Gay Movie Day

/ Paul / Leave a comment

When I woke up at 5:15 this morning there were mostly infomercials on. Flipping through the channels I found Big Eden on The Sundance Channel. I have this movie on DVD but I just had to keep it on and watch it. I love this movie and how the relationship between the two guys develops. Arye Gross (from the old Ellen show) does a great job of convincing us that he's gay. Is he gay in real life? Also, it's rare to have a Native American in a gay movie. I like that part too. Overall a great movie. If you haven't seen it, you should.

After that movie I went to Home Depot and then to my mom's condo to do some more work. I was only there a few hours. When I got home Cat On A Hot Tin Roof was on Turner Classic Movies. I absolutely love this movie. Surely you've seen it and know the plot. So again, I just had to stop and watch the movie. I was doing laundry and whatnot so I had time to watch it. The gay story line is never actually spoken but it's so obvious what's going on. Again, if you've never seen it, you should.

Last week I ordered The Man I Love from Amazon.com. Since I had more time to kill while doing laundry, I decided to spend some time and watch it. This is a French movie with english subtitles. It's the story of a guy (Martin) who works at a public pool when a new guy (Luca) begins working there. Luca is supposed to be straight but Martin is in love with him. The movie continues with their relationship growing and Luca realizing he is actually gay and in love with Martin. Turns out Martin has AIDS. I won't ruin the ending but it's a very sweet love story. The kind I always enjoy.

So, this has been a very gay movie day. While many of you were downtown enjoying and participating in the Gay Pride activities, I was enjoying my own kind of gay pride at home. I was also able to talk to Shawn for over an hour today. He's nervous about an upcoming project at work and closing on his house in two weeks. His stomach was in knots. I tried my best to calm his nerves. I'm sure everything will go well. Good luck, Shawn!

Editors Note: Some of you might wonder why I use links to Barnes and Noble when I actually buy my DVD's from Amazon.com. Well, it's simply because the graphics are better on Barnes and Noble. On Amazon.com all their graphics have that “30%” off circle on them. I hate that.

A Good Son

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Replace 5 outlets and cover plates.
Replace 5 light switches and cover plates.
Replace 4 3-way light switches and cover plates.
Replace 2 light fixtures.
Install 3 towel bars.
Replace furnace filter.
Install 1 5 foot mini blind.
Replace 2 air vent covers.

These are the things I did at my mother's condo today. She is slowly replacing outdated items in her condo and I'm doing most of the work. This week she had her bedroom, bathrooms, and hallway painted. To make it look even nicer she needed to have all the plugs, light switches and cover plates replaced. It looks so much nicer now. Tomorrow morning I'm off to Home Depot to pick up several more items I'll be working on tomorrow. Of course this is just the beginning of a summer filled with handyman jobs she has planned for me. I'm such a good son.

Pride Weekend

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This weekend is Pride Weekend in DC. Lots of things are planned and I'm sure all the men, hot or not, will be downtown celebrating their pride. Being out as long as I have been, I'm over the whole pride thing. It's turned into a rather commercial event anyway. I haven't been downtown for the pride events in probably 6 years. I think though that if I was dating someone I might enjoy it more and even go to the events. But now I just have no desire to go downtown, get in the traffic, fight for parking, or get lost in the crowds. It's just not my thing anymore. Just like not going to the bars anymore. I'm over it. I know that we as gay men should be out and show ourselves to the world but you and I both know that the news will only show the drag queens and the leather daddies. No matter how many gay men show up in business suits or stand behind banners from professional organizations, it will still be the drag queens and leather daddies who make it on the news. So for me this weekend will just be another weekend. Nothing special. But for those of you who are planning on joining the fun, have a great time!

Odds and Ends

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The state trooper called me back last night and before I went to bed even. She only asked me a few questions. I was only on the phone with her for about 3 minutes. That was it. Guess it wasn't a big deal after all. I will say that I drove more carefully today. I didn't tail gate and I wasn't in a hurry to get home. I took my time.

I got my hair cut after work today. I go to this little shop that's close to my place. There's always only one asian lady there who does all the cuts. Today when I got there there was one guy getting his hair cut. So I didn't have to wait long to get my cut. The bad part was the lady's AC was out. The weather here in the DC area lately has been very hot and muggy. The humidity is awful. No matter how long I live here, I'll never get used to it. I keep the AC in my house between 65 and 70 (luckily my electricity is included in my condo fee). I like it cold. So anyway, I'm sitting in the chair and she puts on the cover thing and as she wraps it around my neck, I feel the wetness from the sweat from the previous guy. Gross. I was already sweating. The whole time she was cutting my hair I was sweating bullets. My face was wet and all the hair she cut kept sticking to my face. I couldn't wait to get out of there. She kept trying to dry my hair with the blow dryer….on HOT! She didn't even have wet my hair down first. It was already wet! She finally finished and I got up. My legs were stuck to the vinyl chair seat and my shirt was soaked through on the vinyl seat back. Yuck. I paid her and left. The minute I got home, I stripped and took a shower. Ah, that felt good. I always take a shower after I get a hair cut because I can't stand the little hairs all over me. But today the shower was not only to get the little hairs off me but to get the sweat off as well. I felt so much better after the shower.

