Bubala, Mumi & Max

Saturday, June 30, 2007

The V.L. Junket

The V.L. Junket
Now, I get my revenge...

You didn't think that I would just go to all of those Rush concerts without eventually concocting some grand scheme to exact my revenge, now did you?

Well, here it is. I'll affectionately refer to this trip as "The V.L. Junket."

1,474 miles.
3 amusement parks.
26 roller coasters.
All in 4 days!

Here's the rundown:

July 24th, Carowinds, Charlotte, North Carolina
  1. BORG Assimilator
  2. Carolina Cyclone
  3. Carolina Goldrusher
  4. Fairly Odd Coaster
  5. Flying Super Saturator
  6. Hurler
  7. Ricochet
  8. Rugrats Runaway Reptar
  9. Thunder Road 1
  10. Thunder Road 2
  11. Top Gun - The Jet Coaster
  12. Vortex
July 25th, Six Flags Over Georgia, Austell, Georgia
  1. Batman The Ride
  2. Dahlonega Mine Train
  3. Déjà Vu
  4. Georgia Cyclone
  5. Georgia Scorcher
  6. Goliath
  7. Great American Scream Machine
  8. Mind Bender
  9. Ninja
  10. Superman - Ultimate Flight
July 26th, Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
  1. Blazing Fury
  2. Mystery Mine
  3. Tennessee Tornado
  4. Thunderhead
Anyone want to come along for the ride? There will be plenty of space in the rental car. Hot, hairy guys step to the front of the line, please.

Oh yeah, anyone who can correctly guess what the V.L. in V.L. Junket stands for will win a cheap, tacky souvenir from all three of the parks. I'll tell you right now though, it won't be too easy to guess.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Twenty Pictures

Wow! We had a lot of fun on our little Rush/Amusement Park tour. Too much to remember right now to try to write anything clever about any of it, so here are 20 assorted pictures of all of the fun. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, or you can feel free to add your own funny captions to the pictures.

Click on the pics to make them bigger...

Wacky Rush guys. Mumi's favorite way to travel...
Who has the hotter chest? Once again, only the finest food for us!
This is just plain scary... I love my smash-a-penny's!
This sign reminded me of Mumi. What I'd look like with an afro.
What I tried to do all week... What I succeeded in doing all week...
Mumi discovers titties. My new boyfriend.
Mumi scores some pussy. See, I told you this was his favorite way to travel.
Mumi likes his smash-a-penny's too. No comment.
Cursing is frowned upon in Virginia Beach. Another no comment.
Roseanne sure has let herself go. Unfortunately, we missed this.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Notes From The Road...

Yesterday, we started our trek around the Mid-Atlantic to visit some amusement parks and see some Rush concerts. We rented a car for this trip. It was supposed to be a compact car. Something like a Dodge Caliber. Boring, but functional. The lady behind the counter at Thrifty must have thought that we were hot, because when we walked out to the car, we found this waiting for us...

Gay, gay, gay!

A brand new 2008 Chrysler Sebring convertible for the same price as a compact! I was just about to go back inside the rental place and complain, when I realized that I was holding the keys to what had to be one of the gayest rental cars we've ever had! I decided to keep the car and pretend that we were rich, snooty gays for the week.

Yesterday, we spent the day at Busch Gardens, Europe. They have a new coaster there called Griffon that drops you down 205 feet straight down. It was a lot of fun. The coaster is very pretty too. Almost like a work of art, in my opinion. We only got to ride once though due to technical difficulties later on in the day. Ah well, that just means that we'll have to go back again real soon to ride it some more.

Griffon

Our hotel is nice. It has a pool and a hot tub. The hot tub wasn't all that hot though, and the jets weren't all that powerful, but it was still nice to relax in after a day of walking through the endless hills and valleys of Busch Gardens.

We have stayed at a lot of really scary hotels in our time together. I used to be a real cheapskate when it came to booking hotels. I would look for the best price regardless of rating or quality. We have stayed at some real dumps before. Places that I was afraid to touch the floor in. Places where huge cockroaches came to bed with us after the lights went out. Places where I was convinced that we would be murdered in the middle of the night and our bodies wouldn't be found for weeks. Places where the floor was warped and where the bed vibrated even when you didn't put a quarter in the slot...

All of that has changed though. Now, wisdom and a bigger paycheck has allowed us to live a little more of the glamorous life. We mostly stay at Marriott Courtyard hotels wherever we go. They are nice, clean, comfy rooms with all of the amenities that we are looking for at a reasonable rate. **end of paid advertisement**

Tonight is the first of five Rush concerts in Virginia Beach. So, we are heading out to the boardwalk at Virginia Beach for the day. I have been to VB a few times, but never actually seen the beach or ocean there. So, this time, I made sure to schedule some time to do just that.

