Unapologetically Living Life Like it’s Golden

Last weekend was great. Dr. Bae and I went on a boat trip featuring nothing but the finest of champagnes (and one raggedy ass rosé) to bid adieu to our dear friend Marc. We then checked in to the Riggs hotel in D.C. for the night and sampled an array of interesting cocktails at the basement speakeasy below the hotel with one of our dearest friends.

It was a great weekend marred only by the somewhat negative feedback I just got.

For the loyal readers, some of you might have noticed that this blog has taken a turn from lamenting a death by a thousand micro aggressions as a queer black man living in America to celebrating life with my husband through a series of bespoke experiences without a second thought to my day job.

For those who truly know me like my best friend or my brothers from Germany, living it up one champagne flute at a time makes sense and is, indeed, on brand.

On the other hand, some people have written to me to say that “I’ve changed,” gently chiding me for becoming somewhat gaudy and materialistic.

To this, I must unfortunately say, that it seems like you never knew me. Because mama has always loved nice things, I’ve just never been able to afford them. In my former life as a public servant, my job and my colleagues led me to believe that it was somehow wrong or evil to like and experience the finer things in life like Business class flights. Which should be standard. For everyone. I digress.

That, by wanting to earn more money or, God forbid, demanding overtime pay or taking care of myself and my family first before worrying about my job was, in practice, incorrect.

To be clear, being a diplomat was and continues to be the honor of a lifetime. The problem is, like so many others, I let the job define me which made it difficult to finally start making healthy changes in my life. To be honest, being in that career was tantamount to being in a toxic relationship. I constantly felt beaten down, laughed at for wanting basic stuff only to be told that my sacrifices would eventually pay off in the end . . . Perhaps in 20 or 25 years.

Yet, I found it terribly difficult to leave my job because, who was I if I was no longer a diplomat?

The answer is “Happy.”

That’s what I am now. Happy.

And I am feeling strangely upbeat even as the world finds itself in economic free fall betwixt two pandemics and on the precipice of actual world wars and catastrophic climate change.

My husband and I dutifully stayed inside during the pandemic and suffered for it, but now, despite all of the bad things happening, it is time for us to reemerge and experience the beauty this world has to offer.

So you will continue to see us traveling the world in style and we encourage you to do the same. Life is too short, and I promise you that you will never regret living out your champagne dreams and caviar fantasies.

Our time on this planet is too short . . . So live it up like its golden!

Yours always,

The Trendy One