New Year's cleave

Gosh, this blog has gone to the birds. Instead of having to actually write something, I enjoy the immediate satisfaction of a quick, random thought on Facebook met with many "likes" and multiple cheering posts in response, all that give you a warm, buttery feeling. But I initially started this blog off as an online diary for amusing record-keeping purposes, and it's fit the bill, I tell ya.

So let's review 2011:Many things remained quaintly pleasant, which is a good way to describe my life even now...even though it sounds somehow stale. When you get called "faggot" and "homo" through your formative adolescent years, struggle through your 20-something years to find yourself, and then finally come to a place in your 30s that's a good place, that's a good thing.

Two people in my life, who were really quite unbelievably sweet, died rather unexpectedly. My Uncle Jake, one of the few decent, good people on my biological father's side of the family; and a treasured acquaintance, Denelle. Not to give another plug to FB here, but their profiles both remain--Uncle Jake's by his wife, and Denelle's by her partner, and parent of their son. It's nice to go back and visit their pages when the mood strikes me.

I went back to NYC and took my mom with me, her first trip there. It was an awesome feeling being in a place where I can treat her to that kind of trip, in the same way that New York is an awesome place. "Empire State of Mind" has become our song. Both the rap version with Jay-Z and the solo piano piece with just Alicia Keys, which you should check out if you've not.

Mr. Altherhausen and Maybelline came in to town and stayed at the Mark Hopkins, and we did the Osha and the Top of the Mark with great abandon the last week of December. New Year's eve was not spent at any club or party nor at the Pier's, but with L-Ha dog-sitting at her boss's posh pad in Pacific Heights--and I wouldn't have had it any other way. We had a grand time chatting it up, bashing Whole Foods, and toasting to Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper.

I've made a fortified effort this past year to pay off my credit cards before I make any other major purchases or take any other vacations, and I'm practically there. That mild conservative Republican instinct in me that I'm trying to keep at bay has me watching where my money goes, ya know?

This year will see me half way to forty...but so help me God, I will have found a way to not look it.

Cheers to 2012, Hillers!