We're gonna put the top down on the convertible and drive to the beach and check out the hotties. Not a bad life, even if it is only my life for the day.

Catch up with you all later!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

25 Years & Still Gay...

This year marks 25 years since I came out. Yep, 25 years of suckin' cock, and I'm still here. To celebrate this occasion, I was awarded by the Gay Agenda Corporation with a Mexican house boy named Oscar. They are the same folks that give out all those free toasters for new recruits. I was given a choice between the Mexican house boy or an 8-man-orgy hot tub. (Men not included.) Since the tub didn't come with the dudes, I decided that it would be nice to have another mouth around to feed for a while.

We made Oscar dog sit with Max while we took off to Baltimore for the Gay Pride parade. We watched the parade with "Madame Queen" (Bubala's mom) and Bubala's sister Anne and our two year old nephew, Braedon. Going to a parade with a two year old is a great way to get the people in the parade to throw beads and candy to us... I mean to him.

There were men in towels walking alongside a group shower float. There were a bunch of lesbians dressed up as pirates walking on stilts. There were drag queens in platforms on Segways... Oh my. And, there was a host of other assorted oddities and hottities.

Interesting Segway...Arrrrrrgh!

And, then, there was this guy...
Um, nice...
Enough about him, already!

The parade ended, as usual, at Baltimore Pride block party. At the block party, we saw almost all of our gay friends and a few more hot mens that we wouldn't mind making friends with. We saw our buddy Tim stopping through on his way to the beach. Then, we found our buddy Greg the Bowie Cub, and he took us to the bear party which we already had an invite to from the guys whose home it was being held in. The shower float from the parade was parked out front of the bear Party house, and now it was a comfy street side bear pool. There were even a few drunk, naked men running around, but you had to look quick to see them. We ran into more of our friends and acquaintances at the party. We saw our Glen Burnie Gaybors, Paul and Norm. They had just had a bear-riffic party of their own at their house last weekend. We saw a few of the DC Blowoff bloggers, and we chatted with them a bit. We saw The Shawns, and talked with them some too.

After mingling for a while, we went back to the block party. I wanted a couple of $11.00 strawberry daiquiris. After all, it wouldn't be gay pride without absurdly overpriced, fruity, alcoholic drinks with paper umbrellas now, would it? We ran into our friends, Ron and Larry and hung out with them for a while. They played this game called let's see what's hiding inside Mumi's gym shorts. (Instigated, of course, by the Bowie Cub.)

What is down those shorts?

The quote of the day came from a passing African American guy who said to the whole shirtless bunch of us, "You all's Chest'es looks great!" "Thanks man," I said.

We went back and forth for a while between the bear party and the block party. Another daiquiri at the block party and another peek down my shorts from Larry. Then, I started cruising this really hot young dude, and his boyfriend had a jealous fit fight. Then, we went back to the bear party to pee in the bathtub, because the signs on the wall above the tub said "Men Pee Here." The Bowie Cub and I had a peeing competition, but he won because he drinks beer. We both leaned forward too much though and almost fell into the tub.

There was this hot fucking buck at the bear party making bear paw tattoos on all of the guys with a Sharpie marker, so we all got one of those tattoos. While he was tattooing me, he asked me if I wanted to make out later. I said yeah, but we never saw him again later. Bummer...

Studs! or duds?

Then, it was time to head to the Eagle for underwear night. Right? No... Bubala said no, because he had to work all day long the next day. It was just as well though, as I think Larry would have done more than just peek down the front of my shorts at the Eagle.

And, what became of the Bowie Cub? Well, as usual, he always gets the hottie, bear cub. I'm telling you, he has a fish tank full of phone numbers of bear dudes and a few monkeys too right next to his bed on the nightstand. He is a smooth operator and one sexy and sweet man.

Now, we are back home, recovering before our vacation. Yeah, some folks like the beach. Some prefer the tranquil woods and a camping trip. Still others prefer just to stay home and rest and relax. Bubala and I can't stop moving though. We are restless. We want to go, go, go. We have to satisfy this basic need for speed and a surge of energy. We need to spark ourselves back to life every now and then.

This is how we will do it this time:

June 21 Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, Virginia
June 22 Rush in concert, Virginia Beach, Virginia
June 23 Rush in concert Man-asses, Virginia
June 24 Day of rest. Catch our breath. Go to the gym.
June 25 Rush in concert, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
June 26 Kennywood Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

And, by the time we get back from all of that and catch our breath, we will be off to another Rush concert and another amusement park. That's really what our relationship is all about. Rush and roller coasters. Do you wanna come along? Do you think you can keep up with us?

