August 26th, 2011 - A hurricane and a colonoscopy: loads of fun!

Photo Source: Press TV

Long Island is in the upper middle of the map....yikes!

It’s Friday night and the big storm is looming! Yes, hurricane hysteria is here and I say let’s just get on with it already! I’ve had a pretty crappy couple of days and come hell or high water, I’m going to party tonight…

Ugh, Men!

All week long I’ve been anticipating today’s procedure (a colonoscopy) and yesterday’s, um, prep for it, and so my mind has been somewhat preoccupied from the other issues in my life. I don’t know, but dating men is the last thing on my mind these days…I’m just not feeling it…and yet suitors seem to be coming out of the woodwork for my attention. I’ve never been very good at letting anybody down, and though I’m trying my best, it all just gives me a big headache!

I’m starting to think I may become celibate and not ever seek out anyone for any sort of companionship, sexual, romantic or otherwise. Oh, who am I kidding? Maybe once school starts and all of this weather nastiness is over I’ll be in a better mood and…

Anyway, I’m going to Splash tonight for one last hurrah before the big one arrives sometime tomorrow night and I’m going to do my darndest to have a good time.

Prep Not Fun

Yesterday was the prep for today’s procedure and what everyone told me was spot on! I had to fast the entire day and around six o’clock I had to begin “the prep.” The name of the powdered stuff I had to drink had the word “bowel” in it, so you can imagine what it does. By the time I started it I was so hungry I could have eaten a horse, but I digress…

I had to drink this 16 ounce mixture twice, at six and at then again at two in the morning. My friend Ozzie came by to hang with me beforehand and we went to get me some yum-yums (lime jello and chicken broth! Tempting, right?) to dine on for the evening. Oz was pretty good until after I took the first dose and my stomach started grumbling, and then the little jokes started coming. Sheesh, I know that this particular procedure touches on the more embarrassing things about the body, but… Hehe... Before long I had to kick him out and the rest of the evening was spent….aw, you can just imagine!


Photo Source: Medline Plus

The Colonoscopy

Nancy Lou, who I dedicated today’s “Song of the Day” to earlier, showed up at my house at 10:15 sharp and we headed out to the surgical center in Shirley. I really wasn’t too nervous because I was just thinking of the nice big breakfast he and I would have afterwards. The whole thing lasted about two hours and again, what people told me was dead on. The anesthesia they gave me put me into the most blissful sleep and before I knew it, I was eating Lorna Doones and drinking a can of fruit juice, groggy in my bed.

I had a polyp, which was removed, and justified my going for the procedure in the first place. The doctor told me that all polyps eventually become cancerous (in about 10 years), so I’m happy I didn’t wait the four years to have it done.

A Vivid Anesthesiec Dream

I know, I know, anasthesiec is not a word, but since I was under it when I had this weird and vivid dream, I just wanted to use my own made-up word. Any-who, in the dream I was in a nightclub with my mother (very strange!). The club was similar to an after-hours place in Jackson Heights I used to go to years back, like an apartment turned into a disco. We were dancing, something like the Watusi, and I saw ‘him’ and three friends sitting on a chair across the room. He looked over at me and then turned and walked away, down the stairs. I looked over at my mom, who was still getting down, oblivious to the scene and boom, I woke up! So real and so weird!

Irene’s a Comin’

Well it’s been 26 years since we’ve had a major hurricane hit Long Island and this one looks like a sure thing. Wall to wall coverage of it is making everyone frenzied. There’s not a battery or a bottle of water to be had anywhere. Details are sketchy, as they always are with these things, but it looks like we’re right in the track of this thing as of tomorrow night and into Sunday.

Of course, I am a little worried. As I said the other day, I’ve got a lot of old, gnarly trees around my house and even the last thunderstorm that hit us I lost several huge branches. I did a lot of prep work today and I’m going to finish tomorrow by putting all of my plants and loose yard stuff in my garage. I did my shopping, and other than that there’s little I can do but wait and sit it out.

