Hair Removal!

So, some of you who know me REALLY well know that I have some assymetrical body hair on my right shoulder that I think is super ugly. Well, I have finally started taking the steps to permanently remove it. I went to a hair removal place a week ago on Thursday and got my folicles zapped. I'm so excited. After a few more treatments, I won't have to shave anymore!

It's always been a source of insecurity for me, so I'm so happy to finally start getting it removed. My second session is in a few weeks, and hopefully I'll get another one in before I go to Catalonia... then when I come back, I'll resume treatments -- unless it's not too expensive to continue in Spain, in which case I may get some treatments there... but you can't be in the sun between treatments, so I'm thinking that it might be a big no since I'll be living a five or ten minute walk from the beach all summer.

So anyway, super exciting for me. I may be a teddy bear, but I don't have to be totally fuzzy wuzzy!

Dieting

So I've been on a diet recently. Well, Charles is always on a diet, right? Even more controversial is that Charles is on the Atkin's diet. Holy crap! Isn't that the diet that raises your cholesterol and gives you a heart attack? Isn't that the one that's so unhealthy and everyone thinks is a bad idea?

God, I'm so tired of having to defend myself. The Atkin's diet is completely healthy. All you do is cut out processed sugars and processed carbs. Can anyone really explain to me how that is unhealthy? I mean, people's health has steadily gotten worse since the discovery of sugar and since people started eating all this carb-rich processed junk like chips and such. It seems like a good thing to me to be eating only meat (mostly lean), vegetables, cheeses, some fats (like butter and mayonnaise), a fruit here and there, some berries. Really, what is so bad about that?

To top it off, this is the first time in my life I feel like I'm in control of my weight. I've lost a good twenty pounds since I've begun and it's still falling off. I feel more energetic, I don't feel hungry all the time anymore, I feel more confident about myself. How could someone have the nerve to tell me that I'm being foolish and that this is bad for me?

I know that they are just concerned about my health, but they shouldn't make ignorant assumptions that what I'm doing is unhealthy. I feel better than I have in a long time. I think my body is capable of surviving several months or so without pasta and cake.

Mean people

There is nothing wrong with me.
I am not stupid for what I believe.
Just because people don't agree with how I achieve my happiness, it doesn't mean that I'm wrong.
I don't have to cry because I feel alone.

Driving.

So I saw this while driving around north of Houston. I couldn't resist and I had to take a photo so that I could share it with you guys.

Happy Birthday in love!

Well, yesterday was my birthday. I'm 23 now. Sheesh. I'm like almost 25. I'm almost dead in gay terms.

Anyway, I had a nice birthday. My mommy bought me two pretty shirts and she made me a delicious caramel cake. Thanks to everyone who remember and who sent me e-mails or posted happy birthday in their journals for me. :)

I have to say, though, one person really surprised me.

Remember when I mentioned that I think I have an internet boyfriend? His name is Rubèn, by the way. He's a handsome, charming, Catalan guy who lives in a little city called El Vendrell between Barcelona and Tarragona (25 minutes to get to either one from where he lives). He owns and runs a business consulting firm, he's an economics professor in the evenings (because he loves to teach), he sings tenor in a choir in Tarragona, is the treasurer of big GLBT organization in Catalonia that does lots of outreach stuff, is 33 years old, has a perfect body (seriously, it's perfect), isn't religious, is funny, smart, sweet, a little bit serious, a little bit irresponsible, passionate, and is crazy about me. He's seems perfect to me by what my idea of the ideal man is.

Well, we continue getting to know one another and we talk via voice-chat or telephone every day and still, it seems that we can't get enough of one another. And even when we reveal more and more of ourselves to one another, we actually seem to become more and more fond of eachother instead of scaring one another away like it usually happens. He tells me already that he loves me and he believes that the search is over... that this is it. I think I'm buying it. I think I feel the same way.

Although we have never been with one another physically in person, we've bonded on a really deep level. We have each seen lots of photos of one another and he knows what I look like... he knows I'm chubby and teddy-bear like and he loves me just the way I am. I know he's... well, actually he's perfect physically, so my physical attraction to him isn't an issue. And it seems to me that he likes guys like me, so I'm not worried about things suddenly changing when we meet. He has started calling me his xicot (boyfriend) and his parella (it literally means pair, but in this context it means something more like the person you share your life with or "partner"). I guess I should do the same. I mean, I feel like I have a boyfriend -- just part of me feels like I shouldn't feel like he's my boyfriend since we've never met face-to-face... but seriously, it feels so real all the same.

Anyway, on my birthday, he woke me up when he sent me the following text-message on my phone:

Feliç aniversàri! Espero que tinguis un dia fantàstic. Mil petons per al noi que em té el cor robat. T'estimo.

Translation: Happy birthday! I hope that you have a fantastic day. A thousand kisses for the boy who has stolen my heart. I love you.

