Eet

It's like forgetting the words to your favorite song
You can't believe it
You were always singing along
It was so easy and the words so sweet
You can't remember
You try to feel the beat

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet, eet, eet, eet
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeteeet, eet, eet, eet

You spent half of your life trying to fall behind
You're using your headphones to drown out your mind
It was so easy, and the words so sweet
You can't remember
You try to move your feet
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet, eet, eet, eet
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeteeet, eet, eet, eet

Someone's deciding whether or not to steal
He opens the window just to feel the chill
He hears that outside a small boy just starting to cry
'Cause it's his turn but his brother won't let him try

It's like forgetting the words to your favorite song
You can't believe it
You were always singing along
It was so easy and the words so sweet
You can't remember
You try to move your feet

It was so easy and the words so sweet
You can't remember, you try to feel the beat

This is my life, and I will not apologize for the person I was, the person I am, or the person I will be. I've decided this on the night when the moonburn lit my skin alive. The memory carries on within me day to day. There is always something to look forward to whether it rains or shines. My heart's hope is a sunflower among that rich spring field. I dance through my dreams to sail steam ahead into my friends' arms. You and I are brothers, something profound and beautiful in the space of infinity. We all hold hands in a vast circle. Honey and warmth come to mind. Is this ItaFranpain or the city of fireflies? The laughter makes colors brighter. You know what the secret is? It's unconditional; it's wonderful; it's a beat. Even though it may be a cliche, I declare that the answer is love.

~A

Text Messages

Last week's Monday (not to be confused with this past Monday) was cold and rainy. I wasn't even feeling well but luckily I was meeting Dustin for dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Please keep in mind that I had just gone the Friday before but fell in love so much that I had to go back right away. My arteries really hated me! This time, Dustin and I even indulged by ordering an extra of hash browns along with our prix fixe meal. At the end of the night, I had digested another 16 oz of steak, and Chrisle wasn't even there to salt my dessert.

I felt so invigorated after Chisel on Tuesday night. If I don't work out for too long, I end up feeling lazy and doughy. It was then time to head to Eureka Lounge in the Castro to meet Scott, the founder of SFGAM.com, an online community for gay Asian men and their admirers around the world. Antoine had connected Scott and me at an A-List. He read this humble blog of mine and invited me to become a contributor for the website. We decided to grab some drinks to get to know one another better and for me to learn more about the site. Scott is such a cool guy, and we are strangely similar (and not just our taste in men). LOL! After one martini, we headed to Osaka on Castro street where we indulged in sashimi and other tasty delights. I was exhausted and drunk by the end since Scott ordered us three large bottles of sake. The best part? Scott paid for everything, way too kind of him. I am feeling extremely guilty right now because I still haven't had a chance to turn in my first story. It's coming along though...

Continuing on the Dine About Town bandwagon, Chrisle, Emily, Chrisn and I had dinner at the Big Four Restaurant in the Huntington the next night. The meal turned out to be quite the event. I was the first to arrive at the restaurant and went to the bar to get a martini. A handsome man walked in, and we made eye contact. We smiled to one another before he went up to the host to ask about dining at the restaurant. At that same moment, Chrisle arrived and told me to stop staring at the dude. I of course denied that I was doing such a thing, but Chrisle wouldn't have it. He declared that he was gonna pass my phone number to the handsome gentleman. I protested right away and told him absolutely not! Chrisle then explained that I had nothing to lose and because he was dining alone at a hotel, he was probably an out of towner. I responded that we were about to sit down for a very long dinner and things could get very awkward. Emily arrived wasted from a happy hour and thought Chrisle's plan was an excellent idea. The two of them wrote on a napkin my phone number, my name and the words TEXT ME. I told them this was not a case of me saying no and meaning yes. I really didn't want them to do this! But Chrisn walked in, and Emily took the napkin and walked towards Chrisn who was right next to the dude's table. I looked in horror as Emily threw the napkin at the man right before she hugged Chrisn who declared "No Emily, the man is still eating." LOL! They came rushing back giggling, and I wad devastated. Thankfully we got seated right away in another room. I wanted to pee, but I would have had to walk through the handsome dude. Nothing happened as we got settled and ordered a bottle of white wine. But suddenly, my iPhone buzzed and the screen lighted up with the following message:

(415): Hi Alex, who are you?

I gulped. The dude actually responded. A feeling of thread came over me because what if he thought Alex was actually Emily. It was the logical conclusion especially because she was the one who dropped off the note. Not to mention, the area code was a SF one so this dude was most likely not visiting from out of town. The rest of the table went crazy and demanded that I respond to him right away. So the rest of the exchange went down like this:

Me: Hi I am the guy in the green jacket.
415: Good evening and thank you for saying hello. What brings you up from SoCal?
ME: I actually live in SF. How are you?
415: I am well; thank you for asking. And you?

At this point, I was kind of over the small talk. I also had one martini and some wine in me so I decided to turn up the heat.

ME: I am well too. Do you live here? I think you're handsome

So I went for it!

415: Thank you for the compliment. I find you attractive too, but my heart is taken.

FML! And there you have it, why do I always meet unavailable men? GOD DAMN IT! This whole situation was so out of my comfort zone, and there was not even a payoff. I do wonder though if he asked me if I were visiting from SoCal because he wanted a one time quick affair. But once he found out I was actually from SF, he realized he couldn't do a screw and dash. So the conclusion was:

415: I have to leave. It's been a long day and I have to get up early tomorrow. Enjoy the evening with your friends ;-)

Sometimes you win some and sometimes you lose some. I ordered a second bottle of wine for the table and licked my wounds.


