November, 1997 Updated, November 22, 2005
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Nov. 1-7 Nov. 8 Nov. 9 Nov. 10 Nov. 11 Nov. 18 Nov. 25 Nov. 26
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Well I know it's been a long time since I last posted anything, and the month of October has been pretty much skipped... but I figured I'd quickly recap things and let you know what's been going on with me lately.
Since the big move, which thankfully I survived, I spent a lot of time setting up my apartment, particularly my room. I think it took me a week to get my room into a presentable condition, and I'm pretty happy with the results. It's a nice, cozy place for me and my things.
Things have actually been quiet for me. I was a homebody for most of the first couple of weeks, then started going out a little bit as time went on. Now I've settled into a fairly good schedule of time at home and time out. And I've had some visitors too :) We're trying to plan a "Housewarming" party, but the plans aren't folding out right just yet.
Work has been good-- I start actually SELLING this week *WHOO-HOO!* I am pretty excited about that, to be honest. It's about time I get out there again and see my clients! I've been working at home on the phone for the last few weeks and I've been feeling LAZY.
Scott is in for the entire week this week. It's going to be weird having him around for more than a few days during the weekends. Usually it's pretty quiet around here, but with two or three of us here all week it's going to be downright rowdy ;). It should be fun though. I haven't had a chance to spend much time with Scott since we moved here, maybe we'll get a chance to catch up now.
Yesterday I had dinner with my friend Adam at the Mashed Potato Club. It was so great! It's apparently owned by a couple of gay guys, and honestly you can tell. The place is like Roscoes meets TGI Fridays... it's a blast! I recommend that anyone in the Chicago area check it out if you haven't already.
I got a page tonight from Tim, a guy I met at a big Halloween Party that was held a few weeks ago in Lake Zurich. He's 25, cute, shorter than me, a bit queeny... but nice. There was a lot of drama when we met because he then subsequently fell for my other friend Chris, who's much cuter than me, and is 21. However something happened between Chris and Tim and I had to drive Tim home. Well we exchanged phone numbers and met a couple of times. Oh Halloween Tim dressed in drag as one of the Andrews Sisters. I spent nearly all of the day helping him get ready for it. It wasn't exactly my idea of fun... Well we went out and we did have a blast... but I dunno I'm kinda iffy about the whole thing now. He paged me tonight, first time since Halloween, and asked if I was avoiding him. I wasn't deliberately, but then again maybe I was. I might meet him out at Roscoes tonight. Maybe if I see him in "boy clothes" again I'll change my mind ;).
Let's see, what else... oh Kenny. Kenny Kenny Kenny... he has been a mess since that guy dumped him in Chicago. I've caught him online and he has just got back in from the bars where he saw or ran into Andy. Andy would act as if Kenny didn't exist, and Kenny would then get drunk. When he would get home, he'd get on AOL and that's when I would always find him.
Well this happened again last night, and once again Kenny started talking about "ending it all". I would imagine that meant suicide. I talked to him for three hours, trying to convince him that people do care about him and would worry about him if something happened to him, but he was convinced that nobody cares, nobody would notice if he was gone. I can't believe he would say this to me, after all we've been through. We stopped talking and he was still online and wouldn't answer any of my questions. I think he was just sulking. He's done this before. At least I hope that's what he was doing.
I called him tonight, but got his voice mail. I'll try again tomorrow.
In other news, I am heading to Roscoes tonight... alone, pretty much. I hope there'll be some friends of mine that I can run into ;)
Hopefully I'll continue posting. Nag me if I don't!!!!
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Tonight wasn't the greatest of nights.
I met Mark, an old BBS friend of mine, out for dinner at Buddie's, which is a gay bar with a restaurant attached to it, basically. It's not too bad, not exactly haute cuisine, mind you, but decent food at a decent price. We had a nice dinner, chatted, caught up on what's been going on with life. It was a pleasant dinner.
We headed to Roscoe's afterward, and I met another old acquaintance, whose name is Dave, that I hadn't seen in a while. While we were talking, Mark walked away. I was a little concerned about this, since I really didn't want Mark to think I was ignoring him. Naturally, if I was a cordial host, I would have introduced Mark to Dave, but for some reason I neglected to do so.
After talking with Dave for a while, I went to find Mark. I found him in the hallway talking to some guy he bumped into. He told me why he walked away, which was because I didn't introduce him to Dave, and I accepted that I was wrong there. So we chatted briefly until Dave R. showed up. So Dave and I hung around for a while, until he left.
