Such Strangeness.

So I have this weird thing happen to me once in a while.

I will randomly think of someone for no reason, and then I usually run into them. Example: Summer of 2004: I saw a guy that looked a lot like the brother of a friend in Yellowknife. He was much taller than the guy I knew, but it made me think of my friend who, last I heard, had moved to Europe a few years earlier. The next day, on the way home from work, I ran into her on Yonge Street. She had just moved here weeks earlier and had just gotten a haircut that morning after which she was thinking, “God, it would be great if Lance lived here and could fix my hair.” Such strangeness.

Just the other day, I randomly thought of this woman that used to come into the last salon I worked at. She’s good friends with the owners and was there every week or so, just to visit. I still can’t remember her name, and I‘ve not thought of her in over a year. So Friday morning, she pops into my head for no reason, and the thought was gone as quickly as it came. Later that day, I’m just going into the gym, and she’s just walking out. I had never seen her at my gym before.

Going back a few weeks; I can’t remember where I was, but I saw this cute, short haired guy with the smile of an innocent child, and though, “Hey, that looks a lot like my friend Keith from Edmonton. Hmmm, Keith. I wonder what he’s doing now. I hope he’s not still in Manning.” I’ve not thought of or connected with Keith in about 7 years. Then I thought of our mutual friend, Teresa, and wondered what she was up to. Is she still doing hair? Who knows?

So this morning, I’m checking my email, and there is a message:

“Lance!
Okay don't be freaked out, but I tracked you down through a woman I met at a crisis intervention conference from Yellowknife.
It's Keith, from Edmonton, Teresa's questionable sexual orientation best friend. You may remember me from such events as: karaoke at the H2O, staying in my bed when visiting from Yellowknife, or daily visits to the video store when you worked there.
Anyway, I live in Toronto now with my partner of Almost 3 YEARS!! (Holy F! that’s the first time of thought of that). Lots of crazy sheeite has gone down, and I would love to reconnect witchas.
Drop me a line, tell me EVERYTHING about your life in the last 5-7 years, and then lets go for coffee/beer/wine/food/fun in the next few weeks.
Sound good?
Cheers
Keith”

Out of no where. So strange. Guess it just goes to show, that there really is no such thing as ‘Goodbye’, just “See you later!” And, with the recent events of my life, this is the best time for me to realize that.

Keith, I am looking forward to meeting up with you soon.
Robert, I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight.

Thanks to all of you for your kind words, emails, text messages, and phone calls. I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring, but I’m really trying hard to get through these hard times, and see the sun shining through the clouds.

I will get through this, and I appreciate all the love you've shown me. I may be distant for a while, and I may be unavailable, but know that you will always be in my heart.

Please:
Lend a helping hand to each other.
Be kind to each other.
Love each other.
Love Yourselves.

See you soon,
Lance

In The Words Of Helen Keller

- Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.

- When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

- Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.

- Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.

Tim and Matt

While playing around online today, I found this story on Militant Homosexuals. I couldn’t write it better myself, so I just copied it to here.

Enjoy.
…………………………………………………

In 1981, a 13-year-old gay runaway was savagely beaten in a back alley in West Hollywood, California. The group behind the attack specifically targeted homosexuals. After the attack, the victim's life would never be the same. He was fearful of being in public places, even movie theaters.

Fast forward to 2005. The victim is working at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, a place dedicated to educating the public about hate. While there, he meets a former neo-Nazi skinhead who served time in prison for attacking an Iranian couple he thought was Jewish. This man, however, has undergone a personal transformation. He now realizes he was stupid for espousing racist beliefs and acting on them.

Over lunch, the two start talking about their life experiences. They quickly realize they'd met before. Yes, in that back alley in West Hollywood. After all these years, the victim and the perpetrator speak face-to-face. However, this time they're on the same side, both trying to accomplish a little bit of good.

This story is about so many things -- forgiveness, redemption, love, hate -- all the emotions we as human beings are capable of having. That two people could meet like this after 24 years and begin a friendship is astonishing.

What's In A Name?

Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, its not really my birthday, but it is the anniversary of my rebirth.

Four years ago today, I became a Morrison. Yes, yes, yes. It is true. Morrison is not my maiden name. I was born a Haller (much less flair, if you ask me). Morrison is my mothers Maiden name, and my chosen name.

You see, four years ago, I decided to change my last name to my Mothers maiden name, as a Mothers Day gift. I figured that if I ever became famous, or a father, or a dog owner, I would rather have my mothers family name passed on rather than my fathers.

Most people that know me, know that I have very little (read: no) respect for my father. At the same time, I put my mother on a pedestal and have actually applied for her Sainthood… no word yet from the Pope on if she gets it or not.

For any of you men, or unmarried (or modern) women… basically anyone who has never been through a name change… it’s a very VERY weird thing to go through. New signature. Calling yourself by a new name. Having to rewrite your passport application THREE TIMES, due to errors. Calling your High School, College, Social Insurance, Health Care to get everything re-issued. Now, the only thing I have that still has my 'original' name, is an award I recieved for 'Best Non-Apprentice To Obtain Interprovincial Red Seal; 2000/2001" and they wouldn't reissue (racism!).

