wow, life.

My life has become a whirlwind of awesomeness lately. (And for those of you who are concerned, more on my health later. Not ready.) Just to warn you, this is going to be one of those posts that is more diary entry than entertainment. So if you are one of those people who hates it when I name-drop without actually using the name, or when I use other devices to protect the innocent, stop reading now. I'm writing it so that when I'm 80 I can remember how great life was.

So, gosh, I don't even know where to begin. I finally decided to go to Italy, and because I was able to use air miles, the whole ticket was like $250. Score! I've had a good deal of success planning the itinerary and making reservations, even though it's high season and I'm doing this last minute. I got a little worked up for a while there, and my travel buddy had to e-backhand me and tell me to get a grip. So now I'm just relaxing and going with the flow. After all, even if we end up having to sleep at the train station, it will be an ITALIAN train station. We got some good advice from his spiritual mentor, and that guy has awesome taste (Josh and Josh would agree), so it's going to be a FREAKING AWESOME trip. I also worked it so that I can visit friends in New York on my way home, so I'm really excited about that. Yay!

In the middle of the week I had a rough patch. A friend had told me earlier in the night that he was tired and wanted to relax. I know for a fact that was bullshit. He really just wanted me to leave him alone so he could order a "massage" on Craigslist and get a handjob. So anyway, I texted him to offer him something (basically to offer a favor on top of a favor...no, not a handjob) and his response was "stop bugging me." Taken at face value, not a big deal. I was bugging him, and he wanted me to stop. But there was NO reason for him to be so mean! He could have just not responded. Or said "can we talk about this tomorrow? goodnight." Or something! I just thought it was unnecessarily harsh, especially since the subject of the text was me doing something nice for him! It was especially ironic, because just a few hours before, he'd said I was his best friend in LA (and he doesn't say things like that unless he means it). But I guess it was because he had said it that I was able to resist snapping back at him. We are, indeed, close enough friends that he can say things like that and I know he still loves me. So I had kinda a poopy 24 hours, since I don't like it when people are mean to me. But then he called me and it was as if nothing happened, so all was well. In fact, I overheard him tell somebody later that it's a sign of our close friendship that he can just tell it how it is with me and doesn't have to pussyfoot around. True. And he said he loved me later in the weekend, so its ok. So I guess it was a good thing. Anyway, if slight rudeness is the worst that happened to me all week, I'm doing damn good.

Thursday night was unexpectedly fun. I was working late, and at about 10 a friend called and said he was hungry and wanted to pick me up for dinner. I said I'd get a drink with him, so we went to Hamburger Mary's (for the last time). We had an awesome conversation. He opened up to me about his relationship with his Dad, and I almost cried. I love this guy so much, so it was incredibly hard to hear him saying such sad things. They were doing tranny karaoke, so we got saw some interesting characters. And some old guy came sidling up to our table at one point and started saying he loved my profile and my friends jeans, and made not-too-subtle insinuations that he was dreaming of a threesome. Yikes!

We left there around 11:15, and instead of driving me home my friend drove me to a party in the hills at the home of a certain notable Hollywood bigwig. It was a very small party, so I got a chance to talk to just about everybody there. I was talking to one guy who I thought I recognized, and then realized I knew his name/face because somebody had been telling me about a threesome he'd had with this guy and his boyfriend (who was also there). An observer could probably see the lightbulb go on above my head when I figured it out, "BING!" I also found myself talking to this funny guy with a great vocabulary. We had met before, briefly, but finally had a good conversation, and I think he could be a good friend. I also talked to this cute guy who it turns out is dating my (I thought straight, until right then) friend. I also talked to the host for quite a while, who was surprisingly humble, gracious, smart, and sexy. Who knew? I really liked him. Anyway, I stayed there until 3am and was completely wrecked the next day. But it was worth it.

The next morning I woke up, got ready for work, and then almost had a heart attack when I opened my living room door to find a boy sleeping on my couch! He'd come in sometime between 3 and 7am. I guess he knew where the keys were, and his alternative was to ride home with a drunk driver, so he chose to break into my place instead. Good choice.

Friday night I met three friends for a drink at the home of one of them in the hills, and then we went to a fabulous restaurant in Beverly Hills and sat at a table next to Larry King and a blonde who was way too young to be his. We drank three bottles of some of the most delicious red wine on Earth (the label of one of which will undoubtedly be a future guest star on this blog). We had expected to go out after that, but we had such an incredible time at dinner that we stayed until midnight. We were all too tired, full and drunk to even move after that, so we all just went to bed. My friend was the sober sister, and since I'd picked him up at his place, he just dropped me off at mine and took my car home with him.

