Who wants to take a stroll down memory lane with me?
On this date in the year 2009 I was sitting in my bedroom that I rented in a 6 bedroom/2 bath apartment two blocks from the beach at the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco, California where I shared an apartment with 5 total strangers. I had NEVER lived with someone I had never known before, but in San Francisco it was and, I believe, still is a very common occurrence. It was uncomfortable for me. I had only ever lived in my own apartment or with a boyfriend before. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. I mainly stayed in my room when I was not out exploring the amazing City of San Francisco and all the cool things the City has to offer! It was from my tiny little desk in that tiny bedroom where BoyohBoi.net was born. I can’t believe that this blog has been going, pretty much nonstop, for 15 YEARS! I didn’t stay in that apartment very long. I convinced my ex-boyfriend, Jason, who is now my BEST FRIEND, to give up everything he owned to pack some clothes, and I sent him a one-way plane ticket so he could hop on a plane from Chicago to San Francisco so we could once again be roommates and start a new chapter of our lives in Sunny California!
We ended up finding an apartment in El Cerrito, California, which was a town just across the San Francisco Bay. After a few years, we decided to move back to Chicago because rent was so high in California… We packed up a U-Haul truck at the end of January and drove across the country – in the dead of winter – through 2 different blizzards so that we could be in Chicago by February 2nd – Jason’s birthday. It was quite possibly the WORST decision we ever made!!! The blizzard was one of the top 5 worse blizzards that Chicago had EVER seen. The U-Haul truck got stuck in the deep snow in the alley behind our new apartment for 3 days – WITH all our belongings locked inside. We tried for hours to shovel it out, but we were no match for the snow. We were finally able to get someone to help us get the truck out – but it took 2 large tow trucks to do it. After that we said we would never move again! But wouldn’t you know that the summer was a real sweltering one… We both missed EVERYTHING about California (and still do today!). So, we decided after 7 short months to, once again, pack up a U-Haul and drive across the country again to California. We landed in Berkeley, which is also just over the San Francisco Bay Bridge in the East Bay.
We had never seen the apartment complex or the apartment into which we were moving. When we pulled up in the truck, Jason literally had an emotional breakdown. The building was NOT what we were used to… I don’t mean to sound like a snob, because I’m not, but it was in a very questionable neighborhood and the building looked a little like a prison because it was surrounded by 8-foot-high spiky fencing. And THEN we got our first look at the apartment! HOLY CRAP was it small!!! It was a two bedroom, but the kitchen was about the same size as the bathroom – which was like a small closet. We were told that the apartment would be newly painted – which it wasn’t – and it SMELLED HORRIBLY! The walls were brown from grease and the ceiling of our unit was LITTERALLY the floor of the unit above us. I am serious! You could see into the upper apartment through small holes in the ceiling/floor! It was SOOO bad that we ended up staying in a nearby motel for 3 nights while we waited for them to get the apartment ready for us. Both of us were REALLY having second thoughts about moving to Berkeley. But we made it work and ended up staying there for something like 6 years. We even became Resident Property Managers of the building – which was both good and bad. Good because we got a SMALL discount on the rent, and it was now in our power to make the building nicer. Bad because neither of us knew how MUCH work it would take to make it nice, not to mention all the problems of overseeing a building in a so-so neighborhood, the crime and homelessness was everywhere.
Over those 6 years a lot of things changed – at least for me. My father had been diagnosed and died from Alzheimer’s and then about 6 months later my brother passed away from a brain tumor. I only had one relative left and that was my sister – who lived in Wisconsin at that time. I decided that I wanted to be closer to her, logistically and emotionally. I was imagining that we as siblings would grow closer if I was closer to her physically. Well, I was wrong. I convinced Jason to pick up and move back to the Midwest, to Wisconsin to be exact. Shortly after I moved closer to my sister, she ended up moving out of Wisconsin to Michigan. She would now be physically further away and my dream of becoming closer to her never happened – despite me giving it a good try. It just wasn’t going to happen.
So, there we were – stuck in Sheboygan Wisconsin. It was a nice lowkey town with very little crime but also with very little to do. We were 3 hours from Chicago, and an hour from Milwaukee – which is where all my doctors would end up being. It was a hassle to go see the doctor – especially in winter.
Fast forward 4 years of life in Sheboygan, I have a dear friend who is up there in years and not doing well medically who lives in the suburbs of Chicago. I have this need – sometimes unhealthy need – to help people, so I managed to convince Jason to move to Illinois so I could be closer so I could spend time with her and help when I could. The move has been a rough one, but I think it was the right thing to do because we both wanted to get out of Wisconsin. Now before those of you who live in Wisconsin start saying, “What’s wrong with Wisconsin?” please know that I spent the first 17 years of my life living in a TINY town of 3,000 people in Northern Wisconsin. Being gay in a small town – especially back then – was not an easy thing to do. I needed to get out so I could truly be ME. So, I moved to downtown Chicago where I didn’t know a single person and that is where my life truly started.
If you made it this far through this story, you are probably wondering WHY am I even telling you all this??? Some of you have been with me since my days in San Francisco and some of you are new to this blog. You all give me SO much with your comments, emails and yes, some donations. I thought I should give you a little back – something that isn’t porn. So, THIS is what you get! I hope you like it because it cannot be returned! Lol.
With ALL of that said, those of you who have followed my site for all these years, know that I do this blog with NO ads or pop-ups. I pay monthly for the site hosting and the extra highspeed internet service needed to upload so many photos. I TRY to post regular posts like Who Would You Do, Self Portrait Saturday and Sunday Funnies. I strive to post even more often with a variety of different pictures, but sometimes – especially lately – life gets in the way.
But after 15 years – the blog goes on (and on and on… lol). Some of you have been with me through struggles and heartbreak, like when we lost our dog Phoenix. Some of you have been with me through the joys as well, like when we added Bonnie to our little family. And I hope you will all be with me for everything that is yet to come.
Now that have bored you all to death… I just wanted to remind everyone that YOU can help keep this blog running! As much as I hate doing it, I do accept donations to help offset costs. As I always have, I will still send anyone who is able to donate $100.00 or more, a flash drive with ALL the photos from the entire 15 years! That is over 220,000 pictures including over 118,200 self-portraits! All totaled it is over 47GB of pictures!!! All on one 256GB flash drive so you will have LOTS of room for all the photos I have yet to post or to move your current porn collection off your computer to free up some space! Lol.
I accept donations of ANY size – so if you can’t donate a lot, that’s cool. Anything helps. But I also know that not everyone is in a position or has the spare cash to donate – and that is cool too! I totally understand! I try to support various sites and charities when I can, but that is unfortunately not often lately. If you can donate – know that I appreciate it more than words can express. But if you can’t donate – please do not feel bad. I am just happy you are here and hopefully enjoying what I post.
Donations can be made via the banking app Zelle Pay to my account: boyohboi@gmail.com or via PayPal via my account: JasoninSheboygan@gmail.com. If neither of those options work for you and you really do want to make a donation, send me an e-mail to: boyohboi@gmail.com and we can try to figure out other options.
Thank you all for reading this LONG post and I hope I didn’t bore you too much.
As I said, I am really glad you are here, and I hope to continue to bring you many posts in the future!
Cheers,
Jason ❤️❤️❤️
(Oh, and Bonnie 🐾 and the other Jason 🙋♂️ say hello!)
