Recently in Self Improvement Category

Most of you probably haven't noticed but I've changed the banner to my "Ask Adam" headshot pic. That change came as a result of an epiphany I had on Sunday night. I'm in a new place. I feel like switching up my image a bit. I took down all of my racier half naked pictures from the blog, my MySpace and my Facebook pages. I just don't feel like I'm in that space anymore. Via IM I explained it to a friend like this:

"I feel like I have nothing else to prove. I'm sexy, okay we get it. I know it, everyone knows it, even when I don't beat people upside the head with it. I have a popular blog that's more popular today for it's body of work than for the body of it's writer. I'm getting older now and next year I have a book to shop. I can't roll up in Simon & Schuster with no shirt on. I will always be the same person, but from now on the presentation's gonna be a bit different."

Yeah, that's basically it. Nothing to make a huge deal over, but I'm gonna start covering up a bit more from now on. I'm not gonna go off the deep end and be all default and say that this is "growth" or anything, because to say that would be to say that all the time that I was into taking a whole bunch of half naked pictures was immature or something and it wasn't. I was just in a 'if you've got it, flaunt it' place and it was great for what it was. I had a great time there and I will fondly treasure all those memories. I'm just not there anymore. I'm like Madonna, I have no regrets. That was my "Erotica" period and now I'm entering my "Ray Of Light" era.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna pull a Prince and become all Prudence McPrudy guy. I'm still a very sexual person and will talk about sex just as much as I always have and I'm not saying that I'll never bare my chest again or take another sexy picture, I just don't see myself being as gratuitous with it as I have been in the past. In a nutshell, no more dick prints in silver lame shorts. That's all, no biggie.

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Playing In The Background...
"Sexy! No, No, No..."
by Girls Aloud
from the album "Tangled Up"
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Don't you just love it when you hear a song that summarizes your life and exactly what you're going through at that moment. I was on the train the other day and this song came on my iPod and I almost busted out laughing. I always loved this song (and Christina Milian I'm a huge fan of her and her beautiful self), but now it carries with it an even greater meaning. Christina, how'd you know?

Play this as you read this blog post:
Christina Milian
"Foolin'"

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Hey everybody,

It's been forty-one days and forty-one nights since the last time we talked, sure I've written about some stuff, answered some questions and have even given some advice but it's been a while, forty-one days to be exact, since we talked expressly and specifically about me. For anyone who hasn't read the last "Life Update" post, click here to check it out and catch up before you continue.

When we last left off I was depressed, recovering from the embarrassment of having a not-so-great turnout at that "No Shade" party thing I was involved in planning back in August and I had finally put my foot down regarding breaking things off with Pubby and had taken the drastic measure of changing my phone number to ensure that I wouldn't go back on my word.

The day I posted that last "Life Update" post, September 1st, Pubby called me, we talked for a while and I told him that I was changing my phone number and that I was not giving it to him and that I didn't wish to speak to him any longer, that I was tired of him using me, loving me in private and not in public, it hurt way too much. I was tired of being played and tired of the back and forth. I was tired of loving someone who didn't love me the same way. We ended our phone conversation awkwardly. Once the blog post I wrote about it was published he replied to it, it shocked me to see his name in my email box as he'd never replied to any of my blog posts before. But as he said in the letter he only replied to my blog post because that was the only way he could contact me. I read his letter and it was more of the same ol' thing, more of him turning things around and not taking any responsibility for his part in anything, as usual, like I'm crazy. I read it two more times and I deleted it. I deleted it from my email box. I deleted it from my phone. I deleted it from the server. I deleted it from my life. As much as it bothered me to do it I let him have the last word. We haven't communicated since. It's really over.

Many of you criticized me for doing something as drastic as changing my phone number to solidify a breakup, saying that I was only running away from my problems. With all the love in my heart I must say, no offense, but fuck you all, ye naysayers. Changing my phone number was the best motherfuckin' thing I've done in a long time. As the weeks rolled by, the act of changing my phone number became less of necessity and more of a symbol, a symbol of my strength, strength to admit that I was weak and needed a change. If I were as strong then as I am now I could have kept my perfect phone number the way it was, but I wasn't. Sometimes when you're not strong enough to walk away from something you've gotta run away, hence the change of phone number. In the past I've compared my relationship with Pubby to a drug addiction and when you wanna get over a drug addiction you go to rehab. When Britney and Lindsay and all the pop tartlets we know and love go to rehab they it's always located far away from the drug-ridden clubs of LA and New York because there's no way you're gonna get off drugs if you're around the shit all the time. That's why most rehab centers are in Idaho and Utah and other middle-of-nowhere, out-of-the-way places. No matter what anybody says, you are responsible for your happiness and your sanity. Do whatever you must do to maintain it and if people can't understand it, fuck 'em, with all the love in your heart. (LOL)

The more I took the focus off of Pubby and myself with him and onto me, I realized that I didn't want to call him and I was glad that he couldn't call me. Yeah, we could have emailed each other, but I didn't and he didn't. What I did was the best thing for me, I deserve to be happy, I deserve someone who is absolutely nuts about me the way I was for him and in a secondary way what I did was the best thing for him too, with me out of the picture he could stop using me as a crutch and focus on the person he's with. There's no hard feelings and I wish him all the best. PRAISE THE LORD, it's really over, no more "Foolin'" for me. I'm free, thank you Jesus.

In other news I'm very proud of myself because I've really gotten up on my exercise game. I've been in the gym at least four to five times a week for the past few weeks in preparation for the fall photo shoot I'm planning and because it's just good for me. It's about time I change the face of the blog again. I'm officially 25 so it's time to put all the silver shit away now. Look for a new photo shoot and a blog redesign in the next couple of weeks.

As far as my book is concerned it's in the research and development stage. I want to thank everyone for all of the numerous inquiries about the status of the book. It's coming, but I'm definitely not trying to rush it. As I've said many times before my life is a constant fight, a struggle against mediocrity and I refuse to put out just any ol' mediocre-ass book. So many books get published every day and slide right under the radar. I definitely don't want that for my book, but to answer your questions again, it's coming along. A special thanks to James Earl Hardy for all of his support and advice regarding my first book.

There are also other HUGE developments underway that I can't even speak on as of yet and I'm SO excited about them.

I wanna thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and encouragement and emails and MySpace and Facebook messages. I get them all I read them all and they encourage me sooooooo much, more than you probably realize. ((MUAH))

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Playing In The Background...
"Foolin'"
by Christina Milian
from the album "So Amazin"
and
"So What"
by Pink
from the album "Funhouse"
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This is one of my favorite poems so I decided to repost it. How many times have we let someone get away with treating us not as good as we deserve to be just because they look good or we think that we're not on their level and are in a sense grateful for being in their presence, as though we aren't good enough. It doesn't even have to be looks that make you stay, it could be about the way he makes you feel or the sex or a combination of the three. What's even worse is when we know it's true and we try to rationalize the shit.

Enjoy.

