The Year (in review) of the Pandabuff
Near the beginning of 2009, I reformatted and renamed my Livejournal “The Year of the Pandabuff”, to reflect a new me as I was learning to live again as a single man after being partnered on and off for twenty years. However by June, I had fallen off of posting regularly and went months between. Now as 2009 ends, I find myself reflecting back to the year that was and I am smiling. One year ago today, I was journal writing about the annoying habit Abbey has of eating toilet paper off the roll, the recording of the live performance of the BEARatones and reflecting back on the year that was 2008. As I think back over this year, I realized I really have moved forward in becoming comfortable in my own skin. Do I look back to the disastrous year that was 2008? Yeah, but I have so many good things going on today and a wonderful circle of friends, and those things have made up for it.
January 2009 - A month ago I was worried that my Christmas was going to be spent alone as I could not make it home to Tampa to see my family and with the breakup, it didn't seem right to spend the Holidays with Gary and his family in Utah (which was a staple for 12 years). Luckily, I had my good friend Scott with me on Christmas day. Whether it was watching romantic movies or just sitting alone in my new house, I found myself very depressed and often crying. So, thankfully Scott spent two days with me over Christmas. Scott has always been a shoulder to cry on or an arm around me to comfort me when I was down. He was there for me during those hard months and still is today. January ended with the annual chorus retreat for Seattle Men’s Chorus and as usual I organized a Bear House for the weekend. What I didn’t know then, was that this would be the last Retreat at Ft Worden as the chorus announced in the fall that we would be moving to a hotel and everyone would have traditional hotel rooms versus old Victorian houses. But, I look back and think we really went out in style. The 12 of us that stayed in the house put together a great Red party and all dressed in our Red Long Johns for the event. I am gonna miss that place.
February 2009 - I returned for the 3rd year to San Francisco for IBR and it made for a very special weekend as I met someone truly special there on Valentine’s Day. It happened just like in the movies as our eyes met across a crowded room and we then proceeded to get together and just talk for a very long time. We went to dinner after that and had a good time for the two days we had left. Lyle returned to Los Angeles and I returned to Seattle, but we stayed in touch and saw each other twice more before the distance really got to us and we stopped dating. But I do not regret a minute of it. Lyle was a very special man, and he still is today. I am glad that through it all, we have remained friends.
March 2009 - The snow returned with a furry and I wasn’t happy. The good thing is that I was in crazy tap rehearsal for a Seattle Men’s Chorus the following month.
April 2009 - Film legend (and Carrie Fisher’s mother) Debbie Reynolds was the special guest star for ‘Singing in the Rain’, the Seattle Men’s Chorus Spring Concert. It was a great show and she shared a lot of stories with us and the audience. I can now say that I tapped on stage with Debbie Reynolds!
Outside of turning 39 on April 12th, the was one other thing about April that I cannot forget and I shared it here on LJ when it happened (click here).
May 2009 - The weather cleared up and it is now boating season. As it warmed up, a standard happening each weekend was to spend one weekend day out on the boat of friend’s Joe and Chris. It was the start of an incredible summer.
June 2009 - The BEARatones went into the studio to start laying tracks down for “Tap That Secret Code” and we got most of it done. June was also my first of almost monthly trips this Summer and Fall. The first week of June I headed to Tampa to visit family and friends. I arrived early to surprise Adam, who was getting ready to move to San Francisco. Roberto, David and Vern were hosting a going away party at their ranch, so I met up with my friend Tony when I arrived and headed up to Bushnell to surprise Adam and some other friends who had no idea I was coming.
After that, I spent time with my family before leaving for Orlando for 4 nights at Gay Days at Disneyworld. I spent time at Animal Kingdom with a lot of Seattle, DC and Boston friends, Hollywood Studios and Epcot was with friends from Ft Lauderdale, Tidal Wave and Magic Kingdom was with friends from Tampa. All in all, a great vacation!
July 2009 - The first weekend of July, someone who would become one of my closest friends today came up for his visit from Portland. Matthew joined Joe, Chris, Frank, Tom, Ty, Dave and me on the boat and they all became fast friends. He returned the next weekend to surprise me and to celebrate Joe’s 40-something birthday on the boat.
Later that month, I flew to Minneapolis and stayed with my friends Jason and Brian and had a great long weekend with them before attending the penultimate edition of bTALK and then heading home to Seattle.
August 2009 - I started playing Softball with members of the Muffin Tops (Bear team) in the Fall League. I hadn’t played softball in at least 15 years, but I realized it was much like riding a bike. Muscle memory returned and I realized that I could still hit, catch and field like I did when I was in my twenties.
September 2009 - I headed to San Diego for Labor Day weekend to visit several friends and stayed with Mike and Ian. Ian used to live here in Seattle, but moved after meeting Mike and I don’t blame them as they fit together like Salt and Pepper shakers. I also had a great time meeting a lot of my online friends face to face for the first time (Joe, Alan, Mike, Craig, Joel etc).
October 2009 - Yet another trip and this was to Anaheim with Steve Wolf for a long weekend for Gay Days at Disney. My first night was at Knotts Berry Farm with Jeff and Darin and then I did Disneyland with Steve, Tim, Rick along with Lyle who joined us for the day. The next day I met up with Jeff and Darin and we hung out at California Adventure before I left them to have dinner with Steve, Tim and Rick. It was a quick weekend but just as much fun as Gay Days at Disneyworld.
October was also the month that Abbey, the Border Collie/Springer Spaniel mix that Gary and I adopted 9 years ago, passed away. It was unexpected and it took a while for Gary and I to accept that she was gone. Abbey was a wonderful dog and she and Lucy were constant companions in our life. After Gary and I separated, we maintained joint custody of the both dogs. Since they did not like being separated, Gary and I took turns of having the 'girls' going two or three weeks at a time at our houses. It is just Lucy now, and she seems to be adapting at being an 'only child' - but I still miss Abbey.
(Abbey & Lucy)
November 2009 - Shannon Grady told me about an opportunity to join him and a bunch of my friends from Minneapolis on a Caribbean cruise. Many of the guys from Minneapolis that I was with last year for our Caribbean Cruise were going on this cruise, so it was great to hang with them again. If you are on Facebook and friends with me there, you will see a bunch of pics there but a few are posted below. There was a group of 51 guys on a Carnival Cruise. My original cabinmate had to cancel, so I asked Matthew to come along and I am glad he did. We vacation well together. He makes me laugh and is just a great person to be around. I went on the cruise knowing about 8 or 9 people and came away a week later with 42 new friends. We were a tight group by the end of the cruise and I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend a week.
December 2009 - The year ended with 8 concerts with Seattle Men's Chorus, where I had the opportunity to do some more dancing as Santa during a Christmas version of Michael Jackson's Thriller. My last concert was on Sunday December 20th and I boarded a flight on the 21st and headed to Tampa for the holidays. I stayed with my friend Rob, who I last saw in June. We had a wonderful time together with his kids and our friends and I am thankful for his friendship.
Outside of my friends, I was there to be with my family. It was the first time that I have spent a Christmas in Tampa since 1993 and the first with my family since 1990. Life and living away from Tampa factored into that and after returning from Tampa, I hope to spend at least some time there during the holidays from now on. Who knows, I may make a migration back to Tampa one day in the future.
That was The Year (in review) of the Pandabuff.