Then Scott and Brad showed up, just as I was about to leave.
We hung out for a while, but it was marred when they started fighting :/ Finally Scott said "You ready to go? I am" and we left. Put a quick end to an evening that was kinda losing steam fast anyway.
When I got home I check on AOL to see who was on, hoping maybe someone could cheer up what was an otherwise dreary day... and it seemed that everyone else I chatted with was having a not-so-great day as well. So I just figured there was something in the air and left it at that.Guess every day can't be wonderful!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Tonight was a marked improvement over last night.
Marked by a wine tasting event planned by my friend Chris, who I met last month (during the lost days of October) for the Leukemia Society. It was a nice, casual yet formal evening of food, wine and fun. Another friend of ours, Elle, was there. I met Elle when I met Chris last month. She is a marvelous woman-- a great friend to have, and great fun to have around. In the short time I've known her I've come to really appreciate her as a friend. She saw me on AOL one night last month and asked if I had dinner yet. I said no, and she said "Good, we're going out to dinner in your neighborhood." So I gave her directions, she came over, and we went out and had a marvelous dinner at "Soul Kitchen", an African-style restaurant in the heart of Wicker Park. It was our bonding moment, and it was a moment worth cherishing. Her saying is always "As always, love and laughter" whenever she sends an E-mail, and it's true. It seems to follow her wherever she goes.
Anyway, Elle introduced me to her friend Roberto. Roberto is a friend she made while at U of I. Very handsome. Very cute. Very nice. Anyway... Roberto, Elle, and I stayed close for most of the evening, while Chris attended to the guests and made sure everything ran smoothly. He did a wonderful job, and the event was an obvious success.
After a couple hours, the three of us left the event and headed over to Reza's, a Persian/Vegetarian/Mediterranean restaurant in the River North area of the city. It was a lovely place, fashioned out of an old warehouse, I'd assume, with waiters in white shirts and bow ties, wood finishings and cobblestone floors. The food was a mixture of ethnicities, from Hummus to Tabbouli to Kabobs to Portabella Mushrooms. I tasted, but did not order, because I had eaten at the event. Roberto is a Vegan, and the food at the event was mostly non-vegan. So he opted to eat there. We had good conversation, coffee, and an overall nice night.
After dinner, I was supposed to meet a guy at Big Chicks, a bar on the far north side of town. I drove up there, and went in, only to find a sparse crowd-- one that I really wasn't comfortable with-- and no sight of my friend. So I left, and headed up to "boystown" instead.
I found street parking, which is rare if not impossible in Boystown, and headed to Roscoes. Typically, Roscoes' best night is Sunday night. I just found this out, since I am not usually out on Sundays. So I walked around a few times, and found an empty bar seat and took it.
About 10 minutes later, my friend Jeff sat down in the stool directly across from me. I shouted "Hey Jeff" to him, and he shouted "HI!" back. We started shouting to each other across the bar, when Jeff got a great idea and started using the provided business cards to write out notes and toss them across the bar. We ended up playing a game of "Grade School Note Passing" across the bar to communicate. It was pretty fun-- certainly original.
A few notes into the game, Jeff lofted one over and it hit the girl next to me directly on her boob.... and she howled "Oh my GOD you guys you hit me in my boob!" and she started laughing. So I introduced myself and explained our little game for the evening, and she started joining in on it too.
Then a friend of hers came by. I had noticed him as he walked in. Reddish-brown hair, pale blue eyes, great smile, goatee (which I usually don't care for, but it looked good on him), nice overall look. I thought he was pretty cute. Anyway, he started talking to Mindy, the girl next to me and she introduced him to me. His name was Bryan.
We chatted briefly and I continued to "communicate" with Jeff.
A while later, the game stopped and I just watched as the bar filled up and people started to crowd in. I noticed another mutual friend of Jeff's and mine walk in and I decided it was time to go across the bar and mingle with my friends. As I got off the stool, someone who was leaning on it pushed it into me and pinned me into the bar. It was Bryan.
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you were going to move!"
"It's ok," I said, looking him right in the eyes. My, he had nice eyes. :)So I started chatting with Jeff and the others when a note went flying from the other side. Mindy sent a note to me saying "Bryan says you need a boost!"
I didn't quite know what that meant, but in my own "dirty minded" way, I wrote back "Tell Bryan he can give me a boost anytime!"Bryan read it and blushed.. hee hee hee ;) He wrote a note and sent it back to me saying "Fab! I don't know what to say... :)" Then sent another saying "Fabulous, QT!"
