Things that might be decidedly odd…

Solstice Saturday

Jason and I went to the Solstice parade in Fremont yesterday, preceded by Jeff Roberts’ brunch and followed by Mike Schafer’s BBQ. As usual, the parade was fun to watch. Even though my legs got tired from standing there so long, it’s worth it to see all the creative floats, costumes and general decoration participants prepare. It’s one of the coolest parades around. Since no text or logos are allowed, people really do have to get more creative about representing their concept or group visually.

After the whole Solstice parade plus 2 related parties, I dropped quickly by a friend of mine’s going away party before grabbing dinner and conking out for 2 hours from 7-9. Afterwards, I went with Ben and Jeff over to the Eagle for underwear/jock strap night. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again–I like the Eagle because it’s different than any other bar in Seattle. I doubt I would ever go there frequently, but it’s fun to drop by for underwear night periodically. The city has been cracking down on bars a lot lately and you could see the effects of that in a more toned down Eagle. The staff was certainly more careful about what they showed on the giant projector screen (Hedwig and the Angry Inch instead of porn) and the attire of patrons (no exposed butts even if they were in a jock strap–complementary hankies provided to cover things up).

Salon of Shame

Marc and I went to Salon of Shame tonight. Doors opened at 6:45, we got there at 7 and the show started at 7:30. The venue sold out before we could get in, but Marc was recognized from his outstanding reading 4 months ago and we were whisked inside to stand off to the side. We stayed for the first half, but left at the intermission because of the standing, sitting on the concrete floor and with the increasing stuffiness from all the people packed into the room. Still, it was supernice of the SOS folks to let us stand since they were turning people away. Marc will definitely need to read something good next time to make up for it

Afterwards, we headed over to Cafe Presse. I had the fish of the day, some fries and a Kronenbourg 1664. Marc had some sort of crazy macaroni and gruyere cheese item. In true French style, the food was tasty, small and filling.

Safeway on 15th

I just got back from the Safeway on 15th to pick up some more food that’s easy on my stomach–white bread bagels, applesauce, rice krispies, bananas (yeah for BRAT), milk and some other odds and ends. It worked wonders for that stomach thing I had for several weeks last summer.

I haven’t been to that store in a really long time, but I was quickly reminded of the major good and bad aspects of shopping there on a weekday evening. Namely, it’s really crowded with long lines but at least there are interesting, hot, young, hipsters/gays to watch while you’re stuck in line.

Off the Wagon

Lately I haven’t been very good about blogging. I suppose partly I’ve just gotten out of the habit and partly not a whole lot of super exciting stuff has been going on. I’m going to try to get back into the swing of things, even blogging about non-exciting stuff

Yesterday I went to Leavenworth on a chartered bus with my friend Cesar and a bunch of other people I didn’t know. Originally, several other friends of mine were supposed to come but they didn’t get their payments in before the bus sold out. It was a nice time up in the mountains in a so-called “Bavarian village”. Basically, the downtown was the personification of the American conception of Germany, which is to say the American conception of Bavaria. Here’s a picture of me with the Nutcracker:

It snowed most of the time we were there, which added to the experience. On the way back, it was still snowing and there was a decent amount of snow on the road surface of US 2 (a twisty mountain highway). It even snowed in Seattle while we were gone, so it was a fairly slow drive back to civilization (3.5 hours instead of the normal 2.5). My limited Leavenworth pictures are here.

Upon getting back, Marc and I went to Joe and Evan’s birthday party but only caught the very end of it. Afterwards, everybody migrated over to the Cuff for dancing and drinks. Today has mostly been a relaxing recovery day.

Still Sick

Earlier today I started getting my hopes up when my temperature dropped to 99F for a couple hours. Unfortunately, it’s back up around 101F now again. Sigh. My throat is feeling a bit better though, so now it’s really just mostly a low fever and fatigue.

On the plus side, I’ve been catching up on my Spiegel subscription. I also just went to the hipstermart since I’m out of dinner food and didn’t really want to walk/drive up Safeway, QFC or Trader Joe’s. $15 for some frozen food, a can of soup and a bottle of gatorade. :/ Oh well, convenience is nice I suppose.

Rent Increase

Looks like my landlord is raising my rent effective June 1st. While it’s only a modest increase ($30/mo), I’m convinced I’m already paying over market, so it does annoy me somewhat. Still, the staff do take care of the place and have always been responsive to any problems I’ve had. I can’t say I didn’t expect it either. Rents have been flat for years in Seattle. With all the condo conversions going on and a good economy it was only a matter of time.

I’ve been thinking more over the past couple months about moving into a shared housing situation to save money. This only gives me more of a reason to do that I think.

