A Girl’s Night Out.

First, I apologize for not posting the last couple of days.  I’ve been very bad.  On Tuesday night I went out after work for one beer.  One became two, two became four, then there were shots of bourbon, and a lemon drop, and more beer and the next thing I know it’s 6:30 a.m. and I’v slept passed my subway stop and now have to wait for the train to come to take be back to where I live.  It was almost 7:30 before I got to bed and when I awoke at 2:00 p.m. my head was pounding and the room was spinning.  I did manage to get my butt out of bed, shower and head to work.  The first thing I did when I got there was to tell the managers that I wasn’t feeling well and to put my name on the “give up” list.  Luckily, it worked out and by 5:15 I was on my way home again.  Where I promptly planted myself on the couch and watched TV all night.  It was Project Runway night so I was glad to be home anyway.

As god as my witness though, there can’t be anymore 6:00 a.m. nights.  I’m just too old for this.  It takes me three days to recover.  I also spend way too much money when I’m out.  I tip very well, I also tend to buy drinks for my friends and well it doesn’t take long to blow through a hundred bucks.  So no more late nights.  Period.

I did however, go out with friends tonight for dinner and drinks.  It was a girl’s night out from work.  There were three gay guys, three trannies, and one “real” girl.  I met up with part of the group around 5:30 at Bed Bath and Beyond where they were finishing a day of shopping.  Bradley, one of the gay guys has just moved back to NYC from Orlando.  So he was out all day buying all the things you need when you move into a new apartment.  He’s living with Paul a friend from work so after they finished shopping we head to the Upper East Side so everyone could get ready.   Getting ready consisted of Paul changing shirts, Bradley changing clothes, and C.J. changing from a man to a woman.  The transformation was amazing.  It was also interesting how her personality changed as she got ready.  She went from being this shy, reserved person to this outgoing, fun woman.  Like I said it was amazing.

Our dinner reservations weren’t until 9:00 so we also had a few drinks while everyone was getting ready.  I was drinking my beer of choice, Corona.  At around 8:15 we headed downstairs to find a cab to go to dinner.  It was raining cats and dogs so of course it took forever to get a cab.  We actually needed two because there were six of us.  Eventually we managed to get them and we were on our way.

Our destination was Sea.  It’s a Thai restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  I was worried when we went in because it’s a very trendy place.  We were discussing it on the way there and it seems it’s been used for several movies and TV shows because the architecture is quite interesting and as I said it’s very trendy.  There was a DJ playing music and the place was packed with a very wide mix of people.  It was mostly a young crowd but all the ethnic groups represented — White, Black, Asian, Latino.  As I said, I was worried because upon walking in I assumed it was going to be outrageously expensive.  I was completely wrong.  The most expensive thing on the menu was 14 dollars.   That’s down right cheap in New York.

We were finally seated and immediately got another round of drinks.  They arrived in just a few minutes and we ordered dinner.  I love Thai food although I have to be careful because spicy doesn’t always agree with me.  I was also starving.  I hadn’t eaten all day.  I woke up late and didn’t realize dinner was going to be at 9:00 p.m.  So by the time we got to the restaurant I was famished.  I ended up ordering the calamari and crispy duck salad for appetizers.  The calamari was excellent but didn’t even compare to the salad.  It  was beyond delicious.  For dinner I order the classic pork chop.  It was also very good.  The only thing I wasn’t impressed with was dessert.  I had some sort of fruit roll with butter pecan ice cream.  And although it was good it didn’t impress me the way the rest of the meal had.  When it was all said and done, my entire dinner with two beers, two appetizers, an entree and dessert was only 45 dollars.  That’s unheard of in Manhattan.  I would definitely go back again.

After dinner we all gathered outside to figure out how to get to the gay bar that was nearby.  There was much discussion as to where it was, could we walk, should we cab it, or take the train.  I think if it hadn’t been raining we might of walked.  Of course three of the girls were in heels, so maybe not.  Eventually we decide to take the train and it dropped us off right across the street from the bar.  The bar was called Metropolitan and was a bit of dive.  It had as many New York bars have, very low ceilings and bad lighting.  This place did have two fireplaces though and a fun crowd.  It was a nice mix of people and it was not the usual crowd of twinks and muscle boys you find in Chelsea.  Most of the people at this bar looked like normal run of mill people, which I tend to find more attractive.

I stayed for two beers, people watched, chatted with my new friends and just hung out.  At 12:30 I was done and it was time to leave.  I said my good-byes and I was on my way.  The only thing that sucked about the whole night was that I got to the subway station at 12:45, and I walked into my apartment at 2:20.  An hour and a half to get home on a school night is just way too long.  The other option would have been to take a cab, but it would have cost 50 bucks and I’m not so sure it would have been faster.

