or confidence in the government. Having said that, this government may die in a few weeks since there's an impasse on who will serve as the Speaker of the House. A liberal Speaker would preserve the Accord's majority, but an NDP or Green Speaker would lead to legislative deadlock. The Speaker, by unwritten convention going back 7 centuries, can only vote to continue debate or preserve the status quo. This means that legislation will die in Third Reading, including budgets, throne speeches and other matters of confidence in the government. Which means that as soon as the NDP attempts to table any such documents, it will die unless the Speaker is willing to repeatedly defy precedent for the next 4.5 years. Such a position would be absolutely unprecedented in Canadian electoral history. Liberals have unanimously declared that if elected, they will not serve as Speaker (something that they can apparently do in spite of the secret ballot used to elect the Speaker). So it's entirely likely that I'll spend my summer working a second election campaign, which would be an immense relief to me since I'm going insane from boredom. A summer election would end the boredom very quickly. But it's time to figure out what I want to do politically. Anyone who knows me knows that I harbour political ambitions, and I have the connections needed to make a good showing when I choose to make my run. Given the NDP sweep of my hometown and all of the surrounding districts, it's not advantageous for me to contest a provincial seat (which is what I would truly like), nor would I be well-situated to win given my lack of real-world experience at the moment. I'm also not likely to succeed at present in the federal seat I reside in. It has a history of electing NDP representatives, including very young gay New Democrats, but I think it unlikely that I would be their first choice, given the high profile of the seat and the fact that the party controls every other elected position in the city EXCEPT this one federal seat. That leaves city council or the school board. Both have vacancies due to the provincial election, which guarantees an opening for me to run in that doesn't explicitly mean that I have to face the city council directly in a nomination battle. Given the absolute virulence that some on Council have shown me (and I've shown them repeatedly in exchange), that's probably a good thing, since they would deal with me in short order in a head to head election, but may not play favourites for the open council seat. The alternative would be to contest the open school board seat, where I have broadly strong relations with all of the major players, and would be seen as less of a public frustration than the current school board trustee blabbing about internal discussions to the local paper. I have the benefit of having worked with the school board on policy in the past, having pushed them into creating and working through an explicit anti-homophobia and anti-transphobia policy that includes resources for including pro-LGBTQ material into the curriculum. So... they know me, and they like me enough to invite me to be a keynote speaker at a district event. Both options appeal to me. Council desperately needs my voice on housing issues, and even as the council reluctantly starts to take my activist viewpoint on expanding housing in the city, winning a council seat with that as my main platform issue would certainly boost the effectiveness of my critiques. In spite of their past anger towards me, they would be loyal and help elect me if I was part of the slate. I wouldn't be able to guarantee success on expanding housing options in the city, but those issues would have a voice and champion. It would also allow me to continue and expand my work on the city public safety committee where I've spent the last six years improving police awareness of youth crime issues and ensuring that stays on the radar. Councillors have seen me there, and they appreciate my work on those files, so they may also appreciate my diligence on other issues before council, should I get there. The school board interests me as well. Obviously as a teacher I couldn't teach in a district where I served as a trustee, but with my master's degree coming I may not be teaching anymore anyways, and may shift entirely into a research career, which would free me up to serve as a trustee at home. I already know that I can work well with the current trustees, and it's a lower profile position that would allow me to get used to actually governing before becoming a councillor or something with more clout and public profile. There are things that I would want to accomplish at the school board as well, including the expansion of additional Mandarin language classes, and expanding the Advance Placement capstone program to all eight high schools in the district. Increasing public knowledge about the ACE-IT program for early trades certification would also be a priority issue for me. So there are things that I can do, and I wouldn't be choosing school board because of its potential as a springboard to alternative elective offices. There's also the fact that the open Council seat is likely to be more interesting to potential candidates than a school board seat. Better perks and the like, and I'm not entirely in it for the perks. All of which is a long way for me to say that I don't know what I want for myself. I have a meeting with the local party's treasurer in the next few days, and I plan to sound him out a bit before I go too much further. I'm also considering talking to a current city councillor and a school board trustee that I have strong connections to, in order to better grasp what their views would be. I feel like they'll suggest I wait. It's what they Mayor said when I asked for his blessing to run federally in 2015, and I ignored his advice. The result was being squished like a bug by the powers that be. What a learning experience that was. Perhaps waiting another election cycle until I've more thoroughly rebuilt the bridges I've burned all to hell from my public comments. Perhaps hearing from my superiors will give me an idea of what my options are.

Nighty night Mikie

*cuddles with the Mikat* @Mikie

Children

Nighty night!

Only for the comedy value of watching someone with two right feet try to teach dance classes.

What I'm hearing is I don't have to get my dancing shoes on

Only if I get your pay, Mikie.