SO MUCH I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START

I met Raymond Joe at the Reno State convention. He and his homegurl Sheree took my tired ass under their wings while we spent the longest night in history waiting to vote on something that to this day I'm not sure WTF it was. Long story short, they offered to have me room with them as I had arrived in Reno with no place to stay.

Now, I'm from West Covina, a sleepy little suburb outside of L.A.. I went to a lovely High school there, Edgewood. Everything I ever needed to know I learned there (and West Hollywood, natch.).

Edgewood is sorta like a combination of Rydell High in Grease ( the first one, not that Michelle Pfeiffer groan fest that came later.) and that school pre-dyke Lindsay Lohan went to in Mean Girls. In other words, you learn pretty early not to trust anyone. Especially nice people. Especially.

Well, when Raymond and Sheree offered me some floorage I just assumed they were up to some Freaky Deaky time with The Derek. I demured and somehow ended up in the mountains outside Reno in a little motel that reminded me of the one in Psycho but with gingham print bedspreads and no internet. Alone.Thank God.

So, when I started my quest to get to Denver they weren't even on my radar. I just blasted that email to everybody on my notepad from the convention.

I heard from Raymond right away. He explained that he and Miss Sheree were going to help AND that he had hit "reply all" and basically, told everyone my little folly was a good thing to help out with. At every step of the way he encouraged me and kept telling me he was spreading the word and collecting change (!) from people. Whenever things looked fruitless, Raymond would pop up with some good news and words of hope. Hmm, I guess Raymond was my agent of the audacity of hope and change (but for real bitch.).

Before long when I had really gotten tired of the whole project (at some point you just want to youtube the lesbian clip from The Golden Girls, laugh and call it a fuckin' day!) I couldn't put the brakes on because Raymond was working so hard to get me to Denver. Damn.

Raymond even went to an Obama meeting and asked for help! That my friends is the very definition of "taking a hit for the team"! Or just plum crazy.

Well Raymond, WE made it to Denver!

Thank you!