A Texan in LA

The Reason You Sleep With A Teddy Bear....

2011-07-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

Gone Fishing........

2011-06-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that summer is upon us, seems to me I was just dragging all the Christmas decorations out of the shed to begin decorating, and here we are getting ready to celebrate the Summer Solstice!

It's also hard for me to believe that I have had this blog for 3 years. Seems like a few days ago that I was thinking about it and finally decided to try it.
I read alot of other blogs and I know mine is not even close to being a great one, but I do think for the purpose of sharing things with my family and friends, it is
a fun one. I have been very surprised by some of the people who leave comments for
me in that they have some of the more popular blogs and here they are reading mine
and leaving me a comment on how they like my post...very exciting for me!!

But over the last several months I have had a tough time posting things. Not that I am losing interest in it, I really do enjoy coming up with things to post,
but it has been hard to find the motivation to post very often. This has been a worry for me because I have several things I want share on here. But another blog
buddy who has been blogging for much longer than me, told me that maybe I need to step back for a while, give myself some time away from and then later on, take it up again. He has done this himself and he says it works for him. When you have a blog
you are constantly thinking of things you want ot post and share, or at least it has
been that way for me. So...I have decided to take a little vacation from blogging.
Just step away for a few weeks and not think about it.

For me,I tend to get so busy with "stuff" that the Summer is gone before I know
it and I have not done anything I had hoped to do during that time. I have lots of
fun things I would really like to do this summer, places I want to go and people I want to visit and catch up with that I have not seen in a long time. So this is
what I am going to devote my Summer to. And when I return to blogging, I will
get to share those adventures with you.

So over the next several weeks, enjoy your Summer!! Get out there and have
some adventures and enjoy life. I am reminded everyday in one way or another just
how fragile Life really is....and who knows....this just might be my last Summer,
and if it is, I want you all to be able to say that I really did enjoy it.

later

2011-05-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

Maybe....

2011-05-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

Maybe…we were supposed to meet the wrong people before meeting the right one so that, when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.

Maybe … when the door of happiness closes, another opens; but, often times, we look so long at the closed door that we don’t even see the new one which has been opened for us.

Maybe … it is true that we don’t know what we have until we lose it, but it is also true that we don’t know what we have been missing until it arrives.

Maybe … the happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

Maybe … the brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; after all, you can’t go on successfully in life until you let go of your past mistakes, failures and heartaches.

Maybe … you should dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go, be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you dream of, and want to do.

Maybe … there are moments in life when you miss someone — a parent, a spouse, a friend, a child — so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real, so that once they are around you appreciate them more.

Maybe … the best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you’ve ever had.

Maybe . . you should always try to put yourself in others’ shoes. If you feel that something could hurt you, it probably will hurt the other person, too.

Maybe . . you should do something nice for someone every single day, even if it is simply to leave them alone.

Maybe … giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they will love you back. Don’t expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart; but, if it doesn’t, be content that it grew in yours.

Maybe … happiness waits for all those who cry, all those who hurt, all those who have searched, and all those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of all the people who have touched their lives.

Maybe … you shouldn’t go for looks; they can deceive; don’t go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile, because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile.

Maybe . . you should hope for enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, and enough hope to make you happy

Maybe … you should try to live your life to the fullest because when you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling but when you die, you can be the one who is smiling and everyone around you crying.

(via creativeinspiration.tumbler.com)

Special Day

2011-04-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

Today is a very special day in my family,it's my Mom's birthday, she would have been
93 today.

The first year after she passed away, her birthday was a really hard for me and my family. But I have been told that all the major holidays after a person passes can be
pretty tough, and they sure were for me. But after that first year, I always try and
use remember all the fun times we had with her on whatever special day we were celebrating.

Of course I knew this day was coming and had even discussed it with my sister, but
I had to get up really early this morning to get my car in for servicing and it was not until mid morning that I really remember it was her birthday.(to be really honest here, staying up till after midnight night before last really kicked my butt and I
am still feeling the effects,my brain did not even really wake up till mid morning this morning!!).

She has been on my mind all day. But then most days she is in my thoughts alot.
My Mom was a really great lady. She was always my best friend. I have a very lucky
guy in my life. I have had 2 very great ladies in my life that have always been
there for me, and I do mean always, my Mom and my sister, Jean. Not only are my Mom and my sister, but they both have always been my closest friends and allies.
So all day today I have been remember Mom's other birthdays I did have her here to share with.

My Mom was always hard to buy for, she had everything she needed and pretty much everything she wanted in life (except me living back in Texas close to her!!).
So every year we would ask her what she wanted for her birthday, and every year
she would tell us "O,don't get me anything, I don't need a thing". Well, after
my Dad didn't get her anything one Christmas because she told him the same thing,
there was no way in Hell I was gonna fall for that. My poor Dad paid for that mistake all year long! So if I thought about what I was going to get her, I never
shared that info with my brother or my sister, because that was golden information and they had to think up what they were gonna get her on their own!! And no matter
what it was we got her, she was always excited and about it when she opened it.

It is really hard to even try and put into words how much I miss her. She was always
such a part of my life. I am not really sure I will every completely get over
her being gone, but I am trying to learn to live with the big empty space in my life
that she once filled. But above everything, I am so very thankful that I had
her for my Mom, she was the Best of the Best.

Happy Birthday Mama!! I love you!!

later

On My Daily Drive.......

2011-03-08T20:25:00.000-08:00

I have been driving the same way to work (and back) for over 8 years now. Over that time period I have taken several different routes to make the drive more interesting, but I always go back to the one I have used the most,the one I am using now.

I have also come up with different things to do and look for as I drive keep me alert and aware of my surrounds. My favorite thing to do has been to watch for the different stickers and emblems people have on the rear of their cars. Since I always keep my little camera with me I have been able to record some of my more favorite ones. I have to be discreet about it, I don't want some one charging out of their car and coming back to mine wanting to know why I am taking a picture of their license plate!!

So here for your enjoyment are some of my favorite things people have on the back end of their cars.....you should pay attention as you drive, I am sure you will come up with some favorites of your own.......

And My Favorite One so far.....

Robin...and I 'm Not Talking About a Bird......

2011-03-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

Growing up Gay in a small Southeast Texas town was not easy, trust me. There was so much I could not share with anyone...I mean ANYONE! So when the Batman series came on TV in the 1960's, I had to keep it to myself that I thought Robin was the most handsome man I had ever laid my eyes on!! Yep, I had a MAJOR crush on the guy who played the Boy Wonder on the Batman TV show. His real name is Burt Ward, at the time he was a young cute slim guy who had the greatest eyes and the cutest nose. But alas, time changes us all, I recently saw a picture of him and he, like myself, has expanded over the years!! I bet there is no way he can slide down that Batpole and jump into the Batmobile now days, and I sure bet he would get winded trying to run after Batman to catch the criminals now. I know I try not to run anywhere myself.
I haven't actually thought about him in a long time, but recently I came across a couple of things that jogged my memory and gave me smile as I remember those times.

Just Trying To Enjoy A Nice Lunch.....

2011-03-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I had a Doctor's appt in the after noon so I took off work at noon so would not have to rush to get there. I work in Beverly Hills and my Doctor is located in Alhambra (just a couple of miles from our house),which is pretty much across town. It was a really beautiful sunny Southern California day so I decided to treat myself to lunch since I had the time.

Now to many people, Burger King is not an exciting place to eat. But I happen to enjoy their food and every so often I will treat myself to something on their menu. Now I do have my favorite Burger King and it just happens to be on my way home from work! It is pretty close to downtown LA and when you sit outside you have a nice view of the downtown sky line (and the major 101 free way that runs close to downtown!)

So I got my food and made my way to their little patio area to sit out in the sun and enjoy my food and the beautiful day. I found a nice spot and just as I sat down, the first one appear....the pigeon. Now I am not talking about your run of the mill variety of pigeon, oh no, this one was a honken big pigeon. And it just landed on the railing about 4 foot from me and just sat there and stared at me. Now pigeons
are not an oddity here in LA. You see them all the time around certain eateries where they have BIG signs that at..."DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS". But I have to say
this was one of the biggest ones I have ever seen.

So I started unwrapping my sandwich and it just sat there and kept staring at me. Then it did something that startled me at bit, it jumped off the rail and onto my table!
I shooed it off and it jumped back on the rail and continue to just stare at me.
It made me think of the cartoon I had seen once where this vulture just sat and stared down at the guy who was crossing the desert on his stomach looking for water.
Then.....a second one landed, not far from the first and there they were, both of them staring at me. I have to say it did make me a little uncomfortable, but what really made me a little uneasy was when the 3rd and 4th ones landed on the same rail.
At this point I was half way through my meal and had made up my mind I wasn't going anywhere. It was MY afternoon off and I was going to enjoy sitting outside having lunch no matter what.

Then I noticed something that brought back memories of the Alfred Hitchcock movie,
"The Birds" to my mind. As I happened to look up at the telephones lines running
near by, there must have been 15-20 more of them sitting up there,and I swear they were all looking at me!!! The first one jumped on my table again and I shooed him
off and I got to thinking if they swarmed me ... I was gonna throw my packet of fries
up in the air and hopefully they would go for them and I could escape!!

I had flashback of the movie where the woman was running away from the birds and they were swarming her and eventually killed her. There I would be, sitting out on the patio at Burger King being swarmed by a bunch of wild pigeon while the inside
patrons ate and watched in safety.

It was at this point I was just finishing my last french fry when I noticed
one of them had gotten off the rail and was on the ground walking up to me on my right hand side. Guess he was gonna try to sneak up behind me. So I gathered up
my garbage and stood up thinking they would probably all fly away, but no....
they did not move.....not a one of them. They all sat there perched on the railing
looking at me. As I got up to throw my stuff in the trash, I did have a thought that
maybe I should not turn my back on them, maybe that was what they were waiting for, but not a one of them made a move.

After I threw my stuff in the trash I turned and walked back to my car, and when I go to my car I looked over and there they were, watching their next victim sit down and settle in to enjoy eating outside and enjoying the Sunny day, or so he thought.

later

2011-02-25T20:49:00.000-08:00

meaning...

2011-02-19T19:56:00.000-08:00

Now This Is What I Am Talking About......

2011-01-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

Looking Up From The Rut......

2011-01-02T21:16:00.001-08:00

How often when you are outside do you actually take the time to look UP? When you are walking to the mail box or to your car or when you are out running errands or getting gas, do you actually look up and see the sky? If you are like most of us, probably not very often.

Have you ever realized sometime on your life's journey that your life seems kinda dull and you realized you were in a rut? You know what a rut is...Webster defines a rut as a fixed, routine course of action or thought, one regarded as dull and unrewarding. We have all been in a rut sometime on our journey.

Well,just yesterday I realized I have been in a rut. Sometime over this past year I slowly stopped doing things that I really enjoy doing and slowly my routine changed to the point that I spent more time at home doing nothing or glued to my computer..doing nothing. A couple of weeks ago on my drive to work I drove by
a park that I really love to walk in. For the past couple of years I stopped by
there most every day (except when we do not have daylight saving time and it is dark by the time I get here) and walked a mile, sometimes 2. But I realized it had
been months since I stopped by, not sure why, guess I was headed toward my rut.

I really enjoy going to the Annenberg Space for Photography, it is a beautiful Space
for different Artists to show their work. It is truly an amazing place. As I was driving to work last week I saw an advertisement of their latest showing and realized I had missed their last 2 showings, and I did not really know why I had
not gone....guess I was headed to my rut.

I have always been a big believer in living your life to the fullest, make the most of everyday you have because our days really are numbered and one day we will
run out of those numbers. I have friends who think I am a little crazy (and they could could really be right) because driving any distance to do something I really want to do has never been a problem for me. When I lived Palm Springs, there were
times when I would be at work and thing how nice it would be to go to Laguna Beach for dinner. I would get off at like 4 pm, run home and change and head to Laguna.
Now from Palm Springs that is like an hour and a half one way. Crazy, probably.
Fun...o you betcha. I could get there, spend some time on the beach, watch the sun set on the ocean, have dinner and be back home by midnight. I did that several times through the years and each time is a wonderful memory I will always have. (Even met a really nice guy on one of my quick trips and we ended up dating for a while....nice!) But I have realized that for whatever reason, I have not been on one
of my little adventures in a really long time....guess I entered my rut.

One of my greatest enjoyments over the last couple of years has been this blog.
I am always on the lookout for something share with you guys on here, but as I looked back over the last half of 2010, I realized all the things I did not share
with you...it was like I had just lost interest in blogging, which in reality, is not true, I really love it....it is just hard to do when you are in a rut.

They say the most important step in getting over a problem is realizing you have one!
(Heard that in a Co-dependency Group I use to go to years ago). So day before yesterday, I went to my park that I enjoy so much, and I walked a mile....and it was great. And as I walked I looked up and say what was around me. I noticed that
as I walked I kept looking down at the ground ahead of me. So I started looking up and when I did I could see the beautiful snow cover San Gabriel Mountains that
seem so close I could touch them. I noticed all the new trees they had planted in the park earlier in the year, and when I looked straight up from where I was when I stopped to catch my breath....I saw 2 beautiful Hawks circling right above me!! ( when I first saw them I checked to make sure they were not vultures circling me, I can not tell you how out of shape I have gotten in my rut!!) I had such a good
time! And yesterday,in the afternoon when it warmed up, I was back at the park doing another mile... it was great.

So look at where you are in your life right now.... 2010 was not a really good year.....we all got hit with so much negativity......are you in your own little rut?
If you are.....I hope you will join me in being "rutless" this year. I am not really big on New Year's resolutions...ok I have a couple... but my main goal this year
is to get out there and enjoy what life has to hold....hope you will join me .
Lets make this year the most fun and adventurous year we have ever had.

And yes, I am back to blogging so check back....you just might find something that will bring a smile to your face!!!

later...

Where ever you are, there you are............

2011-01-01T21:03:00.000-08:00

Well here we are, 2011. I can well remember when I was a kid (yes, I can actually remember back that far, and sometimes even farther), my friends and I would think about what the world would be like if we lived till the year 2000!!! Well now that I have lived these 11 years beyond that, I can tell you that NONE of what we imagined back then about what life would be like now was even close to what is really happening now. It is like that when you are young.

So here we are, 2011...a whole new year ahead of us....it is going to be up to us
to make it a better year than 2010. It's just not gonna happen on its own.
So I hope you will join me in making your own 2011 the best,most fun, full of new things and adventures year you have EVER had in your life....we can..we really can.

You just have to believe you can.....so get busy, we only have 364 more days left!!

Happy New Year!!

Something to make you smile.......

2010-11-06T14:16:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween!!

2010-10-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

2010-09-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

Commuting Is Not For Sissies..

2010-09-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

In just a couple of weeks I will be marking my 8th year of living in Los Angeles.
And for that entire time I have worked in the same area of the City, which is across town from where we live, so yes, I commute to work everyday.

At first I only took the freeways since I did not know any other way around LA back then. And anyone who has read my blog for very long knows how much I hate the freeways, so after a couple of months of freeway driving, with Patrick's help I found a new way to work.....surface streets!! Even though it would be ideal if I worked on the same side of town that I lived on, I don't, so I just go with it. As someone told me a long time ago, you have to deal with things in life as they are, not as you wished they were.

For the most part I really don't mind my drive, it is 14 miles one way and usually takes me an hour each way. Since I am on surface streets, each day I get to drive through some really nice areas of LA. In that short 14 miles I pass through Lincoln Height, Chinatown, Echo Park Silverlake,West Hollywood and end up in Beverly Hills.
Some of these areas are part of the older parts of Los Angeles and so the neighborhoods I get to see everyday have some beautiful old homes and I am finding in my studies of LA, there is so much history in these areas.

But I must tell those of you who have no idea what it is like to commute to work... commuting is not for sissies!! Take this past Friday for instance. I had
just started my drive home that Friday afternoon and I could already tell the traffic was not going to be too bad.I had just turned on Melrose Ave, which makes up 5 miles of my drive and had only gone a few blocks when all the sudden the traffic in front of me started slowing down.Usually I drive with my windows down because I prefer the outside air to AC. Just as I was coming up to the traffic I started hear this sound that I can honestly say I will never forget. I was a cross between a scream and a loud sorrowful moan. It is really had to describe it but it literally gave me chills, and I did not even know what it was yet. I kept looking around trying to see what direction it was coming from. There were people crossing the intersection just up ahead and they kept looking back over their shoulder and when they got to the other side of the street they just stood on the corner and looked back in the direction they had come from. Then suddenly the car in front of me pulled up enough I could get a look at what everyone was looking at...and I found the source of the sound I kept hearing...it was a woman lying face down in the street....she and her bike had been hit by an SUV...her bike had been broken in two and the front part was laying close to the middle of the intersection and the back part was laying at least 8 feet in the other direction. It really was a horrible thing to see and what made it even more horrible was...NO ONE was trying to help her!! Every one was just standing there or sitting in their cars looking at her laying there in the street but none of them was trying to see about her. I could not
believe it. The way the cars were parked on my right and how slowly the traffic was moving at that point there was no where for me to park my car. By the time I did
reach the side street where I could pull out of traffic, the police and an ambulance pulled up. At least someone had called the police! The entire weekend,the image of the woman laying in the street and the sound she was making would not leave my mind. And the fact that no one was helping her made it even worse to me.