Local municipalities are taking this thing seriously, though. I got a phone call earlier that they are issuing a mandatory evacuation for all points south of Montauk Highway in Patchogue, my town, which is only about a mile and a half from where I live. So even though I don’t have to evacuate, my friend Blanchie does. Yikes! At least we have at least almost another full day to prep, and like I said, all anyone can do at this point is wait it out and hope for the best.

In the meantime, I think I’m going to have a bona fide hurricane party tomorrow night, you know, with lots of booze and a few good friends. Should be a fun way to ring in Irene! Tomorrow’s gonna be a busy day! I’ll keep you posted…

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February 19, 2011 - Catching Up

Happy Saturday everyone! Today is the first day of a much needed 9-day vacation. As many of you know, the last vacation I had was probably among my all time worst, so I really want to make up for it this time and I got off to a great start yesterday. Here’s the latest on my so called life:

Dating…Um, I Dunno…



You know how similar things all seem to happen in bunches? Like when there’s a plane crash or something…there could have been none in years and then all of a sudden there are two or three in the span of a couple of weeks. Well, that happened to me yesterday. I’ve been single now for the better part of three years and no one has ever tried to set me up before…that is until now, and the potential blind dates were almost plural.

I don’t know, maybe it’s because of my recent breakup that people are thinking I need to meet somebody new to get over it, but that’s really not the case. It all started several weeks ago when a coworker mentioned setting me up on a date with a Spanish teacher from a neighboring school district (see Daily Ramblings, January 22nd). At the time I just listened to her and smiled, not really giving much thought to the matter. I hadn’t really come up again until Thursday, when she showed me his picture in the newspaper (it was a local newspaper about his school’s trip to Argentina). Then it came up again when I got to work yesterday:

“Oh John, there you are. I’ve been looking for you all morning. I finally spoke to him last night. I told him all about you. We’re going to be Facebook friends and so he can look at your page and you can see his…”

“Oh…” was all I could say.

“He asked a lot of questions, and don’t worry, I played you all up. I told him all about your writing and your awards. Oh, he was so cute. You’re so cute. I think you guys would be so perfect together. I’m so excited.”

She could have gone on and on, but thankfully we both had to be at a meeting, so we were cut short. She tentatively mentioned that he and I would meet for coffee when he gets back from his trip. At least I’ve got some time to think more about it!

Then yesterday afternoon I spent time with another friend, Laura Kim. In recent months, she’s expanded her “gay” horizons by befriending her makeup artist and his partner. I think his name is Michael. Anyway, for months she’d been spending a lot of time with Michael and his boyfriend and just recently, around Christmastime, the two of them broke up (you see what I’m saying, I know of at least three other couples that ended relationships around the same time!).

She really hadn’t mentioned Michael too much to me until yesterday. She went to Florida last night for her vacation and Michael is going to be taking care of her birds (she’s got four of them!) while she’s gone. He had been over her house the night before. She told me that he asked her if she would set him up with me. Obviously she’s told him a lot about me since she and I are such good friends. She told me this after I had told her about the other potential blind date.

“You see, I would never do that,” she said. “Michael asked me to introduce you guys, but I know both of you and I know that you wouldn’t work. You’re not each other’s type.”

She went on to tell me that Michael, being a makeup artist, is very flamboyant. She knows me well enough to know that’s not my type at all. “She makes Joe look like a truck driver!” she quipped. (Joe was not flamboyant at all, but it wasn’t ever that hard to figure out he was gay, if you know what I mean.)



I appreciated that. In fact, I had been wondering since she first told me of Michael’s breakup if she was going to suggest just that. Now I knew why she hadn’t, thankfully. At least that’s one of two I don’t have to worry about.

The truth of the matter is I’m still smarting and I really have no interest in men at all. I wish it were different, but at the moment that’s how I feel. Even though I haven’t seen or heard from him in awhile, I still think about him a lot and I’m still missing him. I can’t help but harbor a lot of those ‘what if’s’ in my head, wishing that I could go back and right all of the wrongs that I did to make him disappear from my life. I know they say time heals all wounds and eventually it will get better, but right now I guess I’m just going to have to keep feeling this way until that day comes.

