MR. DEMPSEY DOODLE JOINS THE FAMILY

ONLY IN NEW YORK

PARIS, FRANCE 2010

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY JOHN!

LAST SATURDAY

I put the dogs in their beds and headed downstairs to prep John for his Father's Day present, tickets to the Brad Paisley concert. "We have lawn seats so we will need to bring a blanket."

He quickly chirped, "Were the stadium seats sold out?" Making it clear he wasn't happy with the lawn seat part of our afternoon.

I purchased the tickets a few weeks ago and a few bad seats were available but they were priced two times higher than the lawn seats. I also mentioned “lawn seats” were clearly typed in my email to him about the event.

PREGAME

As soon as we pulled up to the parking lot, around 4pm, we saw a college football tailgating party breaking out. There were hundreds of rambunctious-white-country dudes and their tank-top & short-shorts wearing girlfriends getting their drink on.

People were playing the bean bag game (bags, bago), flippy cup, the smell of grilled meat was in the air and the sounds of various country crooners blared out of parked cars. I knew we were a bit out of our city-boy element.

We got out of the Jeep and John walked quickly through the parking lot, cautiously weaving in and out of the sea of party goers as I quickly learned the testosterone fueled party made him feel uncomfortable.

For me it depicted a typical Midwest college weekend - a scene I actively took part in almost 10 years ago at NIU! (GEEZ, has it really been that long?)

We found safer pastures at a restaurant across the street as I wondered out loud if he would be more comfortable hanging with the same size group but of all black or hispanic people.

He quickly replied, "I think black people would leave me alone and wouldn’t have a problem with me!"

He felt that the crowd saw him/us as gay dudes and was concerned the white country kids would take issue with our sexuality – especially while in party mode.

Neither of us wears our sexuality on our sleeve and I felt completely safe. I understand and respect his feelings on the matter, so we left the scene as fast as his cute little legs could take us out of there.

PROFESSIONAL CONCERT GOERS

We sat in the lawn, waiting for Paisley to hit the main stage as a side concert was going on with most of the crowd checking it out.

We took in the diverse characters sitting around us, including a woman with several missing teeth, her boyfriend brushing his short grey bristly hair with a big hairy brush.

We listened to a talkative beer drinking couple, who traveled from Delaware to see the show, actively engaging the couple in front of us - who we deemed the “professional concert going couple.”

These professional concert goers planned everything out so perfectly - it was actually nauseating and annoying because we were so ill prepared.

The venue allowed guests to bring water into the show as long as it is sealed. So they took bottles of flavored water, mixed with vodka and super-glued the top on so it was resealed. Genius!

They also came equipped with short legged lawn chairs, boxes of cigarettes, sun block, bug spray, chips and pretzels, the perfect combo of “stuff” for an evening of country music under the sun/stars.

They mentioned this was the second concert of a special six pack concert series - all country groups. And they bought two tickets to see Jimmy Buffet in the “good seats” because “Buffet is worth $150 a ticket.”

At the end of the show they brought Coronas for her and a couple Mike’s Hard Lemonade for him, they were in no rush to lave the parking lot and planned to let everyone leave before they ventured out to drink and drive home.

WE DECIDED TO LEAVE

The tickets were a present for John for Father’s Day from his loving pups and I told him if he didn’t want to stay we could leave.

The concert was supposed to start at 4 pm and the bands advertised were Darius Rucker (of Hootie and the Blow Fish fame) and Brad Paisley. We sat in the lawn and between 5-6pm learned there were six bands performing before Rucker and Paisley…so they wouldn’t come on until 8-9pm.

John was done sitting in the lawn, smelling second hand smoke from the “professionals,” watching young people get smashed on $10 beers and $14 margaritas – all for a band that we knew two songs. I just wish the promoters would have told us about the lineup - we would have gone at 7 or 8pm.

This was the first time I went to a concert and didn’t see the band perform. BUT, I did receive a nice culture lesson, spent quality time with my man and learned how to smuggle vodka into a concert – all equating to a priceless afternoon!

