ODDS AND ENDS CLOSING THE 1980S DECADE

Between
New Year's Day, 1980--"I am at home eating pizza with salad--no plans"
and New Year's Eve 1989--"10th day of work in a row--at the stroke of
midnight I was driving Grace home--started my January newsletter". A lot
of what happened in those 10 years I have already written about--here
are some things I may have missed.

November
16-22, 1988 I was in the hospital with an appendix attack--made sure I
was out in time to work Thanksgiving at the Holiday Inn--I worked my
butt off to make a measly $253--people are cheap on holidays!

September 2-6, 1984 Tommy and Chuck came down

Finished my book "And The Oscar Goes to..." in March, 1988, and sent it out to publisher in May

Met Bryan in February, 1986

On
February 13, 1985, Marti, Kathy, her sister Fran, Elaine, Grace and I
went to the Casa Vecchia for dinner--my favorite restaurant--exquisite
service, food and presentations--a small copper bar that almost made me
wish I was drinking again!

The
Casa Vecchio is now closed as are so many of the restaurants and bars I
use to go to. Just a partial list: 2 On A Match, Zelda's, Acapulco, The
Wharf, Blue Grotto, Backstreet, Punjabs, Studio X, The Palms, Victoria
Station, Charcoal Pit, 186 Bar, Golden Spike, La Perla,  Christina
Wan's, Wings and Things, and the list never ends.

December
28, 1988 "Ray Blasco and I went to the opening of the movie version of
"Torch Song Trilogy" which was excellent--went back to see it 3 more
times and bought the VHS version when it came out--a faithful adaptation
of the movie and Harvey Fierstein deserved, but didn't get, an Oscar
nomination--guess the world isn't ready for an out gay man to tell a gay
story. (And today gays look at it and "The Boys In The Band" as old
fashioned and not relevant--HA!)

August,
1988--Got $5,000 from Ritchie's estate as Executive of Will, which I
used to pay bills, get new top for car and take trip to NYC to see "A
Chorus Line".

October
5, 1988   Michael and I had dinner at 2 Guys and he told me he had
AIDS--I promised him I would be there for him (and I was--more about
this in the 1990s section.)

November, 1982, I started writing a column for "The Weekly News" and reviewing restaurants for "Out" magazine.

In November, 1989, I started writing a newsletter for Holiday Inn

September 25, 1985, Michael got massage license

March 1985, I met Ray Blasco, a doctor, who would be important to my life in the 1990s

September 9, 1980, Michael and I started "Black and White Men Together" the first chapter in South Florida

May
26-31, 1987 Chuck came for visit--we had dinner one evening at The
Historic Byron Homes Restaurant with Michael (and I still have that
picture taken of the 3 of us--almost 20 years later Allen and I would go
there for his birthday but it had a different name.)

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A
lot happened in the 1980s but the 1990s was to be a very turbulent
decade for me and with all that happened I managed to keep a smile on my
face and get through the bankruptcies, congestive heart failure, being
unemployed for a long stretch, asking friends for help which wasn't
easy--pride you know--and more.