Captain Nelson

And had it been Major Nelson, it would have been I Dream of Jeannie jokes all night.

Carrington Nelson (now Fox) has been my best friend since we were about six years old. I don't see her much, she being a full-time writer and mother of three (under four) and living in Nashville and all. But still, we're close.

And y'all may remember her fabulous mother Sandy from last year's Steeplechase stories.

Prentiss, her little brother junior by seven years, has been an active-duty Marine serving in Iraq (and in some of the nastiest parts) . After several tours over there is now stationed in the equally sunny but considerably less dangerous San Diego. He called me this week to let me know he would be coming up to SF with some buddies and asked me out for a drink.

Upon hearing this, all the gay guys and the straight women got far too excited that I had a carload of marines headed this way. I was excited to host him but was also anxious about where to entertain a bunch of straight marines. A nice dinner and cool clubs? Cheesy clubs? Strip clubs? What straight clubs are cool any more? I haven't been straight bar crawling since James and mine days in the Mission way back when.

But still, I called James as my best buddy and Go-To Straight Man. I thought they would have the tourist thing covered, so I planned something more local-interest and off-the-guidebooks. I picked a local restaurant known for being amazing and having a good neighborhood vibe—Eric's in Noe Valley (one of my personaly favorite places), and then I thought we would do a Polk Street bar crawl, starting at the always fun Lush Lounge.

It turns out he drove up here not with military buddies, but his girlfriend, who is quite lovely, thoroughly engaging, and all together charming.


So it was just the four of us for dinner (James, Prentiss, Jennifer, and me) followed by vodkas at the Lush. Shilpa, Barney, and Kevin were going to join us for the crawl, but Barney and Kev ultimately couldn't make it, and Amy Day and Helen heard about it from Shilpa and joined us all at the Lush.



So my demographic skewed from my original vision of crazy fun single boys and The Shilpa—we were now 2 straight guys (one taken), four straight girls (one taken with the straight boy), and one 'mo.

James tells an exciting story.

Polk Street on a Monday turned out to be seedier than expected and I am now thinking I should have taken them someplace more picturesque. We crossed to the Hemlock after the Lush, but it was way too loud for my tastes, with crappy metal music no less, and weird 80's skatepunk videos projected on the wall. (To understand why this was unexpected: all of my other nights at the Hemlock have been rockabilly-themed.)

James had been going strong for several days and was coming down from a weekend of partying and camping up in Napa, so we dropped him off to bed before the next stop. All the girls were crying for the Badlands, and Jennifer was keen to take her boyfriend to his first gay bar.

And I could use some better music by far.

The Badlands Monday crowd was kinda lame (and a little creepy) and the musical theme of the night trended deeply to bad rap and hip hop, but we still had a great time (Other than the giant creepy tweaked out guy who would not leave Prentiss alone. I had to block all night. The guy would run his finger along someone, and then strike a pose with his finger pointing to the end of his mouth, as if striking some sort of cutesy 1950's little girl pose. The effect, however, was much more "look at my cold sore!")

Prentiss was a great sport, and seemed to really enjoy himself. Jennifer had a blast, and was excited to buy us all cocksucker shots (there was a sign advertising a special). And all the girls loved Dan the new bartender.


I would say everyone had a good time. We closed the place down.

Badlands.

On a Monday.

We have no shame.



Photos up at flickr.