Sock it to Me, Santa! by Madison Parker

We haven't done many book reviews, but every now and then we come across a book we fall in love with and keep thinking about over and over.

In the interest of complete disclosure, I was one of the beta readers before Madison released this wonderful short story. When she sent me the manuscript I read it through and wondered, Why does she need a beta reader? I don't see anything I can suggest to make this any better.

But I did make one suggestion and she worked with it and made a change in something! Can you believe that? So naturally this is now my NUMBER ONE favorite story of all time and will remain so for all eternity!! LOL!!

Blurb:
Ryan is assigned to Jamie Peterson for his class's secret gift exchange. If word gets out that he has to make a handcrafted gift for flamboyant and openly gay Jamie, Ryan will be the laughing stock of the school. It's a good thing no self-respecting boy would be caught dead in a craft store, because otherwise he'd be at risk of being spotted when his mom drags him to her weekly craft workshops. He hopes Jamie will appreciate all the trouble he's going to for this assignment. Finding the perfect gift is gonna be tricky. Jamie deserves something good, though, after all the crap he has to put up with at school. At least, Ryan tells himself that's the reason he's putting so much thought into the gift. It couldn't be that he has feelings for Jamie, could it?

There is so much to love about this story, which falls in the Young Adult category. But if you think ONLY young people would enjoy this story, you're very mistaken. All you need to appreciate this story is a heart. And even if your heart is somewhat closed, after you read this story you'll find it a little more open than before.

This is a story we're planning to give to Jake (our high school next-door-neighbor) and his boyfriend, Brady. I can't wait to hear what they think of it.

BUT, this is a story we plan to give as a gift to our adult friends also. It recalls some things everybody who has been to high school can relate to. How do I fit in with other people my age? If I befriend this certain kid, is that going to damage my image as one of the "cool kids"?

What's more important to me? Doing the right thing, or maintaining my carefully cultivated image as "one of the in-crowd"? And what the hell do I do when I think I might want to be boyfriends with this emo-type, flamboyant kid? Does that mean I might be gay? 

And why am I attracted to this "certain kid," who only has girls for friends, and, get this, LOVES TO KNIT? What does all this mean?

Well, I won't give anything away, but the resolution of these dilemmas is not exactly smooth sailing. The author does a really good job of getting into the heads of both these boys and their personalities and character. She has either spent a lot of time observing boys this age, or she's really a teenage boy masquerading as an adult! LOL! This story is like those wonderful Christmas bells you hear -- the ones that have a beautiful tone and ring true!

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Madison has graciously offered a giveaway of her story to one lucky commenter. Just leave a comment along with your email addy and we'll be announcing the winner this Friday.

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Even if you've already read the story, it would make a wonderful gift! Here's a direct link to Madison's site: Sock it to Me, Santa!.

If you've already read this story, feel free to let us know what you thought. Just remember, no spoilers, please. Thanks!

Oh, oh, oh... Matty made me mention something about Madison's upcoming debut novel (Play Me, I'm Yours) because one of the characters is reportedly a "speedo-sporting stud"!! Matty is also hoping this book is illustrated! It's scheduled to be released in April 2013, but Matty says that's not fast enough and Madison should bribe the publishers to move it up -- to tomorrow, please! LOL!

Now I need to learn a little more about knitting a sock monkey! I want one so bad!! I've never knitted before, but this story made me want to! ;)

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A Sweet Night

Yesterday we were talking to some friends of ours about first loves. We've written about it here a number of times but the two of us hadn't really talked about it much in a while.

There was one post we wrote about how there are no guarantees about whether a first love will eventually last long-term. It's just one of those things you take a risk on and try to stay focused on the present instead of worrying about how long the love will last.

It's hard not to worry, though.

So we were talking about it yesterday which was a really good thing, but it was also a little scary. Not every couple makes it long-term. They might have "true love" in the beginning and it might last for a while, but then various things happen that make one or both people question whether it's what they want for the long haul.

After Bradley and I were talking about our relationship for about a half-hour, we had this realization that we should maybe have this kind of talk more often. Not because there are any serious issues that threaten our future together, but because it's good to step out of our normal day-to-day life and routines to just say, "Where are we right now?"

Our talk started off with all the positive things we see in our relationship. Most of what we were telling each other was nothing new. It was all the usual things we often say to each other.

Then we started going in the direction of how things could be better. Things that maybe we hadn't actually stopped to think about in any great depth, or at least hadn't actually said to each other.

At first it was a little silly and we had some laughs. I swear my eyeballs have something wrong with them because when I walk in our bedroom, they never scan what's on the floor. I'm sure Bradley's eyeballs are in better shape than mine because his can always see my socks, underwear, and sneakers scattered around. That was one of the silly things that got discussed. If something like that can kill a relationship and the love that makes it work, then you're in more serious trouble than you thought.

But then we started going into more serious things. The things that really matter and need to be discussed. Things that can do serious damage to a relationship if they're not talked about and dealt with.

Things like Bradley's frustration with me when I go on and on and on about some funny joke I'm caught up in and can't seem to let it go while he's trying to be serious about something.

My frustration with him when I want to get out of the house and go do something fun with friends and he wants to stay home and veg out.

Yeah, I know. Neither of those examples are about things that can kill a relationship. But if they pile up along with other examples and never get talked about, well, then pretty soon something happens and everything comes rushing out all at once and you have a hard time sorting through what's happening. A real mess. We've been there. It's not easy to get to the bottom of things when that happens.

