Thursday, November 1, 2012

Just Stuff ...

November 1, 2012

Thursday and is the day after another Halloween here, I am a bit tired and run down, have got a cold I can not seem to shake and is getting me down physically, I am just exausted.  Last night we went out to West Hollywood, to the Carnival, with over 350 thousand other crazy people with and with out costumes.  It was all right.  I think I would of had a much better time if I had better company, or is it that I am not well in crowds that big anymore?!  Who knows?  It didn't seem to be that many costumes as in the past when there would be a sea of amazing costumes to look at and admire for their creativity etc. but as the years go by and the event gets bigger and bigger, the costumes seem to get less and less.  There seem to be a lot of problems as well last night and as I said, as the event gets larger, so brings the chance of people wanting to cause problems, shootings last night etc.  Why would someone have to do something so crazy in such an event.  All over the city there were shootings that had gone on.

The company I was in last night was so crazy, so much bickering it drove me nuts!  One person, who likes to call himself my friend, seemed to be bickering the most, mostly directed at me, from the amount of sweetener I put in my coffee to just about anything, talking to me like I was some child, he was my father or even my boyfriend, which he is not.  So all this crazy behavior and the tone reached a boiling point and I just flat out told him not to speak to me or disrespect me in that tone and he flipped out and ran off into the crowd like some little boy who did not get  his way.  It was so hillarious and he refuses to talk to me.  Good grief, I guess friends don't come in colors like that one.  


Thursday, October 25, 2012

Just Stuff ...

October 24, 2012

What a fucked up, crazy day this has begun to turn out!  Once again, we are going to the rescue of a friend who has decided to relapse and to pull us back into his drama of being sick, shitting his pants and just complete insanity!  What a great way to have this bullshit up front and in your face when you are going through some shit of your own to keep it real and fresh and what it is like to go back out there and use drugs because it DOES not get any better, ANY easier AT ALL!  To see this shit up in your face twice in two weeks is a bit much to deal with and also not fair to us, his friends to continue to ask for help when we were there for him last week when he ended up with pneumonia due to his last stint of drug use.  It was not pretty to see how he just is completely destroying his body and his mind to this disease and not only the destruction of himself but he continues to pull his friends into his nightmare.  I don't mind being of service to people who want to be and to get sober and who are serious about getting the help they need and are willing to accept defeat and to move into a better situation for themselves.  But this is now bringing me down and I now understand the true definition of tough love and what that now means and what we as friends must do to help him recover is we now have to pull away if we truly care about him and his well being and if we truly want him to get sober and recover and to get on a path of a healthy way of living and life in general. 

I am trying to stay calm and level headed through all this today but I am pissed off and completely irritated.  I am not sure how to feel about the way I am feeling and if the way I am feeling is a selfish way of me dealing with this crap because we had so much to accomplish today and get done, that this is completely a unnecessary distraction and once again we are having to come to the rescue and he his pissed off at us for helping him in a way that is protecting us and our sobriety which complete bullshit! WTF!  There are several ways and meanings of being of service but when it starts to interfere with your own sobriety, THREATEN your own sobriety, it is time to pull back before it is too late!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Just Stuff ...

October 21, 2012

Wow, coming up on another year of sobriety.  This, though, is my fourth one year and I am not sure how I am feeling write now.  I will be celebrating my anniversary or birthday on November 8th and again, since I have had a few of these, how am I, how am really?  Today is a dark and cloudy day outside which is a nice break from all the intense heat we have been having in Los Angeles lately, so I am enjoying the nice overcast, Seattle-like weather for a change.  Yes, I am missing Seattle, but will talk about that a bit later in my post, but for now, what is really going on in my head as I approach that "special" day "again".  

