Here We Go Again

February 9, 2002 Here We Go Again The business and the new apartment is going to provide many beneficial changes in our life. With the business, we will be able to contract for the cheaper mobile services; so we will each have a cell phone. The business will also pay for DSL Internet services, so our Internet service will not be limited, and our phone line will not ring busy when we are surfing the web. The apartment has a phone with a built in answering machine, which hopefully is working well. Once this is in place, we are not going to make thousands of calls to the others to arrange our social calendar. We will be accessible through some technological means. Thinking that we would be meeting Dawn for lunch at 1:00, we went shopping for some office supplies to organize the hundreds of papers we have accumulated for leases, businesses licenses, permits, and other stuff. Unfortunately, the stores here are closed on Saturday as well as Sunday with the exception of the malls. This is still something that is difficult for me to adjust to since I am used to being able to shop any day of the week. Some grocery stores are open until 1:00 pm and the larger books stores are open until 3:00, then it is slim pickings. It was frustrating to see all of the supplies that I had wanted in the store window longing to come home with me, but knowing they would still be orphaned until Monday. It was a heart-wrenching scene. To fill in our time before calling Dawn, we went to a bookstore that surprisingly had a large selection of TESOL books. We were able to while away our time there without a problem. Calling Dawn to confirm lunch was another exercise in frustration. She had to do things with her boss, so she could not make it. Ron and I found a cheap Chinese restaurant and had a light lunch by ourselves. We filled the day with various activities and planning for our move. Then the phone rounds started again. Dawn could not do anything. She had work commitments. Damon was unsure if he would be worn out from his continuing conference. His office was hosting it hence; he and his assistant were the organizers and the hosts. Fernando did not want to do anything until late. We decided we would go to the movies alone and meet Fernando later. Ron had found a mass in English served by a Jesuit priest, so he went to that. We missed the last Vanilla Sky again, so went to Don’t Say A Word. Same theme/different actors, it was a boring movie. When we got home, Fernando was waiting for us to take us to a local gay bar. The bar was downstairs under an art gallery. A German and Hungarian own it. The walls are all brick that are shaped in an arc as it approaches the ceiling. The chairs are aluminum and there is one long bench that runs the length of the room in aluminum also and is situated opposite the bar. It is immaculately clean, nicely lighted and the music was in a range that you could carry on a conversation. The adjoining room was a small dance floor with a little jail cell type enclosure in the back that looked like Go-Go cages of years ago. Fernando explained that when some of the patrons drank too much, they get in there to dance. We were not there long before Fernando had at least ten different people come to say hello and he introduced us to all of them. It did not do a bit of good, since only one spoke English. He is a Presbyterian minister student and works with HIV clients, so he is interested in speaking with me about my work experience. When he found out that Ron was a former priest, he was very interested in getting together again to talk. Not far into the evening, a very young man started doing the dance of Salome and the Seven Veils by himself on the dance floor. After an hour of non-stop dancing, he was joined by another twinkie and they performed live it was a paid production. The only thing missing were the curtain calls. We appreciated their energy levels for the extended performances and we all wondered if we could have matched it in our own youth. The bars have no restriction on what time they have to close. This bar generally stays open until 6:00 am, but shorter or longer depending on business. By 1:30 am, we old guys were ready to leave, but Fernando was not. We said we would walk home and did. The weather was mild and it was long, but pleasant walk. If we were in the new apartment, it would have been ten minutes away.

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