Posted by Instagrate to WordPress
October 2012
REPOST: Pride In Yourself.
This blog entry is a repost from this day in 2005.
Today is National Coming Out Day, the day in which closeted gay men and lesbians are urged to come out of the closet and announce to the world, “yes, I am gay.” The tradition is led by the Human Rights Campaign, which has designated this day to show others that there is a huge support mechanism for LGBT folks.
National Coming Out Day started in 1988, three years or so after I came out to myself and started peeking out around the closet doors. Who am I kidding. I had always known of my attraction to the same sex. It was late in 1985 that I actively began admitting it to myself. I’m not going to go into my whole coming out story this year. If you’re interested in the sordid details, feel free to read last year’s Coming Out Day entry.
I just know that someone, somewhere is doing a Google search on being gay today. Perhaps he lives in a country where he could be shot for his homosexuality. Perhaps she is being forced to marry a man because that’s how she was brought up, when she’d reallly like to marry her female teacher or pal from high school. You’re afraid. You’re afraid that you’ll be shunned by your friends, disowned by your family and burned at the stake at the next neighborhood barbecue. And I’m sorry you feel that way. The world is a scary place and there’s a lot of ignorance in the world. But know that you’re not alone. Know that while there is a lot of hate and negativity out there, also know that there is even more positive energy, love and acceptance, often in places that you wouldn’t expect to find it. We know that you didn’t *choose* to be gay, regardless of what others may say about that fact, and we know that you don’t have to live a certain lifestyle simply because you’re attracted to the same sex. Do what your heart tells you to do. Do what feels right to you. If you’re not ready to live your life “out loud” and admit to everyone and anyone that you are gay (I can just picture Billy Bob stopping Thelma the hairdresser on some rural street and saying “I like those queer boys!”) then just do one thing today, actually go ahead and do two things. Look at yourself in the mirror and be honest with yourself. Look at yourself long and hard, reach for your true inner feelings, without any masks, without any fear, without any worries of reprisal. Then say it out loud. “Yes, I am gay.” Then follow it up with “And that’s o.k.”. It’s a baby step. But you’ll feel better for being honest with yourself. Allow yourself that dignity today.
Food.
It was recently announced that we have an Olive Garden and a Moe’s being built not too far from home. I’m excited about the Moe’s; I have been to one only once or twice but I remember being able to eat relatively healthy and the food being good. It’s not Chipotle, but it’s a good substitute.
I’m kind of surprised that Olive Garden is coming to the area. With the very large Italian population in the area, Olive Garden always felt that it would not be worth their while to compete with the locally owned Italian restaurants. They must have changed their minds when they saw the hotels going up in the area and figured that folks would want familiar.
I like Olive Garden once in a while. Many shriek that it’s basically “boil in a bag” food but I’ve had some boil in a bag food in my day and I found it quite good. I’m always chided for the fact that I will eat just about anything that is put in front of me; perhaps this skill works to my advantage at Olive Garden. I do like their wine, though. Now that I think about it, I seem to best recall the beginning halves of an Olive Garden experience.
Cookie.
It has been six weeks since the last time I had an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie from Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s been four weeks since I’ve stepped into the Dunkin’ Donuts near work. I wish I could say that I don’t miss the occasional cookie one single bit, but that would be a lie. I do miss the cookie. I just don’t miss the calories (FYI a hamburger from McDs has less calories) associated with eating the cookie. Even though I ride my bike a LOT these days, I still feel like I’m not doing enough exercise. I envy these folks that can afford to spend three, four, five hours in a gym on a daily basis, grunting and making noises as they fling hundreds of pounds of weights around like it’s nobody’s business.
Skipping the cookie and eating healthy in general has been good for me. My body has some sort of threshold at around 194 pounds. Above 194 and my blood pressure gets weird and I occasionally get little rumbles in the chest area that are not scary but just noticeable enough to encourage my head to say “you’re getting at the upper end of the spectrum, bippy.” Below 194 and the blood pressure settles down to a reasonable level, the rumbles are gone and I have more energy. So skipping the cookie has been a good thing.
But I still miss the taste of a cookie.
Some have suggested making similar cookies at home with Splenda. Not a fan of Splenda. At all. Anything related to the chemical wizardry of Sucralose gives me a headache. I’m suspicious of stuff that tries to circumvent the laws of nature by claiming you’re eating no calories. The only thing worse than Sucralose for me is that Olestra stuff; feel free to ask me to point out the tree along the Thruway that was a makeshift porta-john after eating chips with the cleverly marketed “O-lean” the next time you see me in Albany.
I don’t want fake cookies. I want a real cookie. I’m going to need to schedule a couple extra hours of workout time to take care of this craving.
Plus.
So last week I declared on Twitter that I was giving up on Google+ as one of my social network outlets. I had had enough with trying to make a go of the service and I was going to swear it off completely. It was a declaration worthy of golden gilt.
I lied.
Over the weekend I decided to give Google+ another try. This attempt goes hand in hand with the app.net (or ADN) service, a $36/year service that is aiming to compete with Twitter.
I have to admit that Twitter hasn’t really been blowing my skirt up as much lately. I use it to share random thoughts and to keep up on what other folks are thinking in the world but I don’t really see it as an outlet for one-on-one communication. Google+ lends itself to that a little more than Twitter. Of course, Facebook tries to do it all, and I enjoy reaching out on Facebook, but sometimes I can see only so many of those cleverly* worded e-Cards before I want to throw a lamp or something. Idiocy tends to make me hostile.
So I’ve been trying Google+ again (I think this is the sixth time or so) where I embrace my geekiness and talk about techy stuff. I occasionally talk about other things as well, I’m not all about bits and bytes but since that sort of thing makes up much of a day, it tends to be my focus. Plus, there are a few tech guys that use ONLY Google+ and they share everything they find on there: news bits, tech news, personal adventures, travel photos and the like. I think that’s kind of cool. I kind of get offended when people use these sites as an outlet for hookups; I think the mainstream social networks should be kept to a PG-13 rating at most and honestly, I’m not looking for that sort of thing so don’t even waste my time. A shirtless pic can be enjoyable but don’t show a photo of your dismount off the pile of guys. It’s just my thing. I’m an old fashioned gay, I guess.
Rest.
I didn’t work out this morning. The rational side of me knows that every body, no matter how fit or how bionic, needs a break from working out once in a while, but the irrational side of me feels guilty for not working out this morning. So apparently my way to combat this is to drink extra gallons of water so as to flush the guilt away. I’m trotting back and forth to the rest room like crazy today but I don’t see any guilt in the urinal. I bet that’s not a sentence you read very often in a blog.
My hip is pretty sore after that fall I took on my bike on Saturday. I just realized that I didn’t write about that here, I posted about it on Facebook. That’s not a habit I would like to get in; falling nor posting things only to Facebook. The fall was because I maneuvered a railroad track crossing in a bad way and got my tire caught in one of the slots for the rails. My cyclist instincts kicked in though and I was able to twist my feet out of my pedals and kick the bike out of the way on my way down. I landed hard on my left hip though. Three drivers stopped to make sure I was ok and that was very much appreciated. I continued on with the ride afterwards and rode again yesterday, so all is well but I’m still pretty sore today.
I think taking a rest on a Monday might not be the best way to go, because I need something to kick start the whole Monday experience and the past several Mondays have been acceptable after a workout.
Maybe I just need a nap.
Saturday Night Dance Party.
Here’s a great track that will always amp up your Saturday evening. From 1988, here’s Inner City with “Good Life”.