Now fast forward a couple of days to yesterday, Monday. After a really fun weekend
I had just dropped the nephew off at the High School, it was the first day of school, and I had started heading for work. I had reached the Lincoln Heights part of my journey and traffic was busy but moving along really nice. On this part of my commute,the traffic is 2 lanes both ways winding through an old neighborhood of homes and store front businesses. The light up head turned red so both the lanes
going my direction started slowing down. As we started stopping I could see
I was going to be in the middle of an intersection with the road I was on and a side street so I stopped just before I got to the intersection so I would not be blocking it. To my right there was a woman in a large black car waiting on the side street to
make a turn onto the street I was on. Since I had stopped she had plenty of room
to come from the side street into the traffic.She pulled out where she was directly in front of my car(I was in the right lane)and I could tell she needed to go
in the opposite direction as we were going so she would be turning left into the
traffic going in the opposite direction. She had taken so long to do what she needed to do that the light had turned green and my traffic was starting to move again, except she was blocking my lane. And all the sudden like I was sitting there watching a 3D movie, she hit the gas and plowed into the car that had just passed me on my left that was going the same direction as I was. He never saw her, she was in a large car and he was driving a smaller car. He was traveling probably 25 miles
an hours or so and she slammed into him right beind his rear passenger door. When she hit him,his car immediately swerved to the right and hit the car that had been traveling in front of me before we stopped at the light, his car pushed her car aside andhe kept going and slammed into one of the store front businesses.I sat there and truly could not believe what I had just witnessed. The lady in the black car ended up across the street blocking traffic that was coming toward us. There were literally car parts everywhere, large car parts!! I immediately pulled on the
side street and got out to make sure everyone was ok. People who had been standing
there waiting to cross at the light was already running toward the guy she had hit and the lady he had struck before the hit the store front. As I ran toward the intersection,the first thing I noticed was that the traffic was not stopping. People were driving right through the intersection, swerving to miss the car that was blocking everything and they were driving over all the parts of the cars that
were laying in the street like they were not even there.

The first person I got to was the kid driving the car that had ended up in the store front. He had gotten out of his car and was trying to talk on his cell phone. He was not speaking English but he did when I started talking to him. You could tell he was in shock. I looked him over good and made sure he was not bleeding or hurt. He told me he was ok. I then headed over to the lady who had been driving the car in front of me. She was shaken up but fine. The lady who had cause the accidentwas standing next to her car with a group of people and she appeared to be ok too. I stood there and looked around and thought how amazing things had changedfor us who were sitting in traffic on our way to work that morning. In just a brief instant, everything changed.Thankfully, this time,it was the carsthat were messed up.

Everyday Patrick and I both commute to work, in different directions. Everyday when
we both get home safely I always say a little prayer of thanksgiving that we both made it home ok. For those of you who live close to where you work, be thankful and don't take it for granted.For the rest of who who commute everyday,be careful. And all those who do commute,I am sure you will agree with me that commuting is not of sissies!!

later.

We Have a Football Player In The House!!!!....

2010-09-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

Growing up in Southeast Texas, High School football games were not simply something you attended, they were a part of your life!! Second only to deer season, High School football season is a MAJOR part of the year for the whole town, not just for people who have kids on the team. There are Friday afternoon pep rallies before every game. Half the town will pack up and go the away games,and you sure better get their early if you want to sit in the stands to watch a home game.

I attended school in Silsbee, Texas, Home of the TIGER football team. We even had a large replica of a Tiger getting reading to leap that was mounted on a platform with wheels so it could be moved up and down the sideline when Silsbee made a touchdown.
I have so many great memories of attending football games with my Mom and Dad and little brother. I am serious when I tell you the WHOLE town turned out for the game on Friday night. During my JR year in High School, we were district champions and when we played the semifinal State game in a town a couple of hours away...all the stores closed early..I mean every single store in downtown Silsbee, close at 3pm so everyone could be at the game.

I was really surprised to find out how different it was here in California. Out here, unless you have a kid on the team or are friends with someone who has a kid on the team, you probably never think about going to a game. For a couple of years I did attend the home games for a town close to Palm Springs. I had a close friend at work,Kathy, who was a single Mom and she had 2 great kids. The youngest was Brian.
Since I hung out with them quiet often, Brian and I got to be buddies. Since there was not a Dad around, he and I really bonded and did a ton of stuff together. Me being Gay was not a big deal to him at all. So when he got into High School he asked me if I would go to football games with him, I was pretty surprised but of course I said yes. So every home game there we were, and we both had a blast. Never once did I embarrass him by cheering for the wrong team!! After a while I had not only Brian to go with but about 5 or 6 of his school friends whose Dads would not come with them to the games. I had my own little entourage! The thing that was really wonderful
to me was,all of his friends knew I was Gay and it was not a big deal to any of them, no more than I had brown hair and wore glasses. To them, I was their friend Jaymes and we all had a blast on Friday night when we all attended their football game and then went out for ice cream after the game. It really gave me hope for a brighter future for these guys.

Now fast forward a few years, now I live here in good old Los Angeles and we have a
football player in the house!! The nephew is playing on the Jr Varsity football
team at his High School, Woodrow Wilson. He is living his dream... he has said he was going to play High School football since he was in Elementary School and here he is on the Jr Varsity team.

Since last March or April, he has practiced every afternoon after school. Every weekday during the Summer he was at practice from 3-6pm and never missed a practice.
Now that school has started he is a practice every afternoon till about 7pm.
I am so proud of him, we all are. I pick him up everyday after on my home from work and for me that is a great thing.

So today he had his first game. Patrick and I dropped him off at the High School around 1pm so he could ride the bus over with the team. Since the game was not until 4pm, we had some time to kill. So at 4pm there we were, Patrick, Miss Anna (patrick's mom)and the niece and Patrick's sister all ready to cheer for the team.

Now I need to stop for a second and explain something to you. Like I said before,
in my hometown, we are the Fighting Tigers...here at this school....they are the Mules. Mules...I asked Patrick who would name their High School football team the Mules? So I guess I have gone from a Fighting Tiger....to a Mule. I have been practicing but I have not been able to shout " GO MULES" at a game yet...I am trying
but it may take me a little time on this one...

So the first game was really exciting and his team did really well...I was surprised how well the team really worked together.. I was jumping and down
and shouting and having a blast, almost like I was back in Texas at a Tiger game.
The nephew is # 77, he was a starter for the first game and even recovered a
fumble! We are very proud. They actually won their first game, 26 to 6.
We are very very proud of our very own in house football player..our own
little Mule!!!

later

Quick Trip To Vegas

2010-08-31T17:54:00.000-07:00

Now one of the little joys in life that PKL and I enjoy from time to time is going to Las Vegas. Now mind you, we are not heavy gamblers, you could say we are not much of gamblers at all, but we sure do enjoy just being in Vegas!! For the first several years we have been together we would manage to make it there 2 or 3 times year, sometimes we would catch a show at one of the Hotels or just go for the weekend and shop and eat and hang out. But for the last couple of years, with times being what they are, I have not been able to make the trip. PKL has gone a time or two with some of his kin folk, but it has been awhile for me. Since summer is quickly coming to an end and the Niece and Nephew will be heading back to school in a couple of weeks, we decided a quick trip to Vegas was in order. So we packed up the whole family and headed down Interstate Hwy 15 to "LAS VEGAS".

We headed out Friday night after the Nephew got home from football practice. We always drive, never even really considered flying over. I am usually "The Driver" for such trips but this time PKL started out commanding the SUV. Now for those of you
who may not know it, I drive a small car, a Honda Fit, I can't tell you how much I love it. But for this trip we rented an SUV, turned out to be a Chevrolet Traverese,
really nice vehicle, but to me it was HUGE! We changed drivers in Baker and let me tell,for me it was like getting behind the well of an 18 wheeler. We made it into Vegas very early Saturday morning and once we were settled into our room, I was out
like a light.

Saturday was a really beautiful day, the weather was very cool for Vegas, in the upper 70s. We ventured out to the Las Vegas Outlet Mall for while, had lunch at
Makino (it is a gourmet sushi & seafood buffet...VERY tasty!) and then headed
back to our hotel. PKL's parents headed out to the casino for a bit, and he and the
kids decided to head to the pool. Me, I needed a nap, so I stayed behind, grabbed a short nap and enjoyed some quiet time reading my book. It was delightful!!

After dinner we headed to The Strip to walk around some and check out a couple of stores. We can not go to Vegas without going to the Coca Cola Store and the M&Ms
store.
Thankfully they are right next to each other. We had a good time checking out the newly remodeled Coca Cola Store, but let me tell you, we had WAY too much fun
in the M&M store.

Afterwards we headed back our Hotel. The Parents went back to the Casino for bit and the rest of us retired to our room where we were all asleep in no time.

Sunday brought us another beautiful day, windier than the day before but really beautiful. We had the breakfast buffet at our hotel and I ate enough for at least 2 people. I always seem to do that at a buffet!!! PKL and I and the kids headed off
to one of our favorite places to visit, the Belliagio Hotel Atrum and also to check out the new City Center.

Of course the Atrium at Belliagio never ceases to amaze me. This time was no exception. It is so hard to realized every thing you see is made up of real plants and flowers. They change the designs with the seasons so we got to see the summer time exhibit. It was truly wonderful.

When we left tht Atrium, we headed over to the newest spot on The Strip, City Center. The last time I was in Vegas they were just starting to build it. It is made up of several Hotels and Condominium Complexes, Night Clubs, Art Museums and it also had its own shopping area called The Crystals, only VERY High End Shops. The entire
Center is really beautiful,but because of the economy,it is mostly empty. The one hotel that is finished and opened is Aria.

In the Crystals the one thing that really caught my attention was Mastro's Ocean Club. The dining area is enclosed in this beautiful wooden chamber that is suspended out in the open area of the Mall itself. To me it was beath taking to see it when we first entered the Mall.

After our visit to City Center we headed back to our Hotel for some pool time before we headed back to LA. Only problem was the Hotel's pool area had a sandy beach area and with the strong winds, we got more sand blasted than anything else.

After dinner we headed back to LA. Since the kids are still on summer break and PKL is on vacation, I was the only one who had to pull themselves out of bed the next day to face the real world.

Although it was a quick trip, we really had a fun time and hopefully before long PKL and I can make a trip back over there, just the two of us.

later!

A Weird Kinda Scary Feeling.....

2010-08-21T20:56:00.000-07:00

So I am minding my own business,driving to work last week when something catches my attention on a side street as I pass by....now here in LA when you are driving anywhere in the City, ALOT of stuff catches your eye, trust me! But I passed whatever it was rather fast because the traffic on Melrose was moving along really nicely that morning. But whatever it was I thought I saw left me with an weird kinda scary feeling for a few moments. I decided that I would try and remember to pay more attention the next morning to see what it was that I thought I saw.

Well the next day I did remember to take notice and when I came to that part of my
drive, I slowed down just a little and I when I saw it, I knew why it left me with a weird scary feeling....it was a clown, not any clown but this clown......

s

Now truthfully, clowns do not usually bother me. I know some people are actually afraid of any kind of clown, but I can usually take them or leave them. But ever
since Stephen King's "It" came out, there are certain kinds of clowns that give me
the creeps....well like this one. Just the expression on his face and he is staring out into the traffic, watching us as we go by. But that expression combined with the
words..."Children's Hospital"....REALLY gives me the creeps. I am sure it is an advertisement for a TV show that is either on or will be coming on soon. And you can bet your money on it that is one I will not be watching!!

All I can hope is that they will paint over it soon with a different advertisment
for a different new TV show...maybe something with kittens.

later

ps...when I stopped the next day to take the pictures...yep I left my motor
running and the car door open....you just can't trust some clowns.

Something I Need to Remember.....

2010-07-31T21:58:00.000-07:00

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it about learning to dance in the rain.

O YES!!

2010-07-08T21:12:00.000-07:00

And She Dances......

2010-06-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

It was very late in the day on that warm July 4 afternoon. I had taken the train down to Union Station and walked across the steet to El Pueblo. Now for those of you who do not know, El Pueblo is where LA all started in 1781. The buildings there around the old town square is where it all started for LA. Now it is pretty much a tourist attraction, but I enjoy going down and watch the people who come and go through the center square.

By the time I got there all of the July 4th celebrations had long been over. The crowds were gone and a cool breeze had started blowing in. The place was pretty much deserted and it had a peaceful feeling to it. I walked around and found me a place to sit on the far side of the square. I was just going to sit there for awhile and enjoy the peacefulness until it was time for me to catch the train downtown to meet up with the nephew.

I had not been sittig there very long at all when I saw them slowly start coming into the square. There were several Hispanic families making their way slowly to
the far side of the square from where I sat. A few of the men had guitars, they
were all in their late fifties and up I would say. They had not come in a group, but
it seemed like they had all just met up there in the square. As the sun was setting and the light breeze was blowing across the square, the men with the guitars started to play, soft slow melodies made their way across the square. You could hear the woman talking among them selves and the music,that was about all you heard. I sat
there and took it all in, feeling like I was easdropping on them.

I first notice her as she was making her way into El Pueblo and coming toward the
square. She had to be 80 years old if she were a day. An older Hispanic woman,
carring a bag of what looked like groceries in each hand. She was holding them
by the loops in the top of the bags and the bottom of the bags almost scraped the ground. She was walking with determination in her walk as if she were in a hurry and had some where she had to be.

She was wearing a dress like my Grandma use to wear alot, a one piece shift that
draped over her and hung straight down, no belt. She hurriedly made her way through
the square between me and the guitar players on the other side. She had almost made her way across the square when the men changed the song they were playing, which had been a lively one, to one that was like a slow waltz of a song. She stopped so
suddenly I thought she was going to fall and I started to jump up and help her if she did but she stopped and slowly turned toward the men, watching them as they played. Then she slowly started making her way back across the square until she stopped just a few feet away from the men. She stood there a few seconds and slowly
bent over and set the bags she was holding on the ground.

Then she slowly raised her arms to about shoulder level, and she started dancing.
With her arms raised she would twirl around as if she was dancing with a partner in a slow methodical way. She would sway from side to side and spin around slowly.
She kept in perfect time with the music, and then one of the men started singing
in Spanish, a beautiful melody. It was then I notice she had her eyes closed as she
danced and it was at that moment I realized that though her body was dancing in
front of us, in her mind she was remembering a time in her life long ago when she danced to this as a younger woman. Maybe in was with her boyfriend or maybe in was with
her husband when they were a young couple. It was something so beautiful to watch.
She continured dancing and the men continued to sing and play. Then the song slowly started coming to an end and she slowly lowered her arms and stopped dancing as the song ended. For a brief second or two she just stood there, then she slowly reached down and picked up the bags, she turned and made her way across the square in the direction she had been going and disappeared into the evening.

I was not sure what to do. I just sat there for a few minutes and took it all in. I had just been privelged to watch a very personal moment for this woman.
Things kept running through my mind, wondering about her, her life, who she had been dancing with as we watched. El Pueblo is filled with many spirits of people from
the past. They are all around us as we visit there. But I witnessed what I felt
was a very special event, an old woman dancing with one of those spirits of the past,
and for those brief few minutes, she was in both worlds.

2010-06-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

When you walk out the door in the morning and see this in the sky......

....just go back inside, have another cup of coffee, and stay home. It's NOT going to be a good day.

2010-06-24T19:08:00.001-07:00

Know what this is??

Camera with Flash!

ok I warned you some are kinda stupid!!!!

Tumbler

2010-06-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine introduced me something new online, and it is called Tumbler. Now this is certainly not new online but it is new to me. For those of you who may not know what Tumbler is, it is where people can start their on kinda of blog and the ones I have been introduced to are primarily made up of pictures people have or have found on the web and post on their tumbler blog. Now there are thousands of these tumbler blogs with pictures of just about anything and everything you can imagine. I have a couple that I frequent regularly that have all kinds of funny things posted, some are kinda stupid but they really strike me as funny. So from time to time I am going to share some of these with you, hopefully you will find them funny too!! Enjoy!

Staycation 2010

2010-06-24T17:56:00.000-07:00

Alas, as I am sitting here writing this, my week off from work is coming to an end.
Today is Thursday and of course tomorrow is Friday and then the weekend. While we usually calls such breaks from work a Vacation, I tell every one I am taking a Staycation, but I am staying at home and not traveling anywhere. I have gotten a couple of weird looks (but honestly, I am used to getting weird looks)when I would tell someone I was excited about my upcoming Staycation. This is not my first Staycation, o no, I use to take at least one week of Staycation a year when I was living in Palm Springs. You see, I usually used one week, or at least a few days, of my vacation each year to go to Texas to see my family. That would leave me with one or two weeks left over to do something with. Usually I would take a week and just stay home and enjoy doing things around the city. I mean,I lived in Palm Springs!, the vacation capitol of Southern California!!

So a couple of months ago I realized I have accumulated 3 weeks of vacation time and
in just a few more weeks I would start accumulating 3 more weeks. I usually do not take much time off from my job, maybe a Friday here and there and a few days when Patrick take his vacation. I also realized that I was really getting tired, not your everyday work tired, but a deep down inside draing kinda tired you get when you work with the public over any length of time. As much as I love working with people, and consider myself a real people person, they can really drain the energy out of you.
So in May I told my Docs I was going to take this week off, I gave them 2 whole months to get use to the idea that I would not be in the office this week. They still kinda panicked the last Friday when I told them goodbye and I would see them
on the 28th. I have not gotten any texts of phone call so I guess they are
doing ok while I am away, but I am not kidding myself, I know I will have plenty to
do on Monday when I get there!!

But this week has really been a nice one. Patrick worked all week so I basicly had
the week to myself, which is what I really needed. Except for a couple of Doctor's appt during the week, I had no plans. And I kinda cheat with my days, I count the weekends too, so I actually had 9 days off which sound better in my mind than I am taking 5 days off!

So in the next post or two I will be sharing some of the highlights of my Staycation
I can honestly tell you I would recommend this to anyone, I feel more rested than I have in a long time. The hardest things I have really had to deal with is, not using
my time off to get things done around the house. I promised myself I would use this
week to do things for me and would do the projects I need to do around the house after this week is over. So far I have kept that promise but let me tell you....it has not been easy. lol!

This Pretty Much Sums It Up.....

2010-05-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

2010-05-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

The Case Of The Disappearing House......

2010-05-22T08:40:00.001-07:00

For as long as I can remember (and trust me that is a very long time), I have loved to read. And during my late elementary, early Jr High years, Nancy Drew was my hero.
I know, I should have been reading the Hardy Boys but to me, the were wimps. Nancy was the one with the balls, she was afraid of nothing and no one. I think I read every Nancy Drew mystery book that was published at the time. Little did I know that when I grew older, I would be living a mystery that would have been just the one for Nancy to solve!!!!

We live in the part of Los Angeles known as Hillside Village. And as you have probably guess, it is full of hills, large domed shaped hills. We happen to live at the bottom of our hill and there are two rows of houses above us. The road we live on actually curves its way between two of these hills and up and over the larger one to the right of us. Each hills is peppered with several homes, each hill that is except the one to the left of us. There are homes at the base of the hill,but on the top of this hill, there is only one house....or I should say , there was one house.

