Seventy-Six to One Hundred

76. I grew up in Point Pleasant, Pennsylvania. Well... actually outside of Point Pleasant. Suburban Point Pleasant. I was graduated from Central Bucks-East High School (barely) in 1983. I attended Alvernia College in Reading, Pennsylvania, and was graduated with a B.A. in English in 1987.
77. My first job that I needed a college degree to get was working as a paralegal for the law firm of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhodes in Philadelphia. It was really wrong.
78. I'm the youngest of three children. My brother is fifteen years my senior and my sister, now deceased, was thirteen years my senior. I was a total surprise.
78. I have a 401(k). I have no idea what it's down to.
79. I have a fly-paper mind. Odd little things get stuck there forever. For example, in the early '70s, there was a Saturday morning children's show (I was a child at the time) that featured Jim Nabors and Ruth Buzzi as robots who take two young earthlings into outer space. Basically, every week they'd land on a different planet and contend with whatever. At one point, they used a special weapon against whatever villain was threatening them: the Ronald Raygun.
80. You can see the Fort Lauderdale Eagle from the balcony of my condo.
81. I can ride a horse. I like to go fast.
82. After my father dies, I'm going to buy a motorcycle. This plan may sound callous, but I know for a fact that if I bought one prior to his demise, that purchase would cause his demise.
83. I sometimes talk in my sleep. However, I do not snore as far as I know.
84. I am an extraordinarily sound sleeper. I've fallen asleep at rollerrinks, nightclubs, leather bars (the Altar), all the time on the bus. Once when I was in college, I slept through an explosion that had my apartment mates convinced that Reading, Pennsylvania was under attack.
85. I was fairly sexually active as a teenager. Never with other teenagers, who didn't interest me much. Usually I was lying about my age to seduce older men into statutory rape. I was generally the seducer. All of these experiences were wonderful, I have no bad recollections. Some of these experiences were kinky sex. In a few instances, I was the Top, but in general, I was the bottom. (Imagine, if you will, a sixteen year old calling a thirty-five year old guy 'boy.' Doesn't work, does it?)
86. I love being drunk. Not falling down drunk. Not bed-spins drunk. But that warm, gushy feeling of a bottle of wine with dinner? Love that. Tragically, living in New Jersey and recreating in New York City means that I'm driving. I never drink when I have to drive home. O'Doul's Alcohol Free Beer is utter swill.
87. The first gay bar in New York City into which I ventured was Badlands, at the end of Christopher Street. I was 17 years old. All the guys hanging around the bar had looks on their faces like they were beholding the Second Coming when they turned around and saw me.
88. When I'm approached by an apparently one-legged panhandler in a wheelchair I'm always looking for the false bottom. When panhandlers on the subway are affecting spastic walks or limps or whatever I always look at their shoes. If the limps were real, their shoes would be worn in odd ways. Mostly they're not. Whenever anyone asks for my help that I don't know, I'm immediately suspicious. I live in dread of someone getting over on me. That said, it's fairly routine with me that when I'm in a deli or the supermarket and the person ahead of me is counting out change to buy food or diapers or beer or whatever I'll cover them. Similarly, I only give to charities that don't ask for me to give.
89. When I need to do some little thing like buy stamps, it will take me on the average two weeks to remember to take care of that.
90. I am heavily invested (perhaps overly so) in people thinking that I'm a nice guy. The fact of the matter is, I am a nice guy. Largely. (Albert Camus' novel The Fall is running through my mind here.)
91. I am currently serving a one year term as Treasurer of Gay Male S/M Activists, GMSMA. Wish me luck on that.
92. I really really really really miss my sister.
93. I have two incurable illnesses. Luckily, neither of them is fatal, or really cause me any problems of significance whatsoever. One is vasculitis. My immune system attacks my capilaries. The only place on my body where my immune system can do any damage is in my lower legs and feet, as the blood moves more slowly there. Consequently, I've got these brown-purple blotches on my ankles and calves. They don't hurt. The only real problem this has caused me is when tricks get panicky, thinking that with (what they assume to be) kaposi's sarcoma so severe, I'm not likely to last the night. The other thing is hypothyroidism. I have to take a wee thyroid shaped pill every day.
94. I am suspicious of people with allergies. When I was about eleven, I started having allergic reactions to chocolate. I like chocolate, and a life without chocolate was not a life worth living. So I would eat chocolate, get very sick, recover, and eat more chocolate. Eventually, I overcame my allergy. Unless it's something like bee stings, I always thing, 'You can, too! So quit whining."
95. I'm really glad that I'm gay. I've only benefitted from that. There have been no drawbacks whatsoever.
96. I like splitting firewood. It's meditative and has a Zen quality. It works your back and shoulder muscles. And I'm really good at it.
97. I have never, ever been lonely. Perhaps this is a result of growing up without sibilings in the house. Perhaps it's just because I'm such good company. I eat alone in restaurants without hesitation. I love traveling alone.
98. Last thing before I leave the house, I turn to my dog and say, "Now I want you to be a good dog today. That means no barking, no up on the sofa, and no pee pee in the house." I do it because he gets this look on his face of stunned disbelief. I know he doesn't understand a word I'm saying (for example, the only time he doesn't get up on the sofa is when it's loaded down with laundry or something.)
99. I'm a total creature of routine. Ritual might be a better word. It's not talismanic (I don't think that if I don't do it 'right' that bad things are gonna happen to me). It's just that I don't like to have to think about things like, 'Where shall I have lunch?' But it does pose a problem. For example, before I go to the gym, I have to go to Factory Cafe and have a latte. 'Wanna meet up before you go to the gym, Drew?' Uh, sorry, I can't.
100. If I could have any life I wanted--living at any time, in any place, and being anyone I would want--I'd pick this life. I have a great life.