The only other thing of note, was that I think Bradley, whose just moved here, was hitting on me throughout the night.  He was very touchy feely all night, and made a point of buying me several beers.  He also made a point to tell me that he looked forward to getting to know me better.  All this is fine except for two points.  The first one, he’ll be starting at my restaurant in a couple of weeks.  He’s transferring from the Orlando store and as soon as his paperwork has been processed he’ll be a waiter there as well.  The second problem is that he smokes.  I have nothing against smokers.  I have lots of friends who are smokers.  But I won’t date a smoker.  Well I might as long as I didn’t have to kiss them.  Which might be a problem.  It’s kind of hard to have sex with someone and not kiss them.  So we’ll see where all this leads in the next few weeks.  And of course, you guys will be the first to know.

Maddog’s Friday Night…

I had dinner with my friend Ryan tonight along with his girlfriend.  I like Ryan a lot.  I don’t think I like the girlfriend.  She’s a bit of a stick in the mud.  But I suppose she balances out his wild and crazy side.  We had Indian food, which I love but don’t eat very often.  In NYC, on 6th Street there are about a million Indian restaurants all in a row.  The biggest question is which one do you choose.  There’s actually an urban legend that there is one big kitchen that provides the food for all of them.  The food was good, at least mine was.  It wasn’t too spicy which I like.  I’m a bit of a pussy when it comes to spicy food.

After dinner we wandered around the East Village and then popped into a little bar to have another beer.  It was quiet and cozy and I think it was called The Scratch Bar.  It was a nice place just to hang out and have a beer.  We sat there and chatted about life, the arts, the state of America and then called it a night.  They were on their way to a birthday party.  They invited me a long but the idea of spending the evening with people I didn’t know didn’t appeal to me.

I then headed for the subway.  I entertained the idea of trying to get into some trouble.  But by the time the subway came I was just tired.  So I hopped on the train and headed home.

Now I should get to bed.  I was up until 7:00 a.m. this morning and a good night’s sleep is sounding wonderful right now.

Super-Secret Bars

Uh, oh!  I missed a night of blogging.  I’m  terribly sorry.  I’ll try to make up a day next week.

Tonight I did something I never do.  I went out with co-workers after work.  It’s really not so much of a big deal except that I don’t like most of them and I end up spending more money than I want.  Tonight was an exception in that I actually liked everyone who came out with us.  What was not an exception was how much money I spent.  I only went out planning to have two beers and then head home.  It’s now 6:40 and clearly that was not the case.

We started out at an Irish pub a few blocks from work.  It’s a nice small little place that a lot of restaurant folk near us frequents.  Unfortunately, because it’s the law they must close at 4:00 a.m.  Oh, no!!!  What are a bunch of alcoholics to do.  That’s not much of a question, since one of the bartenders at our restaurant works at a bar that does a super- secret after hours bar.  To get into this bar you must call ahead to let them know that you are coming, and then when you get there you must know the super-secret knock because the bar looks as if it’s closed and then only if the bartender recognizes you are you allowed in.  At this point it’s just like the old days.  You can smoke and drink and party just like it’s 1999.  It’s nice that they let us drink but I could do without the smoking.  But a girl can’t complain when people are breaking the law to let you party.

Work was good tonight considering it was slow.  We are definitely in the middle of the slow season.  We were hardly on a wait at all, and my cocktail tables were part of the host’s rotation all night, and you know that’s not usually the case.  All the same I made okay money.  It wasn’t great but I’m not complaining.  Of course the highlight of the evening was the lady who was drunk beyond all reason who passed out standing up and collapsed to the floor.  Within minutes, the manager, police, and paramedics were there trying to figure out what to do with her.  Finally they wrapped her up in a chair and carted her off to the ambulance where we think she was taken away.  She was way too old to be as drunk as she was.

And now my friends it’s 6:49 a.m. and I must go to bed.  Have a great weekend.

New Year’s Eve

I spent the day recovering from my night out last night.  I actually didn’t get out of bed until almost 5:00 p.m. tonight.  It was already dark when I pulled myself out from under the blankets and started my day.  I actually didn’t do much starting, I moved from the bed to the sofa, turned on CNN Headline News and slept some more.  Around 7:00 or so I did make some phone calls.  I called my mom, my friend Lou, and my friend Michelle.  My mom was the only one who answered but we didn’t talk long.  She was in the middle of watching the news herself and it annoys me to talk to her when she’s watching TV.  We just sit there in silence not saying anything.

