THE TIES THAT BIND

Jim over at Jim’s Stuff Blog talked today about his stuff. More precisely his closet, more precisely his ties. Jim posed the question “What’s in your closet?” I thought I’d answer.

I was about to say that I don’t own a lot of ties. Although I did have jobs in the past were I was required to wear them. Then I stopped and examined the photo. The flowery monstrosity was from back at University when I would dress in that tie, white dress shirt, threadbare ripped jeans and combat boots. This was to coordinate with my Flock of Seagulls hair.

Second from the left is my first Giorgio Armani. This was purchased for a wedding in 199something…. Big silver was for my commitment ceremony with Dalton.

I guess I hold on to things more than I thought. So, what’s in your closet?

DINING OUT FOR STEVE

Ever have a weekend where you dine out for every meal? From Italian themed buffets to Texas themed steak houses this weekend was about the food.

As much as I try to avoid chain restaurants that was this weekend’s theme. Especially Friday when we dined at a massive buffet designed with a Tuscany meets Vegas feel. The perfect place to go when you spent your Mom’s money on the prom limo and don’t really like your date. We lucked out because there was a transgender group sitting next to us, fifteen middle-aged ladies trying to navigate the endless rows of Italian cuisine filled chafing dishes in polyester. They’ve driven trucks for years yet can’t master a sensible three inch heal. One looked around when I greeted her with “Good evening Ma’am.”

A late lunch at PF Chang’s was my goal for Saturday. The mega corporation trying to look like a humble Chinese village that is PF Changs is another restaurant that I love and hate. I can only go between the hours of two and five. Any other time and it’s akin to eating Asian Fusin on a subway platform. Off hours and it can actually be a great experience. This was the point of my weekend where I rekindled my love affair with Japanese beers.

Sunday was time for some real authentic Texas steaks. Texas Road House is as Texas as Texas gets. And it doesn’t lose any of its appeal knowing that the corporate headquarters for this Texas institution is Louisville, KY and even if it was years before they actually opened up a restaurant in Texas they still know how to treat you right.

Now it’s back to my eighteen-hundred calorie diet. Then I’ll try to burn off the entire weekend with a long cleansing run and pushing plates of another sort at my mega corporation gym.

SUMMER time

I love the last weekend in June. Summer has arrived, it stays daylight until 9:30PM and I can walk the dog in just a wife-beater and gym shorts and enjoy the summer breeze. The jasmine in my mind. It has been blown.

Last night I met up with friends and sat in front of the local gay coffee-house until it closed. Sitting out on the patio I watched the night slowly overtake the trees in the park. As the little squares of light flickered on up and down each floor of the high-rises surrounding the park a real wave of contentment washed over me. Then just as I was in the wave of summer happiness I thought: Only seven more questions in the Blog Challenge.

T-minus seven is a repeat. This explains why there were sixty-four questions in the blog challenge, just repeat a couple, no one will notice. So, again A talent: I gave a lame answer to this question back on number thirty; I’ll give another lame answer this time. The last beer bust at our local bear bar I showed up sporting a skin-tight 2xist tank top, a white UnderArmour baseball cap, and khaki cargo shorts. I could tell it looked great because there was a much bigger built guy wearing the same thing down to the cap and shorts. Showing up wearing the same thing as a much better looking guy is a talent, of sorts. Not that I care about much about that, just throw me in a worn-out T-shirt and cargos and I’m good to go. This, of course will be the uniform of late June shorts, threadbare T-shirts and Pumas.

THE MEN OF TWITTER

Every Monday the blogger over at BosGuy, a great Boston centric gay blog site posts his choice of THE MEN OF TWITTER. It’s a list of guys that catches the eye of this sports loving Bostonite. For some crazy reason I was picked to join the list of amazingly hot and charming guys.

Please check out Bosguy at BosBuy.Blogspot.com and follow him on Twitter at @BosGuyand #MenOfTwitter Maybe you could thank him for giving me this honor. Or you could ask him what the hell he was thinking.

I personally would like to say thanks to for the great mention. I can now call Mr. Brown my 8th grade track coach and let him know I made something of myself. I’m sure then he would start to follow me on Twitter @Nice2CStevieB

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Pride

I am only eighth questions away from finishing the sixty-four question blog challenge. I’m as shocked as you are. Question number fifty-seven is “Tell us about your best friend”.

