Things that might be decidedly odd…

Shopping

Don and I went shopping today. First, we went to Fry’s where he bought a new computer monitor. We also both bought some candy. I always have to get Haribo Happy Cola candy there because it’s rare to see it elsewhere in the states. What can I say? I got addicted to this stuff in Germany. From there, we went to Costco. I got a good deal on some wool hiking socks (winter is coming you know) and he got some DVDs.

After that, we spun by the state liquor store on 12th and Pike. I bought some Flor de Caña (Nicaraguan rum), which apparently they do sell at 4 liquor stores in the entire state (3 in Seattle, one in Shorline which is the city just to the north of Seattle). The cool part is that the liquor board has this website where you can search for availability of whatever liquor your heart desires. It’ll then show you which stores stock it and how many bottles they currently have! How 21st century!

We then went over to Seattle Running Company so that I could shop for some new running shoes. I swear the guy brought out like 6 pairs of shoes before I found ones that were both comfortable and well-fitting. Lately I haven’t been jogging at all cause my old shoes are simply so shot from overuse that my knees bother me after the quick run around Green Lake.

Stupid Dental Insurance

I go and find a dentist I can actually deal with and it turns out she’s not in network! And of course I only figure this out after I’ve already gone there. Now I have to pay $105! I guess I should have been more specific in asking not just if they took my insurance, but if they were “in network”. It’s all enough to make me not want to go to the dentist again. Now, I need to go cancel that appointment I have in two weeks and the next checkup I made for March. Clearly, if they’re not going to pay for a normal check up, something as exotic as some minor cosmetic work won’t be covered either. Mostly I’m angry at the receptionist for basically lying (perhaps by omission) and telling me everything was taken care of with the insurance. Looks like I’ll be taking the $50 applied to my account for a referal but won’t be refering any patients their way again!

The worst part is that now I need to find yet another dentist. Apparently I have good teeth, so I guess getting some crap dentist who doesn’t charge exorbitant rates to my insurance will work fine. The whole thing really pisses me off!

Amazon Really Does Sell Everything

I was about to run out the door to run some errands before the stores closed tonight when the thought hit me that I could probably find everything I need on Seattle’s own favorite online retailer Amazon. Of course, now I’ll have to deal with the hassle of receiving all the packages. Since my last fiasco with such things, the management of my building has put up a sign informing the delivery guys to ring next door and have the manager sign for packages. So maybe it won’t be AS bad as last time (me running to UPS 3 times and them losing the package).

Let’s recap on what I bought that you can’t find in any one other place:

• Two books of dating advice. I know it’s sad, but I need something to prompt me to think more about what I’m really looking for these days
• Condoms. For when the above books start paying off… or not.
• Cleaning cartridges for my electic razor. These are exceedingly difficult to find. Only Walgreen’s seems to carry them and they’re often not in stock.
• A Phillips Norelco Body Groom. The newest toy/tool for discerning gay men concerned about their manscaping. Make sure to follow that link and watch the video above “Product Features” if you haven’t already.

Ya, I know. Pretty gay, huh? Well, a girl’s got needs…

I almost bought a box of Clif bars as well, but after the shipping it was going to be the same price as buying them individually at Trader Joe’s and I’d be commited to only three flavors.

Couch

After living here more than 8 months, I finally have a couch!

Now, I really need to get a stand for my TV since it’s still sitting on the ground.

The delivery company said it would come between 3 and 6 today. My doorbell rang at 3pm exactly. I wasn’t even completely ready for the couch yet. The guys who delivered it are clearly pros at getting large objects through small doorways. I tried to watch how they maneuvered it so that I can get it out of the unit when I leave. It looked fairly tricky though.

Out

Move over Lance Bass–Miss Cleo is officially out of the closet. One of the more interesting comings out I’ve heard in years.

Pictures from NC

Unfortunately, I didn’t take as many pictures as I’d have liked to in Chapel Hill. I did get a lot of pictures at the beach though especially of myself. I know that I’m a narcissist which is why I have the narcissism tag on flickr. I’ve got to keep around hot pictures of myself for sites like myspace and gay.com you know.

Anyhow, you can check them all out here.

Ibiza in Wilmington

On Saturday night, I did end up going out to Ibiza in Wilmington. It’s quite possibly the only gay dance club in a very large radius, so I didn’t really know what to expect. Upon arrival at around 11pm, it was empty–maybe just a half-dozen people in what is a fairly large space. It had a dance floor, outdoor patio and a bar on the ground floor then some comfy seating, a pool table and another bar on the second floor. All in all, it was a pretty nice space actually. Fortunately, as the night wore on, the place filled up pretty well. The scene at this place was roughly analogous to Neighbors in Seattle–an 18+ place that mainly draws a 18-30 gay clientelle with quite a few straight women along for the ride.

This was not only my first time at a gay bar/club in North Carolina (I never got around to going to any in Raleigh when I lived up in that area) but my first time really going to a bar or club by myself. Honestly, every other time I’ve been to such a place it’s been with friends or I arrived by myself with the prearranged plan of meeting people I already knew. As you can imagine, I felt a little awkward arriving at a place that was pretty empty by myself, but I did what every self-respecting individual in such a situation would do–I started ordering drinks. By the the time I’d had a couple, the place was busy and the dance floor was active.

