RealAvalon

Can anyone recommend a hotel near O-Hare airport, with shuttle service, or, maybe just a favourite hotel with shuttle service?  Thanks  

27 minutes ago, marylander1940 said:

That's the sound I hear when one hand is clapping 

On 5/23/2021 at 5:35 PM, marylander1940 said:

He needs to sit on the big stool 

On 5/11/2022 at 3:09 PM, marylander1940 said:

Ooops... so many! 

Spill 

On 5/12/2022 at 1:43 PM, wsc said:

His name was Gary, and we were in same grade in a Catholic high school. The first time I really noticed him left an image still seared onto my brain to this day.

I was in an Art class, taught by a teacher who was also the Drama teacher and director for the school's student theater. Gary was down on the stage in the gym, helping to build sets for an upcoming production. He had a question about something, so he left the gym and came up to the 3rd floor Arts Classroom to ask the Drama teacher. I heard the door open, glanced up, then away - then back again as my eyes widened and my mouth dropped open as I stared at this boy.

"He looks different," I thought, but couldn't say how. Then I realized - he's not wearing a shirt! Well, he was wearing a T-shirt, but nothing over it. At our school, the girls had to wear uniforms, but the boys just had to wear slacks -no jeans- and a collared shirt. He'd taken the shirt off while working on the sets and either didn't remember or didn't bother to put it back on to come upstairs. Thank God!

The shirt looked two sizes too small and was stretched tightly across a broad chest with peaked nipples pushing up against the fabric. His 16-year-old biceps made the sleeves stretch around them as his tanned arms went all the way down to his strong hands. His face was square jawed, with high cheekbones, full lips, and dimples when he smiled. He was topped off with a fluff of light chestnut hair, some falling slightly down his forehead in a little curl.

Not that I was paying that much attention.😋

He was a sometimes member of the group of drama nerds I ran with, and I was never able to keep my eyes off of him, scarred as I was of getting caught ogling him. He was friendly toward me but not in a "let's hang out" sort of way. I later found he'd gotten a girl pregnant but never heard what came of that. Lost track of him after high school but have remembered him now for over 50 years. And when I close my eyes, I can still see Gary standing there as that handsome hunk that helped me realize who I really was. Hope he's had a good life.

He sounds dreamy.  Glad you had that simple innocent crush 

On 1/9/2022 at 11:12 AM, marylander1940 said:

I know what he's thinking: "blow it up my ass"

14 minutes ago, FreshFluff said:

This time, we’re going to eat all our meals in the freshman dining hall. Good lord. I'm going only because of FOMO.

Is anyone else going to one of these this year?

I stick to my high school and elementary school reunions. College feels too much like life. 

3 minutes ago, marylander1940 said:

That's a pretty big crack, might need a couple coats of man spackle 

I've been having an eclectic month of reading:

Naked Airport, A Cultural History of the World's Most Revolutionary Structure.  It's interesting but definitely a niche read. 

China in Drag, Travels with a Cross-Dresser. Written by a BBC journalist stationed in China for decades. He travels with his older language tutor across China to visit sites important to his tutor. It's a geographic tour of modern Chinese history from the Cultural Revolution, embrace of capitalism, Tiananmen Square ... in high heels.  

On 9/29/2021 at 6:34 AM, WilliamM said:

I bought Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers three days ago at Barnes and Noble. Still have not taken the book out of the bag.

 

About 1500 pages of small print. What was I thinking?

That you were never planning on travelling ever again?  lol

On 10/26/2021 at 6:15 PM, Danny-Darko said:

 

'Against All Enemies: An American's Cold War Journey' by Jeffrey M. Carney

This mans life story fascinates me. He was a gay airman in the U.S. Airforce long before "Don't ask, don't tell" at the height of the Cold War. His journey has been a fascinating one though his book is poorly written and was never properly proofread it seems. I do realize the difficulty he had getting it published due to censorship from the United States Government and it's a story few care to know. A proper thorough proofreading would have corrected grammatical and syntax errors and more. That said, it's still an interesting biography and a page turner in my opinion. I hope one day somebody makes a Mini-Series/Movie out of it and exposes both sides for what they were and this man's story.    

 

There are four books with this title in our local library, but none of them are this one.

On 5/15/2021 at 11:37 AM, Benjamin_Nicholas said:

If you're an avid reader, there's always those group of authors and stories that you keep coming back to.