After that debacle, I was ready to get drunk. I couldn't convince the three of them to accompany me to A-List at Poleng. But that didn't stop me from getting in a cab and heading the Pandhandle. This was my first time to the Asian themed, but apparently Antoine had done an A-List there three years ago. Sadly, it would be my first and last time at the bar because it was closing. The place was actually packed with breeders when I arrived. It seemed like everyone wanted to cash in on the last moment cheap and strong drinks. I ordered a martini and went into A-List mode. It was slightly awkward when I ran into a certain individual whom I had an interesting interaction with at Shangrila, but I kept it together. There were actually some new A-List gays who were quite cute at the event. I also informed Antoine about a little discovery that I made in that one of the A-List gays recently made his adult film debut on a certain website. Antoine was shocked to death by my news. Too bad I wasn't able to pull up the visuals on my phone for him. LOL!






I should have gone home after Poleng, but I felt like the night was still young so I texted Jeremy to meet me for a night cap in the Marina. He was actually still up and agreed. We planned to go to Circa, but it was actually closed. So we moved over to California Wine Merchant instead. It was nice to see Jeremy, but that last glass of wine was a total mistake. I was a zombie in pain the next day. Mama no!

~A

Wear My Kiss

Dear readers, I know these past few posts have all been social events heavy. Once I catch up on the daily grind, I will do some entries with more insight. Till then...I wasn't very aggressive this cycle with Dine About Town. However, I did really look forward to Ruth's Chris Steak House. Chrisle goes there for every Dine About Town because they give you super high quality steak for a very reasonable price. So Chrisle. Chrisn, Cousin and I all met up there on a Friday night. It turned out that for $8 more from their regular Dine About Town prix fix menu, you can get a 16 oz ribeye steak. Score! The steak was the best I've ever tasted because Ruth's Chris puts their steak in a butter sauce after it has been broiled. I ate all 16 oz and even some of Chrisle's filet. I was totally in a food coma after the meal. When dessert came around, Chrisle took a few bites of his dessert and then salted it to prevent himself from eating it. He was a little too eager though because he salted mine too. LOL! Apparently this is Chrisle's new method of not overeating. Side note, Ruth's Chris has the most interesting history. Check out an interactive timeline here.


I was feeling so sleepy and heavy after the meal. But the boys of course wouldn't let me go home so early on a Friday night so we headed to back to Chrisle's apartment to drink some more and watch TV. I totally took a quick nap while watching the Haiti Relief Marathon. After we rallied and did a round of shots, we headed out to go to Cinch for their famous drag show. Well, it turned out that they weren't doing it anymore. I later found out from Jeremy the neighbors of Cinch complained so they had to axe the show. Wa wa wa! I thought we would head to the Castro instead until Chrisle suggested an "alternative" location. William said yes because he had been before. I said yes as well because I knew if we didn't go then, I would never entertain the possibility again. Chrisn put up the biggest fight but eventually caved as well. We walked there, and when we arrived, it wasn't quite as scary as I imagined. I share a lot of things on this blog, but I won't disclose the location of our last Friday night adventure. Let's just say the entertainment was exotic, aesthetics oriented and somewhat interactive. LOL! My favorite lines of the night (which happened after I left) was "So, the three of us?" "Oh, we're close but not that close."


I was exhausted on Saturday morning, but Dustin talked me into brunch with him and Chrisle. They even were willing to come to the Marina. So we met up at Delarosa, the newest restaurant on Chestnut street. The pizza and random appetizers were quite delicious. And the vibe felt great! Dustin was in fine form and really wanted to drink more so we headed to The Republic. We got another round of drinks there (or in Dustin's case, two more). I had a bloody mary but didn't want to get drunk because I had to run errands and clean my apartment. Dustin and Chrisle were not amused by this. Sometimes a boy just gotta stay sober. It was an afternoon of firsts since I had never been to either of those places.

Saturday night, I met Chrisle and Chrisn for Circus Finelli. Jessica had seen it on a date and couldn't stop raving about it. It wasn't really a circus but more of a four woman slap stick comedy show. I gotta admit it was super entertaining. When we picked up our tickets, we discovered that the hand stamp they were giving out for the night said CHRISTOPHER on it. So the clowns told Chrisle and Chrisn that the show was dedicated to them. In one of the warm up acts, there was a wheel of destiny featuring a big circle labelled "A slap in the face" and a sixteenth of that circle labelled "Free beer." The craziest part was that a dude actually managed to actually win a free beer. Luck of the century! Chrisn and I even participated in some audience interaction throughout the show. One of the clowns said she loved Chrisn's jacket and asked if it was Diesel. Chrisn then declared to the audience, "I wish!" Totes fun! I highly recommend it as a date thing. After the show and laughing our asses off, we headed to Lori's since Chrisn hadn't eaten anything. I classed it up by ordered a bottle of red wine...at a diner...yeah, that's how I roll.




We then went to Nilma's birthday at Nickies in the Haight. By the time we got there, the breeders were out in full force and drinking up a storm. We of course had to follow suit. We didn't get to celebrate with Nilma last year so I was glad we got to party it up with her this time around. Nickies is definitely an interesting scene. The last time I was there was for Bill's and Dustin's party where the gays took over the bar. But that Saturday night was definitely not the case. It didn't mean that there were no gays bounding with the straighties though because some silver bear totally hit on Chrisn. D-I-N-O-S-A-U-R! Seriously, the story of our lives. We met several of Nilma's straight friends, and I explained to Scott that I totally saw his Doppelgänger earlier in the day in Delarosa.









