Thursdays

Shortly after I moved here I met a boy. This boy who will remain anonymous for now, has introduced me to all his friends who have so far turned out pretty cool. I have hung out with all of them on multiple occasions. All the friends that I have met through him are men. And gay men at that. They are all down to earth, funny, and I think we all just really click as a group. None of them are queens. Sadly, I enjoy a flamboyant gay from time to time to liven things up a bit. I am the youngest one out of this group, who some people call "The Plastics". Probably not a good thing, but considering my personality and my previous friends from back home, I think these friends are fitting for me. As I said, I am the young buck of the group. The oldest of the gays being in their late 30s and the average being in their middle to late 20s. I am of course only 22. They always feel the need to let me know that I am the baby of the group, by telling letting me know the latest sale on diapers and baby bottles. But I have a quick wit and always have a wise and equally lame insult to fire back.

So, this boy and I are basically dating but haven't put a label on what we are as of yet. Went on a dozen+ dates, and generally spend Thursday night through Sunday together. Thursdays always tend to be a good time. I am generally not a good weekday person to hang out with due to my job. I have to wake up around 6am and work a nine hour day on weekdays. All my friends knew at home not to even bother giving me the invite to go out on Thursdays because I always worked bright and early the next morning. But given the fact that I want to start to be assimilated into this new group of friends, and see the boy as much as I can cause I really like him, I have went out every Thursday for the past few weeks. And here I am with my eyes looking like little slits having the oh so hot puffy I was up til 3am look. This is me every Friday, and my co workers know not to talk to me for the first 2 or 3 hours of work because of this.

Our Thursdays start at a bar called Hemingway's in Oakland where we indulge ourselves with the special that includes $1.50 Coronas and Heinekens, as well as the half priced food menu. We all gather at 9 sharply and begin what I will call the "What I would do to that straight boy" game. This is where we all look around the bar and try to find the hottest straight boys and well, we say what we would do to them. After one to many beers we find ourselves going to Mad Mex for the infamous Margaritas where you cant have one and not leave half hammered. I hate it here. The Oakland Mad Mex is quite pitiful. Its amazing how a place like that can make every person in there to feel like a sardine in a can. Filled with smoke, drunk frat boys *which is not always a bad thing, and pushy college co-eds, it is my most unfavored stop of the night. We then make our way up to 5801. I think the Burgh's finest and most overpriced gay establishment. We pay for our 5 dollar beers and play darts while making ridiculous bets for the loser of the game. This usually involves someone getting naked or stripping, which of course never happens. My boy and I are always on the same team *how cute, but we both suck horribly at this game, so it never ends in our favor, but we still appreciate each others enthusiasm to play another game. Where we lose again and I get made fun of for being a the youngster playing darts at a gay bar.

This will probably be my Thursday ritual for at least the rest of the summer. During the fall, my boy has to start getting up early for work as well so that will most likely put an end to the Thursday drinking schedule, the "What I would do to that straight boy" game, and the losing streak that we both as a team share and look forward to every Thursday.