I was still on the couch at 8:00 when my friends Brett and David called.  They wanted to know if we were still on for tonight.  I told them I didn’t care.  They were about to take a nap so I told them to call me back after they woke up and let me know what the deal was.  We hung up and less than five minutes later the phone rang again.  It was Brett again saying that they were definitely going out tonight and to meet them at 10:00.  So much for napping.

I got up and got in the shower and then headed downtown.  First stop:  Food.  I hadn’t eaten all day and I was hungry and I knew that if I was going to drink again tonight I need food in my stomach.  I ended up a little diner in The Village.  Not much to speak of but the burger I had was quite good.  After dinner I headed on over to the bar even though I was a head of schedule.

We were meeting at Marie’s Crisis, the piano bar in The Village.  Maggie the waitress had promised to hold a table for us so we’d have a place to sit.  Sure enough when I got there, she quickly moved to get the people at our table up and out of the way.  I had just gotten my first beer when Joe and Don showed up.  They were the guys we met from Delaware last night.  They are a relatively new couple who are cute as a button.   Soon after Brett and David arrived.

We spent the evening joking around and singing show tunes.  It was a lot of fun.  I did realize though that it’s a bit depressing to be the only one without a boyfriend at midnight.  I’ve made it one of my New Year’s resolutions to at least date more this year.  After midnight, the crowds thinned out and it was a much more fun to be there.  We sang and laughed and made fun of people.  Joe and Don are great at talking to people so there were always new people being introduced at our table.  Around 2:00 I knew that if I was going to work tomorrow I had to get going, so we set off.

Of course we had to stop for food and so before we all made it on to the train we stopped at Papaya Dog on 6th Avenue.  Papaya Dog is this weird place in NYC where you can get a hot dog and papaya juice.  They are open 24 hours a day and the hot dogs are dirt cheap.  I had two hot dogs and a corn dog and then got on the train.  I didn’t have to wait long before the A train arrived and I was on my way.

About 10 minutes into my ride I looked down to the other end of the car and there were two people I worked with.  They saw me and waved and made their way down to me.  We sat and chatted about work and our New Years etc.  We were all glad that we had not had to work tonight.  They eventually got off the train and the woman sitting next to me asked me what restaurant we worked for.  It was a very New York moment.  I told her and then we began chatting and talked all the way to our stop uptown.  She and I both lived at the same stop although she lives at the top of the hill in the nice area as I pointed out to her and I live at the bottom of the hill in the more Hispanic area.

Overall the evening was great.  I’m tired though and ready to get some sleep.  I hope everyone had a great New Year’s Eve.

A Drunken Evening…

Maddog is a little intoxicated again.  Whoops.  And contrary to popular belief– that makes it hard to type.  I had the day off today and although my friend Todd told me to go in and pick up a shift I did not.  I thought that I might, but I slept late and by the time I got out of bed it was way too late to really try and make it downtown for a shift.

So I spent the afternoon on the sofa which was a great place to be.  I had CNN Headline News on which I’ve discovered is great to nap to.  They repeat there stories every 15 minutes and it makes for dull noise in the background while I sleep.  I finally got up around 4:00 and decided it was time to get my day going.  I started by calling my friends Brett and David who are  visiting from San Diego to see what they were up to for the evening.  They didn’t answer but I left a message telling them to call me.

So I jumped in the shower, got dressed and headed downtown.  First stop, trouble.  I have been horny for the past 3 or 4 days and so I decided I would spend the afternoon in a house of ill repute.  I won’t get into details but I had a nice time this afternoon.  While I was there Brett called and we agreed to meet for dinner.  So I quickly finished up my business and was on my way.

I met David and Brett and we went to a fun little Italian place in Chelsea.  It was nice and my food was great although the service was a bit much.  The waiter was clearly a musical theatre actor and was  completely over the top.  I think he annoyed all three of us, although we tipped him well when we were through.  I think for the most part we just wanted him to go a way.

After dinner we went bar hopping.  We started at  The View which is a little place in Chelsea.  Not much was happening there although we stayed for a couple of drinks.  We actually stayed until two boys decided to play pool and that meant we had to move from our seats and so we left.  From there we took a cab down to a bar called Ty’s.  It’s a bit of a bear/leather bar.  The boys there were hot and I had forgotten how much a hairy man in jeans with a beard turned me on.  We were there for at least three or four drinks.  It turned out I knew the bartender and had actually played around with him the last time I saw him years ago.  It was nice seeing him and he was just as cute now as he was then.  After a while, we decided that we had had enough and we moved on.

