Everybody’s Hurtin’ from the Weekend

It has been a while since my intake of cocktails, mostly gin, has been that high over the course of 2 days. Looking back though, I wouldn’t go back and change a thing. It was a very fun weekend after coming off of a busy and slightly crappy week.

Let me just say that there are no good break-up/break it off methods, however two not-great ones that don’t go great together are no contact: not returning calls or e-mails, etc. plus e-mail: which by the time its sent only confirms what you’d already assumed. So you don’t return calls to indicate that you don’t want to speak to someone and then feel the need to follow-up with an e-mail that which lets you say your piece mostly without reprisal as any response that follows it is easily ignored. It isn’t as bad as say the instant message or text message breakup, but it always amazes me that people are so sure something is mutual yet they are unwilling to actually speak to the person about it.

So that message came in on Friday while I was getting ready to head out with Kyle and his friends to Mr. Henry’s and Remingtons for drinks and laughs and to watch the DC Cowboys perform. Kyle is a FOAF through Jhim that I recall enjoying the brief conversations with when he’d caught us out on the street so I decided to branch out a bit and meet him for a happy hour. In turn he invited me out to meet his “family” of friends and they are a hoot! I haven’t been to Mr. Henry’s for dinner since I worked on the Hill and even then it was only for the cheap burger night. They do pour a mean gin & tonic and from what I heard, the fried chicken was to die for. I’m normally pretty nervous about meeting a group of new people, but these guys were extremely welcoming. Remingtons hadn’t changed since I was last there. The crowd was good and the Cowboys were fun. Honestly, they’re a dance troupe and I think it can be cute, it’s not really my bag. However Remingtons is not the best venue, in my opinion, to show off their skills. Small dance floor and small area around the dance floor meant that if you didn’t stake a claim on your position early on, you’d be on tiptoes trying to see any of the performance.

I could not tell you how many G&Ts I consumed, but Kyle and I managed to make it home and the next morning I definitely felt it. It’s a good thing RCN was sending out a guy to fix my cable because it gave me an excuse to stay in. It wasn’t until well into the afternoon that I was feeling human again. Cable guy did his job though, so I’m back on the air and my TiVo is happily recording things and downloading videocasts and all that fun stuff.

Saturday evening was dinner with Kyle’s friends and again it was a hoot. It’s the sort of “friendly gay energy” that I’ve really been missing out on. Hanging out with friends one on one is fun, but it’s a different kind of connection than when you’re able to extend yourself among different people at a time. They also dispel that thought that it’s hard to bring circles of friends together. Admittedly I was one person coming in, but I’m sure that it wouldn’t be hard to introduce my peeps to his peeps and so on. Many of them live nearby which is also nice. One of the factors I’ve noticed that can easily affect friendships on the surface is physical distance. It seems silly to think of such a thing in a smaller city like DC, but unless you’re centrally or easily accessible, playing the host can become a lost cause and after a time people do get tired of always going out to hang out.

And on Sunday the lesson was learned again, gin is a cruel mistress, but her lashings feel so good the night before. The rain was nice as it kept my allergies at bay, but it also gave me a serious case of the sleepies. I managed to get some tv in, but for the most part I kept passing out on the couch. The downpours kept on coming and a few loud thunder and lightning claps scared the hell out of me and rattled the windows. However it’s a small price to pay for being able to wake up breathing and with eyes that aren’t the color of raw steaks.

Happy Monday all, I hope the week brings relatively little trouble and passes swiftly along towards Friday!