LoveFest

I went to LoveFest yesterday. It's pretty amazing when you live in a city where people are naked at noon and parading down Market Street. It was basically a big contagious pot fueled dance party. I'm still mildly shocked when I smell pot smoke in public places, which you seem to smell in just about every public place around here.

The Castro was quite busy last night as well with the Folsom Street Fair coming up tomorrow. I don't have an interest in leather or have any fetishes, but I'm going just for the entertainment value. And maybe to have some hot muscle bound stud rip my shirt off for the millionth time this weekend.

Monday Monday

Now that I know where I'm going to be living, I decided to take a trip to Ikea to look at some small space furniture. I found some great stuff that is much cheaper than I had budgeted for furniture, so now all there is to do it wait until I can move in.

It's a beautiful sunny day. I spent some time out by the pool here at the hotel. After shopping at Ikea, I went down to the Castro and searched out a bar called Moby Dick.

Moby Dick is a nice, small neighborhood bar full of Average Joe's like me. It reminds me a lot of Pronto! in Royal Oak. I met a guy named Charles (why must gay men go by their full names?) who I talked to for the rest of the night. Charles is 6'5" tall, which is hot hot hot. He gave me the low down on the local gym options. Most gyms around here do not publish their rates, so luckily Charles belongs to three gyms in the city and knows all the rates.

We moved over to the Badlands to meet up with some of Charles's friends. On the way in, this adorable blond boy stopped me to try and pick me up. God I love this town. You get cruised everywhere. It's great for the old ego. Inside, this hot couple who couldn't be more than 22 were trying to get me to go home with them. Sometimes I wish I wasn't such a fuddy duddy.

Charles went home to have dinner with his husband, so I stopped into 440 to have a beer before heading back to the hotel. Kevin was there with his roommate Jay, so I hung out with them for a while. They are quite a hoot. Kevin is making me lasagna for lunch tomorrow. I haven't had a home cooked meal in forever! I'm looking forward to it.

Squat and Gobble

Kevin and I met up for breakfast at the Squat and Gobble on Market. It's one of those half service places where you order at a counter and they bring your food out to your table when it's ready. My chorizo scramble was delightful. God I love pork.

Kevin officially knows everyhomo in the city. We had coffee afterward at Peet's coffee which was packed with gays, all of whom Kevin knew on a first name basis.

Kevin was good enough to come with me to look at the loft apartment I have been lusting over ever since I started looking for apartments online. I was ready for disappointment because the place was very cheap and unique, so I figured something must be too good to be true.

The apartment was actually MUCH nicer than I expected. The unit I wanted was one of the cheapest, a studio with a full sleeping loft for a bedroom, so I had prepared myself that one probably wouldn't be available. Well, it turns out, one is, so I put down the deposit. Having Kevin there was invaluable, as I fell in love totally with the place. It was comforting to have a knowledgeable local with me to affirm it was a great place. So anyway, I will be moving in around October 10th.

The Sultan Of Public Relations

After settling into my room, I jumped back on the airport shuttle and headed in to the Castro. I went to 440 Castro for a beer.

The TVs were playing slow motion amateur footage of college wrestling. There was a group of bad leather queens posing for a group photo. If only the bartenders had their shirts off, it could totally be everything my parents fear a gay bar to be. It's a friendly bar though, so the tackiness is forgivable (even the trough-style urinal).

Within a few minutes, Kevin came over to introduce himself to me. Kevin is attractive, 28 years old and works for a PR firm in the city. The beard and shaven head look gives him a sultan-ly air. Maybe it's just because he's Lebanese, I don't know. The Sultan of PR seems to know everyone.

I had a great time talking to Kevin, so we exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet tomorrow for breakfast.

First Class All The Way Baby!

I got a good three hours of sleep last night after the Detroit River cruise my buddies took my on. Thank god I have first class tickets for my move to San Francisco today.

I landed at 4pm mildly buzzed on Bailey's and coffee. I'm staying at the cheapest hotel I could find until October 1st (Airport Travelodge). It doesn't look like much from the outside (frankly, it looks like the kind of place that specializes in hourly rates), but the rooms are surprisingly clean and well decorated.

Hotels are notoriously expensive here, but for some reason, there were no good deals in the city, so I'm way out by the airport. It takes about an hour via Bart to get into town, but it's worth it to save $100 a day.

Young and Unattached

San Francisco here I come! I fell in love with the city when I visited a few weeks ago, and decided to quit my job and move.

Admittedly, it's a pretty impulsive action on my part. So far, it's been going amazingly well. My car lease isn't up until May, so I figured I would have to pay all the payments when I turned it in. It turns out, they just have you get the car appraised and pay the difference between the buyout amount and the cars trade-in value. Which is negative in my case, so I'm getting $1,000 back instead of the $3,500 I thought I would have to pay. I don't have a job in San Francisco, but it turns out a friend of mine needs some contract work done, so I now even have a job more or less. And finally, I found a charity to make my furniture magically disappear instead of selling it. I will get the same amount back on my taxes as I would have gotten from selling it, but without all the hassles.