Saturday, January 16, 2010

Saturday Afternoon Reflections

Today has been an enjoyable day over all, although I received a worrisome call from Charlottesville - my mother is in the hospital and is being checked for a possible minor stroke. I spoke with her and it seems she has all of her faculties and no apparent impairment of any kind. I will get an update once the MRI results are back. They will also keep her overnight for observation. Fortunately, the University of Virginia Medical Center is one of the best in the state and has top notch care. My brother is with my mom now and my sister - who had gone snow skiing - will relieve him in a while. Needless to say, I freaked out at first. Plus the call brought back dreadful memories of a vacation in April, 2001, when I received a call that my middle sister had died. I am going to work to stay positive and send out positive energy and suppress the bad energy of the past.
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Earlier today - before the call from Charlottesville - the boyfriend and I took the gay history trolley tour of Key West which was a lot of fun. Among the gay notables who have lived her are Tennessee Williams (we were allowed to go by the house he owned which is not on any other tours). Then, of course there are the many gays who have visited or lived here for a while such as Truman Capote and Kelley McGillis. Then we stopped by the office of the Key West Business Guild - the local gay chamber of commerce - and chatted with the staff and learned about the chamber's history and ideas that can be applied to HRBOR back in Hampton Roads. I am going to talk to a local gay politician and find out more on politics and report back to a board member of the Victory Fund who asked me to do some fact checking for him.
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The guest house where we are staying has couples from all over, including New York, Minneapolis, Boston and other cold climate regions. As the boyfriend states, I tan standing next to a light bulb, so I have already begun to get some color. Tonight we are meeting at the home of a friend who moved here in March and then go to a large seafood festival featuring all kinds of Conch dishes and other seafood as well. The atmosphere here - while still in a non-gay friendly state - is so, so different from Virginia. No one seems to care who is gay of straight and even by day same sex couples can be seen holding hands walking down the street.
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Keep my mother in your thoughts and prayers (for those who believe in pray).

2 comments:

Julián said...

Michael, pues me alegra de que te hayas divertido y espero que tu madre mejore muy pronto.

La vida está para disfrutar no?

Saludos y libertad

Ken in MS said...

Good thoughts for your mother. My partner and I will be visiting a friend in KW in March, so we'll certainly check out the gay history tour. If you run across any other great attractions or tourist ideas, keep us in mind! Enjoy yourself.