Picture time!

I know i've been awful about blogging. But I'll be better now i promise!

Anyway i figured the best way to post this would be with a bunch of pictures and a little bit of writing, otherwise it would be a book post! 

So here we go!

First of all, I'm sure you guys know by now that i moved to phoenix! I moved in with the triad and roommate!

Here's a picture of the house!

One of the best parts has been having an good functioning kitchen! I've been cooking a ton, trying new things and old! Here are some pics of some of the things i've made!

Right after i moved to Phoenix, the next weekend was Pride weekend here! I worked as a bartender at an alcohol booth at pride with Bartender. It was a ton of fun and made me want to try being an actual bartender here!

Here are a couple pictures of us me and my roommates at Pride!

Also one night Carmen performed. A guy that knows bartender gave us four VIP passes so we were standing literally 10 feet from her most of the concert in the very front row! It was soooo much fun!

Then one night of pride there was a big pool party!

Here's dentist friend on left, bartender, and me when we first got to the party!

My New shorty short swim suit that i wore to the pool party! haha

There was a playground behind the pool at the party.....

The squirrel bucked me off!

i had a little much to drink, i thought we came home around 3 in the morning, but the next day i found out we actually came home at 7pm! hahaha then i threw up on some of my stuff :( this is boyfriend hosing me and my shit off before putting it in the washer so there wouldn't be barf chunks in the washer!

Then i got to take a little trip back to Oklahoma. Here are some pics from my trip

Me and my old coworkers at cowboys!

Beer trays at the wedge!

Jessica enjoying her beet salad!

Lots and lots of swirls!

Jessica got excited watching the bull riding at Cowboys

And since my grandpa died, my grandma got a new puppy to keep her company at the house

Was a great trip home. I've missed everyone so much so getting these doses of friends and family really help!

Also of course here in Phoenix, we go out a lot still! Here are some random fun pics of us out!

Roommate, bartender, and me eating our taco truck food after a night of drinking!

me with some friends on "undie Monday" night, take your pants off and get half off drinks!

Dentist and me in a cut out at the leather bar!

Roomate, me, and boyfriend with one of the gogo's that roommate is in love with

me and boyfriend at the most recent "bearacuda" i had a little much to drink!

me and dentist passed out after a house party, still at the house!

my friend Melissa double fisting merlot in one hand!

a few random shirt off dance parties at charlies the western bar where bartender used to work haha

I've been going to the gym with bartender regularly! Boyfriend comes sometimes too!

So ya i'm having a really great time! i've made tons of friends here. I'm really enjoying phoenix even though it is hot as fuck here, and only going to get hotter!

Work is going ok, it's been kinda frustrating lately with the unknown but working through that. the plan right now is for me to head to kenya around june 10th. I'm not sure of the details yet but hopefully will know soon!

I miss you all tons and i promise to blog more!

death, corruption, and bears

so it's been an eventful couple of weeks for me!

First i'll start off with my Grandpa. I think all of you know he passed away. It was bitter sweet because i really was needing a trip to oklahoma to calm some of my nerves.

The wake and funeral were very sad. Honestly the hardest part for me was watching my mother, aunts, uncles, and grandma hurting so much. I mean obviously i was very hurt too, but for them it must've been a lot worse. 7 of my grandma's 8 kids came to the funeral, it was the most of the family that has been together in a really really long time. I met some more of my family on my grandpa's side too that i'd never met before. It was a great visit to woodward and was really nice to get to see so much family. My niece is shooting up like a weed. She's saying a few words and walks around the house like she owns the place.

I went back to okc on monday so i could do a couple things and see some people! I went and bought a bunch of dogfood and took it over to beth's for boris. Happy to say he didn't forget who i was! haha i was honestly a little worried!

i spent about an hour over there playing with the pups, then i went out to eat lunch with aquanita. was really good to see her and get caught up on all the work drama/gossip. after that i left and headed to norman where i met up with Josh my gay friend. I wanted an oklahoma shirt so we went shopping. (i think i got the same one you have tracy) then at 5 i met blake delao, laura, jess, and clarence at the library!

