President Franco and The Miami HEAT!

At the spur of the moment, I decided to drive to Miami on Thursday instead of Friday afternoon as the anticipation of seeing James Franco at the poetry event was making me more anxious. So we drove down to Miami on Thursday evening, stopping in West Palm Beach to see my friend, Pat, then finally driving down to find a hotel in Hollywood and crashing after the sun-filled drive. We finally found the hotel within reason and within the budget of very little cash on hand. I showered, which felt amazing after sweating in car all day, then fell asleep so that the time of meeting Franco would be there faster.

Morning arrived and we set out driving down the A1A to Miami Beach where we finally decided on parking at the event parking garage and walking around Miami Beach. It was SO hot, only reached 86 degrees but felt like 100 with the sun scorching down on my fair skin causing slight discomfort and sweat-athon! We walked around Miami Beach, up and down every street as we arrived 8 hours before the event. Our eyes laid upon the most beautiful men, women and children we've ever seen. I had lived in Los Angeles and Houston, but yet never seeing any beautiful people like we saw. The men were perfection, so many ethnicities that caused my heart to flutter as I could only imagine having one minute with any of them. The heat was unbearable, there was people everywhere, we kept walking all over eventually walking to the beach where there were flocks of people from all over the beach, beautiful waters, salt like sand and Baywatch lifeguards that could save my life any day. Even saw some topless women just sunbathing in the sun, kinda took me back a bit to see that as I wasn't expecting it.

The day was slowly passing by as we continued to walk all over and we did not have the funds to enjoy food and water as much as we wanted too but we managed and later hung out at Starbucks until closer to event time. After a spit bath in the bathroom, I was ready to see James as we headed over to the event. It was a beautiful Symphony Hall and we waited in line to get in, they let us in and my nerves were on fire as we were an hour away from seeing James perform poetry with two other poets.

The event began, we were seated as I was on edge of seat awaiting for James to arrive, only to find out that he was still in the air with no ETA for his arrival in Miami. The first two poets continued reading for just over an hour and then the worse news of all, "James Franco will not be here tonight, his plane was re-routed to Orlando due to President Obama flying into Miami International but if you stay we could try to get him to Skype in"

My jaw dropped, I had tears in my eyes and could barely breathe. Here I spent my last dollars to get down here, faced my anxiety and fears with driving a long distance, dealt with hours of the sun and money for tickets to NOT see him. I was devastated. Many of the fans who were there just for James left as we hung around, because I had this feeling, something was brewing within, then it happened. The announcer came out and said, "If you can wait a little bit longer, James Franco is in route from Orlando to Miami and will be arriving at 10:00 PM" - alas! I had a sigh of relief to know he was coming. "He will not be reading any poetry but he has agreed to do a book signing for Palo Alto for everyone who stays" - I just smiled from ear to ear yet disappointed he wasn't there for his, what could have been, hour long poetry read.

I ran and got in line right off bat and was like 8 people back from front of line. We all waited patiently for the arrival and after about an hour of waiting in line, he arrived.

He was so tired. He looked beyond exhausted. He looked mad and disappointed. Yet five feet in front of me was the man I have loved for over 10 years and he was here! We all had our books open and ready for autographs. I was sweating, shaking and so nervous here is this amazing actor, Oscar host and Academy Award Nominee, student, teacher, writer and over all amazing human, finally...right in front of me.

I walked up and he looked up after signing my book and as I told him, "You made a grown man cry, thanks so much for getting here," he replied with "Thanks Douglas for waiting" and that 30 seconds was over and snagged a couple quick pictures and was escorted out of the hall. I looked back in the building at him and just was in awe that he made this happen for his fans even with the untimely arrival of the President that caused what I had waited months for to be short lived but still well worth it.

I no sooner got in my car and was driving home 4 hours to the other coast of Florida, facing every demon inside with the anxiety of driving long distance but with the fuel of Franco in my blood, I made it home safely and fast asleep.