This question has come up perfectly after a weekend of spending amazing quality time with friends. A beautiful weekend enjoying the friendships around me. Yesterday was the second day of Denver’s gay pride festival; this is marked with a huge parade down Capitol Hill to Civic Center Park. I was amazed by this in the terms that since I was dancing with my shirt off into the early morning hours I actually got to stand on a street corner with “that gang I run with” and watch the floats, float by.

This is when I was introduced to a straight couple attending the parade for the very first time. Attending any gay event for the first time. When chatting with Becky and Tom I found out that they had three kids and lived in a nice suburban house in a nice suburban neighborhood. They wanted to come to the festival to help celebrate and mark an amazing day. The day that Tom would come out.

Tom recently retired from the US Army after twenty-five years and as a couple decided it was time to live a complete life. It’s funny how everyone has their coming out stories. I felt honored to be there and share this couple’s first step in publicly acknowledging their new step in their marriage and lives together. Later in the day I got to spend some one-on-one time with Tom, he is a career Army guy through and through and approached his coming out and beginning to date with Army trained dedication. A “this is my military separation date this is when I no longer keep secrets” approach to the situation. With Becky, his best friend at his side.

This made me feel grateful for the best friends I have in my life. Tom is lucky to have his wife and best friend push him to live a full life. I am lucky to have friends to keep my life full.

CHILLAX, IT’S FRIDAY

I think I’m mellowing with age. Situations that would drive me over the edge not that long ago now barely make a blip on the radar.

One of the good things about living in a small fictional town is that the gas station on main street doesn’t feel the need to climb up to the sign out by the street and change their gas prices. This means that I can fill up my sleek sports sedan for around 25 to 30 cents cheaper than anywhere else. This is made cheaper if you also buy a car wash. Me? Wash my car? Well, okay. Although the last three times I’ve filled up the car wash was broken.

Yesterday I went to the gym and then stopped by a friend’s house to watch an Ina Garten TV marathon. On the way back to the ranch I stopped for petrol and car wash. Or should I say, petrol and to sit in my car madly punching a code into a sneering and complacent kiosk. This afforded me the opportunity to meet Brian. Well, his name tag said “Brain” but, I’m sure he meant Brian. The brain then set about explaining that car washes are difficult to operate and maybe I wasn’t up to the task.

So here we find our protagonist. A gas station attendant with a tattoo on his forearm reading “Born Fwee” [SP] is letting me know my place in the world. Suddenly I was overwhelmed that I was underwhelmed. The ego was happily in tune, the testosteronieness was chillaxin. I left the store knowing that a possible conflict instead produced a Diet Coke and a MoonPie.

Turns out that yes, I had been entering the code wrong.

 

THEORY THURSDAY

I have had one continuous text message conversation since December. A never-ending conversation with Patrick from Pac’s Pad. Sure it pauses for awhile while jobs, relationships, and sleep gets in the way, when our hands don’t have steering wheels or chicken wings in them the conversation continues.

The latest turn has been about people liking you. The need to be liked to be more specific. I can very easily fall into the behavior of wanting needing everyone to like me. No, affirming me. Like Lisa Simpson jumping up and down begging for someone to grade her.

“Affirm me, grade me! I’m ever so good.”

I don’t kid myself that writing to you everyday isn’t part of this, yet it is also the counterweight. I’ve started taking a quick photo of myself right after waking up, walking the dog and pouring coffee. No shower, no comb. It’s a simple way to explain to myself WYSIWYG, What You See Is What You Get. Well, that’s the theory anyway.

WEDNESDAY TO WEEKEND

This weekend will be Pride in my fair city. The time of year when my BFF, Dalton asks “Isn’t pride one of those deadly sins?”

I guess that’s a rhetorical question because he asks me while I’m putting on my Daisy Dukes and multi-colored ring necklace. Okay, I don’t own Daisy Dukes or the ubiquitous ‘90s gay pride accessory. I do however, like the pride parade and party afterwards.

This year I’m excited because I get to hang out with a guy I’ve been building a new friendship with, George. We plan on dancing to my friend DJ Gary Givant who will be spinning at a club that has brought in Cazwell. Good times.

