Category Archives: Personal Bits

Just things from my personal life

I’m Back!

Hobbies, Personal Bits

Back to Toronto after 10 days in the wilds with the friendly, neighbourly, sunburnt homo-savages at The Point. Many point form stories to relate:

Not one drop of rain fell. We arrived after the rain ended on Thursday night and from that moment on the weather was clear and warm, resulting in my half-Italian skin going as dark as a cheap cherrywood cabinet from Ikea. The nights were clear and we had amazing moon rises a few nights. We lucked out again!

The homo-savages were fun and friendly and ready with a smile and a wave. It’s such a different vibe to any kind of community I have ever lived in. Everyone shares: bottle openers, candles, bug spray, boyfriends, information about boyfriends, boyfriend’s tents, etc. Coming back to Toronto is always a shock since I now have to stifle a smile and not say “hello!” to every stranger on the street. I’d be locked up in seconds if I did. The campground was very busy the long weekend and the weekend after (Bear Jamboree) but extremely quiet in between, making it crazy, relaxing and then crazy again.

If you ever get the chance to party with Sloppy Joe of Sloppy Joe Video, I suggest you do. He’s fun. Serious fun. Goats are fun too. Firing crow-pecked cucumbers with a 10ft slingshot is fun. Corn mazes are fun. Small town, ultra-ameture backyard wrestling at fairgrounds is fun. Expect pictures.

I made a new friend. His name is Jack Daniels.

The stay was not without drama:

One over-stuffed Seasonal queen (she pads her skimpy white bathing suit with some sort of potato/yam) thought she could just walk into the pool on the Saturday of the busiest day of the year and get her usual loungers. Of course they were taken and she was forced to sit by the (shudder) far wall… She proceeded to wave her pretentious finger in my face accusing me of not holding back on the hordes of non-regular guests who were up hours before Miss Beauty Sleep to claim their chairs around the pool. Supposively I did this last year. What Queen Chlorine Shock didn’t realize is that another volunteer couple did that ONCE last year to much complaint, so the policy was changed to allowing people to enter the pool deck while the pool was being cleaned, they just couldn’t enter the water. I pointed this out to her with the same finger-in-the-face pointing. Within an hour, the entire campsite knew I had sassed her.

Wednesday morning we woke to find that our rear driver side tire had been slashed as well as our next door neighbour’s driver side tire. This was well before the Potato-Swimsuit Queen incident, so get that out of your mind. The investigating officer (a lovely Scottish woman with three facial peircings – ach!) used the word Hate Crime. If it was someone drunk or high from inside the park (lord knows who…) then that would be a self hate crime, I guess.

The good news was that the owners have offered us a small pop-top camper that has been abandoned for a couple years. We’re going to check it out this weekend. I bet after 3 years being sealed and under a tarp, it’s going to have some damage. How much is anyone’s guess. I hope there’s a body in it!!

In all, a fantastic summer vacation, thanks!

What have you guys been doing?

Birthday Wishes

Personal Bits, Queer stuff

Thank you, I’m 41 today.

PSPI got two really big surprises this weekend. A brand spankin’ new PSP with two games (one lame – imagine me playing “basesballs”. Eh. Came with the machine…)! I was blown away that Sharkboy would remember that I wanted one after all the cutout ads I’ve left around the toilet and annoying puppy dog sobbing whenever we would see one out in public. I’m ready to 802.b!

And I also got a date.

At city hall.

The day before we go on our cruise.

Which has now turned into a honeymoon.

Sharkboy has popped the question I was 100% sure he would never utter. I have always said I was “borne without a commitment gene” and will publically eat my words by getting legally hitched in a small ceremony downtown (non-religious) the night before our December cruise. That means the 6 other guys coming with us will have to put up with our inane coo-cooing and googley eyes.

