Lucky #3

Above: Lucky number "3" Paul, Zach and Neil!

Today is my birthday!!! I am 33 years old today. I am feeling that the #3 will be my lucky number this year. Many things around me have been adding up or are the #3. Zachary turned 3 years old this past January. I started my new job on January 3rd. I have a 3rd nipple. See all these things are good things, well I guess I could do without the 3rd nipple.


For the most part my birthday was great. Paul and Zachary cooked me a great dinner and bought me a cake with Winnie the Pooh accessories. Zachary picked out the cake! They also got me a new set of dominoes, a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure (I have never had either); a great shirt and this really cool pair of pants that I wanted. They are very unique, although I can't fit my big ass in them so I have to get a larger size. Sigh. Not sure why I gain all my weight in my rump. Oh well it could be worse!

Thank you to all my friends who called me and emailed me birthday wishes; it was very thoughtful of all of you:-)

The Mint

This past Saturday night Paul, Jamie and I went to a really cool karaoke bar called "The Mint." I am too damn shy to sing in front of people and Paul didn’t want to clear the place out with his singing BUT our dear friend Jamie has a set of pipes. I have only seen Jamie sing at church, so I was excited to hear him sing a modern pop song. Jamie decided to sing "Sweet Thing" by Chaka Kahn, one of my favorite songs. Jamie nailed that song! It was so good that I am campaigning for Jamie to be on American Idol next season.


So after Jamie's performance the bar started to get crazy. A group of people dressed in random costumes came into the bar and started dancing all over the place and acting bizarre. It was so much fun! One of them got on stage with a full mouth of gold teeth and started singing "Kiss" by Prince. It was hilarious and everyone was dancing half naked in the bar. It was wild!! Then the songs kept getting better...people were getting up on stage and singing classics like "Baby Got Back," "Bootylicious" and "Ice, Ice Baby." Paul actually transformed into Vanilla Ice when he heard "Ice, Ice Baby." Below is a picture of Paul at The Mint...toild you, he transformed into Vanilla!




We met some interesting people at The Mint, an amazing black woman named Yvette who sang "Missionary Man" she was a great singer and we met a really friendly bartender named Ben that took a liking to Paul:-) For the most part The Mint was a great time; there were some amazing singers, drunken singers, stripper singers and even William Hung wannabes singing "She Bangs." If you ever get a chance to go The Mint I highly recommend bringing a camera and your dancing shoes!

Above: Ben the bartndet at "The Mint."

Above: Yvette and her gang!

Oscar Dreamgirl

Way to go Jennifer Hudson on your Best Supporting Actress WIN! What a great story of an unknown winning an Oscar, this gives me hope that I could win one someday:-)

American Idol

Above: Good riddance to the first four contestants to be voted of American Idol

Ok, I admit I am a huge American Idol Junkie! I cannot help myself, deep down inside I want to be on that show and I would try out for it but I am too damn old to be on the show, the cut off is 30 years old! Ha, it's funny to think that I am too old to be on a particular show. Oh well, I can live vicariously through my favorite idols for Season six of American Idol.

My favorite singer this year is the diva of the show, Lakisha Jones! I call her a diva because she has the same last name as my friend, Jon Jones:-) and Lakisha can SANG! She is amazing and I love how humble she is about her talent. She is my pick to win the entire show.

Above: Lakisha "Jon" Jones

Another amazing vocalist out of the girls on idol is Melinda Doolittle. Melinda is another powerful African American female singer with passion and the pipes to prove it. She is also very humble AND she is 29 years old, one of the "older" contestants. Maybe if she wins the show will up the age restrictions to 35 years old so next year I can be on American Idol:-)

Above: Melinda Doolittle

None of the guys on the show this year have a chance of winning, the girls are just too dam good, BUT I do like three of the guys on the show. All three of these guys have the charisma, voice and style to make it far in the competition. So I am predicting these three guys will be the last men standing.

Above: Brandon Rogers

Above: Phil Stacey

Above: Blake Lewis (cough, porn star name.)

Stay tuned for my weekly American Idol updates, if your watching the show,let me know who's your favorite idol!

