Peter's Place

I'm sick. I've been sick since Wednesday evening. I think it's my annual bout of bronchitis. Or it could be COVID. But I doubt it. But with all the anxiety over COVID, IDK anymore. I think all the anxiety they have given us over COVID has left us unable to determine when we have a simple cold or the flu, or something like bronchitis, or something worse--like COVID--or some other sort of infection.  More likely than not this either is my annual bronchitis or a URI (upper respiratory infection). But I'm sick and miserable. Oh. I'm being redundant. But I'm sick so I'm allowed a bit of redundancy. I'm certain I'm not the only one who feels this way. That is, that one little sniffle--or in my case, a single cough--sends off alarm bells and trips to CVS buying out every single possible home COVID test there is on the shelves. Because I've already had COVID-19. And not the trimmed-down Delta or Omicron variants but the OG one that first came out, when ...

Today marks the completion of the 48th revolution of my corporeal existence on this ball of rock flooded with a substance we call water (chemical composition  H 2 O ) around a gaseous body whose core is a continuous fusion reaction primarily fueled by hydrogen and helium (i.e., our "sun," which we classify as a yellow star). In other words, it's my 48th birthday today. And. I'm. Terrified. . . No. Make that petrified, immobilized by a foreboding sense of impending...change? It's not that I haven't faced change before--I have, on numerous occasions and yet, I'm still here (despite more than a few attempts to the contrary but, I digress). NOTE: If you are having thoughts of not wanting to be here any longer, please--PLEASE--call someone and ask for help. Call your local mobile crisis hotline number, call 911, call your local Suicide Prevention Hotline . Yet this time, something is different. I don't know if it's the times we're living in or the f...

MEDIA ALERT ACTIVIST EVICTED FROM HOMELESS SHELTER WHILE UNDERGOING MEDICAL TESTS, CALLS FOR COMMUNITY TO RALLY AGAINST HOMELESSNESS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:    PETER C. FRANK                               (914) 417-9579                               PCFRANK73@GMAIL.COM South Park Inn 75 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06106 HARTFORD, CT—Earlier today, I was evicted from South Park Inn (SPI) , which is the homeless shelter I've been staying in, for doing nothing other than receiving healthcare that I was forced to postpone from last month due to not having the funds for medical transportation. I am now, literally, on the streets. Specifically, during my annual wellness examination the day before my birthday last month, my doctor ordered a series of diagnostic tests to be performed. Among them was a s...

I feel as though I've just given birth but, as I'm 100% biological male, I know that's an impossibility in our reality. I've had this feeling on a near-daily basis for the past twelve months. I feel as though my normal life has become amplified, like how a headache amplifies into a migraine. That is to say, I've been taking care of my mother, who on top of her ongoing health issues was diagnosed with her fourth round of breast cancer at the beginning of last November, supporting my sister with her four daughters (the eldest of whom I've  previously written about is very special needs), helping my father (who's recently moved back to the area) launch a new business, and once in a while squeeze in an appointment or two for my own health needs that are ever-growing in this cosmic journey we're all in together as we swirl around through space on a water-covered rock orbiting around a giant blob of hydrogen and helium entwined in a fusion reaction we call ...

Today, October 21st, is my birthday. Perhaps the most common question I am asked, especially when meeting someone new, is, "how old will you be?" My typical response is, "I'll be celebrating my 29th birthday." And it's a factual statement. One can celebrate anything one chooses, and I happen to choose to celebrate my 29th birthday. But it's not for the reason most people would think. Many may deem such a response to be a sign of vanity. There is, after all, an increasing amount of anxiety surrounding the entrance to one's fourth decade of life (or in layman's terms, turning 30 ). There also is the common myth among many gay men—especially those young adults and 20-somethings—that crossing the boundary into one's thirties is the death knell of gay life. Worst of all, thirty becomes that age when one no longer can get laid and instantly transforms one into an old troll or, worse, a chicken hawk. There's even a zeitgeist surrou...