We AA'ers usually or should be looking forward to a day like this as it is quite an accomplishment no matter how many times one has had a certain amount of time under their belt and lost and have come back and has achieved the amazing miracle of that one year of sobriety once again.  I am not quite feeling that excitement as of yet.  I am sure, or should hope that the excitement and the idea that I have come up on quite something very special and that is that I am sober, consecutively for one year!  What the hell is wrong with me right now though?!  Could it be that I have not really or at all accomplished anything this past year and that I continue to stay in my depression and not feeling worthy, feeling greatful for the fact that I have stayed sober through all the bull shit that has come and gone last year.  The fact that I had almost committed suicide this past Easter weekend and made it through that with the help of prayer, family and friends and my deep belief in my higher power, God.  

This posting is rather short, but I wanted to check in and write some feelings down on paper and get them out of my head so that they do not fester and create space in my head that is none to have anyway.  

Saturday, October 20, 2012

A friend visits ...

September 5, 2012

It was Labor Day weekend and I had a very busy weekend, fun, but busy and I am burnt to a crisp!  The weekend was so full!  Trips to Catalina Island, Disneyland and to Santa Monica Beach to ride bikes and then to end the weekend with an amazing BBQ on top of a an amazing building overlooking the beach, actual right on the Venice beach's boardwalk and end up watching the sun set.

A friend arrived here last Thursday, August 30, a friend I had met last year, actually, it was exactly a year or so, we met here in Los Angeles when he was out here on vacation.  We met while hiking on the top of Runyon Canyon.  We were able to stay in touch through out the year and touch base with one another from time to time.  After last summer and he went back to Tuscon he was to ship out for Afghanistan a few months later.  Very proud of him and all our men and woman in the armed services.  We have the best well built, strongest military in the world and contrary to popular believe to people here and around the world, we do a lot to help people around this globe!  We have a responsibility to make sure tyranny does not survive and that freedom and democracy flourishes.  He ended up shipping out in the winter and was gone for six months.  We emailed back and forth since it was the only way to hear from him and was the easiest way as well.

We actually did not see each other until the day after he arrived here in LA. on Friday.  He picked me up that morning at 6:30am to head down to Long Beach, Ca. to catch the Catalina Express to go over to Catalina Island, which we found out is still privately owned to spend the entire day on the Island.  What a Beautiful day.  Our activities for the day began with para sailing! To be up 800ft. in the air above the ocean just floating on a hot summer's day and to be up there and at peace with God was truly an experience I will never forget.  I wanted to just reach over to Jamaal and give him a gentle kiss on the cheek, but I was too strapped in to do it.  We were finally able to share a quiet moment together after all this time.  We were in the air a total of 8 to 10 minutes.  The ride was only to last the 8 minutes but the guys gave us a few more minutes because we volunteered to go first which was great and I could of stayed up there all day.  It was that beautiful!  Every moment from taking off and ascending into the air slowly and feeling the warm ocean breeze on our cheeks to having our legs dumped in the water up to our hips was truly an experience I will never forget.

We made it back to the shore from the para sailing where Jamaal and I decided to go get a bite to eat first before the day that he had planned ahead of us since we had some time to spare until our next adventure, Zip lining.  Zip lining was so incredible!  What a feeling or a rush when you are rolling down that cable at about 45 - 50 mph for some lengths of 1050 ft. to the other side and we did that about 5 times.  The cables were not all that length but all were exhilarating in the themselves.  He had our day planned by the hour it seemed.  I loved it and it was all a wonderful surprise to me until we had gotten there.  There was a group of us that were put together for the day of Zip lining and was pretty nice.  There were all very friendly and we all had a great time.  This point in the day, he and I started to get a little closer to each other, I mean, we started getting more intimate with each other by touching one another and being romantic and stealing a kiss here and there from each other when the others were not looking.  We finished the zip line and we had a couple of hours to spend before our next adventure.  We decided to go ahead and hit the shops on the bay to the main part of town.  We did a lot of window shopping.  The shops were so cute too.  But before we did that, I thought it would be nice to hang out on the beach for awhile a d take in the beautiful day and so I could swim in the crystal blue water Catalina had to offer.  You could actually see the bottom of the ocean.  It was like  being in the Bahamas, not that I have been there, but according to all the pictures I have seen, (laughter).  I laid out for about an hour or so.  While laying next to me with his beautiful caramel skin tone, he gently fell asleep for a few minutes.  I caught myself gazing at this gorgeous man, not only how sexy he was laying there, but I was thinking how great it was to be there with him. 

