Not Hiding; Seeking

Sunday afternoon I met F for pho at Pho14 on Park Road. Pho14 is pho heaven. I had the vegetarian pho; F had meatballs. The best thing about meeting over pho is that since it takes time to consume and enjoy, we indulged in plenty of conversation to catch up.

Afterwards we went down to the National Portrait Gallery to take in the Hide/Seek exhibit. The exhibits impressed me greatly. The curators managed to pull together artwork from almost every major lesbian and gay artist in US history. The works include art from Eakins, Wood, Johns, O'Keefe, Mapplethorpe, Warhol, Goldin, Haring, etc. The art is arranged by periods, but they flow seamlessly from one to the other. The exhibit hall was crowded, and not all of the viewers were LGBT folks (although many were; this might well be the best place in DC to meet gay men, or at least intelligent gay men, for the time being). Most of all, seeing this exhibition reintroduced me to the thrill of being gay that I felt during the first few years after I came out. During that time I devoured gay art and literature like a hungry man who's just come upon a feast. The artwork I saw Sunday reminded me of that initial rush, and brought me back to a place of not only pride, but connection and identity. I highly recommend seeing this exhibition; I intend to see it again.

From there F and I walked to get coffee near Metro Center, then made our way to the "Borderstan" area to Local 16, where the Pocket Gays group were hosting a "Spanksgiving" party on the roof deck. Seeing my old friend D and his partner M made me very happy, since I had not had an opportunity to hang out with him for some time. Also, I got to meet some more of D's friends. D has the most interesting circle of friends of anyone I know, and I was particularly gratified to make the acquaintance of Z, who is smart, affable and attractive (rarely are all three in one person, right?). After a good evening of chatting with old and new friends, F and I left, and I made my way home to supper and The Walking Dead. Perhaps due to the full and fun day, I had no zombie nightmares Sunday night.

Now Some Good Stuff

And now for the good news:

1. Friday night I did a bourgeois thing and went to see Margaret Cho. I laughed so hard I was sore the next morning. The woman still has it, and she was unafraid to share it.

2. Saturday night I had a nice, long chat with my West Coast friend James. We made preliminary plans to attend Burning Man 2012. This gives me something to plan for.

3. Sunday was a nice, quiet Samhain at home with Manuel. I made colcannon, which is excellent.

4. Speaking of Sunday, The Walking Dead premiered Sunday night, and it was really, really good. Intense.

5. On Monday I traded in a bag full of books at a used bookstore, and got a ton of store credit. I'm encouraged to take more—my library is going to go through a shift in focus over the next several months.

6. Speaking of books, on Monday I picked up the new novel The Instructions by Adam Levin. So far it is really, really good—and at 1030 pages, it had better be.

7. Yesterday Mom got through her third surgery of 2010 just fine, and I had a fun, brief chat with her while she was high on morphine yesterday evening.

My Friends Model Joy, My Cat Models Stoicism

The absolute highlight of my weekend was Saturday afternoon when I got to spend a few minutes catching up with Alejo and Christian at the 17th Street Festival. It was heartwarming to see how they've thrived and made for themselves a beautiful extensive family, and have learned to share their multiple talents (music, web design, etc.) with other people. I'm glad to see my 'brothers and sisters' doing well.

I also got to see Dennis and Roy at the festival, and share a few minutes with each of them. It was fun and fulfilling.

However, I felt misanthropic for most of the weekend, and I didn't do much other socializing. Instead I watched tv, read a lot, studied a little Coptic and continued my ongoing war with the bedbugs.

This latter has been going on for a month now, and while they haven't been as bad lately as they were at first, there has been a resurgence. I now know I'm going to have to be even more aggressive on a nightly basis. As for pobre Manuel*, he has now had to endure two baths. And he has been an absolute prince about it. Other cats I've known have screamed bloody murder while being bathed. Manuel stoically endures the procedure, and merely tries to get out of the water as quickly as possible.

