New Year - New Hopes

I don't even know how many people even read this thing anymore. I've been so bad about updating, I'd imagine not very many. But at any rate, I figured while I had a spare 30 minutes at work (which is highly atypical), I'd post a little update.

Work is quiet for once, which is nice and I've actually been off quite a bit over the holidays. My family was all in town for a visit which was quite nice. We got to just hang out a lot. Drank a bit, ate a lot. It was nice. I even got to spend some very good 1:1 time with my older brother and I was touched by the deeper connection we shared this visit. We have always gotten along, but as we get older, our relationship continues to deepen which is very nice. My mom was a little more relaxed than her visit last year, she had shed a few pounds, looked great, was in good spirits and seemed to just really enjoy herself moreso which was a joy to see as well.

My bro and sis-in-law bagged 12/20, my mom 12/23 and my bro and his partner 12/24, leaving me all alone to tend to my pup and their two as well. Their successful co-mingling is recent and makes it possible for us to watch the dogs for each other and also if I'm going to just hang out a bit at theirs, then I can bring Chucklet along and she gets to see some peeps and pups too. It's a win-win as far as I'm concerned.

As you might well imagine, it was a bike-y christmas for me - I got some really cool stuff all the way around, from butt butter, to really cool safety lights (Frogs), a Camelbak (<-- link), sport/cycling sunglasses (with interchangeable lenses!!), a new jersey, rad socks, etc. And I got some cabbage too, which for me is never a wrong answer.

Things with the guy are still really great as well. He's been off work this whole week and we turned a Monday cook-dinner-and-spend-the-night date into a sort of 2-day mini no-travel escape. We hung out at my brother/his partner's beautiful home, cooked, watched movies, had Christmas morning breakfast treats at my sis-in-laws' house, shopped sales a little bit and just shared the largest amount of time together continuously that we ever have to date. He brought me gifts (not necessary but so generous!!) that were sweet and thoughtful. It really felt like we were on a mini vacay together - a bit like paradise only without the beaches and sunsets. :) I enjoy him and our time together SOOOO much. And for once in my life, I'm taking it at the right speed. It still feels weird to be going "slowly" and I sometimes get squirrely about it, but I know it's right for right now. And he feels the same.

I am going down to SoCal for NYE to see my buddies Philip and Craig. That should be fun. We will chill out and also go to a party on 12/31 that a friend of theirs is having in Beaumont, CA. It'll be nice to get away just for a few days!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwaanza or whatever you celebrate. And I wish everyone a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.

Loving you bitches,
XOXOXO
G Boogie

Let's Ride, Clyde, Part Deux

So even though I barely find time to post to my original blog here, I've started a sister blog. Crazy, you say. We can't even depend upon you to post here - how can you keep up two?

Well - my companion blog is going to chronicle my training escapades in gearing up to ride in AIDS LifeCycle 7.

You can get there by going to www.letsrideclyde.blogspot.com (<-- link)


TO DONATE TO THIS WORTHY CAUSE - PLEASE VISIT MY FUNDRAISING HOMEPAGE

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Gandhi

Lollipops

Ok - I couldn't stand it - so I went to Sports Basement today and spent another almost $500 on additional supplies, but got lots of goodies: padded bike shorts, two cycle jerseys, a bento box (for storage), chamois butter, a light for cycling at night, and these beauties:



They're my shoes, and then in the second picture the top piece is the actual pedal and the bottom piece is the cleat that is attached to my shoe and where I "clip in" to the pedal. I'm going to keep track of how many times I fall over trying but unsuccessfully clipping in and out. It's inevitable that it will happen. But they will increase my efficiency and speed... WOO HOO.

I'm definitely going for a ride tomorrow. The weather has been CRAZY fantastic this weekend.

UPDATE: So I didn't get out for a ride today, b/c today was all about organizing and cleaning my apartment. It was WAY overdue. But I did get the pedals put on my bike and got out in for about 30 mins in a parking lot near my house to practice clipping in and out of the cleats. I ate pavement twice. I can only imagine how ridiculous it must look to passers-by who don't know anything about cycling. About a month ago, I would have thought it funny. "look at that dumbass, he's just slowing falling over...!" Twice. That's not that bad. But I have lots more practice to go...

oh and another thing?

Everyone has been telling me how long it was going to take to get my passport... I applied in person at the Rincon SF, CA post office on Thursday, 8/23 at 2pm PDT. I was advised since I paid for expediting that I would receive my passport on or around 9/22. I paid to expedite because without, turn around time is 10-12 weeks and that could possibly preclude me from being able to travel on Thanksgiving. You know, just in case I have an international destination for that week....I'm just taking precautions. ;) So suffice it to say that the arrival of this yesterday (yes, only 8 days after I applied, thank you very much): makes planning to go HERE: that much easier! But it also begins to make this seem like a bit of a need as well:


You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Gandhi

Getting in gear.