Originally posted on November 10, 2007 11:12 AM
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If He Was Ugly
by Adam Benjamin Irby

If he was ugly...
Would you let him do the things he do?
Would you let him say what he say to you?
Or act the way he acted,
If you weren't so attracted.
And forgive so automatic.
And live life so tragic.
The longing for better days, you trade,
Your sense, you're like an addict.
Why's he such a prize,
Just a sight for sore eyes.
Telling yourself lies,
Under the guise of compromise.
Disdain in your brain,
Numb like Novocaine.
You fold in your pain, like a collar stain,
On a white collared Polo rugby.
Would you treat him so lovely,
If you didn't think you were so ugly?

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Playing In The Background...
"Why You Gotta Look So Good?" feat. Lloyd Banks
by Mya
from the album "Moodring"
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Adam Benjamin Irby ==========
Is one of these how you found out about this blog?
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A while back, I wrote a blog entry called "THE SUM OF ALL GAY MEN'S FEARS" it received a lot of attention, Darian Aaron and Andre J Allen III reposted it on their blogs, people emailed it to their friends and it's probably the reason why a lot of you have discovered me. That one blog post did for me like what the "Control" album did for Janet Jackson back in the day, it blew me the fuck up! LOL The gist of the post was that my biggest fear and in my opinion the biggest fear of all gay men was to end up old and alone. In the past few weeks though my fear has shifted. While I don't want to end up old and alone, yadda, yadda, yadda, I've put that whole thing on the back burner. I'm not old yet so I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. My biggest fear now is of living a mediocre life. To live my life working for the man every night and day, punching a clock, living paycheck to paycheck. I don't need to be filthy rich but I'll be damned if I don't live my life, the gift that the almighty God personally gave to me on my own terms. In my individual case the most important of those terms being that I don't have to wake up in the morning and go to work for anybody but me! Your own terms may be different from mine mine but you should live your life by them as well. I touched on that concept in this post and with each passing day, realizing that I ain't getting any younger is making that whole concept all too real.

While I can't necessarily depend on some guy to love me or do me right or be by my side forever I need to be able to depend on myself to reach my goals. I'm looking at things this way, once I do what I need to do as far as my goals are concerned then I can invest energy into finding a partner or letting a partner find me or whatever. I get mad every time I think about all the time and energy I've wasted running after this guy and that guy and trying to be with this one and please that one. If I had invested half of that energy into my goals I would have been so far ahead of the game right now. I'm sure that you can conjure up a few things you could have accomplished if you weren't so busy playing games with so and so and such and such.

And looking at celebrities and people on TV does not help, the shit can be downright discouraging. Oprah had this girl on her show who was only 15 and running her own hair products company that was getting distributed by Wal-Mart, fucking Wal-Mart, home girl is paid. And look at all these young entertainers like Rihanna, who's 19, Miley Cyrus, who's 14, Chris Brown, who's 18, and have more money than they know what to do with, or at least more than I have. That makes me think, damn, what the fuck was I doing with my teenage years? I'm all crying and suicidal trying to deal with my sexuality and letting religion and people hold me down when I shoulda been on my motherfuckin' grind. I'm 24, bitches are retiring at 24 now. I have a lot of catching up to do. My black ass always been writing, since I was seven years old. I just never thought to do anything with it until now. While I'm not gonna beat myself up over it it's one hell of a wakeup call. Ding, ding, ding, get up mothafucka!

While I don't regret anything that's happened in my life and while many of those bad experiences have shaped the wonderful person I am, and yours, the lovely person that you are today, I can't sit here and not acknowledge that my time, ideally could have been better spent. Fortunately for what I do as a writer I've made my hardships work for me. But if I were trying to be a race car driver or an astrophysicist I might be a little tight right now.

For the past few weeks I have been on my grind like crazy as far as this blog and my writing in general is concerned. I've come out of my shell, I've been going to events, talking to people, speaking up, networking my ass off, handing out my promo cards (pictured above) like it's going out of style. Believe it or not at times I can be a little shy. Back in the day whenever I used to do something I always felt like I was piggybacking on someone else and their contacts. When I was a kid I was known as Lydia's son or Sister Irby's son, and even more recently in my relationship with my ex, Mr. Man I was always referred to as Mr. Man's boyfriend. While I love them both, my mom and my ex and all they ever tried to do was help me out, I have to say that it feels really good to stand on my own two and be Adam, making a name for myself and doing for myself, making my own contacts. I feel like I'm in control of my destiny and it's a great feeling.

To sit back and watch my blog, something that was my idea and my vision, that I started lass than nine months ago grow the way it has as quickly as it has is the best feeling ever. The feeling of having doors fling wide open for you and people you admire and respect like James Earl Hardy and Enrique Cruz giving you props on your passion is amazing. It's better that sex. In fact fuck sex, fuck fucking and fuck mother fuckin' sex. That shit has kept me off my grind for so fuckin' long. It's weird, but lately as horny as I have been I haven't really been pressed to do much about it, besides masturbation and I don't even have the time for that that I used to. And dating, it comes when it comes. I'm not even pressed about dudes any more either. Sure I have my lonely nights and days but I just write a blog post about that shit and I'm over it.

So many wonderful things are happening to me right now, many I'm not even at liberty to tell y'all yet and I feel absolutely great about it. I'm not wasting any more time. All that shit people say about not looking for someone to complete you and that everything that you really need is inside, sounds like bullshit but I'm learning that it is so true. As nice as it would be to have a partner cheering me on throughout this stage of my life, I've finally realized, without any jaded cynicism or hard feelings, that that will come when it comes, right now it's just good to finally be Adam.

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Playing in The Background...
"Selfish"
by Vivian Green
from the album "Vivian"
and
"Life Will Pass You By"
by Faith Evans
from the album "Keep The Faith"
and
"Grindin'"
by The Clipse
from the album "Lord Willin'"
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It's Saturday morning and much like last Saturday morning I'm extremely horny. I didn't masturbate... yet. I went out last night. I went to Shelter and even though clubs were never really my thing it doesn't hurt to go out and let the kids see your face sometime. You don't want people to start a rumor that you're dead or anything.

I arrived to the club at the fashionable time of 2:30a. By that time you have to pay the full, after hours price to get in, which in a way kinda sucks because you're gonna actually be at the party for less time than the people who came early and paid less. But I understand it being that my ex, Mr. Man is a club promoter and it's hustle like any other hustle. I look at things this way: Getting to the club at 2:30-3 o'clock, making your rounds, saying your "Hi's" and leaving in an hour, $20. Not having to stand around for four or five hours listening to that ear blistering, awful, homophobic, reggae/dancehall shit or watching grown ass men go off to "Freakum Dress" for the 642nd time, priceless. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with clubs, I think they're great, but as you know I hardly drink, I dance like a white boy, I don't like most rap or reggae music and if I hear another song from the "B-Day" album I'm gonna go on a murderous rampage. So while great for most of the kids my age clubs are just really not my particular scene.