My main concern is that I don't poison either he or myself in my attempt to get rid of the little biters. Of course, when I saw the story this morning about the young man surviving the shark attack at Virginia Beach, I was grateful I only have bedbugs, and not bedsharks.

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*As a rule, bedbugs hate pets because they don't like wading through all the fur, and Manuel is very furry. Still I wanted to take precautions that he not be a carrier. He's been less distressed about the situation than I have. A model of stoicism.

Autumn Anticipation and Summer Recap

For those of us on the east coast of the US, autumn technically begins at 11:09 pm this evening. (The equinox is at 0309 hours UT on September 23; eastern daylight time is UT minus four hours, putting the equinox at 11:09 pm September 22.) I look forward to the fall every year. I look better in fall clothes. I like the 'settling down' feeling everything gets. And midway through the fall is my favorite holiday, Halloween-Samhain. I usually take a few days off around that time and simply chill out.

This summer has been tumultuous. Some of the changes have been good, some have been bad, and some I will feel the implications of for years.

At the beginning of the summer I hung out with few friends. I have begun to do my part to repair some damaged relationships and not only get out of my apartment more, but also get out to actually meet other people. I enter the fall on an improving trend in socializing.

We started the summer frantically trying to figure out what was wrong with Mom's health, and we're ending it with her in rehab recovering from heart valve replacement surgery. In the middle of the summer (literally the middle, since I spent Lammas there) I went to Alabama to visit with my parents for a week. I gained some insights into my family's dynamics, and a new appraisal of my father.

Over the course of the summer I realized I am agnostic, and I left off all pretensions of faith. I simply put aside any attempt at active belief or disbelief, and realized that not only will I not receive answers by divine revelation or insights, but also that I have far more responsibility for my life than I am comfortable with. I reckon I will do well to become accustomed to the discomfort.

One giant honking FAIL this summer: I dropped the ball on initiating an exercise regimen, and on getting my weight down. Surely these are the big projects of the fall.

Finally, I like to note one ten-second moment of awesome that occurred this summer: as I was walking home from the Metro station one weekday evening, I was passed by a runner, a tattooed Asian male, a total mesomorph, zipping past almost silently in his Vibram Five-Fingers footwear. In a word, he encapsulated the athletic and graceful potential of the season. Beautiful.

Good Friends, Good Food and Good Beer

Yesterday I enjoyed an excellent evening, meeting F at Meridian Pint in Columbia Heights for dinner. The beer selection was superb, and the food truly delicious. In most restaurants, there is one or two token vegetarian dishes so the token vegetarian can have a night out with his more omnivorous friends. Otherwise, you'll find a restaurant wholly dedicated to veganism. Meridian Pint, on the otherhand, had a selection of well-made vegan dishes as well as food for the omnivores. And Monday evenings feature the "Meatless Monday" specials. So F and I split an appetizer of tempura with a pungent sauce (it had anise seeds floating in it – yum!). He had chicken with mashed potatoes, and I had the seitan and vegetable kabobs over couscous.

I enjoyed catching up with F. We hadn't visited with each other since the party he hosted on his birthday. That was an epic party, but there were so many guests he and I really didn't get to visit with each other then. Last night I fear I gave him an earful about work worries, family worries and existential worries. Thankfully, F is an exemplary listener.

Meridian Pint was booming for a monday night, so I have high hopes for their continued success. There were many people there at a rally for our current mayor, but most of them were downstairs. The bulk of the people upstairs were there to hang out or to have some quality food. I can't wait to go back and try some of their other dishes. The vegan three bean quesadillas sound especially intriguing.

While we were sitting there, our mutual friend S walked past the window and waved at us; he was taking his dog out for walkies. After dinner we crossed the street to the dog park and had a nice conversation with S and his dog. The air was cool and comfortable after all the heat and humidity we've had lately. Truly an enjoyable evening.