After leaving Penny's and the sales world I was so much happier. I got my old job back at Big Daddy's by calling up Ric Herrington, the manager/head dj/bartender, of Daddy's. I told him what happened and he was nice enough to let me come back. Shortly thereafter Jammie and I broke up because he was seeing someone else. A guy named Jeff T. I moved out of the Holly Hill apartment and reluctantly back in with Kurt.
I had been talking to Mary Kehoe (aka Mary XTC pictured left) on the phone one night and she was talking about moving to Dallas. She was living in Las Vegas and hating it. I talked to Kurt and Craig about her and her writing and performing music and they were so cool. They were like, "Get her down here." "She can live here for a while until ya'll can get your own apartment." So she did. While at Kurt's one night we were listening to Mary play her keyboards and all her ideas for songs. This one song she was playing around with sounded so much like Divine's Native Love. She had a lot of the words down but Kurt started adding lyrics, as did Mary and I. Before we knew it we had a song written. Mary and I were going out A LOT and getting connections through the clubs. She started getting gigs to perform almost immediately. She performed (with Frank Meador and Russ Brouse as dancers) under the name Mary and the Acid Queens or MXTC. They performed at Adam Hats, Below Xero, The Wave, Institute, Industry and others I can't recall. (pictured: a flier with Mary as featured live act and Frank Meador with Mary in the background performing at Below Xero circa 1988.) Then Oak Lawn Records called Mary to record her first single. We went in the studio for two days and got a great performance out of Mary. Unfortunately as music and the music business was getting more and more unpredictable the song ended up never seeing the light of day. This, I think, jaded Mary quite a bit and basically ended her recording career before it actually got started. Today she is a manager of a major hotel chain's event production staff. She has been there for years and does very well. Mary continues to DJ on occasion and something tells me we'll be hearing from her musically again soon.
Mary and I had moved out of Kurt's and in together around this time. We lived at the Tecali apts on Cedar Springs. We were clubbers in every sense of the word. At one point Frank and I had a schedule and I still remember it.
Mondays - The Wave (Amateur Talent Night w/ Sweet Savage and Valerie Lohr) This is one of the places we would go see Obsession perform and appaud as loud as possible for her to win. She was one of the best performers I've ever seen still to this date. Her mixes were self made pause button extravaganzas with on point timing and hard to find acapellas. Always a treat to see and hear Obsession.
Tuesdays - Village Station (Amateur Talent w/ Donna Day) Another place we went to support Obsession. Alternatively Crews Inn was always a big Tuesday crowd.
Wednesdays - The Wave (Club Night I actually started with new music and a predominately Deep Ellum art crowd.) After I got this one started and it became really successful I was moved over to RAPS (The sister club with black gay crowd) RAPS ended up being one of my favorite gigs where I met some awesome people like Latina McIntire, Danielle Winters, Camille Lamour, Demorris, Betty Neal, Nicki Foster, Iroc, Racine Scott, Stephanie Mills, Anita & Sweet Pussy Pauline.
Thursdays - Fish Dance with DJ Rob Vaughan
Fridays - Primitive at Clearview (hosted by David and Brookes with DJ GoGo Mike.)
Saturdays - Prizm, Institute, One, Industry or wherever else was happening.
Sundays - RAPS (Sunday Show where I played for a year and a half. Black gay crowd was awesome and like a close knit family. One night Frank and I got so drunk we ended up passing out at Camilles. She and "the girls" took care of us and even invited us to stay for their cookout. We stayed and ate and had a great time.
(Pic: Me and Bob the sound and light pro at the Wave Summer 1988.)

After about 6 months of living with Mary she was having financial problems and had to move home for a while. I moved into the back part of the Tecali into a smaller apt by myself. I started working at Hastings as an assistant manager. This was actually the time between Big Daddy's and DJing for the Wave/RAPS. One night in the Summer of 1988 I went out to the yearly party Razzle Dazzle Dallas. It was being held at Fair Park and I think I had a free ticket. Seems like I was roaming around looking at boys with Craig and getting pretty drunk. As I remember I locked eyes with this extremely hot guy with sky blue eyes. We walked passed each other and both of us stopped and turned and walked back and spoke and introduced ourselves. His name was David Hayes. He and I instantly hit it off and, although I didn't know it yet, David would teach me more about life than anyone had taught me since my parents. The next few years were the hardest to endure but made me a better person in the long run. The excitement of being with David was intoxicating. He was so sexy and fun and all about me. I was having the time of my life but life's lessons were lurking around the bend. David Hayes was about to change the course of my life in ways that I could have never imagined. (Pic: me and David Patrick Hayes at Kurt's place. He and Craig were having a party. Maybe 4th of July or someone's going away party. Not sure which. Summer 1988)