I wanted so bad to roll over closer to him and put my arm around hm and kiss him gently as if no one else was around us or there on the beach ... just the two of us.  We finished laying in the sun and on that beautiful beach in the harbor in Catalina and got up and put our clothes back on over our swimming suits and headed to the shops to do some souvenir shopping  before our final adventure for the day.  Well, not much of an adventure as it was an amazing was to end such a beautiful day and that was an hour and half message.  The message was wonderful.  Just to be able to lay there on that table for the entire hour and half was truly heaven!  I had never had a message before and I was in shock in how amazing it felt.  It was so relaxing and as expected, I did doze off during the message because I had gotten so relaxed and at one point I thought I had let out a little snort as to begin snoring.  So that had woken me right back up.  God forbid I started to snore on her table, I would be so embarrassed, but she would probably be flattered knowing she is doing a great job.  For my first one, she was not that bad, since I have nothing to compare it too, but could have been a little bit harder in her touch.  I really enjoyed it regardless.  The message went right up to 15 - 20 minutes before our boat had to leave back to the mainland.  As the ladies had finished and allowed my friend and I to gather our things and get dressed.  We started to get ourselves together up and off the tables.  We both stood there face to face, half naked and not a word was said, just some soft whispers and then he moved in closer to me and we put our arms around each other and began to kiss passionately.  I was so turned on by the feel of his warm, hard muscled body I mine that I wanted to make love to him right there on the message tables.  The moment was so hot and passionate that I could of finished off right there with him.  With his body and those tender lips pressed against mine.  I wanted that moment to last forever.  The way he kissed me was truly amazing.  We finally got our clothes on and things together and headed out to the boat and made it just in time for the 6:40pm to leave on time back to the San Pedro port.  We made it back around 8pm and he drove me home and we called it a night since we were going to do it all over again the following day at Disneyland.  We kissed and said goodnight.

The next day he picked me up early, well around 11am in West Hollywood to head on down to Disneyland for the day.  The ride down in the car is interesting and was the beginning of some our most intense conversations as of late.  Of course after the prior day at Catalina Island, I thought we were heading in a different direction, meaning, I thought he was genuinely interested in possibly pursuing something more with me on the romantic side.  I was completely surprised with what was to come out this day.  His mood changed dramatically as if the prior day had never happened at all, the kiss, all the little romantic moments we shared together, meant absolutely nothing.  I am the kind of person, who, if interested in someone, like to be affectionate with that person, kisses, holding hands etc, but not in an overbearing way.  Some like it and love it, but you come across those who just are not comfortable with attention or affection at all.  For the last few times, the people I have met are very uncomfortable with it, so obviously it didn't work out with those people.  I begin to think, well should I change my behavior, the person I am, and become someone I am not, or am not comfortable with, absolutely not and no one should.  I believe in compromise, yes, but not changing the person you are.  I have learned through the years that I am who I am and that I am an amazing man, someone who has so much love to offer and I know that some day, all of me will be recognized and appreciated.  God made me this way and that I don't have to change who I am at all. 

Driving down to Anaheim was interesting.  he was or seemed a little shy and uncomfortable around me.  I was doing the same thing or behaving in the same manner in which I did the day before and he seemed to have no problem with it then, actually it was a beautiful day, but the day we went to Disneyland was much different.  A bit distant with me, which was fine, but I sure could tell a difference in his demeanor.  The conversation got a bit deeper as well.  Maybe too deep for me, not that I wasn't willing to have a conversation like that with him, but just was or seemed a little weird or uncomfortable to have since we had really only hung out twice before.  The day before and the first time we met, which was a whole year before.  I could tell that the day would be a little more challenging with him.  He became very philosophical and everything was a discussion with him.  We made it to Disneyland and we showed are tickets or passes and finally made into the park.  Once we were in, I was like a little boy all over again, that park does that to anyone.  I was in a hurry to get in and to the park itself, but as soon as I a started to pick up my walking pace, he mentioned to me that he was not going to rush through and wanted to make sure he took his time to take the entire experience in and go at his own pace.  I felt like I was a child again, literally.  But he had said it in a negative tone, which, along with the car ride there, pretty much set the mood for the day, unfortunately.  Luckily I quickly snapped out of it and went back into a happy mood.

