waiting for the world to come to me

My weekends of late seem to be booked with international guests.

Fraternity brother Lee, who lived in Japan, got his PhD at Columbia, worked in D.C., and now teaches Japanese History at Annapolis (all of his students look like this. OMFG.), was in town on Saturday to give a talk at UC Berkeley. I hadn't seen Lee in years, and it was nice to walk him around town and catch up. After the cartoon museum and walking all over downtown, we had lunch at Harvey's, then moseyed about the Castro for the rest of the afternoon.

During lunch it occurred to me that he is now known as "Professor Pennington." I nearly clutched my pearls! "My God!" I said. "You're 'Professor Pennington' now."

"Yes. So?"

"You sound like a character from Clue."

"Do not."

"Well, whatever, but I'm not leaving you alone in the conservatory with the candlestick."

At lunch, I ran into Jeffrey whom I have also not seen in years. Which was by choice— he married my good friend Mike then they fell off the face of the earth and wouldn't socialize, for which I blamed Jeffrey. And then they broke up, for which I also blamed Jeffrey (a bit protective of Mike I am, even if I'm not in his life anymore). I had consciously kept my distance, which was stupid in hindsight, and it was nice to catch up a bit with Jeffrey (love his flickr sets) and his current significant other Collin. (Surprisingly, Mike also contacted me this week via facebook, and he also has a new SO.)

I have seen Collin in all of his Flickr loveliness, but didn't know he was deaf. I was glad I had taken a couple of semesters of ASL and it was fun having what passed for a conversation (I am out of practice and all my sign is pretty much bar vocabulary.).

RMJ and I had been invited to the the first anniversary party at the Barber Lounge and took Lee along. Between the car and the club, I ran into dear old friend and former coworker Karin Oliva, and we sort of made a scene on the streets squealing with delight and surprise. Happy birthday Karin!

The Barber Lounge is an amazing space, and other than the sake-only bar, the party was perfect. There were some artist shows opening that night (one of which was Michael whom I met last summer at Martuni's), and the crowd was just a near-perfect blend of gay and straight, young and old, well heeled and worn heeled, hip and pop, hot and not. And the crowd density remained optimum throughout the night. Lee, who had been up since 5:45 and had to leave from Berkeley at 6:00 the next morning, wasn't too taken with the event and happily BARTed back to base leaving RMJ and I to work the room as is our wont.

While Beau was not there to host (Beau works there but was in PV for the weekend), there were plenty of familiar faces and the entire experience was a pleasant surprise.

Parker, Russ, BJ

RMJ and Parker

hot hands (body workers)

Afterwards, we had plans for Coco's pre-party at SW's and then a finale at Hot Mess. We met up with Shilpa at the pre-party, and RMJ convinced us to take a detour to the Eagle for their first-Saturday-of-the-month Uniform night.

THAT was fun. I was totally enabled by my friend Jack. Shilpa has the rocking figure for a corset, and the cut of her jacket looked like one. Too bad it was floral. Not so much with the blending. RMJ was very attentive to Shilpa while I was distracted by in a familiar face.

Finally, we made it to the Stud for Hot Mess. And we were hot and messy. [Flickr set]

Jim Myers being a hot mess.

The usual selfie.

Hot and messy.
(But not in that order.)

Seattle Bill arrived from Amsterdam that afternoon and was invited to join us, but he crashed in his hotel room and did not revive until morning.

Sunday morning and afternoon I spent with Seattle Bill. As I got off the N at Duboce Park, I remembered talking to other friends and family in the morning who were complaining about the snow.

This is what our Sunday looked like:

I was hot in jeans and short sleeves.

I met him at the Castro Squat & Gobble for brunch, then we did the nose-around thing (an exact repeat of my day before), took a perch at the LookOut (former Metro)

and then went back downtown for the Apple Store and Barney's and Union Square (ditto with the repeat).

After 48 hours of walking all over the City, my feet had had it. Ouch ouch ouch. I needed a serious nap before making it out to another long night of hard dancing at Sundance.

Unfortunately my feets have not recovered and last night's hours of hard dancing (this is my only exercise these days so I try to make it count) destroyed my feet. I've got a reflexology appointment in an hour at U2 Beauty (found via Yelp). I'll let y'all know how it goes.

So, last weekend: Japanese History from Annapolis, Seattle from Amsterdam, and tonight Klaus from Copenhagen.

All the world is coming to my oyster.

Y'all have a good weekend!