We watched Tarnation tonight. I remember it made a small blip in the news when it came out as it was produced by John Cameron Mitchell, of the fabulous Hedwig fame. Tarnation is a documentary about how a gay man deals with his mother who has had a traumatic past and has some serious mental issues. The documentary is a weird collage of audio recordings, video recordings, pictures with way too many special effects applied, music, and more. It gets better towards the end as it becomes more a video diary of his life with his partner and dealing with his mother. I do have to say that the kid has acting talent, at age 11 he did these little videos in a closet in his house where he portrayed various fictional characters, and he did a creepily accurate impersonation of a white trash woman who has been beaten by her husband.

The weirdest thing though, is when they mention his first boyfriend at 15, Michael Cox. They show only a quick glimpse or two of him. Something clicks in me. The name, the face. Then I realize, oh my god! I knew Michael when I was in Houston! They show him again later on in 2002. So I see him before and after I knew him. By the way Michael, if you ever read this and remember who I am, you look really good with your hair cut short!
It was just bizarre though having a familiar face dropped in the middle of a movie like that. That whole six degrees thing I guess.

It also made me think about Houston. For those of you who don’t know, I spent a summer in college at an internship in Houston. I learned a lot on the job, and I’m so glad I did it. But I did it more because I was discovering I was gay and I was just too frightened to figure out what that meant with so many friends around at A&M. It sounds backwards, and looking back I know all my friends would have been there to support me 100%. But I knew I needed to go somewhere new, where I didn’t know anybody and be completely out, completely gay from the get go.

And that’s how it was for me in Houston, more or less. I wasn’t out on the job, but otherwise I made only gay friends and lived a purely gay, out life. It was great. It was liberating. It also scared the shit out of me going down there. I had the phone number of my first boyfriend who lived over an hour north of me in Magnolia, and the number of a one night stand that hadn’t worked out from six months ago, and that was it. I didn’t know a damn person in 100 miles! Well, the boyfriend only lasted another month or so, but the one night stand actually turned out to be a good friend.

David introduced me to Jeff, Terrence (I think that’s his name….god it’s been too long!), and Michael. These 20/30 something guys who had been friends for years took a complete stranger, a shy, geeky 20 year old who was just starting to come out and made him feel like part of the gang within days. Without them, I would have packed my bags, quit my job, and headed home halfway through the summer. I discovered that summer I could never live alone again, especially with no one I knew living anywhere nearby.

With them I had an absolute blast of a summer. They consoled me through my first breakup…and my second…. I came back to A&M the next school year and I was out, proud, and ready to take on the world being who I was. I wish I’d kept in touch with them. I kept up with Jeff Terreo for a while, but eventually lost touch. I guess it happens. So, to Jeff, David, Terrence, and Michael, you probably don’t realize the difference you made in my life, but thanks!!

Anyway, there’s that little blast down memory lane.