So we made it through the main gate of the park and walking towards the entrance to the Magic Kingdom itself.  The music began to get louder as we came closer to the second gate.  The sound of kids laughing and running through the park was pleasant to hear.  The kind of sound that makes the park what it is, a place for all ages, even the parents or adults.  I still get a huge smile on my face every time I walk through the park.  I love Disneyland.  The smell of popcorn and many other delicious smells flooded my senses with so many different tastes that I was immediately hungry.  It's the kind of place that brings out my personality, happiness, joyous and bubbly.  Laughing and just always having a great time no matter what I'm doing or where or what environment I am in.  I wanted to take pictures of everything since he hadn't been there before.  He didn't like to and was not that big on it.  I talked him into taking some in the very beginning.

The day at Disneyland was sort of a short one.  We did not stay very long because he wanted to get back and watch a football game, so we only stayed for a couple of hours.  During that time, we only had ridden one ride, the Log Jammer.  During our time waiting in line for the ride is when we really had time to really talk to each other and get to know one another. We talked a lot about our families then.  I opened up more to him about my upbringing.  How my childhood was and how many times my mother and father has been married and the abuse I had endured during that time with my mom's third husband.  Wow, I am 41yrs old and every time I bring that bastard's name up, I get very upset and angry all over again.  He found out that day what I'm about and why, let's put is that way.  I am still dealing with the feelings of pain that comes with the years of physical and emotional abuse and how my mother was so afraid to do or say anything about for fear of him leaving or even hurting her as well.  So she did nothing and I used to blame her, but I now know she did the very best she could with what she was taught but I think she did a much better job than her mother, my grandmother, because my mother was not selfish in a way that my grandmother was and still is.  I love my grandmother, don't get me wrong, but behavior is learned and I'm so glad that behavior was present in my mother.

We finally made it onto the Log Jammer ride and it was a wet one.  We didn't get wet much but the people in front of us did.  The ride ended and we decided to go get a bite to eat at this point.  We were bother very hungry.  We started walking back through the park to find a place to eat and came across a New Orleans style restaurant which was truly amazing.   The food was so delicious!  We ate and decided to go home after we were done.  He wanted to see his football team's opening game so we left Disneyland and headed back to my place to watch the game.  We made it back to my place and started watching the game.  I walked my dog and then came and sat next to him and laid my head down in his lap to take a little nap while he watched the game.  It was a college football game, I am not too crazy about college football, only the NFL, so I took a nap during his game. 

The game was over and his team had won the game.  My head was still laying in his lap at this point, we both started to get a little aroused at this point and we began to touch and feel each other all over.  I began rubbing on him, pulling his shirt up and kissing his stomach gently and I can feel his manhood getting harder during this time.  As I was kissing his torso and working my up his amazing and hot chest, I started to lick his nipples and then I reached up and grabbed his head and pulled him down to me and we started to kiss each other very passionately.  It was so incredibly hot!  We made out for several minutes before our shirts were completely off of one another.  I then positioned him on his back on the sofa so Ii could start licking his whole body at this point.  His chest was so sexy I could not stop paying attention to it along with his cut and lean stomach as well.  We caught a glance of each other eyes as we were so caught up in the moment so I began to undo his pants at this point.  He warned me or he informed me that he had a "Prince Albert" .  I was surprised a bit because it didn't fit him on the outside, so either way, he removed the piercing so it would not be in the way.  As you can imagine what happened next, well we completely were in our birthday suits and enjoyed a magical evening together.


