From: harris@currituck.cs.unc.edu (Trey Harris)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: What I have been doing (long) (edited repost)
Date: 31 Aug 92 17:11:50 GMT
Organization: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Hi, everybody!

I've been really busy the past week, as I have moved into college and
done all the things required of freshmen, so I've had little time to
keep up with motss.  So little, in fact, that I had to do the
unthinkable, the unconcionable, something which I am sure is an
abomination in the eyes of the Lord:  I marked all articles (gasp!)
read.  But, hey.  When I start up the newsreader and it says I have
well over two THOUSAND articles to read...

Well, let me tell you what has happened to me in the past week.  Quite
a lot, so this is _very_ long, and I apologize for that, but, hey!
I'm a busy guy... (and btw, if this is too long for you, just read the
last quarter or so, for that's the part that's most important to me.)

I went to UNC with mixed feelings.  I was so glad to finally get away
from the environment I had been in, and especially from my parents.
But my parents had managed to find one more monkey wrench to throw
into the works.  They gave me an ultimatum:  if I come out to ANYBODY
and they find out about it, that's it for college funding.  sigh.
I've followed their directions meticulously of course:  so far, I've
come out to three professors, and I'm doing office hours for the gay &
lesbian association three times a week. ;-)

So, anyway... got up here to Carolina on Saturday (the 22nd), and
proceeded to unpack.  The next day, I wandered around Chapel Hill.  I
was out on North Campus, when I happened to notice a guy.  He kept
ducking into different buildings and coming out again.  I stopped to
tie my shoelace, and as he passed me, he gave me a hard stare.

He went into another building and came out, and I passed him.  Another
stare.  I went on and walked into the Davis Library (which, if you
don't know Chapel Hill, is a three-minute walk from the northernmost
part of campus).  I sat down at a catalog terminal, and HE walked
passed me.  Curiouser and curiouser...

I walked past him and went to the reference section, and he walked
past me and mucked around the rostrum (or whatever you would call it,
it's a big marble room with nothing in it especially).  I was starting
to wonder (okay, okay, I'm incredibly naive and I know it) and so I
went past him and sat by the window with my book.  He went into the
bathroom.

I stayed put, as I don't especially intend to lose my virginity in a
bathroom.  After about five minutes or so, he came out and mucked
around again.  I walked past him and climbed the steps.  I waited at
the top and then I saw him start to climb. I went up another flight,
and another.  And then I walked out into the stacks.  I glanced over
my shoulder, and there he was.

At this point, I must admit I became quite a tease.  I inched towards
him, changing shelves until I was only feet away from him, then walked
to the other end of the floor.  Then he would follow me, and we
switched off again.  The cat-and-mouse (and mouse-and-cat) game
continued for a while, and finally I decided I would confront him.  So
(now maybe you can figure this one out, for I certainly can't) I went
into the bathroom.  And that was that.  After ten minutes, I left and
looked for him.  Nowhere to be seen.  I suspect he knew I had been
teasing him and further knew I wouldn't have sex with him, so...

Later Sunday night, I went to dinner with a graduate student here who
had responded 'way back to my "Contemplations" post.  It was, to put
it mildly, a disaster.  I waited outside the restaurant, and when he
showed up, he walked right past me.  He looked for Trey everywhere
before returning, rather resignedly, to me.  We ate (with conversation
so strained as to be nonexistant) and when the check came, he paid his
half, we went outside, he said goodbye, and left.

Monday at lunch I yelled at one of our infamous "Pit Preachers," who
stand in the middle of the major gathering place here and preach.  Met
a guy who laughed at something I had yelled; he said he liked my pink
triangle on my bookbag.  And then he left, before I even got his name.

Later that afternoon, I had to go to the mall to get some phone cord,
for my modem had created a mass of spaghetti-like wire all across my
dorm room, and I wanted to try to get some semblance of order.  I
stepped onto the bus and ran my pass through the card reader,
whereupon I was told I needed sixty cents more for the route.  Having
no change, I got ready to get off the bus, when a young woman behind
me said she would pay it.  "I'm Lucy," she said in a cute English
accent.  On the ride, I learned she was an American Studies major at
Manchester, and was completing her requirement of a year in the
States.  We arrived at the mall, said goodbye, and parted ways.