We ate a lot and drank too, had a great time! After a bit, jess, blake and josh all had to leave so laura clarence and i went to the mont for a couple swirls! afterwards we went back to the house and laid in carolyns bed talking for a while before going to bed to catch my early flight!

All in all the trip was great. I'm sad for the reason that it happened but grateful to have the opportunity to visit.

ok now on to the elections. So once again, they were rigged. The guy who "won" the presidency is the son of the first ever president of kenya after their liberation. He is also awaiting trial with the international court for war crimes, things having to do with organizing a ton of the post-election violence that took place last election.

Well anyway his party won literally every election. meaning one party will run the entire government....

A lot of people are taking their opponents to court to try to get justice, but this is a very timely and very very expensive endeavor. Something we don't have the money, or time for that matter, to even attempt. So what this means is Meitamei will not be in parliament.

What's this mean for me? well basically we have to work really really hard now to have funds for me to continue working here for more than 3 more months. It's something that i'm optimistic about, but at the same time i need to be realistic. It's hard enough to get grants and raise enough money for just our projects. Adding my salary on top of that isn't going to be easy.

ok enough sad talk, fun talk time.

This past friday in Phoenix was the Bearracuda event! Something that happens once every 3 months. Just a big ole bear gathering! I went down early friday morning and worked out with bartender in the afternoon. We were going to go jock strap shopping for something to wear to the bar that night but instead bartender just told me i could wear one of his, so went to the store and cooked us a nice big lunch. That evening they invited over a bunch of guys to pre-party before going out. There were about 30 people there. It was a lot of fun. I drank a lot there, probably enough to last me the whole night haha. After some random making out there we left and went to the bar. It was a ton of fun. At some point in the night i didn't have my shirt on. I thought someone stole it but apparently it was tucked into my waistband on the back side of my shorts hahaha!

I danced a ton and made out a ton and had an all together great time there! We left there probably around 1am and went to charlies the western bar to do some more dancing! I don't think i've talked about it, but there is an amazing taco/mexican food truck that parks right outside charlie's and everyone eats there after. It's always the best tasting burrito of my life!

The next morning we all slept in till noon trying to sleep off the night before. Then bartender and i got up and went to the gym again to try to sweat some of it out. While we were lifting though i kept feeling like i was about to throw up, but i made it though! That evening we went to bartenders sisters house to help her and his brother move some big heavy things. He's not out to his family (his family is mormon) so i was "a friend of bf's" to his sister and other family there. Then his sister cooked some polynesian food for us to thank us and it was amazing! she's opening a catering business and wants to start a restaurant. After that we went home and watched a couple movies just relaxing.

Then sunday, st patty's day we woke up kind of late again and went to charlies because they have an amazing drink deal on sundays. We didn't get trashed or anything, just kinda relaxed drinking most of the afternoon. Then in the evening we ordered some pizza and got some frozen yogurt from a little place.

Then i came back to prescott to find this lovely surprise!!! 

thanks for the card laura! i know you sent it ages ago, but it just now got to me! might have been the zipcode confusion!

I think i have a lot of work i'll be doing this week so that will be nice to occupy a lot of my time. I'm sorry there aren't a ton of pictures in this blog but i guess we didn't take as many this time!

Love you guys!

phoenix fun and STD's

hey everyone! been a while so here's my life since last blog!

first of all, i thought i'd post this funny picture. this is from the first crazy weekend in phoenix, when we went to the second bar to play darts. Here's my teammate trying to distract the other team!

things are still going well for me. I've spent the past two more weekends in phoenix since my last blog, staying with bartender and bf both times. two weekends ago we went out a lot. one day i spent the whole day with BF so i got to know him better while bartender playing in his flag football league. I also got to meet some more of their friends and get to know the ones i'd already met a little better! We went to a hispanic gay bar that weekend too which was a ton of fun. Bartender really likes dancing and doesn't care what other people think, at the end of the night his shirt was drenched with sweat! made me feel better about myself after a night of dancing hahahaha. One morning we woke up and bartender said "what the hell happened to your nipple. I looked down and saw this: 

not really sure how i got it, but i have a couple guesses? i mean there can't be that many ways to get a bruise like this on your nipple! hahaha. We had some good brunch at a little place too which was nice. Here's us at brunch