Friday, September 28, 2012

Just Stuff ...

August 28, 2012

It's 3am on Tuesday morning and I have been awake now since 1am.  This pattern has been creeping up on me since last week.  It started at 4am and has gone up since then.  I really don't know why or what this is all about with my sleepless nights or what it is that is making me wake up at these hours so early in the morning.  

I am staying with my previous roommate, Larry, which has been a blessing, really.  It is odd or funny how things have a way of working themselves out or coming full circle.  Larry was my last roommate and I had asked him to move out.  That whole mess was due to me being completely over zealous about him using my things, personal care items without asking and it drove me absolutely crazy.  It was a time in which I was still in a downward spin.  Last year I found out I was HIV Positive and I had been trying to hold onto my Dodge Charger and make the payments on that car every month at $496.00 a month.  Pay my car insurance and I finally lost my car and was the final nail in the coffin of my depression that I was beginning to experience during that time and as a matter of fact continue to experience today.  It sent me spiraling downward from there and not to mention my awful relapse on Crystal Meth back in November of 2011.  My poor roommate had to witness that as well.  He had the tools to make it through that humiliating ordeal with me by sharing about it in meetings in a general way so that he can tell people what he was going through and share his experience so that someone listening could learn from it and in turn if someone had already been through it, to be able to give him advice on how to deal and move through it.  

We both moved on from that or should I that he has.  When he let me move into his apartment in the middle of Hollywood and close to all my meetings, i was completely grateful and excited to be able to be back on the West side of town again and  in the middle of everything and close enough to be able to walk to anything with having to get on the freeway every time I needed to go home.  We did have a little disagreement on how much rent he thought he was getting back from me when he moved out and I explained to him that we had already discussed that and that the amount is all he is getting back for reasons he was well aware of.  Overall, we are moving forward and I consider Larry to a very good friend even after all we had been through.  

It is now 4:30am and I have been writing for about a couple minutes and have taken my dog out for her morning walk and fed her and put her back to bed where I should be at the moment.  All the while I have now put on a clay mask on my face and I am sitting back at the kitchen table writing some more as this clay mask on my face hardens to cement before washing it off to shave and then take my shower and all this before the break of dawn.  (laughter)

Why the lack of sleep all of a sudden these last couple of days I have no clue as to why this is happening.  I mean I am going to through a lot of "stuff" right now, but that has never kept or have woken me up like this before or if it has I have been able to go right back to sleep.  I do take some sleep aid to "knock" me out, and enough to put a horse to sleep too, but like clock work, here I am, up and about, wide awake.  All this insomnia could be related to the dog bite case I am just dealing with at the time.  Not sure of what the outcome will be or is going to be etc.  I go to therapy once a week and yesterday was pretty intense for me, butt at the same time I think I made progress.  I am starting to connect the attack to the abuse of my step father, my mom's third husband.  The viciousness of the attack is in comparison to how Bob, his name, was toward us, my sister's and I, but mostly me.  It seems as though his anger or hostilities were always vented at me and I was the one being punched, kicked, etc.  

Later on in the day ... it is now 6:30pm in the evening and I am at the laundry mat and just exhausted!  Finally at a little after 5am, I had decided to to head over to the gym since it was now open.  I then went to my AA meeting that starts at 7;30am and really started my day off right.  It was an amazing day actually.  After the meeting, I hung out with a friend of mine and chatted.  It really ended up to be a beautiful day. 

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Just Stuff ...

July 22, 2012


It is a very HOT Sunday afternoon and I was watching the remake of Fright Night thinking of how my last week had gone, I know of all the movies be reflecting on, anyway, I was thinking of how I had the flew, realizing I had not prayed in quite awhile, and starting to feel alone, not in a way of being around people but being alone spiritually and it is all because I have not had my daily conversation with God.  I can tell the difference in how I feel and how I am with others.  Being able to ask God to open my heart and mind to Him and allow myself to be free of hate and bitterness, and most of all anger.  Anger not only at myself, which ultimately leads to my depression, but anger and being inpatient with others around me, whether the others are my friends, family or complete strangers that I come across throughout the day.  Being able to have that conversation with Him really helps me get in touch with my spiritual self and have a day that is full of happiness and being free from all the negative distractions that may arise out of the blue that could trigger my anger within myself.  