A couple of really good things came out of our talk last night. A few things we want to try doing that make us step out of our regular routine.

One of our close friends and his husband have Date Night every Wednesday. It's their time together and it's something they can always count on and look forward to. We're going to start doing this, too. Maybe go out to eat or go to a movie. Something just the two of us do together.

The other thing we agreed to do is have a regularly scheduled time to sit down and sorta review how things are going in our relationship. Things we appreciate about each other, things we see each other do that make us smile. And things we want to bring up that maybe bother us or want to talk about. Not in a bitchy way where we point out all the things the other one is doing we don't like. Not a gripe session where we just complain to each other, but things we've been thinking about that bother us so we can talk in a serious way about them.

Something really nice happened after our talk last night. It's a little hard to describe but the air felt lighter all around us. It felt similar to how things felt when we were first dating. You know, that feeling you have when you're all excited to be around each other. Like you're really paying attention to little small things the other one says. Like you're noticing how they smile, how they move through the room, how they steal a sweet glance at you when they think you're not noticing them and you give them a small smile back. Almost like you're falling in love all over.

We slept really good last night. It was one of those sleeps where you feel completely safe in each other's arms. Completely loved and cared for. A sweet night.

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Teenage Dream - Klaine's First Time

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First Loves and No Guarantees

In Brad's post yesterday about Do First Loves Last?, he summarized what we actually began talking about maybe 2 or 3 months into our dating. We've already mentioned how this is the first relationship for each of us so it's been on our minds early on.

I think it's an important question for anybody in our shoes to ask, right? Not once during the time we've been together have either of us talked about breaking up. We had a serious talk (I mean serious) when we both began to verbalize what each of us had been thinking and feeling about love.

Before using the "L" word with Brad, I talked to my older brother about it. He's two years older than me and  is currently in love with this girl he met in college. I wanted to talk to him because I totally trust my brother. We had a talk a few years ago that we would never bullshit each other about the serious stuff. And we've never let each other down. (I'll say more about what prompted that agreement at another time -- just suffice it to say for now that it had to do with my coming out to him.)

After listening to me talk about Brad and my feelings for him, I asked him the question about whether we were too young to really know what love is all about and whether first loves really lasted. I'm summarizing here, but what he said was, "Matt, only you can know, I mean really know, whether what you have with Brad is real. Just be honest with yourself about what you feel and be honest with him. You can figure it out."

As far as whether first loves have a chance of lasting, he said something like, "First of all, you're going to do a total mind-fuck if you try to predict the future. The reason? You'll go crazy. There's no end to how this kind of thinking goes. You can't predict anything. Don't kid yourself that you can."

So where am I with all this now? What I have with Brad is real. We've done a lot of talking about everything. We've been honest with each other about ourselves, our needs, our visions about the future, sex, careers, etc.......

I believe all Brad and I have at this point is right now, that it's real and we trust that. What we have right now is what we have to concentrate on. The future's not even real cause it's not even happened yet. I want to stay with what we have right now. The future will unfold in it's own way.

So, what we have is this moment in time, and we're building something that feels real. I trust that. We love each other. There's no doubt about that. We want to stay together. There's no doubt about that. We are excited to see each other every time we're together. We get excited thinking about each day and week and month ahead, but we try and stay with our feet in this day.

Where we are at this point in time is more than enough for me.

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Do First Loves Last?

I've been thinking a lot lately about first loves. Matt and I have been together almost a year now and I gotta say there's nothing happening in our relationship that makes me think this won't last.

But, I keep hearing things from friends and sometimes I read stuff like, "Well, you know, first loves are really, really wonderful and exciting, but they don't usually last." Last week a friend of mine (I'll call him Downer) said he never knew of a first relationship that survived long-term. He said the younger you are when you fall in love, the less chance there is of that first love lasting.

Downer's reasoning (or maybe it was based on his own experience) is that when you're young and fall in love the first time you really don't have the kind of life experience (I think he called it "maturity") to know how to make things last. "And," he said, "if you're young you are gonna want to get as much experience as possible to see what's out there."

Well, I got to thinking, does he have a point?

Matt and I have been together for just under a year now but what if we're just kidding ourselves in the long run? I mean, neither of us has dated anybody else. How can anybody know with certainty that this thing's going to last?

Sometimes we comment about a hot guy we see on TV, a movie, walking down the street, driving around, etc. We check other guys out when we're together and compare notes. Neither of us does it to make the other jealous. I mean, it's just normal to see a hot guy (they're out there, right?) and say, "Hey, check out that guy." For us boy watching is just, I don't know, innocent fun. We have similar tastes in guys a lot of the time, but sometimes we don't.

I think Downer's perspective is that if you still have raging hormones, you owe it to yourself to give in to them and screw everything in sight. Kinda like sowing your wild oats before you're "mature" enough to settle down.

Personally, I think that's a crock of shit. Sure, I have raging hormones, okay? I admit it. I mean I feel horny like about 23 hours a day!  Sometimes I feel like I want to have sex of some kind every hour on the hour!! Seriously.

Since meeting Matt, sex has been on my mind a lot. So what? Nothing wrong with that. It's what you do with those hormones that matters. I can't imagine saying to Matt, "Hey, you know I love you and like how we're building this life together, but, uh, I hope you understand that I need to go sleep with lots of guys, kiss a lot of frogs, maybe, just to really, really make sure what we have is real."

Am I missing something here?

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