From our front porch we can look right across over the houses and see the top of the hill to our left. Driving home everyday from work, and when I am doing my daily walking, I pass by the drive way to the house on that hill. From time to time
I have seen the people who live in the house on the top of the hill,but they pretty much just keep to themselves. Every morning when I walk out on the porch and look around at the sun coming up over our neighborhood, I could look across and see the house and the cars sitting there on the top of the hill. it was a pretty large older home.

But just a few weeks ago, early one morning I walked outside on the porch as the sun was coming up, looked over .....and the house on top of the hill was gone!!!! Just gone, not there!! Expect for the old tress that surrounded the house, there was nothing there to suggest a house had ever been there!!

Now not much changes in our neighborhood. People move in and out of some of the homes that are for rent, but that is pretty much it. As far as I know we have never had a whole house disappear! I walked in and ask Patrick if he had noticed that
the house on the hill was gone and he was as surprised as I was. How long had it been gone and the most important question..where did it go?

Sound really carries on these hills. The guy across from us loves to have big parties from time to time and he LOVES to play his dico music loud (an have his revolving disco balls hanging from the trees in his yard) and the sound
bounces right off our hill. Sometimes we have to turn up the TV really loud because it sounds like the party is in our living room. A couple of weeks ago we were awaken at 3 Am by 6 gun shots, but not from our immediate neighborhood (thank goodness!) but from one of the other hills. So I figure if someone was tearing a house down, we would hear it, if some one blew up a house, we would hear it. So, what happened to the house on the hill? When I asked my next door neighbor (who has lived in his house for over 40 years and knows all our neighbors and can tell you the names of the people who lived in the house before the people who live there now)if he knew
what happened to the house, he did not realize its gone either!!!!!

And so, I guess for now we have to just live with the mystery. Will I look out
one morning and see it sitting there once again? Who knows, stranger things have
happened. But until we can find us a Nancy Drew to solve it, we will just have to live with The Case Of The Disappearing House!!!!!

For Sale........

2010-05-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

It's The Times, They Are A Changing......

2010-05-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite movies is "Hairspray" the 1988 version with the Drag Queen Divine in the role of Edna Turnblatt (not the new never version with John Travalota staring as Edna is not entertaining, I just prefer Divine!). There is one line in that movie that I have quoted many many times through the years, one that always makes me laugh. Edna is eating a big piece of pie and watching the news with her husband. On the news is a story about black teenagers trying to crash a party at an all white establishment. She turns to her husband and says "It's the times, they are a changing, pass me my diet pills will you dear"

I thought of this a couple of weeks ago when Patrick and I were taking the Niece and Nephew to Disneyland for the afternoon. We always have music playing when we are going anywhere in the car and sometimes some of us will sing to whatever song is playing. I was thinking of some of the trips I took with my family as I was growing up, especially my sister. A song would come on the radio while we were traveling along and we would always sing together with. Or sometimes we would just decide on a song and sing it acapella. Well this particular afternoon a song came on and we all immediately started singing, all four of us.....but it sure was not like any song I would have sang with my sister or my family as I was growing up...it was Lady Gaga's
Bad Romance....and the thing that surprised me the most....I knew just about every word!!! Yep it's the times, they are a changing.....

In case you have never had the opportunity to hear Lady Gaga's song or experience Gaga and only she can be...I thought I would share her Bad Romance video..and who knows...after you watch it a couple of times maybe you can join us on a little road trip sometimes and sing along with us!!! Just remember...never say never!!! LOL!

I LOVE me some Gaga!!

The Big #10.....Happy Anniversary To Us!

2010-04-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

In any relationship there are big milestones along the way. Today is one for Patrick and I. today we celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Over the last few days we have been looking back at some of the things we have been through over these past 10 years. We have had so much fun and have shared in some heartaches too. The past 10 years have seen me move from Palm Springs to Los Angeles (something I would never have dreamed I would ever do), we have both had job changes, Patrick surprised me with a trip to Hawaii for my 50th birthday, we have made many trips to Vegas to "get away", Patrick's Grandmother passed away and the following year my Mom passed. We have seen many of our friends start their families and we have become "Uncles" to our friends kids numerous times. We have watched our niece and nephew both start school and progress to both Jr High and High School. We have celebrated our birthdays with weekend get-a-ways and Birthday parties. And in all the adventures we have had along the way these past 10 years, the one thing that has stayed the same and grown strong each day, is the love we both share for each other. I have to honestly say that I never knew I had the capacity in my heart to love someone as much as I do Patrick. And the love I have for him is echoed back to me in how much he loves me.
It has been an amazing 10 years for us both, and we can hardly wait to see what the next 10 holds for us.

To all of you who have shared this journey with us, Thank You from the bottom of our hearts for all the Love and Support you have given us. We love each and every one of you!!!!

Where Were You ?

2010-04-20T22:50:00.000-07:00

Think back a little...do you know where you were and what you were doing 10 years ago today? I do. Today was a Thursday back 10 years ago. I was living in Palm Springs, California. I was working at my most favorite and most rewarding job of my career, I was the Medical Receptionist at the Desert Aids Project. I had been living in Palm Springs for over 13 years and had just celebrated my 47th birthday. Little did I know that the next day my life would be totally changed forever...I would meet Patrick, and my life would never been the same.

2010-04-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

2010-03-18T10:03:00.001-07:00

Yep, it's my birthday. This is the big number 57. I really have a hard time believing that I am 57, not sure what it is suppose to feel like, but I know I don't feel that old. O yeah, I have a few more aches and pains every once in a while, but on the inside, I am still in my late 20's, early 30's. The other day I took a quiz in a medical magazine at work, it is suppose to tell you what age you really are and not the age of the years you have been walking around on Mother Earth. After I answered all the questions and totaled my score...it say I am actually 27,hmm
I can accept that. (chuckle)

I am always surprised when someone asks me my age and I tell them, they always give me a wide eyed look and say "Really, I would have never guess you were in your 50s, I would have thought middle to late 40s", and I just smile.

My age has never been something that bothered me. What can ya do about it? I am just thankful that I am in good heath, have lots of people who love me and care about me and that I am fortunate to have found and married the man of my dreams, my soul mate.

Patrick and I are going to celebrate my special day today by going to the hospital to see the new born son of some of our close friends. Mr. Jayden was born yesterday and from the pictures we have seen so far, he is a very handsome young man.
Then we are going to go to Disneyland and ride our favorite rides and enjoy
this beautiful Southern California Day together. Patrick asked me what I wanted for my birthday and one of the things I asked for was a day together with him, just the two of us having some special alone time together, something we don't get allot of us in our busy worlds. So I know, no matter what else we do, its going to be
a really spectacular day!!

Happy Birthday to me, and I hope I get to spend many more years here with all of you guys, living life and having fun......

later!

Like A Bear Coming Out Of Hibernation.....

2010-03-14T07:58:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you but I am so glad that Winter is over and Spring is on it's way. Usually I enjoy the Seasons,but this Winter has been a little tuff for me.
Maybe it was because we had so many rainy days and many of the ones that were not rainy were dreary. I just don't do well when we have a few dreary days in a roll, seems to just drain the life out of me. These past few months have found me staying in doors way more than I normally do and going to sleep earlier. Last week I was
laying in bed reading some of my favor blogs on here and it hit me I have been like
an old bear hibernating in the Winter time....and I had to laugh. It is true!!
But now that the days are getting longer, thanks to Daylight Savings Time, (YEA!!!) I am feeling more energized and have already started making plans for some hikes on the coming weekends....so yea...I guess I am like an old bear coming out of hibernation, looking forward to the coming Spring and Summer days and getting out of my cave to explore the world around me and have some really fun adventures!!!!

later

I Can Hardky Wait Wat For This!..........

2010-02-28T22:52:00.001-08:00

What A Lazy Weekend!,,,,,

2010-02-28T22:05:00.000-08:00

I have to say I don't know the last time I had such a lazy weekend. Usually on a weekend were we don't have anything planned, I will come up with something for me to do or get involved in, but not this weekend, no sirree. Saturday was a perfect day to be lazy in,,,rain ALL day. I woke up early as usually and laid in bed and watched it rain outside through the window myside of the bed. I usually keep the blinds pulled up at night so I can lay in bed and see the stars. So Saturday I just laid in bed and watched the rain for awhile. After getting up and eating my Honey Nut Cheerios (honest..they are so good), I decided to go back to bed with my laptop and read some of the blogs I keep up with on here. It was the first time I have take the laptop back to bed with me, have to tell you, now I am so hooked! Patrick was up doing somethings in the office so after a bit,I got a little sleepy so I ended up taking nap #1 of the day. So for the rest our rainy Saturday I alternated between reading a book I have been trying to read (on California's first governor) and taking another nap or two. I don't remember the last time I was totally lazy all day on the weekend, or any other day, it was great!

Today was such a beautiful sunny day, I started off my day (after my bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios) by cleaning up the interior of my car. Having all these rainy days sure makes it hard to vacuum the inside.After having lunch with Patrick's parents, we headed out to Glendale with the kids to see Avatar. I know we are late in seeing it but we just could not get us and the kids together at the same time to go. This will be the last weekend it is in the theaters since they will be moving it out to make way for 'Alice in Wonderland" with starts on Friday. I can not even begin to tell you what a beautiful movie it is. We saw it in 3D and it was amazing.
We decided to go to dinner after the movie (it is 3 hours long but does not seem like it) we headed to the Olive Garden, but the wait was over an hour long and we were all hungry so we went over the California Pizza Kitchen. We were really disappointed. We had not eaten at one in a while, they were busy but we got seated in a reasonable amount of time. We ordered and were told they were out of the bread they give you while you wait for your food and had been for about an hour. Now we were there at 6:30, I am just not understanding how a restaurant could run out of something they use all the time like bread. We were not the only ones who were annoyed by in from the sound of some of the people around us. We were really taken back when we got the bill and found out it cost us over $70 for the 4 of us to eat...pizza and pasta. So needless to say we won't be going back to California Pizza Kitchen any time soon. But over all we had a really great time out with the kids today.

So here I am now, getting ready to end my day and my lazy weekend, propped up in bed once again with my laptop. Yep..I was a slug this weekend...did not accomplish very much of nothing all weekend....and you know what..I am so loving it!! I just might have to this again soon!!!

later!

ps....Can you believe it is the last day of February already???!! So I guess that means tomorrow we start a whole new month.....my favorite month of the whole year...March...My Birthday Month, YEAAAAAAAA!

Rainy Days

2010-02-27T07:41:00.001-08:00

It's another rainy day here in LA today, but I should start out by letting you know, I love the rain.

In Southeast Texas where I grew up, you can actually smell the rain before it gets to you. You know it is going to rain because of the huge clouds that float high above you as they cross the skies, but the smell of the rain is what really gives it away.

I would stand at the front door and watch the rain come down, sometimes so hard you could not see the woods across the street. The ditches would fill up and overflow our street, sometimes coming right up to the edge of our house, covering our lawn.
Our house set up high enough that we were never in danger of flooding. And then,
it would all be over....leaving a beautiful smell in the air and a wonderful
silence, so quiet could stand on the porch and listen to the water as it drained away.

Once the rain was over we could go outside and play in the water. The ditches in front our house were actually not really deep, well at the least the one that ran along the front of our yard. But looking back I can remember standing on the edge
of the road looking down in that ditch and thinking how deep it was. The water was so clear running in the ditch you could see the bottom. My brother and I would
wade off in the ditch (yes barefoot) and play in the water that ran across our road and think
nothing of it, only laughing and having a great time. To this very day I can remember the feel of the cold water that was in that ditch as I stepped in. I can still feel the current against my legs as I waded in deeper.

Our yard was an acre of land big. On one side of the acre was the house and main yard and we refered to the other half simply as "the half acre". Even my nieces and nephews ,who also grew up around my Mom and Dad's house, refer to it still as
that. Sometimes when we would have a really big rainstorm, the water would overflow
from the ditches and cover a great deal of the half acre. Then the real fun would start. The water would flow across the grass and sometimes come up to our knees as we waded off in the water. We were never allowed to go any further than up to our knees. We would throw small sticks in the current and watch them float way or make small paper boats and sail them in the currents.
We would watch as groups of ants would float by on the current,sometimes large groups, we always thought they were crowded together on a floating stick or something. We would later learn that the ants we all balled up together so they could float like that. We did have to be careful because there were "critters" in the water with us sometimes. We would just about always see
crayfish and sometimes a snake or two swimming across the top of the water looking for a higher place to get to. Once after a really large rain we came across a type of eel out on the half acre at the edge of the water. It has come from a pond that was several acres across from where we lived and had floated over on the current of the run off. It was an amazing creature. Our "biggest" enemy when we played in the water was.....the snapping turtle. We were so afraid of them. It was a very rare thing to see one at anytime, but sometimes one come around. They were nasty looking turtles, their shells would look like some kind of armour and they had shart beak like noise, they were called snapping turtles for a reason, they had powerful jaws and could snap down on a stick and break it or it could do the same to your finger or toe
if you surprised them in the water. Sad thing is,I have not seen one in many many years now.

Throughout the rest of my life, I would always love the rain. Where ever I have lived through the years, my neighbors would always see me out walking in the rain in my sweatshirt and ball cap. Rainy days are always special for me.

Living in the Desert, rainy days were especially special because they came by so rarely. I learned early on the wonderful smell of a desert rain. If we had a really rainy winter, like the one we have had this year, that would mean we would have
a beautiful spring with all the desert flowers blooming in great abundance.

Since I moved into the City, I still enjoy my rainy days, but the smells are oh so different. I see the rains as a cleansing of everything here. The smell of wet asphalt was a new smell for me to see as a rain smell. But in the early morning
stillness of a rainy morning here in the City, I still enjoy the sound and the smell of cool rainy day.

later

ps..for those of you who may not know, I grew up in a rural area, the road in front of our house was a dirt road for many years of my life and we were the only house on the street. Our "neighborhood" was totally surrounded by woods. Nothing like a modern day neighborshood today.

A Festive Kinda Day......

2010-02-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

Well today was a day for celebration in our household,we had two holidays for us that just happened to fall on the same day this year...Valentine's Day AND Chinese New Year, so needless to say, we did us some celebrating today!!

I have to tell ya. I LOVE Chinese New Year. It has much more meaning to it then the traditional New Year's celebrations the world does every year. Of course I celebrate the traditional New Year with the rest of the world, but over the past few years,
celebratig Chinese New Year has become really important to me.

Since I have become apart of a Chinese family, I have been introduced to allot that has to do with the Buddhist religion. Patrick's parents are Buddhist and of course we share in all the special days of the year with them. Being raised a Baptist, this is a whole new world for me, one that I enjoy very much.

So starting last night (Saturday) we started celebrating the New Year with a special dinner, which included not only our family but our BFF Timmy. Last night was his 16th time to join the Lee Family in celebrating Chinese New Year Eve.

This morning we got up early and had a special breakfast together and then headed out to the 2 Buddhist temples the Lees attend. This is the really special part for me.
It is there that we burn incense and offer up our individual prayers at the beginning of the year. For me, it is a very moving experience.

After were finished at the Temples, we headed out for lunch and then home. So after we got home, Patrick and I got to celebrate the "other" holiday that was happening today....Valentine's Day!! We exchanged our gifts and then we celebrated another tradition we like on Chinese New Year....taking naps!!!!!

The weather today was just perfect. I even managed to take a nice long walk in the afternoon. It was a really nice day....and tomorrow back to the grind for me...Patrick and the kids have the day off to celebrate President's Day!!!!!

later!

Taking a Hike...in Eaton Canyon

2010-01-31T08:32:00.000-08:00

Early last summer,Patrick informed me that he and some of his friends from where he works wanted to go on a hike and wanted me to go with them since I was about the only one of them that had ever done any hiking. I told him to decided where they wanted to go and we would see about the hiking trails in that area.He took one of my hiking books to work so they could look through it and when he came home that afternoon, he informed me that they wanted to go somewhere where there was a water fall. A waterfall?? I told him I had no idea where there would be a water fall at that time of the year and the fact that we were in the midst of a severe drought would also make it tough to find a waterfall. Well Patrick is not one to be so easily distracted from what he wants, so a couple of days later he informed me there was a water fall in Eaton Canyon and that is where they decided they wanted to go.
He had even found out where Eaton Canyon was and how we were to get there, I was really impressed!!

So early one Saturday morning, we all met up at Joseph and Cherry's house to take off for our hike. I had not met his co-workers at this point but I had heard alot about them from Patrick. There were Joseph and Cherry, Emily and Dennis (who had only recently met) and Patrick and I. So we set off in 2 cars for Eaton Canyon.

Eaton Canyon is located right outside Pasadena in Altadena, which is in the San Gabriel Mountains. It is really a beautiful place and the nature preserve covers around 190 acres. Because of the heat, we started out on our hike at around 8:30 and we were so glad we did. The hike from the parking lot to the waterfall is just over a mile one way. We had so much fun and saw some really beautiful scenery and we even got to see a real live inhabitant of the canyon in one of the streams we had to cross, a small snake who was keeping himself cool in the water. It is a pretty easy hike, so if you like to hike or think you might want to try...this is the hike for you. I did not know it at the time but there was alot of area history thattook place in the canyon,and there is a really nice Nature Center there to explain the history of the canyon.

We took our time and made it to the falls. There were a few people who made it ahead of us and it was peaceful and calm. A lady and her daughter were swimming in he pool at the bottom of the falls and I just had to take off my shoes and put my feet in the cold water. It was so nice! We hung out at the falls for a little while taking pictures and such. We were really enjoying the peacefulness of the place but decided we had better head back before it got too hot. We stared back and stopped in some shade to have a snack and drink some water and as we were doing this, about 30 Boy Scouts came by us heading for the falls, the peacefulness of the falls was not going to be peaceful much longer! We were so glad we made it there when we did. We made it back to the parking lot around 11:30. We stopped by the Nature Center to use the rest rooms and to cool off(it is air conditioned!) and see the exhibits they have there. We ended our hiking that day at a Chinese Restruant where I got to have one of my favs....Black Pepper Gravy Pork Chops...after that meal, we all headed homes for naps!!!