You want the sickly sweet details, you say? We were sitting around the fire at our campsite on an exceptionally quiet and dark Sunday night and I mentioned making vague family birthday dinner plans. To which I got a curt “No. I’ve asked no one to your dinner.” I stewed on this in confused silence for a moment. Before I could start questioning why no suitable birthday party had been planned, Sharkboy started into a rambling story about emails to my parents asking for my hand in marriage and he was going to ask me to marry him at dinner only if both parents said it was ok, but it was too late to check his emails on Friday so he was unsure as to their response hence why no friends were called for dinner.

sputterHand? In marriage! Wha? You? Wha? I was sputtering like Speed Buggy after a nitrous fill up.

“So how about it? Marry me?”

Yeah I got blubbery. Held it together though and said yes.

Da is glad to be rid of me. Mom isn’t sure if she’s suppose to dress for the mother of the bride or groom (I would assume that the askee is the ‘bride’?).

Bored of my Ring

Personal Bits

Actually quite the opposite. A couple days ago I reinserted my PA with much grunting and straining and no pain at all. I was surprised to see that it was able to get back in there at all after a near-year absence.

Today at work I peed on myself, my shoes, the floor. O vanity, thy name is stupid!

Ring the Bell!

Hobbies, Personal Bits

Sharkboy and I are walking up Church Street and we pass a woman outside an old office building yanking on a string that went up to a third floor window. I thought was just an old banner rope from Prides Gone By, but apparently it’s a doorbell of sorts! How very archaic!

I said, “I now know where to play ‘Nicky Nicky Nine Doors’ on Church Street.”

“What’s that?” asks Sharkboy.

“I’m sure you have a variation on this kid’s game, whatever you called it in Quebec: ring the bell, run off peeing your pants laughing.”

“Yeah, we called it ‘Ring the Bell and Run Off Peeing Our Pants Laughing.” He then went on to explain that he had a reverse game while living in Montreal. From the saftey of his apartment, he could use the two way intercom to comment on people’s attire and sexuality as they walked by. And it was all the more funnier when you messed with the masculine/femine articles. Oh those distinct society Quebecois!

I’m sure you all, my 5 or 6 readers, use to call this bell-ringing game something else?

The Biz, Baby!

General, Personal Bits, Queer stuff

I’ve wandered across the path of a couple producers and directors in my time. Certainly not as much as my brother Michael, but enough to get the sense that they all have this “thing”. They exude an aura of confidence and energy that is so thick, it resides in your nose and you can taste it the next day in the shower.

Meeting up with the Casting Director of Punched Up last week was no exception.

Before seeing her, I had to spend some time with the Gopher. She was hired 48 hours prior to my interview, and already she had the whole “Bubbles” from Absolutely Fabulous personna down to a tee: perky, dressed like a 12 yr old tom boy, trying to make an office appliance work with some success. We sparred a bit while she got me to fill out a release form and she tried some of her new schtickon me (she confessed to doing stand up) while she photocopied my application. She was punched up already. She frightened me a bit.

When the Casting Director and her assistant were ready for me they ushered me into a back room (the office, in a bombed out loft on Bathurst, was a great metaphor for the state of Canadian television) and sat me down in front of their camera. Casting started off by saying “You showed up on our radar fairly quickly. We’ve been wanting to talk to you for some time.” It was an empowering statement that, at the time, gave me a warm fuzzy of being wanted. Her aura was all around me. I wanted to do her bidding!

They drilled me about how Punched Up could help me. Where in my life do I need a comedic shot in the arm? When I mentioned the campground I go to, the Assistant nearly peed herself with excitement. Seems part of the attraction of 6 comedians coming to your door is that they’re travelling in a Winebego. The idea of these comedians arriving at a gay campground with clothing optional areas to make fun of my serene, stress-free weekends is good tv.

By the end of it she nearly had me doing drag in front of my family at the campground for Thanksgiving dinner as nude trailer park occupants strolled by.

Television people are rather persuasive.

Am I in? I don’t know yet. The casting director has to fly the idea past the writers. I will keep you posted.