So today I got up on some of this:

I tooled downtown to the water and rode the Embarcadero out to the Aquatic Park next to Fort Mason, which for those of you who don't live here is just about two miles east from the GG bridge. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was an awesome ride, traffic wasn't too bad and my knees don't hurt (...so far...) I purposefully only rode as far as I thought I could go and get back comfortably and I also intentionally kept it flat. Today was about going a greater distance. Imagine my delight when I tracked/measured my route and saw that I had ridden 10 miles! To date my longest ride had only been 2 miles... so 10 is a great improvement given that I'm not supposed be hitting 10-15 miles per week over the span of 2-3 rides by mid-October. I'm STOKED!

And now I'm jonesing for these:

Well maybe not this specific type (there are many...who knew?) but I am definitely going shopping tomorrow for clipless pedals and shoes and cleats. WOO HOO!

But first I'm hitting the Labor Day weekend sale at Bloomies and then seeing the Nanny Diaries.

All of this brought to you by the much-welcomed final end to the softball season and a give-back of my weekends.

Peace out and Happy Labor Day, bitches.
LOVES IT.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Gandhi

It's gonna be a bit...

Hey bitches!! Just wanted to let you know that it may be a week or so before I post anything substantial (other than some fun humorous items). Having just started a new job and trying to manage three different time zones now across the world between my brother, my east coast peeps and the italian, life is pretty interesting.

Thank God softball has officially ended. It ended up being one of the highlights of my year but I am also quite glad to get my weekends "back".

But, before I sign off... I should tell you that at a softball tourney this weekend, I had my personal season highlight. In softball, the length of time a game is allowed to go is limited. If time is called but it is the top of a new inning, the inning must be completed so that both teams have the same number of opportunities for at-bats.

So picture this... time had been called in the top of an inning when we were playing defense. So we would get our final at-bat as a team in the bottom of that inning. When we went to bat, we were down 11-9. We scored 2 runs to tie at 11-11. When yours truly takes the batter's box, we already have two outs... and for the tourney, it was a 1-1 rule: every batter starts out with a count of 1 ball and 1 strike.

I took a ball.
I took a strike.

So now my count is 2-2, the score is tied and my team has two outs. FUCK!

The pitch comes and I knock the HELL outta that ball for a good solid line drive single. But that was all we needed - it was enough for my teammate Horacio who was on Third base to make it home... giving us the run we needed to WIN the damn game.

yeah.... I rule! ;0)

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Gandhi

Yes, go ahead caller. I'm listening...

So with this past weekend's events, I've been left a little shaken AND stirred in a lot of different ways. And all of them good. I truly believe any experience that causes you to think and learn is a good one. And I'm surely thinking and learning about myself the past few days, yessirreebob.

I had a friend (B) over last night. He and I had been dating for a couple of months but I recently decided we were better suited to be friends. He wanted to take me out to congratulate me on my new job but I had so many around-the-house chores to take care of that I asked if we could order in and catch up while I did laundry and putzed around. Being out of it last weekend, gone this coming one at a softball tournament and then starting the new job on Tuesday, life is piling up all around me... YIPES!

But, as usual, I digress...

So I told B about Carmelo and the whole weekend...in great detail as I have with a few of you (Bunky, Dminmem, BigSir, Stack, Rev. Brown, etc. Syn and Moby, I owe you a deep-dive (heh....that's funny) so you'll get yours in the end (I kill me!)). He was a bit taken aback and amazed but also a little jealous. And of course, he agreed like everyone has how fucking cute C is. Because he is. I mean, sure, I'm biased a teensy bit, but... whatever.

And we talked about the emotional pitfalls of a situation like this. And he made the same very valid points everyone makes. I get them. But me and a friend were talking yesterday and I repeated a question to him that I've posed to most of you about this and then he quite clearly made a wonderful point as to why that question carries validity.

The situation is that me and Carmelo live a GREAT distance apart. Very true. The odds of this "working out" (whether that means a torrid global love affair for a few months/visits or even something greater) are not stacked in our favor. BUT, the question is, "why not?" Just because he lives in Italy and I am in the US, "why can't it happen?" I'm not saying it will, but why do we have to accept that the current geographical circumstance will be the permanent one?

