Getting Back

I just got back from spending a few days with Lis. Our time together is so precious and always seems to go by way too fast. We spent some time geocaching around her home area and also when we went to the beach. One place we stopped at on the way to the beach was loaded with all these wild berries sticking out of a fence and I was scarfing down every berry I could find - she was taking pictures of me, I guess for evidence in case the police just happened to stop by.

After we found our caches around the beach we sat on the back of the truck and ate our lunch. This is lisa's smile after eating a very delicious chocolate, chocolate chip cookie - well posed I might add.

Anyway, we had lots of fun finding the caches. Lisa's daughter went with us one day and seemed to enjoy herself even though some of the terrain was a bit rough for her and she thought we walked her to death. She was having a bit of trouble with our relationship, she seemed very bothered by it so when we found a nice shady tree to sit under while we were caching we talked to her about it. Tried to help her understand it a bit better and let her know she was always welcome to ask any questions she had and we would try to answer them. I think what she really needed to know is that I am not trying to take her Mom away from her or come between them. She seemed a bit more at ease after that. She is a good kid.

We went to Gay Pride in LA. I have never done anything like that before. Protesters with all kinds of signs saying God condemns me, etc, etc, etc. I enjoyed the parade, even thought it was a bit long. I loved seeing the drag queens and the performers on stilts. We also went into the festival afterwards and, while I'm glad I went, I felt a little out of place there - dunno, it's hard to explain. I have decided most gay men really like to wear as few clothes as possible. It was nice to be in a place where we could hold hands without fear of being stoned. I'll try and put some of the parade picks on our photo album spot in the next few days.

Lis was pretty good to see that I took time to meditate every day and my voice did OK. It's harder for me to talk when there is a huge crowd with loud bands or when we are in a moving car but I managed to get by ok. Sometimes I like to make Lis laugh by talking in a different pitch. Today I was doing a high one, it's strange to me that I can talk almost flawlessly by doing that. I had decided a couple of weeks ago that I needed to start reading outloud to myself and really work on my breathing and my words. Tonite I read in The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh. Buddhist ideas fascinate me and I have bought a couple of diffferent books to see what I can learn.