End of Summer

Well, I'm sitting at home without much to do, although I'm not entirely in a blogging mood. The "end of summer" is hanging in the air. Dan has left, and Narc is leaving. B is getting ready for his oral exams and I'm back to work next week. I feel like Narc and I are just riding this out, but it's not the same as it used to be and both of us know it's not going anywhere. It's a strange feeling.

On Friday night I hung out with Dan and his friends Ben, Mike and Scott. As you may know from reading Dan's blog, he just took off for a 9-month trip to Japan and this was his "last hurrah" of sorts with his friends here in town. They all went out for dinner first, and then later met up with me at Cheers. By the time they got there, I had already had five drinks or so, and I was in a great mood.

We had a lot of fun. Dan and I sang a karaoke duet together and I got to hear him sing his infamous "New York, New York." It's pretty noisy in there on karaoke nights, though, and his friends wanted to go somewhere where we could hear each other better. Dan asked if we could go back to my place. (Which, as you know, is right across the street.) I agreed, as long as they gave me a few minutes to run home and straighten up first.

We hung out for hours at my apartment. At one point we went up to the roof where I bumped into one of the FourthFloorGirls. The end of the night gets a little blurry, but I remember trying to watch A Streetcar Named Desire (which, incidentally, is my favorite movie), but when I realized it was nearly 5:00 am I knew I had to get myself to bed. I had to be up the next morning at 8:00 to go to my parents' house, so I said goodnight to the boys and crashed in my bedroom.

Dan and his friend Ben both stayed over on the couch. An added bonus for me--it turns out that Ben is a computer-fixer and he agreed to straighten out the problems that I've been having with my computer ever since my hard drive crashed a month ago. The next morning I woke up on time and Dan took off. I left Ben asleep on the couch with a note about the computer and I was on my way.

When I got to Long Island, my mom put me to work in no time at all. She gave me a grocery list and sent me off to the store. (She was having a family BBQ and needed help setting up).

Here's the list that she gave me:

1 bottle of vodka
25 ears of corn
40 pounds of charcoal
17 bags of ice
5 cases of beer
4 cases of soda
30 bottles of water

What the fuck!?!?! Can you imagine, that scene--a half wasted Hyde loading all of that off the shelves into the cart, off the cart to the register, from the register to the cart and from the cart to the car! Then when I got home, my mom instructed me to bring it all down to the pool area which is around the side of the house and down a flight of stairs. It took me a million trips and my arms and legs are still sore from it today!

The BBQ was fun, but there was a little drama when BigSis and my Aunt got into an argument. I don't feel like writing out the whole story right now, but it was intense. I didn't get back to my place until around midnight. Considering I was on three hours of sleep and had done all of that manual labor, I was ready to crash. Oc called and asked if I wanted to hang out, but I was simply out of energy. Later that night, I got a call from Narc (I think it was around 2:30 am) but like I told Oc, I had to stay home and sleep. He didn't bother me again after that.

On Sunday morning I slept in before meeting B at school. It was strange to be back at school, but in a good way. And it felt good to be quasi-productive. After that, B and I decided to go to the choral evensong service at his church (which is only five blocks from my place). On the way there, we bumped into my Aunt and Uncle right outside the Waldorf Hotel. It was the same Aunt my sister had just quarreled with and she was so syrupy sweet when she saw me, I'm sure because she's hoping I'm going to report back to my mom. It was so strange to see them there because they don't even live in the city!

Anyway, after church, I walked home through a street fair on Lexington and worked out my dinner plans with Dan. Dan and I went to a Mexican place on 62nd and 1st. I really liked the place. We talked and talked and talked over dinner and then he walked me home. It was sad to say goodbye, but I'm sure we'll be in touch via email and blogging.

When I got home, I vegetated, watched some TV and blogged for a little while. Before long, I got a text from Narc:

Mmm...Cheesy Bread.

Narc has been obsessed with Domino's cheesy bread for a few weeks now. (I don't know if it's any good. I haven't tried it). The last time I was there, he had a craving, but Domino's closes at 2:00 am so he couldn't get it delivered. I got his text around midnight, so I wrote back to him that he better move fast--he only had two hours left to order some. As expected, he gave me a ring after that.

"What are you up to tonight?" he asked.

I told him about my dinner with Dan, and my sore arms and legs from my BBQ work the day before.

"What have you been doing?"

"I just had the Exhibitionist and ModelChick over here for the last episode of Six Feet Under. I wanted to watch Entourage too, but I missed it and they're not playing it again until 3:00 am, so I guess I'm just waiting up for it."

