enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think

Ally, Brandon and I arrived in the Windy City late Friday night for a little fun with B&B and M&S — M is running the marathon today!! Go, lady, go! We’ve been having a great time! I love this town. It’s so friendly and fun, despite its weather reputation.

Anyway, we were walking to dinner last night with our friends here when we saw some yellow police tape at the intersection ahead of us. As we neared, we saw blood on the ground, a semi truck a little into the very residential intersection, and a few random objects on the ground near the blood: a black piece of fabric, a bloody paper towel, an empty clear plastic take out container, opened. We expected the worst, but at the same time were incredulous that such a large truck could be going at a fast enough speed to run someone down.

When we were done with dinner the scene was over, but we kept wondering what happened.

Here’s what happened….

sitting in the backseat of your car, i never wanted out

A few New Orleans tidbits:

My buddy Jarred turned into a restauranteur in post-Katrina New Orleans and opened a fun new place where Quarter Scene used to be. Check out this article on eat New Orleans and stop in for lunch or dinner when you swing through the Crescent City. Yummmie!!!

Also, my former editor and lady-lovin’ pal, Melinda Shelton, is one of a few peeps puttin’ on DecaFest in the Big Easy in a few short weeks. Designed to bring a little culture to the fun filth of Southern Decadence, DecaFest will feature a lot of activities geared toward those who might want to take a walking tour, attend a homo book reading, or watch a play or a film before they get snot-slinging drunk!

There’s a lot going on down there, so if you plan to be in town for Southern Decadence, check out one of their events and then you can say you were there first!

One of the book signings/readings will be for "Love, Bourbon Street," a collection of GLBT essays by New Orleans’ writers and friends. Check it out…Even a few adventures by yours truly make an appearance in one of the pieces. Egggads!

outside in the hall, there’s a catfight

One of my top 10 lists will be my TOP 10 EXPERIENCES of 2005. I’ll roll these out every so often, counting down to my favorite experience of last year. These are the moments that stick out when I glance back over my calendar…

#3 :: birth-days and bye-byes

Ever since I was 24 years old, I’ve thrown myself a party each year to celebrate my birthday. No presents required, just a night to be surrounded by my nearest and dearest. After my 30th, I took a few years off and tried to keep things as quiet as possible. I love the idea of birthdays though. I love celebrating someone’s arrival on planet earth and the chain of events their presence set off. I take it pretty seriously.

In 2005, I decided to go home to New Orleans to celebrate the release of my CD with a little show that my friend Rene helped me set up. The only time that would work was the the week of my birthday. It was a great concert and I saw people I hadn’t seen since leaving for Atlanta five years earlier. I got to meet A’s awesome new BF Shane. My friend Juli was there; when I last saw her she was battling cancer in her leg/bone marrow and I didn’t know if I’d see her again. Folks drove in from all over for the show — Lafayette, Houston, Baton Rouge. Then, out popped Glen, who had flown in from NYC to be there.

I was getting all emotional at the love and support coming my way. But then, as I was playing the last song, Maryam brought out a big cake full of candles with my name on it and then these presents came out of nowhere and it started to dawn on me that my friends were throwing me a little birthday party!

I really felt loved that night, and it was definitely one of my favorite experiences of the year. It’s hard to surprise me, but they really pulled it off! I had to practice receiving all the love and support from everyone, but it was beyond cool — and even cooler, thanks to the IceSpot Amy gave me!! Miguel, Scott, Amy, Denise, Richard, Arman, Mike, Barry, Jenny, Glen, Chris, Rose, Casey, Maryam, Tom, Marla, Dee — it was as if all my Louisiana universes collided in that one night.

Then there was Steve, who drove us out to the French Quarter that night. He died a few weeks later, quite suddenly. Over the 13 years I knew him, we were never really close friends but ran in the same circle. That night, as usual with Steve and the crew, we shared drinks, catty comments, and more than a few laughs and I guess that’s the point, right? Being with friends, feeling loved, enjoying and appreciating the time with the people you love while you have it. Don’t miss a second.

you were so beautiful before today, then i heard what you said…man that was ugly

One of my top 10 lists will be my TOP 10 EXPERIENCES of 2005. I’ll roll these out every so often throughout the end of the year, counting down to my favorite experience of the year. These are the moments that stick out when I glance back over my calendar…

#9 :: Valentine’s Day at Disney

BL invited me to join him and his parents for four days at Disney for Valentine’s Day. While, not necessarily the most romantic trip, I’d never really done Disney before (1 hr. at Gay Disney in 1996 that I do not count as an ‘experience’.) and BL knew I was wanting to go at some point — especially to Epcot, just to see it. For VD, his parents got the four of us incredible seats for Cirque du Soleil La Nouba, which was the most entertaining live action event I’ve ever seen. The music was goose-bump inducing and haunting.

We were staying at the New Orleans’ themed resort so we were able to hop on the water taxi and scoot over to Downtown Disney and have dinner at Gloria Estafan’s cuban restaurant beforehand. (GH, and MS, my resident Disney nuts were able to recommend restaurants, and helped us plan out everything we wanted to do.) In between dinner and Cirque, we scavanged through the racks at Virgin Records, and I finally found the Amy Winehouse import I’d been lusting after.

One of the other days we did Warner Bros. and BL helped me conquer my skycraper-like fear of the Tower of Terror and that speedy Aerosmith rollercoaster, which made me want to vomit. We did all the cheesy great things that I never got to do as a kid, with plenty of time in between to just hang out together and, though Epcot was definitely a disappointment, it was fun to finally see it and all be like a little family. I’ll never forget it!

desire is the drug of the bourgeoisie

For some reason, you can’t see that I’ve also been to much of the Northeast…. weird.

create your own visited states map.