31 January 2011

Behr Pick: Windows

As I mentioned the other day, I had a long weekend. I've already shared Friday's adventures. I'm not ready to talk about Saturday in its entirety because I'm trying to wrap my head around something that happened. But I do want to share one thing in particular.

A few years ago I met P at a party. Looks were exchanged and compliments passed but that's all that happened. Recently I found him on a bear social networking site and we've reconnected. In our "getting to know you" exchanges I found out that he works at a gay youth center here in my hometown. I had no idea one existed.

He told me that there's also a gay men's discussion group for gay and bisexual men aged 27 and better. He invited me to attend Saturday's meet. On a whim I decided to go. I had a really nice time and met some really nice guys. I went with the intention of keeping my mouth shut. Ha! Fat chance. I talked a lot. But it was good. One of our topics of discussion was "what have you done to make you proud to be gay." We only numbered about seven but we were a diverse group: one Asian (I think technically Korean, I'm not sure), two Caucasians, and four Latinos. Three were in their late 20's, I'm in my late 40's, one was in his early 50's (guessing) and I'm not sure about the last guy. I am looking forward to participating in this group. I honestly never really had much of a support group when I was younger and being able to talk to other men about my experiences as a gay man is cathartic. It's also empowering to hear others' stories. And it's not going to be all talk; this coming weekend we're planning on a hike in the local hills.

Yesterday afternoon I got into a weird mood after returning home from visiting my folks. I ended up culling my FB friend list. I cut 36 people. I still have 128 "friends." My criteria for keeping someone was whether or not I knew him/her in the flesh. For those who are "cyber" friends, it came down to the amount of interaction we've shared. I'm happy to say that ALL of my blogger friends made the cut!

And here we are back to Monday again. Oh joy.

BEHR HUGS!


4 comments:

Cubby said...

Group therapy? I thought that's what blogging was for?!

behrmark said...

It's not necessarily "therapy" I just found it therapeutic!

Wonder Man said...

I made the cut! However, I could actually meet you, since you work less than 3 miles away from USC

behrmark said...

Of course you made the cut Wonder...."cute" was definitely criteria!