It was such a beautiful place in the Summer, I plan on going back in the Spring when everything is in bloom.....wanna go with me? Just let me know!

later

p.s. I case your interested: www.enca.org

Joseph and Cherry
Jaymes and Patrick
Dennis and Emily

A Walk on the Wildside....taking a walk in my neighborhood

2010-01-30T19:00:00.000-08:00

It was such a beautiful day today that I just had to get outside this morning and take a short walk in my neighborhood. I really enjoy walking and when the days are longer I usually take a mile or two walk every day on my way home from work at the Los Angeles Historic Park over by China Town. But today PL and I had plans later in the morning so I settled for a mile walk here in our part town. After being cooped up for many days because of our rain storms, it was really great to get out and enjoy the beautiful morning. Thought I would share with you some of the scenery from my walk....hope you had a chance to get out and enjoy the day yourself!

later.....

I Found.....Funkeytown!!!

2010-01-29T20:07:00.000-08:00

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There was a song back in the early 80's (for those of you who remember the early 80's) that everyone seemed to love, I know I did..it was called "Funkytown" and it was a really big hit. It was written by Lipps,Inc back in 1979 and through the years has been redone by several groups, none as good at Lipps, Inc.

Part of the lyrics say "Won't you take me to...Funkytown". and that phrase kept repeating through out the song..."Won't you take me to...Funkytown". Now I don't know about you, but every time I heard that song I wondered...where is Funkytown?, if I knew maybe I would want to go too!! Well wonder no more...cause quiet by accident...I found Funkeytown!! Yes Sirree!! It is right there on Sunset Avenue in Silverlake....so next time someone you know want to go to Funkytown....just drive them right on over...and who know, I just might be there to welcome you!

later!

Waking Up with LA

2010-01-10T17:25:00.000-08:00

Something that I really enjoy doing is watching the City of LA wake up in the morning. Sounds crazy huh?

As most of you know I love scouting out places I have not been to in LA. I usually only get to do this on the weekend, but all during the week on my drives to and from work, I am always on the lookout for things I want to take pictures of and maybe learn more about. I have found the best time to come back and take pictures of things is very early in the morning, before people get to stirring about. Today was such a day. It seem since around Thanksgiving I have busy enough with doing 'stuff' that I have not had the chance to go on one of my picture taking excursions. There were a couple of things I really wanted to get pictures of before they vanished ( and believe things seem to vanish quickly sometimes around here!) So I got up early and headed out,actually I was leaving a little later than I had wanted to but the bed was oh so warm on this chilly morning if ya know what I mean. But I was up and out around 7:30 and I headed over to Sunset Blvd where there was a picture spray painted on the side of a building I wanted to get a picture of. Actually I see pictures like this all the time and they are always in little out of the way places and they are really small and most people do not even notice them. Pics like these you really have to get quick because they are usually painted over as they are considered graffiti. I was really afraid this one would be gone and to be honest I could not remember which building I had seen it on exactly. So off to Silverlake I went and to my delight, it was still there. Now to look at it you will probably wonder why I would want a picture of it, well I think the thing that excites me the most is that these are very temporary works of art and they are gone so quickly. It is things like this about LA that gets me excited. I look for things like this every day and in doing so it makes me really take in to account everything I see very day. How often on your drives to and from work do you really pay attention to what you pass by? I take the same route to and from work most everyday.
I drove this route for months not paying attention to what I was driving by, then one day on Melrose Ave I noticed this small black and white spray painted picture of
a mouse holding a sign, it was spray painted from a stencil most likely. I laughed when I noticed no one walking by it even seemed to see it. The next day when I drove by, it was gone, painted over. From then on I hooked. I started looking to see if there were others and from time to time I would see more. Since Patrick got me my little Canon camera year before last, I always carry it with me and when I can I stop and take pictures of the little masterpieces before they are gone. But this also got me to seeing details in allot of other things. You will really be amazed in what you see around you if you pay more attention to what you pass as you go to and from places.

But I learned early on in doing this, that by getting up really early and getting out, there aren't that many people out. Now mind you I am talking the weekend here.
But I love the early morning feel of driving around LA early in the morning and listening to the quiet hum of the city. And then as I am out taking my pictures or exploring a new street, I notice the City slowly starts to come alive. The sun gets a little higher and slowly I notice more people start stirring about and then slowly the street traffic picks up . The shops start to open up and before you know, you can hear all the normal noise of the City. I just love getting to experience this.

Have you every got to hear where you live wake up? Have you ever noticed how the world where you live starts to come alive and starts a new day? It is really an exciting thing to witness,I hope one day you will take the time to!

later

Happy 2010!! (a few days late)

2010-01-09T17:21:00.000-08:00

Well here we are..aleady at the end of the first week of 2010...thankfull this week did not seem to totally fly by like they did in 2009...I want 2010 to hang around for a little while, I have things I want to do this year!!

Our New Year's eve was nice, we stayed home like we have for the last few years, we had the neice and newphew over and also our BFF Timmy. Patrick had to work a little later than usual but we still had enough time to eat and watch some TV before the big moment arrived. This is the time we usually exchange gifts with Timmy and this year was no different. We always have alot of fun doing it on New Years Eve, it is almost like having 2 Christmas's!! I have to say I am soooo excited with what
he got me this year. He got me a gift cerificate to Esotouric Bus Adventures!!!!!
I hear you saying WOW!!...what the hell is an Estouric Bus Adventure???
Well let me tell you!...It is a bus tour of different kind...and each on has to do wih something bout LA. Like the Black Dahlia Tour..which is about the unsolved 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, except this tour it follows her sad, solitary life in post war LA. They have many different tours, you really should to over to www.esotouric.com and when check them out. I first heard about them last year when I was attending the Downtown LA Art Walk and have really wanted to take one of them, so now I get too...and Timmy is coming along so I KNOW it will be fun.

Getting back into the regular routine at work after having 3 weeks of only working 3 days a week was a little rough, not only for me but everyone in our office, including the Docs! But we made it, my next scheduled Holiday is not until May, but I am sure I will sneak a day off in there somewhere, probably around my Birthday in March. One sad note for me at work is, my best buddy at work, Jill, gave her notice and will be leaving us this coming Tuesday. I will really miss her, she was working there when I started and besides helping train me, we because good friends too.
She even taught me how to ride the Bus here in LA one night after work!!! I still have my other buddy, Nancy, and I am sure the new person and I will get along fine, aleast one can hope!!

So here we are....starting off a whole new year and a hold new decade. Looking back over the last 10 years I am amazed at the life changing things that happened in my life...in 2000 I met Patrick (talk about life changing!!),in 2002 I left the desert after almost 16 yeard to move to LA to be with him, in 2004 we had our Wedding, in
2006 my Mom passed away, in 2007 I started what will most probably be the last job in my work career(they have made me promise to stay with them till I retire,at the age of 70). Also over these a past 10 years I have met some of the nicest people I have ever had the privelge of knowing and I have added so many members to my Chosen Family. I can't help but wonder what the next 10 years is holding in store!!

later

Man, that was quick!...

2009-12-27T20:13:00.001-08:00

Wow,is it me or did Christmas seem to come and go really fast this year? Patrick and I said last year (2008) that this year we wanted to be able to enjoy the Christmas Season, since last year we were in a car accident right before Christmas and that really seem to take the fun out of it for us. So this year,somehow, we got a head start on it and were pretty much ahead of ourselves by the first of December, so we actually did get to enjoy it this year, but it all seemed to have gone by so fast!

Last weekend we started our Christmas celebration with 2 annual events we have done for several years. On Saturday evening we attended the Los Angles Gay Men's Chorus Christmas show. If you have never had taken the opportunity to see one of their shows, you are missing out on so much. They usually havwe 3 shows each Season (this year they only have 2). Each is different and the Christmas show is always our faviorite. If you think the show is only about 200 Gay Men singing songs, you are SO wrong. Of course this is singing..and dancing ...and skits to go along with some to the music,but I can garantee you will have a great time when you go.

The following afternoon we went to our other annual event, our annual Christmas Party with our Chosen Family that is held each year at the home of our really dear friends, Farah and Dan Silver. It really isn't Christmas for us until this event happens. One year I was really sick with a cold and could not go, and the Holidays really sucked for me that year. The friends we get together with here are what we call our Chosen Family. You can't help the family you are born into, but you can choose who makes up the group of friends who are the dearest to you, and that is just who these guys are. We all bring food and a white elephant gift. We sit around and eat and laugh and talk with each other and just really enjoy being together.
Sometimes we have a new person who comes with one of the regulars. This year Farah invited one of their friends and I can tell you, she really had a good time with all of us, she was fun to be around. She seemed to fit right in with this crazy bunch!!
We always have so much fun with the white elephant gift exchange, and this year as no different. We usually eat at least twice,lol and then we sit back and just enjoy each other's company. Everyone should be apart of a get together like this at Christmas, it's really a special time......

more later.....

Very Lucky Man Indeed...........

2009-12-10T21:05:00.000-08:00

Tonight I had one of those moments when you just stop you in your tracks and realize how great life is for you.....ever had a moment like that?, I bet you have. My moment happened tonight while we were decorating the tree at Patrick's parents home, which right next door to ours. We moved Patrick's family into their house in December 2000, that year they only had a really small tree that Patrick already had, but starting in 2001, we have always had large trees that sit right in front of the big window in their living room. Each year it has been my job to put the lights on the tree and most times Patrick would help me decorate it. When we first started with the big trees the niece and nephew were 2 and 5 years old and they could only sit and watch us decorate the tree, but this year,I taught the nephew how to put the lights on the tree, and I think I may have lost my yearly job of light hanging!! He loved doing it and really did a good job. The niece is more of an ornament hanger, and she really got into it this year.

It was during this time that I was standing back and watching the Nephew having a really good time putting the lights on the tree that I had my moment....all the sudden it hit me what a very lucky man I am to be apart of these kids lives and have them be such an important part of mine. As most of you know, in my 20s I was married and we had two children, Daniel and Kelly, both of which are now in their early 30s. It has been 25 years since my divorce and throughout all of those years I have always tried to be apart of my kids lives,but a couple of years ago they decided they no longer wanted me to be part of their lives and I have not heard from either of them since. The did not actually tell me that, but through a series of events it was pretty clear to me, so I have respected their wishes and have just gone on with my life. I am sure part of it is that I am Gay,even though it has never been mentioned or discussed. I will not sit here and tell you that it was not painful, it was very painful, but when things like that happen in life, all you can do is go on with your life and let yourself heal, which is exactly what I have tried to do.

But tonight, it was a great feeling to realize what a great family I am apart of now, and how loved I am by these kids. When Patrick and I met, the Nephew was 5 and the Niece was 2, now they are 14 (almost 15) and 12, and as far as they are concerned, I am just Uncle Jaymes. Looking back over the last 9,almost 10 years that Patrick and I have been together, the kids have always been an important part of our lives. If you would have seen us out together over the years, you would probably thought they were our kids, some people have asked us that. We have taken them so many places with us, we have been Santa Clause for them all these years, been to all their school functions and I have even sat down with the Nephew and have, "The Talk", even though he got really embarrassed and pretty much knew all about it anyway. We have worked on all their school projects together and tutored them with their homework assignments when they are having problems.The Nephew loves to go to the beach with me or hiking.
One thing the kids and I have done for many years now is have "Library Night". I made sure they both had their own library cards when they were very young and they both love to read now, I am proud. It is fun for me when I am out with them somewhere and I get to meet some of their friends I have not met yet, when they introduce me as their Uncle Jaymes,I always get really funny looks from their friends since the kids are Chinese and I am very White!! But the Niece and Nephew don't seem to notice that. Recently when the Niece turned 12, she had several of her school friends over for a little party. When I came home several of her little girl friends came runny up saying "Uncle Jaymes is here" and gave me big hugs. We are sure they know Patrick and I are together, but it has never come up, and they just seem to accept it as being a normal thing. When Prop 8 was on the ballot last year, the Nephew shocked me at dinner one night by discussing with me why he thought Prop 8 was wrong and why he thought it was wrong for anyone to have their marriage voted on. Yes I was pretty speechless during the conversation.

Yes, it is funny how life turns out sometimes. Even though I don't have the
opportunity of being apart of my kids lives, I am very important to two other kids who I could not love any more even if they were my kids. And that is a pretty awesome thing!!

later

2001

2009

Still Alive And Kicking.....

2009-11-30T19:14:00.000-08:00

Yes,believe it or not, I am still hanging out around here! I know it has been awhile since I have posted on regular basis and I am really sorry about that. As I have said before, sometimes life just gets in the way of what you had rather be doing.
But from here on out I should be posting on a pretty regular basis again, and I have alot to share with you about some of the different adventures that I have been having and haven't gotten to share with you yet. So please, just stay hang with me here!

There is one thing I do want to share with you, something that will make my posting on here alot easier. As you all know, last Friday was Black Friday and as usual was a shopping frenzied. I have only ventured out shopping on Black Friday one time, several years ago, and trust me, that was more than enough for this life time for me!!! Well,this past Friday, my dear husband got up at 4am to head out to Target,or at least that is where he told me he was going. He took the Nephew with him so he would not have to go alone. (The Nephew was actually REALLY excited about going with him, at least he was when the left, he sure had lost that excitement by the time they got back home later that day!!)

I called to check on them around 8am when I got up to see where and how they were doing. Well come to find out they had not even made it to Target yet, they went to Best Buy first and had been standing in line for almost 4 hours so he could get
a Net Book at a really low price, 4 hours!! Later in the day they got home, they both looked so tired, the Nephew headed off to bed and Patrick was getting his
second wind because the was heading back out to shop with his cousins. I won't say I thought he was crazy because I know how much he enjoys his shopping and it had been a while since he had been able to do it. But I will tell you something that
really knocked me for a loop. Just before he left to go meet up with his cousins,
he handed me the box with the new Net Book in it and said, "Here I got this for you, you have wanted one for a long time and I couldn't pass up the price".
I have to say I got a little emotional about right then, I was so over whelmed with the thought that he went out at 4 am to hopefully get a chance to get this thing, and then stood in line for 4 hours just to pay for it!!! I couldn't even say anything at that moment, and all of you who really know me know that I am NEVER speechless. He left to go for shopping round #2 and I just sat at my desk with
the unopened box trying to think of a way to say Thank You to someone who
loves me so very much. It has been 3 days now and I am still trying to think
of the right words....

later.

ps..I did not open the box until he came home later that evening, it was a very special gift and I did not think I should open it alone. It's really great!!!!

Commuting To Work In Los Angeles......

2009-11-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

Like most people who live in the LA area, I commute to work everyday. Each day I get up and drive to the other side of the City from where we live to work. Even though it is only 14 miles one day, it can take me any where from 45 mins to well over an hour. This was one of the culture shocks for me when I moved here. All my life, anywhere I had lived, you could drive 14 miles in 15-20 mins, but of course, not in LA.
I have been working in the same area of town since I moved here 7 years ago. I never take the freeway instead I take side streets and and some main avenues and totally stay off the freeways. I get to cut through some really pretty streets in Chinatown,Silverlake and Echo Park, and by doing this, I get to see things on my way to and from work that people on the freeways would never get to see.
Yesterday was like that. It was a beautiful clear morning and it was a little chilly. Just chilly enough to let you know Autumn is here but no where near full swing. I had made my way to Chinatown and had just turned on the side street that lead me up to Sunset Ave, one of the main roads I take across town. As I made the turn I notice there were several police cars parked to one side and there were a crowd of people gathered around some policeman. Since the traffic had slowed down we were inching our way down the street. Now when the weather permits I drive with my windows rolled down, which is what I was doing yesterday. As I go closer I could see two policeman had this older Hispanic guy up against the wall with his hands behind him and they were putting handcuffs on him. Standing a little further down was a very excited younger Hispanic lady talking in Spanish to two other policeman. As I got closer to them I suddenly saw a young Hispanic guy in his early to middle 20s, siting on the sidewalk holding a cloth to the left side of his face and he was covered in blood down the front of his white shirt. As I got closer to him my traffic stopped and I could hear one of the Policeman speaking to a couple of others explaining what happened. It seems the older gentleman (the one in handcuffs) was the gardener for the Apartment building there on the corner. The younger guy and the lady were walking by on the sidewalk when the older gentleman said something to or about the lady as they passed. When the younger man spoke up and told him to talk to her like that, the older gentleman stabbed the guy in the face with the clippers he had in his hand!!!! I thought wow, had I been come through there just a few minutes earlier I might have been a witness to the stabbing!!!
So the rest of my ride to work was much less eventful! BUT, it got interesting again on my way home!!! Of course now that we have changed the time back to normal time, it is dark when I get off work (which I totally HATE in case you were wondering). So that night I thought I would change up my route a little bit and take a different road over to Sunset. So I chose Santa Monica Ave, which I very seldom take because it had the heaviest traffic. So I made my way down Santa Monica with no problems (and much less traffic for some reason) and as I approached my last big intersection before I hit Sunset, I notice all these Policemen on HORSES! Now I am not talking one or two, I am talking 30 -40!! There on the darkened side streets as I made my way down Santa Monica were all these mounted policeman in every intersection, just sitting around talking to each other. I have NEVER seen a Policeman on a horse in the LA area except in parades, but there they were, all over the place! I could not figure just what was going on. But once I hit Sunset, there were no more to be seen. When I got home I checked on the computer and on the late night news but there was no mention of policeman on horses, for any reason.
Now most days as I travel to and from work, I see nothing at all except the parts of town I travel through and all the great homes and beautiful mountains. But just when I least expect it, the regular ride takes on a little excitement as unelected things take place around me, it really makes for an interesting time!
And to think, I would have missed it all had I taken the freeway instead of my back streets!! Perish the thought!!

later!

A LIttle Halloween Treat....

2009-10-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

Just a little Halloween Treat from Patrick,Timmy,the niece and nephew..of of course...ME!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

ps....Thanks Timmy!

Chances....

2009-10-18T22:46:00.000-07:00

Conquering The Bridge...