This weekend will also mark the high-water make of how much sunscreen I use throughout the year. Yeah, mostly naked Steve. Well, besides the pride rings and Daisy Dukes.

'TIL TUESDAY

Every New Yorker coming to town says the same thing. “Take me to a Mexican restaurant!” Corvette, my first boyfriend (yes, that’s his name) said that with the enthusiasm of a kid walking into Disney land with the goal of meeting Mickey.

We met at La Loma in the Highland; he sauntered in swinging a Louis Vuitton overnight bag and wearing combat boots. He hadn’t changed one bit. We then spent hours telling the tales of our lives since high school. He was involved with the real story behind the movie Party Monster, lived above a fisting club and at some point, as you do, started working for Madonna. The typical NY dream.

After eating an enchilada plate smothered in green chili and dropping Corvette off at a local vinyl record store it was just enough time to have a run in the park then meet Jim from Jim’s Stuff blog for dinner. However, the report I thought I had completed for work last week came back to haunt me. No run or nice dinner with Jim. Today will be spent indoors slaving over a hot spreadsheet. The wonderful weekend of meeting and cavorting with good friends as just a memory.

MAN ACHE MONDAY

Today is back to the grind in the Excel spreadsheet mines. This was the weekend for meeting great guys, Robert, Jim, an entire gay bike club, an elephant… Today I get to go to lunch with my high school boyfriend. I’ve written about him before, how we dated our senior year of high school. Completely clad in Z. Cavaricci or shredded Levis we shared a locker, hair gel, and a love for Siouxsie and the Banshees. What else did a high school romance need?

Now he lives in Brooklyn and owns an Elvis Presley themed Tattoo parlor/hair salon. Apparently he spent the 00’s doing Madonna’s hair for her tours. At lunch I’ll make sure to touch his hand, so then you can touch me and you will have touched someone who touched someone who once touched Madonna.

SAUCY SUNDAY

I’m off, up, and out early again today. I’m hanging out with buds at the Colorado Renaissance Festival. Yeah, that’s what I said. A ren fair? Didn’t we have an industrial revolution to get the hell away from the over production of turkey legs? Although the barbaric pillaging I’m all about. I support a culture based upon forcing a foe into surrendering his booty. Sorry. It’s early.

I’m also going to the “no deodorant zone” to meet Jim, from the Jim’s Stuff blog. He’ll be sporting a kilt. Let’s hope there’s a breeze.

LET’S GO SATURDAY

Today I’m off, up, and out early. I’m meeting up with friends, Carl and Jenna to go explore an ancient Army and industrial supply warehouse. Besides looking for tetanus, I’ll be helping Carl seek out robot parts. Carl builds robots. Not the “kill all humans / can’t understand the concept of love kind, the art kind.

I live for getting dirty in warehouses.

RELAX, IT'S FRIDAY

I worked hard this week to close down the corporate office and set up the logistics of working in my gym shorts. I really hate when my work interferes with my blogging.

Today was a huge exhale in my world, one last trip into the office to help a project close down. Before I knew it was time for lunch and the quick drive downtown to meet the famous blogger from Blobby’s Blog. In town for work he graciously made time to meet me for lunch. He was witty, charming and all around just a great guy. I was immediately smitten by his warm demeanor.

After a great time getting to know this nice guy and fellow blogger it was time for the weekend to begin. Until I received a phone call from Fuzzy, the homosexual life companion partner.  He has taken the cruiser out for a ride with the local gay biker group and now they were hungry. Very hungry.

Soon I found myself following a large group of gay motorcycle enthusiasts to a gay biker BBQ. Which of course included a stop of Whole Foods for a wide assortment of pasta salads.  Let’s just say that you’ve never had an in-depth conversation about rims jobs until you’ve had one with a Harley rider sipping on a Riesling.

So, let the weekend begin. I get to meet Jim from Jim’s Stuff blog in town for the Renaissance Festival and I have a lunch date with my high school boyfriend in town from Brooklyn. This weekend will be about making new friends.

STEVIE B IN HAIKU

Stevie B.

In gym shorts

Drinking coffee

Wonders what the day will bring

Starts with Porn and Twitter

GYM TALK

“Get a spot?”