Around midnight, we had enough of straight life and headed to The Endup in Soma for the three year anniversary of Shangrila. The line was around the block. I was filled with liquid courage so I went up to the bouncer and said that we were there for a drag queen's birthday and we would be on the list. The bouncer totally called my bluff and very nicely told us to get in line. FAIL! Luckily, we saw plenty of people we knew already in line so we ended up cutting in with Matt and Daniel. Apparently, we got in just at the right time because Chrisn said the chain came up right after we entered. I am sure the people behind us were ready to cut us. Oops! The place was of course filled with Asians and rice queens who were ready to taste the flavor of the East. And I saw plenty I thought we didn't drink anymore but apparently there was some kind of vodka special so the 3 Musketeers each bought a round. Well that turned out to be a mistake because we all got way too messy. That night, I learned a lesson that I really need to keep my hands to myself. I was completely OOC in regards to "touching" people. Totally not okay! I joke that I made some enemies that night (or perhaps some new friends!) And let's just say I made out with more than one person that night. The angel in me cried. The night ended on an even sadder note because Chrisn, Chrisle and I actually cabbed it to Bagdad to get something to eat. That's where some super hilarious pics of Chrisle was taken as he was powering down. See all the pics from Saturday night here.






I was a total bum on Sunday because I was exhausted from all the crazy festivities. It wasn't until the evening that I was finally able to mobilize. I met Jeremy for dinner and drinks at Thai Stick in Pac Heights. We had tickets to see Utada at The Fillmore. We were so excited! For those of you who don't know Japanese Pop, (Hikaru) Utada is the biggest selling artist in Japanese history. She is like the Beatles of Japan. She actually speaks English and even went to Columbia for college. To date, she has released two English albums, "Exodus" and "This Is The One." When she does concerts in Asia, she does them in huge stadium (as you can see in the YouTube clip below of her "United 2006 Tour"). We totally lucked out to be able to see her in such an intimate venue. Jeremy and I were shocked when we arrived at the venue because the line was out of control. Luckily, we ran into Jeremy's lesbian friends who were total sweethearts and let us cut in line with them. I am not always a cutter FYI. Instead of some tacky opening band, Utada had a DJ spin before she on. He played the best mash up of top 40 hits. We danced like crazy with the lesbians. The only problem was that by the time Utada came on, Jeremy and I were like blacked out. Jeremy and I made the mistake of getting more drinks (doubles in fact) when we entered The Fillmore. I think we probably scared the tame Asians around us with our crazy antics. Note to self: curb drinking! The show was sadly kinda short from what I can remember. But I am still glad I got to go. It was totes sold out by the way!



How amazing is Utada's music!

~A

PS: It's the crack of dawn and instead of sleeping, I am blogging. This is dedication!

Here You Go, Princess

Chrisle discovered that The House Of Shields is apparently closing down soon. It's this bar in the Financial District that apparently is kinda famous. We decided to hit up the bar before its swan song. Chrisle, Jessica, Chrism (not a misspelling) and I went on a Wednesday after work. When I arrived, the place was packed. I didn't even bother asking for a drink menu. The moment I got the bartender's attention, I told her to pour me a glass of whatever red wine was in the bottle next to her. LOL! She wasn't friendly, but I at least got my drink. We stayed at the bar for a couple of rounds before realizing that we were starving to death.

The original plan was to go to this Italian place Chrisle found on Yelp, but we couldn't actually locate it in real life. Instead, we settled on Tara for Thai food. Cyndie also joined us as well. It was a mini Free Team event! The food was decent but not fantastic. My favorite part though was Chrisle's overeating. At the end, he kept picking at my plate. Being the good friend I am, I started to the move the remaining food closer to him. He yelled at me and told me that he wasn't going to eat anymore. Well guess what? He reached around me for the rest of the time and finished everything. Then he moved onto Jessica's plate. BG4J! I said goodbye to the rest of Free Team and cabbed it over to A-List at the new Coda Jazz Club. When I got to the door, the bouncer told me that there was no cover that night for A-List gays, but they were asking for a donation of $7 for the band. WTF?! I told the dude that I didn't have any cash and just walked in. Thank goodness I didn't pay because I thought the band was horrible. I wanted them to stop playing music so I could actually talk to the folks at the bar. I met this friendly Australian who needed some advice on how to turn his fuck buddy into a potential boyfriend. Antoine and I gave him pointers left and right, but I think we both believed that it was never gonna happen. Fuck buddies can't really evolve into something more than that. Or am I just pessimistic?




I returned to the Marina promptly after work the next day. And before I knew it, I was late meeting Chrisle for dinner at Chow (where I had been only two days before with Cousin). I made the mistake of ordering the chicken breast rather than the half chicken even though Chrisle told me I was making mistake. Well hindsight is indeed 20/20. The chicken was tiny and unsatisfying. Luckily, there were French fries to eat until Chrisle poured hot water all over them so we wouldn't be tempted finish the other half. SUCH a good friend! LOL! After dinner, we headed over to completely renovated old Amber space now called The Residence. The aura was super chic but sadly not very gay. I saw this big throne like seat in the back and told Chrisle we must sit there! When I was done with my first martini, the cute bartender came by to collect the empty glasses. I asked him if I could order the drink from him at my seat. He explained that I had to go up to the bar, but this one time he would take care of me. He left and came back later. Apparently I had a look of distress on my face because he said to me quite loudly that "It was coming." And the good looking man was true to his words because the drink came shortly. As he was setting down my drink, he said, "Here you go princess" Quite appropriate because I was sitting in my "throne." There was just something in the way he said the statement that made it so charming. Sometimes I can't help but have crushes on straight boys. Chrisn, William and Cindy met up with us. We drank more booze and laughed the night away. Sometimes it's just a simple night with a close group of peeps that really make your day.









As I always say, good friends are the ones who will go to Bagdad with you when they aren't hungry. LOL! I was craving their baja omelet so bad and strong armed Chrisle, Chrisn and William to go with me. And they did! The late night meal tasted so yummy. I love Bagdad but only for late night cuisine. I don't think I would go there normally.



I heart SF!

~A

Day Off

Thank goodness for Martin Luther King Jr. day and granting all of us a day off. I so needed it. I blogged this awhile back, but I was at Jackie's soup party one night. We were playing a game where random question cards were drawn then everyone went around answering the question. One particular question was who did you missed the most in the world. I was about to answer when a girl beat me to the punch and said her grandmother. I was shocked! I declared to the group that I was planning on saying Martin Luther King Jr. Chrisle then said, "Girl...did you know him personally?" LOL! Chrisle has the best one liners ever. So as you all can imagine that particular Monday was uber special to me. I ended up bumming around during the day and didn't do much.