Every Sunday we have an AA meeting and a general house meeting where I am living.  The meeting this morning was the first time since living here that I felt connected to my housemates here and was able to be open and express what is going on with me and be honest with my feelings and share and start to create a bond with the other housemates and allow them to be able to get a little closer to me and for me to start bringing down those walls of distrust and allow people to get to know me on a level I have never been able to do.  The only person that has ever had that opportunity died in 1995 of AIDS.  He, Orlando, was my best friend, the brother I never had.  We had a friendship that was full of laughter, love and and companionship that allowed us to become close and share things that I would not think of sharing with even my own sister or any other person.  I have not been able to put closer to that, maybe it is because I want to be able to hold onto all those wonderful memories we shared together and all the laughter as well.  I know that if I could accept that Orlando is no longer here, I would be able to allow myself to let others into my life in a way that I have not been able to since he died.  I feel that if I do put closer to his death and allow myself to heal from it, that I am going to betray our friendship and that is why I have not done so yet, plus, I also feel if I was to move on from that part of my life, I would be shutting the door on the memories of that part my life and I am afraid to do so.  I afraid that I will not be able to replace those times with new ones, new experiences and friendships.  Friendships that could be long lasting and worth building upon but I just can not let go and let that happen.  I really love and miss him extremely and he is thought of regularly and another reason for not shutting that door is that if I do, I will slowly forget about him and that I just don't want to do.  

I miss you Orlando .....



Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Just Stuff ...

July 17, 2012

It's Tuesday evening, the weather is pretty mild now since it is setting into evening here in Los Angeles.  I am here at home resting since I have been a little under the weather last couple of days.  I have not been keeping up on my writing lately and I can sure feel a difference from when I was bleeding out my feelings on this and letting people in and letting you all know how and what I am feeling at the time or in that very moment.  I don't know why I have tapered off so, I just know that I feel so closed in and trapped in my own head.  I want to get back to letting my thoughts come out, no matter how unimportant I may think they are, just do it!

So I am sitting here tonight trying to figure out where to start or how to begin because as it is common with me, so much "stuff" has gone on since we were last together.  I don't know if I mentioned in my last post that I have moved out of East Los Angeles and back into Hollywood, where I am able to attend my AA meetings more regularly.  See, when I was living in East Los Angeles, I was so isolated from the my AA world, my AA family and friends, my network or support group.  Having a support group and friends to rely on and to have them rely on you has been very important to me and is the building blocks of my sobriety.  So being over there away from all of it had taken a toll on me and I started a descent into complete despair and loneliness.  The feeling of being totally lost in my self pity.  Which ultimately ended up being a severe case of depression which then led to a suicide attempt.  

I am so happy I have came through all of that and am now back in the middle of all of it, well not completely in the middle, but not completely on the sidelines either.  I am at my AA meetings on a daily basis at 7:30 am in the morning, and the gym right after that.  I am having issues though due to a dog attack I suffered on April 15th of this year by two rottweilers and have a little bit of a fear, actually, it is whole lot of fear to go back hiking.  I have been diagnosed with severe Trauma and PTSD as a result of it all and am in intense therapy and hope to be done with it in a few months and back to what I love doing.  

On a lighter, more happier note, my sister celebrated her 40th birthday on July 7, 2012.  My mom and her husband came down for it and was down here from July 4 - July 8, 2012.  What an amazing time we all shared together.  I truly miss her and was so sad to see them go.  I admit I am a true mommas boy.  We had a busy week while they were here.  We took them to Venice Beach and they love it.  We went to Universal Studios and what a blast we had there too.  It was just an overall amazing time we all shared together.  I really miss them so much and have made a commitment to see them for Christmas this year and possibly for Thanksgiving as well.