Saturday morning I just got some stuff done around the house because I was car-less, drove a friend to a class and back once I got the car, had Thai for lunch with him, got a tan, and then drove to my parents' house for some travel goodies (like suitcases, money belts, airplane pillows etc). I then drove to my travel-buddy's house to take him half of the loot and loan him my car for a date he had later that night. I know, I know, I'm WAY too nice. I shouldn't loan people my car for any reason. And he scraped the chrome rims on the curb backing up. *sigh* I told him it's a really good thing I love him, because he knew I wasn't happy.

I drove home in his POS, and walked down to the Pride festivities to see if I could persuade "The Guy I'm Going to Marry" to hang out with me. TGIGTM doesn't know he loves me yet, but he's warming up. I've had a crush on him for over three years, which he knows. He tolerated me for some of that time, and then decided he actually likes me about 2 years ago. We fucked a couple times, which was fun, but not meaningful. Anyway, he was dating some lame-ass until pretty recently. But I was patient and persistent. I went to hang out with him at Fiesta the weekend before last, and the next day he IM'd to say he'd had an epiphany and I'm a really good person and he wants to hang out with me more. Strangely, he'd been on a blind date with somebody else when I'd seen him out. Funny time to have an epiphany! I'm not getting my hopes up, but it seems he is coming around. Persistence pays off! We've been texting frequently, making plans, flirting. It's been nice. So anyway, I tried to get him to hang out with me Saturday night, but he couldn't. So I hung out with another friend and a friend of his. We ended up at another friend's house in the hills, and had one of the most memorable nights of my life. It was just the four of us in his living room, but we had SO MUCH FUN listening to music, talking, drinking and what-not. It was SO much better than being packed in some sweaty gay club for Pride. This was the civilized way to celebrate relationships with quality gay men. I will never forget it. I feel like I really bonded intensely with them that night.

Sunday morning I cleaned house a little, risked black lung disease by chopping a giant hole in the roof of a closet with power-tools (a long story I'll tell some other time) and then walked to the parade route for Pride. I ran into some friends on the route and watched it with them. It was fun, as expected. Nothing really shocks me anymore. And nothing particularly moved me either. I expected more poignancy because of Prop 8, but I didn't see too much different from years past. I enjoyed seeing Gavin Newsom and his wife. Hot! Both of them!

After that I went over to the festival on San Vicente. I'd never been before because I was always too cheap to pay the $20 entrance fee, but TGIGTM was in there and wanted to see me, so I paid. It was interesting! I got some good tips on green remodeling, picked up some free condoms, and ate some yummy Hawaiian BBQ and soft-serve ice cream. Mmmm, fattening carnival food. I hung out with TGIGTM for quite a while, which was great. We kept hugging goodbye, and then talking a little more, and then hugging goodbye again. And each time, the kiss on the cheek would get a little closer to the mouth. The final time, it was kinda a half-lips kinda kiss. Yes! Hot. He's so cute!

So then a friend came and picked me up. He may or may not have had a threesome the night before with a certain someone who must not be named, but I guess it's none of my business. I didn't ask for more details than he offered (which was plenty). We drove to the appointed shuttle stop and headed up to Roland Emmerich's house for the big pride pool party. That was definitely (i) the nicest house I've ever been to in LA that was not a museum, and (ii) the most hot young "A-gay" boys in one place I'd ever seen. You couldn't throw a dildo without hitting a model.

I spent most of my time mingling with old and new friends. I'm not sure how it happened, but I ended up standing alone for about an hour chatting with a certain super-talented auteur (I've always wanted a reason to use that word in its proper context) whose work I've raved about in the past. I didn't know who he was when I started talking to him, but that made it even more fun. We really hit it off, and spent a bunch of time talking to a good friend of his too, who I also liked. I ran into a guy I'd met at a Cinco de Mayo party and had a little crush on. We had a somewhat awkward, but kinda hot, prolonged hug that was kinda like "ummm, are we about to kiss?" We didn't, but it was fun tension. I spent some time talking to some of the characters I'd met Thursday night, and really seemed to cement a budding friendship with one of them. I'm not sure why people sometimes pour their hearts out to me, but they do. I got a really sweet and meaningful hug from an old friend. I don't know why it touched me so much, but it just seemed special. I was sitting by the pool under a cabana, and hadn't seen him in a couple hours. When he found me his face lit up, he said he'd been looking for me, and he put his arm around my shoulder and pulled my head into his side and kinda ruffled my hair. I dunno, it was just a sweet gesture.

Anyway, Candis Cayne performed and looked beautiful as always. I think I made a video of it but I'll have to download it. I had a good view from directly across the pool.

I had a bit of an awkward moment toward the end of the night when a great friend of mine showed up hoping to see me, and I said hi and walked around with him, and then promptly left with somebody else. It wasn't meant to be a snub, but it seemed to come off that way. I feel bad, but what can you do? I left pretty early to wind down before the beginning of the work week.

So that was it! I'm super busy this week, and didn't really have time to write, but I just had to get this all out before I forgot it more than I already have.