In the evening though, I headed over for a dinner party at Austin's. He had cooked quite the feast for us. There was stuffed salmon, roasted vegetables and all sorts of other yummy goodies. Bill actually showed up in time for dinner and brought pound cake with strawberries for dessert. The dinner was the perfect way to end the long weekend. We sat around eating and drinking. Chrisle and Chrisn was in fine spirits that night and got super wasted. The two of them and Austin kept forcing wine down by throat, literally holding the full glass to my mouth. Mama no! In the midst of their drunkenness, A4A got loaded and people got IMed when they shouldn't have. My favorite moment was when Chrisle ran over, almost breaking the living room table to prevent Jay and Austin from...Chrisle, Chrisn and I left in the end to share a cab home together. I had to steady the two of them. It was totes weird to be the sober and responsible one. LOL!






Tuesday was back to the good old grind at work. I really wanted to have a hot toddy and chicken pot pea because I was feeling a little under the weather. However, Cindy invited me to join William and her for dinner at Weird Fish in the Mission. The place is famous, and I would never go on my own so I decided to put my original cravings on hold. The restaurant was tiny, and Cindy and I met the manager of the restaurant while we were waiting for a table. The dude was so friendly and even offered Cindy some great relationship advice. My fish and seafood stew was indeed quite yummy. The clam chowder wasn't the best I've ever had though. We each had two glasses of wine and were all craving dessert. Cindy sadly couldn't join us because she had to go see her boy.

William and I headed over to Chow on Church since he couldn't stop raving about their ginger chocolate cake, which did turn out yummy. In our typical decadent style, we ordered a bottle of wine to split. We totally didn't that, but oh well! Life is too short not to indulge. When it got close to leaving time, I leaned in close to William and asked him if he was thinking what I was thinking. With an air of mystery, he asked me what I had in mind. "Want to go to Bagdad's for an omelet." William laughed so hard. I was being serious too. I have been insatiable when it comes to food recently. Sadly no omelet that night as I bused it back to the Marina.

~A

The Year Of The Panda

I am suffering from blogging withdraw so badly, but I have had literally no time to sit down and write. I am determined to churn a few entries out this weekend though. Let's go all the way back to Paul's see you later brunch at Lime. Our dear African got a gig researching lions for four months in Africa so he is returning to his homeland. He had never done the Lime brunch thing so I thought it would be the perfect going away extravaganza for him. I couldn't get us a table for Sunday, but it turned out that Sat. brunch at Lime is as popping at Sunday now. I guess the good word finally spread. It was definitely a very good looking crowd when we arrived to the endless mimosas and loud club music. The 3 Musketeers stepped up our game as well. I decided to wear a jacket and cinch it at the waist with a brown belt. Chrisle wore some super cute suspenders while Chrisn brought the Adam Lambert hair along with a Bohemian headband. Loved our look! We got a great table, and I forced everyone to drink mimosas like it were water. Before we knew it, we were all tanked out of our minds.






Brunch at Lime is always filled with laughter and good stories. On this particular day, the place was filled with breeders. Apparently some straight girl was celebrating her birthday and had the whole back section reserved. So a lot of the hot studs wandering around the restaurant turned out to be straight. Imagine the Marina guys in the Castro. While we were downing mimosas, this not attractive dude came over and slipped a note to Paul. It turned out the man was giving our African his digits. Chrisn was so drunk that he grabbed Paul's phone and messaged the guy back. The problem was that Chrisn proposed a threesome between the ugly dude, Paul and the ugly dude's hot friend in a stripped hoodie. It turned out that the cutie was straight, and the ugly dude wouldn't stop nagging Paul. At one point, Paul and I were at the bar because I was gonna buy him a shot and get a pic of him with his crush/bartender. The ugly dude came over again. This time, I started yelling at him on why he was hitting on my husband. The dude didn't believe me, but I wouldn't back down. LOL! Paul was so grateful that I protected him. The drinking last for like three hours where we also befriended a bunch of random girls. We were probably the craziest group in the restaurant; we typically are. It was also the first time Marco hung out with our group and came to the realization we party hard. See all the pics from the brunch here and here.






After brunch, we all stumbled our to Jay and Austin's to hang out for the rest of the afternoon. Of course a group of the boys got distracted and made a detour to the porn store where old issues of Playgirl was purchased. People drank even more when we got to the apartment. But being the responsible drinker that I am, I slowed my pace down. We spent the next few hours doing all sorts of silly thing: group fun on Paul's bed, Chrisn doing a handstand and failing miserably, trying to make me suckle milk from a nipple while I was napping and more! Everyone was a super tranny mess. Soon it was dinner time, and Paul ordered pizza for all of us. I've never seen gays down carbs that fast in my entire life. LOL! Drunken slores definitely get hungry. The last thing I remembered before leaving the apartment was that Austin, Chrisle and Chrisn were all dead asleep. It was such a hilarious sight to behold.

When night rolled around, I had to drag my hungover ass back to the Marina to shower and change. I had no time to rest before cabbing it to Soma to pre-game at Chrispy's apartment before rejoining the rest of the boys in the Castro again. Dear readers, I am sure you are wondering how I do these marathon drinking events. I ask myself that on a daily basis. I really couldn't ingest anymore alcohol when I arrived at Chrispy's, but I ended up with a champagne glass in hand. Chrispy's friend Jacob was a total sweetheart to him and flew in from Boston for his birthday weekend. It was also a great opportunity to catch up with Eric. It was a nice, casual and intimate gathering.






