Mar. 28th, 2011 09:20 am
Le tourbillon social
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muckefuckWho knew that announcing my return to Society after a half year of woe and hibernation would have such an effect? It's as if crashing in on Rubeus and Ottr shook something loose in the gayniverse. I was relieved that Nuphy never returned my call Thursday night, since after discussing the fallout from ending those two plus years of avoidance at length and then doing the same for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
grunter, I'm not sure I had the vim to go through it all a third time.
So instead I ended up giving him a brief rundown on Friday night. By then, I had heard from Coleman, who wanted to drag me off to Bear Sauna the next; fromgopower, who wanted me to view apartments with him; from Dale, who wanted to go out to dinner next week; and--most unexpectedly of all--from Despina, who wanted to meet up when he's in town for the Candy Expo. Oh, and my coworker Burlyman stopped by to offer me a ride home for the first time in forever, inviting me on the way to accompany him to Bearracuda.
[pauses for breath]
I said "No" to Coleman, "Yes" togopower, suggested Saturday night to Dale, let Despina know that we'll be in Toronto that week, and told Burlyman that I'm still on Tanzverbot and had plans to go to Big Gay Bear Big Gay Game Night anyway. The calls I need to make were hanging over my head, but I only really felt up to a brief chat with Nuphy, who had actually gotten an e-mail from ottr4bear suggesting a joint birthday celebration for him and Rubeus like we used to do back in den guten alten Zeiten. (Not that he expects anything to come of it--he's as baffled as the rest of us by ottr4bear's hostility and revision of history.)
So, Saturday I was out of the house at the crack of noon (CST) to meetgopower for brunch at M. Henrietta. (If you've eaten at M. Henry before, then you know what to expect from this place--right down to the decor and the half-hour wait for a table.) To my surprise, one of the two places he was scheduled to see was the same old dog on Balmoral monshu and I had viewed three years ago. They had repaired a gaping hole in the bathroom, otherwise it was the same half-finished ruin we'd toured, just sans renters. Afterwards, I brought him back to the house for a calming cocktail at monshu's suggestion.
Maybe the martini I had was just a little strong, since I managed to forget my phone at home. This naturally set off a panic which had me convinced I had lost until I found the presence of mind to call the GWO and have him check. Of course, by now I'd made myself late for my dinner date. When I rushed into Sun Wah, I found Dale the very picture of indulgent understanding, but he had already wrought his revenge by ordering the single most boring thing on the menu. (Soy-sauce chicken, really? WE COULD'VE BEEN EATING SUCKLING PIG YOU LITTLE SHIT.)
Ahem.
The logic of meeting in Little Saigon is that the site of BGBBGGN this month was a duplex-down on Argyle mere steps from Furama. (At first, I was wondering How was this not on the list of places our realtor showed us? Then I realised it was in a six-unit condo.) If anything, it was even more tremendous than the month before. Not only did I know more people, but I made sure to make some time to socialise before jumping into a game.
But the biggest factor was the layout. SquareBear has a wonderful place, but the open plan is a minus when you've got four different games going on in the same room--some of them quite boisterous--plus ordinary party chit-chat at the drinks station. With that in mind, I gravitated to the front room, where I could hear myself think and could banter without yelling. (I blame the booze and the tiredness for all my obscenity-laden trash-talking, by the way.)
Pretty soon, I was deep into a word game called Snatch-It, which blends the best of Boggle and Scrabble. Everyone take turns picking letter tiles, but there are no hands; you simply place them face-up on the table. Moreover, anyone can play a word at any time. You can cannibalise existing words, but only if you use every letter. Simply rearranging letters (e.g. FIELD > FILED) is unacceptable, as is just adding an inflectional ending such as -s or -ed. (I could tell the Scrabblites were have real trouble wrapping their heads around this one.)
I stayed alive through several games merely by being able to spot three-letter words (the minimum length, and only worth one point) quicker than most. But I was up against a sweet bear from Madison who had a Rain Man-like ability to transform what he was given. I watched in awe as he turned WITH into WRAITH and then, on a later turn, WITHDRAW. Which is exactly what we made him do. After he smoked his nearest competitor by an order of magnitude, he sat out the next round and kept score.
That second game was so intense that we all felt we needed a break, so someone grabbed Apples to Apples, which I've never played before despite hearing about plenty. I scored a minor coup by getting the awfully cute guy I'd had an eye on all night (who also turns out to be ridiculously witty and talented) to abandon his attempts to learn a convoluted strategy game in the kitchen and join us instead. He wasn't the only one to find the parlour more inviting than the kitchen before the evening was over.
I was so exhausted at this point, I nearly fell asleep on the couch waiting for the next game session to start, but I was having too much fun to even think about leaving. Marching through the unseasonable cold to catch a bus afterward, it occurred to me that I could not conceive of how Bearracuda could possibly have been more fun than the evening I had. It can't be another month until the next one, can it?
