May. 31st, 2022 12:06 pm
Highpoints
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muckefuckSo enough angst, what went well last weekend?
The lesson isn't lost on me that I had my best time when I put hooking up out of my mind and just enjoyed being with friends. That started on Thursday with the welcome party at Touché and concluded Monday with the farewell party at Sidetrack--just like it did in the glory days of Bear Pride. Of course, both experiences were considerably different--the welcome party was flooded with IMLers rather than the parade of bearsonalities I knew from the BML and LiveJournal and our group at Sidetrack was a mere dozen rather than the couple hundred who used to invade. But I wasn't interested in making comparisons to How Things Used to Be but only in enjoying them for what they were and what they were was pretty sweet.
To be honest, I was a bit on the fence about the welcome party. Although I'd decided to go, I was still on my bed playing solitaire when a friend texted me that he was there, prompting me to head over and keep him company. I wasn't in the door two minutes before a couple I knew bounced up to me. Before I knew what was happening, one of them had thrown himself supine onto the floor and was rimming a dude who had just walked in. It was a striking change from the days when anything "in front of the tires" would have gotten you tossed out.
I myself ended up getting head while sitting on the bench in the back room just inside the door. It was a friend (a friend's boyfriend, really) who I'd made out with there before and it was fun but not exciting. Afterwards, I went towards the back. First I got whacked in the head by someone at the bar making expansive gestures. A moment later, I heard someone drop a glass and I decided this crowd was too messy for my mood and left.
Friday I didn't have any fixed plans--just some vague idea of getting together with the GOAT (a fast friend relocated from Phoenix) and possibly going down to the host hotel to people-watch. But then a group of pals organised an afternoon get-together at SoFo and I invited him along with a couple other friends. That all worked out beautifully. In particular, I treasure the memory of glancing around after having been chatting with someone for a while and noticing that four of them, not all of whom were connected before that day, had been deep in conversation at a four-top for at least an hour. I ended up going out with them all to Middle Eastern Bakery and Café for dinner afterwards and just having a whale of a time.
Saturday I decided to give Wet 'n Wild a pass and simply go directly to Bearaoke at Bobby Love's. It was a slow start, but within an hour I was singing along and even dancing with my pals in the middle of the room. I headed up to Argyle with a craving for bún and turned down an invitation for dinner (and a separate invitation for sex) in order to satisfy it at Phở 777 next to a large Korean family.
We've already covered the highlights from Furball; honestly it was half of a good night out, it's just unfortunate that the good half was the first half and things took such a turn. Sunday would have been a wasted day if not for two things: The first was hitting the vendor mart with Huevoncito and Kiel and the second was the cookout which I'd thought was Monday but which turned out to be Sunday instead.
Huevoncito drove, which maybe wasn't a great choice given the traffic. (There was a Latine music fest in Grant Park that none of us knew about.) However, it gave us a chance to talk about a lot of things, mainly my problems with BB and just issues with gay friendships in general and our friendships in particular. We only had an hour at the vendor mart before it closed, which unfortunately meant we weren't able to catch up as much with the friends we saw there as I would have liked, but I got to try on a harness I eventually bought and meet up with someone I hadn't seen since well before pandemic. He turned out to be a MTG fan like Kiel, so we left the two of them to chat while H and I scooted back to the RP so he could walk the dogs and I could hit the cookout.
It was a small casual affair. I arrived two hours after the starting time and they'd already closed to the side gate so I ended up hoisting myself over a banister to get in, which caused surprisingly little consternation. As a very pleasant surprise, the most gorgeous guy there turned out to be someone I'd met before. He gave me a few clues and I was like, "We had a conversation about the mugu pine my condomates destroyed!" which jogged his memory as well. I didn't think things would go that late but in the end I broke up the party a little after 10 by announcing I was heading out, thus prompting one of the couples to leave, too, so they could give me a ride.
