Well I'm a little late getting this out, but here it is nonetheless!
On the weekend of April 16-19, 2010 my personal extended family grew by one. Well actually it had grown a while ago but it was that weekend when it became official! No I'm not a new father, or new uncle....well maybe a new gay-uncle? So, let me explain.
Over a year ago...maybe even longer than that, as I was new and exploring the Blog-sphere for myself, I came across a blog of a young man. There were no pictures on the blog ...which frustrated me.... but I still took the time to read a few of the entries. As I read the blog, I could tell that author sounded like many other black gay bloggers, you know frustrated, lonely, angry, insecure....well you know, basically a little defeated as if he was giving up. I was compelled to write him an email, very empathetic, somewhat encouraging, but absolutely friendly....atleast that was my intent. (I hope I succeeded.)
About three months later, I got a response! =) I almost didn't remember who he was but his email address Moody, (which is what I will call him here) fit the general identity of the author from the blog. He was a little apprehensive to open up to me at first, due to he wasn't out and wanted his business all over the streets of his city. However, there's over a 1000 miles between us, so he figured there wasn't much harm I could cause in his life and eventually we established a familiar dialog, and now we talk almost every day. Earlier this year, Schehimazade, my twin brother as it were, mentioned that he was going to see his "boyfriend," who happened to be working in Moody's city for two weeks. Of course I arranged for them to meet.
That led up to the weekend of April 16-19th. Schehimazade was working in Las Vegas for 3 weeks and we planned to have "brothers retreat/summit" that would include the both of us, Moody, and Schehimazade's little brother, Mini-Sche, And to round out the group there's two friends of Schehimazade's that live in Vegas who joined us periodically through the course of the weekend.
This was of course the first chance that Moody and I had a chance to meet, but it won't be the last. Spending time with him during the weekend confirmed a lot of things that I felt I already knew about Moody. He's smart, honest, caring, fun, and a host of other positive characteristics. We all had a great time, although it wasn't all just party. Schehimazade and I, wanted to make sure that the quartet, who are all only a year apart in age, had the opportunity to engage each other in intellectual discussion and showed a few programs to initiate topics of social problem. I was inspiring and wonderful to watch. I don't think there was one conversation among them the whole weekend about how fabulous or horrible Beyonce, or Rihanna are. It made me proud to know that they could carry conversations that didn't involve entertainment gossip. No we didn't forbid them from having such conversation. So yeah I know it possible and just more likely that those conversations happened either when I wasn't paying attention or I wasn't in earshot of it. But what that tells me is that those conversation lasted in essences a split second rather then being the center.
The Quartet seemed to got a long well, one of the Vegas members was so happy with the experience that he's encouraging that we figure out how to do it again as soon as June or July and want to try it in another city like New York. We'll see....wait I was told I use that phrase too much so my alternative is.....that sounds good but I will refrain from making a decision until I have more information.
So although Moody and I have been talking regularly for about a year now, it was this weekend experience the sealed his fate as being my "BabyBro."
Sincerely,
Pharaoh
PS. Hmm, now that he's family, am I going to have start referring to him as "Prince Moody?" What's your feedback?