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Gyrating, Half-Naked Cowboys On Floats

I did not write the following. It was written by Equality Maryland's Executive Director Dan Furmansky. It is a long read, but a very good read indeed. I hope that you will take the time to read it all. I am glad that I did, because I was beginning to get a little bummed out about the whole Pride thing myself. After all, Pride is just an excuse to watch a bunch of gyrating, half-naked cowboys on floats, isn't it?

Well, not exactly... read on my proud, gay friends!

Why We Have Pride

A Message from Equality Maryland's Executive Director Dan Furmansky

Gay Pride, which takes place this weekend in Baltimore, is a relatively abstract concept for most Americans, who picture drag queens, rollerblading nuns, beer gardens, booths with gimmicky giveaways, and gyrating, half-naked cowboys on floats. Indeed, many straight Americans simply don't understand why there is Pride to begin with, and many consider it unsavory. Some LGBT Americans feel the same way. Personally, I love gyrating cowboys as much as the next red-blooded homosexual male, but I must confess that over the years I have found it a struggle to really connect with Pride and its core principles. However, speaking to religious groups the past few weeks and contemplating why we hold Pride festivities has reminded me what a deeply meaningful, deeply spiritual event in our lives Pride can be.

Pride is a day for LGBT people and those who care about social justice to recall where we've been as a people. Many of us know of the origins of Pride at Stonewall in NYC in the late 1960s, when drag queens and gay men fought back against police harassment and brutality and said, resoundingly, E-N-O-U-G-H. With this rebellion as its backdrop, Pride has emerged as a holiday of liberation, redemption, salvation, starvation, pain, celebration, progress and resolve. It's a holiday where we as a people celebrate where we have been and where we hope to go.

As many of you know, Equality Maryland has joined the ACLU in fighting for marriage equality in Maryland. Our organization submitted an amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief in the case which focused on the history of discrimination against LGBT people. A run-down of this frightening discrimination crystallizes why there is a Pride holiday to begin with.

The brief talked about times when people could be sentenced to death for committing acts of sodomy. Until 1961, all fifty states outlawed sodomy – thus rendering it illegal for gay men and lesbians to engage in intimate acts with loved ones. The first reported sodomy case in the United States was a decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals. In that case, the Court upheld an indictment charging the defendant with the crime of sodomy, "that most horrid and detestable crime (among Christians not to be named)." From 1946 through 1965, there were a total of 384 sodomy, crimes against nature, and sexual perversion arrests in Baltimore alone.

This is why we have Pride.

The brief talked about LGBT people being labeled insane by the psychiatric community until the 1970s. Gay men and lesbians could be institutionalized and subjected to "therapies." These ranged from the comparatively less invasive – such as psychotherapy and hypnosis – to the more severe, such as aversion therapy, castration, hysterectomies, lobotomies, electroshock treatment, and the administration of untested drugs.

Just take a moment to digest this information: They cut our brains.

This is why we have Pride.

The brief talked about stakeouts of gay establishments, decoy operations, surveillance, scrutiny, and potential attack. It talked about people being denied hire or being fired from their jobs. It recalled 1953, when President Eisenhower set forth Executive Order 10,450, which required the dismissal of all government employees who were "sex perverts," including homosexuals, from both the civilian and military branches of the Federal government. This ban – which presumably affected many gay and lesbian Maryland residents in the Washington metropolitan area – remained in effect until 1975.

It was only six years ago that Maryland banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Discrimination against transgender individuals is still legal in all of Maryland except Baltimore, and a bill to make this discrimination illegal failed in Senate committee this year by one vote.

Legislatures and courts have denied gay men and lesbians the ability to adopt children and, in some instances, even to visit or raise their own offspring. These practices are not a thing of the past and some states, like Florida, have enshrined it as the law of the land.

Nor is the epidemic of violence against the gay – and especially transgender – community, which is well-chronicled by the FBI, a thing of the past.

Same-sex couples personally know what it's like to walk down the street and fear that you are standing too close to your partner, or that a crowd of young people will harass you if you appear "together." They know what it means to think twice before kissing a partner goodbye in your front yard, at the airport, wherever, all for fear someone will be made uncomfortable, or worse, become aggressive.

The brief is a mere backdrop to a case that, if positively decided in our favor, has the potential to change so many lives for the better. When I think about why we have Pride, I think about Lisa Polyak and Gita Deane, the lead plaintiffs who have endured so much to be at the forefront of the fight for marriage equality.

