BELATEDLY GIVING THANKS
It is Sunday, and I am home. What a bitch of a trip. But let's not dwell on the getting-to-Rochester details, ugly as they were. Let's look at the positive.

Now, more than on Thursday, is the perfect time to give thanks. This year, I am thankful for:

* Another year in which New York City had relative peace.

* The good fortune of having been born in the United States of America, which -- for all its faults -- is my love and my home, and has the added benefit of a governmental structure that allows us to throw the bums out on Election Day when we get out of our smug lethargy... which we largely did this year.

* A great job, which I sometimes forget to be thankful for among the petty quotidian headaches. Reminder to self: many people have jobs that kill their souls; be thankful you have one that only sporadically annoys you, while offering you innumerable opportunities to improve the city you love.

* A family that makes me crazy sometimes, but is still there for me, even though I'm the most neglectful son/brother/uncle ever. Spending time with all them, in various permutations and combinations over the weekend, was a delight.

* Good friends. The old -- Mike (fka Mboto) & Beautiful Bob, Mark & Matthew, Brian (& Wayne), Chris & Mark, Lynette & Kim; the new -- my Stooges and the Stooge Boyfriends; and the bloggers, who know who they are.

* The good fortune to have a third book published, and the editor and agent who have been willing to patiently nurture my talent... or, well, whatever it is I have. And I'm also thankful that, in the past two years, I started to be accepted as a writer by my peers in the writing community, after years in which I felt like an outsider. Or maybe I've just gotten less shy. In any event, thanks to Becky Cochrane; Timothy J. Lambert; Greg Herren; Michael Connor at InsightOut; Randy Ham at Hastings Books; Mary Kay, Heidi, and Deacon at Lambda Rising; Kim, Cecilia, and Jeffrey at Oscar Wilde Bookstore; Andy Zeffer; Stewart Lewis; all the booksellers at Borders, B&N, etc.; and everyone else... especially the people I've forgotten.

* People like Byrne, Wayne, Jeff, Greg, Patrick, and Doug, who stepped up to the plate and helped me get When the Stars Came Out into shape before I submitted my final manuscript in early March. I can only imagine what they thought when I gave them that train-wreck three weeks before it had to be finished, but they accepted my assurances that it would come together and it did... thanks in no small part to of their feedback. I love you guys!

* Penultimately, thanks to JetBlue for finally getting me to Rochester on Friday (two days after I tried to leave via US Airways), and even more thanks to JetBlue for getting me out of there this morning.

* The final thing I'm thankful for? I still not only have Bradykins in my life, but -- since May -- he's been living with me in New York. Six months down, six hundred or so to go. And no one has ever been more thankful.


So happy belated Thanksgiving, bitches! Now STFU and GBTW!