"How sweet. I love him!" I thought... and I got up to check my e-mail like I do compulsively every morning. There I found the following e-mail:

M'hagués agradat molt ser avui amb tu i poder-te'l donar personalment, però com això no és possible et faig arribar un arxiu adjunt per a que almenys puguis veure el meu petit regal d'aniversari per a tu. He pogut trobar una llotja on crec que la visió serà bona. Desitjo que t'agradi.

Si vols més informació pots trobar-la a la pàgina del Liceu,
http://www.liceubarcelona.com

Tingues un molt feliç dia d'aniversari.

T'estimo,

Rubèn

And for those of you who can't quite understand Catalan yet, it means more or less:

I would have really liked to be with you today and be able to give it to you personally, but since that's impossible, I sent you an attached file so that you can at least see my little birthday gift for you. I was able to find seating where I think the view will be good. I hope you like it.

If you want more information, you can find it at the conservatory's webpage.
http://www.liceubarcelona.com

Have a very happy birthday.

I love you,

Rubèn

Holy crap?? What is he talking about? I clicked to open the attachment. It was a scanned image of tickets. My goodness, that crazy fool bought me tickets for us to go see the opera "Norma" by Bellini together at the Gran Teatre de Barcelona in July. And the tickets cost him almost 200 euros! Which is like... $250, I think. He's not a rich man and doesn't have money to just throw around... especially not for someone he doesn't know. He just wants to make me happy. God damn. I think he really does love me.

He's so perfect for me. I believe that we're in love. I can't wait until I get to Catalonia in May.

Virtual boyfriend!

Holy crap. I think I have an Internet boyfriend.

I think I like him a whole lot more than I should for a guy whom I've never met.

I hate when this happens.

Three dates?

After three dates... and what? A month and a half between the second and third dates... Alejandro finally kissed me. We kissed so much. He's so precious. I hope I get to keep him for a little while.

Maybe he'll be my midnight New Year's kiss...

Alcohol problem?

Tonight, I went to a bar with Cyril and Amanda. We went to my favorite bartender there and as soon as he sees me, he turns around and grabs something behind him. Turns out, he had a Christmas card for me. When your bartender writes you a Christmas card, does that mean you have a drinking problem? ;)

Anyway, it was super sweet and it made me blush. ;)

Barcelona!

On some days, I feel like I am the luckiest boy.

I have been looking for places to stay in Catalonia with friends on the Internet and stuff like that so that I wouldn't have to pay rent. Well, since I decided that I wanted to stay there for three months, it's been kind of difficult to find enough places to stay because obviously I don't want to wear out my welcome. Two weeks here, three weeks there, two weeks there... hmm... I still need two and a half more months worth of rooms!

Well, I found out that my friend Eugeni and his girlfriend Gemma have an extra room in their apartment and coincidentally are looking for a roommate for the summer. Well, not bad. They pay 600 euros a month and want to split it three ways with a roommate. 200 euros a month is really cheap for a room around there, and since I would be paying, I wouldn't have to worry about outstaying my welcome.

But well, they don't live in Barcelona. They live in a city just outside of Barcelona called Sabadell. Kind of like Pearland is to Houston. It would take me about almost an hour to arrive in downtown Barcelona from their apartment including the walk to the train station and the wait and then the actual ride, it seems. Well, okay... I'm already used to commuting for about 30 or 35 minutes every day to get to wherever I need to go in Houston. No biggie. It seems like that was going to be the plan, then.

Well, today, I was telling my friend Ivan about it. Ivan is my friend from Barcelona who has lived here in Houston for several years.

"When are you going?" he asked.

"In the middle of May until the middle of August," I reply.

"Well, I'm moving back to Barcelona in February. Why don't you just stay in my apartment all summer? I have three empty rooms. You don't have to pay rent, but you can help me pay for food if you want. My apartment there is right in the heart of Barcelona in the highest part of the city."

"Sold!"

Holy shit. This is better than I imagined it could be. And that's 600 euros I'll be saving... which is like... $750. $750 I can spend on partying and travelling around Catalonia.

It's all working out perfectly. Gosh. Let's hope everything continues this way. :)

At peace?

I dreamt about Cláudio last night. In the dream, I was visiting old friends in Brazil and one day while wandering about the city, I ran into Cláudio. I saw him and we made eye contact. I tried to turn the other way because a flood of old feelings that I had been trying to forget began to pour down upon me. But he approached me and found me anyway. He looked at me with those same beautiful eyes that I will never forget and I told him that I miss him. He put his arms around me and he kissed me. I returned the embrace and the kiss. I can't say no to his lips. The whole world around us -- all the cars, all the people walking by -- disappeared and I believed that everything was going to turn out all right. I didn't have to worry anymore.

Then I woke up and cried a little until I fell asleep again.