WOW! 35 years! And none of us look a day over ... well, I'll let that go.

After graduation, I think that I spent a lot of time in great contemplation of the deeper aspects and meanings of life, and anything that ended up leading me to becoming a professional student for a while. This saved my mother and father from having to tell others that their son was unemployed.

There are parts of my past that are dark, but the story has a happy ending.
It was 15 years before I headed to Hollywood, California.
There are other dark spots, in California, that are a part of what 12-steppers call "jails, institutions, and death".

But for the sake of making this story flow, and not depress you, the reader, we will move on to the move to California.

I don't know if I wanted to become a star, although I have worked as an extra with Linda Hamilton, and RuPaul. I sang back up with Bobby Brown, Chakka Khan, and others to name drop.

I did more school out here and acquired an AA/Accounting as well as a Certification/Paralegal. But, I believe I came to California because it is an easier place to live as an openly gay man.

Today, I live partnered, healthy with AIDs, and enjoying my new employment within a property management company.

I do a lot of volunteer work. I work with youths, and a 12-step program (having 5 1/2 years clean/sober). I assist others not only within recovery, but all people searching betterment and wholeness of their own lifestyle and living.

Nowadays, I love to travel, camp and hike. I go to the gym at least 4 times a week and, although my partner runs marathons, my running is confined to a treadmill on occasion, or when someone is chasing me with a gun trying to mug me!

I would rather shop and decorate, or entertain friends when we are not outside.
It is the simple things that I have come to embrace and enjoy. I live by a realization that NOW is the only reality and I try to live it with kindness.

35 years ... who woulda thunkit?