March 31, 2011 - Rejected; Photo Shoot Fun; You gotta have friends; Splash company

Happy Thursday everybody! Well, I’m a rested up and in a better frame of mind today, so I’m going to jump right into things:

Rejected

On Tuesday I received an email from Yahoo saying that I was essentially rejected for their new program. I actually didn’t/don’t feel so bad because their reasons were technical and not creative. I was a little dumbfounded at first because that would have been the last thing I would have expected. They gave as their reasons my incorrect use of numbers and some missing commas, and the fact that I capitalized the second ‘G’ in Lady Gaga’s name. Okay, that was a stupid mistake, but when I finally got around to scrutinizing the article today, I saw that I only made one mistake with numerals and I missed six commas. Frustrating!



In hindsight, I’m taking it as a good thing. Many writers are being turned down, and for creative reasons, too! So I don’t feel so bad. I posted the situation on the very wonderful Y!CN page on Facebook and received some nice feedback from people who I didn’t even know read me. I realize that this was my first professional shot at writing and this experience will help me going into the next try. I just need to wait a bit and try again, and be more wary of the technical stuff next time.

Ya Gotta Have Friends

One of my “Keys to Life” pieces, #3, is all about cultivating friendships. (Check it out here). I mentioned in that piece that friends are the family you choose and that true friends are the ones who support you when you need it. Well, last night I spent some time with my good friend Laura Kim and she was just what the doctor ordered for me.

Laura Kim and I go back a long way. We both started at the same time in our school districts (she teaches English) and we hit it off right from the start. LK’s one of those friends that I just connect with on a certain level and she and I talk about things we both can’t really talk about with anyone else. Ever since we started working together, we’ve made it a habit of sharing a meal every once in awhile followed by who knows what.

Yesterday we had a date and what usually is a two or three hour visit turned out to be almost seven! We started off slow and subdued, probably just weary from the work day we had both just finished, but by the end of the night it was actually hard for me to leave. We had an awesome evening all around. She’s become quite the bird lady, with now five feathered creatures in her collection, and they provided an unusual backdrop to the evening, for sure. The newest bird is Dobie, a huge white parrot that kinda spooked me a bit by its sheer size. We were thrown into fits of hysterical laughter a couple of times due to my, um, let’s say startled fear at many of Dobie’s sudden movements.

Laura Kim and I shared some personal stuff, a lot of which I would have normally put up here in the past, but have been trying to stay away from. It felt good to let it out after so long. I did my share of listening and comforting too as we shared first a wonderful dinner in Westhampton and then an equally delicious dessert at a great bake shop down the street. After our meals and mutual commiserating, we headed back to her place for a good old fashioned photo shoot.

Warning – I’m posting a couple of the photos here because I wouldn’t dare put them on Facebook, lol. They’re just a little too risqué for me to put there and I hope no one gets offended by an R rating.


Leave it to a straight man to have a booby pillow!


...and a gay one to try it on for size!

Sexy Italian Man





Anyway, it was there at her place that we had the most fun. We were both in better moods than we had been and laughed for practically two hours straight as we worked out poses and get-ups for the pictures. Her boyfriend was away and he’s got a big collection of hats, many of which I tried on to both of our amusement. Being the typical straight male, there were lots of nudie things all around, too, which gave me so much fodder for laughs, hehe.

All in all, it was a great evening with my good buddy LK. Getting the opportunity to release some of our innermost troubles together and then to have such a great time afterwards was just what I needed to get myself back together, at least for a little while…

Photo Shoot Fun








Splash Company

Well, I finally found someone to go to Splash with and I’m a little apprehensive about it. I almost feel like I have a date tomorrow, and don’t know what to expect. There’s this guy I had been sort of seeing before I met Sunday and whom I cut it off with when I did. Not long after that he had found someone, too, so it was all good. When my relationship ended, I never gave him a second thought until I heard from his a few weeks ago. His relationship had ended also and I’ve seen him a couple of times since.

For the sake of privacy and to keep things short, I’m going to give an abridged version of the story. This guy’s younger than me and one of the things I like about him is that he reminds me of me when I was his age. We share a lot of the same values: dancing and clubbing, fashion and music and we never have trouble finding things to talk about.

Lately he’s spoken a lot about going to Splash and finally the other day I finally told him that if he wanted he could come with me. He seemed excited about it and as it turns out, he’s got a party to go to in the city tomorrow night. We’re going to meet there.

I’ve never been to a club with him and I’m not sure what to expect. I do know that at the moment I’m not looking for anyone to date, and as far as I know neither is he, which is good. I’m not sure how to approach the evening…I’m thinking and hoping that we’re just going as friends and I think we could definitely have a great time together. Only time will tell how it goes tomorrow and like I said, I’m a little apprehensive, but I have a feeling it could be fun. We’ll see…

Yeah 3X

As you’ve seen a lot lately, I’ve been posting additional videos in my daily posts in addition to the “Song of the Day” segment. There’s a song by Chris Brown which has already received the honors, but during my workout earlier, I listened to it and I can’t get it out of my head. Regardless of whether or not you like the dude, the song is happy and fun and great to dance to. So enjoy “Yeah 3X” (Yeah, yeah, yeah!)



The Animals



A jackelope right here on Long Island!



Dobie



Za Zoo