Change the world

Appreciation

Last evening I went to a realtor appreciation party sponsored by one of our local home builders.  Every year they invite realtors to a nice party with free food, booze, and prize drawings. Builders count on realtors to bring their buyers to their new communities, and to show their appreciation this builder has an appreciation party every year.

This year's party was held in a penthouse party room in an oceanfront hotel.  As you can imagine, the views of the beach and ocean were incredible from that height.  I tried to take a selfie in front of the view but there was too much light so the view was washed out.

Several of my realtor friends were there so I took some selfies with them.

The builder's sales reps were also there so it was fun to chat with them as well as my realtor friends.  The food was really good and who doesn't like free food and booze?

Appreciation

We're fortunate to live in an area that is rather progressive, open, and accepting.  For many years our little beach area has been the place where GLBT folks have spent their beach vacations and invested in 2nd homes.  While there are still conservative, narrow-minded people in the state, DE was ahead of the curve in implementing domestic partnerships which mirrored the benefits and rights of marriage (not every state's DP laws are that thorough), and in granting full marriage equality.  This is not something to take for granted, given the recent hateful legislation passed in NC under the guise of "religious freedom".

In addition to my appreciation for living in a state that treats me and Spouse as equal citizens, I also have appreciation for working for a company that treats me the same way.  Many of my colleagues within the company and a few on my team are GLBT.  Our franchise has made the decision to show all kinds of people in their national ads.

In "The Call" a gay male couple is among those who receive the happy news that their home has sold:

In "Moving" a lesbian couple shares a bite of their wedding cake:

While not the focus of the ads, I think its important to acknowledge the intentional presence of GLBT folks in advertising.  I really think it helps 'normalize' us to the general public, showing the milestones in life shared by everyone.  

I don't take for granted that my community and employer contribute to the sense of safety and peace of mind I experience.

The affect of your words

Many fellow bloggers will relate when I say that sometimes it is difficult to know what to write.  From time to time I 2nd guess myself and my topics.  Many times I write about the goings on in my life (visitors, weekend plans, haircuts, home projects, etc) and later wonder if it is interesting at all to anyone.  Sometimes people leave comments on those posts which is a bit of an indicator, but my blog stats always show that there are far more visitors than commentors, so again I sometimes wonder about the level of interest.  When one is unsure of this, it makes one wonder if they should continue blogging.

Two things happened recently that really made me re-examine my blog motivation and re-affirmed my desire to continue:

1. While looking for something within my blog I reread a post where I described a time in my life before I was 'out' or really knew gay people.  I witnessed what I believed to be 4 gay couples having Sun brunch at a diner.  Although I didn't speak to them and they likely never saw me, their very presence there eating, talking, laughing, and just living their (gay) lives had an affect on me.  It made me happy and a little excited.  This was several years before the internet, but I now think that blogging can have a similar affect.  A closeted person might stumble upon my blog and read about me, Spouse, and our friends eating, talking, laughing, and just living our (gay) lives and that may have a positive affect on them.  They may read this and think "I want to have that some day."  Not that my life is enviable by any means - but a life lived openly and authentically.
2. I recently received an email from a reader I'll refer to as "B".  His email in part said "I wanted to thank you for mentioning you were planning to get an undercut hairstyle. I asked my hairstylist if an undercut would work for me. Personally, I think of if as a kind of modified "high and tight" like Marines get. It was a success! My partner loves it, got lots of compliments on it when I visited my family for Mothers' Day and went to church with them (ugh), compliments at the doctors' offices, and compliments at the pharmacy! Thanks again for talking about your life on your blog, because otherwise it would never have occurred to me to try something new."  As you can imagine, this email made my day!  But more than that, it made me see the affect that my blogging can have on others.  The world is a prettier place thanks to my blog!  Kidding aside, B read/implemented an idea found on my blog and has had great results.

Literally as I was typing this post, I remembered another occasion where my blog resulted in good for someone else.  The editor of a small/local newspaper printed one of my blog posts word-for-word in the paper to drum up business for the restaurant I wrote about.  The owners were so happy they framed the article and it hangs on the wall to this day.

So the point of this entire post is:  blog about your life!  Be it glamorous or mundane, you just never know the affect your words might have on others.

Splash

I've written many times about how I sing in the LEGENDS show, sing karaoke, and see national talent like Coco Peru, Miss Richfield 1981, Kimberley Locke, and others at the Blue Moon.  Over the last 4+ years I have become friends with the owners and have enjoyed their generosity on several occasions.

The latest occasion for enjoying their generosity was yesterday.  It was the Blue Moon employee appreciation day at Jungle Jims, our local waterpark.  While the entertainers like me are not technically employees, we were all invited.  The Blue Moon owners rented out the water park for the day and had food and beverages brought in for us.  It was very, very nice!

Despite my living here for over 7 years and having visited here for more than 20 years, I'd never been to Jungle Jims before.  I guess I'd assumed that water parks were for kids.  Well I was wrong.  It was a lot of fun to zip down the multiple water slides and drift down the lazy river in a tube.

It is a pleasure to work with people who appreciate those who work for/with them!  If you are ever in the Rehoboth Beach area, be sure to patronize the Blue Moon restaurant and bar.