I finally got a decent amount of sleep that night, though still not as much as I needed, and woke up both looking forward to meeting up with BB to visit the vendor mart and dreading it. In the end, it turned out not to matter because he cancelled on me. I was disappointed but also relieved. When I toldclintswan, who was also pretty worn out from the late nights and all, he said, "we will go to the market. BB be damned". I literally had tears of happiness in my eyes.
Unfortunately, I forgot that it was a game day and our el car was packed with Cubs fans, including a half-dozen underaged douchecanoes we had the misfortune of sitting right next to. Things picked up at the market where we ran into a string of old pals again. One of them gave me a tongue kiss and then proudly announced that his great morning had included rimming a mutual friend who'd just passed in a sling. When I found Clint, I complained to him that I could taste the secondhand ass, so he suggested I wash my mouth out with alcohol. I went to the adjoining hospitality suite, got a generous shot of Jack Daniels, and did just that.
Not long after that, we bounced. Our Lyft driver, Joel, was a hoot. I was feeling the alcohol, Clint was feeling his Southernness, and we joked around raucously the whole way to Sidetrack. We found our people on the top deck, as expected. I immediately ordered a drink despite having had nothing to eat that day except a KIND bar and an English muffin with a smear of labne and spent the rest of the afternoon in a pleasant fog. I met two new couples, both local. One of the first pair said he recognised me from FB and was very charming; one of the second pair seemed to take an instead dislike to me that even the GOAT picked up on, and I laughed it off.
walkthelight organised a post-Sidetrack dinner at Wilde's for seven of us. I delayed our departure looking for the sunblock I'd left upstairs only to have SquareBear spring it on me once we were all seated. Our service was scattered but the server was new and so gay and cute we all forgave that. The food was also a mixed bag, but we got free pie for dessert so I'm not going to make a fuss. After that, we split into four contingents and I rode back on the el with Sad Cub, who rested his arm on my shoulder in the most casually affectionate way as we tried to ignore the overtired children and ranting crazy in the corner.
So maybe not the most memorably Memorial Day weekend ever but plenty worth remembering. And I should make a note to myself to review this entry in 360 days so maybe I avoid a couple of the missteps I made this go round.
The lesson isn't lost on me that I had my best time when I put hooking up out of my mind and just enjoyed being with friends. That started on Thursday with the welcome party at Touché and concluded Monday with the farewell party at Sidetrack--just like it did in the glory days of Bear Pride. Of course, both experiences were considerably different--the welcome party was flooded with IMLers rather than the parade of bearsonalities I knew from the BML and LiveJournal and our group at Sidetrack was a mere dozen rather than the couple hundred who used to invade. But I wasn't interested in making comparisons to How Things Used to Be but only in enjoying them for what they were and what they were was pretty sweet.
To be honest, I was a bit on the fence about the welcome party. Although I'd decided to go, I was still on my bed playing solitaire when a friend texted me that he was there, prompting me to head over and keep him company. I wasn't in the door two minutes before a couple I knew bounced up to me. Before I knew what was happening, one of them had thrown himself supine onto the floor and was rimming a dude who had just walked in. It was a striking change from the days when anything "in front of the tires" would have gotten you tossed out.
I myself ended up getting head while sitting on the bench in the back room just inside the door. It was a friend (a friend's boyfriend, really) who I'd made out with there before and it was fun but not exciting. Afterwards, I went towards the back. First I got whacked in the head by someone at the bar making expansive gestures. A moment later, I heard someone drop a glass and I decided this crowd was too messy for my mood and left.
Friday I didn't have any fixed plans--just some vague idea of getting together with the GOAT (a fast friend relocated from Phoenix) and possibly going down to the host hotel to people-watch. But then a group of pals organised an afternoon get-together at SoFo and I invited him along with a couple other friends. That all worked out beautifully. In particular, I treasure the memory of glancing around after having been chatting with someone for a while and noticing that four of them, not all of whom were connected before that day, had been deep in conversation at a four-top for at least an hour. I ended up going out with them all to Middle Eastern Bakery and Café for dinner afterwards and just having a whale of a time.
