For my Friends--- I Do Love You All

Well Jim is feeling some better after about 13 hours of sleep, so thank you all for your prayers. He still feels a little sore and tired so let's keep praying he is back on his feet rather fast. We skipped church this morning so to some degree this video maybe made up for it.

This also tho is for all of you in my life that I hold so very close to my heart some longer then others but it is all of you that add richness and fullness to my life and for that I am very thankful "That You Are My Friend"! I guess my mood this morning is just one of thank fullness for what I have.

Maybe it's this time of the year with everything growing and blooming. All the tulips Jim and I planted last fall are in full bloom all 100 of them--Just gorgeous I might add, the hostas are springing up, the lilac is getting its little tiny buds that in weeks will be full fragrant blooms and the wilted grass has been mowed twice already and is so green, and each day I awake I am feeling more blessed and graced to be given the opportunity to live it.

It also could be, because I lost this week an old friend Flloyd (yes his real name) on Tuesday. I knew he had been ill some time with throat cancer but I guess I didn't realize how ill he was till I got the e-mail that he had died. What I can't to seem to remember tho is if he was also HIV+. Not that it makes a huge difference, its just I can't remember.

I first met Flloyd when I moved back to Ohio after living in Ft. Lauderdale for a brief period of time. I was a mere 20 years old, and I just recently outed myself to my family and friends.

I met Flloyd at the very first Cleveland gay bar I had been to. I had been to many before that but in Florida and a few in other cities but never Cleveland. Anyway, the night I met Flloyd he was his "alter ego" Ms. Magnolia Thunder***** (for the faint of heart, or those that take offense easily, I left some of the spelling out). He was a Scag Drag Queen as it is called in the business. For those needing to know what that is--- it is a drag queen but with his beard or moustache and maybe both. Anyway, "Maggie", as friends called him in and out of drag had blue glitter in his moustache and eyebrows in this horrific dress from Goodwill and was getting ready to do this comedy number based on Patsy Cline's "Crying".

"Maggie", being the guy he was--was fond of younger "men" and dressed as he was proceeded to hit on yours truly! I guess I was the dish in my younger days . Nothing ever romantically ever became of it, but we were very close "girlfriends" as he called us.

He was the first to help to start Cleveland's chapter of ACT UP which I belonged too, Queer Nation and the very first Ohio Queen to raise money and awareness to those dying of AIDS in a hospice setting called Kamana House.

He and I with many, many others did what he called "Cabaret Under the Stars" for years with all of the proceeds going to Kamana House. The show of course was in his home bar "The Leather Stallion" and was the seasons first outdoor show and rasied thousands of dollars yearly. How fitting his memorial show'service will be one of the first shows outdoors and I will be their as his friend.

"Maggie" my friend, I'll miss you terribly, miss those hideous and hysterical costumes, the even funnier routines and your tender, giving, caring heart. Rest in Peace my friend and start planning that huge "Cabaret of the Stars in Heaven" when we all get there.

Peace Out-
Charlie