He signaled me to come back over there and we started to chat. Here's where it gets cool. :)
Turns out, he's my age, he went to college at UW Parkside in Kenosha, lived there for 5 years. He loves 70's music (especially the Carpenters, who I have always had a love for, mainly because I grew up with their music), and singing. We really had a wonderful time talking about places we knew and people we knew-- and the wierdest part of all was when he was talking about a teacher he had an internship with at a Kenosha high school. Her name was Carolyn Aiello! I nearly freaked out, because I knew I had never told him my last name. And when I did, it was just that more ironic.
So we hit it off well. Very well. We exchanged numbers and I drove him home, where we kissed goodnight. We may do something later this week, we'll see. I do have another date scheduled on Tuesday (with a guy named Brad who I don't think I explained about yet). I guess at this point I'm still in dating mode so nothing is serious yet with anyone. However Brad is a second date, so whatever that means... hmm..
With that, I'm tired. Good night!!!
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I can't believe I got up on time today. I got to bed SO late last night. But I did, and the work day went pretty well.
Got a letter from Brad today (the one I was supposed to have dinner with on Tuesday). Wow.
See, we went on a date-- geez about a month ago already. It was really a nice date. He was very handsome, very nice to talk to, we had a really great night-- we were the only ones in the restaurant we went to. It was romantic!
We hit it off pretty well, I thought.
But after the date, he got sick (and so did I) and I guess was really sick. So we put off the next date until he was feeling better. Well that was about two weeks. Then he told me he was really busy with work. So we put it off for another week. Finally I e-mailed him and asked him what the deal was, if he wanted to go out or not.. and he wrote back saying "Yes, I do, I just need to get all this other stuff worked out first. I really do want to go out again." So I said, fine, I won't worry about it then.
A couple days ago, we chatted online and finally said that this coming Tuesday we would go out to dinner again, and he would let me know where and when.
Well today in my E-mail I got this letter:
Rick,
I'm sorry, but I want to cancel dinner.
It has nothing to do with you. This is about me. I'm afraid I just don't feel a chemistry with you that I want to continue in a dating sort of way.
Take care of yourself.
Brad
What-the-fuck-ever. He led me on this fucking parade for a month and now this. I hate that shit. Why can't people just be honest and tell the truth from the beginning. I know he reads this and he'll see this and be pissed but oh well. Tough. I was hurt. I really was. I just responded by saying "I figured that, but I wish you would have told me sooner. take care." And that is it. He's off my buddy list. :(
I could go on and on about my lousy luck with men, but I'm sure it's all been heard before, so I'll spare you. But this is just another chapter in the pathetic romantic life of me. What lies ahead who knows. Maybe Bryan is a good thing. Let's hope so, because three strikes and I'm giving up for good. I'm over it.
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I think it's time to really pay attention to who I call a friend.
I think I use the term too loosely. I have brief, shining moments of wonderfulness with someone and I think "Gee this person's really great, I'm glad I met him or her" and I think I have a new friend.
Then a few days later or so, when I try to strike up a conversation with this person, they either don't want to talk to you or act as if you were a complete stranger. Why bother with that sort of behavior? Does it really ask to much to expect a little friendliness every now and then?
It's frustrating. I think I'm going to have to do a hard-core dissection of my "list" of friends and separate the true friends from the acquaintances. I don't think I'm going to like what I see, but at least I'll know who my real friends are.
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I've just come out of one of the most exciting and fun weeks I've ever had!
The week itself was ok-- I actually started selling this week at work, and those first few contracts signed felt really good coming in, I must admit. As time goes on I think it'll become a breeze. I'm really excited about my job now-- more so than ever before.
Friday night I picked my sister up in Kenosha and drove her down to Chicago to spend the night. The next morning we woke up early to get to O'Hare airport so she could catch her flight to California. She took her vacation this weekend, finally-- a well-deserved one at that. I don't think she's ever been on a true vacation since she started at Six Flags.
So she spent the night Friday, Saturday we got up at around 5 am and drove to the airport. We got there too late for her 7am flight, however, and had to book her on the 9:00 flight,, which cost her $75.00. I felt bad that we missed the original flight, but both of us were at fault for being there late, so we couldn't really argue or make a fuss about it. So why bother?
So I got home from the airport at about 10:30, had some breakfast, hung around for a bit, and tried to figure out what to do for the rest of the day.
Then my pager went off. It was my friend Chris, who I met Elle through. He said that Elle had an extra ticket for "RENT", and wanted to know if I wanted to come along. I asked him how much they were and he replied "They're free, silly!" So I figured what the heck, if it's offered, I might as well go!
