Birthday weekend

Hey all,

Still playing catch up. I still want to talk about the date I had on Tuesday night, but not quite yet. Plus, the guy hasn't been the most communicative since then, so I'm not really sure where it's going. Hopefully by the time I write about it I'll have a better idea, haha.

A few days after I returned from Chicago, it was my birthday. I wondered whether Ben would return the favor and email me. Well, he did wish me happy birthday, but only via a post on my Facebook wall (just like everyone else). Shows where I stand, I guess. Talk about the Gotye treatment ("Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing . . .") Oh well. I least he did something.

The evening of my birthday I got together some friends for a fairly impromptu dinner. The people that could make it were an eclectic mix, which was interesting. Nina and her boyfriend came, as well as a married couple and their baby, and another guitar playing friend (who I had not seen in a long time and hence had not yet come out to). It's neat to see friends who haven't met before interact.

I spent my birthday weekend up in Los Angeles. First I had lunch with someone from the past . . . Ben's roommate. He had reached out via Facebook when he saw I'd be up in LA. It was nice seeing him again. He was one of two people I was most sad about losing from my life (not counting the obvious of course). We mostly avoided talking about the elephant in the room, though we did a little bit. He said "Ben says 'Hi.'" I said, "I say 'Hi.'" Later on when the subject of the break up came up he acknowledged that he likes us both very much, and just feels we're looking for different things. Whatever that means. I refrained from talking about Ben himself and just mentioned briefly how I had been hurt by being blindsided. His roommate said that he felt Ben had done what he did to try to preserve my feelings, but unfortunately in the end it made things worse. I agreed. After all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

My next plan was a hike in Runyon Canyon. Another chance to "reclaim" a locale, since the only other time I'd been there had been with Ben (and his roommate). I invited the roommate to join, which he did. Also hiking were Roger, El Genio, Philip, Rick, and Tom. Philip, Rick, and Tom got stuck in traffic and were quite late, so the other four of us ended up walking all the way to the bottom and then back up to meet them. It was a fun time though, and the weather was great for it. Overcast, cool, and even a little drizzly. The hike ended on a little bit of a sour note though, as Ben's roommate returned my shirt to me. I hadn't even missed it during the past six months. Nice of Ben to tell me he still had it! Oh wait. I see he's still practicing those impeccable communication skills.

Overall meeting with Ben's roommate was positive, though. I'm glad that I didn't lose all of my new friends. I don't want to hang with him too often, but it'll be nice to catch up every once in a while.

After that, Roger, Philip, Rick and I went up to North Hollywood and met up with Lance, Nina, and her boyfriend for dinner. It was great seeing so many of my friends at once. Also great seeing Lance. He's put me through the emotional wringer in the past but I still have a soft spot for him.

We ended the night in a bar, after Lance and Nina's boyfriend had to leave. As we walked in I spotted a cute guy sitting alone at the bar. Nina spotted him too. Now, Nina has had, in the not so distant past, a very abysmal gaydar. She didn't even realize gay stereotypes existed until relatively recently. Her boyfriend has been filling her in. Well, she decided to use her newfound skills and identified the guy at the bar as a potential for me. Now to be fair, he set my gaydar off too. Long story short, she buys the guy two drinks in succession. At first I didn't know what was going on, but decided to use it to strike up conversation with the guy. Then I realized Nina's game. Unfortunately, so did the guy. Not before commenting on how cute the girl was who kept buying him drinks! The gig was up when he said, "It's almost like she's trying to set US up . . ." I admitted sheepishly, "That may just be her intention . . ." He was a good sport about it. Yep, he was straight. But he often gets mistaken for gay. In fact, he said even his mother thought he was gay growing up. Even to the point of making sure he had plenty of positive gay role models in his life! He said it made it almost a little awkward the first time he brought a girl home! Almost like he had to come out as straight! I didn't mind the dead end, I just enjoy meeting people and making new friends. The guy even offered to help set me up with any other guy I found in the bar, haha. Unfortunately after I went to check on my friends my would-be wingman left without saying good-bye. Oh well, it's a good story.

By this time several people in the group were getting tired and Philip, Rick, Nina, and Tom (who were all carpooling) had a long drive. So we left. I later found out that an inebriated Nina (who sorta swings both ways) and Rick decided to visit a strip club. Tom, who has quite the strict moral code, was adamantly against it, while Philip just wanted to go with the flow and not have drama. Bottom line, Tom was pretty much forced to go and Rick acted like a jerk to him. Tom's now extremely pissed at Rick. They've already had a pretty rocky friendship, since Rick doesn't particularly like Tom's personality and has basically cut him off. I'm disappointed in Rick's behavior. He's one of my best friends. I figure I'll have to discuss this with him next time I see him.

My last day in LA was full of social activity. First up was the meet up with the guy who had texted me in Chicago about being dumped. I chatted with him for a while, offering him as much advice as I could and also just generally getting to know him. He's a really sweet, cute guy. Not sure I'm interested in anything more than friendship, but I do want to get to know him better. We've chatted on Facebook several times since. I feel very sympathetic for him, since he's going through what I went through six months ago. Us heartbroken folks gotta stick together!

In the afternoon I went on a lunch date with a new guy from the dating site. He was really fun. We chatted a lot about movies and traveling. He lives quite far from me and is currently unemployed and possibly on the verge of a move, so I'm not sure about anything more than friendship. But once again, I'd definitely like to get to know him better.

The evening meet up was with someone I've met before. A med student who I went on a lunch date with previously. He's a super nice guy, and has very interesting stories. He's nearing the end of med school and plans to enter a specialty that will likely take him far from California for the entirety of his career, so once again not much relationship potential there.

Well hey, at least I'm accumulating friends! Ha ha.