Jack's Ramblings

[CellarDweller]

Happy Valentine's Day, Jack!

That sure is a good pic Chuck!!! Where did you get that?

I found it on PhotoBucket.  I did a search that was "gay cowboy".  I was hoping for some rodeo shots.  That was one of the first ones to pop up, and I loved it!  I put it on all the blogs with Valentine's greetings.


Oh, btw, LMAO at Atreyu = Mod David.  I thought he was someone I hadn't run into.  I looked at his post count, and thought, "How did he post so much and me not run into him?"

 

[ifyoucantfixit]

            Hey Jack.  it seems your blog has been very busy today/  I dont know where you
get the idea you arent popular.  Did someone send you a poison pen letter.  Speaking of
sending you stuff.  Did you ever get my card i remailed to you??
             Just think of it.  Without you going to the trip to Wyoming, we would n oever have
met.  I think of you as one of my best friends here at Bettermost.  You know i love you.There are many here that do also.  Same goes for Jess, and David, and Shasta.  You are all important.
The friends we all have are the ones we culture.  The rest just plain dont matter.  we need to
be with the ones we love, and who love us.  You are certainly one of those Jack.  lots of
people like you a lot.  But all in all the decision to go to the meetings.  It is your own choice.
Your own decision where and when to attend.  I wont go to as many this year as last either.
But thats another story for another time.  I think people should choose their own course. 
Go if you want to.  Dont if you dont and no pressure applied in either direction. 
           I would love to see you again Jack, if and when i go to another meeting.  If i dont I
will still treasure the times we spent together/.      big huggs  {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Jack}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

[Shasta542]

 Hi boys -- Gary, Jack, Chuck. Hi Janice. Having a good Saturday night? What're you doing? Besides having mistaken identities?

[jstephens9]

Good morning Jack,

This sounds like an impressive plan.  Do you know what you want to see or do in those cities, or are you just going to wing it?  Do you make lists of the things you want to do when you travel, or do you let your spirit guide you when you get there?

I guess you could say that I do a bit of everything you list whenever I go somewhere. In the end I think it pretty much comes down to letting my spirit guide me in whichever direction I end up going in. I think that can work out best since you can always stumble into things that you might miss if you were going by a list. Of course, I usually have some idea of the things I want to see and typically I usually get a book and read up on the place. I always think it is funny that every book on every place reminds you that it is not a good idea to explore low income areas in the middle of the night   Now who would do that anyway   The same is true for parks by the way. I remember when I first got to NYC and I wasn't quite sure what to do. The view from the window was so surreal. It was almost like I had posters of NYC all over the walls. The room was on the 38th floor and was a corner room. So there were big windows on two sides of the room. When I first opened the door of the room I was greeted with this huge window which was actually in the bathroom. It just didn't look real. Anyway, I ventured out into the streets and just kind of took stock of where I was. I definitely did not want to loose the hotel   Although it was a little too big to loose that easily; however, everything in NYC is huge. I got a Panina at this place near the hotel. I wasn't even quite sure what that was at the time. I knew I needed food and it looked good. They cook them up there. So I took that back to the room and observed the skyline again. I became more and more comfortable with the city with each trip out and I began to pretty well know where things were including the hotel. The hotel sold tickets for the Gray Line which I would recommend to anyone. That is definitely the way to see the city. So by the time I left the area around the hotel which was Times Square and the Theatre District became like home. It's kind of funny the hotel I stayed at which is a very nice hotel is right beside the hotel that has been rated the dirtiest hotel in the nation. It is called the Hotel Carter. The one I stayed at was the Westin Times Square.

[jstephens9]

Don't worry Chuck, the name change confused the heck out of me, too, at first.  I was like, who is this person, and how could I have missed him given his huge post count.   

That's a great picture.  The boys are so handsome, and the love between them is beautiful.

It confused me too. I had no idea it was David at first, but I too was wondering how he had such a large post count. I thought at first maybe he was someone who had returned. You know we have had some old members coming back. But it turns out it was David in disguise 

And I agree Gary about the picture. For some reason that picture shows a lot of emotion between the two of them. You can almost feel it.

[CellarDweller]

With all the talk about the gatherings, I just want to say that I can understand what you are saying.

It was very intimidating going to the first gatheirng in Texas 2 years ago.  I only knew about 4 or 5 of the members personally, having met them in NYC.  I was very worried/nervous about attending.

I can only say that going to the gatherings has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  I would never give it back for anything.

[jstephens9]

            Hey Jack.  it seems your blog has been very busy today/  I dont know where you
get the idea you arent popular.  Did someone send you a poison pen letter.  Speaking of
sending you stuff.  Did you ever get my card i remailed to you??
             Just think of it.  Without you going to the trip to Wyoming, we would n oever have
met.  I think of you as one of my best friends here at Bettermost.  You know i love you.There are many here that do also.  Same goes for Jess, and David, and Shasta.  You are all important.
The friends we all have are the ones we culture.  The rest just plain dont matter.  we need to
be with the ones we love, and who love us.  You are certainly one of those Jack.  lots of
people like you a lot.  But all in all the decision to go to the meetings.  It is your own choice.
Your own decision where and when to attend.  I wont go to as many this year as last either.
But thats another story for another time.  I think people should choose their own course. 
Go if you want to.  Dont if you dont and no pressure applied in either direction. 
           I would love to see you again Jack, if and when i go to another meeting.  If i dont I
will still treasure the times we spent together/.      big huggs  {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Jack}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Thank you Janice!!! This post means a lot to me and you know you mean a lot to me. That is for sure. And we better be seeing each other again. If I end up going to Wyoming it will definitely be because of getting to see people like you.

[jstephens9]

Very good point Chuck! I do agree that both of the trips I have taken were very rewarding experiences. I also would never give it back. It was funny when I went to Colorado I knew absolutely nobody. I didn't even know Bettermost existed until a few days before I left. And I had no idea what people were talking about when they would mention DC. I thought there for awhile that some of them were into comic books  And there were other things I didn't know at first such as the fact that Adam's truck is truly Ennis' truck. That still amazes me.

[CellarDweller]

It was funny when I went to Colorado I knew absolutely nobody.

now that, I find to be absolutely cool!   I don't know if I would take a trip where I knew nobody!  You're a braver man than I am!

[jstephens9]

now that, I find to be absolutely cool!   I don't know if I would take a trip where I knew nobody!  You're a braver man than I am!

It's funny sometimes those things happen to me. It seems they usually mean a major chapter change in my life. Another similar event happened to me back in the 90s when I heard about this gay camping group centered around Greensboro/Winston-Salem. They were having this hiking trip at Hanging Rock which is up around Pilot Mountain. So I drove there and got involved with this group. Just like Colorado, I knew absolutely nobody there. I figured that if I didn't like it when I got there I could leave. I ended up going on lots and lots of camping and hiking trips with them. I ended up making a lot of new friends through that group and I had some great times. For whatever reason the group seemed to fall apart and it has now been many years since I have heard from or talked with any of the people. It's sad in a way since that became such a big part of my life. I know that the group kind of reformed and I got in touch with them awhile back. It seems to be more centered in Atlanta now though. The name of the group when I was in it was TOSF (Tarheel Outdoors Sports Fellowship). It is called something else now. I had thought about going on a trip, but I never did. I guess that was right before I ended up in Colorado. I'm sure all the people have changed by now and it is one of those things where you just can't go back. What was there for me then would not be there now. I do wonder sometimes what all the people are up to now.