I arrived to the club alone, I was meeting some friends who came from Brooklyn. That of course meant that when we left that we were going in different directions, them to BK and myself back up to Harlem. Coming to the club by myself I don't really mind, but for some reason I hate taking the ride back home alone. I met someone at the club though, actually it wasn't our first meeting, he's a friend of a friend. He's from Harlem, a few blocks down from me. We'd first met a while back. When I ran into him last  night he was a little tipsy, half naked and a little touchy feely. I kinda picked up a little bit of a flirty, sexual vibe from him last time I saw him, but tonight it was on full tilt, sponsored by Grey Goose Vodka and underwritten by Hennessy.

Once my Brooklyn friends left I made my way through the crowd to find my new friend. Don't even ask me what his name was 'cuz I couldn't remember for the life of me. I'm sure he probably couldn't remember my name either. On the train ride home he kept dropping hints that he wanted me to come home with him. I kinda laughed it off at first like I always do in situations like this, but he persisted. So I was gonna have to actually make a decision here. He was attractive, but I wasn't particularly attracted to him as he wasn't my type. I never really looked at him that way, you know? He was just a cool guy.

I can't lie though, I was horny as shit last night and being in a club did not help. On the other hand though, this dude's friend is someone who I have a lot of respect for and I don't wanna have any weirdness between us. If this were a year ago or even a few months ago I wouldn't have given fucking this dude a second thought. I'm horny, he wants it, what's to think about? But I'm learning that sex isn't everything and that I need to consider other people's feelings besides my own sometimes. I'm sure me randomly fucking my friends best friend after a night at Shelter would probably put some type of strain on their relationship. All types of things could develop from this, was it really worth it? Then again on the opposing side of all that logic I really, really, really wanted to get my dick sucked last night. Decisions... decisions. All this pondering was making me tired. We both fell asleep like drunkards on the train.

Awakening just in time, we arrived at our train stop and as we left the train station he asked me again whether I was gonna come home with him. My decision was pretty much made by then. I had slept on it and decided that I needed to go home, jerk off and not create any unnecessary drama for myself. I looked at him as he asked that last time and I saw that there was a certain loneliness and a vulnerable quality in his eyes that really resonated with me. I could see that it was more than just about sex, or a quick hook up. Much like me he just didn't wanna spend another night alone. I totally felt him on that.

In that nanosecond I was reconsidering my decision. Maybe he really did just want company? He lives alone, I live alone. I know what coming home to an empty house after a night a club feels like, it sucks. The fact that I was still only half awake and still tired as shit had also become major factors in my reconsideration process and once the cold night air hit me the decision was made. Fuck it, I'ma go upstairs with this dude because it's 5am, I'm cold, I'm tired and I really don't feel like making the additional eight block trek to my house. I figured I'd stay for a few hours, get a little bit of sleep, we're both adults, nothing has to happen and neither one of us wants to be alone tonight. This is kinda like that episode of "Sex In The City" where Carrie asks the question "Is it sometimes better to fake it than to be alone?" Although we hardly knew each other's names (I figured out what his name was on the train, by the way) we were pretending that we we're whatever we needed last night.

I laid in bed with him and I noticed that his bed was comfortable as hell, I mean hotel comfortable. I really need to step my sheet and bed linens game up. Anyway, we laid there, we spooned, we felt each other up a little bit. You know, outta pure curiosity. The funniest moment was when he grabbed for my boxers and said in the sweetest, most innocent, half drunken voice:

"Has anyone ever told you that you have a big dick?"

Like, how the fuck do you answer a question like that? I didn't wanna say yes, but I'd be lying if I said no. I replied with a hesitant "...yeah" and we both laughed. Of course the question of actually fucking came up. I know I could have beat if I would have pressed the issue, and he did kinda want me to but I didn't want to feel like I was taking advantage. We mutually decided against it, it was for the best. We were pretending and actually fucking would make things all too real. So we spooned and fell asleep. I woke up at around ten and continued my journey home, proud that I hadn't succumb to my hormones.

I got what I really needed last night without the drama and repercussions of actually having hooked up with a friend of a friend. No weird post-hookup phone calls, no awkward look, look away stares whenever I see him again, no expectations of anything. I didn't even have to walk my eight blocks in shame this morning. Walking away from it all is so much easier when it's just make believe.

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Playing In The Background...
"Just Don't Want To Be Lonely"
by The Main Ingredient
from the album "Everybody Plays The Fool: The Best Of The Main Ingredient"
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51h1qzmc1wl_ss500__2==========
This book, "The Velvet Rage" as you know has changed my life and I recommend that every gay man read it (I wrote a review of it in this post). In the book, the author Dr. Alan Downs, Ph.D. gives "10 Lessons On Being An Authentic Gay Man" (authentic as in truthful and living a life of integrity). I am taking those 10 lessons, some of which hit me very hard and am illustrating how they apply to my life in this "The Velvet Rage" category of posts.
Wish me luck.
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Velvet Rage Lesson #3:
When You Have A Problem With Someone, Speak With Him/Her About It First (Instead Of Everyone Else)
(aka Interview With The Vampire)

"The more critical you are of others, the more difficult is is for you to reveal your true self to the world around you. When you have not allowed others to be less than perfect, does it not only follow that you cannot be less than perfect? And since you know that you are not perfect, how can you possibly reveal yourself? Creating an environment for authenticity requires that we give other people the space to be authentic as well."
-page 172-173

This is one of those blog posts that has been sitting around for a long time. I wrote it, and rewrote it, and rewrote it but it never quite came together the way I wanted to, that is until now.

Dr. Downs says that we as gays, a lot of the times, when we argue or have a disagreement with someone, especially in the context of a relationship, we tend not to go directly to that person with how we feel. Instead we fortify our defense by telling our friends and associates how bad that person is or how they did us wrong, usually in an effort to validate our own feelings. In doing so we not only express our individual distaste for that person or their actions but we also gather others against that person. Those people out of their love for us will create for themselves an enemy out of the person solely out of our dislike of the person in question without any direct cause and possibly not even out of fact. And if you and the person ever patch things up you will also have to perform the humiliating task of justifying your patching things up with that person to everyone you badmouthed them to.

In my quest to be a better person, an authentic gay man if you will, I'm trying to be less judgmental, especially with the character of others. If I take the drastic step of not liking somebody and deeming a person unsocializeable (you won't find that one in the dictionary, it's an Adam-ism lol) I definitely want that judgment to be based on solid fact and not in inferences and hearsay.

I had a meeting with someone recently, a pretty visible member of black gay and lesbian society here in New York, who I've characterized as "The Vampire" in the title of this post. To simply say that I'd never heard too many good things about him would be an understatement. The mere mention of her name is usually followed by the sucking of teeth, the rolling of eyes, the turning up of faces, the hard nasal exhale of distaste, and the rhetorical question of "Oh, that asshole?" Rumors swirl around him like the rings of Saturn, gossip like the moons of Jupiter.

