About Me
Come and join the fight against diabetes in the 2008 Tour de Cure! I'll be riding 25 miles with team CW (CW Twin Cities channel 23 • cable 8) on Saturday, May 31st. Please come and ride along with us or come cheer us on! No matter what, we need your pledges to win this battle!
Message me for info on how to join our team or how you can help. You can ride 6, 25 or 45 miles. The journey takes you through the chain of Minneapolis lakes (6 mi), then through downtown Minneapolis (25 mi) and then to downtown St. Paul through historic Summit Avenue (45 mi). See you May 31st!
Chazz
A picture time line bulleting the highlights of my life so far.
March 16th, 1980
I was born as the youngest of six kids in St. Paul, MN and moved to Blaine, MN shortly thereafter.
September 6th, 1994
Started Coon Rapids High School where over the next four years, I would meet some of the most influential people who would become lifelong friends and helped shape me into the person I'd eventually become. Jeni, Heather, Heather, Megan, Liz, Ashley, Sam, Chris, Jill, Debbi.
June 3rd, 1998
Graduated #1 out of a class of over 700. Of course I only wish I was referring to GPA... instead its just alphabetically. GPA wise, I was probably about #400.
March 29th, 1999
Bought my first car - A 1989 Chevy Celebrity Wagon, named Larry (because of it's license plate - 499•LRY). I maxed this car out, complete with an all new stereo system. For a 10 year old car, I kept it in mint condition (my current car on the other hand, an '01 Saturn, doesn't get near the love Larry did. It doesn't even have a name... just "The Saturn".)The coolest part about Larry was that it had a collapsible backseat that looked out the back window. It was also ideal for camping--Sam and I took shelter in it one night after our tent was ravaged by raccoons.
One day, Liz and I went up to Dayton to go horseback riding. As I pulled up to the stable, the owner of the facility told me that she once drove a car like that. I explained to her that "he was my Larry". She just about passed out--she too called her car Larry. As she went around to look at the license plate, she confirmed that it indeed was hers. She was able to explain to me how the big bleach spot appeared on the floor of the drivers seat that ate away at the carpet, and why the wiring for the back window defroster was screwed up. Larry found his original owner out in the middle of no where...
June 21, 1999
Took my third job (first being the Salvation Army at 16, Wilson's Leather at 18). This job was key because it would be the first job that took me from entry level into management. It was with Allied Interstate; starting as a debt collector and working my way eventually into becoming the Training Supervisor--complete with my own office. I did have a sign for my door made, but it came back spelled "Charkes". Fucking engravers.
October 11th, 1999
While in the midst of suffering from my first heartbreak, and dropping out of college--Larry broke down in the pouring rain while on the way home from work. I called Jeni to come pick me up. While she drove me home and the rain beat down on her windshield, I broke down into tears and came clean. She was the first person I ever told that I was gay. There could've been no better person to turn to.
June 2000
Isn't it weird how things just happen? One night, Rob and Heather and I showed up to join Sam at Karaoke at "The Ground Round" in Roseville. As Sam is introducing me to his friends, one man in particular strikes me. He is sitting at a table with two other people in the atrium. He has jet black spiked hair, retro glasses and is wearing black leather jeans... just dripping cool. Sam interrupted his conversation and introduced me to Jeremy... Later that night, he'd have me in his arms as we watched the others sing. Hours earlier, if anyone had told me that this would be the night I'd meet the man I was destined to be with, I probably would've punched them... but they would've been right. Interestingly enough, Sam met the woman he would spend his life with at the same time--and at the same place.
Summer 2001
In one of my training sessions, one new hire really stood out. She was loud, hilarious and damn she looked like Jennifer Anniston! I took an instant liking to her, so much that the following week, I hired her fiance. Both Sherlyn and Chad became dear friends almost immediately. One week after I had started working with them, they found out that they were expecting. Today, they and their son are part of my family.
September 2001
I finally made my way into the city from the suburbs, and moved into an amazing two bedroom apartment in Loring Park, Minneapolis. Just 10 blocks from the downtown zone, I had an amazing view of the skyscrapers out both the living room and dining room windows. Freshly 21 and in a high paying job with only rent to pay -- much fun was to be had here. Unfortunately, about six months in, my roommate moved out on a day's notice and the fun ended there. In March 2002, I moved back in with my parents.
May 2002
Bad: I was living at home.
Good: Jeremy and I officially started dating.
The Worst: Three days after making it official, Jeremy accepted an offer to move to New York City. I was devastated, but knew he had to go... and so the long distance relationship and heartache started. Yahoo Messenger became our only outlet for spending time together.
October 2002
I had stormed out of Allied Interstate after 3 and a half years and some ridiculous corporate B/S. So, I went back to Wilson's Leather for a short stint as an assistant manager, and hated it. So one fine autumn day, I was walking through Maplewood Mall and saw a now hiring/assistant manager sign in the window of Leather Limited. I stormed in that store, ripped that sign out of the window and terrified the other assistant manager, Marie (so she tells it.) I still stand by the notion that I gracefully walked in and inquired about the position, but she had seniority over me, and still does 5 years after the store closed... so if she says I stormed, I stormed. The store didn't last long, but my friendship with Marie gets better (and ever more sarcastic) every year.