Clisham turns "The Big 4-0"

Mike turns 40 on Feb 24th!

How I wish I was in Boston to wish one of the nicest people I know a big Happy Birthday, but not just ANY birthday, a 40th Birthday!! Happy Birthday to an amazing coach, one hell of a shit-talker, a know it all in sports and more importantly a damn good friend! Mike I hope your 40TH BIRTHDAY is one of your best. I hope someone back home is throwing you the birthday bash you deserve! Miss you buddy.

See what you have to start wearing once you hot 40!!

Softball Season is in Bloom

This past Saturday was clinic day for the San Francisco Softball League. Paul, Zachary and I headed out to Kimball field to see if we could get on teams. It was a glorious Sunday with record temperatures; it reached 77 degrees in San Francisco so it was actually quite warm for the tryouts. We all put on numbers; yes-even Zachary and we joined the other players on the field. The softball league out here is a tad older than the Boston Softball league. I was one of the older players on my team last year and this year, I could be one of the youngest - go figure.



Jamie White and I went into the beginner crowd and we learned how to throw, since I won't be throwing the ball back to Clisham anymore, I have to really learn how to throw a ball now. I actually felt I was way ahead of the others throwing so it made me feel good, but as always I wasn't paying attention throughout the entire time and Jamie threw a ball at me and it nailed my in the shoulder - par for the course. So I have a nice bruise on my shoulder, it's ok; I ain't doing any beauty pageants this week.



Zachary was drafted before Paul and I on a team so that was a bit discouraging for us but Paul and I did get drafted to a team. We both got drafted to the Pilsner Pups! (Although, I do have another offer from another team, so I'll have to make my final decision this weekend.) I will be playing in the D- division (which is comparable to the Boston C-division) and Paul will be playing in the C-Division (which is comparable to the Boston B-division. So there are two Pilsner Pups teams in separate divisions. The San Francisco league is rather large in size with 20 teams alone in the C-Division and more than 35 teams combined. Needless to say, the closeness of the Boston Softball League won't be found with 35+ teams.



Also this weekend, Paul, Zach and I went to the beautiful Dolores Park near our house. Zachary made a new friend - her name is Olivia. They had a blast playing soccer, running and laughing at the park. Olivia is a year older than Zachary; her parents are two gay dads who were very nice. They were telling us about a group for gay dads that meet at parks, zoos and other events with their children. So that was encouraging and something to look forward to. Click the link below to see more photos of Zach and Olivia at Dolores Park!

Pictures from Dolores Park

Happy Birthday Jack!

I am almost a week late in my Birthday Wishes but better late than never! I want to wish Jack a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I think it's only his 26th birthday, still a spring chicken. Jack I shared some great times with you bowling for the 'Wire Hangers', many game nights, 4th of July in P-Town and our infamous Mary J. Blige dance off at 47 central. You're a great friend and I miss you a ton! See you soon:-)

Winter in San Francisco

Moving away from Boston was very hard for me since I love that city so much but San Francisco is growing on me:-) Probably the best thing about being in San Francisco this time of year is the weather. It's 60 degrees and sunny today and this coming weekend it is supposed to reach 70 degrees! Perfect weather for the softball tryouts, and yes, I am wearing my boy’s size small baseball pants, how the hell else am I going to get on a team!? Not for my skills in actually playing, but for distracting the players, this IS a gay softball league. If you got the ASSets, use them to distract the players so you can win☺

Above: Check out my those chicken legs!

Back to the weather... Paul is in Toledo, Ohio all week and he was telling me about how cold it is and about the blizzard Ohio is getting right this very minute! So, I looked on the weather map and noticed that Boston is in store for it's first major snowstorm this year. Looking at this weather map below made me realize what I don't miss about Boston. Looks like fun, have fun shoveling!


So while Paul is in Toledo driving around in a rented jalopy in the snow, Zachary and I are enjoying the nice weather. I have Zachary all by myself for three days this week and I am proving that I can be a dad, thank you very much! Thank God Zachary has a sense of humor because he was laughing at me this morning because I can’t for the life of me figure which side is the front and the back of a diaper. He was seriously laughing hysterically at me.



