They Don't Call It "Liquid Courage" For Nothing

Once again, my ass is parked at Panera Bread while I compose this.

My last entry stated how tired I was, and I wasn't kidding. As soon as I turned out the light and my head hit the pillow, I was dead to the world. I worked until seven the next day, and was ready to run screaming for the door at about 7:01.

I got home to find Julie in her usual position (in front of the TV, in a t-shirt and her panties), and she asked me why I was so grouchy. Basically, I was sick of dealing with my coworkers; I paused for a moment and asked "did you want to go to karaoke?" Much to my surprise, she said yes. I said that I wanted to have a margarita, so I asked her if she could drive. Amazingly, she said yes to that as well. Cleo was over at Elaine's for some reason, so the two of us got our clothes changed (giving me a reason to wear my t-shirt from Pride) and we went to Freddie's.

Freddie's is far more crowded on a Saturday night than on a Tuesday, so I signed up for a song ("Bad Romance") as soon as we came in. I got my margarita (for $9.50!) and we got a table. Immediately I was accosted by a lesbian couple who liked my shirt enough to ask me to pose for a picture for their Facebook page. Basically, that shirt got me a lot of attention; it was the right locale for it.

After my song, I sat back down and a group of lesbians asked for our extra chairs, and spilled a glass of water all over me. To apologize, they offered to buy me a drink, so I had another margarita.

As you know, I am not much of a drinker. And Freddie's is known for having very strong drinks. So you can imagine that I was pretty schnockered after finishing my second drink. I found it a lot easier to work the room and approach people. After I sang my second song ("Don't Cha", which I silently dedicated to Cleo), Julie noticed a guy on the other side of the bar that she thought was "my type". And since I was feeling bold, I walked right up to him and complimented him on his tattoos. He and I made a little bit of small talk (his name is Mason, and he told me about the tattoos he wanted to get on his arm), but Julie was ready to go, so I told him that I hoped to see him again. I should have slipped him my phone number, but I didn't.

So perhaps this is why guys at gay bars can approach each other. Years ago, when I was out bar-hopping with a couple of friends, I asked how anyone could talk to anyone else at gay bars. One of them said, "alcohol and aggressiveness". My thought was: I'm doomed. I guess in addition to pretending that these are straight men I am not attracted to, I have to pretend I'm drunk as well.

Back in 1996, at the tender age of 24, I got ripping drunk for the first time. I drunk-dialed Tana that night. Well, since I needed an update about her gall bladder operation, I drunk-dialed her last night, and had an interesting conversation with her. She is recovering fairly well.

Let's change colors and talk about today. I was awake at about eight this morning, with a slight hangover, but I went walking anyway. I found that sweating it out helped. When I got back home, Julie asked if there was anything that we could do. I suggested the Reston Festival. So after many delays and false starts, we went there.

As far as street fairs go, this one was okay. It was no Capital Pride, but what is? We basically did a loop around the booths, then Julie decided to have a Polish sausage and a funnel cake. I was intrigued by the Italian sausage until I saw the $8 price tag on it. I settled for a cheap piece of (bad) pizza.

We then had to stop at the grocery store because Julie was making dinner for Elaine. While Cleo and I were waiting, I asked him if I could use his iPhone to check my email. He said no. I reminded him that back in the pre-Julie days, he used to use my old iMac to check his email all the time, but he still wouldn't let me check it. Ingrate.

But while we were at the supermarket, I called Diane and asked to get some dinner with her. I am at the Panera that is about five minutes away from her house; when I am done here, that is where I am headed.

Eric Out.