Monthly Archives: March 2022

Rough Day

Yesterday was a bit of a rough day. I was fine most of the morning at work, but my mother called. Few people can ruin my day like she often can. She didn’t say anything really offensive, but it’s the way she starts in about things. I can’t seem to do much right in her eyes. After I got off the phone with her, I had a full-blown panic attack. I’ve been having panic attacks recently, but this is really the first one that came while I was at work. I’m not always sure what causes them, but I can pretty well pinpoint this one to the phone call from my mother.

Right after I talked to her, I felt like I couldn’t breathe, my heart began to race, I began to shake, and I just want to curl up into a ball and cry. When this happens, I’m unable to concentrate on anything, and I just get so flustered. My head feels like it’s going to explode, and I have this hot sensation all over my head. I got up from my desk and walked outside and around the building, hoping some fresh air might help, but it didn’t. I sat down in one of the comfy armchairs in the museum’s lobby (no one was around), and that too didn’t help. Furthermore, I had a meeting that was supposed to start soon, but I knew it wasn’t that important. So, I went to my boss and told him I was having a panic attack and needed to go home. I know, it was probably not the best idea to drive in that condition, but I felt I had to get out of there.

I needed to be home, in my private space, so I could lay down in the dark for a while. It took a few hours to finally calm down, but it did happen. I was actually able to run to the grocery store, like I’d planned to do yesterday afternoon anyway. While it was only the grocery store, I calmed down looking at food and doing a little retail therapy. By the time I got home, I felt relatively normal again.

I hate the sensation of a panic attack. I used to get these every time I had to fly or anytime money was an issue, like unexpected expenses that couldn’t be avoided. Now, I can probably add talking to my mother to the list. I think one of the triggers may have been her talking about me going home. I haven’t been back to Alabama since the pandemic began, and I think it has done wonders for my mental stability. However, the thought of going back to Alabama again is something that, for the most part, I dread.


Pic of the Day


Younger Me

Younger Me
Songwriters: Kendell Marvel / John Osborne / Thomas Osborne

Younger me
Made it harder than it had to be
Trying hard to dodge my destiny
Would get the best of me

Younger me
Way too young to pace a bedroom floor
Always dreamed of kicking down the door
What were you waiting for

Younger me
Was as reckless as he should have been
Close calls and downfalls and getting back up again
And doing it all again

Younger me
Overthinking, losing sleep at night
Contemplating if it’s worth the fight
If he only knew he’d be alright
Yeah, younger me

Youth ain’t wasted on the young
These trips around the sun
I needed every one
To get where I’m standing now
It’s an uphill road to run
For my father’s son
Keep it together
It won’t be that way forever

Younger me
Hanging out but not quite fitting in
Didn’t know that being different
Really wouldn’t be the end
Younger me (yeah)

Yeah
Yeah, oh
Yeah

Youth ain’t wasted on the young
These trips around the sun
I needed every one
To get where I’m standing now
It’s an uphill road to run
Yeah, for my father’s son
Keep it together
It won’t be that way forever

Younger me
You got me where I am today
Got a few things right along the way
You’ll see, just wait
Younger me

About the Song

T.J. Osborne publicly came out as gay in an interview with Time on February 3, 2021. Following his coming out, Osborne wrote “Younger Me” as a letter to his younger self. Like many of us who have come out, Osborne said, “I’ve always wished I could speak to my younger self, give him a hug and show him who he’d become and what he’d achieve. Once I came out, that feeling was so overwhelmingly strong that this song was born.”

One of the things that makes country music so popular is that it is relatable. “Younger Me” blends that relatable country storytelling with a bit of a pop anthem. The song is a refreshing take on country music nostalgia. Often, nostalgic songs look back fondly on the songwriter’s childhood and simpler times, and the present is either presented as hard or having lost its innocence along the way. “Younger Me” is a different kind of story.

The song perfectly encapsulates a more compelling kind of nostalgia that does not rewrite the complexities and confusion of childhood: “Overthinking, losing sleep at night / contemplating if it’s worth the fight”. The lyrics are crisp and vital, evoking specific details (“To pace a bedroom floor”), and are wonderfully free of cliché. For Brothers’ Osborne, the future hold both threat and possibility, and the past contains both hurt and experiences from which to learn and grow. 

Brothers Osborne’s music has always had a broad appeal amongst pop and country fans, and “Younger Me” perfects this balance. This is a dazzling pop anthem if ever I heard one, yet the sharp storytelling proves that Osborne is a bona fide country songwriter too. 

T.J. Osborne is gay and proud with this song and shows that it is possible not only to be queer in country music, but also to celebrate these aspects of ourselves. “Younger Me” is the perfect embrace that a queer kid might need, a Pride anthem for country music fans.

Thank you, Dylan, for introducing me to this song.


Pic of the Day 🥧

Happy Pi (π) Day!


Ramblings

Yesterday was a bad day; emotionally, it was a bad day. Maybe it was the time change. Maybe it was the need to be packing but not having the will/motivation to do it. Maybe it was something I just couldn’t put my finger on. I accomplished only one thing yesterday: I shoveled the 7 inches of snow that fell on Saturday from my porches and steps, then I went and cleaned it off my car and scraped off the ice underneath. I had planned to run an errand after ridding myself of the snow, but I couldn’t bring myself to go anywhere but back inside.

I’d planned on watching some TV yesterday. I’d started watching the Netflix series, The Last Kingdom, which stars the incredibly sexy Alexander Dreymon. I first noticed Dreymon when he played Luke Ramsey on American Horror Story: Coven. It was the only season of AHS I could ever stand to watch. Dreymon was only in five episodes, but I immediately fell in lust with him. He’s pretty sexy as a Saxon/Dane in The Last Kingdom. However, even as hot as Dreymon is and how good the show was, I could not motivate myself to watch more than one episode. 