I guess love comes around when you least expect it to, and true feelings cannot be wiped away just because your mind wants them to. I told my friend Laura Kim yesterday that I wish I’d just never met him. That way I wouldn’t have had to go through all of this hurt over these past several months and I’d just be my normal self like I had been before. She responded by reminding me how happy I was when I was with him. I don’t know…is it really better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all? I was very happy then, but that’s why I’m so unhappy now, so I can’t answer that question with any real honesty.



I’m dealing with things in the best way I know how. Sometimes I’m feeling really good about myself and other days he just lingers in my mind. It’s not as bad as it had been the first go around, just different. I’d like to think he’s smarting from missing me, too, but I just don’t know, nor will I ever probably. I’m guessing it’s been a lot easier for him to stay away from me, considering how angry he was the last time I heard from him. If only he truly saw things from my perspective, maybe he would’ve understood and not been so angry. In the meantime I just need to go about my business and get my mind right.

Splish Splash on a Friday Night

Even though I said I wouldn’t go to Splash anymore on Friday nights, I went last night. After all, it was the beginning of vacation and it does me good to get out and let loose for awhile. I’m really glad I did because I had a great time. For the first time since I’ve been going there I didn’t just wear a t-shirt and jeans. I got a little dressed up, with a beautiful black, button down shirt and some nice jeans. I looked good if I say so myself!

The music was awesome, and I danced all night with a lot of people. Several guys approached me throughout the night and that’s probably one of the reasons I like going out: because it feeds my self-esteem. Though I never try to pursue anything with anyone, it’s still nice to be playful and it’s fun to dance.

Sometimes I wish my friends would come with me…I hate going it alone all the time, and it would be nice not to have to deal with some of the creepers who approach me either! Maybe one day…

On a musical aside, the deejay played an awesome mix of three songs, one which I’d never heard before, but it worked perfectly. The songs included in the mix were Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” (check out the video below!), LaRoux’s “Bulletproof” and Robyn’s “Indestructible.” Now there have been plenty of times when I’ve heard two songs mixed together, but rarely have I heard three, and it was so hot! Last night was also the first time I heard “Born this Way” in a club, and they followed it up with Madonna’s “Express Yourself.” Believe it or not, the dance floor was fuller for Madonna! You go Mo! Still the Queen!



Recent Yahoo Contributor Network Articles

Here are links to some recent pieces I’ve published on YCN:

Concert Tours Hitting the US in Spring/Summer 2011

There are lots of concert tours coming this way this summer, and there’s plenty I want to see. I actually think I’ll be going to see Lady GaGa in April at Nassau Coliseum and I’m definitely going to see Kylie in May. Rihanna and Sade are also on my wish list. I’d better get to writing so I’ll be able to afford the tickets!

Collected Works: The Misadventures of Johnny Driver, Season 2

I finally put all of the Johnny Driver Season 2 installments all in one place. Though I was sporadic in publishing the season’s episodes and readership has been down, I think my writing got a lot better this go around and the storylines were more involved. Check em out, please!

Great Advice for Online Writers from a fellow YCN Contributor

It’s been a slow week for writing as these two have been it for me. There’s another piece that I came across by fellow writer Lyn Lomasi that I want to share. It’s another one of her many great pieces of advice for online writers and I think it’s one of her best. Check it out:

10 Things Every Web Writer Should Know

A Short Spring Preview

The last two days were spectacular, weather-wise. Well, the temperature was anyway. The temps reached all the way into the 50’s and it was nice to be able to roll the windows down and not wear a jacket after the bitter winter we’ve had so far. But, never fear, Mother Nature is reminding us today that it’s still February…the wind is absolutely howling at the moment and the temperature is supposed to drop to 18 degrees tonight. Oh well, it IS February, after all. It was just nice to get those two days as a preview and the cold is not supposed to stay too long anyway.

Well, I think I’ve written enough for one day. I really need to stop skipping days because then I give you readers too much to read, lol. I think it’s time to get to work on writing that I get paid to do. The mouth is healing nicely, by the way. As always, thanks for reading and enjoy Whitney!

Whitney Houston - "I Wanna Dance with Somebody"