Lisa and Gita told me just last week that their youngest daughter wanted to have a play date after school with a classmate, so they called up the classmate's parents and left a message. They received a voice mail back saying "we respectfully decline your invitation." Lisa followed up and asked if another day would work better. The classmate's father told her, "we understand your civil liberties, but we have our religious beliefs and we are teaching them to our daughter."

"Let me get this straight," Lisa said. "You don't want your daughter to come over because our daughter has two mothers?"

"Correct," he replied.

We have Pride not just for ourselves, but for our children. We have Pride for the Kevin-Douglas Olives among us. Kevin, who lives in Baltimore, is locked in a legal battle with his deceased partner's estranged parents. Honoring the will of his partner of seven years, Russell, Kevin buried him in a Quaker cemetery with an adjoining plot for himself. Russell's parents, who never accepted their son, have sued to have the will overturned and the body exhumed and moved to the family's plot. Now, Kevin is in an ongoing legal struggle that is costing him thousands upon thousands of dollars, just to make sure his partner's last wishes and the integrity of their relationship is preserved.

Yes, there are a million reasons why we have Pride.

Last month I got a call from a woman whose elderly uncle lost his partner of decades. Because of the crippling inheritance tax assessed on the Takoma Park house he shared with his partner, her uncle will likely be forced out of his own home. If the couple had been married, he wouldn't be taxed on half the home as though he were inheriting from a perfect stranger as opposed to the man he loved and shared his life with for decades.

Pride is about us as a people. About our struggle. Our ongoing struggle.

It's about taking a break from comments by General Peter Pace, and reports of people beaten at Moscow's gay pride parade, and arrests in Iran, and all the Republican candidates for President saying Don't Ask Don't Tell is working just great.

During Pride, we forget about the society that does the things to us that force us to create Pride to begin with. We ignore the source of that pain and we get onto our floats and wear crazy skimpy outfits and drink in beer gardens and eat meat on a stick and embrace our honest selves and visit pride booths and make unusually large donations to LGBT rights organizations (!) and visit LGBT affirming congregations. We celebrate our cultural diversity as a community, and for many of us our Pride in being both racial and sexual minorities in society.

But Pride is so much more.

Pride is about where we've been as individuals that brought us to this day, today.

We have Pride because I was called a faggot in Junior High School and pushed into lockers and had my books scattered and went home with black and blue marks on my thighs and arms. We have Pride because as I personally came to the realization that I was gay at the age of 19, I had one thought that ran through my head day after day after day for months on end: I wish I were dead, I wish I were dead, I wish I were dead...

One night after my grandfather's funeral, I was so consumed by my own depression and my fear of coming out to a cruel society that I considered driving my car off an embankment. I pictured my car careening into a tree, a branch shattering the windshield and cracking my skull so I would die instantly.

That is why we have Pride. Because nothing about my story is unique. Because while I was born gay, I wasn't born with a propensity to hurt myself.

So many of us struggle to own our proper dignity, value, and self-respect. And Pride is our chance to take pleasure and satisfaction in the achievement it took for us to get to the place where we could celebrate Pride.

This year, more than ever, remember Pride as a spiritual holiday. Take some time to think about where you've been and what it took for you to win the war with yourself that society imposed upon you. Share your coming out story with someone. Or ask someone to tell you what it took for them to come out of the closet.

Finally, no matter how safe your personal bubble may be, remember that the collective struggle is far from over. We all have a role to play in this movement towards greater understanding, and we are meant to be here in this moment in time to play our part. One day, there will be nothing bittersweet about Pride any longer – just a remembrance of the struggle that once was. Until then, we continue to honor our community and ourselves. And we celebrate.

Dan Furmansky
Executive Director
Equality Maryland

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Lightning Wins Again

Lightning... Striking... Again...Just as Mumi and I were about to leave for a bike ride this afternoon, the clouds started rolling in and it started to drizzle a little bit. I really wanted to go on this bike ride though, so I lied to Mumi just a little.

I started acting like a weather man and proclaimed, very matter-of-factly, that the approaching storm was just a small front and that it would only produce a little bit of drizzle and then there would be plenty of sunshine right after the rain. I must make a pretty convincing weather man, because Mumi decided to come along with me on the ride.

My weather prediction held true for most of the 12 mile ride. There were just a few drops of rain and plenty of clear, sunny skies off in the distance in all directions. About 8 miles in though, the sky grew dark and ominous. And, then, the rain began to fall. In no time at all, it was pouring down all over us. We stashed our iPods in the Ziploc baggies we had fortunately been smart enough to bring with us, and we pedaled onward. What else could we do? We were soaked already.

