It’s pretty much official right now that I’m on this self-imposed mission to uncover the goodwill of those around me and find out who my real friends are. I don’t know how many of them read this blog, so I don’t feel the need to go into dramatic details. Let’s just say that life deals you some cards. You play them. It works out, or it doesn’t.

I guess in a way, I deserve the negative attention that being in this current situation attracts. When other people have been in this situation, I have shown similar disconnection and lack of concern to their plight (usually people who walk up to me at the Circle K and ask me for spare change). There is a liberating feeling of being thrown into the wild, not knowing where you’re going to end up tomorrow. I am like some sort of hitchhiker on this highway, staring at the sun as it blinds me ever so slightly with its arrays of brilliance and benediction, causing me to ponder eternity and the indemnity of the here and now.

Interestingly, I made a difference in the world recently (I’m told) as Love In Action’s Refuge program is no longer taking teenagers into their fold to pray away their gay. LIA still offers programs involving counseling for teens and their parents, but none of this six-week intensive craziness that made us all lose our cool two summers ago.

OMG!!! Yahoo now offers OMG — as if we needed another celebrity gossip rag on the internet. OMG has proven to be, so far, the 98 Degrees of such webrags to the Backstreet Boys of TMZ and the N’Sync of Defamer. If you fail to care, I won’t fault you.

If anyone has a sofa they’ll let me sleep on, I’m down for it. Email me and let me know — blogpop at gmail dot com. I gotta go do something something now.

1) You’ll never be okay. Even if you’re okay right now, it’s not gonna last forever.
2) When it’s gone, it’s gone.
3) Never settle for second best when third best costs less and does the same thing.
4) Philosophy is for those too weakened by reality and too educated to live on pure faith.
5) No matter how good looking he or she is, someone, somewhere is sick and tired of their crap.
6) It can get much worse. It doesn’t seem like it, but believe me it can.
7) Post-it notes get in the way of actually trying to remember things.
Calendars aren’t just for writing birthdays and holidays on.
9) Eating is just starvation with a reward.
10) You didn’t make it here in one day, so you can’t dig out from underneath in one day either.
11) Even if you fix everything right now, you’ll probably break something else so don’t sweat it.
12) If you’re lucky enough to have good parents who love you, never forget to tell them you love them as often as possible. You’ll remember wishing you had the chance when it’s too late.
13) When opportunity knocks, take a break from looking in the yard for four-leaf clovers to answer the door.
14) Never make a list with thirteen items on it if it can be avoided.

Mid-South Pride Parade
First Congregational Church
1000 South Cooper
Memphis, TN
4:00 p.m.
The parade will start at First Congregational Church and travel down South Cooper to Peabody Park for the Pride Festival.

Mid-South Pride Festival
Peabody Park
2135 Higbee Ave
Memphis, TN
1:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
The festival will feature information booths, food, live entertainment, and the awards presentation from the Parade.