I got office hours for the CGLA, and so I'm now staffing the office
three times a week.  At my first office hour, I was snooping about,
looking at various posters and things, when I noticed a handwritten
note tacked to our bulletin board:

	I'm a lesbian from Manchester, England, and I'm keen on
	meeting some American gays and lesbians.  I have a girlfriend
	back in England, but I would like to make some friends here.
	I don't have a phone yet, but you can visit me in my room in
	XXX ---.

	Lucy.

We've talked quite a bit since then.  She apparently ran up and down
her hall in excitement when she got my note explaining who I was. :-)

Thursday night I called the number for the local gay and lesbian
youthgroup, Outright!  They told me to call back Friday night.  
I did, and got a recording: "We do not take calls on Friday night..."
Sheesh.  So I called Helplines and Healthlines and Gaylines and
Nightlines and who the hell knows what other kinds of lines trying to
find out where the group meets.  No one knew.  Finally, while idly
playing with the computer, reading subject and name lines from
soc.motss, the answer came to me.  John Graves!

I called him up, and he was very helpful.  He knew that they at least
_used_ to meet somewhere in Durham, and he explained how I could get
there by bus.  And (joy of joys!) he told me about a lockup being held
in October for gay and lesbian youth.  (Neat, huh!)

So Saturday I took one bus and got to Duke, and wandered about
aimlessly.  Apparently this was appropriate, for the freshmen at Dook
were walking about aimlessly as well, as they were supposed to be
involved in a huge service project in Durham.  Everywhere I looked,
there were freshmen looking for where to go, or, if they had already
arrived, sweeping, mopping, painting, or whatever.

I found someone who told me to take another bus, and I did (neat!
those Dooksters don't have to pay to ride the bus) and I arrived at
the place, just ten minutes before the meeting was to start.

Gadzooks!  There were kids simply bursting out of the place!  This is
great!  No...wait...they're sweeping.  And mopping.  And cleaning
windows.  Yes, the freshmen show up everywhere you turn.  I finally
found that they weren't meeting here but somewhere else.  sigh.
Another hike.

It turned out to be a hike of about half a block, thankfully.  And
there I met two young women from the NC School of Science and Math
(that's S&M, to those of you familiar with the place).  And about
twenty minutes later, someone else showed up.

And my heart leapt.  He was cute.  He was wearing a math team shirt
that I had in fact worn the day before.  (Sigh, this sounds awfully
nerdy.  Okay, I'm nerdy.  Do you have a problem with that?)  He
introduced himself.  His name was Akira.

"I go to UNC."  Wow, is this happening for real?  "I'm a freshman."
Yes, yes, YES!!!

I spent the rest of the meeting simply looking at him.  And when he
offered me a ride, I took it in a heartbeat.  I spent the rest of the
afternoon talking to Akira.  We went to dinner.  We talked all night,
and explored Chapel Hill by streetlight.  We knew a lot of the same
people from math meets and the like.  We thought the same ones were
gay, including (yikes, I can't say that.  For one thing, most of you
who are mathematicians or phycisists would recognize the name, for
he's simply the most -- I can't even say that, it would give him away.
Never mind.).  We were both virgins, both had never had a real
boyfriend.

We went to have a late night snack at a restaurant that was open late.
You know what?  No one ever told me how sensual, how erotic, feeding
another man cheesecake could be.  Simply putting the fork in his mouth.
*shiver* I was goosebumps all over!

We walked back and I put my hand in his.  "I'm very attracted to you,
Akira."

He looked at me incredulously.  "You are?"

"Yeah."

We walked the rest of the way together, and I felt warm inside.
Some things make you feel excited, others make you feel silly, or
angry, or sad.

But this.  Walking with Akira, this made me feel simply and fully
happy.


Trey Harris
--Stranger in a Strange Thread!
Newsgroups: soc.motss