So, we made it most of the way around the airport and I'm thinking to myself that I'd really like to go around again. We do that a lot these days. Go around once and then turn around and come back around again. Mumi even goes around 3 or 4 times a day sometimes. He's crazy though, so that's why. Anyway, I told Mumi that I wanted to go around again. He said that he wasn't going to since we were soaked and all. He was concerned about ruining his iPod. A valid concern, for sure. He's always the sensible one.

I, on the other hand, thought to myself, "Screw it! My iPod is in a Ziploc baggie. It's as wet as it's going to get and it's still playing. (Ironically, Mr. Blue Sky by E.L.O. was playing.) I'm going around again." I bid a fond farewell to Mumi and turned around and rode off into the lightning and rain.

Fortunately, the rain only seemed to be falling in one small area along the bike trail. After I got back to where we had been when the rain had started, it was all dry. And, for the rest of the way back around the trail, I ran into very little rain. Just a sprinkle or two.

I did see a bunch of lightning off in the distance though. It was very cool. I love lightning. I always have. It totally made my irrational decision to go bicycling in a thunderstorm worth it for me. I'd even do it again with no regrets.

Valuable Lesson Learned #1263: White athletic shorts + no underwear + a whole lotta' rain = not too much left to the imagination... Ah well, live and learn they say. Right?

Friday, June 08, 2007

Under The Weather


I feel like bleah. I won't gross you out with the details. I even called out from work tonight, and I never do that. Could have been something I ate yesterday since I ate like sh**! I have stopped eating red meat, for the most part. Not for any socially concious reasons, but for health reasons. Yesterday, however, I had some beefy, crappy thing from Taco Bell. I think that could have been it. I'm feeling much better right now though. Hopefully, the worst is over.

Happy belated Birthday to Tos. I only wish that I was as young as he.

Oh yeah, this is the first blog post completely created and posted using my new laptop that my employer was kind enough to buy for me. Now, I can blog on the go! As long as I can find a free wireless connection to mooch off of, that is.

Anyone who has any tips on making my wireless connection more secure, let me know. I'm dumb when it comes to that sort of thing.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Greetings!

Greetings From Leechburg
I was in Leechburg, Pennsylvania this past Tuesday. Leechburg is about 35 miles Northeast of Pittsburgh. It's a small town with a population of about 2,400 according to the 2000 census.

I was there for a funeral. An uncle of mine, Uncle Dick, had died. I hadn't been to Leechburg in over seven years, since before my father passed away in 2000. Leechburg is where my father was from, and it is where most of his surviving relatives still live. Most of my cousins from my father's side of the family still live there as well as several aunts and a couple of uncles.

I guess I really don't know my father's side of the family as well as I would like to. While we all mingled, making small talk at the funeral home, I had a lot of trouble figuring out who a lot of the people around me were. Some of the faces looked familiar, but I just couldn't remember the names of these familiar strangers. With a little help from my brother though, I soon knew all of their names.

Being around all of these people who were such a big part of my father's life was very special to me. I was entertained with stories from my father's past. Seems that he was quite the little hellion. I was told all about the time that he burned his mother's house down to the ground. And about how he and his brothers used to go into town and order a pizza with sausage and pepperoni. When they would get home with the pizza, they would tell their sisters and nieces that it was a roadkill pizza. A pizza that they had made themselves and topped with fresh roadkill. That way they wouldn't have to share the pizza with the girls. Now, why didn't I ever think of that?

I also learned a lot about some of my other relatives. Apparently, I had a 2nd cousin named Pee-Wee who was quite a trouble maker. He was fiercely protective of his family to the point that he would threaten and/or physically injure anyone who tried to do harm to our family. Not surprisingly, Pee Wee ended up in jail. He spent the rest of his life in jail because every time he came up for parole, he would threaten the judges and parole officers with physical harm and even death if they decided to set him free. I guess Pee Wee liked living in jail.

I really had a wonderful time hanging out with my relatives. Of course, I wish it had been under different circumstances, but, death is a part of life. Eventually, we all will die. I only hope that before I do, I will have made the most out of what has been given to me. I hope that I will make more friends. I hope that I will take more chances. I hope that I will learn as much as I can about where I came from and where I am going to.

I guess that my greatest hope is that I will truly live my life before I die.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Time Passages

Time

I haven't forgotten about you. Just been a little busy lately with life events and the never ending passage of time. Sometimes, life is quite a fantastic voyage. Sometimes, life sloshes around just a little bit too much, so some of it dribbles out of the sides of the glass and falls down to the earth below only to be absorbed back into from whence it came.

There are so many things that I am dying to tell you...

So many things...