Hey everyone, thank you for all the warm welcomes and helpful replies. I have been having a really rough time lately, and I feel as if my soul is being crushed under its own weight. I am very glad to have found this place... very glad. What I have read here has been very uplifting, educational and inspiring.

I want to sat that I know there are thoughts, ideas, feelings... and yes, urges... which I could no more act one than I ever have in the past. One of the things which struck me about this site, the thing that hit me really hard and threw me for a loop, was everything I have read about times spent with LGF's. I have never allowed myself such a tender thing to come into existence. I have always maintained a stance of pure avoidance.

Maybe the things I learn from this place will help me to understand just how it is something like that could be made real. Honestly, I need something in my life to at least partially fill the void in my soul... even though it may only equate to a drop in the bucket.

A few points I would like to make:

On a happier not, this place seems filled with thoughtful, intelligent and very creative people... and that makes me happy and gives me reason to be thankful.

To Gimwinkle... one of the benefits of never being married and having no kids (when coupled with a proper investment strategy) is the ability to retire quite early and relocate overseas. I won't lie, of course my sexual orientation plays a role in where I will settle down... and no... I have no intentions of going hog wild once I get there. I had made my decision about such things a year ago, it's the staying strong between now and then which will be at least as difficult as it has always been.

To Markaba... dude, seriously... FINISH THE DAMN STORY! "Closet Leap" was some really good stuff, but I feel like you left me hanging. Was chapter 5 the last of it?