I Miss Dallas Already

Well, I’m home safe and sound after a long day yesterday. A few photos from my last couple of days in Dallas:

That’s my best buddy, Pat, and I enjoying wine and cheese at the Cru wine bar near the Angelika theater. The wine was wonderful, had great legs and a wonderful nose, and – oh, who am I kidding? My palette is about as refined as that of a prohibitionist bootlegger.

We saw a FANTASTIC film, by the way, called “Young at Heart.” I highly recommend it. It’s a documentary about a senior citizen chorus with ages running from 73 to 92. Touching, hilarious, and inspirational. I hope I have that much energy and life in me 30 years from now.

My favorite theater in Dallas. They run lots of artsy and indie films. Run, don’t walk, if you have such a place in your town.

Mr. Ian strutting his stuff. How I love this child. He took to me instantly, and I to him. Amazing, he has all the best qualities of Pat and Jasmine all mishmoshed together in a neat little 18-mos-old package.

My buddy Cathy and I at the Corner Bakery in Plano. I’ve known Cathy going on 12 or 13 years now, one of the many great friends I met thanks to Saint Rita’s Young Singles in Dallas. I was heavily involved with that group for a long time, acting as Spiritual Coordinator for two terms (and stirring up the shit on more than one occasion). That group saved my life in more ways than one.

Cathy is married now with a 3-year-old son who I didn’t get to see this time around. Gotta love her.

That’s Jim, me, Craig, and Mark…all of us former officers with SRYS. I was thrilled to see them all, especially since we organized the gettogether at the last minute. Craig I was REALLY surprised to see. He just graduated from medical school and is about to move up to Oklahoma for his residency. The timing was perfect, since he’s only in Dallas for a few days. Proof positive that you can start changing your life and career at any time. Craig is my age (41).

That’s Catherine, Craig, me, and Jim. Loved seeing Catherine again, and we were able to catch up on the latest news around SRYS and some of my old buddy alums from the group.

There must have been 14 or 15 of us there at Blue Mesa Wednesday night. Most I knew, some I hadn’t met before.

That’s Brent, me, and Tom, enjoying the dryness of the Blue Mesa interior while it absolutely POURED rain outside. Eventually, we had to make a break for it because there was no sign of letting up.

I was in bed pretty early (for me) at 11:30 Wednesday night, since I had to get up at 5:15 the next morning for my flight. But you’ve already read that story from yesterday.

Many big thanks to Jester for his help getting my blog working properly last night. He did it in record time after I got home last night. God bless the gays! Ha. I’m going to be on Jester’s amazing radio show in a couple of weeks. More on that as the date draws near.

And I want to plug the Alive Campaign once again. My daughter is part of this incredible project and she set off yesterday with her four teammates. Check out the blog with links to video news stories of their departure. I teared up. Yeah, I’m a proud daddy. Both of my girls are just wonderful ladies. You can donate to their cause, a documentary about the trip to Alaska all in the name of suicide prevention, here.