What Do You Want From Me?

It's estimated that in a given year, between eight and 10,000 men will be diagnosed with testicular cancer. My husband Tyler has just joined that club. But we are not about to let him become a statistic.

There was no reaction or suggestion following the last episode. It makes me think I'm failing at this podcasting thing. Whether that's true or not is possibly too early to say. But my fractured psyche pulls me back into the first time I was fired from a job and the four year journey to get back on track, which you will hear about in this epsiode.

My formative years were dominated by television. It was a big brother, a babysitter, a tutor and a best friend at times when I needed all of them. A particular favorite was a program called “You Can’t Do That on Television.” I can honestly say it planted the seeds of my sense of humor, my urge to write and my desire to perform. And along the way I even earned a little local fame for a TV show I created... which never actually existed.

(Content Warning: Death, injury, supernatural) I was nearly killed in a car crash the week before high school graduation. I believe my life was saved by the spirit of a classmate and son of a family friend.

By my junior year of high school, I was more or less “out” to the whole student body, and my beloved grandmother was deep in a state of denial about it. I set myself a goal: I was going to go on a date before I graduated. Easier said than done… its not like there was a pool of eligible guys in the hall ways of a Texas country high school. But, with the help of a good friend, an internet connection, and a series of lies to my legal guardian, I made good on my goal.

You will learn how I met my husband Tyler and how we rushed to get our wedding together just months after the landmark Supreme Court decision that allowed LGBT+ couples the right to marry. And you'll hear our actual invitation and thank you letters to those that attended. 

There’s not a how-to guide about coming out. At least, there wasn’t in 1997, when I attempted to come out to friends, and later, family. If there had been, I would have done everything differently. As it was, my coming out experience was clumsy, overly dramatic, some might even call it at times traumatic.

In which I introduce myself and condense 36 years of life into a lean 14 minutes. Actually substantially less than that, since the first half of the episode is spent explaining my idea for the show. You tell me what to talk about after this episode! If you'd like my opinion on something, my advice, or want a story that is sure to embarrass me, have at it!