We were told they would be giving refunds for the event and I plan on asking for that because he was the sole reason I made this adventure. So bottom line, Obama caused this delay and change in a once in a lifetime experience, but over all a great experience and thankful I had that "moment" with Franco.

Special thanks to James Franco News http://twitter.com/JamesFrancoNews and on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/James-Franco-News-giftaways/125870137491431 and to O, Miami http://twitter.com/omiamifestival for the festival!

@ItsJustDouglas

It's Break Time

I have come to a time where I feel I am going to scream within from social media obsessions. The social media sites we love (to hate) of Twitter and Facebook have consumed my time creating major distractions to things I once loved to do including reading, writing, socializing, interacting, watching tv and movies. I have become so addicted to the sites posting my every thought, sharing links, comments, status updating literally every second of the waking day that I have come to a point where I must put down the laptop, close the sites or turn off the iPhone where I spend 90% of my day since being out of work.

It has to stop, it has to completely stop, and learn that do my tweets even mean anything to anyone else? Do my Facebook status updates really matter to the reader? Are the people who follow you or your FB friends really care about you, yes some of them do, but it's like a popularity contest on Facebook anymore, people add hundreds and thousands of "friends" and why? Is this high school all over again? I believe it is. I had recently deleted over 400 people from Facebook to only keep the people that actually interact with me. I am not going to delete Facebook, nor Twitter, but I must slow down and go back to enjoying non-electronic induced fun again. I know that society now has the biggest A.D.D. ever with these sites, I have my phone in my hand more than anything all day, from posting tweets, updating FB, playing mobile games, texting, using GPS, googling something, it's just crazy. So, I had a breaking moment today where I said I need to slow down, but wont delete them (yet)

Being off work for the last four months it got really bad, because when I work, I work, come home, cook, watch tv and go to bed, but since I am literally addicted now, I need to start backing off NOW before returning to work so that I dont use it at work, and get caught, putting myself at losing my job because I had to see who tweeted? Really!?

Am I being a bitch? Am I an asshole? No, I am just venting because I am worried about the future of our society as we have become so disconnected from each other. People rarely call other people, we all text each other, or tweet and Facebook. Now, going out with friends here in town, to a restaurant or a bar, everyone has their phone out non stop, how can humans enjoy company as we once did if all we are doing is being rude to each other by being on the phone ignoring those friends that we love and have spent so long trying to build friendships. Can't we put our phones down for a couple hours and enjoy each other for a change? Can you try it with your friends? I was a bar on the dancefloor recently and majority of the people dancing all had their phones out checking their latest Grindr application (a gay GPS based profile app to locate gays in the area that normally want to hook up) - I mean REALLY, can't we just dance and enjoy the music, well I know I am from now on.

Even watching tv now has # (hashtags) now such as Glee last night with #Glee on the television, meaning for you to go to twitter and follow the show via the #Glee hashtag on Twitter. For those who know me, I have always been a movie fanatic, but the last six months or so, I always have my phone out or laptop out and miss most of the show, and have lost interest in movie watching unless I am at a movie where I dont take my phone out at all.

I am frustrated with the quality of life I have succumbed too, the addiction to knowing everything, posting everything, this also stems from my previous addiction to the online dating sites and gay sites that I used to obsess over trying to get that little attention from anyone possible I could get any from. Being that I am not quite the typical homosexual, those sites do NOTHING for me and I am not satisfied from the staring at those sites day in day out because I am not stooping to nor changing who I am to be that low of a person to hook up with strangers for meaningless sex. For those of who you who love the sites like grindr, Adam for Adam, gay.com, bear411 and all those sites, go for it, it's what you enjoy - but I am also just stating my opinion that there is so much out there than sitting behind a keyboard, laptop, mobile device on those people who really amount to nothing. Just broken promises, broken attempts and failure on their end. Majority of them post pics of their torso leaving nothing to the imagination, oh yeah once you get that one night stand from them, they vanish. Simply, a waste of time.

Any take aways from this for the reader, if anyone does, not really, just my opinion of the social media craze out there and my open acceptance of my addiction to it and where it has ruined my life and I must reclaim my life and get back in touch with me without sharing it all with other people.

