Wednesday, January 19, 2011

WELCOME TO DALLAS

I moved to Dallas, Texas in the fall of 2000. I made my partner of four years an Ex, tossed the dog into the truck and head back to Texas. I was excited because this would be the time for Steve to stand or fall on his own. That and three and a half years of cheating, drugging, and pure crazy was finally coming to an end.

I moved into a former high-end apartment complex built around a former Dallas mansion at 4810 Cedar Springs Road and quickly took my place drinking coffee and cruising on Cedar Springs, the center point for the Dallas Gayborhood.

Within a month I had been “Reno-vated” Texas style. It was early spring when sitting either in The RoundUp Saloon wearing a perfectly starched and creased pair of Wranglers or in JR’s wearing a perfectly starched rugby shirt that I met Brian. A tall lean mass of muscle. tight abs, large forearms and a look that was either part Asian or part Swedish. Either way he filled out his wife-beater in a way that made me want to strap on my climbing gear.

A native Texan he reeled me in with his cool low southern drawl. We had a date planned. Steve’s first real date in over four years.

I ran home a put his card on the middle of the dining room table….. Then I put a rock on it. So it wouldn’t blow away…. After the appropriate “God I’m not needy” number of days, I called Mr. Brian and listened to his drawwwl as we planned our night out. Which came to pass the next week as we met in the parking lot of my former high-end apartment complex. Brian’s pearl snaps strained under the pressure of his chest as we climbed up into his F-250.

Just as I got settled in a way that the skin tight Wranglers to not cut off blood to my feet, I turned to see Brian pick up a small hose attached to a tube coming from a blinking black box wired to the dash of his over sized truck.

Time stopped. I turned my head sideways like your cat as she’s watches intently and tries to decipher why you’re shoving stuff up your butt. That look. He stopped in mid-blow. “Yeah, It’s something my parole officer makes me do.” He calmly rolled out like James Dean in Giant.

If I would have had my IPhone with me on that cool spring evening of 2001 I would of Googled “blow into device before car will start” and found out it was a court mandated alcohol monitoring device used after a DUI conviction. Several DUI convictions. Those Swedish Asians can drink.

6 comments:

  1. With two cats, I know exactly the look you're talking about. Well, maybe not exactly.

    Okay, exactly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. wow, you put creases in Wranglers... That reminds me of Kentucky when I was in college and the rodeo team

    ReplyDelete
  3. Then I put a rock on it. So it wouldn’t blow away

    There are moments when you rise up to god-hood. This was one of those moments.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's why I bookmark this blog, DR. Then put a rock on it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. omg - nearly spit my coffee out.... Those Swedish Asians....

    Were your denim creases reverse creases or conventional creases? cn

    ReplyDelete
  6. Um... the breath-start *may* have been a red flag.

    Just sayin'...

    ReplyDelete

Do not forget to add nicetoseestevieb.blogspot.com to your favorites tab.