All in all Zachary and I get along great, we danced to Supercalifragilisticexplialidocious watching Mary Poppins and we played a mean game of dominoes as well. He is the best three-year old ever! Zachary is going to be the most well rounded kid in the world, girls will be knocking down his door not just for his cute looks, but for all that he has been exposed to. Music, movies, different cities new people, different lifestyles and great food (he ate two helpings of a taco salad I made last night.) And he has two amazing parents as well. All of this has brought out this amazing personality in him and I am in awe of how personable he is. He is already way ahead of half the straight male population and he is on three years old! Go Zach!

Above: Zachary makes a new friend, Shaniqua, at Softball practice last weekend!

Grammy Awards

I am a huge award show watcher and the Grammy Awards are one of my favorite award shows to watch. I was very excited this year because one of my all time favorite artists/singers was nominated for eight Grammy Awards, Mary J. Blige. I saw Mary this past summer with Paul and our good friend Josh and she blew me away. She's an amazing performer and even more so an inspiring person. Her performance on the Grammy Awards last night was SO good that they are actually selling the single of her performance on iTunes already. I highly recommend it. The reason I love Mary so much is she went through many hard times and battles in her life and she overcame those rough times in her life, but she didn’t just "get over it" she thrived from it. I can relate to Mary. To me, there's a big difference from someone who gets out of a bad situation and JUST survives than someone who gets out of it, survives and then 'thrives.' Mary is a thriver and I admire that and have so much respect and admiration for that quality, it's rare. ( I still think I was an African American woman in my past life)HA! Congrats Mary on winning three Grammy Awards last night.

Above: No more drama for Mary J. Blige as she cradles
her three Grammy Awards she won last night.

Another big winner at the Grammy Awards were the Dixie Chicks. I am not a huge country fan but another example of getting through a hard time are these three courageous girls. A few years back they were ridiculed and bashed for speaking up against our dear President Bush and were trashed by the media and public. Their latest album "Taking the Long Way" and single "Not Ready to Make Nice," were responses to that backlash. The result of the album and hit single earned them five Grammy Awards, three of them being in the top award categories. BRAVO! Another lesson in life....speak your mind, even if everyone's seems they are against you, be true to yourself and speak your mind. I have a newfound respect for these ladies.

Above: The Dixie Chicks get the last laugh
at the 49th Grammy Awards.

Lastly, there were a few other performances that I was very impressed with outside of Mary J Blige and the Dixie Chicks. Christina Aguilera belted out "It's A Man's, Man's World," a tribute to James Brown, that girl can saaaaaaannnnng! Wow! Best New Artist Grammy Award winner, Carrie Underwood, continues to impress me as she paid tribute to The Eagles singing "Desperado." And, I have to give a shout out to the Queen (no I am not giving a shout out to myself!) ...the Queen is Madonna. She won an award for Best Dance Album, Confessions on A Dance Floor. That now puts Madonna at six Grammy Awards so far in her career. I predict a few more before she is done.:-)

Above: Christina Aguilera proves it's a woman's world as she sings the James brown tribute,
"It's a Man's, Man's World" at the 49th Grammy Awards.

Game Night In San Francisco

One of the things I miss the most about being in Boston was having a monthly gathering of my friends and playing board, card and dice games. I started game night back in 2004 in Boston when I didn't have any friends. I was tired of trying to meet people and make friends in bars, which didn't work.... so I decided to post an ad on Craigslist for people who were interested in getting together once a week to play board games. The result ended up with me having a small group of friends over every Friday night and it grew into a monthly game night/party with 30+ people or more. Game night was much more than getting together to just play games, it was a way to interact with people that you normally wouldn’t interact with. It was also a way that a lot of us came out of our shells and found the courage and strength to do things we never thought we would. It changed my life and I know it changed the lives of others.

Above: The three original "game nighters," Isaias, Patrick & Ray, also my good freinds.