For some reason, I seem to be in charge of where we were going next, so I led the way to Marie’s Crisis.  It’s a piano bar that happens to be my favorite bar in the city.  Everyone stands around and sings show tunes at the top of their lungs while drinking.  What’s not to like.   Brett loved the bar.  And David, who is friendly with everyone quickly met up with two boys from Delaware.  We stayed there through last call and then we were on our way.

The two boys from Delaware made such a name for themselves there that we actually have tables being held for us tomorrow night, if we want them.  So I think we are going to spend New Year’s Eve at Marie’s Crisis drinking, singing show tunes having fun.  I’ll let you know how it is.

How are you guys spending New Year’s Eve?

Day Forty-Eight: Oklahoma

This is it. It’s over and done. I have one more night to spend in the dorm and my lovely twin bed. One more night of drunken revelry. And then it’s no more. Tomorrow I load my two VERY large suitcases into my friend Pete’s car and we leave the lovely state of Oklahoma. Can this really be true? Have seven weeks passed so quickly and now my wonderful time is done? Who would have believed it.

I thank all of you for coming on this little journey with me. We’ve had our ups and downs but through it all we prevailed. And before you know it, it will be time for us to do it again.

Next year’s season has been announced. And then re-announced. And then announced again. Right now it stands at “Into the Woods”, “Candide” and “Pirates of Penzance”. Two days ago instead of “Candide” we were doing “The Boyfriend.” Who knows what it will end up being. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime I just need to find work to tide me over till next year’s summer season.

Not much else to report today. I drove 2 hours each way to deliver costumes back to the rental place. It wasn’t much fun but wasn’t too bad. I was able to catch up on some phone calls and do some singing in the car. I was there and back in about 5 hours. After that I went by my favorite little theatre to see if I could get into any trouble, but there was none to be had. I thought maybe one or two boys would like to send me off with a smile but it was not to be. Then it was back to the dorm to freshen up for dinner. The director wanted us to have dinner before I left so said “of course.” I did tell him it would need to be cheap since I have about 100 dollars to get me home. I have my past four paychecks sitting in my computer bag. So I have money. Just not on me. He agreed to pay for dinner and I didn’t argue. We went to the little restaurant we had gone to before because it had a patio and he could take his dog which has been at the sitter since the summer began. It was a very nice evening. We returned back to the dorm to find it deserted so we watched TV for about an hour. Slowly the crew started returning and suddenly the place was a madhouse. There was an insane amount of energy abounding. Everyone was joking and in a good mood. The one girl on the tech crew, the Indian girl I mention a few posts ago was supposed to leave today to fly back to NYC, but her flight was cancelled. So she was back and our group was complete. We had several beers watched some more TV and then headed over to our redneck bar to do one last shot. It ended up being Jagermeister. I hate licorice but I was told I had to do one. About ten minutes later I was done. The bar was smoky and loud and I was tired. A couple of us wandered back over to the dorm to find that Hello Dolly was being watched in the lobby. Being absolutely the gay man that I am, I plopped myself down in front of the TV and watched until they sang the show’s title number.

Now I am here getting ready for bed. Tomorrow morning I have to pack, clean my room and load the car. We are supposed to be on our way at 11:00 is tomorrow. But we have a number of things to do before we leave, like get the oil changed and go the bank. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not more like 1:00 or 2:00 before we hit the road. It’s about 12 hours to Kentucky where we are staying tomorrow night. I don’t know if I mentioned it yesterday but we are driving to my mom’s house tomorrow. That way I get to see her, even if it’s only for 12 seconds and we save money on the hotel. It’s a win/win situation. From there we drive north into Ohio and then across into NYC. When it’s all said and done it’s a 24 hour drive. For about 10 minutes today I was regretting not flying home. I’d be there by 9:00 tomorrow night, snuggled into my queen sized bed. Yum.

So once again thanks for joining me on my journey. Stay tuned because next week I go to Maine for a month.

Day Forty-One: Oklahoma

It’s the end of another fun-filled day here in Oklahoma.  What can I say.  The excitement never stops in the land of tornadoes.  We’ve actually had storms here all afternoon.  Nothing too severe but lots of lightening and rain.  It ruined a perfectly good pool party that was happening at the artistic director’s apartment today.

Which is how the day started.  My alarm went off at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon.  I snoozed it for about 30 minutes and then finally changed it to 4:00 p.m.  This allowed me to sleep two more hours and kept my alarm from annoying anyone on my hall.  At 4:00 I finally dragged my ass out of bed and down to the shower.  When I walked through the door I met my assistant ME (Master Electrician, for anyone new to the blog).

