:: sweettalk ::

:: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 ::

appreciation

God, I offer myself to Thee to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self that I may better do Thy Will. Take away my difficulties that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of Life. May I do Thy Will always.

Oh, that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would always be with me, and that You would keep me from evil.

Thank You for keeping me sober today. Amen.

It is past all controversy that what costs dearest is, and ought to be, most valued. -- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

There are many find things which you mean to do some day, under what you think will be more favorable circumstances. But the only time that is surely yours is the present, hence this is the time to speak the word of appreciation and sympathy, to do the generous deed, to forgive the fault of a thoughtless friend, to sacrifice self a little more for others. Today is the day in which to express your noblest qualities of mind and heart, to do at least one worthy thing which you have long postponed, and to use your God-given abilities for the enrichment of some less fortunate fellow traveler. Today you can make your life...significant and worthwhile. The present is yours to do with it as you will. -- Grenville Kleiser, American writer, 1868-1953

Oh, what a busy few days. Friday night, a bunch of my high school friends gathered at Charles and his wife's house for Mexican food. It was great seeing him, Keri, Russell, Steph, Gretchen, and meeting Bob and his girlfriend. We reminisced and shared hilarious stories about high school and junior high.

On Saturday, Rossdog was moving so we didn't meet for breakfast at Lucky's. I went down to Preservation Dallas at about ten o'clock for my second Saturday volunteering. I made a lot of copies for Kathryn and had some visitors from Little Rock and from Winnetka Heights in Oak Cliff asking about appropriate paint colors for the Queen Anne and Praire-style houses they were restoring, respectively. Our Membership Committee met about one o'clock. I like the people on the committee, but we can sure waste a lot of time talking about minute details.

Afterwards, I went to meet an interior designer my friend Todd had recommended me to. He went out on his own about a year and a half ago and needs some help setting up the financial side of his business. I think I may be able to help him but gave him the names of a couple of CPAs to help him with his immediate problem of resoving his 2002 tax return. I just need to get through this week first.

On Saturday night, I went to meet my high school girlfriend Kathy at her sister's house and we drove over to our twentieth-year high school reunion. I don't feel old enough to be attending a twentieth-year reunion of anything! Of course, Kathy looked beautiful and practically unchanged from high school. The party was wonderful. They held it in a glass-walled pavillion surrounded by fountains from the old Seven Seas water park still on the grounds of the hotel and convention center they built on its site. I saw so many old friends and faces and was surprised to recognize and remember almost all of them immediately. I really enjoyed seeing Greg, Suzie, Kelly, Diane, Randy, Kim, another Greg, Cathey, Lauri, David, Keith, Nathan, and I'm sure many others.

I was particularly touched by my conversation with Todd whom I didn't know that well from high school. He told me how he had gone off to school in Arizona and gotten involved in student government in college and in local politics later. He said that he had been looking forward to seeing me at the reunion and wanted to thank me for the example I set as student body president in high school. I so needed to hear that and was deeply moved by his words. I had come to the reunion half-expecting to encounter criticism or disappointment from others. My life has not gone the way any of us would have expected. None of us would have foreseen me becoming gay, HIV+, alcoholic, addicted to drugs, and alone. But instead, everyone was so kind and sweet in everything they told me, save for Gary who let me know that the highlight of the ten-year reunion was me puking in the bushes outside the hotel. LOL. There's always someone around to keep us humble.

I talked to Allen for a while when I got home and then slept in Sunday morning. In fact, I slept most of the day. In the evening, I drove out to Wilmer to pick up Marcus for his Fifth Step. We picked up some Dr. Peppers and some Church's chicken and went out to Lancaster Park. He did a very good job on it, and I finally got to experience hearing someone's inventory. We finished up by having a banana split and sundae at Braum's.

Yesterday morning, I finished the financial statements for our group's business meeting later that night and was surprised to see that we had met our prudent reserve already. It was fine day at work and beautiful outside. After work, I went down to Lew Sterrett to take an AA meeting to the guys in jail. The topic was the joy of living and it was a very good meeting. I found out Quentin is a CPA and gave him Laura's number to contact about a job when he gets out next week.

Afterwards, I sped over to Lambda for the business meeting and was very glad to have good news to report. The group was very appreciative of my work in converting everything to Quickbooks and for developing more comprehensive financial reports. I think they were surprised as I was at how the group stepped up and contributed more during the month of August.

I collected the deposits, ran by Kroger's to restock on a few things, and then came home to make some spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. I returned Tony's call regarding the Log Cabin Republicans' request for a volunteer speaker supporting Howard Dean. Then Allen and I talked for a while. He seems to be doing better but still a bit depressed. At least he finally shaved, got out of the house, and went and worked out yesterday.

Today's another day. Off to work and ready to roll. It feels good to blog regularly again.

:: Kyle 6:24 AM 0 comments
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