I danced with this one guy for a while. I didn’t really find him attractive (longish hair doesn’t do it for me), but I figured I had nothing better to work with at that point. Those I found interesting and cute either weren’t on the dance floor, were ignoring me when I tried to dance with them or were clearly dancing in groups where everybody already knew each other. I danced with him for a while and he kept acting stranger and stranger. He’d say something to me, but when I’d ask what he’d said (because it was so loud in there and I have bad hearing), he’d get all moody and give me a “never mind” look. At various points, he seemed to get offended and get a bunch of attitude that I wasn’t dancing with him correctly or something. After only dancing with him briefly, he’d ask me questions like “you’re not going to be jerk tomorrow morning are you?” I mean, WTF dude?!? I’ve just been dancing with you for a couple minutes because there’s nobody else currently on my radar. That doesn’t mean I want to take you back to my hotel. Even if it did, it’s a little pre-emptive of you to start asking questions which quickly reveal that you have some weird issues. After some more of that bullshit, I just walked off and got some more water to drink and basically ignored said guy the rest of the night. He did come back and try to dance with me and this other guy later in the night. I had to give him a glare and kind of push him away.

Fortunately, he was not the only guy I danced with that night. At some point, this one dude comes up to me, hands me flyer for some event or other and informs me that I’m cute. We danced for maybe 10 seconds before he continued on handing out flyers to other people. I could tell right away that he was some kind of A-list gay in this town/club. He seemed to know the bar staff and lots of other patrons there. Later in the night after getting yet another cup of water (it was hot in there even with the A/C), I bumped into him again and I talked with him and his friends. There was definitely some clickage between the two of us and we soon headed to the dance floor. There I did some of the standard gay boy dirty dancing with him and his friends, which was fun. No stupid games, no bullshit, just having a good time. It probably helped that he was 34. There’s something to be said for the amount of drama being inversely proportional to age (in general, not always).

As people who have asked me about it might know, I don’t have one type–but a set of types. This guy was definitely one of my types but one that I don’t find as often for whatever reason. He was about my height (probably a little shorter), blond, not skinny (not fat but with some meat on his bones), a bit hairy and had a cute face. He got bonus points for being into piercings (had his nipples done but used to have 12 others which he took out a while ago) and having a southern accent. I didn’t go home with him for a variety of reasons, but we did have a nice time I’d say. One of his best friends recently moved to Seattle, so perhaps some day I’ll see him again. Or perhaps I’ll find myself back in Wilmington another day.

NC Update

My trip so far in North Carolina has been fun. I went out to Patio Loco with many of my friends for a birthday dinner which was followed by some excellent pie at Sarah and Jason’s. Afterwards, a few of us went over to the Speakeasy in downtown Carrboro for a couple more beers to finish off the night. I spent most of Friday shopping. The Ross stores in the Triangle are so much better than in Seattle or California! I got a pair of shoes there for $30 that would normally be $60. I also did some shopping at the Briar Creek Target (one of the best Targets around) and over at Southpoint Mall in Durham. Friday night I had some takeout for dinner with Brad and Aaron at their place in Durham. After that, I went back to Jason and Sarah’s to watch some TV with Jeff T, Paul and Russ too.

This morning, I went over to Durham to have dim sum with Steve and Steve. We went to a place called ChinaOne (I think) over off NC55. I’d never had dim sum before and definitely enjoyed myself. After returning from lunch with the Steves, Jason and Sarah left to go to the outer banks. On a whim, I decided I still had enough time to drive to the beach today. Hence, I left around 2pm and was on the beach (North Topsail) by about 5pm. Travel time included a stop at one of those heinous beach stores to buy a beach towel and pair of boardshorts since I hadn’t brought either with me. It was actually a pretty nice time to go–not too hot or too much direct sunlight but the air was still warm. The water was probably in the high 70s which was also very comfortable. After about an hour and a half of being there, I decided it was time to go and drove into Wilmington.

Originally, I’d intended to return to the Triangle tonight after the beach, but I figured I’d just stay in Wilmington and check the place out. There’s a gay dance club called Ibiza in the historic downtown that I’m going to check out tonight. Hopefully, it’ll be fun…

Happy Birthday to Me

It’s my birthday! Well, at least on the east coast where I’m currently located. Technically, I wasn’t born until around 8:30am PDT. I won’t say how old, but less than 30 and more than 25. Those who need to know, know I guess.

I’m planning to grab dinner and drinks with my NC peeps tonight. Should be fun, especially after a long day of talking to prospective employees for 6 hours. The career fair tonight went well (as did my talk earlier in the day), but of course people are nice to you when you hold the prospect of a job, a free xbox and other random giveaways.

Arrival in Chapel Hill

I just had one of the strangest things happen to me in a hotel ever. I couldn’t get my optical mouse to work on my laptop because there were no non-shiny surfaces in the room! I somehow managed to find a magazine with a slightly less glossy surface which seems to be doing the trick. I guess that’s just what comes with the territory of a nice hotel, although it would have been nice if they had planned for that eventuality and included a complementary mouse pad or something.

My trip today went relatively smoothly. The first plane was about 30 minutes late, but I (and my luggage) still made the connection. Unfortunately, the shortened connection meant I didn’t have time to eat dinner in Salt Lake City. After picking up my luggage (damn no liquids rule–although it was nice not dragging all my luggage around the airport like I usually do), getting my rental car and checking into the hotel, I went to the only place open for dinner at this hour–Time Out.

For those who don’t know, it’s somewhat of a Chapel Hill and UNC institution. It’s a 24-hour fast Southern food joint. When the bars close on Friday or Saturday night, the place gets packed, the police show up and the whole place becomes rather ghetto. However, nobody at that point cares, because they’re all drunk and in need of late night munchies. It was pretty tame tonight, but at least I have some food in my stomach now. I got some fried chicken, fried okra and mashed potatos. I had to pass on the biscuit and sweet tea lest I totally eat too much bad for you goodness.