in the swallows

I moved into my cozy little attic-like abode on 1st South during Labor Day weekend 2004. The move was a smart one, as it kept me here in Salt Lake, but it enabled me to have the space I needed in order to really re-establish myself here in my beloved city. I live in the Swallow Apartments among a great array of personalities and characters. Yes, I think I have heard just about every joke about living in "the swallows" but innuendo aside, it's a great place to live, and I always have a fun joke to use as an icebreaker.

My apartment consists of possibly the four smallest rooms ever put together to make a livable space. But, it did offer an incredible amount of closet space, not that I'm looking to store more baggage or skeletons or something of that nature--I already had a nice time cleaning those things out back in 2002. As I walked into the pad for the first time, I had images of being able to fit all of my wares neatly and comfortably into three quite large closets.... and I was sold. The location was great, the price was affordable, and I could already tell my neighbors were quirky and fun. Although in Japan I had a fantastic apartment with two bedrooms, huge kitchen, nice sized living room, and two balconies with storage space outside AND I only had to pay around $200 a month for my pad there (thanks to the Japanese Government providing wonderfully subsidized housing for its teachers), I still thought that the Swallows would be a great place to call home for a year in my lovely Deseret.

To sum up the year in a nutshell....because there is no way in hell that I'm going to try to catch up with long entries.

• I got home from Japan and found myself back at ArtTix selling for the usual Capitol Theatre, Abravanel Hall and Rose Wagner crowds. It was a nice return to familiar territory, familiar faces, a familiar wage, but hard to deal with the change from jetting around Japan at my own will to wondering how I would cover rent for September.
• Got a phone message from old ArtTix boss, "Marcus Aurelius" Chambers, who now works for Sundance. He needed help for this year's festival, and I was up for a full time job to replace ArtTix. After a little drama in the interview room, I was hired as the Event Ticketing Manager. Salary increased (much to my relief).
• Spent the next five months learning the ins and outs of the Sundance Institute, learned how to manage a small department, and learned that Derek suffered from tunnel vision during the festival and pretty much stopped all outside communication with people that weren't directly related to Salt Lake City life or to Sundance itself.
• In the meantime, I decided to adopt a furry little creature to call my own to come and live with me in the Swallows. I found my precious little feline friend at the animal shelter, and he soon became mine. I named him Bogart, and we spent the first two days of life together just napping and getting used to being around each other. He was super cuddly from the moment I took him out of his cage at the shelter, and my heart instantly melted for the little guy.
• After surviving the 2005 Sundance Film Festival in Park City (my sister Leslie took Bogart for the month of January while I lived in Park City), I was drained emotionally and physically. I had managed to survive at Sundance eating free Einstein's bagels, free everything from Starbucks, and free Dominos pizza anytime a crisis would occur--so yeah, just about every day. Ticket system crashes? Come back to my office to find a nice fresh pizza on my desk. Have to have a showdown with the director of the Sundance Industry Office, and voila....cheese pizza waiting back in the ticketing room. Crucial members of the Sundance staff getting fired mid-festival and well, what do you know.... free pizza party from the upper ups, of course with the team building warning, "we all will need to step it up and share the work load". It was really amazing. I never knew that pizza could solve so many problems. But alas, Derek suffered from carb face, and spent the next month trying to reintroduce items like fresh vegetables and food that actually sat well in the stomach.
• Right after the festival, my friend Jed (whom I met and worked with at the festival) and I headed down to warmer Florida for a five day detoxification. Jed introduced me to a Florida that I had never known, and also to the delicious world of Popeye's Chicken and Sunny's BBQ. Yum. Jed knew Rob (Rob Ferre) from SUU, and we were able to spend a bit of time with Rob at the Disney parks. Jed took me to my first real drag show at the Parliament House in Orlando, as well as showing me the beautiful lake lands of Orlando. I came back to Salt Lake very refreshed, and ready to finish up my last month at Sundance.
• March rolls around, my job at Sundance came to an end, and I'm back working at ArtTix. This time, very happy with working part time, not worrying as much about the financial situation. Bogart starts to act funny, napping more and more (at this point, he is 11 months old) and I call my friend Heidi and said the words that one should never mutter about ones pets, "Bogart looks lethargic".
• Five days later, I'm burying Bogart in my parents' backyard under the not yet blooming lilac bush. He suffered from kidney failure, and by the time he had shown real signs of sickness and lethargia, his kidneys had gone kaput. His last days were spent growing increasingly weaker, but still he was very much a loving companion up to the end. Our last night together was very sweet, as he mustered up all of his energy to crawl over to where I had rested my head. The next morning he had lost all of his strength and ability carry his weight, and I took him in to be put to sleep.

Rest in peace, my little friendly

• Jed and Everett (two very good friends that I have made since moving back to Salt Lake) introduced me to Gold's Gym where I can now be found on Monday nights bouncing around the aerobics room to fun and overly mixed popular songs, attempting to look cool while shadowing the teacher in her kickboxing moves. I leave feeling the endorphins surging my body, but I look horrible (drenched from head to foot in my own sweat, face flushed red....the whole bit--not a pretty sight) and make a bee line to the men's locker room hoping that no cute boys are looking my way. You can also find me there on Wednesday morning as pretty much the only boy taking step class. In April I sort of had this re-awakening concerning my body and realized that I feel much better when I actually engage in something more active than walking to work.
• Made the recent decision to go back to school this fall for Speech-Language Pathology. Need to get a year's worth of "post-bachelors" classes under my belt before I can enter a grad program. So, it's back to the U, and in many ways it will be a very happy return. I absolutely love school, and I do love the University of Utah. It's not my intention to go there for my masters, but I'm more than happy to be able to put in this year of work at my alma mater.
• My sister Leslie is getting married, and it's been fun helping her get ready for the big day. She and Jim are having their ceremony at the Alta Lodge, with dinner and dancing to follow. I'm excited because I get to make the American debut of my tan summer suit that I had made in Thailand. Not that anybody else probably cares, but I can't wait to dazzle the wedding goers.....but not too much, I mean, it is my sister's wedding, not "Derek's gayest moment ever".

I'm probably missing tons of other really important information, and thus offending many of you. Sorry. I don't really feel like going into many details about my love life from the past, but plan on being more up front about it from here on out. In brief (and just for the record, I am anything but brief--concision is not my forte) I have dated a few guys casually here and there, but really haven't had anything very serious. A few little heart breaks, but nothing major. I'm still "on the market", but not out busy shopping.

Okay, from here on out I am going to really try to keep myself and all y'all abreast of what's going on in the life of Mr. Tall & Lanky. Hope you like what you read. If you do, let me know, and if you don't, then just keep your thoughts to yourself! ;)

D-Rock