NaperVic

Hi Libby, I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your story . I remember not wanting to stop reading and would have finished it in one sitting except work got in the way. Thanks for an excellent read. Vic

The 'boystown' area overlaps or is included with other 'named' areas...such as 'Wrigley-ville', LakeView, Halstead, etc. It's never been exclusively gay as there's always been straight folks living in the area. You have some old timers who don't like the changes, yuppies who want to live near the 'happening' areas and traffic, traffic, traffic. I forgot what year they put the rainbow spires up and down Halstead Street, but someone claiming they didn't know it was a gay friendly area would have been blind to miss those.

I haven't lived in the Chicago area for about 7 years now, but there's definitely a lot of non-bar things to do in boys town. All the shops and restaurants around there are gay friendly, you're really close to the lake front (if you just want to walk, bike, rollerblade, or peoplewatch)...just lot's to do and see. You both can definitely make the day of it (but hurry before it gets too cold to walk around outdoors).

I injured my knee last sunday.... . About 8 miles into a 12 mile run, my left knee started hurting real badly. I asked the guy I was running with if we could walk for a bit (I've never done that before), so we walked for about a quarter mile. I was able to start running again and we finished off the 12 miles (had to as we had to get back to our cars), but I was having some serious pain in my knee. Once I got home, I took some advil, iced the knee, elevated it, and parked my butt on the sofa for a few hours. I knew I'd skip running the next day. Well when I tried getting up, I could barely walk and the pain was so bad I almost cried (lol, but I think I was going to cry cause I effed up my knee and was worried about missing the half marathon I was going to race in two weeks). Over the next couple of a days, my knee got better and I was able to walk with less discomfort, but running was definitely out of the question. I was able to bike with little pain and still use the exercise bikes at the gym, but anytime I tested out running, my knee said 'no'. After skipping 4 days, I was luckily able to run again on Friday. I was running gingerly at the start, but after about a mile, my knee started loosening up and I was able to keep up with the guys and finish a nice 4 mile run. Mina and I did a nice casual 6 mile jog on Saturday, and having learned my lesson, I skipped running on Sunday to rest. This morning was really good. I ran with the group for 5.4 miles and we maintained an 8min/mile pace with no pain in my knee at all. I think with the last couple of runs, I'm back to about 75-80% back to where I was before the pain. So I had a nice scare. I think the lesson I learned is that I can't run more than 8 miles without pain in my knee. I'm skipping the 1/2 marathon on the 14th, but I think I'll be okay for a 10k this saturday. Before the injury, I was hoping to maintain a 7min/mile pace, but now I think I'll just be happy to finish. I can't lose running, so I really have to be careful not to push things in the future. Biking is too hard to do when it gets cold and wet out, and with daylight savings time and the shortening days, I won't be able to bike when I get off of work soon.

Sounds like you just had a strong relationship with this female friend. Since she's not related to you and there was nothing sexual involved, the relationship probably just falls in the 'really good friend category'. I'm sure you have other strong relationships with others that are non-sexual. Maybe this one was just one of the strongest or a very special one? Your feeling of hurt as to your girlfriend getting together with a guy you liked could be a result of many factors: - Jealousy toward the girlfriend because she was able to get the guy you liked - Jealousy toward the guy friend because he was able to have a different kind of bond with your girlfriend than you could have - A feeling of being left out while your other two friends were having fun without you - Anger towards your girlfriend because she was technically cheating on you - Anger towards the guy friend because he betrayed your friendship by sleeping with your girlfriend Anyhow, just some thoughts.

Tough situation Kurt. I tend to agree with you that it's not your place to tell K. However, I'd tell A that you're friends with K now too and that she can't use you like this. And you may want to tell A that you don't want to hear anything else about her cheating as you care too much about her baby and her husband.

Your blogs always make me smile.

It's never too late to attend college. A good chunk of our students are non-traditional (not your typical 18-19 yo freshman). Lot's of mid to late 20s people. And others much older than that. There are plenty of colleges here in CA who would probably take you. You should see the crop that gets accepted here every year . Your blog is written better than some senior seminar papers I've been shown (by professor friends of mine here). So get information on the application cycle of the schools you are interested in. For example, you can apply to all the CSUs via the www.csumentor.edu website. The Priority filing deadline is 11/30. Good luck on your date!

That's good news! Given a little bit of time, the new folks will realize how great you are, so no worries on that front.

That would be sooooo Dessert Dropping... I'm guessing that Logan Luke has gone thru something similar to what Jesse Rory is going thru now with Nick Aaron. Yup, you're right on the nose with that one. I think we know that Nick's been busy with someone other than Jesse, and it definitely wasn't Luis. It's probably a thesbian from the drama club. Nick seems to want to date someone who'll give all his attention to Nick. Nick has shown in the past even a little jealously towards the Lee/Jesse friendship. Nick doesn't want sex from Luis, he wants a BF who'll give all the attention to Nick. Nick & Logan probably broke up because Nick was jealous about all the time Logan gave to the creatures.

Nah, Sharon's more one of us than one of they.

*slaps hand on forehead* I forgot who I was dealing with Mike. She was one of they, I should have known better.