So then the point is made to me yesterday in a conversation with my friend Auntie P as to why this question becomes valid. I live in a major metropolitan city which is definitely skewed in my favor with the concentration of gay men who also live here. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a fag. Seriously. And here is where I may lose you based upon your philosophy of love and "the one". I am not entirely sure how I feel about "the one" concept. I think likely there are two, maybe three people in the world living at this time that are BEST suited to be my partner in life. I think what makes one of them become "the one" are things like chance, timing, location, attraction, etc. Factors... But given all that chance I do think the universe pushes us in directions, helps to guide us in the right direction. Sometimes it is quite subtle (or maybe we just aren't listening) and sometimes it is as subtle as a bull in a china shop. All this said, just because I'm in a large gay area, why does that mean that one of these two to three people is living here in San Francisco at this very moment and that I will meet him? Sure, the odds are better that I find someone to share my life with here as opposed if I were living back in Alabama. But do you take the bet just because the odds go from 1,000,000:1 to 500,000:1? True, your odds just doubled but, as my ex used to say, "the odds are good, but the goods are odd."

So who is to say that one of those few people doesn't right now live in Rome and at this very moment is not vacationing beach-side in the Milazzo area of Sicily, telling his sister all about me and our adventure thus far? Who's to say that the universe didn't push me into that random bar that I NEVER go in last Thursday? Who's to say it didn't also push him into that same bar (which is decidedly NOT a tourist attraction bar!) a mere few hours after he put foot on SF soil for the first time in his life so that we could meet? Who's to say I'm not listening?

All I can really say is that I for one am tired of asking "why". It's about time I start asking "why not?"

To those of you who have voiced some concern over my being careful with my emotions in this situation - I do appreciate it. But just know that although this all does sound very Nora Ephron-esque, I am listening VERY intently. This situation could be about me finding my life partner or it could be about mending and teaching my heart. But in the end, whether I take an Italian lover or I walk away having learned something about myself that I didn't know before...and I walk away with a heart more open and more capable of true love than it ever has been before, do I really lose?


"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Gandhi

blindsided

Life can be so interesting some times....

Meet Carmelo. 31, the face of an angel, a Fashion Designer, speaks fluent Italian, originally hails from Sicily.






Problem? So far the only one I can see is that he lives in ROME.

We are currently under negotiations to see if we can maybe meet in New York in the next 4-6 weeks and then go from there...

ALC7, BITCHES!

Start your "Support Gina" piggy bank now, bitches... is all I'm sayin'.

because now THIS is happening:

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Gandhi

the emancipation of gina

It's hard to believe that it has already been one year (today!) since I ended my almost five-year relationship and embarked upon changing my life into what I want it to be.

One year later, where and what am I?

-living in kick-ass San Francisco (West Coast RULES!)
-still chillin' with my girls Lucy and Charlie
-missing my Right peeps, but diggin' my new Left ones
-volunteering
-softballing
-funner
-funnier
-self-confident
-still clean
-smokeless (one year 10/2/07 y'all)
-NOT sober (hey, I get to keep one vice!)
-HAPPY
-ready for __________

What a difference a year makes!

One love, 0ne Gina, 0ne Boogie...
XOXO


"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Gandhi

late to the busstop

but then again - what's new?

Ok - I JUST saw this. Yeah, I'm sure everyone else and their goddamned grandmother have already seen it... but it was fun.

Can I be Yook Sin Lee in that scene where her husband is boning her in the opening? He's yummy and has a really nice piece. Too bad she couldn't get her piche off...

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Gandhi

SF Pride - Sins Style (this one's for you, Rhoda)

So this was my first Pride in San Francisco. I had a nice mix of personal frivolity along with some good volunteering both for ALC and my softball team. I also got to make out with a super hot muscleboy a lil' bit, so that was moist.

Here's some pictures of us at the fundraiser - along with our sister team and all-around drinking buddies, the SF Thunder. They are an awesome group of guys, almost as kick-ass as my teammates.

More on ALC booth later.

This was a booth at the festival. Still not entirely sure what it is all about. But I like it....

Here's me making out with the Cuervo poster in our booth. No, this is not the muscleboy to which I refer playing tonsil-hockey with earlier. That one was REAL, bitches.

Our Ladies of Perpetual Thunder: Chuck, Judy1 and Judy2

Here's the Lady Standridge modeling the front of our super-sexy new practice/fundraising t-shirts, made in large part possible by the fine lesbotronics at QUEER REPUBLIC TEES (<--link) And here is the back of the tshirt, modeled by Flipey.