2009-10-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

For those of you living in the LA/Long Beach area, I am sure that at some time or another you have either seen the Vincent Thomas Bridge or have driven over it. For some odd reason, I really enjoy driving over it, with the windows rolled down and the breeze blowing though the car. I don't know, its just something I like to do.

Now for those of you who don't have a clue what the Vincent Thomas Bridge is, it is a 1500 ft suspension bridge that crosses over the LA Harbor and connects San Pedro to Terminal Island in the LA Harbor. Over the years I have driven over it many times.
But this past Labor Day a friend of mine was in a marathon than ran over the bridge, that is something I just couldn't imagine.

When I found out my friend Mike was going to be apart of a marathon this past Labor Day called, you guessed it..."Conquering the Bridge", I told him I would be there to root him on and experience the whole thing for myself. As I was driving over to San Pedro EARLY that morning, I got to thinking that I had never actually attended a marathon. I had been to and participated in many walks over the year, but never a marathon, so I was a little excited about this myself.

I met Mike a couple of years ago through his girl friend, Cynthia, who is a very close friend of mine and Patrick's. He is a really great guy and I knew that he had run marathons and such before. I guess the thing that really surprised me about this one was that he was going to run the marathon and then go home (the starting line was just a couple of blocks from his apartment), get cleaned up and then go on to work like it was no big deal!! Now let me tell you, there is NO WAY I would be able to get up, run a 5 mile marathon and then go to work like it was no big deal.
I am sure I would be spending the rest of the day just trying to catch my breath and work on getting the feeling to come back into my legs!

So that morning when I got to his apartment, Mike was already down at the event getting registered and such. Cynthia met me and we walked on down to meet up with Mike. When we got there there was already a pretty good crowd gathered and more people were coming in. You could actually feel the excitement as you walked though
the crowd. There were people of all ages taking part in this, guys who were probably no more than 12-13 years old to men and woman who were in their 60s. I noticed a couple of people were going to run barefoot. Now I had read about people running barefoot from my blog buddy Jonah (jonahskye.blogspot.com) and from another blog I keep up with(larunner.blogspot.com). The very concept is nothing new to me because when I was growing up back in East Texas,my brother and cousins and me were always ran around barefoot, that included running through the woods around our house. But seeing people actually going to run a marathon barefoot did come as a big surprise to me.

So the time came and they took off and Cynthia and I sat back an waited for their return. I was actually surprised that in about 35 mins some of the runners were
crossing back over the finish line!! Now I guess I had not given much thought to how
long it would take then to do the run, but here were in a little over 35 mins cheering for those already cross the line. It was really an awesome thing to experience. There was such a show of comradery, no one was out to "beat" anyone, everyone was there to finish the marathon. Cynthia and I started looking for Mike and in what seemed like no time, there he was crossing over the finish line.(you won't see a pic of his crossing the finish line because my camera jammed just as he was getting close to it!!)
The first thing that I noticed about Mike was that even though he had just ran a 5 mile marathon over the Vincent Thomas Bridge, he looked like he had never run at all!! Me, I know just about how haggered I would have looked!, it just would not have been pretty!

So after he was finished, we walked back to his apartment,he got ready and took off for work and Cynthia and I headed to lunch! I was a great morning and I was really glad I was able to be there to be apart of it!!

later.

p.s. Running is something that has always fascinated me but it is something I just did not think I could do myself. Like I said, running was just a part of my life as I was growing up but as I got older and got a car, it just ceased being apart of my life anymore. But over the last few months it is something that has been on my mind a great deal. I know Jonah really loves his running and Billy over at LA Runner does too. They really inspire me that even at my advanced age, LOL, it is not too late to take it up again, it will just take some patience on my part to ease back into it.
You just never know, one day I could be telling you about a marathon I was in on here.

I can promise you I would never look that good after a 5 mile marathon!!

I Say A Little Prayer For You...

2009-10-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

I Just Love My Extended Family.....

A little something from GLEE !

Remembering Matthew....

2009-10-12T06:06:00.000-07:00

I am sure for all of us, there are certain days of the year that stand out because something happened on that particular day that touched our lives, and in some way, changed it forever. For me personally I have two such days this week. Two days that each year make stop and remember right were I was on that day when the event happened.

Can you remember where you were and what you were doing on this day 11 years ago?
I certainly can. I was sitting at my desk in the Desert Aids Project in Palm Springs, California getting ready for the Health Center to open and our first patients to arrive for the day. One of my co-workers came by desk to let me know that the news had just announced that Matthew Shepherd had died. At that moment I felt my heart break and my eyes tear up. For everyone at work that day, including the patients who came in, it was a quiet somber day It like one of our best friends had passed away, and not a one of us ever met him.

Matthew Shepard was by no means a Saint, although at the time of his death the media certainly tried to make it seem like he was. He was an ordinary 21 year old University student. He had always had his share of problems, just like we all do.
Matthew was only 5'2" and weighed somewhere around 110 lbs, and Matthew was Gay.

I am sure most of you remember the media blitz when Matthew was murdered, but I would like to refresh your memory just a little in case you don't remember and
for some of my younger readers who don't know about Matthew.

Matthew was a student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. One night after he and the members of the Lesbian,Gay,Bisexual, Transgendered Alliance had finished up
a meeting to finalize plans for Gay Awareness Week on campus, Matthew decided to go over to the Fireside Lounge and have a beer before calling it a night. That was on October 6. It was at the Fireside that he met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. Matthew was known not to meet a stranger and talked with anyone who wanted to have a conversation. It was around 11:45 that Matthew was seen leaving the Lounge with McKinney and Henderson. It was later revealed the two had figured out that Matt was Gay and they had told him they too were Gay. They left the Lounge in Henderson's truck with Matt sitting in the middle. Once they got away from the bar they
told Matt they had lied to him and they were not Gay and he had been jacked. McKinney demanded Matt's wallet and became enraged when he only had $20.
He began beating Matt in the face,neck and chest with his fists and the butt of
a Smith and Wesson .357 pistol. While all this was happening, Henderson just kept on driving and drove them about 4 miles out into the prairie.
McKinney then pulled Matt out of the truck and continued to punch him and kick him and hit him with the butt of the pistol, while Henderson just stood there and laughed. They later told the authorities that Matthew had screamed for mercy and begged them stop even telling them he had more money they could have back at his apartment if they would just let him go. But instead of believing him, McKinney
ordered Henderson to tie Matt to a near by split rail fence. So Henderson got a piece of close line out of his truck and tied Matt's hands behind him, with the backs of his hand facing each other and then tied him to the fence. The media said that Matt was tied to the fence spread eagle like he was on a cross, but in reality he was sitting down and tied to the bottom of the fence. Matt was still very much aware of what was going on and when McKinney realized that Matt would be able to tell the authorities who had done this to them, he became so enraged that he hit Matt 3 times with the butt of the pistol , crushing Matt's skull, caving it in behind his right ear and rendering him unconscious. It was this act, the family later found out, that ended Matt's life and put him into a coma. It was later calculated that the whole ordeal, from the time they left the lounge until
McKinney dealt the fatal blows, only took about 45 mins.

Eighteen hours would pass before Matt was found. And it was totally by accident.
Aaron Kreifels, he himself a student at the University, came flying by on his mountain bike just about sunset. He hit a rock and took a tumble. As he was getting up he noticed what he thought was a scare crow tied to the fence and went over
to investigate and found Matthew. He ran to the nearest house which was about 250 yards away to get help. He was taken to the hospital in Laramie but it was determined the hospital was not equipped to handle Matt's head injuries, so he was flown to the hospital in Fort Collins, where he died 5 days later, never regaining consciousness. The only reason Matthew was the target that night was because he was Gay.

Judy Shepard, Matthew's Mom, is a truly remarkable woman. Since Matt's death she and her husband have created the Matthew Shepard Foundation, to try and educate people and stop the hate toward the LGBT community. She recently published a book
entitled "The Meaning of Matthew" and I can't urge you enough to read it. It is
an outstanding account of the person Matthew really was and the details
they have learned of what actually happened to him that night and in the days, weeks and months that followed. It gives an eye witness view of the two trials of McKinney and Henderson and how their lives and the life of their younger son Logan, have been changed forever.

So why should what happened to Matthew make such a difference to me. Well you see,
what happened to Matt, well that could certainly happen to me too, just because I am Gay.
There have been times in my life I have been harassed and their have been times in my life I have even feared for my life, just because I am Gay. It happens every day.
Matthew suddenly became every Gay person's friend because we all knew, no matter where we lived in this world, that it can happen to any of us. At the time I am writing this, for the past 10 years, we have been trying to get a Federal Hate crimes Bill passed that would include sexual orientation. Just like it is against the law to discriminate against someone who is Black or someone because she is woman. We do not have a Federal Law that protects those who are Gay, Lesbian or Transgendered.
BUT, right now there is a bill before Congress that looks like it could finally pass, and you know what it is called?, The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill"

So that is why on this day, October 12, each year, I remember Matthew Shepard.
Matthew was just your ordinary run of the mill college student, who happened to be Gay. But because of what happened to Matt, hate crimes again the Gay community was brought to the fore front of the whole world, and this time, they was going to have to be dealt with.

And what happened to Matt....can surely happen to me, or any other GLBT person you know, so pleae never forget Matthew.

later.

p.s. It was by accident that I read Judy Shephard's book this past week. I got it in the mail and since I have had to stay in bed with this cold I have been battling, I started reading it. I realized while I was reading the book that I lived in Casper, Wyoming and attended St Mark's Episcopal Church in Casper, the same time the Shepards were there also. Changes are I had seen Matt helping attend during the Church Services and could have very possible met his parents in passing. Sometimes in looking back, the world certainly is a small place.

National Coming Out Day 2009

2009-10-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

Today is National Coming Out Day in my Community!! Actually it has grown into an International celebration in the LGBT Community. Last year I posted my own Coming Out story so if you missed it last year, or just want to read it again (like I just did!), just go to the blog archive on the right and click on "2008" and hit "October", and there it is!

And for any of you that just may be wondering....Yep, I'm still Gay!! and proud of it!!

I do want to share one little thing with you here. Thankfully I am close to my nephews, I love all three of them with all my heart. My brother's oldest son, lets call him John (well that is his name), and I were talking on the phone last week, and he was telling me about a night out he had with his Dad that week. He told me they had talked a lot about me (well of course they would!!) and my brother had
told him that when he first found out that I was Gay, it was really hard on him.
But my nephew told me he just looked at his Dad and "You know Dad, I wouldn't have
Uncle Jaymes any other way". That that really choked me up.

later!

Los Angeles Welcomes Gustavo Dudamel !!!

2009-10-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

This past Thursday evening I got to do something I have wanted to do for several years now...attend a concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra!!!! But mind you, it was not just ANY concert, it was the Inaugural Concert of It's new Musical Director......Gustavo Dudamel!!!!!!!! Yep, and I got to go....FOR FREE!!! which just made the whole thing a little sweeter!

I have loved what my little brother always called "long haired music" ever since
I was in grade school. Actually I can not remember a time when I did not like listening to Mozart and all his buddies. My Mother thought this was wonderful and bought me several records (yes then we had records)and I would play them for hours.
If this was not a sign to them they had a little Queen in the making I don't know would have given them a clue. (Well maybe one Christmas when I had asked for a certain doll, and got a set of cap guys instead, and I looked up at my Mom after I had opened up the guns and said,"WHY?", that might have also been a clue for them)
Last week as I was listening to NPR as I was driving to work, they made the announcement that the LA Phil was having a special drawing for tickets to the
outside showing of the Inaugural Concert of Gustovo. All you needed to do was go the the LA Phil website and give them your email address and name,and on Tuesday their computer was going to select 2000 names at random and those people would win 2 ticket to the event on Thursday. So I made a note of myself ( as my brother says, "Note to self") and when I got to work I signed up, and forgot about it, sorta.

If you live anywhere close to Los Angeles you have known for several weeks now that Gustavo was coming.You may not have had a clue who he was, but you knew he was coming. He is on all the sides and rears of every bus in town. He face is smiling down from many, many, many bill boards all over town. Thankfully, he is a nice looking man and we don't have to look at a hideous face plastered all over the place!!

So on Tuesday I was at work and something made me remember that was the day they were selecting the names for the concert so I logged on and check and of course there was nothing in my mail box from the LA Phil. And the little voice in the back of my head said, "You really did not expect to win now did you??" So I just went back work and really did not think anything about it. The last hour of our day that day was really slow (you do not say dead in a Doctor's office) so I was killing time before we could leave and I checked my email again and there it was...."Congratulation, you have been selected to attend the LA Phil concert this Thursday evening!". I promise you I read it 3 times before it stuck in my mind.
I was so excited. I have always wanted to hear the LA Phil in concert but the tickets have always been a little pricey for me so I just did not sweat it. But now I have another task I had to do.....find someone who would go with me, because I knew Patrick would say, "That's great Baby, who are you going to take with you?" because I knew he wouldn't go. Not that he doesn't like "Long Haired Music", he's Gay, he has to, its a requirement for us. But I knew his work hours would interfer
with him being able to get there when we had to check in. So I texted our friend,Timmy, and in no time he texted back that he would LOVE to, and we were set.

So Thursday evening I met Timmy at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown LA and we went through our security check, I had been sent a special email with a number on it that I had to bring with me and I had to have a picture ID. Once we went through security we were ushered into the outdoor Plaza were Timmy and I and 1500 of our closest friends were going to watch a simulcast of the Concert that was taking place inside beautiful Walt Disney Concert Hall, right across the street. We got to our place around 6, the concert started at 7. So we settled in and ate dinner (Timmy brought some things from a Chinese bakery and I bought what was probably one of the best hot dogs I have ever had from the vendor that was set up by us)and as more people started coming in and sitting around us, we started talking with them also.
EVERYONE was excited. You could honestly feel the excitement in the air.

The darkness started falling around us and the magical time was approaching. Then, right on time at 7pm, the large screen came alive and we were inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall right along with the 2000 people decked out in their tuxes and evening gowns ( and I was getting to wear a comfortable shirt and slacks and in my sock feet!). When Gustavo came on to the stage everyone went crazy. Shouting and clapping and whistling. The energy was amazing.

Now the concert was in two parts. The first half was a world premiere of a new work called "City Noir" by a man named Adams. Well to sum it up quickly for you....I did not like it. It was a modern piece and I am not a fan of most modern classical music.
For about 45 mins I listened to music that I could not get into or make head or tails of. And from what I heard around me at intermission I was not alone.

BUT, then came the second half and it was "Symphony No 1 in D major" by Mahler and it was
simply beautiful. As I looked around during the performance everyone looked as if they were in a trance. It was awesome. I really did not want it to end. After each movement, the crowd would go crazy with applause and in the end, Gustavo Dudamel received a standing ovation both in and outside of the Disney Hall. To sum it up,
it was a truly amazing evening. Wonderful music under a clear, starry night in downtown Los Angeles, truly amazing.

later!

p.s. I would like to thank our friend Timmy for coming with me to exeperience this amazing evening. He and I and Patrick have had many adventures in the 9+ years we have been tegether, but it is a very rare thing that I get to spend some quality alone time with Timmy. The hour we got to share before the concert started just
added to the greatness of the evening for me. thanks my friend!

(to see any of the pictures in a large format,simpley double click on the pic)

Just Another Reason I Don't Take Sleep Meds...

2009-10-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

All of my life I have had to be careful when it comes to the medication I take. I have a "delicate" system so I have been told and when most meds says to take two of something I can only take one. When I first started taking blood pressure medications several years ago, the first day I took it I fainted at work because the dosage I was prescribe lowered my blood pressure too fast! (Now mind you I was at work when I fainted but I have been told I fainted in a very lady like manner!!) So the Doctor cut the dosage in half for me and it has always worked fine.

I have never been a fan of sleep medication and have actually only used them twice in my life. Once I was having an episode of insomnia that happens to me very once in awhile so a friend recommended I take a Tylenol PM, sounded good to me, so I did.
It made a Zombie out of me all the next day, I got 2 good nights sleep off of 1 pill!! And then a couple of years ago when I lost my job a dear friend of mind gave me 2 Ambien and told me to only use half whenever I could not sleep because of the stress of losing my job, that was over 2 years ago and I still have one pill left!!

But last week, I came across something that really floored me. Most of you know I work in an Doctor's office and one of the things I do is deal with the Drug Reps. Thankfully the ones who call on our office are all really nice and some I know from the last office I worked in. When they leave the medication samples they also leave he product info sheets that tells all about the medications. It was the end of the day and I was clearing stuff off my desk getting ready to go home when I found one of the product sheets a Rep left that day, it was for a sleep medication. I just glanced over it and could not believe what I was reading. You can actually take this medication (one of my Docs said it applies to any of them) and get up and do things and not remember you did it when you wake up. Now I want you to take a look at the list...some of the things listed I really don't mind not remembering but a couple I sure as hell want to remember if I get the chance to do them them !!!
So now I have another reason not to take sleep medications.....

later!!

Where Did Summer Go?

2009-09-21T19:38:00.001-07:00

Well for those of you who may not know it, today is the official last day of Summer.
Tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox and Autumn officially begins. In Paganism, it is called Mabon. It is the day when the Day and Night are divided equally. For me personally,it starts one of my most favorite times of year..Autumn.

As excited as I am about the changing seasons, I have one question for each of you who reads my blog...."Where did the Summer go?"

It was just a few days ago that we were in Spring time, the flowers were all starting to grow and bloom and we were just starting to slip into Summer time, and all the sudden, here we are at the last day of Summer !! I don't know about you but I had things planned out that I wanted to do this Summer,and not a one of them did I get around to!! I think one thing that faked us out is that we did not have a very warm Summer for the most part. I wasn't until August that it even started getting hot. July certainly wasn't a hot month as it usually is. So with only a few weeks of really hot weather for us here in Sunny Southern California, it just did not seem like we had much of a Summer!!