The night continued as we all got into cars to drive back to the Castro. As we were parking, I explained to Jacob that knowing others' status as a bottom or top is like a handshake in the gay community. Jacob then went onto ask me to guess his role, and I am not one to reveal secrets! I parted with Chrispy's gang to meet up with Paul and co. at Moby Dick's. Apparently Austin and Chrisn were both too drunk and unconscious to continue the festivities. Paul showed me a pic of Chrisn dead asleep on the sofa with Playgirl magazines littered on him. Do not fall asleep around the Working Gays, nothing good can come of it. We had a few drinks at Moby's before I declared to the group that it was time to dance! So we mobilized Toad Hall where we busted our moves. Chrispy's gang joined us. Jeremy texted me to find out where I was, and he brought his gang as well. The merging of three groups meant we took over the bar. That was such an amazing moment! I started to sober up because I decided I didn't want to be too messy with continued drinking. Toad Hall is the only place in the Castro I've ever had fun sober. I guess the music and dancing just really do the trick. We shut the bar down pretty much. I think dear Paul had an amazing time, and we sent him off with festivities galore.






I was gonna rest on Sunday since I was exhausted from all the activities from the week. But instead met up with Dustin at Tian Sing in Union Square for dim sum. It turns out that the place has amazing Shanghai dumplings where you can taste the broth when you bite in. Yummy! I am totally going back. After lunch, we went to the top floor of the Grand Hyatt for some wine. Doug had recommended the place to me back in the day, but I never got around to it. The view was amazing! We couldn't stay too long though because we caught a showing of 'The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus.' I wasn't super crazy about Heath Ledger's last film, but my #1 celebrity crush Jude Law was in it so of course I had to see the film. Dustin had already seen it and said it was good enough for him to see again. The movie was good, kinda out there but entertaining and thoughtful. Next stop was Blackbird where we had another round of cocktails. You gotta love drinking on a Sunday.



For dinner, I headed over to Chrisle's place who baked a chicken for Chrisn and me along with corn butter sauce as well as a ponzu sauce. We had daikon radish on the side. Apparently the whole meal was supposed to be Asian themed. We ate heartily and joyously! We watched TV, discussed why we were single, gossiped about other gays. Chrisn and I stayed over till almost midnight. We missed Fresh that night, and it would have been a good one to go to because of the long weekend. But I wouldn't have changed what we did instead. Thanks for having us over Chrisle!

~A

The Night I Met The One

Chrisle and I met for dinner again on Thursday night. I was craving Vietnamese so we went to Aux Delices in Russian Hill. That place is cheap and delightful. Not to mention, it's located just between Chrisle's apartment and mine. We were starving when we arrived so we ordered way too much food. The cuisine was delicious as expected but there were some quite unexpected eye candy. There was this hot tall dude who just came from the gym. I would have rather eaten him than the crispy chicken. LOL! After dinner, Chrisle and I decided to grab a drink at Cinch. Some of the other boys were headed to Blackbird, but neither one of us felt like traveling south. At Cinch, this drunk (potentially straight) guy came up and started chatting with us. All of a sudden he sprang a knock knock joke on Chrisle and then ended up slapping him. Poor Chrisle! It was totes weird.

Friday night, Kia and Corey had Erin and me over for dinner in the Mission. Corey made this amazing lamb shank that he had in the slow cooker all day. The meat was so tender and flavorful. Kia and Corey are my favorite straight couple and quite the hosts. We sat around the dinner table drinking wine and swapping funny stories. It's funny that I see them probably more often than I see Aaron who introduced them to me. Aaron is always accusing me of stealing his friends, LOL! As much fun I was having, I couldn't stay to play drunken Wii with everyone else. There was another adventure waiting for the 3 Musketeers.

To prove to Chrisle that we don't always just go to the same bars in the Castro, Chrisn and I agreed to go set up bear traps with him at the leather bars in Soma. The first stop of the night was The Eagle Tavern. Side note, Kia and Corey apparently had gone to the place and had a total blast! God bless liberal minded breeders who try out daring gay activities. Anyways, the place was pretty damn empty. There were two cubs who were pretty cute, but we were over it. We moved onto Lone Star Saloon. I was pretty drunk at this point so I don't remember anything particular about this place except that we hung out in the backyard and drank Red bull vodkas. When we left, I was the first one outside. Apparently I missed a hot bartender asking Chrisn to return to the bar the next night for his birthday party. Too bad for the Menbargo Act of 2010. HAHAHAHAHA! We stumbled over to The Stud, which was packed because of a drag show. I think we were supposed to pay a cover, but the 3 drunken Musteers didn't give a fuck and just wandered in. I wasn't really into the show and sorta fell asleep on in the audience. All of a sudden, a dude turned to us and said "If your friend can't stand up on his own, you need to take him out." Oops!




Chrisle and Chrisn escorted me out, and thank goodness they did because that place was just too much. And more importantly, it was the turning point of the night. We didn't know where to go next but stumbled upon this bar called Chaps II. When we saw the name, we knew it was gonna be a good place. The place wasn't that packed; Chrisn and Chrisle ordered another round of drinks while I sat down. There were two go go dancers performing on the bar. One of them decided to move away from the bar and come dance on the platform next to us. Chrisle immediately pulled out $1 and told me to tip him. I was too shy and surprisingly the least drunk out of the three of us. We started to argue about who will slip the dollar in the dude's jockstrap when I finally had enough. I went over and tucked the money into the hottie's crotch but when I was about to withdraw, he held onto my hand and had me do some extra rubbing. Before I knew it, he was crouching down to hold me. O_o Soon he was holding me and rubbing me. And it doesn't end there...we kissed on the lips, a gentle sexy one. As he held onto, I felt weird and actually said out loud, "This is awkward." LOL! So to make it less awkward, he had me resume touching his one eyed monster. This time I knew I had to say something better, so I followed up with "You're really hung." He liked that one and winked at me. I ran back to Chrisle and Chrisn, and we gigged like little girls. I think that go go dancer was probably the love of my life! I mean talk about a deep connection. That $1 got me so far because we're soul mates. LOL! The running joke for the rest of the weekend was to go up to a hot guy and ask him what we can get for a dollar. Does this mean that I have to forgo the nights at Badlands and isntead frequent Chaps II, the fine establishment where my husband works?




