Letter Never Sent

This is my landlord and next door neighbor, Joyce, and me. She is so cool except she charges me money to live here. Ah well.

I had a nice past coupla days. I was either too busy, too tired, or too unfocused to write anything, so I’ll try now.

Wednesday night I went out and met James Stewart and his (secret girlfriend) roommate Melissa and some waiter friends of his. One thing about hanging out with people who wait tables is they sometimes feel it necessary to moralize about how hard it is to be a waiter and how waiters/waitresses depend on their tips to live. I swear I’ve heard the same conversation at least twenty times. Then you get to hear about the biggest tips or how some people don’t tip at all. I agree that people should tip and tip well for good service, however why do waiters/waitresses feel it necessary to evangelize? They seem to develop an us versus them mentality with people who are not wait staff and I think it might annoy them that no one else really cares about the issue at all or even really thinks about what its like to wait tables. I don’t hear a lot of busboys complaining, for example. It might be that most wait staff are just very intelligent and independent people. Who knows.

The next day I woke up bleary eyed and almost forgot I had made a lunch date with Thu Suong, one of my friends from high school, until I checked my phone and saw the missed call from her. We went out to lunch dowtown at Mekong River and talked about weighty matters, life, meaning, what’s important, why it’s hard to see some people you knew when you were young if they’re not making progress in their lives. I don’t mean this financially necessarily, but more personally. This is not to suggest that I am making such great progress in my life only that I like to surround myself with dynamic, sensitive and thoughtful people so I can benefit from the insights and talents that different people bring to bear.

On Friday, the final day of my short short weekend, Amy dropped me off on campus and I met Susan at her office for lunch. It was really nice to chat with her although sometimes in conversation and trying to offer advice I think I come off as a little too dismissive of her feelings. The thing is, I’m very much about solving things and I think I forget that often people just want to talk and have someone care. It’s hard for me to remember that. I always have to remind myself of it.

After recuperating with a little sitting down and laying around I coaxed Phillip, Breen, and Amy into coming swimming down at Barton Springs pool which is right down the street from me now. It was chilly at first, but it’s really the perfect temperature (sixty eight degrees year round) once you’ve been in for a while. I always hate how in normal pools it feels cool at first but then after a while feels really warm and cloying with that warm, noxious clorinated smell. I had a really nice time paddling around and ogling the half naked people there. It made me realize that I need to get more exercise. There are some in shape people at the pool. It’s a harsh reality. (Here’s my ghostly form swimming)

After swimming I felt really mellow and warm from the sun and water. I danced around the house listening to The Cure on the record player. Everyone else found this amusing due to my temporary lack of shame. Later, Amy and I met some of her friends at this place where Electric Lounge used to be before it closed down. For some reason gay men love Amy. We walked down to Shoal Creek Saloon on the suggestion of Erik and David for a GQB (Guerrilla Queer Bar) gathering. The idea is to get a bunch of gay men to just show up at a random bar and basically take over. It was a lot of fun and funny to see people looking around confused as guys hugged or sat in each other’s laps. A few guys tried to hit on me probably because they could tell I’m straight or maybe because I’m tall and they could tell how cool I am. I’m guessing the latter of course.

We had some good political discussions and since most gays I know of are left-leaning (with the exception of the Log Cabin Republicans) everyone was roughly in agreement. It turns out Erik is heavily involved in Howard Dean’s bid for the presidency. I haven’t seen him too much on television, but what I’ve seen I liked and agreed with for the most part. I predict there will be some pathetic Democrat straw man set up to go against Bush. Some cog who doesn’t have the backbone to criticize this corrupt idiot fascist we have embedded in the presidency. This can be done on the issues and not just on his character flaws.

To cap off the evening we all walked several blocks down to Red Fez where we had yet more drinks and everyone took turns dancing with Amy. I would have stayed longer, but I had to be at work at 8 AM.

So, Amy gets accepted to yet another law school. This time the dean of admissions calls her on the phone personally. Read about it all here. I’m so proud. The best part is it’s a top tier school and happens to be in Bloomington, Indiana where they filmed ‘Breaking Away’!