(great picture of me right)

then after a night of drinks at the house i came back to prescott on monday.

the week in prescott was a little stressful. not knowing anyone here, i have a lot of time to myself to sit and think about things. I think this is sometimes a good thing but sometimes my crazy mind gets the best of itself and i start to worry about things. Well in two days time i had convinced myself that i was HIV+. My reasons are as follows-

One of the first times i ever had sex with a guy, i didn't use a condom (stupid i know, don't get me started on it. i will never do it again). About a week after this happened, i got the flu. If you didn't know, that's basically the only symptom you get when you contract HIV, flu-like symptoms about a week after you contract it. Well anyway i was of course super worried about it then. But i had also not come out to anyone yet and was very very ashamed and wasn't able to bring myself to talk about it to anyone, which of course made it worse. Anyways over 6 months later, i got my test done to make sure i was clean and praise the lord i was. The fear of actually being positive never has plagued me again, until a week ago, and for some reason i convinced myself that i was positive and that the test just had messed up or something. I had a couple horrible nights where i just laid in bed thinking of how my life was over, how i wouldn't be able to end up with who i wanted among many other things that super depressed me. Well i went and got tested the next day, and hooray negative! Thinking back i don't know why i went so crazy, but i did, but it's all over now and i'm fine. after i got my results back it was like a boulder was lifted off me and i've been able to be myself again and think clearly. 

so after that scare i worked some more, have been working on a newsletter to send out after the election and also working on a couple grant proposals, one for our beading co-op and one for education. basically the beading co-op is a group of women in the narok area who have joined together and are trying to sell their beadwork to tourists. currently most of the beadwork that is bought is made by men of other tribes who can afford small stands in prime locations. tourists often don't know this and will buy them, thinking they are getting the authentic stuff but in reality, they aren't. anyway it's a great group of women and they just need some help getting things off the ground, so hopefully we get the grant!

this weekend, as i said i went to phoenix again. had another great time. friday night we stayed in, invited a few people over, and had some drinks. then on saturday this weekend i went and watched bartender play flag football. he plays in a mixed (gay and straight) league so it was pretty fun to watch. There are the straight guys who are genuinely nice people and open to getting harassed by all the gays about grabbing their front flag when they try to tackle them. Then there are the gays who are over-compensating trying to be overly athletic and sports-like. And then there are the queens running around throwing the ball with both hands and doing their bast to catch the balls coming at them. I actually had a lot of fun and even got a little sun which is something i needed! too bad it's more of a farmers tan though haha.

Saturday night we went to a bear event i guess you could call it, someone said it was gonna be fun, that's where i posted the pic on out facebook message thread at haha.

that's a volunteer on stage in the jock strap, the tied him up, whipped him, punched him in the gut, slapped him, and burned his back using a match and some mixture in a spray bottle lol. it kinda took us a little by surprise so we finished our drinks and went to charlies, bartenders western bar.

this is roomates face when we walked outside and saw what was happening :)

a little after we got there BF got tired so he went home and left us there. We watched a little bit of a drag show put on by the flag football league that bartender is in. It was all guys who play flag football so was funny to see them in drag after seeing them as a man first.