Even though Summer seemed much shorter this year, I did have several very cool adventures, some I have blogged about and some I will catch up on soon.
For instance, on July 4th, I attended my very first Anime Convention with the Nephew.
If you are not sure just what Anime is, Google it, it is a form of Japanese Art, cartoons to us here. I have to admit I really did not know much about it when I volunteered to go, but I really had an amazing time. It started out in May when the Nephew said a group of his friends were going to meet up on July 4th at the Anime Convention at Convention Center here in LA. Now I knew he would not be allowed to go by himself so I told him I would go with him. So the morning of July 4th, we caught the Metro train in South Pasadena and rode it downtown to the Convention Center.
It was much easier than me driving down and having to pay for parking. I am sure the Nephew had a good time with his friends and I had a fun time getting to know a whole new world I had no idea existed!

At the beginning of Summer, I went hiking in Eaton Canyon outside of Pasadena with Patrick and some of his friends. It is a really beautiful place and a great hike. I will be posting about that adventure very soon.

Also this summer I got to do something I have wanted to do ever since I moved here (almost 7 years ago!!), I toured the City Hall here in LA. It is quite an amazing building. I joined the Summer tour put on by the LA Conservancy and it was really enjoyable. For those of you who may not know, I LOVE history, especially the history of the area I live in. When I moved to Palms Springs back in 1987, I dove into the history of the area. By the time I moved in 2000, I could give a pretty good history tour of Palm Springs and the surrounding area!! And I am enjoying doing the same thing with Los Angeles, there is SO much history here, and not just the Hollywood history!!

Of course we made a few trips to Disneyland. Even though we have our Annual Pass, we usually don't go to Disneyland during the Summer much, way too many people!!
A couple of weeks ago we decided on the spur of the moment to go see the fireworks on a Friday night, we figured it would be safe....WRONG!!!!!. I can not even begin to tell you how crowded it was. So we went to Main Street and staked out our space, and once the fireworks were over, we pretty much waited in the stores for awhile and headed back home. There are far more better times for us to go, like next weekend for GAY DAYS!!!!!

We had several more fun adventures this summer. I went to Palm Springs and had lunch with my Gal Pal, LB. I ended up spending the night there with my sister Doris(many of you know him as Jake). Patrick and I went to see the Pagent of the Masters in Laguna Beach(thanks to our friends Cindy and Jeff). A couple of weeks ago we took the Neice and Nephew to the Pantages to see "Legally Blonde" (which was really fun!) and just this past weekend Patrick and I went to see "Stand Up Comics..the Drag Queens" over the Broad Theater in Santa Monica. (I have not laughed so much in a very long time.It was taped and will be on the LOGO channel in 2010, I will keep you posted).

As much fun as we did have this Summer, to me, it is over way too fast. Growing up, the Summer seemed to last for so long. But I have been warned many times along my Journey that as you get older, times passes more quickly. You think so? I am hoping not because I have a whole host of things I want to do that I have not got to do yet!!

Hope you had a fun Summer and now as we slow down and tranition into Autumn, I hope each day brings a smile to you face and may you have many adventures along the way to Winter!!

later.

Dawn...Starting Out A New Day

2009-09-07T21:34:00.000-07:00

Since today is Labor Day and I have the day off (Yeah!) I thought I would take advantage of it and do something I have wanted to do for a long time, stand on my favorite cliff over looking the ocean and watch the sun rise.

I had plans to be in San Pedro early this morning to watch my friend Mike run in the "Conquer the Bridge" 5 mile run, so I just got up a little earlier and headed for the cliffs at White Point Beach,on the western side of San Pedro. This place is one of my favorite places to be. It is a high cliff overlooking the ocean and you can literally see for miles in all directions.

This morning I was on the cliff just minutes before the Sun peaked over the horizon (and through the clouds) to start a brand new day. As I was walking along the path to the cliffs, I was welcomed by a light breeze that was cool and filled with the smell of the ocean below. As I reached the point where you could see the beach line below I was surprised at the several other people who were stationed about on the beach and perched on the rocks below, also waiting for the sunrise.

Since it was cloudy I was afraid we would not be able to see the sunrise, but just
as it was time, the clouds parted some and there the Sun was peaking over the horizon. It was so quiet with only the sound of the ocean hitting the rocks below.
It was so beautiful. I just stood there and took it all in.

So often I think we are so busy and hurried in the morning that we miss so many beautiful sunrises. Each day a new day dawns for us and we are too busy to see it, we just take it for granted, and we miss so much beauty.

Just like everyone else I seem to be so busy in my everyday life. Always have somewhere to go and somewhere to be. I have been so "busy" it seems doing "stuff" this year that here we are in September already and I can't even remember what I have doing all this months and how it got to be so late in the year already!!

Standing there this morning, watching the sun peak over the horizon once again, like it has done everyday for thousands of years, I remembered that I need to slow down and take in all the wonderful things each day holds for me, and to pay attention and enjoy it all, everyday.

Hope you will join me in doing that.

later

A Tale of an Electronie Toy Junkie.

2009-08-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you but I am glad this Monday is over!! Mondays for me are the hardest day in my work week, and today was no exception. Some time I will share with you what a day in my work life is like, but for today, lets just say when the day was over, my butt was dragging about two feet behind me!! But now that Monday is over, bring on the rest of the week!!

Some of you know that over the last couple of weeks I have been having problems with my cell phone. Now at one time I swore I would never have a cell phone, I just did not see the need to have one, no one needed to get ahold of me that bad, if they did they could either call me at home or in the case of an emergency,call me at work. But then I met Patrick, and things changed. After we had been seeing each other for a few weeks, he totally surprised me with....a cell phone. I remember it was about as big as the phone here in the house and it was blue (I like blue!). It was connected to his phone on his calling plan and we could talk to each other and it did not cost us anything. It was good think he did that, with him living in LA and me in Palms Springs. I remember seeing his phone bill one month and we had talked over 3000 minutes that month, imagine how much our phone bills would have been. Ma Bell would have really loved us!!!

So a couple of weeks ago my phone started having problems charging. I found out it was the internal connection on the phone that was broken and I had to wiggle the end of the charging cord around to get it to charge and then one day it just wouldn't charge anymore, and I was without a phone. That was ok for a couple of days and then
I started going through a sort of cell phone withdrawal. I am sure they have to have a group like AA for former cell phone users!! So finally Patrick went with me to Verizon to have my phone check out and yes, it was dead and could not be repaired.
Of course they would be happy to sell me a new phone but it would be January 2010 before I could upgrade to a new phone and get a deal. So I decided I just could not spend the money right now so I had them switch my phone plan back to my old Razor phone I still had, that would work just fine until January. Have you ever had to go back to driving an old car with a standard transmission once you have driven a new
fully loaded Jaguar??? Trust me there is ALOT of difference!! But you know, you have to do what you have to do now a days and the Razor would just have to do till January.

On Thursday Patrick called me at work around noon and told he was going to surprise me with something but he found out he had to tell me....he had bought me a new phone and it was going to be activated that afternoon and he had to tell me because my
Razor would not work anymore. Can you say EXCITED!! Well to say I was excited is an understatement. But I would have go wait until he go home to see what it was.

Well, let me tell you what my Hunny got me, it is the Verizon EnVtouch. It is really beautiful and I can not even begin to tell you here all the features it has. It is like he bought me a new computer with alot of bells and whistles. It is amazing.
I even makes phone calls!!! It is going to take me awhile to learn this one but it is going to be fun learning it!

That was Thursday. So Friday morning I get up and started my daily routine. A part of my daily routine is to plug my iPod into my computer so it can update my daily podcasts I listen to. Well the screen came up to update and then something happened, it said "there are songs you bought on the iPod that is not in the iTunes
on your computer, do you want to add them to iTunes?" Now I thought this was strange but I had seen this once before when I had bought some music from iTunes and did not like it and deleted it from my iPod, so I click yes.....and then the unthinkable happened. it cleared ALL the music off my iPod and when it was finished (I had walked away once it started and did no notice it then) all that was on it was about 480 songs... I had over 5000 on it to begin with. I wish I could fine the words to express to you ALL the emotions I felt right then, but I just can't. When I went back to check it before I left for work, I just sat there, with eyes as big as plates and my mouth totally wide open, and I remember I was breathing pretty heavy.
I wanted to scream but it just wouldn't happen.I looked over at Patrick and said,
"It cleared my iPod"....it was a sad, sad scene.

There was nothing I could do right then as I was leaving for work. I kept thinking about it all day. I had been collecting music for the last several years from different places and I knew alot of it I would probably never come across again.
But what can you do? So when I got home I started looking over to Apple.com and tried to find some answers as to what to do but found nothing. So I went to my Music folder on my Computer and started looking around, for what I am not sure but I had to be doing something till Patrick got home. And then, right there in my Music folder, was a fold that had ALL the music that had previously been on my iPod. But for some reaond it was not in the folder that currently held the music that was on my iPod now. This really confused me (which is not a hard thing to do when it comes to computer stuff). So when Patrick got home,instead of finding me in a stupor like he and left me that morning, I was sitting there with my confused face on. So when he came into our office, I calmly told him what I had found,and he looked at it and said," you just have to make it read the list from that folder", and walked over and sat down at his desk. Why sure!! I know how to do that, NOT!!! So he came back over, and clicked a couple of buttons and BAMM, it started downloading all my old music from the folder I found,back on to my iPod!! It was just that simple, for him.
Well it actually took about 2 hours for ever thing to reload to my iPod. After it was finished I had lost all my play lists and the counters at the end of each song was blank, so I lost all my numbers of how many times I had listen to each song and when.
But at least I had all my music back!! I was very thankful

It was later the next day that I was thinking about all the gadgets are on my new phone and how thankful I was that I got my music back on my iPod and it was then that I realized without a doubt......I am an electronic toy junkie!! How did I ever
live a fulfilling life before I got a cell phone and an iPod???? Some answers to life's questions you will just never know!!

later

Hiking in the Lower Arroyo Seco Nature Park

2009-08-18T20:38:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday was such a beautiful day I just could not stay inside!! Right now I have 3 hikes I would really like to do, one involves the bridges over the LA River, one involves the Historic District in downtown LA and the third one is hiking in the Arroyo Seco outside of Pasadena. Since it was a perfect day to be outside, and the fact that I have been wanting to be out in the "woods", hiking in the Arroyo Seco won out!

Now for those of you who have not idea what the Arroyo Seco is, it is a water way that flows from the San Gabriel Mountains down through the commnunites of Altadena, Pasadena, South Pasadena, Montecito Heights and Lincoln Heights and joins the LA River close to downtown LA. The Tongva people (native people of this region) called this tributary Hahamongna, which translates "place of flowing waters and fruitful valley". But the early Spanish expeditions looked at the area in a totally different light and named it the Arroyo Seco which means "dry creek". If you have ever driven over the Colorado Street bridge in Pasadena, you have passed over the Arroyo Seco.

Now I have driven over the Colorado Street bridge many times since I have lived here and I have always wanted to be down there in the Seco hiking but I really did not
know how to get down there. One of my blog buddies, Jonah, (Pacific Blue Sky Diamonds Blog) talks about running in the Seco and how beautiful it is and I have always wanted to experience it for myself. So recently I came across a great book of hikes along the L A River, "Down by the Los Angeles River" by Joe Linton, and in it it has hikes ......in the Arroyo Seco!!!! I was excited. So this past Sunday
I took my camera, my bottle of water, and my red cap and headed down to the Arroyo Seco!!

Now the part I decided to hike is known as the Lower Arroyo Seco and my hike started at the Lower Arroyo Seco Nature Park. I like this area because it had a parking lot to leave my car and....it has restrooms!!

The area is really beautiful, even in the dryness of summer. The trail is well marked and there are all kinds of wild life from birds to butterflies and squirrels to hot guys running shirtless along the trail(my personal favorite wild life!),
After walking a short distance, you come to a stream that has flowing water and tall grass. Even though you are slap dab in the middle of a metropolitan area, you would think you are miles from no where. It is so quiet and peaceful that you can hear the water running along the stream. I have so many different kinds of butterflies it was amazing. I can't wait until Spring when all the wild flowers bloom!

The trail itself is on level ground, there is not elevation so it is an easy hike.
As you go further East, you come closer to the Colorado Street bridge, except this time you are under it!! I could see it in the distance and all though you can hear the cars on the bridge, you can not see them. The closer you get to the bridges the more amazing they are. As you drive over them you really do not pay attention to how huge they are, but as you stand and look up to the under belly of the bridges, it is simply breath taking how huge they are. As you stand there and look up you can't help but be amazed at how they could build something so huge and yet so beautiful.

The trail goes well beyond the bridges and I walked to the end where the trail ends at Arroyo Blvd, so I turned around and hiked back along the trail until I got back to the parking lot. It was a beautiful hike in such a peaceful place. I encountered several other people out waking,many with their dogs. I had a really fun time.

This next weekend I hope to be back in the Arroyo for a different hike. With the weather here in LA being so wonderful right how, how could anyone stay indoors!!

later!

Mike the Poet

2009-08-11T22:43:00.001-07:00

Mike the Poet was my tour guide in July when I attended the Downtown LA Artwalk. Here is a video of our tour,and yes I am in it,see if you can find me!!

Los Angeles Downtown Art Walk..a must do!

2009-08-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

Want to tell you about a monthly event here in good old Los Angeles that I think everyone, yes everyone!,should do at least once, the Downtown Art Walk that takes place the second Thursday night of each month. Now for most you, thinking about being in downtown Los Angeles at night will probably send shivers down your spine, images of dark streets that look like Skid Row immediately come to mind, but rest assured, it is anything but something like that!! I know this for a fact because just last month, I attended it myself!!

Now I will be the first to tell you that driving in downtown LA really scares the hell out of me!!...all those one way streets and very fast traffic is a terror for me, that is why I usually just take the train downtown whenever I go to something there, but I had reserved a place on a tour that night and I was really afraid I would not have time to drive where I normally catch the Metro and make it back downtown in time after work, so I took a deep breathe and headed downtown after I got off work that night. True to form when I got downtown the traffic was nutts (for me)and even thought I had a pretty good idea where I needed to go, I could not find it.
Well after circling streets for what seemed hours (only about 10 minutes I realized later) I found a cheap parking lot ($5) and just pulled in, not even sure how far away I was from where I needed to be, but actually I was just a couple of blocks away from where my tour started.

Now the Art Walk starts at 6pm and as I found my way to where I needed to be (the Lost Souls Cafe), you could tell the foot traffic was changing from working people going home to people coming out for the Art Walk. Since I had never been to this before I really had no idea what to expect. Yes there are several Art Galleries that you get to tour for free but also there are Artists of all kinds showing their Art in building open only for that night, building that were once downtown businesses but are now closed and have been for quiet a while. And everywhere you go there is music of all kinds, live music!! It creates such an awesome atmosphere, something you truly have to experience to understand.

So I made my way to the alley where the Lost Souls Cafe is located. Sitting there in the alley in front of the cafe was the table where you check in for the tours. Now the tours are lead my different people who volunteers to take a group of people through the streets and show then the different aspects of the Art Walk. Now when you do go, I HIGHLY recommend you sign up and take one of these tours. I would have missed so much had I not done this. And I would HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend you sign up for Mike the Poet's tour, he is simply amazing. He is a 3rd generation Los Angeles native and very proud of it. He takes you on an amazing tour and stops and at different places and preforms his original poetry for you, which all had to do with Los Angeles.

I was really captivated by the whole tour, first he took us into the Museum of Neon Art that had move to downtown and from there we took a back hallway into what use to be a very busy bank in the old days. Everywhere Artists were showing their different kinds of Art and people were laughing and talking, while listening to a live band.
From there we went down some side streets, Mike telling us about the history of the area we were in and stopping along the way to view differenet places. We even stopped in this old movie house, the Regent, that had not been used in MANY years. In the lobby there were different Artists and when you make your way into the main movie theater, all the seats are long gone but they are showing some kind of Art movie on the original screen, which I might say is very small according to today's standards!! lol.

Mike took us to an open air street fair where there was just about anything you might want to buy! It was amazing. I guess at one time these vendors were at different places along the street during the Art Walk but the powers that be decided they could not do that anymore so the opened up this parking lot where they all show their stuff, and again there was a live band playing some great music.

We made our way on down a little more and went to what became one of my favorite places on the tour. We went up to the pent house of this old empty building ( at one time it had been an office building when Downtown LA was really busy). There in the penthouse was several Artists showing their stuff and we were allowed to go out on to the roof and see the awesome view of Downtown LA at night. It was breathtaking.

The old Million Dollar Hotel sign has been renovated and that night they turned it on, just beautiful. It was here that I took my leave after telling Mike goodbye(and thank you for a great time and I just happened to buy a CD of his work, which I love) and made my way back to my car. By now it was around 9:30 and the streets of downtown LA were FULL!! I heard the next day there was an estimated crown of 6000 people that night..it was so much fun!! I realized as I made my way back to my car that actually we had only gone about 3 blocks on the entire tour, and saw and experience so much!

The next Downtown Art Walk is going to be this coming Thursday, August 13. If you can, I would go and just hang out and see some great Art and listen to some great music. There are all kinds of places to eat there too and there are a few food vendors along the way. Hey also have these brightly painted buses that go up and down the streets and you can wave one down and get on,they are free!!
And I just happen to know that Mike the Poet is going to be leading another tour this Thursday, and you might just want to congratulate on him for being a new Pappa!
He and his wife recently had their first baby, just about a week after the last Art Walk!!

You can find all the information you need to have a great time at http://downtownartwalk.com. Unfortunately I will not be able to go this month, I will be attending a lecture at the Annenberg Space for Photography, but GO, HAVE A GOOD TIME!! and let me know what you you think!!

later!

p.s. On top of all the fun I had, I also got to meet this year's Doo Da Parade, reigning Queen!!!! She's a sweetie.

Sometimes It Just Slaps You Up Beside The Head..

2009-07-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

My age has never been something that bothered me. I turned 56 this year and I am very happy that I made it to that number!! So many of my generation of Gay men were not as fortunate as I am, my generation was the hardest hit when the AIDS epidemic started.

But yesterday as I was driving to work, it dawned on me....it was 50 years ago this year I started first grade!! And then last night an old school mate of mine emailed me that they had started planning our 40th High School reunion for 2011!!!

All of the sudden it hit me....I'm not a Twinky anymore!!!!

later.

Starting A Whole New Week....

