Vacation

I finished a two week run at the UCSD hospital in La Jolla on April 8. I'm sure I'll get around to venting about it, but let's just say I was glad to have some vacation plans for the following (now past) week. They turned out great, even before they started.

I met someone on Sunday night, and we had a good time. He left Monday morning, in time for me to make my flight. My old roommate and a good friend who lives in LA picked me up at Midway airpot and took me to "Nookies" for dinner. Mmmm...Chicago steak sandwich and onion rings.

Then we did what is for the moment my favorite thing in the world -- Musical Monday at SideTrack. If you haven't been, they play clips from musicals, movies, and shows all night long on all their screens. The whole bar pretty much sings along. Julie Andrews, Madonna, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Best Little Whore House in Texas, West Side Story, Little Shop of Horrors -- you name it. We requested something from The Little Mermaid near the end of the night, and they played "Poor Unfortunate Souls". It got the whole bar going again, so we, of course, felt like the bomb. Except my striaght ex-roommate, who didn't know many of the songs -- but he plans to study up by watching muscials with his girlfriend. Which should have the added benefit of making him seem more sensitive/romantic and getting him more/better sex.

Tuesday, we sat in the bleachers at Wrigley Field for the Cubs/Astros games, which was really the point of the whole trip. The blistering cold was missing (it was mostly sunny, not very windy, and comfortable in a light jacket) but we got the rest of the experience. High-fives with other fans, lots of beer, a dog, and a pretzel. Yelling at the ump. Yelling at the Astros. Yelling at each other -- I'm not kidding. If things were calm for more than 5 minutes, someone on our side (left field) would start yelling "Right field sucks". They yelled back. It was hysterical, especially given that the seats aren't assigned.

The only bad part was the homophobic slurs flying. As we picked up souvenir cups at the end of the game, someone said, "Hey, you're not going to throw those out on the field are you?"

"No," I said. "My friend wants to take some back to her friends in LA".

"Good", he said. "I'm glad you're not one of those queers who throws cups on the field."

I considered saying, "No, I'm just the kind of queer who sleeps with men." But, I thought better of it. My friend from LA points out that, for the most part, it's something they say without meaning anything specific about homosexuals. By and large, I think she's right -- but I still don't like it. And I'm not thrilled I didn't say something, but I haven't really faced that stuff much since I've been out. So, I tried to distract myself from gay issues by thinking about what Cubs jersey I should get. The answer was obvious:


I also picked up a nickname. Someone was waving the above poster. I dared my friend to go meet the guy, which she did. Apparently, he thinks #12 (Alfonso Soriano) is smooth but fierce, so he was trying to get the name to stick. We decided it would never stick for Soriano, but it was too good a name to let go. So I got it.




Wednesday, we were supposed to go to another Cubs game, but it got snowed out. Yes, snowed out -- in April in Chicago (hadn't happened since 1995). During Musical Monday, they played a bunch of numbers from "Wicked", and we had talked about seeing it. So we called the theatre and were told that there were 12 tickets left for the matinee, but they couldn't sell them over the phone. By the time we trucked down there, there were three left. Unbelievably, they were together, so we sprung for them at $85 bucks a pop. It seemed steep, until they turned out to be 8 rows behind the orchestra in the middle section -- by far the best theatre seats I've ever had.

The show was amazing -- funny, great plot/commentary, well-acted, and with good music sung incredibly well. If you get the chance, go. If not, get the soundtrack.


After the show, we strolled downtown. Our first stop was in the Chicago Cultural Center, which has stairways done with beautiful mosaics, as seen above. My friends felt they were almost as gorgeous as her ass. Then we walked over to Milleunium Park. It was beautiful, even in the snow. This is our "tourist" picture, using our cameras in the reflective "Bean".

I flew back on Thursday, just in time to have dinner at Ruth's Chris. Steak drown in butter. Hard to beat.

Friday I got my haircut, primped, and headed off to Phoenix for a softball tournament. I had dinner with some of my teammates Friday night and played softball in PERFECT weather all day Saturday. Saturday night, one of the guys on our team bought us all dinner at Stockyards, which was great. Sunday, we played two more games -- losing the second one ended the tournament for us. In the end, we went 3 and 3, with two of our losses being by one run -- not too shabby. I did OK - solid in the field, but I wish I had hit better.


With the softball over, the only thing left to do was head to Phoenix Pride, which happened to be the same weekend. Fortunately, I had some great guides -- Jimmi and his boyfriend Kevin. Jimmi is the co-host of the Dan and Jimmi Variety Show Podcast, on which I was a guest to discuss gay health issues. I met Dan in SF, but had never met Jimmi face to face. He's a great guy, and we had a blast. He and Kevin picked me up for lunch and drinks, and then we hit Pride with their friend Joe, and then the bars.

They only left me when it was pretty clear I would have other company for the night. That didn't go as well as I had hoped, but it wasn't the end of the world either.

I drove back from Phoenix Monday morning, and made it in under 5 hours, which was my goal. I wish I had dallied a bit more, because my pager started going off as soon as I got back. Seems many of my colleagues were at conferences, two of the people working had family emergencies, and the guy on back-up had messed up his scheduling and planned something. So they needed me to be on pager call. I haven't had to go in yet, but it did put a dent in my day trip, wine, casino plans. Alas. So I've been trying to make lemonade -- I finally bought plants for my apartment, have been to the gym everyday, and am hoping the hottest guy in the world will call me back (more on this later).

Hope your week was somewhere near as good.

I'm pretty hot about some of the politics flying around today. They'll be more on that tomorrow or Friday, but I wanted to get in something light about life. It's fun, and it usually gets more hits. I'm sure I'd reach a new record with the story of the hottest boy in the world; but I wouldn't want him to read it and get scared off. You'll just have to wait until it's going well -- or not at all.

PS -- there appears to be something wrong with the pictures tonight. I'll try again tomorrow.