How I met the love of my life

Those of you who know me and B well probably know this story.. but I've been thinking about it much lately and thought I'd make it a post:
I was a senior in high school and desperate for some sort of social outlet for interacting with other gays and lesbians. When I read about the Houston Pride band in a copy of the Gay and Lesbian Yellow pages, I, thought, " Hey, I'm, a band geek What better way to spend my time."

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.. That was a mistake; but that is for a different post...I had told the conductor that I played clarinet and alto sax so she could put me where they needed .me. When I saw B walk in with a clarinet bag, I knew I had made a mistake, as they needed me in the saxophone section. It was total love at first sight for both of us. The next week I left my sax in the boot of my car(Probably not the smartest thing to do in that part of town) claiming that it was in the shop but offering to join the clarinets.

So I got to sit right next to that clarinet guy and we struck up a conversation, taking every slight break to talk the whole night. Ithink we talked in the parking lot well after everyone else had gone.. we had traded phone numbers and email addrsses and he had convinced me into getting AIM. That nigh we were talking for hoursI was in love and this time I knew it was Rreal, Jnot just somepassing fancy. That weekend he was at my house to visit and play duets the lfolowing week we skipped rehearsal to have some alone time and we officially became a couple . I was elated. I new i was finally done with little one/two month mini relationhips, and would be with him forever. Shortly after I found oout I had HI,Ispent sthe better part of a night cryingbecause I thoughtI'd lose him- either because I'd get sick and die before I was ready to lose h,,m Or he'd decide He couldn't live with the whole HIV thing and decide we needed to separate. As wonderful as B has been through this whole lymphoma and rehab ordeal, I now Know that i was just being stupid. He's been my source of strength and support and sanity. Were he not in my life, I likely would have given up hope at the beginning of August.we'll have been together eleven years in April f 2009and love him 10000times more than I did the day he said he'd be my boyfriend. I wouldn't trade a day o our relationship for all the money in the world

hillbilly EnglishARGH!

If I have to listen to much more atrocious hillbilly grammar, I'm going to scream!
Man's name is glen. Wife calls him Glian or glee-an-Like Liam, but with an N at the end and a G in front

Let me give you the highlights: Wife talking to Nurse about some apparatus they might give her husband." Oh yeah, I seen that"
Son to dad upon arrival of visit:"Beau and Jennifer was gonna come see ya
Son to father about hurricane damage,"You know that seeder tree( cedar tree) in yer front yard? It got twisted up by the wind and a bunch a limbs come down
Daughter calls DadDayud and "on "is"aw-un".

I know I don't a;ways use perfect grammar, but GEEEEEEEEEEZ! There's our wonderful public school system for you. Or, since the bad language seems to be home-grown, maybe the kids were home schooled

Life is wht happens to you while you're busy making other plans

Well, For those of youwho don't know, on July 28th I had a hemhorragicstroke . which left me without the use of my left arm and legand had to have a craniotomy on the 29th. . they * thought* I had Lymphoma,but results were inconclusive. so they sent the biopsy to M.D. Anderson,And A couploof weeks later it came back as"somekind of lymphoma"..Turns out it's Non- hodgkinsymphoma of the brain which is just a fancy way of saying a fairlytreatable brain cancer. after a while,II got transfered to a new location for my chemobecause no regular oncologists wanted to treat me having HIVon top of it. after two rounds of chemo, I went to my 4th hospital for b.rehab. .So far things are. going reptty well. I've done more intwo dayshere than in the past tmonth and a half at the other host.All tew therapists are veryy nice and not ibconsiderste task masters like some I've accomplished more in a couple of days here than I did in a month and a half at the first three hospitals. Of course they actually knowt hings here instead of the other therapistwho seemed like they were working from an introduction to basic therapy bookletThe first few after the srokeweeks were preetty hard. Lots of"wfhy did this

happen whenI thought my HIV therapy was going so well.but then I realised that this happened because my HIV had progressed so farand I decided like the whole Patient/victim post said. It's m,y faultthatI have HI,V so I don't have any right to complain or feel sorry for myself. That realisation reduced the mount of crying quite a
bit.
I still have my sad breakdown moments: usually when I don't get enough sleep., or towards the end of the week B has been so wonderful through all of this. He always helps when I have an accident and never complainsHe always gets me in theweheel chair and tries to get me outside for a bit in the morningsI'm so greatful to have hadhim there the night of my stroke: IIf he hadn't been there, who knows how long I would hav been unconcious eand I probably
wouldn't have gotten 911 called

Anyway, back to the theme I tried to set with my title, Before all this, B and I were planning a trip to London in the spring and I was starting to try practicing again to see if I could get back in shape to play in public again.I wanted to do one or two more recItals before I developed full- blown AIDS, or got seriously sickTeaching is on hold indefinitely, uill I atleaststart to get some hand movement back