2009-07-19T21:27:00.000-07:00

If you are like me, without really thinking, you just consider Monday as the start of your week. Guess we do that since Monday is our first day of work for the new work week.
But today I got to thinking about it and yes indeed, Sunday is the first day of the week! For me, just thinking about it like that kinda changed how I look at this new week. Like most of you, I tend to dread Mondays. Monday is really and truly my roughest day of the week, work wise that is. I am always saying if I can get through Monday, the rest of the week is a breeze. How Monday turns out usually sets how the rest of my week is gonna run, as far as work goes that is.

But in line with that kind of thinking, if the rest of my week goes how my day went today, then let me tell you, I am headed into a really great week. I started out my
day today by driving over to Long Beach and sitting on the bluff over looking the ocean and watching what was going on. You all know I LOVE the beach so getting to start out my day like that was awesome. I watched the people running on the beach, riding their bikes, walking their dogs. I got to see dolphins playing the water and I watch a guy (well I guess it was a guy) in a kayak paddle along the shore and getting an up close look at the dolphins playing. After a while I headed over to pick up my friend Phillip, who lives in Long Beach, and we headed out to breakfast. We over to a place I had not been to before called the Coffee Cup Cafe. It was such a fun place.

It is a very popular place to so as we waited for our table, Phillip and I caught up on what has been going on with us. The menu selection is huge and the food is really good.

Phillip and I decided to drive over to San Pedro and just hang out some so after we drove along the beach and visit the White Bluff Park, we found ourselves at the Ports O Call. The Ports O Call is built right on the water and is comprised of all kinds of shops and eateries. The last time I visited there several years ago, about half of the shops were closed, but it was really good to see all the different shops open and the place was so busy!!

So after that I dropped Phillip back at this place and headed home for a much needed Sunday afternoon siesta! So if today is any indication as to how this week is going to go for me...I am gonna have a really great week!!! Hope you do too!

later

San Diego, Here We Come!

2009-07-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

Well for any of you that live in the Northern Hemisphere know that Summer is upon us! So what better way to spend a nice summer day than to do a ROAD TRIP!!
Since this weekend is Gay Pride Weekend in San Diego, Patrick and I decided a week or so ago that we would just tootle (that's Texan for "drive on down")to San Diego today and watch the Gay Pride Parade . Now we both really enjoy going to San Diego but for some reason it has been quiet a while since we have been, so we figure this would be the perfect day to go. Besides who doesn't like a good parade now and then!

So we were up and on the road by 8 am this morning (yes it is true,up, showered, dressed,the whole thing!). It was a really beautiful day but the temperature was already on the rise as we left. The drive down was really beautiful, the traffic was great and we were able to make good time. We got there around 9:45 and since the parade did not start until 11, we had plenty of time to find a parking space for the car and a parking space on the parade route of us! We again were lucky and found a great place to park the car with easy access to get out once the parade was over.

Now San Diego Pride is the 5th largest Pride in the USA. The parade today consisted of over 150 entries with an estimated crowd of 160 thousand people standing on the side lines watching the parade!!! The LGBT community in San Diego is very serious about celebrating their Pride. So we walked around some looking for just the right spot for us. We finally setting for a spot just a few blocks from the start of the parade and settled in, Patrick in his chair and me standing behind him with our umbrella. I should mention here, THERE IS NO SHADE ON THE PARADE ROUTE..NONE!!!!
I can not even begin to describe for you just how HOT it was in San Diego today, and add a little humidity to that and that spells misery for these two LA city Queens.
There parade was 2 1/2 hours long and guess what, we stayed for all of it.

After the parade was over we headed back to the car. We were suppose to meet up with some friends from Palm Springs who were also there for lunch but that did not work out so we headed off to find some food...and shade. We ended up having lunch at
the Hortan Plaza Mall. It is a cute outdoors mall we like to go to when we are down there. We walked around some after we ate and was trying to decide what we should do next.

Patrick knows how much I love the ocean so after we rode around alittle he suggested we head over the Maritime Museum. We had gone to dinner near there with a friend a few years ago when we went to Pride but I did not remember much about it. They have several old ships and sailing boats anchored there for you to tour. It is a fascinating place. So we walked around there some and then we decided to head home.
So off we went on our way back to LA. After a brief stop in Oceanside for Ice Cream (what is a road trip without ice cream) and Carlsbad to see the beautiful boyson the beach, we headed home.

Even though it was sort of a whirl wind trip, we really did have allot of fun today and saw some really beautiful sites (I am not talking about the surfers on the beach in Carlsbad although they certainly added to the enjoyment of our day!!) I am sure once in starts cooling off in the Fall, we will be heading back to San Diego for weekend, it is a really great place to go to get away from LA!!

later!

And Her Name Was Jennifer

2009-07-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

We all have certain days in our lives that are in themselves special. It is not a day we "celebrate" in any certain way, it is a day that somewhere in our past, a very important event took place in our lives. And on that day each year we pause to remember that event and how it changed our lives forever. Today is such a day for me.
By no means is it a sad day and I really do not want you to take this as a sad blog entry, but it is a very special day to me, and I have decided to it with you.

Most of you know that at one time in my twenties and early thirties, I was married.
My wife's name was Louise and everyone called her Lou. I just 21 and she was 18 when we married. At the time I was in Seminary (yes at that time I was Rev. James Neff) and she was just finishing up High School. To be honest, that seems like a whole life time ago.

I had dropped out of Seminary and we were living in West Texas in the town of Odessa when we first got the news that we were going to be parents, We had almost been married a year and a half at that time. She was a housewife and I was working as a Machinest (sounds really butch doesn't it!!). To say we were suprised would be an understatement but we were extremely happy and excited. Since both sets of parents
lived in East Texas, we let them know they were going to be grandparents by sending them a pair of baby booties in the mail. Lou's parents were estatic, it would be their first grandbaby, and my parents, well let's just say they were not as excited at the time.

I had never really been around a pregnant woman before, I mean on a day to day basis. I was there when my sister had her 3 kids but I did not live with her day to day. Let's just say it was a learning experience. At first Lou had really bad morning sickness and many our days started with her waking up and running to the bathroom to throw up. I tried to be supportive of her when it first started but after about the 3rd time I ended up on my knees next to her by the commode throwing up too, she said it was ok if I was not real supportive and just get her a wash cloth when she was finished, that seemed to work allot better.

So the months rolled along and things went really well. Lou was a really athletic person and was on a City volleyball team right up until she was 8 months along.
As the months went along, Lou got bigger and bigger. She walked everyday, played volleyball at least a couple of times a week and was just very active. One night
I went to watch her play, she was an agressive player to say the least. She could come out of no where and spike the ball over the net before the other team knew what happened. Well like I said, as her pregnancy went on, she got BIGGER. This particular night I was there watching her play, the opposing team served the ball to her team, Lou was on the front line. It was kinda like slow motion for a few seconds, she was running toward the net, the guy on the oppoing team was running for the net and suddenly it was not slow motion anymore, Lou jumped up to spike the ball, her stomach and the baby went under the net and slammed the poor guy from the opposing team who was also running toward the net. He literally went flying backwards and hit the floor. I was on my feet in a second. She had literally slammed into him with the baby and knocked him down!! He was on the ground and Lou was still standing there acting like nothing out of the ordnary had happened. The referee stopped the game and ran over to check on Lou as the other poor player's team mates ran over to check on him. When it was determined that everyone was ok, they gave Lou's team a foul for her hitting the other player with the baby!! Her team still won the game!!

That was one of the last games Lou played that year. The next week her Doctor decided no more streneous activity and stopped her bike riding, volley ball and tennis games. He did encourgae her to walk eveyday but for someone as active as Lou, that really was not enough.

A week or so later, Lou started not feeling well. A trip to the doctor showed she had developed toximia and he put her on total bed rest. It was then that he told us he had made a mistake and should have let her keep being as active as she had been for awhile longer.

Lou's mother had planned on coming out to help her when the baby was born, but she came out early instead. There were regular trips to the doctor to keep tabs on how the baby was doing and things went really well. One afte noon while we were out walking (at the furtherest point of our walk away from our house)her water broke!!
As I said I had not been around a pregnant woman before so I immediately though she would have the baby right there!! But we slowly made it back to the house and to the hopital where after having a 24 hour labor...Lou gave birth to our first child..
a beautiful little girl....whom we named Jennifer.

I honestly do not think I have every seen a more beautiful baby in my whole life.
When they brought her out of the delivery room and let me hold her, I cried. I think for the very first time it really hit me that I was a Dad and I was totally responsible for this little girl who was looking up at me. It is a really sweet over whelming feeling.

Jennifer was such a sweet baby. She did not cry much but she sure did smile allot.
When we was a couple months old we made the trip back to East Texas so my parents and all our relatives and friends could see the new baby. We had driven about all night to get to my parents, and when we got there, my Mom was sitting on the front porch waiting for us. She walked out to the car and without hugging us or anything, took Jennifer out of my arms and turned right back around and went in the house and left us standing in the yard. Lou and I just laughed. We spent a week at home that trip and we decided we really needed to move back to East Texas so Jennifer could be around her Grand parents. So about a month later, we did move back and it indeed was a very good thing. We moved in September.

Christmas that year was a big event because it was Jennifer's first Christmas. We always spent Christmas Eve with my family and then drove over to Lou's parents where we spent the night and had Santa Clause on Christmas morning.

The week after I celebrated my 24th birthday, Jennifer came down with a cold. Lou took her to her pediatrician to make sure she was ok and he told Lou she had an upper respitory infection and gave her some anti-biotics. I was at work and after seeing the Doctor they stopped by my work so Jennifer could see her Daddy.
By the time I got home that afternoon, you could tell she did not feel well. She cried so much that night that we had to take turns holding her and trying to comfort her. I was around 4 am that Lou's Mom showed up at our house because she could not sleep for worrying about the baby. Right after she arrived, Jennifer stopped crying.
I was holding her and when I went to move her she was very limp, we immediately jumped into Lou's Mom's car to get her to the Emergency Room 25 miles away. Lou's Mom was driving, Lou was holding Jennifer and I was in the back seat. When we arrive at the hospital, she was not breathing. They told us that she had passed away somewhere along the way to the hospital. Her upper respitory infection had progress into viral pneumonia. She was 8 months and 10 days old.

I learned many things about life and myself during the next few months. I learned you can actually live through more pain than you could ever imagine you could. I learned that even though there are days you wish you could lay down and die because the pain in your heart is so great...you won't. I learned it is ok to let other's be there for you when you don't know what else to do. And as time goes by, the pain lessens and it becomes bearable and after a while longer, you can learn to live with it and go on with your life.

Today would have been Jennifer's 33rd birthday. It is hard for me to really grasp that fact. Many times through the years I have wondered what she would have looked like as she grew up and what kind of person she would have been. So many people told me she looked like me, our other two children took after their Mom. But wondering is all you can do when someone is taken from you at such a young age.

So today I celebrate a special day in my life. It is on this day every year
I stop and think about what it was like the day she was born and all the joy and happiness we experienced that day. I personally believe in a life after death, and
I know in my heart that one day I will get to celebrate this special day with her and it will be glorius!

jaymes

Mikey Pod

2009-07-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

Hey There, yes I am still alive and doing well, life has a way of getting in your way sometimes of the things you would really like to be doing, I have allot to catch you up on and some adventures to share with you and I promise to that very soon on here. I have been out having some fun times and I want to let you know what I have been up to!

But right now I want to introduce you to someone I think you will enjoy, his name is Mikey Pod!!! No, no not really...his name is Michael Harren and he as a great podcast that is called Mikey Pod. Now I first started listening to Mikey Pod about 3 years ago. I had just found out that there were several Gay podcasts on iTunes and it was through one of the podcasts I started listening to that I came across Michael.
To be really honest, Mikepod soon became my favorite podcast and has stayed in that spot ever since.

Mikey Pod is different from many Gay Podcast in that it is made up mainly of music
that Michael comes across from many different musicians and he shares that music with us through Mikey Pod. In his early podcasts Michael would do sound tours of different places in the area where he lived. But over time Mikepod has evolved
into mainly music and trust me, that is not a bad thing.

Michael and I became friends after I emailed him once and let him know how much I enjoyed the music he shared. I really enjoyed it because I was getting introduced to music I would not normally listen to and also learn of different musicians I have never hear of, and most likely would not have. From time to time we would start talking online and soon a nice friendship developed. A very close friend of his, Eve Beglarian, wrote and debuted a piece she had written for the LA Chorale and Symphony at the Walt Disney Concert Hall a few years ago. One day on his podcast Michael was telling us about this when all of the sudden he said on the air, "Wow, Jaymes in LA, you have to go see this!! I was actually driving to work when I heard him, so I got online when I got home and he was online and he gave me the info and I was able to get one of the last available tickets to the performance.
I was super excited because I was going to get to attend something at the Disney Concert Hall, I had not been there before, and I was going to be able to witness the debut of a major new work. I was in awe of the Concert Hall but I was totally
captivated by Eve's work. I would never have had this experience if it had not been for Mikeypod.

After my Mom passed away, I went through a period of time where I just sorta pulled inside myself, and I stopped listening to most of the podcasts I had listened to on a daily basis. I lost contact with many of my online friends because I just did not have it in my to keep up conversations when I was online. After a while things started easing up for me and my everyday life gradually got back to normal. But it had been many months since I had spoken with my online friends, to be honest I was really embarrassed that I had not done a better job of keeping up with them.
But once I got online again, Michael was "Hey long time not see", no questions or anything, he was just glad to see me again.

I really wish you would take time and listen to my buddy Mikeypod. Michael has a very interesting life story, he is a fellow Texan too, and trust me, he is very easy on the eyes!!!!!!

You don't have to have an iPod to listen to him, you can listen to him on his website also. Go over to http://mikeypod.com and give a listen, I know you probably won't like every song he shares with you, but I know there will be one or two that you will love!! Go on, give a listen, do yourself a favor and visit Mikeypod..
you might even end up having a new friend in New York City too!!

later!

p.s. you can click on the link in the side bar and get to his site, go on...I dare you!!

AHH Saturdays....

2009-06-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

It is a cool,cloudy, rainy Saturday morning here today. I love Saturdays and I love cloudy rainy days, so for me, today is really awesome. Patrick has gone off to Dim Sum with his family and then to take the nephew to get a haircut so he will look "cool" for his graduation on Friday. He will be graduating from Jr High to High School. The niece will be graduating too next friday, into Jr High. They are sure growing up fast.

Looks like it is gonna be a pretty quiet weekend, which is nice!! Next week this time I will be in Palm Springs visiting with some my long time friends that live there, LB and Jakie. LB was one of the very first friends I made when I moved to California back in 1987, and we have been close allies every since!! We have to be close allies, we know way too much stuff on each other!!! Jakie and I have been friends since 1987 too, but I met him later that year. I am really looking forward to it.

Enjoy your weekend!!

later

Pictures Past...

2009-06-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

After my Mom passed away, I inherited alot of photos of my past. I have tried to sort them out before and get them scanned into my computer and put into photo albums, but to be honest, seeing all the old images and remembering when and where they were taken became a little too painful for me so I just packed them all way. But recently I have felt the need to try and do it once again, we will see how far I get this time. But I came across a couple today that made me smile alot.
One of them I do not remember but one I do. The first one is of me and my Dad, actually it was the first picture he and I ever took together. My Mom told me he was so proud when I was born, I was his first boy! (My Mom had been married before and had my sister, but Daddy always considered her his daughter).

The second picture is of me on my 6th birthday. I am standing at our kitchen table in Silsbee. My Mom baked my cake. One thing I remember that you can not tell from that picture, the table top was BRIGHT red, I so loved that table and chairs.

Mmmmm Mmmmm GOOD!!

2009-06-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

A peanut butter sandwich, bag of potato chips, a banana and a diet coke....is that not a great breadfast or what???!!!!!

Day of Decision..

2009-05-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the Supreme Court of California upheld Prop 8, taking away our rights as Gay and Lesbian people to be able to marry. This decision did not come as a big surprie to our community, but we are very saddened and angry about it. Thankfully though, those who were married during the time it was legal, will stay married. But that in itself creates two diffrent kinds of people, Gay and Lesbians who can be married, and the rest of us who can not. This is far from over. Last night, I joined around 1500 other sadden and angry Gay and Lesbian people, and our supporters, who marched in protest in Long Beach. Our friend Timmy joined me there as we marched down Broadway in protest of this ruling. In the coming months we will be working to get Prop 8 overturned at the ballot box, so stayed tuned, as I said, this is only the beginning.

The Protest...

2009-05-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

A Little Time Away Does A Body Good.....

2009-05-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

One day back in April, I realized I needed to take a few day off from the office and recharge my batteries so to speak. Not that I struck or screamed at any of our patient's or anything, but I had gotten off the phone with one of our patients who had called me for the third time that day about something I could to help her with, and I realized I was a little aggrivated with her, something I usually do not let happen. It was then I realized I need to step away from the office and the phones and the patients for just a few days and recharge. So that afternoon, I requested May 20,21, and 22 off , Wednesday-Friday, that would give me a nice littel get a way for 5 days, and then I realized we had Monday off too for Memorial Day so that would be 6 days!!!!! even better.

So when the time came for my time off, I really did not have any real plans of what I was going to do..and that was a good thing! Patrick did not take anytime off during this time, he is going to take a few days in June. So what did I do on my first day of my mini-vaca? slept in to close to noon!! Now for those of you who have know me for awhile, you know I never sleep in like that, but it was great, just what I needed. The rest of that day I spent going to lunch, going over to Glendale to the Brand Library/Museum (www.brandlibrary.org) and that is about it. I was home when Patrick got home and we just veged here at the house.

The next day I did the one thing I had actually planned to do on my days off...went to the Laguna Art Museum.(www.lagunaartmuseum.org) Of all the museums I like to go to, this one is by far my favorite. My favorite Artists are the early California Artist from the late 1800s to the 1960s. The Laguna Art Museum only show work from these Artist's and it is a beautiful Museum too. So I drove over and toured the Museum for several hours and then went to a park close by that over looks the ocean and ate the lunch I had brought with me. It was a spectaluar day to be in Laguna. I decided to drive Hwy 1 back home so I could stay close to the ocean and to see what it was like along the way. It was a great drive. (something to know if you go to Laguna...there are parking meter everywhere and they only take quarters. It is a dollar an hour,for those meters along Hwy 1. The meters on the side streets over looking the ocean...are $2 an hour!!)

