I wanted to bring your attention to someone who contacted me recently, and who has a very interesting blog concerning adult entertainment. She updates frequently, she likes bananas, and she tackles issues ranging from health/diet to legalities, identity, and philosophy. Regardless of her being female, her insights can be very helpful to gay men (or anyone else who wants hear insider perspectives). Please consider giving her a visit! Her link is permanently listed under the links for “Interesting Adult Blogs” at the bottom of the screen. For simplicity’s sake within this introduction, you can also visit her by clicking here.

Also, I wanted to share a couple of pics from my adventure on the roller coasters. I got to use a VIP pass, so I didn’t have to wait in lines AT ALL, and I got a personal tour guide for the whole day! So, for nine hours I got to do about 35 rides! Not bad, considering an 8-hour day may get you only 4-8 rides when the lines are long or the attractions you want are spread out across the park and you waste time zigzagging and guessing the way to them. With Shelley we got bustled about quickly from ride to ride, because she knew the quickest path to each one, and she had a great sense of how to pack as much as possible into the day. Plus, I don’t think I had to wait more than one-three minutes for any ride at all throughout the whole visit (which is WAY better than one-three hours). For most of the rides I simply walked up and got into the next arriving compartment. AWESOME!! Also, the brunette girl guessed my age wrong (but we’ll take 26 any day of the week), so I got to bring home a black plush animal for Kitteh to snuggle with while I’m traveling out of town.

Note: I can do horizontal insanity all day long, but one spinning ride and I’m done for a while (see left). I don’t like spinning. I get car sick very easily – I always have – and being in a spinning ride makes me pretty queasy. At any rate, of the 30 or 35 rides I did only three were like helicopter blades and none were like spinning tops. The overwhelming majority of what I rode were coasters (the single corkscrews and various inversions don’t make me sick), as well as other rides that go forward, as opposed to around and around. Those types of rides feel like the exhilaration I get from gymnastics, trampolines,  and dancing: Falling, recovering, floating, flying, hurtling, darting, rolling, soaring, sailing, riding, etc… It’s like a drug, and movement makes me high (see right). If you ever have the chance to do a VIP pass at Cedar Point in Ohio, DO IT. The cost may look high, but when you look at all the amenities that come with it, you actually get a MUCH BETTER bang for your bucks.

I’m finally, finally, finally going to Detroit! I’ve considered going on so many occasions, but have never done it. I will be meeting a new client for the first time, and I’m very excited, because together we planned the trip enough to be full, but loose enough for improvisation as needed. What is going to be particularly memorable is that we will be spending a great deal of the time riding roller coasters!!! I have never blogged it, but I absolutely LOVE them. They are everything that I adore about movement, dance, and gymnastics: Falling, turning, flying, stopping… I get high on those types of rides. The exhilaration of sitting down is almost the same kind of anxious nausea I got before performances when I was in high school, college, and graduate school. Everything about them makes me burst with pure joy. I am especially excited, because I can’t remember being on roller coasters since I was living in Los Angeles, and that was 1998 – 2002 (so it’s been nearly a decade, if memory serves). I’m a bit disappointed in myself: We have Carowinds right here in Charlotte, and I’ve never taken the time to go… Boo!! I should really take better advantage of all the amenities my city has to offer. But, at any rate, this is going to be so much fun!

I haven’t been blogging much for a few months. I know that. And there’s  no reason, except that I just haven’t wanted to. Something happened a couple months ago, and I felt that I was tired of sharing. I think it was around the time of the Grabby’s. But, be that as it may, this weekend in Chicago has been very up and down, but it has ended on a very, very positive note. That is what I want to share.

To say that flakes and no-shows are discouraging/infuriating is an understatement; however, I did get to spend time with my friend J.P. Barnaby, I experienced the ENO platter at the Intercontinental Hotel, and I met Meghann. Last night was one of those nights where I felt like nothing I did was to any avail – it just wasn’t going to work out with this appointment, no matter how much I tried to be accommodating. That on top of my entire itinerary falling apart made for some frustration and self-doubt that I had to work against internalizing. I succeeded for the most part, and it’s because of the reminders that flashed up from time to time that everything is temporary. August, 2011 will shortly be in the books, and September will be so much better.

At any rate, when I finally gave up on this client it was nearly midnight. I was STARVING. We were supposed to meet at 11, he moved it to 9, then back to 11, then was an hour late, then at 11:45 said he wasn’t coming at all. I’d gotten ready at 8 pm, so four hours later I was bored, hungry, and irritated… and just about everything was closed. I was wandering around, trying to find some place that still served food, and then I saw it: TGI Friday. Oh, fuck my life… Really?? This is all there is?

Well, I’m glad I went in. TGI Friday likes to sell itself as being always in the festive Friday spirit. And, for me last night, it turned out to be exactly the encounter I needed. Meghann came over, and despite the late hour, was very kind and energetic. When she asked what I wanted to drink, I said, “Girl, it’s been a tough day.”