Keeping it classy, we followed the neon sign of Burger King where we gorged ourselves on fried fast food. So we didn't trap a bear that night, but we did even better. We found me the partner I am destined to spend the rest of my life with.

~A

You Make Bad Look So Good

With the start of every work week, things get rough. Two Mondays ago, there were just fire after fire to put out. My pod and I then had to stay late for a VC meeting with our India counterparts who are total sweethearts. I got back to the Marina around 8PM and was starving! I went to Pasta Pomodoro on Union and ordered up a storm. I had rock shrimp pasta, a soup, a caprese salad and then a tiramisu to complete the meal. No big deal, I went to the gym earlier in the evening. The best part? The restaurant apparently does a 30% off your meal if you spend over $30. All that food ended up to about 20 something dollars. I had a very good night of feasting. The next night I met up with BB, my dear SNAP buddy for dinner. We went to South Park Cafe (not to be confused with South Beach Cafe). Bill had gone on a date there ages ago and raved about it. I thought it would be such an appropriate venue for BB and me. We had a decadent French meal and caught up on each others' lives. BB's boss is coming into town from Germany and will be staying for two weeks. And of course he is too ashamed to introduce me to her, so heaven knows when I will get to see him again. LOL!

Wednesday was action packed. In the early evening, Chrisle and I got tickets to go to the Dine About Town opening party in the Westfield. I was torn between going to the gym and getting to the venue early to ensure the most amount of booze will be consumed. As my coworked Lee Anne stated, "The gym and vodka, Alex's two favorite things." Guess which one I picked? I headed to Union Square early because I remembered that I had to also pick up Chrisle's and Chrisn's holiday gifts. They finally came in! After that was done, Chrisle and I ran into each other and got in the long line for the event. There were plenty of people who thought like us and got there early. At first, we were concerned because the space looked small. We thought we wouldn't probably end up getting all that much food or booze. Well, we were dead wrong. The event turned out to be organized very well; they didn't oversell on the tickets. All the restaurants who participated were efficient in getting their food out, and there was plenty to go around. My favorites were the pork belly from Fish & Farm and the pulled pork brioche sandwiches with Luce. I would like to note that I've had the wisdom to dine at both of those fabulous establishments. But I would like to give mad kudos to the Blue Angel Vodka booth who started the night conservatively with tiny mixed cocktails, then moved onto pouring martinis and finished the night by giving us shots. LOL!


When Chrisle and I were stuffed and quite drunk, we met up with Chrisn for him to get a bite in the food court. I continued the drinking by getting a bottle of the Buckhorn Special. When we were all seated, I presented the boys with their gifts. I ended up getting each of us a sterling silver necklace with a Fleur De Lys charm (purchased at the World Of Charms) to represent the 3 Musketeers. That way, no matter where we are, we will always be united. Or as Chrisle said drunkenly, "I will wear this when I slore so it will feel like the two of you are watching over me." LOL! Chrisle and Chrisn loved the necklaces and that made me very happy! At the food court that night, out of nowhere our SF stud of a mayor, Gavin Newsom, showed up to pick up some pasta. A couple of people went up to him to say hi. Since I was filled with liquid courage, I decided to go up and say hi. The man looks even better close up. I shook his hand and told him that I remembered him from the Google SF office grand opening, and he should come back to visit us again. He laughed and said he hadn't been invited back. I then explained that he is welcome for lunch whenever he wants. LOL! Apparently during the short conversation, I touched his arm a few times (there definitely were some biceps underneath the suit). Chrisle and Chrisn shook their heads and told me that I touched the mayor inappropriately. HAHAHAHAHA! Chrisle and Chrisn are indeed wise proven by the quote, "Choke him before he chokes you! O_o

Even though I was falling asleep in the food court, I convinced Chrisle and Chrisn to come with me to A-List at Amber India. I bought us another round of unneeded cocktails when we got there. At least, I got some fruity drink and not a martini. It was the usual A-List crowd except we had a straight invade our space because they were making out amongst all the gay men. Totes ridiculous! Tyler and Mark showed whom I hadn't seen in awhile. Too bad Eric didn't come with them as well. The night did take a wrong turn though. Because of my intoxication, I was a little "too liberal" with my hands pertaining to a certain individual who showed up at A-List. In retrospect, I am horribly embarrassed. At the time though, it seemed like a hot idea. And anyways, if it was so bad, he would have stopped the situation. LOL! Let's just say Alex was a tranny mess but an endearing one.






Whenever we do A-List in Union Square, there is always the prospect of Katana-Ya afterwards. Chrisle was surprisingly against it, so Chrisn and I had to strong arm him into it. We each looped one of his arms and led the way to Mason and Geary for some ramen bliss. BG4J! I heart fun weekdays. See all the pics from Wed here.

~A

Fireflies

Sorry! I have fallen behind on the blogging again. Every time I think I am gonna catch up, more social activities come up. Two Saturday nights ago, I cabbed it down to the Castro to have dinner with the boys. I was cooped up all day in my apartment and was in desperate need of social interaction. We went to Frances, the newest restaurant in the Castro. Thank goodness for Chrisle who made reservations months ago. The place was packed when I arrived. The best part was that we got the best table in the house, prime restate for people watching. The service was superb, and the food was even better. My chicken dish practically melted in my mouth. I think it also helped that we got this amazing bottle of wine for the table. The whole dining experience was simply amazing! I also had a chance to hear about everyone's adventure from the night before. Totes interesting! As I mentioned in the previous entry, I learned to never go to the Mission late night unless I want to get attacked. Mama no!