HOT.
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Gandhi

Rough Rider

Yep - that's me, waiting to get my ATV to rip-ass around the Pismo Dunes yesterday. It was CRAZY amounts of fun. I almost launched over the handlebars about 4 times. But luckily I'm in one piece. But dang do my back and shoulders ache today.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

-Gandhi

I can't believe its over...

The really bad picture is of my darkened hotel room in LA taken from my treo. I can't believe its not the inside of my tent at ALC6 in some campground.

I can't yet put into words an accurate description of my experience that will mean anything to those who have not done the ride. What I can tell you is that this has been the second most important decision I've made in my life ... the first being my move from NYC to help care for my dying father some 10 years ago.

I can also tell you that I made friends in the span of 7 days that I plan on keeping for the rest of my life. Everyone was so wonderful but some of the standouts were Randy, Nicole, Ruby, Blake, George, Joe, Jim.

And to the people I now consider part of my family...Philip, Terry and Stacie, I LOVE YOU!!!!

No computer for another few days - so that's prolly all for now.

More on ALC6 and BBCS Vol 2 coming soon.

Love yourself.
Love each other.

-GBoogie

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

-Gandhi

LET'S RIDE, CLYDE

Well... after talking about it, begging for donations and a few good cries over the overwhelming generosity of folks like my friends, family and my blog family, AIDS/Lifecycle 6 kicks off tomorrow. Me and Bunky finished packing around 11pm tonight.

Day 1 looks roughly like:

4:15 am - wake up
4:45 am - cab arrives
5:00 am - arrive for gear bag in-take
6:00 am - opening ceremonies
6:30 am - ride-out
7:30 am - board bus
9:00 am - arrive Camp 1 - Santa Cruz
4:00-9:00 pm - serve dinner for day 1 to all riders, roadies and staff

Yeah - a long day. But I can't wait. After dinner in the Castro this evening, we had to stop in Walgreens for some last minute items. We kept running into riders and roadies (we all have matching flourescent orange and yellow ride ID bracelets on that we must keep on for the duration of the event) and its like we're all a big pseudo-family already. The camaraderie is phenomenal.

Any way - now its almost midnight and my available sleep window is getting smaller by the moment and I still need to shower before hitting the hay.

Here's a pic of our route over the week in case you're interested.


I'm sure it won't be a surprise that I won't be posting until I'm back in SF almost in the middle of June. But be good to yourself, be good to others and think of me and the nearly 2,499 other riders, roadies and staff members of SF Aids Foundation and LA Gay & Lesbian Center as we make our journey south in the hopes of one day ending the senseless pandemic that is Hiv/AIDS.

One Love,
Gboogie

Gina's At Bat on the Berfday

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

thirty-six on 4/29, y'all

At my birthday dinner on Friday with family and closest SF friends, one dear friend asked me:

"...what does 36 look like for [Gina]?" - to which I responded:

"athletic [in a clean boxy space]. it starts off fat, but ends skinny. single. outdoors. it starts off slutty, but ends in dating. the mouse movement is gaining momentum. learning. growing. hopeful."

Happy Birthday to me, bitches!

739

A treo shot from Giants Stadium on Saturday with Big Sir - my first SF game, SWEET seats thanks to a friend at work... and I got to see Bonds crack his 739th career homer for the Giants' only score. They beat the Diamondbacks 1-0.

it ain't easy...

I've been turned on to a great song... so now I'm sharing it with you:

Sideways - by Citizen Cope:
You know it ain't easy
For these thoughts here to leave me
There's no words to describe it
In French or in English
Well, diamonds they fade
And flowers they bloom
And I'm telling you

These feelings won't go away
They've been knockin' me sideways
They've been knockin' me out lately
Whenever you come around me

These feelings won't go away
They've been knockin' me sideways
I keep thinking in a moment that
Time will take them away
But these feelings won't go away

I was discussing the meaning of the song and my perception with "someone" the other night. He was telling me he feels like it is a somber, not-so-happy song. I think the music, the tone, the quality of this dude's voice - sure, not super happy/fun like an up-tempo Kylie Minogue frothy hit. But I also think it is not necessarily melancholy.

Listen to it. MANY times. God knows I have. I LOVE this shit. But I feel like its merely someone describing how he can't get away from a strong feeling about someone. He can't shake it. His feelings are throwing him for a loop.

But is that necessarily a bad thing?

I don't think so. I'm trying to feel my feelings instead of manage them in my brain. Its fucking scary. Terrifying actually. But the exhiliration and just plain old fun I'm experiencing lately is pretty awesome.

Unless you want us playing in the nude...

if you live in SF and are queer or queer-friendly, come out and help us make some paper: