Rudynate

Our family life was up and down. I was very close to my father and he loved to indulge me in little ways. He called me "buddy" and took me everywhere with him - even to work. My mother was very moody. Sometimes she was as sunny as June Cleaver and other times we would get home from school and it was obvious she hadn't done a thing - she hadn't dressed, breakfast dishes still on the table, etc. and she would be in a very witchy mood. Things really took a nosedive when she have birth to a girl with Down Syndrome - in her first few weeks it wasn't certain she would survive. She did survive and they followed the advice of the pros and institutionalized her. I think they were both very ashamed at having given her up and the whole affair cast a pall over our family life that never really lifted.

No place is perfect.

No, I never said it did. You're exactly right - he didn't think it through before he did it. I have lived abroad - I know what it's like. I loved it, but it was at times very difficult and I experienced moments of deep isolation.

What I love about Canadians is that they are exactly like us and nothing like us, all at the same time. I have lots of relatives in Quebec - all in the Trois-Rivieres area - they've been there since the mid-1600''s

I wouldn't even consider moving anywhere where I didn't already speak the language. To expect yourself to learn a new language in addition to everything else just is a lot to ask of yourself. I have already decided that I will not move out of the country, but I am keeping Canada as an option if things get too weird in the US. I was saying to a freind just the other day that it would be good idea to establish what the trigger would be for leaving the US. Lots of German Jews got caught because they kept putting off leaving - they hadn't identified a triggering circumstance so it was easy to keep putting it off.

True - it is a personal issue. But loneliness among the elderly is a widespread problem, right here in the US. Add in the complicating factors of being a stranger in a strange land, a language barrier, gay in a Latin country - and you have loneliness waiting to happen. Being a tourist is a different thing - its their job to be nice to you. I'm sure the Portuguese are lovely - but they already have lives. They aren't sitting around waiting to befriend the next expat American who moves in down the road.

Kind of obvious isn't it - he was lonely.

Right - definitely nice build - he wouldn't win any contests though.

He looks great - just a guy who's in reasonably good shape. I wish I could see the more recent pics - I like 'roided physiques.

I've never been in a situation like that, so I can't be sure, but I just don't think I would care. Obviously, the guy needs social skills, but why not choose somebody who's drop-dead handsome? I don't feel like I have anything to hide. For years, I have thought about hiring a guy to go to church with me. I love midnight mass on Christmas Eve and my husband won't go because he hates Christianity. It would be great to make an evening of it with a guy who looks terrific in a nice suit, have dinner before, and turn heads when we walk into Grace Cathedral. Actually, my husband would be completely OK with it.

Actually, come to think of it. I escorted an older woman to the opera once. It was the mother of a co-worker. The mother was coming to visit and wanted to go to the opera and my friend hated the opera, so she asked me if I would take her mother. My friend paid for the tickets, the mother treated me to dinner and we went to the opera together. It was a great evening and It was nice to give the mother an experience a nice experience.

He's also on RM, specialized in FF.

In the screwball comedies of the mid-20th century, when women could not go anywhere without a male escort, there were often wealthy widows who had to attend an event such as a wedding or a charity ball, and they would call an escort service, which would send over an escort who turned up perfectly dressed, with perfect manners, etc. I have often wondered whether those escort services actually existed or whether they were just a thing in the movies. I think there are guys on cruise ships who are hired to provide company to unaccompanied women. I don't see why you couldn't hire a provider just for company. I wouldn't expect a break on his rate though. Service is service.

I have had four boosters - 10/21, 4/22, 10/22, 5/23.

I wish I could remember who it is - a very popular, welll known guy, has mentioned that he has a scheduler.

They've been doing that for a long time.

I love my investment adviser. He is straight but I feel completely comfortable with him. His office is in Millbrae, close to SFO. I will give you his name if you would like. PM me.

This probably sounds scandalously shallow, but I like spray tan. I just do it from time to time, mostly for fun. One time, I got a coat of spray tan before my husband and I left for a camping trip in the Sierras. We were getting some groceries in Nevada City and I had a bunch of straight women cruising me in the grocery store.

As above, health care workers can be careless with terminology as well as the lay population.

When I was in 11th grade - I had a mad crush on my English teacher. He was very sexy, in an unusual way. The girls swooned over him and I sat in my seat in English class trying to conceal a raging boner nearly every day. They gave the assignment of having to do a project on a 20th century American author - we got to choose the author. Of course, half the kids wanted to do Steinbeck and the other half wanted to do Hemingway. I was going to do Steinbeck, but the teacher said he wanted me to do a particular author - Sherwood Anderson. His best known work is a book of short stories about people in a fictional town called Winesburg, Ohio and that was the book's title. He told me to start with that book. In this book, there was a story about a teacher, who had fluttery, expressive hands that made all the men in town nervous. He ended up getting run out of town after one of his male students developed a mad crush on him. The boy was so lovesick that he began telling people about his fantasies, and, because they were uncomfortable with him anyway, they believed that the teacher was actually doing improper things with his students. I didn't think a thing of it at the time, but many years later, it suddenly dawned on me that he had known how in lust I was with him.

Dad is disposable - what a grateful son.

I think people are careless in their use of the term "exposed." To me, "exposed" does not mean "infected." An exposure means you came in contact with someone who was infected, but it doesn't necessarily mean you were infected. I'm sure I was exposed many times, but I don't think I was ever infected.

No, I haven't had it either. In June 2020, when availability of COVID tests was sketchy, I had an antibody test that was negative. I think I have had three COVID tests, all negative and I have had 5 or 6 self-administered antigen tests, all negative. I've had a full complement of vaccinations and boosters, so I imagine an antibody test would be positive.

I had a guy host me once in a seedy travelodge. Just because it was him, I didn’t mind-much.

There are actually a few of these vendors now.