Chilltown Bears

For those of our friends here who haven’t heard, Joe had a stroke on the way to work last Monday.  He suffers from hypertension, and although he’s religious about taking his medicine, his blood pressure shot up unexpectedly and he bled into his brain.  What a terrible day, one of the worst in my life.  I don’t cry much, but I made up for it in that Emergency Room at Palisades General where they first took him.  I was holding up ok until they asked him to sign a form.  He struggled and struggled and I just started to sob, with the nurse’s insincere “you have to be strong” and me yelling back GIVE ME A MINUTE!  All those visions of stroke victims with droopy faces slurring their speech flashing through my head, thinking to myself, our life just took a left turn. Read more »

Today marks 18 years that Joe and I have been together as a couple.  We decided instead of making a big deal out of it we’d treat ourselves to a bunch of little things we’ve been meaning to do, buy, eat, or see.  We’re going to pull out all the stops for the 20th anniversary instead. CARLOS

My mom, Maria Luisa, died too young in 1961.  I was a 10 month old infant, and my brother was a 2 year old toddler.  I wish we had gotten to know her. CARLOS

Furry and at almost 20 pounds, with a belly that sways side to side as he scoots around, vocal and baritone, our 13 year old British Siamese, Toby Wan Kanobe, is a bear among cats.  I ran across this picture of him lounging in an open box of teddy bears as we were preparing table settings for the Metrobears’ Big Apple Bear Fest in August 2003. Thought I’d share it. CARLOS

It was a light day for me schedule-wise and I could see Joe was climbing the walls, so we decided to go for a drive.  We ended up at his office in Englewood Cliffs.  Long drive.  He hadn’t seen his co-workers since he went on disability in mid-February.  Not one person said “Oh, it’s You.”  It was all hugs, kisses, and tears.  A sickening display, LOL.  They’re all like, ‘now don’t come back until you’re fully recovered’… meanwhile I’m like, ‘back to work you lazy bastard!’

Just kidding, really, but it is taking every ounce of strength I have not to turn from Florence Nightingale into Nurse Ratched.  Familiarity breeds contempt as they say.  We’re no exception.  Almost 14 years of our almost 18 years together we’ve been in each other’s company 24/7, first co-owning a business for many years, then after we sold it, going to work for the same employer.  I hear people congratulating other gay couples on their years together, and I’m like, honey, we measure our relationship in dog years!

But I digress.  This post is about chicken– spicy saucy chicken.  On the way home, we drove down River Road hugging the Hudson and decided to stop at Whole Foods in Edgewater for lunch.  I glanced past the salad bar and noticed for the first time an Indian Food bar.  The savory chickpeas were nice, so was the eggplant/potato mushy-stuff, but the Chicken Tikka Masala was *delicious*  Better than any I had ordered previously in a restaurant.  I wanted to bathe in the heavenly stew.

So my latest fixation?  Learning how to cook Indian food well.  The test kitchens are open!  I just located dozens of recipes– even found crockpot ones.  Tum, tum, tum, tum… TUMS! CARLOS