A Bittersweet Ending

I think the time has finally come, although I've been dreading it for quite some time. My blog has run it's course.

I started blogging back in September of 2003. There was such a smaller group of people blogging and things like MySpace didn't exist. It felt special and quite unique to be sharing your life with the rest of the world for anyone to read.

It didn't take long before I was making friends. I was visiting bloggers all over the country as well as opening up my home to other bloggers as well. What started out as a trip to NYC to visit some bloggers, turned into GB:NYC1, 2, 3, 4 and I think 5 was the latest installment of the infamous blogger hook up, which I wasn't able to attend. Hopefully, they'll accept me as a non-blogger attendee some day.

I remember the first few times I would run into people who would recognize me and get all excited. There was the one time a stalker/fan came up to me in a bar and was gushing about meeting a Dallas Celebrity. I had to laugh. I'm far from it. I think that being recognized when out on the town in other cities or in Dallas was the coolest feeling at the time.

I shared everything, good and bad. Some who have stuck around from the beginning, watched me battle with being single, to meeting someone and being with them for four years, go through a tough break up only to find myself back to being happy again in a wonderful relationship with someone I love. Many of you have stuck by the entire time and I thank you for that.

The days of 400-500 hits a day is down to less then 100. I know that interest is diminishing with my readers and interest in finding something to write about has done the same for me. I feel as if I have nothing to say anymore worth putting in print.

For those who want to keep in touch, you can always find me on Facebook. Click the link on the left hand side. I use it to keep in touch with friends, family and other bloggers. I post the occasional picture, video or comment. It's become my lazy way of sort of blogging but not really.

I honestly can't believe how tough it is for me to say goodbye. Tougher then I thought.

Maybe I'll just say, See you later. Come say Hi to me over on Facebook or shoot me an email once in a while to catch up. You know I'll be checking out some of y'alls blogs from time to time to make sure you're staying out of trouble.

Who knows. Maybe I'll even come back some day.

Until then, see you later.

Finally doing some more drawing

First some good news. Mom is doing much better. She's at home with her husband and every day she sounds much better. It's going to take about 2 months though for her to get back to normal. You just don't bounce back from pneumonia at the age of 80 years old.

Thanks to everyones thoughts and prayers.

I finally dug out some paper and did a figure study. I was worried that I was going to be really rusty, but I guess it's like riding a bike. You never really forget. I don't have access to any live male or female nudes, so I'm going to have to search for artist photographs and create some figure studies from those.

It's better then not doing anything at all.

Mom update

I haven't really had anything to say lately. Probably because I've been in such a funk regarding my Mother, that I haven't felt like saying or doing much. It was nice to have yesterday off so I didn't have to deal with going through the motions of work.

Mom was released from the hospital yesterday and is now staying with my sister because they indicated that she needed to be taken care of for a while. Her husband was in the emergency room a few days ago with the same thing, but was released that same day. They treated his dehydration. They don't want Mom around him for a few days in fear of her getting a set back.

I talked to her yesterday and she still sounds horribly weak. I can't seem to get a straight answer out of anybody as to how she's doing. They just say she's "ok". I feel like they're not telling me something or hiding the fact that things were far worse off then they lead me to believe. My family is notorious for hiding the truth to not make someone upset or over react.

I don't know. All I know is that I can't get her out of my mind.

Mom

It's a scary thing when your sister calls you late at night, telling you that your Mother, who's 80 years old and has been dealing with a lot of health issues during the past couple years, has been put in the hospital for pneumonia.

I'm such a mama's boy. I broke down immediately. I still can't get her out of my head or stop saying a prayer for her. Doctor said that she is going to be fine, but when you're 80 years old, pneumonia isn't a good thing.

She had the flu for the past couple of days. She refuses to get a flu shot every year. Maybe she'll think twice about it next time.

I just hope everything turns out ok.

I've been cheating on Facebook....

Damn, it seems like it's been a while since I posted again. I get wrapped up on Facebook and forget about this place. She's been the "other woman" or should I say man lately.

We've both been so good about budgeting and not spending money. It's so tempting when the weather gets nice outside again. All you want to do is be outside or out and about. That's just a receipe for spending money. I'm bound and determined to stick to my plan of having 80% of my bills paid off by May, plus money for our trip to San Francisco for Pride as well as our yearly trip to Disneyland for Steven's Birthday.

Steven's still a painting machine. He's finished another painting. This one's a smaller one. I've started a male figure study which has been turning out pretty good so far. I was worried that I might have lost my touch. It's been since gradschool that I did any sort of figure drawing. Hopefully I'll have something to show within a couple days. I seem to take much longer finishing things like this then I do portraits. Not sure why.

So this weekend, we've spent time at home drawing and painting, cleaning house and doing laundry. Not very exciting, but it's keeping us out of trouble.

Wish I had more to tell you, but as always if you want more details of my exciting life, I update more on Facebook lately. Go figure.

We Gay's have taken it over!