Former Member

That’s an ironic nickname, isn’t it? ;-) @Wesley8890, your spellcheck ‘corrections’ always make me laugh! ;-) I guess the boys aren’t obsessed with Social Media! Otherwise everyone would have already seen Tweets, Facebook posts, Instagram photos, or whatever from the trendiest fad sites about their new foster daughter and sons! How primitive and old fashioned of them! ;-) Do Jared and Mason really think they’re fooling anyone? Will it take Kasey spilling the beans for them to admit what they’re feeling for each other? It’s not like there’s any chance of rejection from the family! If anything, everybody would tell them, ‘I told you so!’ ;-)

I understand why everyone Hated this chapter because I hate the last couple paragraphs too! Do they do periodic drug tests on psych patients in recovery? I hope that will be the final nail in Nate’s coffin! This should cause him to lose his license! ;-) I was surprised to see Brandon appear! With all his faults, and Brandon is a deeply flawed character, I do believe he cared about Ryder. Brandon gets Ryder’s blame because Ryder still cannot accept that his own reactions to his problems were the cause of his addiction and eventual suicide attempt! Ryder still won’t admit he is at fault for what happened. Until he does, he won’t be able to really start to rehabilitate himself.

Thank you for the explanation! I’ve read a little about what use to be called Asperger’s syndrome before it was incorporated into the Autism Spectrum. I have a few of the symptoms, but not enough to be diagnosed (I was specifically tested for that). I have some problems with social interactions and non-verbal communication, but they are relatively mild.

I am on Disability for Depression and Anxiety. When I panic, I shut down – unlike fight or flight, for me it’s freeze! I was on medication for the depression, but discovered that I do better without them. Therapy has helped a lot. ;-) @Wesley8890, my fear of heights doesn’t extend to flying. I think it’s because I took my first plane rides when I was only a few months old. But the observation deck of Chicago’s John Hancock building was terrifying! I stayed against the inside wall and could not even approach the windows! @NoShame, fortunately I do not suffer from panic attacks. My best friend does, things have progressively gotten worse for him and I haven’t seen him in over a decade (I’ve emailed and called him and gotten a few responses, most recently last month). I dated a guy who did – I felt very helpless when he was in the middle of an attack and I couldn’t do anything. Several therapists have tried to get me to ‘imagine stepping through a door’ or other similar things. My brain rejects those sorts of tricks. One told me to imagine my evil self in a chair next to me and the only thing I could do was joke that he must have facial hair because that’s always the difference in Star Trek’s parallel universe! ;-) But there have been times when I have told my therapists that my brain feels like three gears locked against each other, unable to rotate! And that my issues feel kind of like the boulder in Raiders of the Lost Arc, rolling along – therapy has smoothed off some of the more jagged peaks so the boulder rolls better. I can’t identify just what has changed, but I know I’m better able to cope with my problems than before. ;-)

I suppose we have to make allowances for bisexuals who try to keep everything straight in their heads! ;-)

You realize @R. Eric that you could have wrapped up this story with a little bit of editing, don’t you? Eric, Mike, and Chet could have had there HEA, but you added the movie script. Now you’ll have people prompting you for more updates! Will Eric perform at Prince Peter and the Earl of Styria’s wedding? Everyone can toast the happy couple with Erik & Seth’s Blethosian wine! Chet could meet Toby and Dennis! ;-)

@Wesley8890 loves kids! In this story it’s Chet, but I think there’s about a half a dozen others in other stories. We need to do a GoFundMe so he can adopt a bunch of kids! There are way too many kids out there just starving for his love! ;-) You are over your bout with the flu now, aren’t you Mr 8890? ;-)

Some people have more money than sense! ;-)

I believe said minister went online. I think the guys behind the site were recently arrested for pimping. I don’t know what happened to the site. ;-) I believe there are code words like ‘escort’ or ‘model’ that are used in Gay newspapers, some ‘alternative’ newspapers, and websites like Craig’s List. Be careful about how you phrase your requests. It wouldn’t surprise me if some police agencies use those same venues to entrap innocent (and not so innocent) johns men… ;-) Larger sums of money might help you find a more attractive, more socially acceptable, more intellectually interesting, and more accommodating ‘luggage carrier’. ;-)

Thursday night, Jimmy Kimmel had a skit lambasting the recent court decision in favor of a homophobic baker. He played a waiter serving a group of four diners. The chef refused to serve meat because he was a vegan. Another chef refused to serve dessert to a Lesbian. I think another chef was Muslim and refused to prepare a meal for a Jew. I can’t remember what the fourth refusal was. In the end no one was allowed to order the meal they wanted. [end scene]

Well then, why has one sin become the über-Sin? How has my being Gay hurt the baker or the county clerk? Why this ‘sin,’ which isn’t even a violation of any of the Ten Commandments. How did this become Commandment #0.5 over and above the official ten? And I don’t believe the denials of all those closet-cases with their deep-seated internal homophobia! The one who hires a rent-boy to ‘carry his luggage’ while he tours Europe. The one who get massages from the hustler. The others who just haven’t been caught yet.

As I’ve said before, I’m not a metal fan, so I had to look up Jimmy Sullivan – Wikipedia lists him as The Rev. The Haner family is finally talking about the enormous, stinking piles of elephant dung that have been rotting in the middle of the house for thirteen years! Hopefully they’ll start cleaning it up before the Elephant himself moves in! Maybe Oli will learn why his own family has been so dysfunctional all his life… ;-) As Cait shows, sometimes you get better results when you drop the ‘professional’ veneer for special patients! ;-)

When I was volunteering for the local AIDS Project in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, I was required to go through a two-day training program. The county had arranged to have all of its volunteer AIDS service providers participating and it was a surprise to me to have a group of women from Catholic Charities there too. The first day dealt with Practical Support and included lessons on how to leverage a person who might be bigger or heavier than you up from a seated position as well as how to change the linens on a bed while the patient was still in it. The second day was devoted to Emotional Support and seemed to be way too much for me to handle since even around age 30, I was still emotionally very immature. I had no plans to become either an Emotional or Practical Support volunteer, but they told me I had to do the training. Just like Andy, I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention. But unlike Andy, I chose to contain my volunteering to the more educational aspects of the Project. (Every week in calendar year 1990, I made an announcement promoting volunteering at the AIDS Project at the Monday Night Gay Men’s Groups, and every month I created a new Poster/Flyer to put up at the local Gay Community Center. I don’t think anyone ever volunteered because of my announcements, but I made sure to keep the agency’s name in people’s awareness. My flyers were much more popular since I hand-colored them in and they stood out from a very large bulletin board of boring xeroxed pages.) ;-) I think I’ve used some of the training that I thought I’d never need in my everyday life. But I wasn’t ready to do the kind of volunteering that I was being trained to do. I don’t think the training was intense enough for what you’d have to deal with. Even into the early ‘90s, the outcome for a Person with AIDS was very grim. I know I would have been overwhelmed.

Is this something other than brown rice or wild rice (which isn’t really rice at all)? I know brown rice is just white rice with the bran not removed. But I’ve never heard of whole-grain rice. ;-) I’m so glad that Charlie is getting involved with autistic children. I don’t understand what the boys meant when Timmy asked, “Does the noise stop when you are with Charlie?” Is that a symptom that autistic people report having? I’m watching the Olympics right now (some sort of downhill x-games-type with lots of artificial moguls and a little jump) apparently it’s called Moguls. It reminds me of the ancient Activision Ski game for the Atari 2600. Of course there aren’t any artificial trees to get in the way like the game had! As someone who has never skied or even lived where it snows, I’m shocked that I remembered ‘moguls’! ;-)

Some Asian countries do celebrate everyone’s birthday on New Year’s Day.

No, I think his wife left him for a man that he had been fantasizing about! He’s jealous that his ex-wife got the man he wanted. And he hates himself for wanting something that he’s convinced is wrong. He despises anyone who publicly exhibits the love that he represses inside himself! ;-)

No you’re not! You’re trying to set a new combined WWS record! Happy tears, sad tears, angry tears, whatever gets the highest WWS score! ;-)

Even if Carter isn’t telling TJ out of jealousy, he could be explaining the ‘truth’ as he has experienced it! Carter might be trying to protect TJ from further hurt the way he wishes someone had done for him in the past. I do think the wariness is justified even though I think the reason relationships across the tracks fail is more related to differences in expectations and other misunderstandings. There’s a wide cultural gap that isn’t always noticed that's rooted in economic situations. Wealthier people tend to be oblivious to the intense struggles poor people face daily to keep food on the table and remain housed! ;-) We need to keep in mind that Butch sold anything and everything of value that TJ had.

Did Brett know that Jack was his sperm donor before Jack started screaming about suing everybody? I realize he’s not really aware of things at the moment due to the painkillers, but Brett has always been smarter than most people give him credit for because he does so poorly in school. Brett is aware of many things that book-smart Billy doesn’t always get. ;-) Wouldn’t it be anticlimactic if Brett has known for quite a while, and even knows that Billy knows and is hesitant to say anything. Jen thinks she’s so clever in hiding who Brett’s other biological parent is. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the entire town has always been aware of Jen and Jack’s ‘indiscretion’? ;-)

I just read in regard to John Field's Piano Concerto No. 2, since its first publication in 1816, it has never been out of print

I knew nothing about Irish composer John Field until this morning. He was Clementi's main student and protogee, traveled with the maestro to Vienna in 1782 and encountered Mozart firsthand. He later traveled to Russia and the court of Catherine the Great. In addition, he is credited with inventing the nocturne for piano. In this charming Rondo, Field's character comes through, and one can be forgiven to hearing the green shores of his native land sparkling in the music. Moderato innocente, movement III from his second piano concerto.

Yes, be the lighthouse he needs to find the shore again. Beautiful poem.

Posted this D.H. Lawrence poem over on Live-Poets Society. Please check it out. https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/topic/41190-live-poets-society-–-a-corner-for-poetry/?do=findComment&comment=822185

Woody and Buzz were more of a couple than Woody and Jessie. Besides, Jesse was a Tom Boy – codewords for (Lesbian). 🎶“You’ve got a friend in me!”🎶 ;-)

My translation software (R Eric to English, of course) says that means ‘Yes!’