An eventful couple of weeks...

Apologies in advance... this is going to be LONG :eusa_doh:

Ok, so 2 weeks ago I flew out to my hometown for a visit and had planned to come out to my best friend of 20+ years. That went unbelievably well (I posted about it in another thread). In the week that followed, I did a lot of reflection and looking back at old old emails from about 10 years ago. This was around the time when I first started coming out to myself and was stuck in an unhappy marriage, etc.

Anyway, I realized there was a lot of stuff I had pushed to the back of my mind and forced myself to forget. It was kind of nice to bring some of those memories back out again (they weren't all bad memories).

Fast forward to this past weekend. One of the main reasons I am here visiting is for my best friend's brother's wedding which happened in Palm Springs on Saturday. I hadn't planned to come out to anyone else during this trip. On Friday afternoon I arrived at the hotel, got settled, and joined a couple of mutual friends at the pool for drinks. We were just making small talk and catching up. I was talking about my dogs and one of my friends asked "so, you have a room-mate who looks after them when you're away?" Now, normally my response is some canned pre-digested bullshit like "I have a house mate" but somehow that just didn't seem to fit anymore. So I said, quite confidently "It's my girlfriend". Didn't really get much of a reaction (which was nice) and the conversation just moved on from there.

That night we had the rehearsal dinner which was just family, close friends, and out of town guests (me). I was sitting at a table with my best friend and her new boyfriend and some of her out of town relatives. At some point I told my best friend about my "coming out" to our other friend earlier that day and she blushed and said "well, you know how I said I wouldn't tell anyone... well I told him (pointing at her boyfriend)" LOL It didn't bother me and didn't surprise me... I mean, you tell your partner everything so it's no big deal. But what was really funny was how me and her boyfriend started joining forces to tease my best friend (all in good fun, of course). He said "welcome to the tribe", which made me smile. My best friend was totally confused by this. See, he's black so I made the comment to her "hey, didn't you know gays are the new blacks?" We found it funny but I think she was a little shocked... which made us laugh harder LOL. I guess you had to be there, but we found it hilarious.

Anyway... the next day while the bridal party (including my best friend) were busy with hair and make-up, a few of us got together for brunch. We had to wait for a table for about an hour and I had a longer conversation with this particular friend I had come out to the day before. It was a light conversation, nothing too in-depth but it was nice to be able to talk about my relationship without fear and without feeling uncomfortable. It felt like a big leap forward for me.

So, the wedding was awesome and I didn't get drunk and make a fool of myself or anything. There were no random "outings" or anything like that. The next morning I had breakfast with my best friend & her bf, and the groom. I had a text from my gf about some unrelated family matter and made a comment to my best friend about it. Her brother said to me "(my gf's name here) is your house mate?" And without missing a beat I looked him in the eye and said "she's my girlfriend". His face sort of froze for a split second and then he had the same reaction my best friend had had when I told her... sort of fake shock LOL. All he said was "does your mom know?" To which my best friend said "no, and we're keeping it that way".

So... it was a good weekend for me in all respects. It's interesting when you start the coming out process it seems to flow by itself. I hadn't planned to come out to anyone over the weekend but it just sort of happened that way. I'm feeling much more confident and comfortable in my own skin though. The past couple of weeks have definitely been a good thing for me. I hope this feeling continues