After dinner, our posse divided in half. Some went to slore, some went straight clubbing and some went...oh who am I kidding? Those whores all went to slore. William, Chrisle and I stayed pure and went to Humphry Slocombe's anniversary party in Civic Center. Sean and Jake had their party at some crazy dive venue, which was supposedly the bottom floor of someone's house. The vibe was totally emo and grunge. They served Pabst Blue Ribben and Tecate, classy I know. The drag queens who performed were beyond tragic messes. The highlight though was that I saw the dude who kissed me the week before at The Cafe. He was totally drunk, but I was still able to confirm his name. He told me I was "amazing." Too bad I was like 80% sure he didn't know my name. LOL! At one point, he used to me to escape from this bearded drag queen who was like ready to rape him. Besides him, plenty of the other Castro characters showed up. After an hour, I was over the cheap beer and the whole scene. I was ready to dance! We said our goodbyes (to the cute boys) and headed back to the Castro.




Next stop? We returned to our old stomping ground of Toad Hall where Jonathan, Tom and Dave met up with us. Since it has been so long, my memory is kind of hazy on what happened that night. But I can guess that we had plenty of alcohol. I guzzled vodka since I didn't really drink much of the beer at the party. Then we danced, danced and danced! I really gotta say that Toad Hall has really stepped up their music selection. Marco came for a brief second to get us to go to Badlands, but we didn't follow. Instead to appease Chrisle and his lust for bears, we mobilized to The Edge next. William and Chrisle wanted to show us the "back room," which was actually just a bathroom trough. LOL! Austin showed up as well and was a total mess. Loves it! Towards the end of the evening, we of course needed a late night snack. Chrisle and I headed to Orphan Andy's and was able to secure the very last booth. I blinked and Emily, Chrisn and Emily's friend were sitting next to us and pigging out as well. We somehow always get the judgmental waiter who clearly was over dealing with drunk people late at night.






I originally planned on being a total bum on Sunday, but I got a text from Dustin asking me to hang out. And I never turn down a social invitation. I met him at the AMC on Van Ness to watch 'Leap Year' featuring my second British husband, Matthew Goode. He is so charming and sexy. The movie was super cute and made me want to visit Ireland even more. You all should know I am sucker for romantic comedies, but the ending was kind of the ridiculous and ruined a part of the film for me.


One of my favorite things about Dustin is that the boy is always up for a cocktail. Even though he was supposedly not drinking for the month of January, he caved to my persuasive arguments. "Let's go drink Dustin!" We walked over to Polk and went into Vertigo. I hadn't been to that place in years and never early in the night. The few times I've been it was to dance the night away. Dustin and I had two rounds and gossiped for a storm. I was actually pretty buzzed by the time I left the bar to meet Maryam for dinner. I bused it over to Japantown for shabu shabu at Cafe Mums. She was up for the all you can drink deal so we went to town. It was exciting to introduce her to the art of shabu shabu. By the end of the night, I was so stuffed and drunk. Too bad I ended the night on a sour note because of some foolish text messages. But what cha gonna do?

~A

Woof

I love my cousins, and we always have a blast when we hang out. We decided to do a steak dinner night at Willy's apartment on a Thursday night. Katie was on winter break from school so she did all the shopping. Ironic because she is a vegetarian and had to buy us all the skirt steak. Willy did an amazing marinade with the steak consisting of olive oil, soy sauce and brown sugar. It was to die for. I arrived at 7PM with wine in hand. Katie was cooking up a storm; she made mashed sweet potatoes, sautéed mustard greens, baked yams with beets and a delicious salad. Cindy and I of course were the most useful ones by sitting on our asses eating bread with butter and drinking wine. LOL! Willy's roommates decided to join us for the feast as well. Before long, Willy was grilling the steaks. Side note, I am a fan of grilling rather than boiling when it comes to steak. I think it just tastes so much better. It was totes complicated to get the steak to cook right on the grill despite our "letting it rest" and the "tin foil tent cook method." The grill zucchini using the steak juice was a nice touch as well. Despite it all, it was a fabulous dinner, and we stuffed ourselves silly. I also learned that Willy's roommate Marcus from Sweden spoke Mandarin pretty well and studied Taiwan for awhile. And why was I not surprised that his girlfriend who also showed up was Asian...hmmm...He was a very nice guy though.

After the dinner, I made my way to Blackbird to meet up with William and Paul. I hadn't seen them in forever. William had been in Chicago and New York while Paul was away in New Zealand. Blackbird was of course totally packed and felt even more crowded than New Year's Eve. It was a total Castro scene that I wasn't really prepared for. William's friend Sanjay whom I hadn't seen since Halloween decided to make an appearance as well. The most exciting introduction though was Paul's new bear, Tom who was very nice. Totes Paul's type! I remember being tipsy at one point and telling him that he and all the white people looked alike. Mama no! It then hit me that I just met this dude, and something like that is not okay to say to others besides my friends. So of course I had to drink some more wine to deal with the embarrassment. After doing the rounds, I got sleepy and headed home.






The next I was so grateful it was Friday, and the weekend was finally going to begin. Work was stressful, and I needed some time to rest. Friday night was mellow. I headed back to the Marina to pick up a bottle of wine and pizza from Round Table before walking over to Jeremy's apartment in the Marina. I had never been to Jeremy's pad, and it was a huge one junior bedroom. Not to mention, it was very well decorated. Just like my place, he used a lot white and neutral tones. We gossiped, chatted, ate pizza and drink that first bottle of wine all quite quickly. Of course we were still thirsty so we crossed the street to get more. While we were in the store, I asked Jeremy if he thought we could drink two more bottles, and his vote of confidence led us to a very fun and drunken night. It was great to just stay in and talk with him. We had a wonderful evening in our hood.