I heard this request yesterday at the gym. As the overbuilt muscle was directing the request towards me I stepped up to the incline bench. I’ve been in this gym everyday at the same time with this same guy. Yet I had no idea who he was, due to my lack of social skills and philosophy of get in, get done, get out. He struck up a conversation whilst pressing ungodly amounts of iron down to his chest. Together a couple more reps were pressed out then with the bar back in its holder then overbuilt muscle struck up a conversation.

After a couple of minutes of discussing the gym and other routine topics he stated that he had me figured out, either I was a get in, get it done, get out guy or a raging asshole. I retorted that I was both and had him figured out as a Sociology Major at DU, but apologized if I’ve been ignoring him.

I always ignore everyone at the gym, going back to high school weight lifting class. This is primarily because I don’t want to be perceived as “that gay guy that leers at dudes”. I acknowledge this is because I stick to my own business and it’s a gym, not a bar. But am I really still forcing upon myself self perceived homophobia? Am I still caught in the loathing of being perceived as an effeminate fairy? When I was young it was self-preservation. One wrong look and I could get pounded. Now I out weight most guys.

I guess at this point I could be a little friendlier. I can also release the survival skills I built in high school.

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SUMMER BEGINS

I feel that summer has finally arrived. This sense of utter summer happiness was brought along by a couple of things this weekend.

For the first time in my life I went for a run without my shirt on. Just stripped to the running shorts and took off. The sprinklers in the park drenching me with potable water and summertime bliss. On Sunday I attended my first beer bust of the season at The Denver Wrangler, our local bear bar. As I stood there enjoying the kick-off to summer I enjoyed the utter enjoyment of standing in a sea of cargo shorts, sleeveless T-shirts and stupidly expensive sunglasses.

Oh, yes. There was the annual trip to the mall to buy summertime sunglasses. Then spend the remaining summer trying not to sit on them. This season I will try to protect a very cool pair of Gucci shades from not getting destroyed. Wish me luck.

If you need me I’ll be by the pool with my work laptop, guarding 300 bucks worth of Gucci from getting scratched.

MY DAYS WITH PHIL DONAHUE

Towards the end of seventh grade I received my first real bike. A bright orange ten-speed. It was amazing, my first “grown up” bike and my first step into being a teenager.

I road that bike everywhere, spending hours listening to the whirl of the tires and clank of the gear changes. On a warm evening weeks before school let out I was riding on a rural highway when I heard a truck come up behind me. The next thing I remember is waking up on the side of the road.

I was in the hospital for several weeks with a broken leg, arm, and missing skin from torso and back. Even parts of my head where scalped. I would spend my days watching the traffic move on W 16th street in Greeley, Colorado. This was followed by a hot summer at home in a leg and arm cast. Home bound watching the three channels of local TV.

I don’t bring this up as a tortured Steve story, but more as to explain the reason why I have a low tolerance of spending my days at my house. Sitting on our twelve foot long sofa watching Phil Donahue on our Montgomery Wards nineteen inch television I decided I was going to get out on my new ten-speed and never spend another day sitting at home. And I’ve never did. Spend another day at home or get another ten-speed.

This week marks my first work at home week. Sitting at my desk doing exactly what I’ve always done, yet. At home. All day. I’ve also scrubbed all the grout, cleaned every inch of baseboard and the dog is freshly bathed. I think that I need to change the way I think about being home all day. That it’s not about being trapped and home bound it’s “cocooning” it’s uncapping my creativity used up by a commute.

Is Phil Donahue still on?

GOODBYE RAT RACE

It’s official.  The word has come down that my office is closing. From now on I’ll work from the comfort of my well-appointed home office.


It’s strange; I’m spending this week beginning to miss my office already. The 50 mile each way commute, the over priced café in my building’s lobby, and even the co-workers that constantly come into my office when I’m trying to blog work.


I’ll get more work done with just the dog as an office mate and with the extra time and gas being saved I should be ecstatic. I’m finding that I’m regretting the push for the “remote office” idea. The routine of going into the office and sitting at my desk is probably what I’m going to miss. Well there is the free Starbucks coffee.


I guess changing the habitrail in my world is harder than I thought. But a couple of weeks, blogging working in gyms shorts I’m sure I see no other way to blog work. If I could only get my dog to make coffee.