Room To Grow

One gains the MOST if one can sufficiently heighten the yield of pleasure from the sources of psychical (affecting or influenced by the human mind) and intellectual work.
-Sigmund Freud
"Civilization and its Discontents"

A few days ago my dear friend, Arlene Zapata, of the Chicago, Illinois area created a caricature of me.
Arlene is an Advertising/Marketing/Printing expert as well as a REIKI and 'reflexology' expert.  It made me smile when I saw her rendering of me.  I thought I’d share the cartoonish, younger version of ‘me’ here on my blog today:
PHOTO: Michael J Armijo ‘character’

Twenty-five years ago today

January 12, 1986
Sunday

Chad and I were waking up at around 12:25PM in the afternoon! Narn (Chad’s sister) prepared French toast, bacon and juice for us. What a sweetheart! The New Orleans versus Miami football game was on the television. We ‘sort of’ watched it as we ate our brunch.

Chad and I played a couple of SHUTTLE games. Chad won most of them. I didn’t like the game (probably because I lost).

We left San Jose by 2:30PM that afternoon but we were scouting the area for a gym to visit. We both figured we could use the workout after the hearty breakfast. We found a Family Fitness Center but it wasn’t appealing, so we just decided to leave the premises.

We returned to Castro Valley where we had some BBQ Beef bread packets, chunk chicken soup, Malibu chicken, noodles and (of course) a Diet-Coke. We watched “THE DEAD ZONE” movie. Larry, Chad’s roommate, joined us for the screening.

I left Chad’s pad by 8:30PM.

I stopped by mom’s house for a quick visit. I soon left for my home to clean up. I munched on a banana and decided to go to bed when the phone rang. It was Chad.
“Wasn’t it great last night?” Chad asked.
“Yeah, it was fun.”
“You know, Larry told me he wants me OUT in three months from this date.”
I didn’t say much initially.
“Well, you know you are welcome to move-in here,” I said sharply.
“Yeah, you know I really missed not being over at your place last Friday. I keep wondering when we will be able to see each other again.”
After I hung up I thought how good it felt ‘to be’ and ‘to feel’ this way (right now) about him.

I slept until Steph Redding decided to call me to chat. After getting rid of her I hit the hay. Yawn.

Chad wrote this poetic letter dated January 12, 1986 (Perhaps after our telephone conversation on this very evening):

 

Mike:
Let’s work slowly with each other and build a relationship that we both can enjoy being a part of.


Let’s share love and understand that neither of us is perfect; we are both subject to human frailties.


Let’s encourage each other to pursue our dreams, even when we’re weary from trying.


Let’s expect the best that we both have to give and still love when we fall short of our expectations…


Let’s be friends and respect each other’s individual personality and give one another room to grow.


Let’s be candid with each other and point out strengths and weaknesses.


Let’s understand each other’s personal philosophy, even if we don’t agree.


Let’s be friends as well as lovers.

--Chad Mark Glen

"It's getting worse.  You're the center of my life."
-Laura
IN TREATMENT, TV Drama Series