A Grand New Chapter

In some ways it seems like a lifetime ago since I left my partner, my dog and my home on Beacon Hill. That first morning out of the house was strange. I was staying at a friend's in-city apartment while he was out of town. His building was right next door to where we both lived as roommates when I first met my ex nine years ago. That's a story in of itself.

I was reading the feature story in the June 1999 issue of Cosmo, "How to land your man by the 4th." Then on the 4th of July, at my best friend's party on Lakeview, we were introduced by our best friends who were dating one another at the time. As my ex would often explain to people when we were together, I was as drunk as the Lord that day, which was certainly not one of Cosmo's recommendations. But I did look flawlessly fantastic, and I think that encapsulated the majority of the magazine's advice. While my ex and I didn't start dating until about a month after our first meeting, I definitely landed him the evening of the 4th. He was so cute and starry-eyed in those days. Just like that infamous quote from the classic film 'An Affair to Remember,' "Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories ..."

On that first morning after our break up, when I walked out of my friend's front door, I stepped back onto that part of Bellevue Avenue I was only too familiar with as an early twenty-something single. It was as if I had pressed the reset button on my life. That was two years ago almost to the day since I moved back to Capitol Hill, a.k.a. the "gay ghetto." In other ways it doesn't seem like it has been that long at all.

Less than a week after staying at my friend's place, I moved into my bachelor pad a few blocks east from him. This is my last week living in my temporary exile at The Granada, which has quite honestly never felt like home. I have mixed feelings about my move though, most likely because I'm a bit overwhelmed with work and then having to pick up everything I own and transport it to an unfamiliar space in an unfamiliar part of town. On the other hand, I feel like I'm living with ghosts in this place, figuratively that is, and the space I'm moving into is very cool as is the neighborhood, which is about seven blocks from where I currently reside.

Life always comes with its ups and downs. What is truly great is transitioning from the feeling that my life has been in a state of contraction the last couple years to once more being in a state of expansion. Such are the ebbs and flows of life. How exhilirating it is for one to acknowledge their life's destiny is in their own hands and not anyone else's. It's time to turn the page on yet another life chapter. The next chapter of my life will be grand and I look very forward to writing it.