Happy Birthday Mom !

Today is my Mom's Birthday, she would have been 91 years old today! I really miss celebrating her birthdays, she was so hard to buy for. She had anything she needed and could have pretty much bought anything she really wanted, so to say it was a challenge to find "just the right thing" for her birthday is an understatement.
My sister and brother and I had this thing where if we thought of something really great to get her, we would not tell each other what it was so one of other would not run out an get it for her. Every year she would always tell us not to get her anything but there was no way in hell that was gonna happen. She told my poor Dad that one Christmas and he took up on it and we saw what he had to go through for the next year!! But it always ended good and she always seemed to like what we got her,even if she had to fake liking it!! But then after we did figure out what to give her for her birthday, Mother's Day was just two weeks away!!!!!!!!!

Happy Anniversary....to US!!

Wow can you believe it??? Today is mine and my Hubby's 9th, I said 9th Anniversary!! As of today we have been together for 9 years, they say time flys when you are having fun and we must have been having a hell of a good time because it just does not seem possible that we have been together that long. It really does seem like just a few days ago we met and started dating and now here we are 9 years later, celebrating our Anniverary. Love is truly a tremendous thing!!

For those of you in a relationship, can you honestly remember the very first time you saw your partner? I can,really. I will always remember the first time I saw Patrick and I will always remember the feeling I had when I saw him, I was totally and completely blown away. I am not so sure he felt the same way when he first saw me, but I know I did because it scared me so much at how I reacted. It would be a little while later before I could actually tell him how I felt about him, but it really did scare me how I felt. Now I had boyfriends in the past and I had actually had two long term relationships by the time I met him, but NEVER in my life had a guy effected me like Patrick did, and still does.

Of course when we met he lived in Los Angeles and I lived in Palm Springs, so EVERY morning, we would write to each other. I would always send him his to his computer at home so he would be able to read it each morning when he checked his email. He would send mine to my computer at the Desert Aids Project where I worked so I could read it first thing when I turned my computer on to start my day. It is something we both looked forward to every day. Everday we got to start our day with a love letter from each other. And you know what, that is something we both still do till this day. I get up before Patrick does in the morning, and one of the first things I do is I write a love letter to him. And sometimes after he gets up and before he goes to work, he write to me. I have almost every letter he has written to me over the course of the last 9 years and he has mine. It is really hard for me to start my day without it.

Over the past 9 years we have had some really awesome adventures together. We have more than our share of fun times and we have had a few low times as well, but here we are, 9 years later and going strong. We really do not know what the future holds for us, but this we do know, that without a doubt, no matter what comes our way, we will face it together. And we will be sharing many more adventures and many more years together.

Thank you to all our loves ones and friends who have shared these past 9 year with us! Hang on tight, because we are just getting started!!!!

later.

p.s the picture up top is our first picture together






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Happy Birthday Timmy!!!!

I want to give a very special shout out today to a very special person in our lives, our friend Timmy. Now Patrick and I have many special people in our lives, but Timmy holds a very close space in our hearts, because if it were not for Timmy, Patrick and I would never have met. (I will save the explanation for a later post). He and Patrick had been best friends for several years before I came along, and I am very thankful that he is one of my best friends too!
When Patrick and I met, he told me some about the adventures he and Timmy had had. I knew they were very close friends, and it worked out that he was the first of Patrick's friends I got to meet. I well remember the first time I met him,I was SO nervous!! Yes, he who usually never meets a stranger, was way nervous. I have to say I was more nervous meeting him the first time than I was Patrick's parents, really! Patrick and I met him for lunch at a Tex-Mex place and some time during the meal I finally relaxed. Through the years we three have had numerous adventures together.
We have celebrated many Prides together form LA, to Vegas, to Palm Springs. We have danced at a few clubs together, and have even gotten more than a little tipsy at brunch at Hamburger Mary's in Long Beach. (When the Drag Queens start looking pretty, you have have one too many Mimmosas ok?.) When I moved from Palm Springs to Los Angeles, Timmy came to PS with Patrick to drive my car back to LA since it was stick shift and Patrick did not know how to drive it!(I was driving the UHAUL) He made us very proud a few years ago when he trained for and ran the Aids Marathon in Hawaii. We are both
very thankful that he is in our lives and I know that in the years to come, we have many many more adventures together in store for us.

HAPPY BIRTHAY TIMMY !!!

A Secret....