 

For me, it's Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Even though he eventually became mostly a television talk show couch-fixture, I credit Capote for starting an entirely new genre of writing that has remained successful to this day. It's also just a brilliantly written book.

 

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. The film adap was just okay, but the book was riveting.

 

David Merrick: The Abominable Showman by Howard Kissel. Great stories in the days when theatre producers could get away with anything. If you have come from a PR background, watching Merrick's cat & mouse game of keeping his shows on top is fascinating.

 

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson is as long (and bitter) as the old testament, but it's worth a read. It's refreshing to see a bio that's straight-forward, pulls no punches and has the blessing of the subject all the way onto his deathbed. It's an opus, but it's an easy read.

The phone book.  Haha.  I'm keeping one as a historical curiosity.  

My Tender Matador is a book I've read over and over.  

I've recently re-read a bunch of stuff, Of Mice and Men, Cat's Cradle, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, A History of God. 

On 6/9/2021 at 5:41 AM, latbear4blk said:

Somehow, Buenos Aires is more beautiful than usual in the middle of the restrictions. I guess is just my nostalgia. Yesterday was a sunny beautiful Fall day, but today is raining and cloudy. I am still working for my school, so my freedom is limited for this and next week. However, yesterday I left Palermo to have lunch with my mother in my old neighborhood, the famous Recoleta.

90% of the people is using masks, even outdoors.

This is the block where I lived for more than 20 years, in Rodriguez Peña street.

Right in the corner, Rodríguez Peña & Guido, there is a travel agency where you can change your cash dollars safely and without a paper track. If you are staying nearby, that is the place I used 2 years ago. 

After I came back home I fucked my first Grindr hook up (I have a long cue), a cute 26 y.o. athletic guy who asked me to trim my pubic hair because it looked unseat. This was a first time. Additionally, he was not the only one who made that kind of comment amongst my hook apps candidates. Apparently they do not mind for a hairy body, but they want my pubic hair short. As a side note, I had not trimmed my pubis in a long time. Damn, I have a lot of grey hair below my cock.

Afterwards, and already in curfew time (my hook up left during curfew time and he did not care), I contacted my first escort. I am still stuck to my place and do not want to bring anyone I have not already met, so I went for Douglas, the Carioca I have already reviewed. His fee is only $AR 2,500 (26 bucks at official exchange, 16 at Blue's). I will see him tonight, hopefully. 

My friend Y also got my weed supply. I purchased 10 grams at $AR 6,000 and 10 at 8,000. Total of $AR 14,000 (U$S 143 off/91 Blue. I was not sure how much 20 grams was after so many years purchasing ounces in the USA, and pressed cheap Paraguayan when I was living here. Not only I bought too much. Besides, afterwards, an old friend who is getting married got as present premium weed (I do not know how much yet) and he is giving it to me). I will be living in a cloud of weed smoke starting tonight. These are the flowers I got from Y's providers:

I rode in a regular taxi cab yesterday. For a 20' ride, I paid $AR 400 (U$S 4 Off/ 2.60 Blue). 

And I have to get into a zoom. More info later.

Thanks for the detail in your posts.  I am planning a trip soon, so it is all good information for my own planning. 

My Tender Matador by Pedro Lemebel.  The story is compelling, the use of language (even in translation) is great.  A story of infatuation and caring between an older drag queen and a younger student radical in Pinochet's Chile circa 1985. 

And I had to joke with the Trader Joe's clerk a few days ago that I couldn't find anything pumpkin-flavored in the store. He said something like yeah, you'd think this time of year we'd have that stuff for sale!

You could share a laugh about your 'pumpkin-spiced President'

Woody Fox on Twitter in 2013: "Never will I escort."

 

Woody Fox on RentMen in 2020: "Not usually an escort and not desperate for it so if you don't like my rate or..." https://rent.men/TheWoodyFox

Woody's relocated countries, and he and his husband are living in different cities. Maybe new considerations for a bit.

He’s smoking a cigarette... if you get my drift. (He doesn’t smoke.)

Are you a one 'hump' Camel or a two 'hump' Camel?

And, it certainly doesn’t seem to bother him any!

He's thinking 30km, I'm thinking pre-lubed

well those seats are definitely giving me an idea ...

Yes, I'd clean for him!

Was that for his boyfriend or his girlfriend?

Doesn't look nasty to me

The day recreational marijuana was legalized in Canada, a 9-year-old girl in Edmonton sold all her Girl Scout cookies in 45 minutes outside a newly opened weed shop.

Just a handsome man with lovely lips