I have to admit that because a lot of the things I've heard about her were from sources close to me that I took on my associates distaste for The Vampire without ever having had a formal conversation with him, not more than a "Hi" in passing. I reveled in the vilification of this person without any evidence. In the past few weeks circumstances have played out in such a way that The Vampire and I are directly working on a project together. I would have to be in direct communication with this person that I so disliked. Given this information I almost backed out of the project, one that could look very good on my resume and get some money in my pocket. Then I thought, why exactly do I dislike The Vampire, again? I really couldn't formulate a solid answer. This question is one we all need to ask ourselves regarding the people we say we don't like. If you don't know or can't remember it's probably time to let the grudge go.

With that I thought 'Fuck it. What have I got to lose? If The Vampire is as horrible as people say they are then I just won't do the project.' So at our first meeting I literally conducted an interview with The Vampire. If I was going to work successfully with The Vampire I needed the air to be clear. I needed to be able to work freely with no unanswered questions or unresolved issues looming above us, causing tension and drama.

I entered the meeting personable, professional, friendly, but guarded, my walls were definitely up. Due to The Vampire's reputation I had no idea what to expect. As things went on though, I was pleasantly surprised, not completely sold, but surprised buy The Vampires demeanor. The Vampire wasn't half the terrible person she was made out to be. After a while our rapport was so good that I had to put my machine gun and bullets down. It's like The Vampire became a real person and not just the product of everything I've ever been told. We had a few drinks, I was sipping on cranberry vodka (my new favorite drink for the once in a blue moon I ever drink) and The Vampire sipped on, you guessed it, red wine. After we got past the the core business part of our meeting I, partially fueled by the vodka, was ballsy enough to ask:

"Vampire, you seem like a decent person, at least from what I'm seeing today. Why do so many people not like you?"

The Vampire looked at me surprised and surprisingly slightly concerned. The asshole that people described The Vampire as would surely not be the least bit concerned with being disliked by others. "Who doesn't like me?" The Vampire asked, motioning to make sure the door was closed. Oh hell no, I was not getting rope-a-doped into that shit. I'm way too smart to mention names and situations. This research was for my purposes only. I didn't explain myself any further. I figured that as much as I've heard, that she must know what I'm talking about.

They described situations in which he figured could probably explain certain people's distaste for him. Some of them were familiar to me but I chose for the sake of peace not to confirm or deny any of them. Because at the end of the day this wasn't about them, it was about me and The Vampire. I needed to hear The Vampire's side of the story so I could make an informed judgment of character.

Surprisingly, I was satisfied with the answers and I got and was able to compare and see my associates' and The Vampire's point of view on the situations aforementioned, nobody's perfect. I actually felt bad having harbored the unwarranted feelings I felt toward The Vampire. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a new convert to the Church of The Vampire and I'm not gonna walk around wearing vampire t-shirts and baseball caps and shit. I'm nobody's fool, trust, I was sippin' on vodka, not Kool-Aid that night. While I'm not blindly gonna just up and wholeheartedly trust The Vampire, at least from this day forward whatever relationship I have with The Vampire will be based on my sole interaction with and sound judgment of her without the input of others.

Once the difficult part of the evening was over we continued having regular conversation over dinner and figured out that we actually have a lot in common, which in some ways is scary. Maybe someone who doesn't even know me is sitting at home feeling the same ways about me as I did toward The Vampire. I also found out that the Vampire is even a supporter of my work here on this blog. Upon even further conversation I have found that there's actually a few things that I can learn from The Vampire. But more than that this experience has taught me about myself.

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Playing In The Background...
"I See You In A Different Light" feat. JoJo Hailey
by Chante Moore
from the album "This Moment is Mine"
and
"Free Xone"
by Janet Jackson
from the album "The Velvet Rope"
==========

==========
I realized that I haven't given y'all a dating update in a while so I thought I'd catch everyone up. New people I suggest you read this and this first.
Get ready 'cuz this is gonna be a long one.

Enjoy.
==========

These past two weeks were busy, yet fruitful, yet very trying ones for me. The coolest thing about posting the story of my life on a blog is that I get to see all of my bullshit in black and white. The even cooler thing about posting the story of my life on a blog as popular as this one is that everyone else gets to see all of my bullshit in black and white and will call me on it if I happen to fall back into it. It's like I've got hundreds of little internet angels watching over me. Like I said before it's so easy to rationalize your bullshit when it only lives in your mind. To put it on paper/internet makes it a tangible, legible thing that you then have no choice but to deal with.

Bad relationship habits, like acne and diabetes are just about impossible to cure. The key is to stay on top of them, giving them daily treatment in order to keep them under control. This treatment becomes a new habit which will eventually cancel out the old habits. Once you realize what your bad habits are, doing things not to trigger them becomes a part of your daily routine just like combing your hair or brushing your teeth, thus creating a new habit. As we have seen from my relationship pattern (read the post about that here) that I tend to like a guy and then start doing way too much, running after him if you will. Then when I don't feel like my efforts are being reciprocated properly I get hurt and out of that hurt I just up and dump the person and replace that person with the next person. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. I'm trying my best to avoid that by constantly reminding myself to relax, not rush things, and not take things so personally.

Being a Leo I can be an impetuous and somewhat emotional person. Unfortunately at times I'll let my emotions solely dictate my actions. I'll say or email something that I didn't put as much thought into as a should have, reacting to how I feel and once it's said or the send button is pressed there's no taking it back. My future PR person is gonna be working overtime dealing with me. That's why I usually try to give myself 36-48 hours before I write about an experience on this blog. I try to let all of my emotions run their course before I sit down to write so I'm able to tell the story in the most objective way possible.

Well we left off with CancelCancel and I not dating anymore (read about that in this post). Which brought me down to just dating Pubby. In the last few weeks Pubby and I have gotten closer, scratch that, I've gotten closer to him. But on the Friday before last I guess I got a little too close. I asked him something about where he'd been the night before and why he wasn't answering his phone. I realize that we aren't all that yet and we're both dating different people and maybe I was overstepping my bounds a little but when I call I'm used to used to him answering. I just wanted to know what was up. Maybe he was going through something I could have helped him with? I was actually a little worried about him, this was strange behavior.

So I asked him and he gave me the ol' "Sometimes I just don't feel like talking." line. If I had a quarter for every time I heard that one. Could somebody please tell me what the fuck that shit means? If you like somebody and you say you care about them and they call you why would not offer them the courtesy of at least answering the phone and saying "It's not a good time. I'll call you back later."? Maybe I'm just too nice but you'd think that be the thing to do. Then he proceeds to reiterate the fact that we're not "together" and I have no right to ask him any questions. He snapped at me. This nigga really just snapped at me, like what the fuck!?! So being totally over the whole situation we got off the phone. He called me back a while later and I didn't answer the phone. I was mad at him for snapping at me. I realized that I was letting myself get way too into him and that I would have to make a conscious effort to start being a little more indifferent toward him, thus the poem. Whenever I'm going through something that's when I'm inspired to write poetry and usually my poems take about five to thirty minutes to write. It's like I get this burst of creative energy and I have to write down exactly how I feel at that moment before I lose it. A few hours later he apologized to me via a long text message:

"I do apologize if I came off rather abrupt. Nothing I do is meant to hurt your feelings or is done out of spite. I can be a very blunt person and for the most part I tend to shoot from the hip. It takes a certain type of person to deal with my particular brand of brashness. No offense to you but I need to be me right now... Maybe you should rethink whether this is the type of situation u can honestly deal with. Because like I said u r an amazing guy and the last thing I would want to do is hurt you."

