Ben

 OVERVIEW

A loving father and husband with an insatiable thirst for coffee.

 PERSONALITY

Friendly - Straight forward - Outgoing - Cheeky - Assertive 

Ben is a bold, straight-forward guy. He means well, but can be too honest for his own good. He's an act before thinking kind of dude.

Ben is extroverted, He likes making friends where he goes and spending time with those he cares about. Ben is loyal to friends and family alike.

Ben is a sports-lover, and especially loves baseball. He gets competitive both when playing and watching sports. He shows a lot of enthusiasm at his son, Dominic's games. When watching a game on TV, he goes into rage mode if they start losing or screwing up.

In the morning, he can be really irritable and grumpy before his coffee. Do not wake him out of a good slumber. Don't drive like shit either; he gets some intense road rage.

Ben is rather cheeky, and  has quite the sense of humor. Ben likes being able to make others laugh, whether it be through smartass remarks or just being a goofy doofus. Ben can to be a real wise-ass around friends.

 HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY

Born and raised in [some Seattle-esq city] in February 1981. Ben was the oldest of 3 kids. He had a fairly happy childhood raised by loving, atheist parents. Disciplining the kids involved spritzing them with a spray bottle.
Ben was very rowdy and athletic growing up. He played baseball in elementary, middle, and part of high school. In addition to sports, Ben spent a lot of time listening to rock n roll radio and watching MTV. He loved collecting CDs. While Ben loved music, he didn't have the motive to actually pick up an instrument.

Ben had a musician uncle named Simba, who was in a big name grunge band at the time. Ben loved to brag to his peers that his uncle was in a big famous band. Ben had been a fan of them since before they got famous. He loved watching Simba in the band perform on stage, as well as when they had practice sessions in the garage. Around the ages of 10-12, Ben had his gay awakening when he crushed on one of his uncle's bandmates.

In high school, he was the type to hang out with friends and go to concerts. When he was 15 Ben was friends with a cat named Anthony, who 2 years later became his boyfriend. The two spent a lot of time at skate parks and concerts. Their relationship started after Anthony snooped around Ben's room and found a collection of queercore zines and CDs. The relationship was short-lived, lasting only a few months.

Ben moved south, settling in Cloverdale in the Summer of 2000 at the age of 19. He became roommates with Todd Hobbes, who attended the same college as he did. The two of them began dating in the fall of that year.(See College Years)

Ben and Todd's relationship had its fair share of ups and downs over the years. After 3 years of love, Ben proposed to Todd and the two of them got married while on vacation up north the next year (2004). (Gay marriage was legal in only a select few areas at this time.). 

About a year after they married, the couple fostered a 2 year old boy named Dominic, and adopted him about a year or two later. There were a few bumps in the road raising a kid, such as some parents refusing to their kids be friends with a boy that had gay dads. Luckily, they managed to befriend other queer parents in the area, including the Stevens. Ben became fast friends with Donna Stevens, who happened to be a musician. Something they bonded over.

Currently (in 2018) Ben is a working class auto-mechanic and family man.