I am very blessed in my life with many things, one being the many people I have met along my way as I have traveled on my journey. But recently I got to thinking that with the many different people I call my friends, many of them have never met each other!! What I mean is, they all know me, but very few of them have ever met each other. They usually know who I am talking about when I mention someone by name, but they have no idea what they look like. At our Wedding a few years ago, (5 to be exact), was the first time I realized this. I had so many of my friends there, and when I had to start introducing them to each other, they would say, "I finally get to meet you, I have heard so much about you from Jaymes!) Each of you play a very important part in my life, and each of you know a little something about me that my other friends may not know. So I have decided to start a posting called "A Secret".
From time to time I am going to post something about me that all of my friends may not know. Some things may surprise some of you just because you have known me for a long time, and just never knew that "secret" about me. Now before a couple of you start really getting nervous and start sweating here, the things that we did and I promised NEVER to share with anyone and take them to my grave, those secrets are totally safe,those are not the kind of secrets I am talking about. ( You can relax now Trixie). So lets get started with the first one, ok?

Something many of you may not know about me is......I love to dance. See that is pretty simple, but how many of you have ever seen me dance? I am not talking ball room dancing here, althought when I was much younger I could waltz, jitterbug, and do the Texas two step with the best of them, but as with many things, when you don't practice you forget how to do them. So when I say I like to dance, I mean I like
to go a club with great music (I do miss Disco!) and shake my groove thing, ok!
Patrick and I have not gone out dancing in a very long time and we have been threatening to do just that. But let me tell you Honey, there was time when I was out every weekend,either in Palm Springs at Daddy Warbucks or CC Construction or in West Hollywood at the Rage and once I was on the dance floor, except to get drink or use the bathroom, I was on the dance floor!!

In the late 80's when I moved to California,there was a song that to this day is one of my favorites, it is "Never Can Say Goodbye" by the Communards. (Now many of you, very many I imagine, are saying" Who in the hell are they?"). I don't know what it is about this song but since the first time I heard it, it just makes me want to move!! Whenever I was at the Rage in West Hollywood and the DJ would see that I was there, I was guaranteed to be able to dance to the extended version! (No, I never did him any special favors to get him to do that but I sure would have if he would have asked!!!!!!) So to my many friends who have never heard one of my favorite dancing songs or seen the video...I dedicate this to you~
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May I Introduce You To....Matt Alber

Patrick asked me if I had every heard of a Gay singer named Matt Alber, well I hadn't, he told me I would when I read the current Instinct Magazine. After I read the article I looked up his video on You Tube, and listened to it about 6 times in a row,it is awesome.So for those of you who have not heard of him either, may I introduce to you...Matt Alber.

Patrick and His Basket.....

Now I have to tell you, for being a Gay Man, I am not the most creative guy in the world, Patrick dances circles around me when it comes to creativity and surprising me with things he has put together for me. But this year, I thought I would surprise him for a change and make him an Easter Basket. I started the first week in March so I would have plenty of time to pull it together. I went out searching for diffrent little things to incorporate into his Basket, I didn't want alot of candy things but different odds and ends that were cute. I even got my friend Goya to help me the day we had our little adventure in PS. It was fun, and alot of work!! It is not an easy thing to surprise my husband, but in the end I was able to pull it off. To say he was surpise is an understatment, when he rolled over this morning, the first thing he said was "Where's my Easter Basket?", and I really wish you could have seen his face when I left the room and came back with the Basket!! At first he would not believe I did it by myself, but in the end, he really liked it, and I was pretty proud of myself!!

Spending Time With Miss Aileen...pics from Easter Sunday

Miss Aileen is bored

Miss Aileen
Miss Aileen and Uncle Jaymes


Miss Aileen and her Uncles

Things I Learned From Living in Texas

A friend sent me this a while back and I love it and just had to share it with my blog buddies, not just because it is funny, but they are all TRUE!!!!!!


*Possums sleep in the middle of the road with their feei in the air

*There are 5,000 types of snakes on earth, 4,998 live in Texas

*There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in Texas, plus a couple
no one's seen before.

*If it grows, it sticks; if it crawls, it bites

*Onced and Twiced are words.

*It is not a shopping cart..it's a buggy.

*People actually grow and eat okra.

*"Fixinto" is one word.

*There is no such thing as "lunch". There is only dinner and then supper.

*Iced tea is appropiate fo all meals and you start drinking it when you are two.
We do like a little tea with our sugar!

*Backwards and forwards means "I know everything about you"

*You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't matter what time it is. You
work until you'r done or it's too dark to see.

*You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH them.

*You measure distance in minutes.

*You'll probably have to switch fro 'heat' to 'A/C' in the same day.

*'Fix" is a verb. Example: 'I'm fixing to go to the store'

*All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit,vegetable, grain,
insect or animal.

*You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

*You carry jumper cables in your car....for you OWN car.

*There are only four spices: salt, pepper, tabasco and ketchup.

*The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but it requires
6 pages for local gossip and sports.

*The first day of deer season is a national holiday.

*100 degrees Fahrenheit is 'a little warm'

*We have four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, still Summer and Christmas

*Going to Walmart is a favorite past time know as 'goin' Wal-martin' or off to
Wally World.