.
I got up Sunday morning and I really did not have anything planned to do and Patrick was going to be away for the day. I knew I did not want to spend another day at home so I decided to go to see my old friend (only old in that we have know each for for a number of years!!) in Joshua Tree, Patrick #1.(Now for those of you who do not know, Patrick #1 and I were in a relationship in the early 1990's. We were actually together for about 2 years. After we ended our relationship we have always remained the best of friends. So as to distinguish between my ex and my Husband, we call the ex Patrick #1) The last time I had been out to see him I had left my somethings there so I thought it would a nice day to drive out. Before I left it was decide I would just stay over and come back the next day. Patrick #1 and I had a nice time,
he lives 17 miles outside of Joshua Tree in the middle of no where. The peace and quiet where he lives is truly wonderful. Another great thing about where he lives is all the stars you can see at night!! We ended up driving into town and having Pizza, coming back to his house and watching the movie "Latter Days". The next day I met up with my BFF, Goya,in Palms Springs for lunch before I headed back to LA.

It was really a great few days off. I got alot of rest and got to visit some of my very favorite places and hang out with some great friends. I was actually ready to head back to work, until the next time my batteries need to a recharge!!!

It Doesn't Matter...

2009-05-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

It doesn't matter how big a ranch ya' own, or how many cattle ya' brand, the size of your funeral is still gonna depend on the weather.
Harry Truman.

Food For Thought..from Larry the Cable Guy

2009-05-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

I totally love Larry the Cable Guy, I totally get what he says, well because that is just how it is in Texas where I come from!!! He reminds me of so many people I knew through my growing up years in Texas. So I thought I would share some words of wisdom with you...from Larry.

1. A day without sunshine is like night.

2. On the other hand, you have different fingers.

3. 42.7 of all statistics are made up on the spot.

4. 99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

5. Remember, half the people you know are below average.

6. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

7. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

8. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the
trap.

9. Support bacteria. They're the only culture most people have.

10. A clear consience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

11. Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.

12. If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.

13. How many of you believe in psychokinesis? Raise my hand.

14 Ok, so what's the speed of dark?

15. When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

16. Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.

17. How much deepr would the ocean be without sponges?

18. Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

19. What happens if you get scared half to death...twice?

20. Why do psychics have to ask your name?

21. Inside every older person is a younger person wondering, "What the hell
happened?"

22. Just remember--if the world didn't suck, we would fall off.

23. Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright
until you hear them speak.

24. Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos, what
you do today, may burn your but tomorrow.

Long Beach Gay Pride 2009 part 1

2009-05-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

One of the more important events for us in May is Long Beach Pride!! I first attended Long Beach Pride back in 1988. It was truly a life changing experience for me at the time. The year before my sister Trixie had attended, it was his first one and told me that the next year (1988) I had to go with him. So, I did.
Never in my life had I been in the presence of so many Gay and Lesbian people. I cried through most of the parade and as the end of the parade came to where we were, we joined the many hundreds of other people in the street and followed the parade to the Festival grounds. It was one of the most exciting times of my life. The parade went down Ocean Ave there in Long Beach and then turned left at Pine Ave, went down the hill to the Festival on the "island" (where the Aquarium of the Pacific is now). As the parade made left on Pine to go down the hill, along with all the people following it, I came to the corner and stopped dead in my tracks. Looking down on those thousands of Gay and Lesbian people, together in once place to celebrate who we are, was just too emotional for me, and I really started to cry. An older gentleman (well older for me at the time, he was probably the age I am now) came up to me, put his arm around my shoulder and hugged me to him for a moment and said," This is your first festival isn't it?". He told me he had a similar experience the first time he went to one. That was 1988, when it still was not a good thing to be Gay and out. It was a wonderful, wonderful time for me that day. Since that time,
I have missed very few of the Long Beach Pride Festivals. I have attended with different friends through the years and have MANY wonderful memories of things that happened in Long Beach as we got together to celebrate who we are as the LGBT community.

This year we attended a Brunch after the Parade at the home of our Wonderful friend, Phillip, who graced us all by wearing his Pride Fairy hat during the brunch!
He is a gracious host and as you can tell, everyone had a marvelous time!!
THANK YOU PHILIP!!

Long Beach Gay Pride 2009 Pics of Pride

2009-05-17T18:59:00.000-07:00

So Excited!

2009-05-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

I can not tell you just how excited Patrick gets whenever we get on the Tram that takes us in to Disneyland!!

Happy Birthday Mom !

2009-04-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-04-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2009-04-20T18:57:00.000-07:00

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....

2009-04-19T19:53:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

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.....

2009-04-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

Miss Aileen is bored

Miss Aileen
Miss Aileen and Uncle Jaymes

Miss Aileen and her Uncles

Things I Learned From Living in Texas

2009-04-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-04-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

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.....

2009-04-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-11T19:43:00.001-07:00

"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"!!

#56 !! Happy Birthday To ME!!!!

2009-03-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

Wow !!! It's that time of year again.....my birthday has arrived once again and thankfully I am still here to celebrate it!!!

Patrick and I took the day off to celebrate my birthday because we plan to start out the celebration at....DISNEYLAND !!, ok I can hear you saying to yourself already, "You guys go there all the time anyway so what's the big deal about going there on your birthday?" Ok,well let me tell you. First off, I love Disneyland, I can never go too many times. Also, this year, you get in free on your Birthday!
But,since we already have out Annual Pass and I would have gotten in using it, Disney gave me a $69 Disney gift card!!! Now...if that is not worth going to Disneyland on your Birthday, I don't know what is!!

So, we have planned on going to Disneyland before we found out about the getting in on your birthday thing. Ever since we have been going to Disneyland we have always wanted to go on a week day so it would not be really crowded and that way we could ride more rides and not have to stand in long line. Patrick did this last year with our nephew Darren and they rode almost all the rides in Disneyland and did not have to wait in lines. Also that it was totally raining that day probably helped to!!
So we had our game plan all figured out on where we were going to start and what rides we were going to hit first, you the whole thing planned out and we were excited! Then....we got to Disneyland around 11am. One of the first questions we asked was "Why are we having to park on the top of the parking structure?", that in itself was a bad sign. We got out and started to the tram to take us to the Park and my jaw dropped....The tram loading area...was TOTALLY packed with people. Now the first thing I thought was " Not all of these people could have the same birthday as me??!!" Well I can sum it up for you in two words....Spring Break. Yep that's right, Spring Break, I have never seen so many people at the Disney Parks, not even at Christmas, honest. My heart just fell,there went our plans of a nice weekday at the Park. I seriously wanted to cry, I was so dissappointed. I told Patrick I had just rather go do something else but he would not have it. So we waited, and waited for our turn on the Tram and then we had to wait in line at ticket counter to get the gift card. Now we have never had to wait in the ticket line before we buy our Annual Pass online, so this was someething new, and interesting. So once we got my gift card, we decided to go to California Adventure first and ride my favorite ride, Soaring over California, and then head to Disneyland. The lines to get in were long for both Parks, so once we got in we headed over to get our fast past for Soaring.
Wrong!! The time for the fast pass return was 6:30 pm, it was now 11:45!! We would not even be in the Park at that time so we just passed it up. We did walk around the Park and went over to the Toy Story ride (a new fav). After a couple of hours of wandering around we headed over to Disneyland and walked around. Even though we did not get to do what we had hoped, we still have a fun time. One neat thing was, since I was wearing my "Birthday Button", all everyone would wish you Happy Birthday and I got to see alot of other people who share my birthday! I was a a neat experience.

So later in the afternoon we headed back to get changed because we were going out to dinner at an undisclosed location, at least to me. Patrick would not tell me where he was taking me for dinner, and what a very nice surprise it was!

Patrick made reservations at a really nice restaurant in Pasadena called "Roy's".
It serves Hawaiian fusion cusine. It was a beautiful place with a very diverse group of people eating there. As we approaced the restaurant you could see people eating ourdoors most of the guys had on jackets and I immediately felt I was underdressed but Patrick told me not to worry. As we approached the door, it opened and out came a group of people in T shirts and shorts, so I felt much better. We only had to wait a few minutes to be seated, and as we were seated the young lady asked which one of us were having Birthday. That kinda surprised me and I told her it was me and she handed me my menu and wished me a happy birthday. I was really surprised when I opened my menu and the first page was addressed especially to me, by name!! I know I did a double take when I saw a greeting addressing me by name on the page!
It just said they hoped I had a great birthday and thanks for chosing to celebrate with them and it then went on to wish me Happy Birthday in Hawaiian. It was a nice surprise. The next surprise of the evening was our waiter, Michael. He was a HOTTIE!
seriously he was, even Patrick thought so. He was really nice and helpful and alot of fun. He was an excellant waiter. The food was very good and we finshed it off
with their VERY excellant Molten Lava chocolate cake, with ice cream...to die for!
At the end of dessert, Michael asked Patrick to sit next to me so we could take our picture as a remembrance of our evening. It was truly a fun and delicious evening.

We were suppose to have another Birthday Cake with the family but we got home late and everyone was in bed, so we will to that tomorrow night.

It was a great Day!! I sure hated it had to end, but then again..there is alway next year!!

later

ps..in case your are interested...www.roysrestaurant.com...we HIGHly recomend it.

My Partner's In Crime.....

2009-03-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

I do not think I have mentioned this before, but I share my Birthdate with two very special people...my niece, Sarah ...and her twin brother...John. Now for 25 years I got to celebrate MY Birthday, it was MY day. But let me tell you, once the twins were born on MY Birthday, I cease to have a day to celebrate. From then on it was the
"TWIN'S Birthday",never Jaymes and the Twins Birthday, no siree, it was only the TWIN'S Birthday...not that I am bitter or anything mind you!

When the twins were about to be born and it was pretty clear that they were going to be born close to midnight on March 18th, I am told from some pretty good sources that my brother BEGGED their Mom to hold off until after midnight. He just knew I was gonna be upset if they were born on MY Birthday. But you know babies, they have a mind of their own and they wanted out,NOW! So now MY special Day is OUR special day and I would not have it any other way.

I found out only a few years ago that the Twins have a custom they celebrate on their birthday that until recently I was not included in. They try and see which one of them can call the other one the soonest after midnight that starts our Birthday.
So when I found out about this, I wanted IN!! You see, when it is midnight in Texas where they are, it is only 10pm here where I am!! ha ha ha!! And once I call them right after midnight their time, I have learned to turn off my cellphone because you can bet that John will set his clock and call me back right at midnight, MY time!!
How do I know this you ask..he has done it the last 2 years in a row!! Yep he sure did, so this year I turned off my cell after I called him. He told me he almost called the house phone, but he did not want to have to answer to his Uncle Patrick the next time he sees him, smart boy!

They are both really great kids (they will always be kids to me). Sarah is now married to a great guy and they have 2 children and she is an awesome Mom.
John now raises his two kids as a single Dad, and he is a awesome Dad. I could not be prouder of both of them.

Happy Birthday to you both!!

later

ps... in this picture I am celebrating my 32nd birthday and they are celebrating their 7th. Notice there are 2 birthday cakes in the picture...my Mom made mine and the one off to the right is their's...store bought.

Pretty Quiet Weekend

2009-03-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well since it is Sunday night, I guess that means the weekend is just about over.
Since we started out this weekend with not many plans, it turned out to be a pretty quiet weekend, which is NOT a bad thing!

Patrick and I started off our Saturday morning with a trip to the dentist. Orginally I had an appt a couple of weeks ago but changed it to this past Saturday, without knowing Patrick had an appt too. Matter of fact until they called him on Friday, he did not remember he had a appt!! So it worked out nice. We both love our dentist, Dr.Jerry. Beside being really cute (and Asian!!), he is an excellent dentist. Patrick has been seeing him for years and when I needed a dentist after I moved here (and after an AWFUL ordeal with a diffent dentist) I started seeing him too.
We both went in for cleanings and I don't have to go back for several months, but Patrick was not so lucky,he has a chipped tooth and will be back in a couple of weeks.

Every three months we have to go down to the Outlet at Cabazon to visit our favorite
jewler, Janet. So we decided to go Saturday. Actually, we bought our Wedding rings from a Jewlery Store there and we have to take them in every 3 months to have them cleaned and the diamonds checked to make sure they are securely in their settings so the warranty on them stays current.
Since the store is a chain, we could actually take them to one closer to us but we have a very big loyalty to the manager of the store in Cabazon, Janet. Several years ago (9 to be exact) when Patrick and I were looking for engagement rings,
we went to several jewlery stores here in LA and were treated, how shall I say this?, badly. We had stores where no one would wait on us and in one store when the guy waiting on us found out the rings were for us,he just walked away and would not wait on us. So one weekend when Patrick was down in Palm Springs, we went to the Outlets to hang out. We passed the jewlrey store and decided to go in and see what they had.
Well guess what, they had just the ring we liked (Patrick had seen the ring in a store in LA and loved it). Janet came up and started talking with us and we immediately fell in love with her. She helpd us get our ring sizes right (since I had not idea what size I wore)and she ordered my ring since they had Patricks' size in the store. We thanked her for helping us and told her what bad experiences we had had. She could not believe it,but we are very glad we found her. She called me the next week when my ring came in and I went in and picked it up. One thing that has always surprised me. After the first time she helped us,it was several weeks before we were at the Outlets again, and immediately when we walked in she called out our names and came and gave us a hug. Through the years when ever we need some type of jewlrey, we go see Janet. When we had our Holy Union, we went to see her and she helped us choose our Wedding bands. A year of so later when we decided to upgrade out Bands to something with diamonds, we went to see Janet, and she helped up get the rings we have now. She has helped us pick our special gifts for different members of our family and friends. We have always stopped by to see her when we are in Palm Springs or just in the area. She is just a part of our extended family. We know her all about her daughter and grandkids.

Since we were down close to Palm Sprigs, we drove into Palm Springs and had lunch with one of my best friends, Gary and his partner Rick. Some of you may know then as
Goya and Eunice, yes they are the same people. Now if you find that strange, let me share something else with you. For those of you who know Goya and Eunice, I am known as Norma and so far Patrick is known as Missy. I am sure as time passed, Missy's name will change. It just a Gay think, ok? Anyway we visited with them and a nice lunch and then we headed to the Outlets. It was so over cast and gloomy here but it was beautiful clear sky and pretty warm in Palm Springs.

So after we left the Outlets we headed back to overcast and gloomy LA. The freeways we so packed coming home, it really surprised me. But we made it safely.

Today for me was pretty much a stay at home day. I actually never left the house
except to walk over to Patrick's parents a couple of times. I cleaned some around the house in the morning and just veged the rest of the day. I was a delightful day!!

Now on to the new week. As I was reading this afternoon the thought crossed my mind, "This is the last week I will be 55!!!!", next weekend I will be 56!!
Scary, very scary!!

later

Getting Ready To Welcome Our New Niece....

2009-03-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about being Gay is....you have lot of different "nieces and nephews". I am Uncle Jaymes to so many great kids. So Uncle Patrick and I are very excited that very soon we are going to have a new niece!!!

Last weekend we got together with our very dear friends Farah and Dan,(and soon to be big brother)Max to celebrate the upcoming birth of their new daughter,Aileen.
Farah's cousins gave her and Aileen a baby shower and Patrick and I went to help celebrate. As usual, we had a great time!

Since Uncle Jaymes is old and forgetful(yes I totally forgot the camera!), you can go over to www.silverjungle.net and see the pictures from the party.

We are all anxiously awaiting Miss Aileen's arrival which is set for March 24!
That is if she doesn't decided to make a surprise entrance before then!!

I'll let you know!! later!

Tip About Posting Comments..

2009-03-08T21:10:00.000-07:00

I wanted to take a minute and thank everyone who takes the time to ready my blog. I have certainly enjoyed this adventure and already have some posts planned out that I will be sharing with you.

I have gotten several comments on different posts and I can not tell you how excited I get when someone leaves a post !! I also have gotten several emails from different people letting me know they have enjoyed a certain post and wanted me to know but did not know how to leave a comment.

It is easy, if you know how! At the end of the post you can see the number of comments a post has recieved and just below that you will see "post a comment". Just click that and it will take you to where you make your comment. Once you write your comment, please sign your name so I will know who you are, and check Anonymous and hit save.
You don't have to have a Google sign in or anything, just post it like that and it will show up under comments on the blog, and if you listen really good, you can hear me squell like a little girl when I see someone has left a comment! Or if you had rather not leave a message for all to read, please just sent it to me, Atexaninla@earthlink.net, and you will still get to hear me squell!!

Any questions, just let me know!! Thanks again for reading my blog!!

jaymes

Now Where Was I ? O Yeah, Valentines Day..

2009-03-08T20:11:00.000-07:00

Yeah I know, I am a little behind on my posts and I am sorry for that. Have tried to think of a good reason, and well, life has just been getting in the way (well that sound pretty impressive huh?) Actually my work has been so very busy these past few weeks I haven't had the energy when I get home. Hopefully now that we are on Daylight Saving Time (YEA!!)I will have more energy!

So before I go on to other things, I wanted to let you know how our Valentines Day at Disney went. We actually decided to go to California Adventure first. There are several things we always do at California Adventure when we go to the parks, Soaring Over California(my favorite ride!)and the new Toy Story Ride,another of our favorites(Sorry Buzz Lightyear). This time I really lucked out and beat Patrick. We get really competitive on these kinds of rides!

The thing that really surprised us when we got there is...both parks were PACKED!
And I mean packed. If you have ever been there during Christmas, it was like that.
We had thought since the economy is not good right now they may be slow,but let me tell you, there is no recession at Disneyland!! Because it was so packed we decided to just stay at California Adventure since we were coming back to Disneyland for my birthday (March 18!!). We had a really good time as always and were both tired when we finally left the park. On the way out we had ice cream at the Burr-bank Ice Cream Shoppe, which we recommend!! lol.

It was a very nice way to spend Valentine Day together!

later!!

Pics From Our Valentine Adventure

2009-03-08T19:45:00.000-07:00