Sensory Overload

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away.... oops wrong story! But the tale I have to tell today is just as far fetched as Star Wars Episode IV when I first saw it lo these many years ago. If ever a 24 hour period was packed full of momentous events it has been the last 24 for me. As related in these pages you have had a small glimpse of the adventures of Uncle Gerry and Auntie Holiday with a couple of entries (not attributed) from that old dog Perro Susio. This beats anything I could dream up so it must be happening. Either that or someone slipped LSD in my Dr. Pepper and I have not yet come down. So shall we begin in the beginning or the end and flash back, perhaps the latter just to build the suspense. But first something for the eyes to set the mood.

After the events of the day in which Uncle Gerry had expended a tremendous amount of energy, I found myself staring at the monitor and not a cigarette in site, so I truck on down to the 7-Eleven and who do I run into but several old customers and we just had a delightful little visit as we had not seen each other in a while and therein lies the tale. At any rate I returned home for I had this entry to write but I checked my e-mail first just to see if there was anything of interest there, and lo and behold the grandaddy of gay video on the web Ted Trent of Out of the Closet TV had written to me and his opening line was "Great blog you have there." Now your humble correspondent here has never imagined being read by the big time Gays as I am just your normal guy without fame or fortune, but here was Ted Trent and he had actually read Nichevo and liked it. After all else that has happened today, I am just blown away.

So let's back up 24 hours to when I was finishing up my last post and deciding which piece of music to play for you today in the Song Spot when my messenger put up a little box telling me I had a new email and I had to do a double then a triple take when I saw who the email was from. As told in these pages, I am rather estranged from my blood kin and had no reasonable expectation for this to change. But yet here was a missive from my younger brother and the subject line read simply INVITE. Now this filled me with wonder and curiosity and just a little trepidation, so I continued with my task and chose the Beethoven piece Fur Elise played on Spanish Guitar and then went to my email. I opened said email and stared at it for about 40 minutes not believing what my eyes were perceiving. I had received a Formal Invitation to Christmas Lunch at my brother's house in Grand Prairie, another Dallas suburb, with the whole family expected to be in attendance. Now the surprising thing here is not lunch at Larry's, but the fact of my Mother was planning on attending. In all my 55 years, my Mother has never traveled to see us on Christmas, it has always been our obligation to travel to her. What really caused me to stare was the statement "Mom and all would be thrilled if you can find a way to join us". Given the fact that other than my niece this past summer, I have not spoken to various members of the family in 2-5 years, this was indeed a surprising move on their part. I was in such shock that my sleep was disturbed although I had taken medication to ensure my rest as I had the big interview today as related in my last post. I arose at 4 am and stared at the email again. There is a tremendous amount of baggage that goes into a Texas Baptist family who does not deal well with a Gay child/sibling and I had not the time to dwell on the baggage as there was a more important goal for the day.

So I fixed breakfast and sat at my desk and chatted with Ryan over at Boys Are Ugly as has been my routine of late. Ryan of course has been urging me to contact my family and he indicated to me that I should attend whereas I had my doubts and told him that I really had no time to deal with the amount of Emo attendant with such a decision today as the goal was to nail the interview and get myself back among the working proletariat. There was some logistical problems to solve this am as far as transport to and from as cash has been in short supply here of late. Kimberly whom I introduced to you some days ago at Irving Cares was to provide a bus pass if I could get there to pick it up. I had called my gal pal last night and she had agreed to give me a ride but called while I was on the IM with Ryan saying she could not make it. So I had to figure out something else. Just a few moments later St8boytoy's conjoined roomie called me on the phone and asked if they could come by. Str8boytoy and conjoined roomie are regular visitor, but roomie had never called me on the phone so I was just a bit flabbergasted at that and then as I hung up from them giving them my assent for a visit, gal pal calls back and says her dad will be there to pick me up at 9 to take me to Kimberly for the bus pass.

Lo and behold at 8:42 gal pal's dad and Str8boytoy and conjoined roomie all show up at the same time while I am still on line with Ryan and I am just going nutso with everything happening all at once. Luckily Str8boytoy has a key to my place so I left him and the roomie to play on line while gal pal's dad and I went to Kimberly's office for the bus pass. I got the pass and gal pal's dad returns me to my house and I get to visit with the boys for a while before I have to catch the bus for the interview. This is a good thing as I had not seen them in a couple of weeks and we had a little catching up to do.

