The weekend after I returned from my first gay pride in San Francisco, Madonna performed Ray of Light at LIVE8 in London.
During that winter, I met many interesting people, but Florida wasn’t the place to hold me for an extended period. I left Florida on March 5th, 2005. I returned to North Carolina to spend more time with family before returning to Washington, DC, on the 31st. In April, I filled in for an ex-coworker while she took a three-week vacation to New Zealand. During this time, I contemplated my next move.
I stayed in DC for the entire month of April and thought about moving there, to Philadelphia, or even to New York City, but something else occurred to me. Perhaps I would do what I set out to do back in 1995. Maybe I would move to the Pacific Northwest. This time, instead of Seattle, I would try Portland, Oregon. I had heard good things about Portland but had never been there.
After consulting with Chuza and a few colleagues at the Arlington Metaphysical Chapel, I gathered my courage, loaded the Blazer I had bought from my niece and headed west. This time, instead of driving through the middle portion of the country, as I did in 1995, I took a more northern route. This drive would take me through places like the Badlands, Devil’s Tower, Yellowstone National Park, and the Grand Tetons.
I had thought about moving back to North Carolina but headed in a different direction. I didn’t return to North Carolina to say goodbye; I just hit the road. My trip across the country turned out to be another great adventure.
I left Washington, DC, on May 3, 2005. During my last day in DC, I visited the National Museum of the American Indian. I purchased a handmade necklace and a CD of Native American music titled “Sacred Spirit.” I invoked the Native American spirits and asked for safe passage across Turtle Island. I played my new CD on each day of my journey.
The three-week drive took me through West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. There were many highlights, but I remember most seeing the Northern Lights in South Dakota, a rare sighting of a mountain lion (not pictured) in Yellowstone National Park, and meeting a guy from Switzerland while camping at the Grand Tetons in Wyoming.
I finally arrived in Portland on May 24, 2005. I didn’t know a soul, had no job, and had just enough money saved to last me a month or two.
Upon arrival, I found a local newspaper, answered three “looking for roommate” ads, and moved into a room in the West Hills of Portland. I spent the next month exploring downtown, searching for a job, meeting people, and working out at the gym. Initially, Portland had a perfect feel to it.
A month later, on June 24th, I flew to San Francisco to meet my sister, her husband, and their best friends for my sister and her husband’s 40th wedding anniversary. My sister flew me down for the weekend. It just happened to be Gay Pride, and for the first time in our lives, my sister and I attended a Gay Pride parade together. It was only fitting that it would take place in San Francisco, the mother of all gay pride events. We had a great time and had a lot of laughs.
On Monday, June 27, I flew back to Portland and decided that it was time to change my look entirely. Since I was now living in the Pacific Northwest, I shaved my head (my hair was thinning anyway) and grew facial hair.
And faster than a speeding light, I had begun yet another reincarnation.
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RAY OF LIGHT
LIVE8 Performance
Verse:
Zephyr in the sky at night I wonder
Do my tears of mourning sink beneath the sun
She’s got herself a universe gone quickly
For the call of thunder threatens everyone
Chorus:
And I feel like I just got home
And I feel
And I feel like I just got home
And I feel
Faster than the speeding light she’s flying
Trying to remember where it all began
She’s got herself a little piece of heaven
Waiting for the time when earth shall be as one
(chorus)
Quicker than a ray of light
Quicker than a ray of light
Quicker than a ray of light
(verse)
And I feel
Quicker than a ray of light
Then gone for
Someone else shall be there
Through the endless years
She’s got herself a universe
She’s got herself a universe
She’s got herself a universe
And I feel
And I feel
And I feel like I just got home
And I feel
Quicker than a ray of light she’s flying
Quicker than a ray of light I’m flying