we danced a lot that night too, and had a great time! i have a new drink that i love which is really simple but never had it, just a tecate or with a shot of kettle (or other vodka) citrone in it. tastes great and packs a punch! Here are a couple pictures of the night

us on the dance floor, that's his roomate on the left in the picture

us in the bathroom, not sure what the guys behind us are doing.... hahaha

sunday we slept almost the entire day, really. we woke up at about 9am messed around some, then went back to sleep, we napped until about 5pm! hahaha but we didn't get home till about 5 so that makes it a little better! then we got up and went to the gym (all 4 of us) roomate and BF did cardio and bartender and i did arms. was really fun and nice, but made me sad i don't have someone to workout with in Prescott! After we got back bartender made us some spam fried rice

was my first time eating spam, but it was pretty good. way better than i thought it would be. Bartender is samoan, actually grew up in samoa, and they ate spam every day so he loves it haha

then that night his roommate wanted to go out, so roomate and BF went to a strip club, and then to charlies, bartender had homework he needed to do and told me to stay with him so i did. we ended up just cuddlin and watching water for elephants and a couple other shows all night though. was a nice relaxing night after another fun weekend! then i came home the next morning!

The elections in kenya just happened, but we still don't know anything, we have some speculation, but i'll write a whole blog about the outcome and stuff about it as soon as i know things for sure!

so for now i leave you with a picture of me in my triad.....(no i'm not really in a triad)

love you guys! miss you tons! 

hard work/slut time

i know i know, i should have had 10 blogs since my last one, but in my defense i've gone through emotional highs and lows that have literally exhausted me mentally and physically! so brace yourself because this is going to be a fucking long post i think!

Part one!

first i'll talk about the rest of my kenya trip now that i have some pictures i can put up!

I'll start off with some of the water project stuff

this is a picture of where the borehole will be dug, i know it looks super green but it's the short rain season right now so everything looks green but normally it is really really dry!

This is a picture of me with an elder from one of the villages that'll be effected by the water (great shot of me i know) 

Here's another great shot of me with the women from the same village. The women are the ones that this will have the most impact on, as they're the ones getting the water daily

Here's a woman and her daughter showing how they carry the 20kl canteens on their back

Just some kids from one of the villages

One of the schools that we're planning on putting a water tank at

A meeting at the borehole site where people from all over the area came to listen to me and my coworker in kenya speak about plans and to also give us their input on the project

Ok so that's enough pictures of that. I got a ton of work done and had a great time. I got to see some old friends and got to meet a lot of new ones. I'm really excited about the work there but also nervous! after meeting and seeing all the people that this will effect it puts a lot of pressure to get this all done. 

Another aspect of this trip was the campaign trail for Meitamei (my boss) I'm pretty sure most of you know but he is running for kenyan parliament. He ran for it in the last election also but that was the one that was rigged causing tons of violence to occur in kenya. He's currently leading in all of the polls and we think as long as there isn't any funny business he should win by quite a bit. And if he does win, we get tons more funding = i get to keep working here without having to try to find grants to pay myself hahaha. it also means we'll have funding for a lot of other projects we want to start and have countless opportunities to do the work we want!

Here are a few pictures of the campaign trail. 

this is a roadside rally, these happened all the time on the long drives to the campaign rallies. there would be people just waiting along the side of the road because they heard Meitamei was going to be driving by, then we would always have to stop so he could give a little speech

Here's a pictures at one of the rallies, every single person always had to greet him, usually in a giant line like this one

here he is talking to some people and a small campaign rally

here are few other random pictures from the trip

my awful farmers tan i got!

some yummy goat fat and chapati haha

i took this picture to show laura how awful i looked one night and she told me to put it in my blog....

the trip home was god awful, i had a 12 hour layover in atlanta overnight and thought it would be a good idea to sleep at the airport

here's my bed

here's me exhausted trying to sleep. and in the middle of the night my coworker, tawny, called me because her water broke and no one else would answer their phones hahaha

Part 2!