I'm sorry but a good portion of that was total motherfucking bullshit. Why do people feel that they can use being "blunt" and "shooting from the hip" as an excuse not to be nice? That's total fucking bullshit and a total cop out. If someone is nice to you you are nice to them, period. It was good for him to have apologized but he ruined it by then trying to make excuses for his behavior. If you're sorry, you're sorry, period. Making excuses for it made the whole apology half-assed. I was now really over it. I replied.

"It's whatever. Ima let u do u, Ima do me and we'll see eachother when we see eachother, no pressure and u don't have to worry about me being all up under  you tryna find out where u are or why u didn't call. We'll talk when we talk... we'll see eachother when we see eachother. I fully see what it is now and I'm not gon stress it."

For some reason this text message was not getting through to him. I tried three times that Friday night and he still never got it. The time my fucking balls finally drop, the fucking message doesn't go through. Ain't that some bullshit? Waking up that next morning, Saturday I was still mad at him though and was mustering up the courage to remain indifferent. I like him and all that but the hot/cold thing wasn't cool. I didn't deserve that shit. So he texted me that morning, the same day I taped my appearance on Da Doo-Dirty Radio Show and I tried my best to keep things as dry as possible.

P: "Morning sweetheart."

A: "Good morning."

P: "What u up to?"

A: "Writing in my blog."

P: "Cool."

A: "Did you ever get that text?"

P: "No."

I sent him another text paraphrasing the original one I sent. I don't think he got that either so I called him and told him how I felt. He was cool with it. Why wouldn't he be, it was what he wanted. It's not as though what I want is important or anything. About three hours later I receive this text:

CC: "Hey Adam,
It's Cancel Cancel. I just wanted to let you know I got a job. (He was looking for a new job last time we talked) Thanks for all of your encouraging words and hopefully we can be friends again."

A: "Yeah why not, we can be friends. I actually miss ur goofy ass. lol"

CC: "Yeah man I miss you too. I'm really sorry for not showing u the same amount of attention you showed me. I guess I don't know how to let my guard down."

This shit is crazy. Are these dudes relay racing or some shit? It's like as soon as I'm mad at one here comes the other. Do they call each other and plan this shit? Anyway, I'm nice, you know I forgave him. Even after I went all off on him in this post. I even saw him this past Friday. Now are things back to the way they used to be? Hell fuckin' no! As easy as it would be for me to say "Awww that's nice, I forgive you." and forget everything and walk off into the sunset, I'm not. I like him but homeboy still has some shit to prove to me. So I'm kicking off my Timbs, putting my feet up on the dashboard and letting him drive things for a while. It's different for me but I'm doing it. Like I said in the post I'm making sure his ass shows me some damn effort. With that we'll see if he's really serious or not. But I do have to say he's been doing pretty good lately. He's been calling and texting more, stopping by my job to see me or even leaving with me sometimes. We work close to each other and get off at the same time. I'm not getting all caught up but we'll see.

Back to Pubby. We texted each other a little bit that day but I was still doing my best to be indifferent. For most people it's so easy not to care and not to pour out affection but for me it's really hard. I must been doing a decent job though because he texted me two days later, that next Monday:

P: "R u mad at me?"

A: "Nah I'm not mad at u. You've probably noticed that I've been somewhat indifferent w u lately. It's just that I have feelings 4 u. And u don't feel the same for me. And as much as I would like to tell u how much I miss u or how much I wanna hold u in my arms again or how your smile makes me melt. I can't, what's the point? It's hard but I'm making a conscious effort no to do or say too much. I'm just tryna give you space."

P: "I respect that. I respect your feelings. I have no choice but to. I really have no idea what to say."

So I pour my heart out like a damn fool and he has nothing to say... figures. I don't know what the fuck is wrong with me and why I like this dude so damn much! That text was an emotional outburst that did not get approval by my mind before going out. Remember what I said about that send button? I don't know why I told him all that. I really regret that shit now. Why the fuck couldn't that pussy-ass text message get stalled in the atmosphere. Even the fuckin' cell phone company is working against me. Even after sending that message at that moment I didn't see Pubby the same way anymore. The lustre was gone, the magic faded. At that moment he became just like every other guy who has trampled over my heart in the past.

From that day the text messages were few and further between. We did have plans to meet up on Friday evening (that's this past Friday, four days ago, I know it's hard but keep up) though because I needed to pick up something from him. I also had my date with Cancel Cancel later that night so I told him that I would need to make things kinda early because I had something to do later. When I saw Pubby that Friday evening. I didn't feel quite the same way about him anymore, sure I still had some feelings for him and he was attractive, shit he was fine, but I made sure to come with extra tight security around my heart that day. I was so guarded that I didn't even hug him when I saw him. He didn't even look the same to me. He even said to me "Oh, I don't get no hug." I hugged him but I made a conscious effort to get down to business and keep it there. He really hurt me more than he realized and I was not trying to get sucked in again.

His friend Alex, came to pick him up from where we were. I needed to get to an ATM so he asked his friend if he could drive me there. That was awfully considerate, but I wasn't gonna think anything of it. When I left the ATM I walked back to the car and was preparing to say my thank you's and goodbyes, go home and get ready for my date with Cancel Cancel and my photo shoot the next day. Then Pubby asked his friend whether he could drive me to the train I needed to take. Okay, now this is weird. Pubby has been so aloof, cold and antiseptic all week. Why is he being so warm now? But whatever, I took the ride. right before I exited Alex's car Pubby said "Have fun on your date tonight." How the fuck did he know I had a date? And what's it to him? And why would he care? As nice as it would be for him to actually show that he was alive and be a bit jealous I knew better than to think that. I have my stupid moments but I'm not that stupid. He ain't been caring that much.

So I had my date with CancelCancel. It was cool, like I said, he seemed to be showing some improvement lately but I'm not tryna get caught up in that. I was already over men that day, all men. We chilled, it was cool. But I didn't think much of it. It was what it was and if it happens again, good, if not, good. Whatever. Like I said, he's in the driver's seat now so we'll see how serious he is.