*A cold snap (below 70 degrees) is good pinto bean weather

*A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola or pop..it a Coke, regardless
of brand or flavero. Example: "What kinda coke you want?'

*Fried catfish is the other white meat.

*We don't need no stinking driver's ed..if our Mama says we can drive, we can drive.

*EVERYONE can't be from Texas, it takes talent. You might say it's an art form
or a gift from God.

She Arrived Safe and Sound...

I know I am really behind on posting this but just could not miss the chance to let you guys know.

A few weeks ago I told ya that we were waiting for the arrival of our newest niece, Aileen, well I am very excited to let you know, Miss Aileen made her debut on March 25 at 9:35 am !! She weighted 7 lbs, 11oz and was 19 inches long. She and Mom did great.

Up till now we have only seen pictures but today PL and I are heading up to have Easter lunch with Miss Aileen and her family!! So of course that means more pics are coming!

later

For those of you too young to remember.....

It All Started With An Email.......

"I wish I were an Oscar Mayer weiner, that is what I'd truly like to be, For if I were an Oscar Mayer weiner, everyone would be in love with me!"

You just never know what is going to kick off a set of adventures in your life. Take my the adventures I had last weekend for instance. On Thursday night I received an email from an old friend of mine in Palm Springs, Dave. Now Dave and I have know each other for several years, and during that time, we have sure had us some fun times together. Dave actually only lives in Palm Springs for about 6 months of the year and the other 6 months he lives at his home in Oregan. Dave retired several years ago and enjoys the climates in both places. Well it is getting about that time of year when Dave heads back up north to get away from the heat of the Desert.
He told me last year he was not sure how many more years he was going to be able to come down to winter in the Desert since he is in early 80's and is not sure how safe it is for him to be driving down by himself. So thinking this actually may be the last time he comes down, he wanted to see if I was going to be able to some see him before he leaves. So after checking with PL to make sure we did not have anything planned for the weekend (and we didn't), Dave and I made plans to get together on Saturday afternoon at his place.

After those plans were made, I got to thinking,since I was going to be in PS, maybe
my friend Goya and I could have breakfast and catch up on all the gossip. So I called Goy and sure enough he was free so we made plans for me to be at his house at 8am on Saturday so we could have breakfast and we could drop off his Jeep at the dealership for servicing. I was now officially excited about the weekend!!

The next afternoon as I was driving home from work, I got to thinking again (I do some of my best thinking while I am driving!), it has been many moons since I actually got to see my friend PW in Joshua Tree. Since I was already going to be down in the Desert for the day, maybe I could shoot up to Joshua Tree (about 30 miles or so from PS in the High Desert)after I leave Dave's and have dinner and catch up with him and then drive back to LA later that night. That way I could catch up with 3 of my close friends! So I called PW and he said great, come on up and then "Why don't ya just spend the night?", Wow! that thought had not even crossed my mind!! so I checked with PL and he said "Sure, that would be ok". So just because of one little email, I now a weekend of fun adventures planned!

As most of you know, I truly love the Desert. It is truly a fun and magical place for me. The weather was really beautiful, although I just missed a horrific wind storm the night before I went down. I got to visit with all three of my friends
in nice easy way and had a blast with all of them. Goya and I got to check out the hot guy in the booth next to us (I can not describe just how HOTTTT this guys was,he was there with his girlfriend and every Gay man in the place hated her!! LOL) and we got in some shopping time together. Dave and I had a great time, talked over some fun times we have had and just enjoyed each other's company. PW had cooked up some of his aweseme spaghetti and we had some cocktails after dinner and caught up with what has been going on since we saw each other last. AND, we watched the movie "Twilight". It was his first time to see it and it was my 5th time.(Yes I am totally hooked on this movie right now like a 13 year old little girl, scary huh?)
I left the next morning headed back to LA but I just was not really ready to go back to the Big City, so I headed back to PS. I ended up in Desert Hot Springs, which is on the other side of I-10 from Palm Springs and it is the first place I lived when I moved to California. I have not been there in several years so I drove though town and saw all the changes that had taken place since the last time I was there, not many really, Desert Hot Springs just doesn't change that much. I found the house I use to live in, just the same just painted a different color. I finally made my way over to PS and went to an Art Festival they were having in the park and then decided I better head to LA.

It turned out to be one of the most relaxing fun weekends I have had in a while..and it all started with an email....

later.

P.S. So you might we wondering just what the Wiener Mobile had to do with my weekend in the Desert. Well, let me tell ya. Just as I was leaving PS, I was stopped at this light and low and behold, the Osar Mayer Wiener Mobile pulled up to. Now some of you will remember the Oscar Mayer jingle at the top of this posting, many of you probably will not, because it came out in 1963!! But ALL the way home I kep singing that stupid jingle, one I had not thought of in years, but I still knew all the words to!! I am just thankful I was not stuck singing "Small World"!!