A lot of work, changing your name is. But I think that the fact that I made my mother the happiest woman alive that day, and had thought of the BEST Mothers Day Present EVER, was worth it.

Love you Mommy. Thanks for being so great!

?!???!?!!?!!?!!???!?!?!???!

It’s nice to know that this is something that is rewarded.

Is there not an environmental equivalent to ‘The Razzies’? Because this ass should get one. As opposed to being awarded $10 000, he should be fined!

My solution: Do as thousands of other people do, stay near work during the week and commute home on weekends. Killing the earth should not be an option.

Trust me: It actually hurt me more than it hurt you.

Yeah yeah yeah…. It’s been a long time since I actually wrote anything of actual real substance. But I have a good excuse. Without boring you with the details, The Boyfriend chipped my tooth while we were out celebrating his birthday. This is where I will pick up the story.

So I went to see The Dentist to get a little bit of filing or patchwork done. Apparently, the chip is too small to do anything (resin would just fall off in a few days, if that) so I’m stuck with a big ass chip in my tooth. Thanks honey!

While further examining my mouth, it turns out that I have a large number of cavities (by ‘large number’ I mean NINE!). He says I’m just prone to them or something, so not only do I get to spend about $2000 on my teeth, I also get to start using toothpaste that costs $12.97 and mouth rinse that costs $11.78. Gosh, I’m lucky.

Oh yeah… I forgot to mention that I have 3 Wisdom Teeth that need to come out. It’s fine with me, I didn’t plan on paying my rent or eating this month anyway.

So my last three days off have been spent at The Dentist office, having him probe my mouth with his tools. Under any other circumstances this would not be such a terrible thing, but…

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about that. Hopefully I will continue blogging on a regular basis soon. There are a few other things taking up my time, but for now I must run to meet The Boyfriend for a movie. And yes, I’m making HIM pay. He owes me.

Too Much On My Plate.

Happy Birthday, Baby.

I hope you have an amazing year ahead. Fill it with joy, love and happy memories. I hope you like the gift.

With Love,

Lance

Know what?

I feel GREAT!

Without the use of fancy pictures and links and quotes and shazamm... I just wanted to let everyone know that I just feel so bloody fantastic right now.

I have a great life, and I think that everyone ought sit for a second and think about how often we DON'T sit for a second to realize how much we have and how good things are.

Lots of love everyone,
Lance

Smoking Update.

While we’re on the subject of updating, I thought I'd update the status of My Quit!

Since I last updated, I have fed the Nico-Demon (pictured) ONLY ONCE (and it was only one puff at that). Besides that here are my stats, to the minute of posting:

Time Smoke-Free: 93 days, 1 hour, 51 minutes
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 2327
Lifetime Saved: 17 Days, 18 Hours
Money Saved: $744.00 (That’s almost one months rent!)

Once again, thanks to QuitNet for keeping track of the stats for me. Any smokers who are trying to quit, click the link. It's a great resource.

Weight Training Update.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my progress in my quest to be a world champion body builder. Actually, I’ve never updated since I first vowed to bulk up. Actually, I’ll never be a world champion, either. Actually, I suppose that whole first sentence is a big fat lie then. Hmmmmm. Wow, I suck.

At any rate, this evening I was granted a visit from Cell Phone Boy, whom I never see anymore since he went and fell all in love with The Comedian. I’m once again shoved into second place, but that’s not for here. We shared some wine, and then we did what gay boys love doing best of all…got undressed and broke out the measuring tape. Well actually, it was only me who undressed. And I wasn’t completely nude; I just got into my underpants. And all we really did was measure my muscles, not my dirty parts. (Don’t forget, I have an aversion to inappropriate nudity.)

So anyway, here are my NEW & (somewhat) IMPROVED measurements. I’m in week 10, so just under half way to the end of my challenge.

Chest: 40.5 inches +3.5
Shoulders: 46 inches +3
Arms L: 13.5 inches +1.5
R: 13 inches +1.25
Waist: 32 inches -2
Hips: 39 inches + .25
Thighs: 22 inches - .25
Calves: 15 inches No change

Not bad. Not bad.

Bigger changes will be seen in the next 10 weeks though. Oh yes, there will be bigger changes. Oh oh… I think I might be getting obsessive about this again. But you know what they say… better to have obsessed and have a huge chest, than to have never obsessed at all.

Happy Birthday Zack!

Today is the first birthday of my nephew, Zakariya Abdullahi Ahmed.

Here are a few pictures of the cutie:

This is him when he was first born, in all his cute-as-a-button-ness:















This is one of my favourite pictures of him. Not sure why he looks so surprised:



















Here is the most recent one that I have. Looking like a little man:

Happy Birthday, Zack!

What the....

“It’s not you, it’s me!”

What? Can you be serious? That’s the oldest cliché in the world, but those are the last words I heard The Boyfriend say to me last night before I went to bed. Well, actually, the last words he said to me were, “Don’t call me for a while.”

I have no idea what just happened. He called last night and we were having a great (what I thought was a loving) conversation, and then suddenly he just stops and suggests we split; with not real explanation as to why.

I’ve been up all night trying to figure out what his reasoning is. But it seems that crying all night and lack of sleep do not help you think clear enough to figure things out.

Anyone out there know why this happened?