Saturday I had the photo shoot and it turned out great. You'll see the pictures here probably by the weekend. Pubby had been excited talking all week about this party he was going to that night. And he said that maybe we'd see each other Sunday, that is if he wasn't tired after a whole weekend of partying. A week ago I probably would have been all hyped to see him on Sunday but at this point I was numb and slowly starting to get over him anyway so I didn't really care one way or another and I didn't bother asking him about it again. If we saw each other we did, if we didn't we didn't. I mean our seeing each other was based on a condition, whether he was tired from partying all weekend. As usual Adam is on the back burner, Adam is not a priority even though I go out of my way for everyone else.

I texted Pubby and asked him for the info on that party he was talking about. He made it sound like it was gonna be so much fun so I thought maybe I should go. It was my friend Kevin's birthday that night. I met him and the rest of our people at a restaurant right after my photo shoot. They were going to the party as well. They went straight from the restaurant. I decided to go home and change clothes first. I was planning to arrive at the fashionably late time of 2:30. When I got home I was dead tired. Something told me that I should not go to that party. I already don't like parties and clubs as it is. Against my better judgement I went anyway. One of these days I'ma start listening to my better judgement. 

As soon as I get to the party and step out of the cab, who the fuck do I see but Chuck (I mention him in this post). Chuck is my ex-best friend who is still mad at me because I cut him off abruptly two years ago for being a shady bastard. I even went so far as to apologize to him via email back in July in an effort to move forward and he still is shady toward me. Every time I see his ass in a club or whatever he goes out of his way to speak to all of my friends and not speak to me. I'm like dude, grow the fuck up, it's not that serious, it was like two years ago. I'm not a shady person and to see him and have to be shady is so much work and I really wasn't into it that night. That was the first sign that I shoulda got my ass in a cab and went back home. And then in the party I see this other kid who threatened (yes threated cuz his ass ain't never do nothin') to fight me last year over some dumb shit. And then to top it off, some kid who I chilled with one night and never called me again (I never called him either) came up to me at the party talking to me like we're best friends and shit. I'm looking at him like who the fuck are you? And why the fuck are you talking to me? This was so not where I needed to be.

Pubby was supposed to meet me at the party. I saw Alex but I didn't see him. I was gonna text him and ask him where he was but then I thought 'Fuck that! I'm not looking for him.' I've done enough as far as he was concerned. I finally got callous and dammit I was staying that way! On the bright side I did see a few people I hadn't seen in a while. I stayed at that party a little over an hour. When my best friend Russell said he was ready to go I popped the fuck up like popcorn. I love my friends and it was nice to be with them, especially because it was Kevin's birthday that night, but I could have done without this.

When I got home that night my mind was going a million miles an hour. What the fuck was wrong with me? Why was I so stupid? I was angry. I couldn't sleep and I wrote Pubby a somewhat angry email to his cell phone telling him that I just didn't wanna deal with him anymore. I figure if I just remove myself from him then maybe I'll get my brain back. He was no good for me. I know I deserve someone who will treat me better, or at least treat me like I fuckin' exist. So I wrote it, hit the send button and went to sleep.

The next morning, Sunday morning I was out shopping and I got a call from a strange number. It's Pubby, calling me from his job. He proceeds to tell me that he lost his cell phone last night and that he didn't end up getting to that party until like an hour after I left. That also means that he did not receive the email I wrote him. What the fuck? Why is it that every time I grow some fuckin' chest hair and tell this dude how the fuck I feel something always happens? But you know what fuck that! I'm telling him how I feel right fuckin' now. So I told him that I feel like I need to be away from him for the time being so I could get over him and get my fuckin' mind back because he obviously is not into me like that. He proceeded to tell me that what I was doing was selfish and immature. He's then tells me how much he cares about me and how he doesn't want me to do this. And I'm standing there in a state of shock trying to figure out when he started caring about me so much. All the hardness I worked so hard to build up inside melted away, I crumbled. I reneged on my resolution. I even left the store I was at to go have dinner with him. We talked in a very friendly-like, platonic way about why my relationships never work. He told me that with all the wisdom I have and all the good advice I give to people I never seem to follow it for myself. Oh yeah, that day he found his phone, and my angry email.

For some reason I'm drawn to him and it can't possibly be healthy. Even after our dinner I wanted to do was kiss him and hold him in my arms again. What the fuck is wrong with me? That night, inspired by our conversation I poured my heart into this poem and emailed it to him. I also sent him another email. Both of which never got to his phone Sunday night. We talked on Monday, yesterday morning and he told me that he wanted to read what I had written. I tried all day yesterday, it wouldn't work. After I got home from the gym last night and after having gone through that horrible altercation with the police. I texted Pubby. He called me. I asked him if he had gotten the emails I wrote. You know, the ones where I poured my heart out, again. He said yes. There was silence. I asked him what he thought. He said he had nothing to say... figures.

So if there was anyone out there who thought that I thought that I was perfect, you're wrong. I'm very far from it. After reading this over and cringing at my actions I've just realized that my problem is that I don't fully realize my worth. I deserve so much more and so much better than the situations I put myself in. Not to sound the least bit conceited but I have dudes throwing themselves at me every day, I have people telling me Adam you're great, your writing is great, you're so handsome, you're a great guy, you're so sexy, you're all this, you're all that. The problem is that sometimes deep down inside I don't see it. I see it at times but then again I don't see it. How can I save the whole world and be a mess myself? One of these days I'm gonna realize that everything I need I already have inside of me and not to react out of a fear of being alone. I'm not totally hopeless though, some days are better than others and I'm a hell of a lot stronger than I used to be. Reading my life on this blog definitely helps. There's no way I can rationalize this stupidity. I'm forced to get off my ass and do something about it.

I woke up this morning and went to work today not sad, not mad, but different, I'm free. No angry phone calls, no declarative emails, no proclamations via text message. I'm not going out of my way anymore. I'm gonna just be, I'm just gonna live. I'm actually so glad to be alive. I could have very well had my life taken from me last night. If I were dead would any of this have mattered? Maybe someone would cry and then life would go on. My life is my responsibility. I have things to do and moves to make. I have goals to meet. That's why I spent my whole day writing this. This blog has given me more than most people have ever given me my entire life and the joy of my life right now is to share my experiences with each and every one of you, whoever will read, that hopefully someone can learn from my mistakes. That someone who has fallen off doesn't get totally discouraged. It happens to the best of us. So let's get back up on that saddle and ride again. Some of us will hobble, some will gallop, some of us will crawl but eventually we'll make it. Old habits die hard and the best way to kill them is to replace them with a new habit. Loving myself and realizing my worth is becoming my new habit.

