Hey, everyone! Come and see how good I write!
An "Anchorman" rewording that contradicts itself. Perfect way to start.
Organized Chaos.
If you’re reading this, you’re likely either a friend or a member of my family - in which case, I expected you to be here. If you’re not (yet) a member of one of those groups, then I did not expect you to be here and thank you for your time.
The truth is, I’ve always wanted to write. Over the years, I’ve always wanted to start a blog or write a book but my experiences stopped at a rogue LiveJournal or lengthy Facebook post. On a daily basis, it’s hard to take the time to sit down and organize my thoughts. I feel like I have so much to share - which, if you know me, I LOVE to share. I’m a “heart on my sleeve” kind of guy; though, in my case, it’s more of a “heart on my whole outfit” situation.
So, I’m finally making the effort, inspired by one of my favorite writers (and a friend), Justin Kirkland.
Who is she, though!?
That’s a misleading header, taken and reworded from one of my favorite shows of all time: RuPaul’s Drag Race. My actual pronouns are he/him, and if you have any … issues … with sharing pronouns, then I can already tell you that this ain’t the newsletter/blog/Substack for you, sweetie.
I am a lot of things - many of which I hope to share with you as we move from post to post. To start, I’m a Virgo millennial who loves crossword puzzles, cries at every video posted by @goodnewscorrespondent on Instagram, and hopes to make people think, reflect, and, most importantly, laugh.
I am a former educator - nine years teaching math in DC Public Schools - who had an existential crisis as the pandemic hit and left the profession to prove to myself that I had other skills and talents.
And, generalizations about my love for Drag Race aside, I am a proud gay man who has done some really cool stuff in the name of advocacy and visibility.
Expectations.
My writing, my musings, and what I share here will run the gamut - personal stories, recommendations, advocacy and awareness, etc. I get excited about a lot of things, oftentimes at a rate where it’s hard to keep up (even for me). My hope is to ride the wave of those excitements and commit to this idea of sharing with a broader audience. Sure, I could keep it all on social media, but I’ve started to hate it there. Post after post, tweet after tweet, staged photo after staged photo … it’s exhausting.
Here, I plan to share how I’ve felt, what I’m feeling, and how I hope to feel. And if you’re here, it’s because something I’ve said before or something I may say in the future matters to you. That’s really humbling and I’m quite grateful to have you.
That being said, I can give you no promises on posting timelines or schedules. If the pandemic taught me anything, it’s that time is made up and the points don’t matter. I do, however, want to hold myself accountable to sharing at least every other week, if not weekly. Be my accountability partners on that!
Here we go!
So, let’s do this! This first post is essentially meant to introduce this little adventure to you all, so I have no theme or topic of choice. Instead, I’ll leave you with some of what I’m reading, listening to, and watching, and I hope you’ll commit to joining me. Who knows? Maybe I’ll teach you something. Maybe you’ll reach out and teach me something. Maybe neither and you’ll just get a chuckle or feel like you can relate. I’m okay with any of the above.
Reading
In July 2022, I finally started consistently reading again. Admittedly, I have almost exclusively been reading gay romance books that could be made into Hallmark movies. Here are a few books I’ve LOVED!
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
Hither, Page and it’s sequel, The Missing Page by Cat Sebastian
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Listening
The chokehold that Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” album has had on me, since it was released in July 2022, is still quite strong.
Calum Scott’s “Bridges” album has also not found its way out of my rotation, despite being released in June 2022.
If you’re not listening to Gene Noble, as an empath, I feel sorry for you. Dude is insane. His recent album, “Feel a Way”, reminds me of all the reasons (and more) why I started listening to him back in 2014 after an open mic night in DC.
Doechii recently released the single, “What It Is (Block Boy)”, and Tori Kelly released “missin u.” Both have been constantly playing.
Watching
I just finished the second season of Next in Fashion on Netflix, after a long break from their 2020 debut season. What a cool group of designers. I won’t spoil who won!
On the docu-series and true crime side of things, Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (Netflix) was BONKERS! AND the trial has been happening in real-time. Whew.
I’m getting ready to enjoy season 3 of both Ted Lasso (Apple TV+) and The Mandalorian (Disney+) and season 2 of Shadow & Bone (Netflix).
Leave your own recommendations in the comments below.
Thank you for making it this far. Stick around. This should be fun.
If you think this is going to be THAT good and you’d like to commit to a paid subscription, you can do so below and, if I decide to make this a paid endeavor, you will be charged at that time.