A couple of weeks ago, Max's school was out for spring break, and so Max, Fanficwriter and I went on a major road trip.

Starting from NJ, we went down to Fort Myers and visited with my parents for a couple of days. From there we started back towards NJ, with overnight stops to visit friends. We stopped in Duluth Georgia which is near Atlanta, spent another night in North Carolina on our way to Roanoke Island Festival Park. Then a night in the Williamsburg Viriginia area, one more in the DC area, and then western Maryland to visit my Father in Law. About 3200 miles in just over a week.

Other then Fanficwriter coming down with Shingles... fortunately a very mild case!... we had a pretty good, albiet exhausting week.

But the purpose of this blog is to talk about the night we spent in Duluth, visiting with one of the only friends of mine that knows about Kristine. To understand a little bit, I'll share some background information on how that came about.

I met Karen my freshman year in college. Early in my freshman year, I met a girl named Jamie. In one of my first meetings with Jamie, she made it very clear that we could be friends, but that she was a lesbian. At the time I was still very much trying to figure out how to come to terms with Kristine, and Jamie and I did become good friends, and frankly she helped me to accept myself and who I am. Thru Jamie, I met Karen and several other women that learned about Kristine. Jamie, Karen and her girlfriend actually got me to go out the one and only time I have ever been out dressed. Halloween that year, we went to a gay bar that Jamie liked, and I went, and it was really alot of fun.

Any way enough of the background, as that could be a whole blog, or story of its own.

I had lost touch with Karen for a long time, and found her recently on facebook. It was really great to get in touch with her after so many years. And when we were planning this trip, and decided to make stops along the way, going home via Atlanta, was the first stop I suggested, and fortunately it worked out well for her as well.

We had a nice dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, and then the four of us came back to our hotel to continue our visit.

I had made sure she was okay with Kristy making an appearance, in advance of our getting there, and made sure once again before I went into the other room (I love Homewood Suites when traveling with the family!) and got changed. Nothing too dramatic, I knew we would just be hanging around the hotel room, so it was just a nice sparkly gold light sweater top, and some dressy black slacks.

When I came out, and sat down. Karen said to me that, "You look beautiful..."

Now, I know that she didn't mean this in a literal sense... I know better. But she did mean it, and was not saying it in a teasing way at all. What it meant to me, was that she was seeing ME, all of me, including the part that is usually hidden away, and that the synthesis is beautiful. I don't know if I'm explaining that well, but ... I've never felt that from anyone before. I may also be completely misinterpreting what she meant by it, but it really is not important, as that is how it made me feel.

Don't misunderstand me, Fanficwriter and MaxGoof, are wonderful, and they accept me for who I am, no question, and I'm the luckiest person alive because of that. But for them, I'm husband and father, first and foremost, as is proper, and Kristy is a part of me that is part of that package. I think that Fanficwriter would even tell you that many of the things she loves about me come from my Kristy side. So to be clear, I have no complaints on the homefront!

To Karen, of course, I'm an old friend, and so there doesn't have to be a balancing act between the two parts. It was exhilarating, and affirming. I wanted to share this here, as I suspect many of you would understand. More, I hope all of you will feel it someday yourself, if you haven't already.

Hugs,

Kristy