So this past 24 hours it’s been pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins. Some friends and I carved pumpkins last night. This was the product of that.
Then we cooked all the seeds and watched Brokeback Mountain, which I highly suggest it’s such a good movie with its message and cinematography.
Then today some other friends and I went to a pumpkin patch and made a few more pumpkins! Mine is the small one with fangs on the far right.
Hope all of you are having a good fall!
On the third day God made wolves so let us celebrate their beauty with Wolf Shirt Wednesday. You know those weird shirts that people wear like shirts of cats crawling through tall grass or wolves howling at the moon? They are now in! At least at my school, kind of.
Some of my friends thought it would be funny to wear these really ugly, tacky shirts to be ironic and funny and they go over well. We wear them on Wednesdays for Wolf Shirt Wednesday. It has come to my attention by talking to people that some people don’t know about the new craze on wolf shirts. Let’s get them started! I celebrated today showing off my shirt and tweeting all about it let’s get this going!!
Here’s a great site: http://www.animalshirts.net/wolfshirts/index.htm
Here’s my wolf shirt! If any of you guys have one celebrate with me next Wednesday, It’ll be awesome! Hey and if you want send me a pic of you in a wolf shirt if you want! Thanks for reading everyone! I really appreciate it!!
I have a confession. I love the show Real World. It really is a great show though, despite the fact that it’s on one of the trashiest TV stations known to man, there is something about it that I just love. I started watching Real World 3 years ago beginning with Real World: Washington DC. It was awesome, because each house of people had some character or some trait of a character I could relate to.
One thing, they have almost every season is a gay guy. Some good some bad, like in DC there was this awesome guy called Mike Manning he’s probably the Real World character I look up to most.
Anyways, the show basically puts 7-8 people in a house in a big city and sees what happens. Im a sucker for it.
This season takes place in San Diego, with 7 cast members. So far it seems like it will be good. As far as who I can relate to, I think Frank the bi guy gets the gay characteristic across. But besides that we aren’t much alike. I highly suggest checking this show out. It airs on wednesdays at 8? on MTV.
I kind of posted their blog up yesterday, but for all of you guys reading who don’t know about the blog “Walk the Road.” It’s a blog made by three guys across America. They are athletes, they are gay, they are awesome. The blog is sick most definitely you guys should check it out! http://bradrobertben.wordpress.com/
Hey Guys!
So I just want to show all of you a really cool blog that is really similar to mine. Sam is a Junior in high school, a swimmer, and gay. He writes really very well, and always has really interesting topics to write about! Plus Sam is a really cool kid I’ve gotten to know him recently and he really helped me get my blog going and I agree with him on a lot of things. Any who CHECK HIM OUT!!!
http://samisblue.wordpress.com/
At school today, the blood drive came back again like it does every year. Every year I have been denied. Sophomore year I got denied because I had gone to a area of Belize where there was risk to exposure of West Nile. So I tried back Junior year, they extended the period of how long after being possibly exposed to West Nile they would allow. This year I naturally grabbed the sheet, but besides being unable to donate due to my finger and stitches I noticed something I had actually heard about.
The American Red Cross explicitly doesn’t allow gay people to donate. Their rationale is that gay people have a higher risk of being exposed to HIV. Valid point, however the Red Cross and FDA act in a very one sided manner.
If a straight person has sex with a HIV positive they only have to wait a year before they are cleared to donate. Very hypocritical. And the Red Cross and FDA claim all these assertions in that they are “about blood safety.” So one can act very homophobically and discriminatory if they claim they are doing these things for the safety of the people.
I’ve always wanted to donate blood. I find it unfair that the signs for the blood drive say “you can save 3 people with your donation” when really it says “you can save 3 people with your donation, except gays.”
I guess I’ll have to save a life somehow without the help of the FDA or Red Cross. If any of you guys are interested, here’s the article I got my info from.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37599992/ns/health-aids/t/ban-gay-blood-donors-upheld/#.TpydnHOCTXQ
Anyway here’s a song I’ve really gotten into because of a certain someone:)
Yesterday after my unfortunate accident I had an amazing night with Duke. We had been planning to go to this theme park this saturday for weeks now.
This is the same theme park where we first met, except for the fall season the park had been converted to halloween theme. We drove down during the afternoon so we could get on some rides before the crowd came. We got in and rode a ride called the Extreme Swing, it was awesome it gave me the stomach drops without getting my adrenaline going so it felt cool. After that we walked around the park looking for other rides.