It was fantastic! And we had third row seats. I recommend it to all.. great music, great performances... it was worth every second.
That night I went out with Scott and Brad to see Fiona Apple at the Riviera. Another great performance- Fiona is electric on the stage, and her band is incredibly tight. She put on a great show- even though 3/4 of the crowd was drunk off their asses. It got noisy at times when she played her slower songs. Oh well, not much else you can expect when it's a cheap ticket price. It was still worth seeing though.
Monday the 17th was the icing on the cake though. :) One of the girls I work with wanted to go see the Indigo Girls at the Rosemont Theatre, so she talked to the VP of Marketing where I work, who used to work at the Rosemont, to see if he could get us good seats for the show. So he reserved them for us. We had no idea what type of tickets we were going to get until we got there. Well when we found out, we were doing backflips. The tickets read "Row 3, Pit." And that basically meant we were to be sitting in the Orchestra pit in front of the stage. And what's better was, the seats were on the far left side of the stage, and on that side, Row 3 was the FRONT ROW... we were leaning on the stage most of the night. It was the most awesome concert ever. I will never ever forget it :)
So that was my concert week... What could top that? I have no idea, but this week, I was definitely glad to be living in Chicago!
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Can I tell you about my weekend?
Too bad I'm going to anyway. This past weekend had to be the greatest weekend that has ever occurred in my lifetime. There is really nothing that I can think of that could have compared. Nothing at all. It was just about that awesome.
But I digress. Let's start at the beginning.
Friday I was planning on going to the AOL party at Hunter's. I was on AOL chatting with a few people when someone IM'ed me. His screen name indicated he was from Michigan. I didn't think much of it, but looked at his profile anyway. Hmm..- just moved to Chicago. I liked the sound of that. :-) So I started chatting with him. The more I chatted with him the more I liked him. His name is Tom, he just moved here from Michigan to accept a job in the city. He started his job on Monday, and was trying to find a way to meet some new people, since he was here. I figured that was cool, so I offered to send my picture (like I always do). He then offered to send me his.
I wasn't ready for what I saw-- he was cute as heck... and he told me the same in return. I was certainly happy to hear that :).
So we were hitting it off already, and we both said we were hungry, so I threw caution to the wind and asked if he'd like to go to dinner. He accepted the offer, and gave him my phone number so he could call me. We talked for about 20 minutes and both got ready for dinner.
Dinner was at Pizza Uno's (and for those of you who have Uno's chain restaurants, take note- the pizza you have at those restaurants is NOTHING like the pizza you get at the Original Uno's (or Due's). There simply is no comparison.) Dinner was going just fine, but then we started talking about music, and the dialogue was crackling from then on. More and more as we shared philosophies and histories, I could tell that this was working out to be a pretty great date. And It was.
We drove around a bit afterward and headed to Halsted St., where Tom said he'd never been before. We hit Sidetrack and Roscoes, finding Sidetrack a bit more our taste for the night. We headed back out after about a few hours of drinks, music and conversation. I drove back to his apartment building (he was staying in a temporary apartment until he found a place- which he did yesterday), and just as I was about to pull up to the front, he offered to come up to his apartment. I graciously accepted. There, we decided that we really liked each other, and shared a few cuddles and kisses... and nothing more ;) It was simply romantic and passionate... I spent the night, fully clothed, and enjoying the company of a wonderful guy. I couldn't be happier. We would definitely see each other again.
Which we did, the next night :)
Other big news for this weekend-- Kenny came to town! Yes, that's right, Kenny, the same guy with whom I had so much drama before. Well since the drama between us, we have become pretty close as friends. And I'm glad about that, because Kenny truly is a wonderful guy. Well he IM'ed me on AOL on Thursday and asked me "I'm thinking of flying down there this weekend" and I replied "DO IT! DO IT!" And he said "Are you sure it wouldn't be a problem?" And I responded, "Absolutely not. You can stay here and we will paint the town red. Now BUY THAT TICKET!" and he did. Kenny flew down on Saturday afternoon and flew out on Monday afternoon, and was given the best time that anyone could possibly have in this fair city.
I picked Kenny up at Midway and we headed downtown, and drove around a bit... then headed up to Halsted for dinner at Los Mananitas. We had a couple Margaritas and some good Mexican food before doing a little shopping. We went to my apartment and took a nap when Elle called and said that tickets were ready for "Blue Man Group"! I was excited because we had tried to see this show many times already, but now we were finally going to see it. So Kenny and I got ready and met Elle at her apartment.