"Why don't you TiVo it and go to bed?" I suggested. "It's a little strange to wait up just for that."

"Yeah, well, it's not a big deal. I slept in until 4:00 today anyway."

"Oh."

"So, what's the deal? Do you want to come down here?"

"I don't know, Narc."

Honestly, I was too tired to go, but I can't say no to him unless I'm entirely wiped out or have to teach or something.

"Let me take a shower first, and I'll give you a call in a half hour," I said.

Predictably, after the shower, I went.

It was okay because around 1:00 am I always get a second wind. On my way out, I stopped in the deli across the street. My hair was all wet from my shower, and it was taking forever for the guy to work the cash register. To make matters worse, that guy, Mohammed , shouted to me from behind the pizza station. In case you've forgotten, or you're a more recent reader, Mohammed asked me out on a date a few months back and I blew him off. He called me one morning to "make sure I woke up" for work after I had been out late the night before. It was awkward to see him again.

When I got to Narc's place, we drank some wine, smoked some cigarettes, had some sex and watched some TV (including the end of Kicking and Screaming). It was strange. We were hanging out and laughing as if we were old friends. It was more talk and less sex than usual. I guess time eventually will do that to you. He complained about the negative influence of the "crazy" women in his life--women like the Exhibitionist and ModelChick.

"So? Why do you hang out with them then?"

"Well, the Exhibitionist wouldn't stop calling me. It was taking more energy not to see her. And as for ModelChick, I just bumped into her recently, so..."

We waited up for Entourage even though I was exhausted and afterwards laughed a lot recalling old '80s theme songs.

The next morning he jumped out of bed with no sex. I still think he's trying to keep me at arms length, and maybe that's his way of doing it for himself. It's not usual for us, but he's been getting out of bed quickly as if he doesn't want to "mess up." I can feel it radiating from him. His mom had shipped some books to him and I flipped through them while he did his morning internet surfing. We layed around the apartment for most of the afternoon watching L.A. Confidential and eating vegetarian Thai food. He was pointedly avoiding physical contact with me. And I have to say, I was bored! It's the first time I've ever felt bored with him. I take it as a good sign. At around 4:00 I felt like going home. I had a shitload of laundry to do, I felt like I was getting TV-rot in my brain and there was no point to staying there anymore.

"What are your plans for tonight?" he asked.

"I don't know, but I definitely want to go out. It's gonna be my last Monday at Cheers for the forseeable future, and I like Monday's there. It's chill, and I get a chance to talk to BarMan."

"Why the last Monday?"

"Because school's starting next week and I'm teaching Tuesday mornings. And then in the spring semester, Monday nights are 24 nights with B, so..."

"Well, give me a call later. Maybe I'll join you."

Wait a second. Did I invite him? Can you guys IMAGINE if I ever invited myself along with his friends like that?

"Yeah, okay. I'll call you. But I've got to do my laundry first."

When I got back to my place, I blogged, showered and "decompressed," (a favorite word of Narc's). I bumped into another of the FourthFloorGirls in the laundry room and settled on a song for my choir audition tomorrow. I ordered in dinner, watched some Law & Order and by 10:30 headed out to Cheers. Just as I was out the door, my phone rang. It was Narc.

"Hey, Hyde! I'm only 20 blocks from you. I had dinner with ModelChick tonight on the East Side, so I thought I'd walk up and just meet you at Cheers."

"Oh, okay..."

I was so nervous about bringing him to Cheers--especially since IrishBird had basically told me not to bring him back there. I called NDN and asked if he thought they were going to be rude to us.

"It's BarMan, not IrishBird," he pointed out, "and they won't do anything to embarass you."

We had a good laugh that NDN now knows the work-schedule over at Cheers too. He met me there before Narc arrived and we dished about his date earlier this week. He's preparing for date number two--dinner at his place tomorrow night, and he wanted to work out his strategy in advance. NDN is definitely a planner. He's so funny. He's actually "saving up" so that he'll be impressive in the bedroom, even though he hasn't been able to sleep because of it. (If you recall, that was a remarkable trait of FourteenthFloorBoy's and NDN and I sent him a funny text about it back in June).

Narc and I had a good time at Cheers, but put Narc, Hyde and alcohol in the same room, and there's bound to be a disaster.

I'm off to get dinner now and Seinfeld is on, so I'll leave that for the next post. BarMan invited me to come out and hear him play at CBGB's tonight, so I need to get some stuff done before heading out.

Later!

-Hyde-