March 2003
Leather Limited was closing, I was in serious outs with most of my siblings and nothing was holding me here. So I ran to New York City and joined Jeremy. This was my opportunity to spread my wings and fly... to make something of myself. New York -- watch out.
April 2003
Living in a crap hole of an apartment, with nothing but cake to eat... I realized one night while washing our dish that we had a mouse problem... as one ran across my foot while standing at the base of the leaky sink. While Jeremy was out in Phoenix, I replied to an ad for free kittens. Hoping this would solve our mouse problem, I hopped the A train to Brooklyn. There were two kittens left over, a gray girl and a black boy. The two of them played so adorably with one another that I didn't have the heart to separate them. Jeremy came home a few days later and met the newest additions to our family. We immediately decided to name the boy Alexander (Xander for short), but it took the girl a few weeks before her name to us. We toyed with Grace, but one night she got caught in between the sink and the bathtub and couldn't get out... so Grace for graceful was out. Instead she became Samantha (Sammy Kat for short).
June 2003
After months of looking for a job with no luck, I finally landed a position as a technology salesperson with Office Depot in the heart of Times Square.
July 2003
One night, Jeremy and I sat down at a park bench just off our 7 train stop in Queens and had a serious conversation about our future in New York. The chips were down -- dangerously down. We were facing homelessness and the income at Office Depot and Jeremy's income minus child support wasn't enough for us to survive. So we decided to make our decision once and for all whether to stay and suffer or crawl back to Minneapolis. We thought for a few minutes and gave each other our decisions -- we unanimously decided to pack up and return to Minneapolis.
Xander couldn't pack himself quick enough to get out of New York.
...And so, Jeremy, myself and the two cats uncomfortably crawled back to Minneapolis... to those from whom we ran away...
...and for the next three months we lived in separate cities on friends couches, until we could rustle up enough money to start over again with a place of our own and our own car.
For a good couple of months, there was a lot of fun, but also a lot of stress living in such close proximity to some of our closest friends. Angela, Debbi, Chad and Sherlyn put up with a lot, but we would never have survived without them.
I transferred to Office Depot here in Minnesota, but at the same rate I was making in New York City. Out there it wasn't enough to buy cereal... here it was a mighty nice starter salary.
October 3rd, 2003
At last: stability... After three months of living on friends couches, and seven months of starvation, filthy apartment buildings and pending homelessness, Jeremy and I turned the key to our first clean, safe and spacious apartment. Apartment 219 was our first real home together. We would live in this building for the next 3 and a half years and meet some wonderful neighbors and attend some awesome pool parties in the meantime.
June 27th, 2004
Jeremy and I put on our jackets and attended pride on an unusually cool pride Saturday in Loring Park. Our friends Janelle and Angela explained that Senator Scott Dibble, Representative Karen Clark and Mayor R.T. Rybak were going to be officiating at a mass commitment ceremony and that Jeremy and I needed to take part in it. Jeremy and I couldn't have cared one way or the other about it, but as the time came, we couldn't stop ourselves from doing it. We were handed some flowers and stood front and center at the stage... 30 minutes, a good number of tears and some paperwork later, Jeremy and I were legal domestic partners in the city of Minneapolis. Within minutes of the ceremony, we called all of our friends and family to tell them the news -- all were overjoyed. Jeremy officially was a part of the family. For our wedding night, we went back to the apartment and ordered in pizza with friends. It was the perfect day and the perfect night.
A week later, my boss at Office Depot found our picture in Lavender Magazine. She was so excited for us - but disappointed that we didn't tell any of the Depot people about the ceremony. Within minutes all of my coworkers knew and threw a last minute party to congratulate the event. For the next several months, our wedding picture from the magazine stayed on the break room refrigerator.
July 10th, 2006
Entering into a slight depression about being in my mid 20's but having made no progress, Jeremy coaxed me into making a phone call to Brown College about pursuing my dream career of working in television. After much ambivalence, I made the call and just days later I was enrolled in college once again... but this time I had a lot of real world experience behind me; it was either make a go of it in college and remember living off of cake in New York City.
I attended classes with some just amazing people who have the stuff to really make a go of it in this field... the fierce five: Amy, Andrew, Matt, Kevin and myself. Together and individually we put out some truly great work and I was really luck to have gotten to work with them the last few years.
Fall 2006
I reconnected with many friends from High School that I'd lost contact with before I moved to New York, and rebuilt bridges that were burned with a fury, but meant the world to rebuild. I was able to attend Jeni's wedding, Ashley's wedding, rekindle a lost friendship with Heather, see Alesha get her pick up truck, and see Jill wear her Swedish translator pin!
And met some new friends: Renee, James, Matt, Misha and Shaun.
May 26th, 2007
It was our first home, but it was an apartment building... and we grew tired of the noise and the parties. We decided not to renew our lease and moved into a duplex in the heart of uptown. Built in 1855 and owned by one of the coolest most lovable people ever, Jeremy quickly made our new house our new home.
December 20th, 2007
School was finally over... I graduated with high distinction with a 4.0 cumulative GPA. Finally, no more research papers, interning, projects or homework. I was a free man. The journey was necessary and hard as hell... but it truly educated me not only in my career, but in all facets of life. For the ability to go back and do this, I will always be grateful.
And we all lived happily ever after.
Friendship is like peeing your pants....... Everyone can see it, but only you can feel it's true warmth...
The pieces of my life