Kenny was instantly taken to Elle, who was subsequently taken to Kenny as well. They had lots in common- music, symphony, arts; not to mention they are close in age. They hit it off fabulously and I couldn't be happier. Dinner at Elle's was very enjoyable, and it was a great way to start the evening. We then headed over to the Briar St. Theatre to see the show, and were joined by Chris L. The show was INCREDIBLE, may I say. I was blown away by the power, energy, and music portrayed in the show. It was a sight to see-- imagine three guys dressed all in black except for painted blue faces and hands. Words really can't describe the show-- it's a must-see to be believed.
After the show we went to Sidetrack which was PACKED, and I called Tom to join us. He did, and there was the nucleus of my enjoyable weekend- Tom, Kenny, Elle, Chris and I. Tom was a bit tired (I sort of woke him up when I called) but he got there right away. We stayed at Sidetrack most of the night, and Kenny ran into one of his ex-boyfriends, which caught him off guard, but I could tell he was having an incredibly good time.
Tom spent the night with me *;)* and Kenny stayed on our hide abed.
The next day was a pretty lazy day. We all got up around 1:30-2:00 and headed downtown so Tom could shower and change. We then went out to the Rock Bottom Brewery. Nice place, great music (all 70's tunes!) but the service wasn't top notch. We were the unfortunate ones whose meal order was lost. We waited for nearly 2 hours before the manager stopped by to tell us our order was lost. Luckily for him we were so engrossed in conversation that we hardly even noticed, though I had a direct view of the kitchen and could see our waiter frantically trying to figure out why our food wasn't delivered yet. ;) So dinner wasn't a complete bust- we had free drinks and free dessert, though they still wouldn't comp the meal. Oh well.
We went out again afterward, and this is where things got a little... different ;) Well it seems that Kenny took a liking to Chris, and I guess Chris took a liking to Kenny as well. The weird thing is, it didn't bother me at all. Maybe it was because of Tom *and I pretty much know that's why it was* but when they started kissing each other, it didn't bother me one bit ;-) In fact, I was happy as could be for both of them... I just hope that Kenny moves here soon ;) :) :)
After this weekend, though, I have a feeling he will be moving here soon. Kenny left today wanting more from Chicago, and I know we'll see him back here very soon. I'm so glad he came down. I really like him a lot, and I think we will end up being very close friends. And I will love that just fine ;)
As for Tom-- well I tell ya, he is about the best thing that's happened to me in a long time. Here's a guy that's my age, is very stable, very focused, and very driven. He's cute, he's level-headed, and he's great fun to have around... And he LIKES me! And I like HIM! :) I just kept thinking to myself "I can't believe this is happening". We spent most of the weekend together, and he still likes me! :) I couldn't stop smiling. I have a very good feeling about him, and about where this could go. We will probably be at Hunter's on Wednesday night for SUPER WEDNESDAY... I can't wait for the day to arrive...
...but I'm not going to be overzealous. I don't want to overpower him with attention or anything, like I've done in the past so many times. He's very special, I don't want to ruin it or spoil it so soon. He said to me yesterday "You are a catch, I'm not letting you get away" and I intend to not go anywhere... :) So hopefully this will develop into something pretty darn great-- keep watching and wish me the best.
What a great weekend :) :) :)
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However, I won't be seeing Tom today. :( He got home from a bunch of errands at 7:30-- including signing his lease, turning on all the utilities, and arranging movers for his stuff in Michigan. Now he has to pack for his trip to New York, which leaves at 6:00 tomorrow morning. In between then and now he has to get some sleep. So we agreed it wouldn't be very feasible for him to go out and lose that sleep time. I'm a little bummed, but I'll see him Friday night anyway ;)
I went up to see my doctor in Kenosha today. I've been kinda sick lately-- Just as I got rid of a nasty cold, a week later I got a brand new one. Not much fun, believe me. And I've been so busy with work, running from here to there, then going out on weekends that I've been lacking in rest. So I went up to see him and got a prescription-- Allegra and some Antibiotic that you take for 6 days and it's supposed to knock it right out of ya. Well I hope it does, because I'm tired of having the sniffles. :-P.
Well it's about quarter to nine and I have things to do before I head out-- I hope I see a lot of friends out tonight, Super Wednesday is always like a "reunion" of sorts :-) I only wish that Tom could be out with me. *Sigh*.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!!!!!!!
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