Belmo Joins The 40/40 Club

December 20th is Belmo's birthday and this year marks the big 4-0. You know... 40, otherwise known as the new 30...whatever THAT means!?! Anywho, he began celebrating three days prior to his 40th by spending the day in NYC. Belmo, myself, and a childhood girlfriend of mine, Anitra, embarked on our trek early that morning by catching the infamous Chinatown bus from downtown Philly. What makes the Chinatown bus blogworthy would be the following: a plethora of foul odors such as feces, rotten fish, urine, and bus fumes, the sound of an Asian woman screaming,"TICK-ET! TICK-ET PEESE!" and the way the bus driver weaves in and out of New Jersey Turnpike traffic at speeds exceeding WAY over the limit. We arrived in Manhattan at 10am, criss-crossing the island via subway and making stops in Midtown, Harlem, and the East Village. Before we knew it, night came and we were back on that bus on our way home.

The next day Belmo's sister, Rhea, came to visit as well as help celebrate her baby brother's milestone birthday. Allow me to paint a picture of Rhea. She's the splitting image of Belmo, a compact, cocoa brown shade lady with delicate Latin facial features. However, Rhea's personality contrasts with Belmo's, which is more laid-back, and reserved. A "take the bull by the horns", "she's fired up, she ain't taken no more", "no Roger, no Re-Run, no rent!!!"kind of a woman she represents. To witness the two siblings communicating is a treat.

Later that day, Belmo, Rhea and myself decided on happy hour cocktails at Bump, a "Gayborhood" bar and restaurant where we met up with his friends. In attendance were Chris, a pre-Curtis running buddy, Alex, Belmo's ex , and his on again, off again boyfriend, Marnell, Carla and her girlfriend who we met the week before at Chris' birthday dinner, Peter and his date Chris. Now it's time to talk about the latter two.

Peter is one of Belmo's friends from WAY back in the days of Kurt's, one of the many local hangout spots for gays during the 1980's. He's a Jewish man about 5'5", small build, and VERY wealthy. Now Peter has the reputation of supporting men (black men to be exact) young enough to be his sons in exchange for sex. His date that evening, Chris, was one of those "sons".

Once happy hour ended, we all walked over to the Hyatt located in the Bellevue building for dinner at XIX, the restaurant on the top floor. An elegant dining atmosphere with sweeping views of downtown Philadelphia, XIX specializes in fine seafood cuisine as well as new American entries for one's appetite.

My friend Ian joined us for dinner increasing our guest list to nine. By that time, everyone gave their drink orders to the server, which by the way took longer than I've anticipated. Almost an hour later, our food arrived which was mediocre. Apparently I wasn't the only one who felt that way. With me being a vegetarian, my options were very limited. So limited than I was subjected to eating a caesar salad as an appetizer followed by pierogies as an entree. So one can only imagine the disgust I was feeling not to mention the thought of devouring a whole pizza when I arrive home. After we all ate our dinner, the server bought out a plate of dessert with a lit candle for Belmo only to be snatched away after he made his wish. The server quipped," Did you want dessert for real!?!" As she moves the plate over in front of Peter's boychild, Chris, who by the way had 4 cocktails and isn't even older enough to drink, I was officially over the function. Nothing could have prepared me for the check of $645. Now, I don't know about some folks but "I ain't even trying to spend money for shitty service and a view of the skyline". Peter suggested that we split the tab evenly among eight people excluding Belmo, totalling $81 per person, which I wholeheartedly disagreed with. He can say that with money coming out of his ass, with his "jumpoff" ordering more than anyone else and I ate some fucking pierogies. What the fuck are pierogies anyway!?! I think everyone should have paid their amount for dinner and a fraction of the guest of honor's meal; however, Peter's way won. Yeah there's certain protocol in a situation such as this but "DAMN!?!" Once we scraped our pennies together for the check, we all said our goodbyes in the lobby of the hotel and departed our separate ways.

In conclusion, Belmo expressed his gratitude, enjoyed himself greatly and valued the time spent with those dear to him as he steps forward into another chapter of this book of nonfiction called "life".

What The @#$%!?!

After our whistles have been wet for Puerto Vallerta, Mexico, it has come to our attention that the location for 2008's San Juan Brothas gathering has been changed to Cancun. WHY!?!