We eventually decided to leave the park to go out to eat at Famous Dave’s. We kind of got lost trying to get there but we made it and had some really good BBQ pork sandwiches. Thing is we had to get back to the park before 7 to get readmitted. So we gobbled up dinner and I sped down the highway at 15 miles over the speed limit. Edgey….just kidding but the line to park was so long that I needed to get out and run the last half mile to get in in time so Duke had to drive my car.
My car is a stick shift. Duke’s car is a stick shift. No problem right? Wrong he couldn’t get it started (which I thought was kinda cute) so we held up the line a bit but eventually got my car going. He learned fast. So I ran in and he parked because he had a season pass so he didn’t really have to worry about the 7 deadline.
Finally, we met up and wanted to get scared. So we decided to go through all of the horror themed mazes. An Asylum, and Carnival, a haunted farm, a Meat cutting shop, etc. It was great, the park really went all out with the themes and actors. They scared us a few times. But my favorite part was holding Duke’s hand through it all.
We even held hands outside of the mazes. Some people commented on us. Surprisingly, a lot of people were saying things like “You guys make it possible”, and “Here’s to you guys” which I’m pretty sure was a good thing. We even had a little girl ask us why we were holding hands, Duke just kinda shouted back as we were moving through the crowd, “It’s because we’re gay!” I liked that, being open with complete strangers.
Eventually it began to rain. We tried getting a ice cream to split but it turned out to be a icey smoothie that we tossed but I think Duke still appreciated the gesture. We started getting cold so we decided to go back to my house.
Cold from the park we drove to my house quickly. I quick told my parents who were sleeping that Duke and I got home. They just nodded and we went upstairs to my room and talked a lot. And cuddled, lots of cuddling 🙂 It was awesome warming up with him. I felt invincible with happiness. It was great, we both wished that he could’ve stayed and just slept together on my tiny twin mattress.
However, Duke needed to get home so at 12 we got into my car, and drove to his car which was at his school (So his parents couldn’t track his car). We kissed goodbye and drove our separate ways home. It was magical. I look forward to our next date, possibly next week? We both have a 4-day weekend. Fingers crossed 🙂
Once again thanks guys for reading it means a lot!
CAUTION: Post talks about blood and has pics of my finger all bloody. If you don’t like that don’t read this post.
So today I didn’t really have anything planned in the morning so my mom told me that I was going to help her with yard work.
I help do this ritual every year, we have to cut down the the plants and rake up all of the leaves from out massive cottonwood tree which drops more sticks than leaves. Typical Fall stuff.
Right off the bat I start cutting down some of our flowers and trying to be efficient I accidentally got my finger in the hedge trimmer. It hurt, a lot. I ran inside putting it underwater and stuff and my parents bandaged me up.
My dad who is kinda a doctor told me that it was so jagged and weird of a cut that it shouldn’t need stitches. So we bandaged it up and I got back to work on the yard. Big mistake.
I was ripping out a buckthorn very vigorously and finally got it out when my mom gave me some clippers. I looked down to see blood on the clippers which had gone through my bandaids and work gloves.
We went back to my kitchen to stop the profuse bleeding. We decided we needed a pro. So my neighbor, mom, and I went to my neighbor’s friends office. The friend was a very nice plastic surgeon.
He told me that my cut looked bad, great…. So we went back to a operating room to stitch it up. He numbed it so my finger was very fat and senseless and proceeded with the stitching. 6 stitches!! I’ll be fine I just can’t swim for the next week plus I’ll have a sick scar to show all the guys ;). Here are some pics. VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED its gross but cool
Next post is on my date saturday night with Duke 🙂
So this last and most recent episode ofmy coming out occurred exactly 2 weeks ago. It was homecoming night. The game not the dance, I had a date(girl) for the dance but as for the actual game I felt no obligation to go. So I made plans with Duke since almost all of my friends were at the football game.
Duke met me at my house and I told my parents, who didn’t know about me and Duke at the time that we were going to go to the football game. I figured I would tell them the game so it would make them seem less suspicious of this new guy in my life.Big Mistake.
Duke and I had a wonderful night. We went out to my favorite restaurant where we sat outside even though it was chilly and it was awesome. We made jokes, laughed, played footsie, all that normal couple stuff that I longed for.
Following dinner we decided to go see a movie. Duke really wanted to see the movie 50/50 so thats what we saw. We sat in the back of the theater so we could hold hands without to many people judging. The movie was great! It’s about this guy that gets cancer and the movie goes through the process of chemotherapy and such. It was very real, the movie had no super exaggerated soppy scene or anything but it still captured the events of cancer very well. Throughout the whole movie, once the lights went out we actually were able to pull up the armrest and cuddle a little. It was sweet and not to much PDA I think. Duke even cried a little which I think is the sweetest thing ever. Overall good movie.