SEEING RANDOM PEOPLE IN WEIRD PLACES

I purchased Brad Paisley concert tickets for Saturday afternoon, a father's day present for John from our extremely thoughtful pups. We didn't end up seeing the whole concert (long story) but we did bump into our favorite Philly drycleaner.


When she saw me, she yelled out, "John, I didn't know you liked country music!" (She calls me John because our dry cleaning is under his name and never corrected her or the owner who calls me Mr. Cunningham – it’s just easier that way.)

Now, it’s not like me and my drycleaner are super close friends, we see each other once a week, but we’ve never grabbed bears and chilled out to a cover band or anything…so I’m not sure why she was so shocked to see me at a country music concert – she did, however, make me feel like a sell-out since I’m not really a country music fan.

I’ve always run into people in the oddest places. While shopping for underwear at Target I saw my high school boss from my job at Moto Photo. He was across the aisle looking at tighty-whiteys and I was checking out the hot dudes on the underwear packages. (Looking back on this incident, I was a sexually deprived gay kid looking to be aroused by pictures on underwear boxes, very sad – and another story all together!

Last year I was eating breakfast at my favorite San Francisco breakfast spot Stacks, my waitress commented on my Chicago Cubs Master Card, "I love the Cubs too, I'm from Chicago," she said. I then found out that we went to the same high school and she was my yearbook editor when I was a freshman. Double dog-gone weird!

Most people know about the “six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon” rule – most celebrities are only “six degrees” of separation from Mr. Footloose. In fact, since you know me, you are “six degrees” from Bacon….my high school friend dated Ashton Kutcher in college, he’s married to Demi Moore who was in "A Few Good Men" with Kevin Bacon. Fun right!

These days I'm mostly stopped by older women who ask, "Did you know you look like Josh Groban?" Which has finally stopped being annoying and become the norm...so go ahead, tell me how much you love or hate him, I don't care anymore. And I often feel one degree separated from him.

And if you see me at out buying fetish underwear, porn, condoms, whips or anything else you might find embarrassing, make sure you say hello, as I enjoy meeting up with random people in weird places!

TODAY IS NO HO-HUM DAY - IT'S A DAY OF GRATITUDE!

Memorial Day weekend wasn't filled with my typical long afternoons in the sun at a beer garden/street festival or late night parties ending in dance filled debauchery. I spent quality time with my loving man and my three adorable pups – it was perfect in every way!

We had a friend over for dinner last night as John made steak, potato salad and grilled veggies – yum! He's such a great chef and a master of the barbeque grill!

During the dinner conversation we heard about the many big life changes that were going on with our friend - all happening in the next few months.

John compared the difficult life changing decisions she was making to the many he’s made in life - like leaving loving friends and family behind in an effort to progress in his career.

He said, "I can't even imagine still scrubbing cases at that hospital in North Carolina," referring to the surgery position he held at the beginning of his career.

Which led to several discussions about many of our closest friends in high school still living in our hometowns and how they are happy with the small-town lifestyle. And we all knew that bigger cities were more our speed.

Before going to bed I evaluated aspects of my life and how I've progressed from high school till today. Living in three major metropolitan cities and the career I've established for myself is something that I’m proud of.

For the last 4 years, the glue that has kept my life together is the love I’ve found with John and my three pups – I’m so blessed to have such a beautiful family! We live in an amazing home, we have fabulous family and friends who support us AND we’re both healthy - which is an amazing blessing!

I too often take things for granted and find myself sweating the small aspects of life instead of looking at the big picture. I need to stand on top of the mountain and look down and see the great life I'm living.

Memorial Day weekend served as a reminder to me to not become complaisant, forge ahead and achieve in my career, love my family and cherish every day I have on this long twisty road of of life. (Maybe a little too philosophical - but you get where I’m going with all of this)

Today is no ho-hum of a day - it's a day of gratitude. Join me in being thankful for all of the blessings we currently have and the amazing days we have to look forward to in our future!

GOOD TIMES IN SAN FRANCISCO

WE ADOPTED AND HE'S A CUTIE PIE!

