Another date

Since my last couple of posts were rather serious and sparked a bit of controversy (thanks to Matt and the DtB readers for joining in!), I thought I'd lighten things up with a description of my latest date. I mentioned when discussing last week's social calendar, I was going out with yet another boy. It was the second time we had seen him (you see, we had our pre-date last Sunday), so in gay dating time we have known each other for over a month. (note: I shall continue to translate for my 6 straight readers).

This boy has only one job [[is not an artist/actor/musician supporting his "craft" with a day job]], and even contributes to his 401(k)! This fact alone made me melt (I am a Republican after all).

We met downtown near where I work (he works in the suburbs but got off before I did). I had neglected to get dinner reservations because 1) I am still new to the city and don't know what the really good restaurants are, and 2) it didn't look like you needed them anyway. We were seated immediately once we selected a little french bistro [[overpriced pretentious cafe, that was sort of romantic anyway]]. The two of us decided to try a new drink together, so we ordered a Trance (have no idea what was in it, but it was blue and tasty). We had a couple each. Regardless of my alcohol consumption, I was able to remain discrete about the fact that I hunt old people and the poor for sport [[am a Republican]].

Our plan had been to go to a movie after dinner [[make out in the theater]], but dinner ran long, and so instead we just walked around this trendy [[expensive, and though not officially gay, popular among gays]] area of town. We stopped in a gelateria that also served gelato-based alcoholic drinks! Finally, we ended up at a coffee shop with an outdoor patio and people watched [[judged the appearance of passers-by]]. We found that we have compatible senses of humor (probably in my top three criteria for a date).

After coffee, we decided to check out the big gay bar in this city. Oddly enough, Friday seemed to be a rather slow night. Although Thursday is their big night (I never understood that--don't people have work on Friday too?), Friday was especially slow, judging from some of the remarks from the staff. Nonetheless, there were enough people to run the gamut of all gay stereotypes.

First there was an older gentleman who resembled Mr. Humphries from Are You Being Served. Mr. Humphries, was dressed age appropriately [[as a 50+ year old he was wearing Brooks Brothers not Abercrombie]] and appeared to be with another gentleman. As 401(k) (that will be my date's name in this blog) was ordering our drinks, Mr. Humphries approached him and had a polite, if flirty conversation. 401(k) asked him if the other gentleman was his partner and Mr. Humphries replied, "Oh god no! There's no ring on this finger. I noticed you don't have a ring either." I asked later if 401(k) knew this man, and the response was "no, and he made me really uncomfortable." Later in the evening I glanced in the direction of Mr. Humphries and got a little wave and a "let me show you a good time" look. I waved back out of my southern politeness instincts, but I felt creepy.

Then 401(k) introduced me to a couple boys he actually knew. One was like a gay parody from some sitcom. He was a hair designer [[he cuts hair for way too much money]] with bleached hair, was about 6'2 and had anywhere from 0 to 1% body fat. He talked with an affected femme-y voice (I presume affected because when he genuinely laughed the pitch didn't really match his speaking voice), and was snarkily sarcastic in a way that's really funny, but in the back of your mind you wonder what he's going to say about you when you leave. The hair designer was with a friend who had similarly bleached hair, though it was much longer than hair designers, and the friend wore not only lip gloss but eye makeup and had perfectly white teeth [[spent his money on both hair AND teeth bleaching]]. I was decided un-made-up [[my pre-going-out grooming regimen had only taken about an hour]]. Seriously, if these two had been characters in a movie, the gay community would be outraged at the unfair stereotyping.

Without going into the specifics of everyone I met, suffice it to say that there were all kinds in this bar, some I liked more than others.

After we had been out for several hours [[about the end of the third date in gay dating time]] we decided to explore of 401(k)'s employee discount at the hotel chain he works for, "just to see" [[find out if we could get a nice room on the cheap]]. We ended up at a really posh hotel for next to nothing [[$80]], and enjoyed all sorts of amenities [[ ;-) ]]. I never though myself a very affectionate or intimate person (with women--I think now we all know why), but it turns out I really do enjoy just holding someone.