This fabulous song by a band that came and went was tremendous. The band was comprised of Guns ‘N Roses (without Axel Rose) paired up with the great Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots), forming Velvet Revolver. They crushed two CDs. The first single off the first CD, Contraband, was Slither. The best of hard rock, grunge, it had a dark and vibrant feel to it. The song creates a visceral reaction if you immerse yourself into it. I really loved this band (despite never being a GNR fan due to the asshat that Axel Rose is and was). You could feel the angst of Weiland in the song. It evokes a mood, not simply just something you hear. The word “slither” is not even in the song; it simply defines it.
When you look you see right through me
Cut the rope, fell to my knees
Fallen, broken every single time
Always keep me under finger
That’s the spot where you would chew me
But I see sometime pleasure in my mind
The above picture is of a creative, tortured soul. Sad, so many times that the demons that fuel this type of creativity in so many circumstances always reek such damage.
What does this have to do with my outing on this day, May 21, 2026? Not a damn thing. I just love this song and wanted to say so.
This was the best type of day I could imagine. Morning pickleball. Before you go, who cares, I play pickleball (as myself always near home) with many women. They do not realize it, but my interactions with them are very Kandi-like. Then I went home, got my girl on and spent the great majority of the day being the woman of the house. Errand after errand. In and out of about seven places, banks, drug stores, liquor stores, gas stations and grocery stores, always either unnoticed (never a bad thing) or very positively noticed. The bulk of my errands centered on the grocery shopping for our children and grandson’s visit this Memorial Day weekend. I have planned three big meals and had to make sure I had what I needed and that everyone would have breakfast, lunch, snacks and beverages. I talked with others, asked questions, just was me. And that is what it’s all about!
Then I came home and spend quite a bit of time being the wife (so to speak, my wife was at work). I made the burgers for Memorial Day, a huge fruit salad and a cocktail for the lady of the house (at the time). It kinda hurt to tear it all down, but I knew the next day it was game on again (which ended up getting cancelled)! Goodbye to my cutest tennis dress. She got out three times and now it’s time to say bye-bye.
Yeah, here comes the water
It comes to wash away the sins of you and I
This time you see
Like holy water
It only burns you faster than you’ll ever dry
This time with me
Originally posted by Julie, May 10, 2026 (Mother’s Day).
“Last month I did a live storytelling event. There’s no recording of it, but here’s the end of the story – The visual is me in Julie mode, up on stage in front of a podium at a venue called Martyrs.
For a while I had been toying with the idea of coming out to my mom. Ya see, I’m an only child, and what happened was my dad passed away recently. Because of that, my mom and I have gotten a lot closer. Closer than we’ve ever been, because in a sense it’s just the 2 of us now. It was starting to feel wrong that she only knew half of me.
A couple months later I was sitting at her kitchen table trying to get the words out. Coming out to someone is such a weird thing. You have this opening line in your head – the one that will break the ice. In your mind, you keep repeating it over and over again, but the words won’t come out. Well … the words finally did come out. And it was fine. She said she loves me regardless. I don’t know why I thought that there was any other possibility.
That night we stayed up later than usual – drank a little more scotch than usual and had a really great conversation. I told about all the friends I had made in the burlesque community, recent trips Julie took to New York and New Orleans. It was really great. She wasn’t ready to see a picture yet, but that happened a few months later (she asked and I texted her the pic above).
At one point, she told me a story about my dad. It was a few years back and they had just left my house after visiting on a Sunday afternoon. He said, “I don’t think he likes us.” The reason he said that was because when they would ask things like, “So, what did you do this weekend?” I would hem and haw and never talk about what I did or who my friends were or if I even had friends. I had put up this barrier and even if they didn’t know why it was there, they definitely felt it.
A couple weeks ago we happened to stop by the cemetery. It was the first time I’d been there since coming out to my mom. Standing there … it felt like a second coming out. I could feel his presence and I said under my breath. “I’m so sorry you never got to know the full me.” In my heart, I feel like he finally understood.
Thank you 
“
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Editorial comment: I am beyond grateful to mine the Julie Facebook posts, clearly doing something similar than we do here, making our sisters understand what is possible. This specific post is and was so touching. I wish I had this type of courage.
