Back -- Yes. Better than ever -- at least for one night.

For any of you who were worried, I made it safely to San Diego last Wednesday night, crashed in a hotel, and met my stuff on Thursday morning. Fortunately, the hottest of the Latin boys came with my stuff, so I had good scenery again.

I crashed at my new place Thursday, and put some stuff away Friday morning. That left just enough time to get a haircut and primp before heading off to Palm Springs for the softball tournament.

The tournament, as an event, stunk. They changed it at the last minute from a double to single elimination tournament, which ups the ante a bit. Our first games were Saturday at 8 and 9 PM, in the freezing cold. We won them both. Our last game of "pool" play was Sunday afternoon, and we lost a squeaker -- but it was gorgeous. The playoffs started in the evening (cold again), and we won the first the two games. Then some intimidating lesbian came and told us there would be no further games because the lights had to be shut off.

In the end, we were made co-champions with the other three teams that had made the semis. It was a little disappointing, since we were hitting on all cylinders and trounced the last team we played (who had beaten the team that beat us). But we did get a cut of the prize money to give to an AIDS foundation where one of my teammates worked.

Once the softball drama was behind us, Sunday night took off. We had a great team dinner at Wang's -- the Maniax were a great bunch of guys (and Di). Then we went to Hunter's. Since the games were over and Monday was MLK Day, most of the guys hung out to dance and flirt. I wish I could bottle whatever I had working that night and use some of it later.

Early in the evening, I found the hottest guy in the bar -- at least from my perspective. Tan skin, black hair, gorgeous dark eyes, nice body, and PERFECT smile. As I passed, both our heads turned, and I was about to say something -- until a bunch of guys from SF grabbed me to say "Hi". It was sweet of them, but also a highly effective cock-block.

Fortunately, I found him again later. I tapped him on the shoulder, and said:
"Hi, I saw you earlier, and was planning to flirt with you until all of my friends grabbed me. Can I buy you a drink?" Joel, you sly devil.

He declined the drink, but not until we had stared a bit, pressed fronts, and felt up each others sides. After a brief chat, he had to go across the street with some friends, and I lost him again. The DJ played "Mesmerized", so it was off to the dance floor with some of the hotties from my team.

I found another cutie on the dance floor, and after a little grinding, got his digits. When I went to the bar for another drink, I caught another guy checking me out. He was a trauma nurse, and we started chatting medicine with some of his friends. Soon after we swapped digits, boy #1 showed up and asked if he could still get that drink. At which point I hit a new low. I had to introduce two potential tricks for the evening. It felt like a weird form of the dating game: "Bachelor Number 3, meet Bachelor Number 1."

How good would that bottle be? Since I had been drinking more than he, Bachelor #1 drove me home and stayed for some fun. Despite the fact that I left with #1, Bachelor #3 texted me that night, that morning, and wants to make me a MySpace friend. As to Bachelor #2 -- I can't seem to find his number. The only bad things were that I didn't get to see the LA boy I met at the last tournament, and I didn't get to scope out any of the SD teams.

Now I'm back in SD. All the boxes are empty and, thanks to Craigslist, gone. With helpful input from RottenRyan, I got my cable and wireless internet all hooked up, hence the return to blogging. I even made it to the gym today. Tomorrow, I plan to go by work and make sure everything is set up, hit the gym, maybe do some furniture shopping, and try to make some new friends.