Seven and a Half Months To Paradise

Okay we have until Spring 2008 to get our bodies back to what the two of us like to call “icon status”. Icon status represents the human body at its most physical fit, getting in shape with dramatic and permanent results. With that said, we’re committing ourselves to achieving that ambition. Our main motive for accomplishing body consciousness would be for the gathering of gay black and Latino men in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico this coming Memorial Day Weekend. We desire to give the impression of being worthy to attend such an event along with men who are aware of their appearance.
Known as “San Juan Brothaz”, a group of same gender-loving men who are successful for organizing the last weekend in May when men can get together from all over the country to party together in Puerto Rico, these men will host the events in Puerto Vallarta for the first time after years congregating in San Juan. Every year, the “San Juan Brothaz” events and activities grow larger as word spreads throughout the gay black and Latino community. For that reason, the two of us look forward to the upcoming months as we prepare our minds and bodies, for our first trip to Mexico.

Little Red Ridethiswood

Here we go with this shit again. It's that time of year when folks are hacking, coughing, sneezing, wiping snot on each other sending our immune systems out to pasture all because they don't want to put the shorts away and or go outdoors with their hair wet when the temperature reaches freezing point. Come on people.... if the weather can change so can our lack of better clothing options. Three nights ago, I felt like shit. I was fine at work earlier in the day but by nightfall, something happened to me. I was in bed curled up in a fetal position with a fever of 100 degrees thinking to myself, "What the @#%$!?!" I took Theraflu, turned the heat WAY up, and went to bed with sweats on. The next morning, I felt much better. Belmo caught my cold and he's STILL battling it. He likes to drag out a cold kicking and screaming, refusing treatment from me. No matter how many remedies I have for him, he will not take advantage of them causing us to play Tag with a cold. DAMN!!!!

It's Our Anniversary!!!

I was stumped so I asked Belmo… and he didn’t know. What question has the both of us dumbfounded? When did the two of us decide to spend the rest of our lives together? We can remember lying in bed on a cold winter night having a random conversation while the “ Quiet Storm” whispered in the background. We talked about any and everything that night… including gay marriage. I asked Belmo, “What if I asked you to marry me, would you accept the proposal?” He said, “ Yeah I would.” A ten-second pause occurred followed by my query, “Well, how about it?” Belmo accepted.
Fast forward nine months later and we arrive on October 31, 2005, the longest day of both of our lives. The two of us board an early morning flight to Toronto, checked into the Westin Harbour Castle located on Lake Ontario, and fell asleep only to awaken hours later to the anticipations to come. Around noon, we purchased the marriage license from City Hall and returned to our hotel room a couple hours later. We only had one hour to shower, dress, and meet the wedding party in the lobby. Now, the wedding party consisted of five people: Belmo, myself, a lesbian couple, and a female witness. Out of the couple, one performed the ceremony and her partner took photographs. Belmo and I wanted our commitment to each other to be simple and stress-free. We did not want any “hating-ass” family members or jealous friends corrupting our day. Rather than spending our day trying to cater to other folks beliefs and ethics, we decided to include people who either experienced same-sex love or embrace it. We also didn’t want to purchase a “Siegfried and Roy style wedding” with a check our asses couldn’t cash. Therefore, the service took place facing Lake Ontario, gathered a small crowd in the courtyard, and lasted about a half an hour. We concluded our day with downtime in the hotel room followed by dinner at Toula, the rooftop Italian bistro, which featured a 360 degree view of the Toronto skyline as well as Lake Ontario. Lastly, we spend the remainder of the evening lounging in the hotel fitness center’s steam room and sauna before we
said, “Goodnight” to each other. Every year at this time we reminisce about the choices we made together and without a doubt we conclude that we wouldn’t have it any other way.

In The Beginning...

We often get ask the obvious question…”Why Halloween?” People always want to know why we chose Halloween as the day to exchange vows and declare our love for each other. The truth is, we didn’t choose it, it chose us. Three years ago on Halloween night, stars fell out of the sky, the moon turned fire red, and two unsuspecting, hot ,sexy, fabulously nasty( in a Ms. Jackson way), individuals collided. Well… maybe it wasn’t that intense, but you get the picture. The real story is I, Belmo, was standing just outside the now burned to the ground Five Spot nightclub cruising the boys with some friends. I was all done-up in a devil's costume having attended the Henri David Ball earlier. Curtis and one of his friends were driving around in his car also cruising the boys. Long story short, Curtis vowed that night that if I were the devil he would gladly sell his soul. Since then we’ve been corrupting each other every chance we get.
Now that you know the story, be warned…this blog is not for the prude; life’s too damn short for that. Curtis and I live our lives very much outside the box. When it comes to doing the unexpected, we don’t waste time asking why. We simply shrug our shoulders and ask why the fuck not. In the future entries of the blog, we will share the details of our adventures past, present, and future. We will introduce you to some of our friends, and family. We will pose questions that examine the black gay male relationship as we try to make this one work.

These photos were taking in Central Park on 10/13/07. Belmo took me to New York to celebrate my 30th birthday. "A great time was had by both!"