FOR DAVID C

I am going to force myself to have a cocktail tonight, even though I am in the middle of a bad headache cycle and I had to book off sick the other day. I say "cocktail" and not drink...there's a difference. A drink is bourbon while a cocktail is that stuff with the umbrella in it. I am going to have it for David C, who lived for this weekend and Christmas. You see, it is Pride Weekend in Vancouver and he went all out for both. He also loved the summer and his drinks on the deck, where he'd people watch. He enjoyed to people watch and run into "gentlemen callers."

David almost made it. He was a long-term survivor of the AIDS crisis, but the battle became to difficult and he didn't quite hit the right drugs. He lost too much weight at the end. However, he kept a good outlook even there; he thought that it gave him an ethereal look and still spoke about one hot looking nurse.

David accepted me even though I was a boring straight person. He's work on me when I came into town with my friend and he felt like he wanted to go out to a club. He's embellish me with makeup and find something that I could wear. I'm pretty modest and the stuff that I was wearing for trekking about town just wouldn't do to go out.

He was so talented. It was incredible the artwork he could produce. That wasn't his calling. Contrary to popular opinion, he wasn't always so flamboyant. He began his life with a career in the military and as a married man who produced a number of children. He was a Catholic and he never gave up that core faith with wich he had been raised, even though many religious people turned their backs on him. I met his mother after he died and you could see her struggle to understand. I left her my number, in case any of his kids ever wanted to look me up to ask questions about their Dad. None of them ever have.

So, David...something peach and sweet....and i must not forget that umbrella. The only thing missing is the gentleman caller. I will have to make do with the cats.