=========
Playing In The Background...
"Walk Away"
by Christina Aguilera
from the album "Stripped"
and
"For A Lifetime"
by Teedra Moses
from the album "Complex Simplicity"
==========

51h1qzmc1wl_ss500__2==========
This book, "The Velvet Rage" as you know has changed my life and I recommend that every gay man read it (I wrote a review of it in this post). In the book, the author Dr. Alan Downs, Ph.D. gives "10 Lessons On Being An Authentic Gay Man" (authentic as in truthful and living a life of integrity). I am taking those 10 lessons, some of which hit me very hard and am illustrating how they apply to my life in this "The Velvet Rage" category of posts.
Wish me luck.
==========


Velvet Rage Lesson #2:
Adopt A Nonjudgmental Stance As Often As Possible

"The more critical you are of others, the more difficult is is for you to reveal your true self to the world around you. When you have not allowed others to be less than perfect, does it not only follow that you cannot be less than perfect? And since you know that you are not perfect, how can you possibly reveal yourself? Creating an environment for authenticity requires that we give other people the space to be authentic as well."
-page 172-173

You'd think with as much judgment as we, the gays get from society at large that we'd be more open and accepting of each other, hmm, yeah... right. I'm pretty sure everyone knows at least one bitter, judgmental queen that always has something critical to say about everybody, from their looks, to their conduct, to who they're dating, to what and whom they're wearing. The alternate version of the bitter, judgmental queen is the type that doesn't blatantly insult others, instead she adopts a 'holier than thou' attitude (from my experience it's usually born of ignorance, inexperience, cowardice, and lack of opportunity) where she looks down on other people and their choices as opposed to hers. If you don't know a person like this it's probably you and what's crazy is that you may not even know it's you, as it can be a very subtle thing.

As much as the more depraved parts of us may enjoy the bitter, judgmental queen's (let's just call her BJQ) biting sharp wit and dry sense of humor at the expense of others we also keep our distance from her. Because if BJQ can tear other people down, what's to stop her wrath from turning on us on one of our 'not-so-well-put-together' days? In BJQ's attempt to gain friendship, favor, and affinity through the ill gotten laughs that she shares with her associates she fails to realize that her bitterness is only isolating herself from further them. In a weird way this is what she wants but yet doesn't want. As much as BJQ wants to have real friends she's afraid to let people get too close usually due to one or a mixture of two things. One being due to traumatic past experiences she doesn't really trust people and uses her bitterness as a shield to protect herself from getting hurt again. The other being that she is afraid to let others get but so close to her because then they will realize that she isn't perfect, thus sending her whole proverbial haughty house of cards tumbling the fuck down.

When I first came out I was extremely judgmental more on the 'holier than thou' side and actually even before I came out I was casting judgment. Before I came out I of course used to cast judgment on the homos because I was an undercover homo trying my best to hide what was so obvious to anyone who knew me pretty well. Then when I finally did come out I used to look down on other gay people namely the more feminine ones and some of the things they did. It was basically the whole 'I'm-gay-but-I'm-not-that-gay' syndrome. I developed an ignorant hatred of the whole ballroom scene, drag queens, transsexuals, and all that. I've said this before but I thought that they were so "extra" and brought shame to more masculine gay dudes like myself. I eventually snapped out of it after meeting RuPaul (read about that in this post) and after my best friend (who is in the ballroom scene, he's a member of a house) tricked me into going to a "party" that turned out to be a ball, which actually turned out to be a lot of fun to watch. I don't vogue or dress in drag but I can now appreciate it as an art form and as a form of entertainment.

Even funnier is that back in the day I even used to judge the more, hmmm, how should I say this, the more, well at least in my narrow mindedness I thought they were, the more promiscuous gay people that I knew. That is until... well, you read the blog. Let's just say I snapped outta that pretty quick. Truthfully the only reason why I was ever so judgmental of them in the first place was because at the time I wasn't gettin' none!

There are about five morals to this story and we've heard them all about three million times. We know they're right but it's not as though we follow them or anything so I'll take the time to restate them here. "Judge lest ye be judged." "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." "Never say never." "He who is without sin cast the first stone." And last but not least "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Even though we laugh at her jokes, nobody really likes a bitter judgmental queen.

==========
Playing In The Background...
"Free Xone"
by Janet Jackson
from the album "The Velvet Rope"
==========

It's Saturday morning. I just woke up to face this another beautiful day God has given me, alone. I didn't go out last night. I didn't invite anybody over. It was just me, my cat, Keisha (yes, that's her name) a Banquet (microwaveable TV) dinner and Queen Latifah's and J.Lo's new albums (which are both amazing by the way) playing in the background. Sounds pitiful doesn't it? Then why the hell am I so happy? Because somewhere between 11 and 12 I realized that I'm enough.

If this were a few weeks ago I would have been online half the night looking for someone to come over. Remember last week, I deleted all of my internet dating/sex site accounts (read about that in this post) so that's not even a possibility tonight as this is my first Friday night home alone without them and I'm actually really glad about that. Why can't I spend a Friday night alone in my apartment, just me and my cat? Why do I have to feel less than? Why do I need someone to come over and lay next to me, to have sex with me, to make me feel validated?

It's not as though I'm not dating or anything, I've seen Pubby this week, we went out. I cooked him dinner the other night, we had fun. Why wouldn't that have been enough for me? Why do I need to have someone with me 24/7 to make me feel like I'm important? I used to plan my life out making sure to not have a night alone, especially if I was off work. I realize that the only reason why I did that is because I was trying to distract myself from, well, me. It's those times when we're alone that we come face to face with who we really are and I didn't like who I was or rather what I'd become and therefore I avoided being alone with me at all costs.

I remember nights alone in my apartment online logged into three dating sites at once, jumping at my computer at the mere sight of someone sending me a message. Could he be the one? Could he be the one to come over here and make me feel better about myself? Could he be the one who I make scream my name tonight so I could feel like a big strong virile man instead of the weak little faggot they said I was back when I was in school? Could he be the one to tell me I look good instead of smiling in my face and laughing about my bad acne behind my back like people used to do? It's when you're alone that all the issues you've swept under the rug start creeping out. But like the monsters under my bed and in my closet that scared me as a child these issues are mostly mental and won't go away unless confronted. The longer we allow ourselves to be scared to face the past, the larger and scarier we let it become until it takes totally over our lives. From there it can even manifest itself into a substance abuse problem or even clinical insanity.

And God forbid if for whatever reason I didn't get any messages online. I used to try my hardest to tear myself away from my computer. I would have a million things I have to do but somehow I'd find myself back by my computer, checking that number in the top left hand corner every few minutes. Logging out and logging back in so I could get myself back to the top of that "online now" list. Maybe there's someone who hasn't seen me? Maybe he's the one? Every time I would see that number, "0" messages, that's exactly how I would feel, like zero, worthless. I equated my worth with how much attention I would get from  people online and off. No attention, no compliments, no worth. There were quite a few times when somebody would hit me up and even though they were someone I would never be seen with in the light of day I let them come over and fucked them in the dark of night. I just needed someone, anyone even if it weren't real. So many times in the middle of sex I'd be wondering why the fuck I'm even doing this shit. Why was I not asleep, knowing I had to wake up for work in a few short hours? But I was in it now, literally. I'm a top, I have to perform. That's what they came for. I'd close my eyes and imagine it were someone else. They'd cum, sometimes even I would cum. And then they were gone. There were many nights that I got little, sometimes even no sleep before work because I was online all night looking for validation.

