I like it that way!

I received a gift today from a work mate - it's a pin badge, that's a photo of it to the left in my mouth; I've no idea why I chose to put it there! Isn't it nice to receive a surprise gift for no reason? And isn't it nice anyway? Obviously, Mike - the work mate, knows I'm gay and that's why he got it me, it's a bit of fun; and I like people to have a good-natured laugh at my sexuality. It helps to bring the subject out into the open, strips away the preconceptions about me, my life and the whole gay lifestyle. Besides I think if you can't laugh at yourself most of the time then you're in serious trouble.

I try and see the humorous side in everything and never, ever take life too seriously; I just don't see the point in being serious and overly concerned. Stuff happens in life, most of it's out my control, call it destiny or whatever you want, but I don't allow it to concern me so. Maybe, I'm lucky because it's in my nature or something like to look at life this way; and to be more specific, I have never suffered any serious homophobic abuse. Sure I sometimes let the small, insignificant things in life upset me way too much, but the bigger picture just takes care of itself. 

So the badge leads onto my parents, stay with me boys and girls, I'll try and make the connection. I was sat outside having a cigarette during my lunch break at work and I phone my Mum to see if they're coming down to visit this weekend - another weekend off, happy days. So as I'm talking to my Mum, Mike walks past with a cross attached to the front of his trousers - wearing it to kind of like ward me off from his penis. This makes me laugh some and my Mum asks me what I'm laughing at? I tell her it's Mike and she asks is he being a knob? So I slip my first gay joke into any conversation we've had since I came out to her; I said, no but he's getting his knob out for me! Perhaps not the funniest quip I've ever told but it seemed a good play on words; and it went down kind of well with my Mum, which I'm so chuffed with. 

I don't want to hide my sexuality anymore from them and I like to talk about it anyway. Obviously I will have to tone down the over-sharing I'm often guilty of, particularly when it comes to talking about sex. But still if I can get away with injecting some humour into proceedings and taking any awkwardness out of the situation then that will be good enough for me. As with the passing of time, the initial shock will pass too and it will become just a part of their life as I am. 

So my parents are coming to visit me tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it, it's the first time I'll have seen them face-to-face since I told them I was gay. It's always good to see the folks and I think it will be fun; I'll attempt to make it fun anyway. Like the implied nature of the photo, I like it that way!