I haven’t talked about her much but I LOVE her to death.  She’s amazing at her job and is kind and sweet.  She’s from New York City and I don’t think has ever spent much time out of the city.  Her dad is a cab driver and her mom was a stay at home mom until the assistant ME started college.  She only learned to drive last summer and is terrified of actually being behind the wheel.  She’s also absolutely beautiful and doesn’t seem to know it.  Every straight guy on the show is after her and she plays it off as me being silly when I point it out to her.  She is of Indian descent.  “Indian with the dot, not Indian with the feather.”  Don’t yell at me, this is how she describes herself.  Her parents moved here about 30 years ago so she is first generation.  She has a great sense of humor and disposition which causes her to be teased endlessly.  In fact the new phase of teasing talks about her “Curse of the the Dot”.  It’s this power that’s caused her to crash two light boards this summer and create havoc in another couple of situations.  We also tease her about the crush she has on Tim the carpenter.  He is completely infatuated with her, but he has a girlfriend so neither of them will act on it.  She actually spent the night at his house three times last week.  They were watching movies and fell asleep.  She still doesn’t know why he hasn’t made a move yet.  I’ve told her to get a little tipsy and make her move.  That way she can blame it on the alcohol if she has to.  I’m actually chatting on-line with her as I write this.  And I’m begging her to come back next year.  I’d kill for her to be on my crew again next year.

Anyway, she had a towel wrapped around her and was getting into the shower as I entered the bathroom.  We ended up chatting in different stalls while we showered.  She told me later thta she was pretending I was saying “dirty” things to her while she touched herself in the shower.   I was cracking up when she told me this.   After the shower most of the crew met in the lobby to head over the artistic director’s house.  The party had started at 2:00 and it was almost 5:00 when we left.  Whoops.  What can I say.  If it weren’t for the free food I think most of the crew would have skipped it.  We got there and the storm was on the way.  The wind was starting to blow things around and everyone was eating.  The food was quite good.  It was a catered party, with tons of Mexican food.  So we all sat around eating fajitas and chatting.  About 45 minutes or so after we got there it started to rain so we all went inside.  By this time it was about 6:15.  We agreed to stay until 6:3o and then head out.

We got back to the house around 7:00 and decided to go see a movie.  There’s a great dollar movie house in town which fits in all of our budgets.  We looked up the movies and decided on 28 Weeks Later which started at 10:00.  We agreed to meet in the lobby at 9:00 and we all went our separate ways.  I got a phone call and headed upstairs.  It was a friend of mine wanting to know if I would be interested in working on a show in New York in August.  It doesn’t pay anything, but there’s a good chance it will move on to a larger production and I would go with it.  It would also be the chance to work with a lot of people from school that I really like.  We ended the call and I played around on the computer for abit and then went down to meet for the movie.

I thought the movie was great.  Way too violent for my tastes but I knew that going into it.  The first one 28 Days Later was amazing so I was expecting this one to not be as good.  It wasn’t but I still recommend it if you like Zombies and action.   After the movie we came back to the dorm and watched the Day After Tomorrow.  You just got a love a disaster movie.  I love seeing them.  Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, Twister….they are wonderful.

And now it’s bedtime.

Before we go to bed, some pictures from last nights fun and excitement.

We went to a bar called Ed’s Hurricane Lounge.  As you can see it was nothing but classy.  There were 100’s of bras hanging from the ceiling.  And pictures of half naked girls on the walls.

The reason we went there is because it’s walking distance from the dorm and the drinks are cheap.  You can also get a drink called a “prairie fire” which is tequila and Tabasco mixed.  It’s hot and spicy and the crew loves them.  They were drinking them like water.  To thank them for all the hard work they’ve been doing I bought a round.  Here’s the a picture just before they slammed them.

My favorite thing about the bar was the video game that was basically porn.  You did things to make the puzzle disappear and then you could see naked women.  There was a man playing it when we went in and I was amazed that someone was looking at fully nudity in public.  Hmmm.  After he left, I made my friend Pete play it so I could take pictures.  I have some of the women but I was afraid they wouldn’t be safe for work.  Then we discovered there were men on the machine was well.  As you can see Pete is doing pretty well.  Only problem is the men weren’t completely naked.  How fair is that?

We went back to the dorm to drink some more after the bar closed.  You know it’s getting bad when you are playing drinking games with 20 year olds.  I played one round at that was the end of my drinking.

The drinking led to0 much discussion of the cleavage in the room last night.  I took a few pictures of document it.  No one seemed to mind and they were all very aware.

When a gay man starts looking at tits it’s time to call it a  night.  And so I went to bed.  Only one more week to go.