fuzzygruf | Weekend of dancing

I got home for lunch on Friday about 12:30pm, and Steve arrived shortly thereafter. He couldn't find parking right away due to street cleaning, so we drove over to park on Hartford and eat lunch at the Sausage factory. Finished lunch, drove home and found a spot not too far away near Jim Cunningham's. I had drafted an Evite for the birthday party, and we hastily added names and emails and got it sent before leaving for Guerneville a bit after 2pm. I'm sure we probably forgot a few people.

Had some slow traffic up until San Rafael, but it was a beautiful day. We got off at Rohnert Park and took 116 to Guerneville. We arrived and checked into the Triple R around 4:30pm. We sat at the poolside bar and had a beer while chatting with Richard and Fabian and their respective dogs. Richard is going to be 77 on his next birthday. I would have guess him to be in his early to mid 60's. He's in great shape. Sitting there, some cute guy by the pool came up and told me that I work near him. I guess he works a block over, but oblivious me has never noticed him. Hopefully I'll recognize Donny-with-the-scorpion-tattoo-on-his-calf downtown sometime.

We registered around 6pm, being one of the first to do so. Then we went to dinner. We had some Tonkatsu that was not very good. Pretty much what I would expect for a dive up there. We dropped of our t-shirts (hideous purple that a pink in the design -- quite lesbian in appearance) and relaxed a bit before heading over to the trail-in dance. There were probably 5-6 squares dancing most of the evening. Some straight couple was there with their daughter Danielle, who was probably in her late teens. I danced with her once. She was pretty good, although some of the gay styling confused her for a bit. She caught on quickly, though. I danced with her father as well. He was lots of fun.

Jet Roberts was one of the callers. I enjoy his calling. He's quite fast. His fiancee, Sylvia, was there. She's from Sweden. Jet is 40 and she's 27. After dancing, Steve and I showered and changed and stopped at The Eagle. Maybe 7-8 guys there. After one beer we crossed the street to the Rainbow Cattle Co. Jet & Sylvia were there. I love straight men who embrace gays. Too cool. We stayed out until around 2am.

I got around 7:45am and made coffee. Steve's request, of course. I got ready and headed over for 9am dancing. Jet arrived, not looking too hungover from all the Red Bull & Vodkas he had thrown down the night before. He taught us Vertical Tag and Vertical Half Tag. It was fun to learn new stuff. Steve showed up a bit before 10am. We danced until around 10:30 or so. We then went back to Triple R and got into swim trunks. Relaxed by the pool for awhile and read. We got a couple hamburgers at their poolside BBQ. Around 1:30pm we went back for more dancing. Steve left around 4pm for a nap, and I continued until around 4:30pm. You quickly learned whom to avoid having in your square, although you often can't avoid it. Some people just break down every square ALL the time.

I came back to Triple R and relaxed by the pool for a bit while Steve was taking his nap. We got ready and headed over to the catered dinner around 6pm. They messed up, and the caterers thought dinner was to be at 6:30pm. Grrrrr. We had to wait outside. We finally got in and took a table with Joe and Jack. Joe met Jack at a Seattle fly-in. They seemed to enjoy each company pretty well over the weekend. They looked good together, anyhow. Turns out that Steve had met Jack during a FCD fly-in in March 2002. When Steve went later to Bear Thaw, he hooked up with him. I had been talking to Jack for awhile on Friday night before Steve came over. It took me awhile to realize their connection. I giggled for awhile at the ever-smallness of the gay community. There has got to be only two degrees of separation at most between any gay man. We were the only 4 at our dinner table. They called table numbers out of a hat for order to be served. We were the very last one. They had run out of potatoes, bread, green beans and salad by the time we got there. We did get a bigger slab of prime rib than most people, though. More food arrived later, and Joe played the gracious waiter, bringing us those items. He's such a sweet guy.

The evening dance was good, but by 11pm I was beat. Steve had to get up early to leave for his Eck service in Pleasanton, so we just crashed. I got up around 7am on Sunday and made Steve coffee. I packed one bag and put it and my coat in Steve's trunk. He got ready and left around 8am. I relaxed and watched some of the Bay to Breakers Race on tv. Around 9am I checked out and headed over to the continental breakfast. After awhile, Michael Levy called a couple of tips. Anne Uebelacker showed up and we danced until nearly 12:30pm. There were two squares for most of the morning. At one point, Jack and I were partners, and she had us "move on" to the other square. They had been breaking down most of the time, so it seemed we were sent there to help out, which we did. Jack mentioned that later to me. It feels good to be recognized as a good dancer. I made plenty of mistakes over the weekend, but everyone makes some. Too bad that some people make them ALL them time. I did get in some good floor time.

Joe and Jack gave me a ride home. They dropped me off around 3pm. Steve came up around 4:30pm and we walked to Castro Street for a couple slices of pizza. Saw Kevin Owens on the way back. He said hi to me, but was busy talking to some shirtless guy with big, hairy pecs. Woof.

We went to the Lone Star and waited in line for about 20 minutes or so. We spent a couple hours there. Several people said they'd be coming to the birthday party. We ran into Joe, whom I had forgotten to invite. He's such a good conversationalist. Added him to the invite list. We saw Bryan for a bit. His partner was diagnosed with terminal cancer this week. Bryan was taking it pretty hard, which would be expected. Poor guy. Steve turns out to be pretty good in these situations. None of this trademark inappropriate puns. I also got to see John, and he said he's not sure if he'll be able to come to the party or not. Hope so. If not, maybe he can make it up to me with a belated birthday fuck. :-P

We came home and watched one episode of the Simpsons and then watched Six Feet Under. I was tired from all the dancing and the sun this weekend and went to bed at 10pm. Steve came to bed. He got up later and threw up. He said it was just acid reflux. Poor thing.

I woke up without the alarm around 6am. I brushed my teeth, shaved, then checked my email. The party guest list is shaping up pretty well. Around 6:45am, Steve came downstairs. I thought he wanted to check his email. Or be with me. No. He just wanted to know if I'd make him coffee. LOL. He's such a puppy sometimes. I can see 10 years from now and me telling him to make his own damned coffee. Did I say years? Maybe days, honey. :-)

I got into work around 8am. Another beautiful day. Seemed like fewer commuters than normal. The early birds on my side of the floor had left the lights off since we have sufficient morning sun. I enjoy working that way. It was another hour before some "lights on" person showed up.

Arthur called this morning. He's going away for a couple days and needs me to water the plants. He reminded me that my referral phone number was still wrong, so I called up this morning and fixed that. He also said that the new tenants are moving in on the 30th. Ouch. That's our birthday. I did let him know about the party and to inform the new tenants that we'd be having one. Don't want to freak them out on their first day. Oh well. Guess that'll put us in a good position as alpha tenants. Hope they're cool.

Enough blathering. Did I forget you on the Evite list?