Oh, and if someone I sent a message to didn't send one right back. Then the foundation on which I built my whole pseudo-self confidence was shaken. Why didn't he hit me back? Did he get the message? Maybe he didn't? Lemme check, it was sent, he didn't reply. Why? At that moment all of my flaws, real and imaginary, became magnified and depression set in. What's wrong with me? Am I ugly? What was wrong with me was nothing anyone on the other side of a computer could see. I failed to realize that maybe that person may have not been ready to answer my message yet, or maybe they were still checking my page out, or maybe they were logged off and the server was still showing that they were online, or maybe they were away from their computer but my ego was already too bruised to consider such logic. And even if they weren't interested in me, so what? People have the right to like who they like, you'd think I'd understand that as many people as I have rejected online and off. But as usual, in true human form we can dish it out but we can't take it. On a side note, even in rejection, be nice because what goes around comes around.

So I spent last night alone, in my house enjoying the sight of all the things I've worked so hard for, rejoicing in the fact that I really am okay and good-looking too and that I don't need to have someone else here to tell me that. Being by myself on a Friday night was so much easier than I thought. There was literally nothing to it but to do it. Having someone around is good but if not, I'm enough.

==========
Playing In The Background...
"Georgia Rose"
by Queen Latifah feat. Stevie Wonder
from the album "Trav'lin' Light"
and
"Brave"
by Jennifer Lopez
from the album "Brave"
==========

==========
This is another one of those hard to write posts where I reveal stuff about me that I don't even like to think about.
Enjoy.
=========

What's the one thing every gay man is most afraid of?

Is it getting fat? Nope. But it's a good guess. Is it dying and going to hell? Nope. Well, I guess, for the church queens, but as a whole, no. Is it "the big disease with a little name"? Nope. Yes I said "nope," you heard me. Considering the statistics and our actions as a whole, as a community we obviously aren't all that afraid of it. Not to discount it at all but our collective actions toward it do not illustrate that we are all that fearful. So what is it you ask, what strikes fear in the hearts of all gay men? Growing old and alone.

A gay man once told me that the gay life is a lonely life. So many of us in this world, gay without our permission, born into this world, feeling flawed, look at straight people and all the opportunities they have to come together and start a family and at all the encouragement society as a whole gives them as opposed to all the discouragement and abuse society gives us.

Not to mention the way we fuck each other over. He fucked you over so you fuck over the next one and that next one fucks somebody over who you end up meeting at a club and ends up fucking you over and at the end of he day it's like what the fuck? When does it all fucking end? Can two man ever just fucking be together and be happy without all the fucking bullshit?

This is the thing, we're all wounded, wounded and scared. It's hard growing up gay in this world. More than likely our parents and other relatives don't understand us or were abusive to us. We were made fun of in school, we lived double lives, etc., etc. We all have our own emotional baggage to deal with. We put up defenses and walls to shield our all too oft broken hearts from more pain. We do it to protect ourselves but in the process we push anyone else away. As a result we're snappy, we're rude, we're fierce, we're cynical, we're jaded, 'we've created a fuck or be fucked, fuck that 'cuz I'ma get mine' world for ourselves and yet the better part of us still expects to be happy. Even if someone means us well we don't believe it because we're simply not used to it.

So what are we gonna do about it? Actually, I can't tell you what to do. As I haven't done it myself yet. The question is what am I gonna do about it? The last few weeks have been really introspective for me. I've been looking inside, seeing what makes me tick, seeing why my relationships don't work. Let's have a look at my patterns:

ADAM'S RELATIONSHIP PATTERN:
This is so fucking embarrassing by the way, but I think this is a good exercise you should do for yourself in the privacy of your own home and not necessarily for the whole world to see like I have here. Remember, we can rationalize our way out of thinking that we have a problem as long as we only let it live in our heads. But once we put it on paper it's not as easy to deny. Here we go:

- Adam meets a guy.
- Adam is attracted to the guy.
- Adam does whatever he can to sleep with the guy.
- Adam sleeps with the guy and if he doesn't get to sleep with the guy he usually becomes disinterested in the guy altogether.
- Now Adam has feelings for the guy.
- Adam as usual feels a little more for the guy than the guy feels for him.
- Adam is now scared. These are the things Adam is scared of:

- Adam is scared to show too much emotion to the guy because he's afraid that he won't get it back and that will make him feel invalidated.
- Adam is scared whenever he calls or texts and does not receive a call or text back within the hour that maybe he's doing too much and the guy is over him.
- Adam has a perpetual underlying fear that the guy will just stop calling or corresponding altogether out of the blue because it's happened to him a few times in the past and it hurt... A LOT!
- Adam knows that he has done some triflin' ass shyt in the past and is always waiting for the proverbial ax to fall.

- Adam as a result of Adam's fear of being abandoned again is torn between wanting to outpour the feelings he's feeling to the guy or to be guarded and aloof (which he's really not but only is now as a result of being hurt so many times before) in an attempt to ready himself just in case this guy abandons him.
- Adam wonders why can't he ever find a guy who likes him as equally as he likes the guy.
- Adam has actually found people like that in the past but somehow to him it just doesn't seem real so he doesn't trust it or it may actually be real but if Adam is not physically and sexually attracted to the guy then it doesn't matter to him anyway.
- Adam does more and more to get the guy to like him and validate him but the guy never really gives Adam the pat on the back that he craves.
- Adam starts to get annoyed at the fact the that he goes all out of the way for the guy and he's still not getting the validation he wants. Mind you the guy never asked for all of this sacrifice from Adam.
- Adam is frustrated, at the end of his rope and ready to break things off but he doesn't want to be alone.
- Adam passively seeks out someone else to get with as insurance as he feels that him and this guy are about to be over.
- Adam snaps and breaks things off because the guy committed a minor offense against him that most people probably would have just dealt with or ignored but not Adam, he's way too hypersensitive to invalidation and is hurt by even the smallest, most insignificant slight at this point.
- Adam is alone again and moves in closer on the new guy.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat. This is my relationship cycle in black and white. Dayum I sound crazy as hell. I don't feel too bad though cuz most of y'all bitches is crazy too. I've dated some of you. Like I said I don't have an answer yet. I know that it's definitely me who needs work but then again with all my emotional baggage flung across my shoulder I could be attracting the wrong type of men as well. I will look at this and look at my current dating situation and figure out exactly where I am on the cycle and figure out the best way to break the chain because I'm so tired of going through the same shyt over and over again. And I sure as hell do not wanna end up old and alone.

Like I always say "knowing is half the battle." Now that I have admitted publicly that I don't have it all together I can take steps toward trying to put me together. Like I said before I'm wounded, so before I can be a part of a successful relationship I have to love myself enough to heal me first so I can have something to give to someone else. So cliche, but nevertheless so true.

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Playing In The Background...
"What Is Love" (My Motha Effin Goin' Through It In A Relationship Theme Song)
by Vivian Green
from the album "A Love Story"
Check out my blog post on the Vivian Green concert I went to back in April. It has video and everything.
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