After the movie we go out to my car where my phone getsservice all of a sudden with all of these missed calls and texts from my parent wanting me to come home. We rushed home said goodbye and Iwent inside.
My parents where sitting together asking me what I did. “Me and Duke went to the football game and left before the 4th quarter” and they said “Oh really? Sister (I’ll find a name for her later) didn’t see you there.” I told them Sister must’ve not seen me or something so they asked me the score. I had a friend text me the updates to the game he told me that after the 4th quarter it was 7-0. So I told them 7-0, they asked what team was winning. Our team was playing a team that has been known to be leagues better than ours so I said the other team. I was wrong.
My parents then asked what I was really doing. I didn’t want to tell them. So then they started to ground me, taking away car, phone, computer, and friend privileges. I couldn’t take it I couldn’t stand going down for lying about something so harmless. So I went upstairs and considered my options.
I decided I went downstairs to my mom who asked me why I did it. I spent about 20 long aching minutes trying to get the words out “I’m gay.” at first she asked how long I knew and some other questions I didn’t really enjoy but eventually she came up and told me she loved me no matter what. I was still a bit torn that night feeling forced to come out to her but over time I see the good of it.
My mom told me that, there was a lot of adjusting to do mentally. She told me that I am going to face a lot of adversity, I told her that I know and I’ll be strong enough to handle it. She has first hand witnessed the bad things that can happen to gay people as her gay best friend was murdered. No joke. We hugged, I was tired she was tired. She asked if she could tell my father, I said yes we went to bed.
Today actually my parents pulled me aside for an after talk about 20 minutes ago. They told me that I should just be weary of the gay culture in my area and in college and to stay safe. There is truth in that but, I told them I am strong and will be able to make the right decision when the time comes.
That marks the end. At least for now. Thanks guys for commenting!!
So where I left off, it was towards the end of August and I was starting to finally fell comfortable in my own skin. I was ready to come out to my best friend.
It was some day I had been texting Duke that I just felt like it was the right time. I felt Duke would back me and I told myself I would be strong enough to face whatever outcome, coming out to her would send me.
That day Libby decided that we were going to go see a Dessa concert (for those of you who don’t know she’s a really good female rapper that grew up in Minneapolis, MN) on the way to the concert, we were talking about who she at the time was interested in. Eventually she got around to asking me and instead of giving her a false name or the “I’m not interested anyone” answer I told her “Duke.”
First off she already knew of him so I didn’t really have to explain anything so she just got to the “Oh my god Andrew! I’m so happy for you! I’m glad you finally told me.” I felt blessed that she accepted me so readily and so nicely. I’m so glad I chose her to be the first one let in on my secret.
The thing is I felt like I could do more, tell more. So over the next two weeks I decided to tell my friends. Next on my list was my neighbor and great friend, Dexter. I invited him over to my house and we were just chilling while looking at facebook. I showed him Duke’s page and in the mean time I text him saying “he’s my boyfriend.” I guess I just didn’t have the best courage to just tell him flat out but he got the text and asked me if it was true. I confirmed and then he followed saying “Awesome! I love gay people!” (Dexter is a very hard core liberal who is just all around a nice person) Once again, another coming out, another success.
Next I told my friend, lets call her Ashley, I pulled her aside one night after my church youth group and told her that Duke (her classmate) is my boyfriend. Instantly she was very courteous about what I said, telling me she accepted me and she’s happy for me. These experiences were great!
Lastly, one of my best guy friends lets call him John texted me one night when he was slightly intoxicated telling me “how cute” me and my boyfriend were. At first I played dumb asking him what was going on but eventually I just gave up I just flat out told him (I still don’t know how he found out) By that time he had collected his thoughts and apologized for not letting me tell him on my own terms. I told him that it was all good and it made it easy for me because I found it harder to come out to guys and “it’s just one less person I have to tell.”
Overall I’d say I was very lucky, all of my friends embraced who I was and our relationship stayed the same! I feel very blessed that I was greeted with such acceptance, because I know for many people they don’t get accepted and it can hurt a great deal. From my experience I can say that it does get better and as Duke told me “the people that mind, don’t matter and the people that matter don’t mind.”
Thank you guys for reading so far! Next post is coming out to my parents!
the transpiration of andrew 