I didn’t even want to watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which is my happy place when I’m not feeling well and need something to watch. Pathetically, I have lost count of the number of times I have watched the entire seven seasons of the series. I can quote you most of the dialogue from nearly all of the 176 episodes made. Some of the episodes always keep my interest because they are so good, but not yesterday. I just couldn’t decide, so I watched nothing.

My sex life did pretty well last week, and two guys seem to have a romantic interest in me and an old friend that I was able to get together with again. I have been messaging back and forth with one of them, but it’s often hours between messages. I tend to answer pretty quickly, but he does not. Usually, that’s a sign of a catfish, but if he is, he’s damn good, as he knows a lot about Vermont. He’s nice-looking, don’t get me wrong, but he also didn’t use the typical catfish pics of an overly handsome guy that you often see. 

I met the other guy who seems more actively romantically interested and appears to be pursuing me. We had a great time on our “date,” i.e., the sex was phenomenal (the best orgasm of my life), but I do not see anything long-term there. I think he could be a great new friend and even a friend with benefits. However, I think he may already want more. We’ll see how it goes. I mention him because several times yesterday, I was on the verge of getting in touch with him to see if he wanted to get together sooner rather than later. I’d have liked to have gone to see him, but he lives a bit south of me, so driving the thirty minutes there is a commitment of time (and money with the current cost of gas). I just could not motivate myself even to do that. I know I do want to see him again. He’s from Texas, and he said he’d make me a fabulous Mexican meal. I can’t turn down good Mexican food because it doesn’t seem to exist in New England unless I cook it. (One of the major drawbacks is that he has a little dog, and y’all should know by now how I feel about dogs.)

Anyway, I hope today is a better day. Quite honestly, it has to be. At least I will get out and go to work and not be cooped up inside all day. I should have a relatively easy work week. I have two meetings on Tuesday, but there is nothing else pressing beyond that. I can catch up on some work that I’ve needed to do. I do have to have a difficult conversation with my boss. This may sound petty and selfish, but the recent exhibit we put up was my design. Our new curator helped decide how to hang the paintings, but everything else was how I had planned it. There is a front case that you see when you walk into the gallery that was entirely my idea. I found all the materials to make it work, and I researched to get it as authentic as possible. It is also something that we have been praised for since the exhibit opened, with one person saying, “It is the neatest and most inventive thing I have ever seen in the museum.”

I took that as a very high compliment, but when my boss mentioned the praise in a meeting, he credited the case to me and the secretary. The problem is, my boss keeps saying that it was mine and our secretary’s vision. She didn’t have (excuse my language) jack shit to do with it. She made some suggestions in the planning stage, and I shot them all down. The suggestions were not part of my vision. None of her ideas made it into the case. So, it pisses me off that I have gotten no credit for the case and no credit for the exhibit at all. I put months into planning and implementing this exhibit, but I have received no recognition. If that sounds childish, then just call me childish. This is about professionalism and giving credit where credit is due.

On a brighter note, I did buy a new mattress. It should be here by the end of the week. It will be delivered to my aforementioned boss’s house since my apartment isn’t ready yet, and FedEx will deliver it (God only knows where they will leave it), and I won’t be able to drag it up my stairs into my apartment. My boss lives in a house that is at street level, so it is the most accessible place to have it delivered. Once I get the moving truck, I will get the mattress first before taking the truck to my current apartment to be loaded by the movers. The move is coming together if I can just get my apartment packed up and ready for the movers.


Pic of Day


Paths

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

— 1 Peter 5:6-7

Do you ever have days where you feel like you don’t know who you are anymore? Especially, as members of the LGBTQ+ community, I think we have all had that day when we questioned who we are. Those of us who were raised in a conservative church probably questioned out identity even more. When you are raised believing that it is not possible that you could be attracted to those of the same sex or have a gender other than the one determined by your sexual organs, it can be a long terrifying process to know who we really are. Some days and for even years people, life, and events get in the way of our “knowing” and we find ourselves wondering, “Who am I?”

I am a firm believer that if we are taught acceptance from the beginning of our lives, then the struggle we go through to accept ourselves will not be as difficult. We sometimes say, “I need to find myself!” If we learn unconditional acceptance, then we will not be lost and will not need to find ourselves. Greater acceptance would change the world, but it will take a lot of work. Colossians 3:9-10 says, “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.” God tells us that, “Christ is all and in all.” If we don’t have acceptance of our fellow humans for their differences, then we also do not accept Christ.

We also often wonder, “Why am I here? What is my purpose?” Those are the days we need reminding, that we are part of something bigger. We are connected to something with a bigger purpose. I know the model prayer in the Bible (Matthew 6:5-15), and I find prayer to be a very personal experience, Matthew 6:6-7 says, “When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.”

When I pray, I have a conversation with God. While I don’t hear Him talking back to me, I do see his actions. One of the things I always pray for is that God will show me the path that is right for me in this life. We need guidance and to feel God’s love and acceptance. I think we are all on a path and God is there with us guiding us. This always reminds me of the poem, “Footprints in the Sand”:

One night I had a dream…

I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord, and
Across the sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand;
One belonged to me, and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of my life flashed before us,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that many times along the path of my life,
There was only one set of footprints.

I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest
and saddest times in my life
This really bothered me, and I questioned the Lord about it.
“Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
You would walk with me all the way;
But I have noticed that during the
most troublesome times in my life,
There is only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why in times when I
needed you the most, you should leave me.

The Lord replied, “My precious, precious
child. I love you, and I would never,
never leave you during your times of
trial and suffering.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you.


Pic of the Day


Moment of Zen: Yoga


Pic of the Day