T's Big Gay BBQ

T's straight sister has a lot of gay friends.  I mean a lot.  

I think it all started with a private Spanish class she was taking.   I have met a lot of them at T's house over the past several months.  Most all of them are partnered or married.    There is one of the group who is single, then there is me and T.  I think many of them think that T and I are partners.   When I make conversation I sometimes to refer to events that have happened in the past to us, so it is clear that we have know each other a long time.  I would not be surprised if one or more of these guys asked T's sister what the story is with the fat white guy.

Last weekend T had a BBQ at his house.  I have attended these types of events many times in the past, but usually they include his family.  All his siblings, their spouses and children, in addition to a selection of friends.  I have even brought my kids to some of these events over the years.  But not last weekend.  This was a big gay BBQ.  Aside from T's sister, there were no straight people there.

It was a nice time and T is encouraging me to get to know these people as much as possible.  Even though they are partnered, they might have single friends.  It's possible, but I am not holding my breath for the possibility of getting "fixed up".  I am mostly going because I like to be around people (gay people in particular).  I also like being around T, not to mention there is always a ton of good food.  (Really, there is always a TON of food.)

After the dinner, I set up a fire out back in his fire-pit and the group of homos sat around the fire and talked about stuff.  

Being introverted and shy around new people, I was pretty good about engaging with the everyone around the fire.  I listened and talked when I had something to add.  One of the couples, a married couple from Columbia, suggested I should meet up with them sometime and hang out.  They live not too far from me, in a northern suburb of Charlotte, while T and most of the others live to the south.

I thought that invite was a good thing.  All these guys seem to have a pre-existing friendship.  I am not sure how they all know each other, but it's clear they do.   These kinds of groups are hard to break into.  They are always friendly on the surface, but only when fate or other forces put me in the same place as them.    It was just like the people at bowling a few years back and kickball this past spring.  Everyone already knows everyone else and while polite, they are not much interested in getting to know anyone new.  

I am taking a business trip to England next week for about a week and a half.  When I get back, I will look up the Colombian couple and see what happens.

Trip to the Beach

His and His shoes on the beach.

It has been a while since I had the ambition to write much.  Not a lot has happened, but on the other had a lot has happened.  

First let's talk about the trip to the beach.  (The pictures in this post were all taken by me on this trip)

I HAD A TOTALLY AWESOME TIME AT THE BEACH WITH T AND THIS FAMILY.  

It really was just perfect.  The house they rented was just right the number of people who were there for the short time we were there.  It was about a 5 minute walk to the ocean side of the island and the spectacular beach.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  No rain.  Plenty of sea breezes and just the right amount of sun.  We truly could not have asked for better weather. 

This is a place with a lot of cottages and large houses.  Most of them are for rent to people who want to take a vacation there.  There are no high rise hotels like you might find at Myrtle Beach or Miami.  As a result, I think even if all the houses were full, there would not be enough people to fill the beach.  There just are not enough people staying there to fill up the sand.

We left to go there on a Friday after T finished working.  We drove almost 6 hours to get out there.  By the time we reached the house, it was about 2am on Saturday morning.  Most everyone was ready for bed.  Not me.  I wanted to see the ocean and the surf.  I just wanted to be able to hear the surf before going to bed.   Even though he was tired, he walked down to the beach with me.  We spend about 5 or 10 minutes in the sand before heading back.

The next day we (me, T, and his family) drove all over the place.  We saw lighthouses and other attractions.  We climbed up one of the lighthouses and it was just amazing.  

We had lunch at a seaside diner that had good seafood.  After lunch we drove around some more, saw more sights and took more pictures. 

Later that evening, just about sunset, we had dinner at the wonderful seaside restaurant.  This place had a wonderful outside dining area right on the water's edge with a long pier stretching out into the water.   I took several pictures of the sunset that I'll post here.

Sunset

T and I walked out on the pier an tried to take a selfie of us with the sun setting behind us.  They did come out very well, but a woman at a near by table came over ans offered to take the pictures for us.  I thought that was nice.  It always made be smile because this woman was a lot like K.  Where ever we travel, K always offers to take pictures of gay couples trying to take selfies.   I think she just likes helping out the gays.  These pictures came out really good too but T won't let me post his picture on the blog so you will just have to imagine.

The next morning T and I got up early to see the sunrise.  I really wanted to go and T was going only because I begged him to come with me.  With the perfect weather, the sunrise was totally stunning.  One of the most beautiful I have seen in a long time.  I think that T was not prepared for how beautiful it was.  Recently he got a new phone and until that morning, I don't think he had used the camera.  He took over 250 pictured of he sunrise.

Just before the sun broke the horizon.

New day has begun

My footprints are the barefoot ones.  T was wearing his flip-flops

We walked on the nearly empty beach for about a two hours (sometimes even holding hands).  It was wonderful.

Later that morning, T and his mother and sister were going shopping.  i was invited, but I elected to stay behind.  I returned to the beach.  By this time it was about 10:30am.  People were jogging up and down the beach.  People were fishing into the surf.  There was not a crowd at the beach by any means.  It was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, and beach has people on it, but the were so few, it was easy to find a spot with no one else.  It was nice to just sit, watch the surf and think.

I know someone will be wondering about the sleeping arrangements.  T and I slept on the couches in the little living room.  These were non-pull out couches and we did not try to sleep in one together.

At the end of the trip, T and I are not boyfriends.  We did not get back together.  If fact the romantic part of our relationship may have drifted further apart.  Having said that, I also think our friendship grew stronger.  A little more we have let go of Me and T the couple and embraced Me and T best friends forever.  

I will always love him, just as he will always love me.