But apparently I missed quite the adventure that the other Working Gays went on. Chrisle claims that sober Alex will always agree to go to different types of bars, but when drunk Alex takes over, he always forces everyone to go to Badlands. LOL! So Chrisle was excited on that particular night to go to all the leather bars to meet his husBEAR. And they did a full tour of the city, going to such diverse places like The Edge, Truck and even out to Esta Noche (this trashy place I've never been to in the Mission). To top things off, they even saw this poor dude get his ass kicked whle they were having a taco snack. SCARY! Paul told me that there was blood everywhere but by the time they left, the workers had managed to wash it all off on the sidewalk. The entire gay city tour lasted till 2AM for the boys. I was totes impressed! But I am glad I spent my night in the Marina.

~A

Bulletproof

The first Monday back at work from the holidays was so rough. It was a brand new start with a new Account Manager and new Account Optimizer. Our new pod name is now JustDancer! If you knew the background, you would find it hilarious! I made it through that hectic day and was so happy to make it to Ultimate Conditioning in the afternoon. Time to start the new year right by continuing to work on my fitness. I was totes annoyed though that the gym was completely packed because of the whole new year's resolution crowd. As a fellow blogger overheard at his gym, "If you were fat in December, you might as well stay fat in January." LOL! After the gym, I grabbed a quick bite at the Westfield food court before heading to Blackbird to meet Chrisce for a drink. I haven't had 1:1 time with him in ages, and it was so wonderful to catch up. Chrisce always has great insight on social issues, politics and current events. He said he will try to return to hanging out with the Working Gays more. As the bar got packed, I decided it was time to go home. I was too tired to keep up with the scene. When I arrived in the Marina, KFC and its luminous lights called my name. I wasn't even that hungry, but I knew I couldn't get fried chicken off my mind. Thankfully I made it just before they were closing. Too bad they didn't have any mashed potatoes though. Right before I was about to dig into my feast, I realized that I left my Lady GaGa sunglasses at the bar. Totes FML! Thankfully with some coordination between another Alex and Chrisce, they were retrieved. That reminds me that I still need to pick them up from Chrisce.

I was originally planning on doing a date night with myself on Tuesday night, but thankfully Chrisn decided to come along and keep me company. The original plan was to do dinner and movie, but there was a long wait to Woodhouse Fish Co. on Fillmore so we decided to skip the film. The reason for that was because Woodhouse does $1 oysters every Tuesday, and Chrisn and I were both in the mood. We also didn't mind waiting because we cracked into a bottle of the restaurant's house chardonnay. By the time we sat down (we actually didn't wait that long), the first bottle was done. Thinking logically, Chrisn and I came to the conclusion that since we saved money by not watching the movie, we hence deserved another bottle of wine. Girrrllllll! We ended up each getting a dozen oysters along with a main entree each. We decided to splurge on that fine evening. Random note, we actually sat at the same table and had the same waiter when Chrisn and I went for the first time. In our drunken stupor, we also befriended this friendly straight couple next to us with the cutest family. Chrisn was extra friendly because he thought the husband was cute, LOL! We of course had to finish the night with some frozen yogurt next door.

I was so excited for Wednesday for two reasons. Marco (the newest German transplant to enter my life) and I finally coordinated our schedule to hang out, and it was the first A-List of 2010. Marco wanted sushi, so I recommended that we go to Otoro Sushi in Hayes Valley. The place is really cute, and the menu is fresh and delicious. I taught Marco much about Japanese cuisine while he shared with me so much about German gay culture like Turks' special role for a lot of Berlin boys. Let's just say the Germans really do live up to all the stereotypes. LOL! I couldn't stop laughing and covering my mouth like a geisha from all the stories Marco was telling me. Klaus, Timo and Tom - you guys held out on me on how "unique" your fatherland is! We decided to get another drink before heading to A-List so we stopped at the corner at Paul K where Marco showed me Foursquare. Foursquare on your phone gives you & your friends new ways of exploring your city. You can earn points & unlock badges for discovering new things. I am very tempted to join and still debating about it. This might be like Twitter in that I finally eventually bite the bullet and totes love it.

A-List was popping when we arrived at Sugar Cafe in Union Square. A lot of people showed up for the new year toast. A lot of the usual suspects were there including some special guests like Will, Bryan, Matt, Daniel and Chrisce. See, Chrisce is trying already! Marco spent a good portion of the night chatting with Khuram and Alper. I thought that was great until Marco told me that he called them Pakis by mistake. MAMA NO! Those two aren't even from the Middle East. LOL! There was also a reporter from Examiner.com who was doing an article about A-List that night. Check out his piece here. I did my usual meet and greet with several martinis in hand. I had a great buzz going and was having a great time. But Chrisce took it to the next level by suggesting we go to Katana-Ya. And we all know I can't say no to that.











So we stayed for only a little longer before saying our goodbyes to the crowd. I think by then, people were already trickling out. Marco left with us, and I felt bad not taking him to the Muni station, but ramen was calling our names! He is a big boy, and everyone needs to learn the Muni system on their own eventually. Chrisce and I lucked out and snagged the last table at Katana-Ya. We pigged out on katsu curry and butter corn ramen. Yum! See all the pics from A-List and then some here.

~A

An Angel Named Ballad

In the sky, an angel dances and sings in glory. He's choosen to be the angel of the rain every time I hear a song in the wind. The air crying is a ballad about his dancing for the glory from beyond. Voices come suddenly, and then the voices go away. A sweet song in the rain is a ballad that he's dancing to. The fates celebrate among the maidens, how enchanted the dance is. Among the wind and under the twilight realm, he sings one sweet melody. The ballad falls from paradise to come and dance by our side. He travels to the land every time the rain sings. The ballad celebrates his victory and the glory of humanity. Someone is calling my name in the rain. All should dance and sing to celebrate his glory in paradise. An angel named Ballad is in heaven. He's shoosen to be the angel of the rain.

~A & Keisha Lenn