Potpourri for $100, Alex

I had fun at camp this past weekend, but it's really hard to when it's so cold.  I really didn't feel like I ever got warm the whole time, and can't get the smell of campfires out of my head.  I finally broke down and turned the heat on last night.  It's 28 degrees outside.  This week is Fall clean up week at the Marriott, cutting down perennials, pulling out flowers, trimming trees and shrubs, edging beds, getting rid of leaves...  even though it's hard to say goodbye to Summer, it does feel good to clean up after it... especially one that was so brutally hot and dry.  Its only supposed to go to a high in the low 50's this week, but it's supposed to be sunny though.

A few weekends ago, I accidentally met this guy named Giuseppe through some friends.  He's 28, has a good job, a car, a house and a cat and is very responsible.  That being said, he's already light years ahead of the majority of guys out there.  We've been hanging out, going to dinner and watching our favorite TV shows... and yesterday, we headed to the outlet mall an hour from here and had a great day.  After dating Jesse, I'm not used to someone going 'Dutch' or even paying for me, say, at a restaurant... and I surely am unfamiliar with someone gathering my tray and garbage and taking care of that for me, opening doors and being concerned about whether I'm cold or not.  It's nice to have someone respect you... value you, and look after you.  I can't tell you how good that makes me feel when he does it.  And while we're only at the beginning stage of what seems like something that just fell into place, I'm looking forward to getting to know him better and spending more time with him. Tonight (and I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not), I'm bringing him to dinner with some friends that will surely eat him up alive, chew him up and spit him out like a spicy chicken wing bone by a redneck at a Nascar raceway.  Much like a dysfunctional Italian family, my friends tend to talk over everyone and cut you off mid-sentence, fighting for the spotlight.  Giuseppe is Italian as well, so I think he may hold his own.

Now that the house closing has gone through, I'm in the process of paying some of my Dad's things off and switching around some things, like bank accounts, etc.  I am at a total relaxed point with all of that and while I still maintain that it hasn't hit me yet, I can feel an inner peace.  I have been thinking in my mind about getting away for long time now and right on the heels of the workshop surrounded by 30 interactive guys... and camp this past weekend with 200 gays, I long for some alone time.  Friends of mine invited me to Ft. Lauderdale... but I impulsively booked a trip the other day, flying in and out of Las Vegas, with most of the trip being in the car on the road.  I plan to hang with a few friends in LV for a few days, but head up to Brice Canyon, then down to the Grand Canyon (hopefully taking a helicopter ride into the canyon like I did before) and perhaps heading down into the Phoenix area (since I've never been) before rounding back to LV.  I leave December 3rd and will be coming back on the 11th.  When I used to live in Vegas, I used to love driving in the desert.  People say 'there's nothing there, why do you like it so much'... and I find that it's what USED to be there that makes it so mysterious and serene.  I have a real connection to the desert for some reason.