"By Any Other Name............"

I have received a dozen red roses from 3 different guys.

Valentine's Day, the most expensive day of the year to buy roses much less send them anywhere, Valentine's 1990 they were delivered to my house from Karl - half way across the country in college in Texas. They are still remembered and still cherished.

Somewhere around 1993 Kirk and I had a violent horrible fight in our shitty little ghetto apartment. I got in his face, snidely retorted back. He looked right at me, and spit a huge loogie in my eyes that oozed down my face. I grabbed Tyler, who was about a year old, and walked out the door to a pay phone and called my Dad. I was gone for 5 days. On day five Kirk shows up with a dozen red roses. And we all know how the rest of that story turned out. This was the only time I ever got flowers from him. But it was my second time for a dozen red roses.

Today I was back at work. I'm still in training and missed a very important week and a half of clinicals. I was very behind and very rusty. Fucked up all day long. I was having a bad day. Mid morning they tell me there is someone in the lobby to see me. I got out there and there is Royce with a beautiful vase with 12 red roses, babies breath and greenery. Just because. Those are the best kind of flowers. The Just Because kind. And I can't even count how many times Royce has done this. At work in front of all my jealous co-workers, at home, so so many times. Just because.

I love you Royce and am very very lucky to have you. To have us.

Went to Murph's today for awhile. Got to sit and chill with Alexis and Lance and Packey and Hairy and Wendy. Had my ice tea and an amber O-Douls. Not bad actually.

12 days sober.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
--Shakespeare--


Thank you for the flowers Honey.
And you are my Romeo.