We adopted a four month old Brussels Griffon - we named him Davis. He's been trying to keep up with the girls and it's fun to watch them play together.

DeRosa is the alpha of the group so she's mounted him a few times to establish dominance. She also enjoys licking him which is great because he enjoys to be bathed by her little tongue.

Doris wants nothing to do with Davis and can barely sit in same room when he's around. We're hoping this changes soon because Doris is such an amazing dog and her brother needs a friend in this transition into our pack.

We are very blessed to have the best dogs on this planet - more puppy stories to come! (I pictured my brothers rolling their eyes as I typed that last line!)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY - OUR NEW HOUSE!

GAY BINGO NIGHT

John and I went to "Gay Bingo" with some friends on Saturday night. I went home with the saddest news ever - I almost won $1,000 in a black out game (every number on the card)...if they would have only called G53!

This was a fundraiser for the local AIDS foundation and it felt good to be out and about within our community for a social event.

After the bingo game we headed to a restaurant where a lot of the people who volunteered and attended the event came to have a drink and a bite to eat. An extravagant little man took a liking to John and told us the same story a few times, about how most of the crowd at the bingo game was young enough to be his kid. Apparently he was having a hard time with how old he was getting.

I turn 32 next week - I'm getting old people, its part of life and so far I'm digging my 30s. I just wish I was 32 and $1,000 richer :)

MAN THOSE ARE SOME CHEESY-LOVEY-DOVEY MAGAZINE COVERS!

I'm posting these photos, made from an iPhone application called iCover, because I'm totally lucky to have a family that loves and supports me in every way...I know, cheesy...but the cheese is good sometimes, it's good to be in the habit of being grateful!

LET IT SNOW

CUSP OF GREATNESS

Four years ago I blew out the candles on my birthday cake and wished for a successful-loving relationship with a sexy man. I've succeeded in this endeavor - John is totally amazing and I love the life we have set up with our two amazing pups!

John and I don’t plan on having children so our careers play a major role in our lives – which makes finding the right job, one that will make me completely and utterly happy, very important!

THE STORY

We treated ourselves to a fancy French dinner last night – a final quaint meal in one of our favorite neighborhood joints before we embark on a seven day adventure to Costa Rica with 16 friends.

John did his usual eavesdropping on conversations of the people dining around us. I was off in space collecting ideas of everything I needed to do before our trip.

When we both came back to reality, John started to talk about my career, and made a comment that struck a nerve with me. He said, "You remind me a lot of the character from that movie last night."

I knew he was referencing the movie Julie and Julia as we watched it in bed the night before. I blurted out, "You think I'm like Julia Child?"

"No, no, no, Julie - the character that Amy Adams played."

Adams played Julie, a married woman in Brooklyn who was turning 30. She was the literary editor for her college magazine and believed she would have written her first novel by the age of 30. Instead she was stuck in a dead-end government job watching her friends excel in their careers.

John said, "I think you are sitting on the cusp of greatness, you just need to figure what you want to do and you will have a great career!"

I haven't found the "one thing" I'm great at. I'm essentially "decent" at many things. I just haven't found that one passionate outlet that fully expresses me.

I believe in myself and my creative abilities and agree that I haven't found the right outlet to showcase my diverse skill set. I have a strong passion for photography, event planning, marketing non-profit organizations and telling stories.

In my career I’ve had no shortage of creative ideas for other people and organizations. What I need is to channel my skill set towards something that’s completely and totally all about what I do best and do it in a way that is extremely profitable.

KSlatz’s New Year's Resolution: Decide what to do with the rest of my life - stick to it - and be the best "insert career here" I can be!

UNCLE JOHN AND LIL' GUY LUKE

THANKSGIVING IN SWEET HOME ALABAMA!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

John's totally adorable...I love it when he strikes his scary pose in photos! This picture looks extra scary since it's in black and white - BOOOO - AHHHHH!

A TRIBUTE TO MY MAN - WE CELEBRATE THREE YEARS TOGETHER THIS WEEK!