Last night I watched every minute of the coverage of Reagan's arrival in DC. The local as well as national stations covered every minute from the time his plane landed at Andrews Air Force Base, the drive from Andrews to Washington DC, the entire walk down Constitution Ave to the Capital. It was a good two plus hours of coverage. I've already mentioned how I did not like Reagan as a President but tonight I got caught up in the history of the event. We haven't had a state funeral since 1973 when Johnson died. I actually like the history behind the Presidency. On tonight's news they showed all the dignitaries who stopped by to stay their goodbyes. There was a lot of history walking through the Capital today. Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Brian Mulroney, Sandra Day O'Connor, Dan Quail, were just a few. There were many more. Politics aside, the history of the moment was cool.

Well the cicadas are just about gone. Their little carcasses are laying all over the place. There are still a few flying around but I think they are looking for a place to die. I doubt many of them are still “hooking up” at this point. The noise is all gone. All we have now are the memories. I'm sure there are those who will miss them.

Witness To An Accident

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My drive to and from work is usually uneventful. I usually drive to work in less then 15 minutes. The drive home is a little longer, 20 to 25 minutes depending on the traffic. Today it was a longer drive home. I drive on 66, which is a major highway outside of DC. I'm only on 66 for maybe 3 exits. It's usually a very short trip. Not today.

On the way home today, I merged onto 66 east with ease. I worked my way over to the far left lane. The two right lanes always back up around the exit to the beltway so the farther left you are, the less you have to sit in traffic. The traffic was moving very smoothly and rather quickly. I estimate we were all traveling between 65 and 70 miles an hour. Now the speed limit on 66 is 55 miles an hour. No one ever travels that slow unless a state trooper is around. Today was no exception. We were going with the flow of traffic. I was about 2 car lengths behind the car in front of me. I was just thinking about what I needed to do when I get home. Without warning, a RAV 4 in the middle lane, right next to the car in front of me decided to switch lanes and get into the left lane. Without looking, the RAV 4 swerved into the left lane sending the car that was currently there swerving into the shoulder lane. This car swerved back into her own lane so as not to hit the Jersey wall but then back again so as not to go into to the middle lane but did it with such abruptness that she lost control and turned her wheel the opposite way too hard and too fast and slammed into the Jersey wall. Her car slid against the Jersey wall and then slightly away from the wall and finally came to a stop. The RAV 4 that had caused this reaction didn't even know it had done so and kept driving. It was no where to be seen. Since I was directly behind the car that hit the Jersey wall, I was showered with rocks and debris.

I quickly pulled over onto the shoulder several car lengths ahead of where her car came to rest. The car behind me did the same. We both grabbed our cell phones and jumped out of our cars. I ran back to the damaged car. The two women in the car were fine. No air bags, no injuries. They were just badly shaken up. And the car didn't look all that bad for slamming into the Jersey wall so hard. Both women in the car already had their cell phones out and were calling the police, and AAA. After talking about what we saw and giving her my information, we just stood around looking at the car. We didn't say much after that. After 20 minutes or so I told the ladies that if there wasn't anything more I could do for them, I would need to get going. They assured me and the other guy who stopped that they were fine and the police were on their way. I told her I was more then willing to give a statement to the police and describe the vehicle that drove off and what caused the accident as I saw it. She said she would pass my information on to the police. I then made sure once again that they were okay and then I left. I was really shaken up by this. My legs were shaking and I was scared. I have never been in an accident of this nature (knock wood), nor have I witnessed such an event so closely. I had planned to run some errands on the way home but decided I just wanted to get home and sit down. That's what I did.

About an hour and a half later I got a call from a Virginia State Trooper. When I don't recognize the number on my caller ID, I don't pick up the phone. I let the voice mail answer it. Once I saw the light blinking, I called my voice mail and got the message. Trooper Madison of the Virginia State Police said I was a witness to an accident and she wanted to get my statement. I called her back and got the dispatcher. He said she was already on her way to another call and she'd have to call me back. I haven't heard from her at this point. I hope she calls before I go to bed or before I forget all the details of the accident. However, I don't think I'll be forgetting it anytime soon. I'm still a little shaken by it. It happened right in front of me. If I had been tail gating like I sometimes do, I would have been part of the accident, I'm sure. Scary. I think I'll drive slower from now on.