Saturday I decided to give Wet 'n Wild a pass and simply go directly to Bearaoke at Bobby Love's. It was a slow start, but within an hour I was singing along and even dancing with my pals in the middle of the room. I headed up to Argyle with a craving for bún and turned down an invitation for dinner (and a separate invitation for sex) in order to satisfy it at Phở 777 next to a large Korean family.
We've already covered the highlights from Furball; honestly it was half of a good night out, it's just unfortunate that the good half was the first half and things took such a turn. Sunday would have been a wasted day if not for two things: The first was hitting the vendor mart with Huevoncito and Kiel and the second was the cookout which I'd thought was Monday but which turned out to be Sunday instead.
Huevoncito drove, which maybe wasn't a great choice given the traffic. (There was a Latine music fest in Grant Park that none of us knew about.) However, it gave us a chance to talk about a lot of things, mainly my problems with BB and just issues with gay friendships in general and our friendships in particular. We only had an hour at the vendor mart before it closed, which unfortunately meant we weren't able to catch up as much with the friends we saw there as I would have liked, but I got to try on a harness I eventually bought and meet up with someone I hadn't seen since well before pandemic. He turned out to be a MTG fan like Kiel, so we left the two of them to chat while H and I scooted back to the RP so he could walk the dogs and I could hit the cookout.
It was a small casual affair. I arrived two hours after the starting time and they'd already closed to the side gate so I ended up hoisting myself over a banister to get in, which caused surprisingly little consternation. As a very pleasant surprise, the most gorgeous guy there turned out to be someone I'd met before. He gave me a few clues and I was like, "We had a conversation about the mugu pine my condomates destroyed!" which jogged his memory as well. I didn't think things would go that late but in the end I broke up the party a little after 10 by announcing I was heading out, thus prompting one of the couples to leave, too, so they could give me a ride.
I finally got a decent amount of sleep that night, though still not as much as I needed, and woke up both looking forward to meeting up with BB to visit the vendor mart and dreading it. In the end, it turned out not to matter because he cancelled on me. I was disappointed but also relieved. When I told
clintswan, who was also pretty worn out from the late nights and all, he said, "we will go to the market. BB be damned". I literally had tears of happiness in my eyes.Unfortunately, I forgot that it was a game day and our el car was packed with Cubs fans, including a half-dozen underaged douchecanoes we had the misfortune of sitting right next to. Things picked up at the market where we ran into a string of old pals again. One of them gave me a tongue kiss and then proudly announced that his great morning had included rimming a mutual friend who'd just passed in a sling. When I found Clint, I complained to him that I could taste the secondhand ass, so he suggested I wash my mouth out with alcohol. I went to the adjoining hospitality suite, got a generous shot of Jack Daniels, and did just that.
Not long after that, we bounced. Our Lyft driver, Joel, was a hoot. I was feeling the alcohol, Clint was feeling his Southernness, and we joked around raucously the whole way to Sidetrack. We found our people on the top deck, as expected. I immediately ordered a drink despite having had nothing to eat that day except a KIND bar and an English muffin with a smear of labne and spent the rest of the afternoon in a pleasant fog. I met two new couples, both local. One of the first pair said he recognised me from FB and was very charming; one of the second pair seemed to take an instead dislike to me that even the GOAT picked up on, and I laughed it off.
walkthelight organised a post-Sidetrack dinner at Wilde's for seven of us. I delayed our departure looking for the sunblock I'd left upstairs only to have SquareBear spring it on me once we were all seated. Our service was scattered but the server was new and so gay and cute we all forgave that. The food was also a mixed bag, but we got free pie for dessert so I'm not going to make a fuss. After that, we split into four contingents and I rode back on the el with Sad Cub, who rested his arm on my shoulder in the most casually affectionate way as we tried to ignore the overtired children and ranting crazy in the corner.So maybe not the most memorably Memorial Day weekend ever but plenty worth remembering. And I should make a note to myself to review this entry in 360 days so maybe I avoid a couple of the missteps I made this go round.