A little long winded. but that's me!

[chuckhart]

Hi!  I've been a member of MCC since 2000, and not to be cliche, but it isn't any of the churches I grew up in.  In many ways I like that.  I am free to be me.  I feel accepted as I am. I like meeting new people and MCC is nice for that. 

I am 50 years old, born in the year of the monkey in Purdy Washington.  I have lost fifty pounds in the last six months and hit a plateau.  I am still quite heavy at six feet tall.  My grandfather always said, “These aren’t gray hairs, they’re service stripes.”  Grandpa, I must have completed a lot of service because very little of what is left is brown!

Alaska has been my home since 1963.  When I was fifteen an Anchorage Lion’s Club sent me to South Africa in 1972 as an exchange student.  I graduated from Dimond High in 1975.  I graduated from the Cordon Bleu School of Cookery in London England in 1977.  I have made nearly thirty wedding cakes, including Dan and Al’s but I only know of two couples that are still together.  I enjoy cooking for others, but will boil some ramen for just me.

I began my current college degree (BA in English) in 1978 and began a year and a half exchange program in Japan in September 1979.  I am still bilingual.  (Yes, Demon Fox, I know what your name means.)  Other jobs took me back to Japan for a total of roughly four and a half more years.  Always to the city of Nagoya.  I hope to return there to teach English again after I graduate.

I was in a train wreck of a marriage for 17 years for all the wrong reasons, but came out of it with three pretty terrific kids, Sara 23, Becca 19, and Chaz 15.  Becca and Sara are out on their own, Chaz lives with his mother and visits me frequently. 

I came out in 1998 and dated for a while.  I put all of that on hold to get the kids raised, but am thinking of jumping back into dating with the goal of a long term relationship.

My parents have a cabin near Seldovia.  I enjoy going there every summer.  I fish with my dad, walk the mile long sandy beach, if the tide is right I catch an octopus for dad’s bait and one leg for dinner.  I enjoy watching the eagles, especially the time one of them took a massive smelly dump on my poor brother.   Listening to the waves lap the shore is so soothing, and when they are crashing it gets exciting.  We’ve had the cabin since it was a one room box in 1968, dad keeps adding on and I enjoy helping him with that.  Since I’ve come out and since he’s adjusted to that long suspected reality we have grown into the best relationship we’ve ever known.  Even an old Marine Corps Drill Instructor can come around eventually.

My sister Sue also attends MCC and is generous with the hugs.  She is one of my best friends on this earth even though she laughed non-stop for five minutes when I came out to her.  She loves to borrow DVDs out of my obsessively large collection. 

I also collect CDs but do not have them organized.  I estimate I have perhaps a thousand probably more.  I get CDs free at work.  I like Jazz, Classical, Blues, Oldies, Rock n Roll, International, Flamenco, some Country, some Gospel, Sound Tracks, Blue Grass, and others that are difficult to categorize.  I’ve listened to all but the most recent two or three dozen and I’m working on them.  I love to read while listening to my music.  I sometimes get free books at work, and I buy them at yard sales.  I have friends that I trade books with.  As a result I have about eight feet of shelf space lined with books I want to read but haven’t gotten to yet.  Moving this summer was a horrendous chore as Johnathan can tell you.  I am slowly learning not to be such a packrat, but the DVDs and CDs keep coming.  They’re small.

I have five goldfish, and my son's turtle, Zeus.

[Kritter]

Nice to meet yeah! 

[Oni]

Hi ya *waves* very glad to have you. You have alot to say it seems, and I like that. I like reading and listening to what others say. It helps me with somethings that are going through my mind, and I bet it helps others as well.

[electrolass]

Hi Chuckart,

You should meet my partner, Gone Remote.  She is also a packrat.  I am one in training, but I can't help myself and after a while, I start simplifying.  Its a cycle I guess.  I liked your description of your walks along the beach.  I shared a cabin once, and I miss the tranquility of visits to that place.  I like long winded.

Electrolass

[ViewSonic]

Hi and welcome to this wonderful home away from Home. I do hope to see you around more. It sounds like you have alot of knowledgeful things to say.