Neighbwhores

Because I was in a sort of dancing mood and because I had so much with Chris last Thursday at Neighbors when he was in town, I decided I’d go again last night. The 80s music is fun to dance to and usually there are enough interesting guys to keep my eyes busy all night. At some point, I ended up dancing with some guy. It all happened somewhat randomly in that I was actually trying to dance near this other cute guy when suddenly I noticed this one was shaking his ass in my direction. My hand on his hip and a couple minutes later, we were dancing together like skanky gay men tend to do. Eventually, he said he needed to take a break and wandered off. I saw him again later, but he didn’t seem terribly interested anymore. Maybe he was playing hard to get or something because he really didn’t seem to mind me earlier. Meh, I don’t have time for too many games.

I resumed dancing with other people who I did and did not already know. A guy I know from CAMP was in town visiting (he moved away to San Francisco a few months ago) and I chatted and danced with him for a bit. At some point he asked me, “if I’d gotten that hickey tonight”? Hickey!?! Dammit. Then responded by saying, “well, it’s all about having fun” (or something like that). Heh.

Later on, I was dancing in this group of cute guys. During Duran Duran’s ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ one of the cuter ones (tall, skinny with that hipster beard thing going on) tells me something like “isn’t this a great song?”. I, of course, take this as a hint that he’s interested in me. So we dance a bit more, but he keeps leaving and coming back. At some point, we’re dancing fairly close together and I make my move by putting my hand on his side. He sort of turns around and runs away! I kind of wonder if he was just some straight boy who got in over his head!

Anyhow, definitely an entertaining evening.

Gun Violence on the Hill

Since I moved here, there have now been (I believe) three shootings in my neighorhood. None of them have been your typical shootings though. The first one was a bizarre murder suicide back in March over on Republican & 21st. Then there was a mentally ill man who was shot dead by the police on Broadway & John after threatening police and passersby with a gun. This morning yet another shooting on Capitol Hill occured with a guy being fatally wounded on Harrison & Melrose (about a block from here). Apparently, I slept through the sound of gunshots at 2am, because I’m definitely close enough to have heard them.

It’s just odd to me, because this neighborhood in general does not feel particularly dangerous. Maybe there are just too many people with psychological issues?

Friday and Saturday

Lately my weekends have been much busier than usual. Fortunately, it’s been the good kind of busy–the kind of busy that involves me getting out of the house and interacting with other people.

On Thursday night I prepared enchilladas to bring to Don’s Cinco de Mayo party the next night. After getting home from work a bit later than I had hoped (happy hour at work + a late bus), I threw the enchilladas in the oven and got showered/dressed for the party. I got there around 9pm, which I think is even beyond ‘fashionably late’ being that it started at 7pm. Still, I ended up staying until the party was over.

Saturday afternoon, I changed the flat tire on my car before driving over to buy some new tires. Lately, my car has been pulling a lot to one side and I was worried I screwed up the alignment. However, as soon as I put the spare on, the car handled much more smoothly and without any pull. It all must have been due to the bad tire. With the four new tires, it drives much more smoothly than before and is probably safer too!

On Saturday evening, I went over to Terry’s (the guy who hosted the Dynasty viewing earlier in the week) to watch a movie called Our Sons. It’s a gay themed made for TV movie. Very TV movie at points, but I was still entertained. They’re a good group of guys to hang out with too. Since the movie night kicked off relatively early, some of us decided to go out being that it was Saturday night. This guy Drew and I hit up Sugar, which just opened officially on Friday. I’d heard about this bar from several different sources, so it seemed like the thing to check out. It was fairly fancy inside with shiny new furniture and what not. We got there fairly early when there weren’t too many people around, but it filled up as time went on. Cover was $10, which seemed a bit high for this place. I payed it since it’s the big opening weekend, but in the future I might have to pass for that much money. They had these (for lack of a better word) go-go boys wearing nothing but shoes, skimpy underwear and these (for lack of a better word) alcohol tool belts. Interesting, but there were also women (real ones) dancing on the bar who appeared to be paid by the bar itself. A bit odd, but again entertaining. After a bit much of the thumping bass, we headed over to Madison Pub, which is more “normal guys”/blue collar/rough trade. From there, Drew dropped me back off at my place and headed home. All in all, a nice night.

Grocery Shopping

I was going to make dinner tonight when I realized I didn’t have anything that constituted an entire proper dinner (i.e., no vegetables). Because I decided I was too lazy to drive (or walk) to Safeway, I instead walked over to QFC being that it’s about 5 blocks (less than a 5 minute walk) from my house. First, I was surprised how big the place is considering its location on Broadway.

Creepily, they have the same self-checkout kiosks that Harris-Teeter has. I half expected the voice (which is the same by the way) to say “Thank you for shopping at Harris-Teeter”, but of course it didn’t. Still, it’s good to know there’s actually a half-way decent grocery store that I can walk to. I’d forgotten that was one of the major reasons I wanted to move back to the city.

Apparently, QFC is part of Kroger. Next time, I’ll have to see if my Kroger card works there so that I don’t have to fill out another form for some damn rewards card.