FALL FAMILY PHOTO

Taken in Fairmont Park last weekend.

I TALK TO MYSELF - IT'S NOT ALL THAT WEIRD!

Examining the details of my too often monotonous day to day life takes some rational thinking - often resulting in me defending myself because - well, I'm always right.

I find this sentiment to be especially true when John and I are debating. I think one of my strong talents is spinning something I do that could be considered weird or abnormal into a total normal behavior - let me explain through a recent story.

THE STORY
John and I stopped at a BBQ restaurant to get a quick bite to eat before we headed to the movies. We were the only customers in the restaurant and were patiently waiting for our food to come out.

I'm very comfortable with John. We have lived together in our "partnered" relationship for three years on Thanksgiving. We don't have "uncomfortable silence" and there are few people other than him that I'm one hundred percent comfortable being around.

We were sitting in silence and I was looking out the window thinking about how I might need to do some spin control for my behavior on Halloween.

I was internally debating on whether or not I should apologize to the host of the party for my possibly bad drunken behavior or ignoring it all together and hope nothing bad happened - because I'm not sure what exactly happened...once the evening reached a certain point...it all is a bit blurry due to the heavy pour on the vodka drinks my brother made us.

I was looking out the window AND apparently mouthing the words of the potential conversation I would have with the host of the party - who we are having over for dinner soon. Thus, looking like a "special needs" child to any outside observer.

John said, "Kevin, what are you doing?" He then looked over both shoulders to see if anyone was watching me - to make sure no one knew he was eating lunch with a loony Mc-loon.

Incidentally, this was the second time in recent weeks he caught me doing this, thus establishing a repetitive behavior. Yikes, maybe I'm turning into a whack-job weirdo!

RELATED BACKGROUND INFO
One of the more memorable columns I wrote for my college newspaper detailed "things I just don't understand" about my college classmates. It spotlighted some truly weird behavior I saw around campus. Two that come to mind: sorority girls wore tight black pants to the bar like it was their "slutty" uniform & people used glow sticks at the club like they were their magic hypnotizing sticks.

Throughout that semester my friend and roommate Ryan, repeated: "Things I don't understand by Kevin Slatz" followed by his trademark giggle, whenever he spotted an example of something "I didn't understand."

The column took on a life of its own because other friends and total strangers would tell me about the odd behaviors they found weird - thus making this article a defining college moment.

Which brings me to this related question: Is my "talking to myself" behavior something I would have written about in college? Have I turned into the person I made fun of in the "things I just don't understand" column?

SPIN CONTROL
OK, maybe I talk to myself and this is a odd/strange behavior. But it's not all that weird! I chalk it up to being a sign of a creative story teller who is practicing his shtick - after all - only a creative-artsy person would think it's totally fine to be caught in an empty restaurant mumbling words out the window!

When you're hanging out with me and I'm mouthing words into outer space, please don't be alarmed - let me be! It's definitely a sign of a creative genius at work and hopefully you'll find it to be an endearing quality in a friend.

VIA TEXT MESSAGE: LISTEN TO BRAD PAISLEY'S SONG "THEN"

John was out of town recently and sent me the following text:
"Listen to Brad Paisley's song "Then." It is my song for us!!! It's on my iTunes. I listened to it on the plane. Miss you! Love you! Kisses to my babies..."

When I picked him up from the airport days later the first thing he asked was if I listened to the song. YIKES! I had to admit that I didn't listen to it. Not being a country music fan, I remember thinking out loud, "That's so sweet of him...who is Brad Paisley again?"

My official excuse: "I was preoccupied with cooking and cleaning - all of the stuff housewives do."

After listening to the song on youtube, I'm so very honored that he would think of me/us while listening to this beautiful song. I honestly had no excuse not to listen to it and I'm embarrassed by my unthoughtful action. I'm definitely in the dog house for this one!


Lesson learned: Don't take the ones who truly love you for granted. I'm VERY lucky to have John in my life and hope people can learn from my mistake - be more thoughtful to the ones you love!