Y'all have been reading waaaaay too many GA & Nifty stories . And say that were the case, wouldn't she be mad at him, not me?

You may also want to check out the Archive here on GA. There are many options on sorting, including sorting stories by ratings.

Happy Birthday Rush! You're half a century old now! Here's to an awesome 2nd half!

That's a bit of a stretch, even for me. But when someone calls you that, you can't help but smile (or giggle like a schoolgirl). Apparently, there's trail cred for running with the fast/long distance guys. I was introduced to a runner from a different group who remarked "Oh, you're a Kenyan now". I had to have her repeat that because I didn't know what she meant at the time, but then someone explained it to me. Kenyan's

Happy 21st Birthday Corvus!!!!! May your 21st year be filled with happiness. Hope you meet some interesting guys along the way!

Happy 26th Birthday Dom! Hope you have a great day and that your family, friends, pets, & possible significant other give you lots of love and attention. Hopefully someone got you socks as a present! Welcome to your late 20s!!!!!

Happy 20th Birthday Chase!!! Hope you get lots of love and joy today.

Friday premiered the newest Stargate series, Universe. Did anyone else watch it? What'd you think? I loved Stargate SG-1 & Stargate Atlantis, but so far I'm not sure about Universe. It feels to me too much like what Voyager was to the Star Trek series. There was a cutie, so I'll keep watching for now .

You're part of the way there already because it sounds like you have some ultimate goals (i.e. to get in better shape). One thing that works for me is track weight & any exercise activities on a daily basis. I write down all this stuff on a daily calendar that displays one month on each page. Whenever I got discouraged with the 'big' goal, I just paged through my calendar and could see my progress. I could look back just one month and see that yes, I've made progress. I'm no longer trying to lose weight as I've hit my goal, but I still jot everything down to help me maintain. Keeping everything listed allows me to splurge on a big restaurant meal every once in a while. And while I might bump up a pound or two after said meal, seeing it in writing allows me to refocus afterwards to stay at my ideal weight. I've lost weight in the past (only to see it creep back up), but this is the longest I've maintained my ideal weight and I attribute it to the tracking. If you want to see an example, I'll be happy to email a page to you. Good luck Eric and think positive! If you need some virtual health buddies, I'm sure there'd be people on GA who'd help!

Or the beginnings of your next story!

Yes, yes...apparently I'm a bottom in more than just the bedroom. Good points Kevin. Everything in moderation. I think once I get over the novelty of the straight guys, there will be things about them that annoy me. I just have to learn to balance my time with each grouping. amen!

I've been strangely satisfied with my life lately and it's an odd feeling considering I'm not getting laid nor am I dating someone. As well, I didn't win the lottery or quit my job. When I ponder the reasons why I feel so contented (here when I should be working) everything seems to point to my association with the straight guys I run with. This group of guys is so not like what I expected them to be like. I mistakenly assumed that when you gather a group of straight guys, it would be some beer drinking, cussing, farting, teasing, mess of girl & sports talk. But these guys are nothing like that. They're real positive and encouraging. Not only do we run together, but I've biked with one of the guys, texted back and forth with another when I was helping him bake a cake that I gave him the recipe for, just normal stuff. We can talk politics, history, world events while running, as well as the goings on in our lives and families. There's still sports talk and a little cussing, but it's nicely balanced. The cool thing about these friendships (versus my other ones) is that they're low maintenance. If someone said they were going to go running and didn't show up, no one gets their panties in a wad about it. The guys all know that sh*t happens. When I compare that to my existing friendships (mostly to women), the contrast is startling. Most of my female friends are high maintenance, that need lots of care and feeding. They need their attention, their compliments, and they need someone to sit there and agree with them when they are complaining. If you aren't attentive enough, then you're more than likely to get grief about it. For example, I was having dinner with one of these friends and then out of the blue she says "I'm still mad at you about my birthday". Here's me when I hear this ----> Her birthday was in May and I have no idea what she's talking about. When I ask her about it, she says that she doesn't want to talk about it and just wants to forget it. Well, she's doing a bad job of forgetting since this is the 3rd time she's made a snide comment about it. <giggle> Speaking of... I just ignored a text message from her just now. I know she wants me to pick her up (re: chauffeur) for a party tonight. Then another couple women are hosting a baby shower for a 3rd friend, but they're having conflicts over who's going to take care of what. Neither of them really wants to do any work for the party, expecting the other person to do more. Each of them has complainted to me about the other, and somehow I got invited to this shower and got guilted into bringing dessert . Hanging out with 'friends' shouldn't leave you more mentally drained than before you met up with them. Also, the usual activity with my hag friends revolves around food or drink. Can't we go do something physical instead of sitting on our asses making them bigger with calories? I find myself hanging out with some of the old friends less and spending more time with the 'guys'. So if you're looking for less stress, a way to keep healthy, and need to get away from some of the drama in your life, find a bunch of straight guys to go running with. It's done wonders for me mentally and physically . As an added bonus, I'm not feeling sexually frustrated...weird.

Glee's becoming one of those campy guilty pleasure shows that brings out the 16yo teenage girl in me