MyTunes Monday: Of Sailors & Whales

It's amazing how much of the music I played in high school I still have flowing through my brain. I might actually still have the sheet music for this piece.

The Walls Have Ears

A few nights ago I was hanging out with some people at my neighbours' place. I had gone back to my place to get something and while I was standing near the door with my roommate's dog (yeah, I kinda have a dog now), I heard some people through the door. And guess what they were talking about...they were talking about whether or not I was gay. I was sort of in shock and just stood there listening through the door. It was a girl (who knew I was gay) and her boyfriend (who was questioning her). I was a bit surprised because pretty much everyone in this group I had hung out with on multiple occasions including this guy. I was a bit amused being the topic of discussion. For the record,he wasn't being homophobic in any way and I wasn't really offended or mad or anything like that. I think I'm just at the point where even when it doesn't come up directly, I just assume people know about me, usually because I make a lot of offhand comments mindlessly that could be construed as me "coming out" without me actually coming out. If you've met me at least three times, I subconsciously assume you know I'm gay. This was just an interesting situation.

As I was leaving for the night sometime later, a kind of whispered in his ear "If you have a question, just ask."

Weekend Excursion

I was in Richmond, Virginia this past weekend. This was the first time I had been in the city since grade twelve which was…a long time ago. Despite the previous trips, this was the first time I got a good look at much of the city. I hate say it, but I was pretty disappointed. I knew beforehand that like virtually any major city, it has its good parts and its bad parts. It really seemed like much of the city had fallen into ruin. Being the geek that I am, it reminded me of the story of Oscillate (yes people, I am taking you into Middle Earth yet again). It was a grand city in its day but over the years, it was abandoned and eventually became a crumbling ruin. Richmond is not that bad, nor is it anything like Osgiliath in the films, but the city needs help.

Having given the uninitiated a very grim visual image of the city, let me say that it was not all bad. I had a

couple of hours to kill before getting ready for the event that brought me to Richmond so a friend I was with took me to one of the gems of the city, the Jefferson Hotel. This place was immaculate and I felt very under dressed while I was there. They also had a killer Whiskey Sour. It was the fanciest building I had visited in quite some time. On our way to the Jefferson Hotel, we passed by a courthouse which had that classic Greco-Roman architecture with columns that reached into the sky. I love that sort of thing.

Despite being somewhat disappointed with the city itself, it was a very fun weekend. I was there for an event with Equality Virginia, the largest LGBT civil rights organization in the commonwealth. I got to meet some people who are currently running for statewide office like Aneesh Chopra and Terry MacAuliffe, I got to meet Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) who as an awesome guy, Cory Booker (the mayor of Newark, New Jersey). It was a three-hour drive there fairly early on Saturday morning but it was a very fun car ride. The four of us who were in the car talked pretty much the entire time, which surprised me because I had gotten up at 6 am and was not running on much sleep.

I had not been a road trip in a long time and I forgot how fun they can be.