Biloxi was a very interesting place. There were literally 3 parts of town: the Whites, the Blacks, and the Air Force Base. Nonetheless, two eventful things happened while I was there, Reagan was elected president (i think....i fergot), and Hurricane Frederick (pronounced "AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!") which landed about 5 miles away from us, causing more damage, monitarily, than any hurricane to hit to the US coast previously. I think Andrew is the only one since to break that record. Anyway.
In 1981 we moved to San Antonio, Texas (that's San Antone fer us Texans). Went to Catholic school untill the fifth grade and after that was "happily" ensconced in Texas' public education system, second only to 47 other states. I think Mis'ipi and New Jersey were worse off than we. Junior High was one messy blur, marked only by a field trip to the YO Ranch in mid-west Texas, and by my 8th grade History teacher, who was not only a lefty in disguise, but really HOT, too.
Senior High was a much more pleasurable experience, both from the variety of courses (at least 50 courses offered for each grade), and the variety of people (oh my god, drool!!). I dropped myself into the 3 M's: Music, Math, and Men. I entered the Honours program and a few off the wall clubs. My freshman year went by rather average, involving a short affair with a schizophrenic sophomore, and my sophomore year spent mourning her move to Florida. I quickly got over that incident with the help of a college Freshman on the swim team, who had big muscles up here and down there; but he turned out to be quite vacuous in the mental field, and ended up moving to Boston on a full-paid athletic scholarship.
My Junior year was rather uneventful, except for Academic Decathlon, for which some participants ought to have been rewarded for spelling correctly. Here I learned the joy of talking, and the joy of writing. Two of my favourite topics. My fun-filled Senior year involved a total of eight 1-1/2 hour courses each week, comprised of Latin, Music, Physics, Chemistry, English, Econ/Gov, Academic Decathlon (for a second time), and Creative writing. Other of my various activities included Friday nights on the cast of Rocky Horror Picture Show, Saturdays wandering downtown, timorous visits to the Bonham Exchange (noteworthy as Texas' largest GO/GO bar-club), and a short fling with an actor and his lover.
The University of Texas at San Antonio was a welcome change, even after having to refuse both Oberlin's University AND Conservatory of Music, due to monitary difficulties. I had lots of fun at UTSA, and even joined a conflict-ridden Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual organization there, only to leave from pure disgust and disinterest. I liked my Russian teacher, Edvina Veksler, the most. She said I had a funny "Internatzi."
After metting someone on Internet Relay Chat, meetting him vis-a-vis in November of 1993 and summarily falling for him, and several stressful situations at home, I decided to move to Phoenix (known locally as Hell), Arizona. I moved in February of 1994, and have lived here since. After difficulties with his roommates, I moved in with 2 close friends, with whom I have been living since.
Having to wait a year to gain residency status, I enrolled at Phoenix College, part of the Maricopa County Community College network. My first semster I took Philosophy, Latin, Music Theory, American Sign Language, and Mythology, and loved every bit of it. Well, except for the Jesuit Philosophy teacher, with whom I had ethical disagreements, and therefore dropped the course. All in all, I got a 4.0 GPA for the semester and was admited to the Dean's List, and asked to join both Phoenix College's Honors Society, and Phi Theta Kappa, which is the Junior College equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa.
Due to technical details about residency status, Arizona State U. declined my application, and I enrolled in a second semester at PC, which had less stringent requirements. I opted to drop ASL for Spanish, seeing a more obvious need for it. I continued in Latin, and Theory, and signed up for the History of Western Civilization (part 1 of 3) and C programming.
In my third semester at PC (I like it there), I took my final semester of Latin, and continued with the next classes in Theory, Spanish and History. But most of all, with the encouragement of my Theory teacher, I joined the Voices of Phoenix College, an A Capella choir, and began persuing my vocal abilities. This, other than any other thing at college, has made me the happiest. I have always dreamed about singing, and enjoy it much.
During the 1995 Christmas holiday, the two most wonderful guys on the planet, my roommates, whom I have known for nearly 2 years, and with whom I have been living for 1-1/2 of those two years, asked me if I wanted to begin a more serious relationship with them. Of course I said "yes!" Their names are CJ and Darin.
Spring of 1996 turned out to be very interesting. I loved my choir class. I had alot of fun, and it was a big growing experience for me. It gave me confidance in my musical talents that I really needed to be reminded of. My relationship with CJ and Darin slowly strengthened and rumours of committment starting abounding in certain circles.
Now, CJ and Darin have been in a relationship with another man before, and I have generally been of the mindset that people are capable of sharing love for more than one person. So we explored and discussed the idea of making a committment to each other for quite some time and finally came to a decision.
Meanwhile, I decided that I needed to get out of retail, and applied for Tech Support position at the Internet Service Provider that CJ works for. I interviewed, was accepted and asked how soon I could work. I decided that my managers at PETsMART had screwed me over a few too many times and what goes around, comes around, so I told the guy I could start the following Monday. It was Wednesday. I gave PETsMART 3 days notice. They deserved it.
On October 31, 1996 the three of us got married. A good friend, Karen, pronounced us "married." About 30 of our friends from the community, and work attended. We honeymooned the following day just outside of Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, at a beach on the Gulf of California. We came home and the following day went up to the Grand Canyon, where it was too cold and icey to follow the trails.
Since then CJ and I are still working for Primenet, which in December 1996 merged with a California based company, GlobalCenter, and Darin has also left PETsMART for a job doing Internet Tech Support for Campus MCI.
by Chris McCoy <chris@dragon.org>