“Oh! Well… here is the drink list.” LOL Awesome. I selected a red wine, and the Michael Jackson song “I Wanna Be Where You Are” came on. Meghann saw how much I perked up to that. She went over to the juke box and said she had a surprise for me. I managed to find something healthy on the menu, and as I was jammin’ to Lady Gaga, Nirvana, and some other hits she peaked around the corner and said, “These next two are for you.”

OMG!!!

She set me up with “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” and “Smooth Criminal.” No. She. Didn’t. YES SHE DID! LOL That was it. I was done. She came over and we had a nice time singing and laughing to the jamz. I showed her my mad skills, all while eating the broccoli that my superhero powers had transformed into chocolate (transubstantiation is just another of my mutant abilities), and we had a GOOD TIME. Just like Friday is supposed to be. And she did this specifically because she knew I needed it. That is so amazing to me.

So, if you are ever in Chicago, you simply must go to the TGI Friday in Magnificent Mile. Ask for Meghann. She is a beautiful person, and she will put some Friday in your life. Her willingness to play with me completely eradicated all that frustration and self-doubt. September will be better. Today is better. Last night was better. Thank you, Meghann!

Hey everyone!! I have some wonderful news I bought a new car!! This is the fourth convertible I have driven, the third MX-5 I have owned, but the first new car I have ever purchased. Ever since I first saw a little red Miata zoom by back in 1990 I have wanted one. I always feared getting tickets, so when I did buy my first two they were both silver. But you know what? This one has cruise control, and I ain’t askeered… At any rate, it really is a sassy little ride – much like me. MWAHAHAHA! It’s a small, compact, muscular little baby that can turn quickly, fits just about anywhere, and looks great sitting still or moving… Ahem. People don’t resemble only their pets, I guess. HA!

My friend Jimmy Cobb is the photographer who took these pictures, and he wanted to capture some quick, informal photos the moment I got it home from the dealer’s lot. The lighting is beautiful, and he has a good eye for design. He did these with only a moment’s notice. He would like to do more photography work, so if you would like to know how to contact him, please let me know. I can put you in touch with him directly.

Okay, so for those of you who are Judeo-Christian, perhaps this is no big deal for you; however, recently I have been healing from a neck/back injury that I sustained while working out several days ago. Almost “randomly” (I use aggressive quotes here, because I don’t believe anything is truly random – everything is a result of an interconnected cause/effect), I also got a message saying the following:

“To let in goodness, slow down. Relax. Unwind. Be calm. Let go. Now you are letting it in.”

I was supposed to be in Philadelphia this weekend, even though I normally take the weekend of July 4 off each year for my birthday. My experience over the years is that it’s pointless to work that weekend, whether it be the clubs or seeing clients, because EVERYONE is out doing something with friends/family/fireworks. Contrary to popular presumptions, holidays are generally NOT good weekends to be at the club or on-call. So, that Philly trip was going to pull a total goose egg (which reminded me why I stay home and celebrate my birthday). Then I injured myself two days before I turned 24 for the 13th time (I started being 24 when I was 22), and thought, “Well, I’ll go and see a historic city do a pyrotechnics show for my birthday.” But the real reason I was going to go, despite the injury and the slow weekend, was because I didn’t want to “lose” the nonrefundable plane ticket. Rest was not truly on my mind. But then I got that message, and I realized that what I really, really wanted for my birthday was to stay home (as I would have in any other year).

So, I stayed home.

And that has been the most amazing, healing time. Although I was in some intense pain for several days, it has gotten better BECAUSE I RESTED. This isn’t engineering or brain surgery; however, I made a realization about myself. I am a bit like my grandparents and the other Depression babies of that generation: I am so phobic of ever again being in a financial situation like the one I experienced after I left my last relationship that I have become obsessed with money that I don’t even need (in the hopes of staving off a crisis that hasn’t happened). Poverty is an ugly, wretched situation, and I don’t want to experience that type of stress ever again. But working myself half to death over the last five years has, from time to time, exacerbated the issue when I then had to spend money needlessly on hospital visits for exhaustion or injuries. It’s only in the last 6-12 months that I have really started implementing the idea of working smarter, not harder, and I cannot suggest it enough to others. Whatever you’re doing that’s so damn important, carve out some time to just rest. Find a way: It’s essential.

If I’d gone to Philly, I’m convinced I would have just sat in my hotel in pain from having traveled. By staying in Charlotte I got to lay IN MY BED for three days WITH KITTEH (I almost rested myself into insanity), I celebrated a low key birthday with some close friends, and I watched LOTS of nerdy History Channel videos about how Extra Terrestrials helped our ancestors build megalithic sites. And you know what? It’s exactly what I needed. The workaholic in me was given the shut-the-hell-up-thank-you-very-much eyebrow.

Before when I’ve said I wanted to rest more it was simply because of fatigue. But now I’m realizing that rest itself is what heals us at deeper levels, and if there is something sacred within us, then it makes sense that caring for it and caring for ourselves are completed interwoven. So I guess it’s not just a luxury, it’s a spiritual duty to give yourself adequate downtime. The Hebrews were right: A day of rest is sacrosanct. Sorry if I’m slow to realizing this, but that’s how I am.