Oh, well; it's not like I won't have plenty to keep me busy in the meantime!
grunter, I'm not sure I had the vim to go through it all a third time.So instead I ended up giving him a brief rundown on Friday night. By then, I had heard from Coleman, who wanted to drag me off to Bear Sauna the next; from
gopower, who wanted me to view apartments with him; from Dale, who wanted to go out to dinner next week; and--most unexpectedly of all--from Despina, who wanted to meet up when he's in town for the Candy Expo. Oh, and my coworker Burlyman stopped by to offer me a ride home for the first time in forever, inviting me on the way to accompany him to Bearracuda.[pauses for breath]
I said "No" to Coleman, "Yes" to
gopower, suggested Saturday night to Dale, let Despina know that we'll be in Toronto that week, and told Burlyman that I'm still on Tanzverbot and had plans to go to Big Gay Bear Big Gay Game Night anyway. The calls I need to make were hanging over my head, but I only really felt up to a brief chat with Nuphy, who had actually gotten an e-mail from ottr4bear suggesting a joint birthday celebration for him and Rubeus like we used to do back in den guten alten Zeiten. (Not that he expects anything to come of it--he's as baffled as the rest of us by ottr4bear's hostility and revision of history.)So, Saturday I was out of the house at the crack of noon (CST) to meet
gopower for brunch at M. Henrietta. (If you've eaten at M. Henry before, then you know what to expect from this place--right down to the decor and the half-hour wait for a table.) To my surprise, one of the two places he was scheduled to see was the same old dog on Balmoral monshu and I had viewed three years ago. They had repaired a gaping hole in the bathroom, otherwise it was the same half-finished ruin we'd toured, just sans renters. Afterwards, I brought him back to the house for a calming cocktail at monshu's suggestion.Maybe the martini I had was just a little strong, since I managed to forget my phone at home. This naturally set off a panic which had me convinced I had lost until I found the presence of mind to call the GWO and have him check. Of course, by now I'd made myself late for my dinner date. When I rushed into Sun Wah, I found Dale the very picture of indulgent understanding, but he had already wrought his revenge by ordering the single most boring thing on the menu. (Soy-sauce chicken, really? WE COULD'VE BEEN EATING SUCKLING PIG YOU LITTLE SHIT.)
Ahem.
The logic of meeting in Little Saigon is that the site of BGBBGGN this month was a duplex-down on Argyle mere steps from Furama. (At first, I was wondering How was this not on the list of places our realtor showed us? Then I realised it was in a six-unit condo.) If anything, it was even more tremendous than the month before. Not only did I know more people, but I made sure to make some time to socialise before jumping into a game.
But the biggest factor was the layout. SquareBear has a wonderful place, but the open plan is a minus when you've got four different games going on in the same room--some of them quite boisterous--plus ordinary party chit-chat at the drinks station. With that in mind, I gravitated to the front room, where I could hear myself think and could banter without yelling. (I blame the booze and the tiredness for all my obscenity-laden trash-talking, by the way.)
Pretty soon, I was deep into a word game called Snatch-It, which blends the best of Boggle and Scrabble. Everyone take turns picking letter tiles, but there are no hands; you simply place them face-up on the table. Moreover, anyone can play a word at any time. You can cannibalise existing words, but only if you use every letter. Simply rearranging letters (e.g. FIELD > FILED) is unacceptable, as is just adding an inflectional ending such as -s or -ed. (I could tell the Scrabblites were have real trouble wrapping their heads around this one.)
I stayed alive through several games merely by being able to spot three-letter words (the minimum length, and only worth one point) quicker than most. But I was up against a sweet bear from Madison who had a Rain Man-like ability to transform what he was given. I watched in awe as he turned WITH into WRAITH and then, on a later turn, WITHDRAW. Which is exactly what we made him do. After he smoked his nearest competitor by an order of magnitude, he sat out the next round and kept score.
That second game was so intense that we all felt we needed a break, so someone grabbed Apples to Apples, which I've never played before despite hearing about plenty. I scored a minor coup by getting the awfully cute guy I'd had an eye on all night (who also turns out to be ridiculously witty and talented) to abandon his attempts to learn a convoluted strategy game in the kitchen and join us instead. He wasn't the only one to find the parlour more inviting than the kitchen before the evening was over.
I was so exhausted at this point, I nearly fell asleep on the couch waiting for the next game session to start, but I was having too much fun to even think about leaving. Marching through the unseasonable cold to catch a bus afterward, it occurred to me that I could not conceive of how Bearracuda could possibly have been more fun than the evening I had. It can't be another month until the next one, can it?
Oh, well; it's not like I won't have plenty to keep me busy in the meantime!
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no subject
I didn't know Chicago had so many leather clubs. Now I have two reasons to visit your city again, (the first one being the food.)
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Of course there are many reasons to visit your beautiful city. The only time I've been there I didn't get enough time to really check it out, but I liked what I saw.
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I was wondering why someone rang our doorbell asking for that unit at 10PM. Now I know.
:D
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MADNESS!
Re: MADNESS!
As for the rose bush, it was planted by the owner of the unit you were in (not the current tenant), but since I did take over the gardening when he moved away, I'll make sure to wear gloves when I next dig that bed.
no subject