I got back and it took me a while to get my sleep schedule back but i did, and got back going to the gym and all that junk. I had been thinking about Arkansas for a while, wondering what the point was, because neither of us wanted to move to the other so it was like, how long do you continue a long-distance relationship before you're like ok, thats enough. I thought it was probably better sooner than later to end it so ya, that's all done with. I was pretty sad about it all but in true brad tradition had my slutty weekend after a breakup that i always seem to do!

so there's a boy that i've been off and on kinda talking to for a few weeks, since the first time i went to phoenix. He wanted me to come down and see him this weekend so i said sure why not. well he works at a gay country bar in phoenix and found out he got called in to work this weekend so that kinda threw a kink in our plans. But i was going to arrive at phoenix about an hour before he had to leave for work so i went ahead an met him at his house! yada yada we messed around some and then he had to go to work. Here's his picture

not my typical bear but for some reason i think he's really cute

anyway then he went to work and i went to see my friend who lives in phoenix. i told him i'd go see him at work so a little later i went to the bar alone (i hate going to bars alone!) but had a good time. he gave me drink after drink and i got drunk hahaha. then i went back to my friends house to stay the night there.

the next day (sunday) i was planning on going to a beer bust at one of the bearish bars. A beer bust is something bars do on sunday where they have a great deal on beer. the one i was going to had $1 bud lights. on my way there that afternoon i talked to a guy on a gay app (surprise) and he said him and his boyfriend were going too. So i felt a little better knowing that i wouldn't just get to the bar and not know anyone there and stand there staring at everyone creepily. I got to the bar around 3 and they were already there. We started talking, both of them extremely nice and friendly. The beer was flowing and i got drunk once again (surprise) my friend from phoenix came with her boyfriend and they drank a ton with us. i was supposed to meet bartender that evening for dinner and a drink before he had to go to work but because i was having fun i told him that i'd just come see him at the bar again later. on a side note the couple that i met for the beer bust also knew bartender so they were gonna come with me to see him.

So we drank and drank and i turned into crazy brad. i was making out with the couple a lot and randomly other guys they knew and introduce me to also. one point in the evening i had my pants around my ankles walking around the bar in my underwear. but it was a ton of fun! and they couple introduced me to tons of other guys so i feel like it was a huge success on the people meeting front! Also they told me that pool party season is about a month away and everyone will want me to come to their pool parties too! 

So at i think around 10 we decided to leave and go see bartender at the bar. We went there and he started giving me lots of drinks again and i got even more drunk (surprise). after a couple hours there we decided to go (the bars don't close till 4 in phoenix). i went home with the couple and did the dirty with both of them haha. Here's a picture of them.

so the next morning they had to go to work around 1030 so they took me back to my car and went to work. I messaged bartender to see if he was up yet and to see if he wanted to grab breakfast before i left town for prescott. he told me that his bar was having a free brunch that morning and we should go there. I said sure and that i'd meet him in the parking lot. I get there and i see him pull up and he has someone else in his car. I walk to them and get introduced to his boyfriend! hahaha

so we go inside and eat and have a couple drinks, then a bunch more (8 or so) of his friends met us at the bar and the drinks and shots started coming one after the other! we drank all afternoon there, and then we went to another bar in the evening where we played some darts, drank some more, and ate some wings. Then one of them wanted us all to come to his house, so we went there and they grilled some hamburgers for us. At some point in the evening, i met bartender around the corner of the side of this house in the back yard and we started messing around. after a little bit of that a couple of his friends came running around the corner yelling busted or something like that at us. so we put our clothes back on and went back inside (his boyfriend was still inside). then one of them wanted to go back to the western bar so most of us did. Some went home to go to bed, including bartenders boyfriend.

We stayed at that bar again for a while drinking until probably 2ish and then we took a cab home. i went home with bartender and when we got inside and went in his room, i turned the light on and his boyfriend sat up in the bed looking at us. bartender told me they had a no clothes policy for sleeping in their bed so i took my clothes off, got in bed, and proceeded to have my second threesome for the weekend! 

i got up the next morning, said my goodbye's to the boyfriend and then bartender took me back to my car on his way to school. i drove home still feeling a tad drunk and now i'm back! all together it was a really fun weekend and i think i was really successful in meeting new people. bartender and his friends invited me back down this coming weekend because they're cooking out a ton of ribs and having a get together. so that will be fun! and i just may go back to the same beer bust the sunday after!

so i think that's enough for now! don't judge me!