Once the camera was in place, Steve gave me instructions on what his hand signals meant and answered my question about what to do with my hands. I went downstairs, moved to where he'd told me, and the photos began.

For the next hour or so, I stood smiling with my head cocked at about thirty degrees off of straight up. It didn't take me long to realize that I probably looked pretty stupid smiling at the ceiling, but no one seemed to notice. People walked within a couple feet of me and never even moved their eyes in my direction. I, however, found the situation funny and started laughing.

Steve took roll after roll of film with me standing in the near same position. The only movements I made were out of pains in my neck and legs. He wasn't trying to get me exactly perfect but was trying to get enough people around me blurred in the right way.

At around 5PM, Steve sent Paul down to be one of the blurs around me and to heard people in the right direction. But as he was circling me, I started focusing more on him and less on the camera. (He even had to tell me "Keep looking up." )

Like I said, Paul was tired, so he only walked around me when people were nearing and a photo could be taken. Every time he sat down, I knew Steve wasn't going to take a picture, so I moved my eyes in Paul's direction. He was cute... really cute. But alas, as he was walking around me, I heard him say that he liked the looks of one of the female passers-by. Nevertheless, suffice it to say that by the time we finished at a little after 6PM, I had checked him out so much I knew he wore boxers.

Once we were done, I walked back upstairs with Paul and talked to Steve about web pages. I gave him a card and the three of us walked to their car so that I could sign a release form.

I signed it, thanked them, said good-bye, and left.

10:05PM

It's been about four hours since the end of the shoot, but my neck, back and legs are still sore. I had no idea modeling was such a hard job.

February 10, 1996

3:01PM

Getting up to speed:

Chuck and I talked via e-mail after he came back from his Christmas break in Kentucky. He was pretty confused about his sexuality, but earlier this week, he wrote to say that he's found a guy that he's ga ga over, that he came out to his Mom, and is now doing fine. He even said he'd meet me at Manray with his guy this past Thursday but his plans changed.
Rich broke up with Larry shortly after New Years, but Larry asked me not to mention anything about it until he had some time to deal. Rich said he wasn't ready for a relationship and the last time I talked to him a few weeks ago, he said he was interested in females and was in the process of contacting his ex-girlfriend.

3:39PM

Yesterday, I was answering e-mail when I got a call from Erika. She asked if Rob and I would be interested in eating dinner and seeing Mr. Holland's Opus with a group of her friends (Jey, Carmen, Scott, & Helen). I agreed and Helen later called to inform me that we were meeting at 7PM in front of Tower Records. I called Rob and asked him if he'd like to go along. --He'd initially had plans to meet with a friend but hadn't heard from his friend to confirm.-- At 6:40PM, Rob agreed.

A little after 7PM, we met and headed to a Asian restaurant about a block away. I'd already expressed my lack of desire for Asian food to Erika, but once we got there, I made it apparent to the others. (As far as food is concerned, I'll admit I'm a Southern boy through and through.)

So anyway, we all got our plates and went to a buffet of unlabeled items. I took a bit from most of the them, trying unsuccessfully to identify each one, before going back to the table. I queasily ate items that had the texture of a huge chunk of fat. I wanted to spit most of it out in my napkin, but I swallowed anyway.

Soon, I'd divided my plate into the tolerable and the absolutely disgusting. Nevertheless, I knew I was paying $7.95 for this lovely dinner, so I went back and got some of the more tastey items (all things being relative). But before I returned to the table, I noticed a pan full of tentacles. I almost threw up right there: All I could think was, "Did they use the same pans to cook the tentacles as they used to cook the sweet potatoes?" but I made it to the table to tell of my disgust.

No one believed me. They thought I was exaggerating or seeing things, so a few of them went to see for themselves. They came back to say I was telling the truth and with tentacles on their plates. Jey and Rob each ate a tentacle with me cringing.

We paid the bill and left, but not soon enough for me.

For the next hour or so, we hung out at the Pru and Copley Place. Most of the time, I tried to discern Scott's sexual orientation. When I'd met him before at Erika and Helen's dorm, I thought he almost certainly was gay, and Erika said she thought the same.

I managed to walk next to Carmen and ask her, "Are you guys going out?" (because she and Scott paired most of the time.) I'd already talked to Erika and knew the answer, but it opened up that line of conversation. I went on to ask if Scott was gay. She said that she honestly didn't know but had wondered herself. The next thing I knew, we were in the theatre and Carmen was asking Scott about his previous dating experiences... with girls.

I wasn't attracted to him but it's always nice to know someone else is a team player.

So anyway, we watched the movie and departed. I stopped by Rob's place for a few minutes then came back to my apartment where I answered some e-mail and fell asleep.

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