The time comes for me to depart with all the events swirling around me like a tide pool in a summer storm so I am grateful for a little alone time on the bus to gather my thoughts as I was determined to nail this interview and land the job. I get to the North Transit Center and have to wait about 20 minutes for the connecting bus and I catch that arriving at my destination about 45 minutes early for the interview. As I step off the bus and look across the street and up a small hill, there sit two 7 story black glass towers with a two story lobby connecting the two in the center and a two tier lake at the bottom of the hill with a fountain in the center. Not having been involved in a formal corporate setting in several year, the edifice was impressive and intimidating at the same time. I had to use the little phone to gain entrance to the lobby and I signed in at the desk and was told to have a seat as I was early. I was expecting this and I thought "well, I'm glad I brought a book as I had some time to kill". To my surprise the receptionist came to me after about 5 minutes and gave me directions to where I was to go. I go upstairs and another nice lady gives me the paperwork to fill out and gives me some detail as to how the process was to work. I took my time filling out the paperwork and taking the evaluation test contained there in and then was escorted into the main phone sales area by a gentlemen so that I could listen to their sales presentation and get a feel for their computer network. On the way to the rather large cubicle, I run into a lady who had worked for me in my last corporate management position and she immediately wrapped me in a big hug. This was not what I expected but was welcome to say the least. I relaxed somewhat and enjoyed the presentation and was impressed with the professionalism with which it was performed. The vice president of the company came by the cubicle and introduced himself, inviting me to accompany him to the conference room for a chat.

While talking with the vice president, he excused himself for a moment and returned with drinks for us both and we continued our chat. I could tell the moment, like a switch was flipped, when we both knew a match was in the making. He started talking compensation and how the structure was to work in the new division and asked if I had some time to spend with some of their successful staff to give me more of a feel for how it would work. I assented and we went back to the sales floor and the man he wanted me to meet was out of pocket so we sat down and talked some more. He then made an offer which I accepted. So once again Uncle Gerry will be employed come Jan 2. 2007. You probably know the elation I felt after the strain of this period of unemployment. We have all been there, done that, but never the less I was pretty excited as the base was more than my last position plus commission and bonus. As I left the building I took time to visit the lake and surrounding grounds and contemplate the day so far. I had a little while to wait for the bus home anyway, so why not take time to reflect?

I took the southern route home as the connection drops me right in front of my apartment and during the layover I bummed a cig from this lady and with my face that say talk to me and I let her express her frustrations with unemployment and rent hassles as I surely could relate to them. Yet sometimes you just need to vent and that gives you an avenue to refresh your thinking and come up with a more viable path of progression, so I facilitated her and we had an enjoyable conversation until the connecting bus came and I had to go and we parted warmly. I felt good about the exchange as one has to be open to all opportunities for good works such as may present themselves. Fortune had already smiled on me today, so why not pass on the love. As John Greenleaf Whittier says in his poem (recorded in the sidebar) "And the more you spend in blessing The poor and lonely and sad, The more of your heart's possessing Returns to you glad."

When I arrived home St8boytoy and conjoined roomie were here along with attendant female appendages for a short visit and then I turned to my email and read a welcome missive from BTY in Houston which gladdened my heart and I replied with a partial story of the days events as I knew he would read the whole story hear, but none the less I wanted him as a special "Nichevo Nephew" to be the first to hear the glad tidings as I had not even had a chance to tell Ryan and Mikey, who had their own adventure today which you can read about here. So now we have come full circle and I have been writing for two hours now interrupted by a phone call from my niece.

She gave me the low down on the act of congress it took to get my Mother to agree to travel on Christmas day by her dad (my younger brother) and herself. It was as I had figured she has played the facilitator in the bid for familial reconciliation. I still have a great deal of trepidation and a shitload of Emo to sort out but she has agreed to pick me up on her way home from her work at Children's Hospital Christmas morning to arrive at my brother's for the day's events. It gladdens my heart that the efforts are being made to include me after such a period of coldness. I do not want to be reticent and petulant when I am there, neither do I want to act if nothing has transpired and I just saw you last week. So Uncle Gerry is in somewhat of a quandary as to what exactly to expect. Yet being the brave soul that I am and having survived wars and obstacles and challenges. I boldly go forth to deal with personal baggage and emotional turmoil in the effort to be a better man and represent the true family values that we as the LGBT community share with each other and the world when given the opportunity. I do not know how this will play out, but I cannot deny myself the opportunity.

All that is left for tonight is to select the musical accompaniment to my tale and to provide you with the traditional bit of closing eye candy. Pray for me and my family that this might be a joyous Christmas with bright hope for the coming New Year as I will for you my adopted family in the blogosphere. May God Bless each and everyone, until next time as always, Enjoy!