Thanks for reading...agree? disagree? leave a comment...

d.

OMG!

In two weeks, I get to meet my favorite actor, James Franco, down in Miami! I am SO excited you dont even know! Ill post pictures from my trip and hopefully Ill get his book autographed! (below and link to purchase)

EVENT LINK FOR MIAMI!

http://www.nws.edu/eventdetail.aspx?EID=475



http://www.amazon.com/Palo-Alto-Stories-James-Franco/dp/1439163146



Can't friggin' wait!

Thoughts, Ponders and Wonders

Three months, almost, here in The Sunshine State...has it been all glam and glitz? Nah. The truth is that no matter where this body goes, the mind still has to deal with the undealt with, the past, but while I am working on my present for my future to be better; I still have the battles within. Has Florida been a good choice? Yes. By all means, this place is a paradise of many sorts.

I have met a handful of great people in my life now that I consider as family, and met other acquaintanceships as well. I have seen many beautiful things including the sandy beaches of the Gulf. Just a simple visit to the beach can clear the mindset that may clog me on a negative day. I'm happy yes, but I have been out of work for almost four months and start my new job in just a couple weeks, then life will be back to the grind of the daily in and out of life; yet I will be happy for that because being off work for four months I have grown so bored with life even in the new city where there are many of things to do but yet to me, sitting at home, being online and watching tv and movies is just as simple as things can be. I like the simple life, no need to be out and about every night. Just do what makes YOU happy and quite frankly doing nothing at home is my kinda day.

Yes, I could have done that back home in Indiana, but there was no future of employment there, and I needed to be in an area where I could meet and create a family for the future. I am haunted daily by the situation with Chase, I thought I could be all big and bad and tough regarding the decision to allow him to return back to his mother, yet I am daily reminded how much I love him, miss him and wished things turned out so different. He hasn't reached out to me, yet I send him a weekly post card to let him know I think of him and love him so very much. I'll never stop.

Then came my cousin, Maurice, who moved here just a few weeks ago, which has been a great addition to my move. We will be getting our own apartment in the summer; while he is here it's been fun to laugh, and have someone I trust to hang out with along with the other folks I have grown into my family tree of Florida. I miss my mom a lot, she's dealing with her health on her own up in Indiana, and hope she can get to an even health so that she can come down and visit us when she's better.

End of the day, this is my life, I have been quite brave to move all over the United States since 2001 embarking on never ending adventures that has helped me grow as a human. Many people never leave their comfortable life in their little towns, and yet I ventured out and created so many memories I can even imagine from Houston, Los Angeles, and back home in Indiana. I wanted things and had to go out and make them happen, sitting at home in your safe life will not amount to much if you dont reach out and make things happen for you. You only get ONE chance, so make the most out of it.

Who am I even preaching too? Why am I even writing this, I just feel like I have things to say, that's why I Facebook and Tweet nearly every voice in my head that comes out, because I have all these words buckled up in my mind and I need to find my voice again and find my muse to let the poetry poetically be released from within and find my voice to type blogs/journals to just say it.

I have things that may never change within me, but I have come a long way, and literally I have people who judge me and think I am "this" or "that" but when in reality, that's their problem to cast stones at me when I am the only who knows the adventures I have had, the truths within and the goals I really want to achieve yet in my young life.

Not the greatest health within but I hope with this new job I can take advantage of the insurance and find ways to FEEL better, and explore so many areas of Florida in the summer and fall, to go out and MAKE the memories because that's all we have, are memories.

Until next time...bookmark me, I may have more to say, VERY soon...

d.

Challenge

You challenge my mind
To wonder how I ever lived
Before you were in my life.

You challenge my eyes
To dare try to compare you
To be beauties of the world.

You challenge my hands
To touch things
That are not a part of you.

You challenge my lungs
To grasp to air another moment
Without you here to share.

You challenge my heart
To remember how to beat
When you aren’t around to love me.

You challenge my soul.
To work to become
Everything I want to be for you.

You challenge me to love
Every moment I spend
On earth with you.