Now that I am living in San Francisco, I contemplated whether to start up another game night out here. Was game night just a fluke that happened in Boston and would it really worked again if I went around it the same way? Paul and I decided to post a game night ad, the same way I did back in 2004. There were a few responses and we set up a game night that took place this past Friday, Feb 10th. Our good friend Jamie from Boston joined us in the first game night as well as four other guys, Sven, Rudy, Mike and Kaushal. The group of guys were a very diverse mix of people of all ages and races.

Above: Just a few of the many good freinds that came together at game night in Boston.

I was skeptical at first whether or not game night would be a success or not, but in the end we all had a great time. We played board and card games until 1am and we all had a blast. It really showed that this diverse mix of people could get together and enjoy each other's company. Outside of game night, this group of people would have most likely never had any interaction with one another. One guy is from India, one from Mexico another is European... the group so diverse! I loved that we all had this common bond and we are learning from each other.

Above: Pretty diverse huh?

The sweet success of another game night group.... I am excited to learn and grow from these people and make new friends:-)

Creative Differences

This has been a rough week for me. If you saw my previous post, you might have wondered why I had posted such a sad poem and picture. The Joan Crawford book that I have coming out has been a labor of love that I have been working on for two years. I am financially and emotionally wrapped up in this book and I want this book to be presented in the best possible light since it will have my name on it. I have been struggling with my publisher over the past two weeks over creative differences and we both have decided to part ways. This means the book will not be published with this publisher for the spring of 2007. Although this seems like not the best news in the world, it IS for the best. The book WILL still be published but with another publisher the way I want it to be published. I do not have a concrete date for when the book will be published with a new publisher. I apologize to everyone that had already pre-ordered the book; the publisher will refund your money.

My life has been a series of tests that I have had to take ... I have failed a few of those tests but I have also passed many of them as well. Trust me on this one, this is one "test" that I plan on passing in a major way.

This ain't my first time at the rodeo boys!:-)

Stay tuned...

Defeat

When you get knocked down

Pick yourself up
Dust yourself off, turn it around
When you feel you’ve had enough
and want to throw it all away
Stay tough
Stay strong
Stay true
Because in the end
it will only be you…

-N.Maciejewski

Lucky Charms

Do you remember when you were a kid and you liked eating certain breakfast cereal? I specifically remember liking Flintstones, Captain Crunch (even though it tore up the roof of my mouth) and Lucky Charms. I remember picking the marshmallows out of the box and leaving the crumby cereal part that tasted like garbage. Well, Zachary has been introduced to Lucky Charms cereal and guess what!?... he is enjoying the marshmallows! He asks every morning if he can have more of the "good part" of the cereal:-) If anyone likes the "bad part" of the cereal, let me know because I have a few boxes of Lucky Charms without any of the "good parts" in it.



Last weekend, Paul and I went shopping with the slew of gift certificates we received from Christmas; we mostly bought clothes for Zachary. While we were entering Union Square in San Francisco, we saw thousands of people protesting the war. I had forgot it was the day everyone was coming together to speak out against the war. It was quite exciting and I am one of the many that is against the war so it was pretty fun. So I took a slew of pictures and I picked my top three pictures from the protest. See below for my top three pictures.

#1 George Bush is depicted in a cage/jail cell. This was quite amusing, people were feeding him bananas!!

#2 Ralph Wiggum from The Simpsons! How priceless is that picture!!

#3 A young guy sitting in a tree watching the spectacle.

I bring my camera everywhere I go just in case I see something interesting and different to photograph and the above protest was a great place to take some photos. Another great place is the entire city of San Fran and I have found some humorous sites to photograph recently. Below are some of my favorite random photos of stuff; I will call this feature, "Around San Francisco:"

Note: Click on images to see a larger view!

Two more payments and it's ours...

Above: This house is a couple streets over from us. Pretty creative huh?


Trailer Park Graffiti

Above: Some of the poetic verses on the side of the trailer are priceless!


The Paul Doll...

Above: A doll designed just for Paul! What's going on with the "junk" on this doll! Good lord!


The Castro Rubber Ducky...

Above: This sums up the Castro in SF. This was lying on the street a couple blocks up from where we live. Nice huh!?