So much for an afternoon of culture (Drinking day with MicHELLe)

I really should have been packing for Australia, but an afternoon with a friend seemed much more fun! When I got to MicHELLe’s, she was towards the end of watching an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race on TiVo (“It was like Mortal Kombat!”).

MicHELLe broke out her laptop: “How much does it cost to get into this place… because I have almost no cash on me.”

Me: “Look up their hours, too.”

MicHELLe: “Okay, they close at 8… and it’s $15 to get in… Or we could go to a bar!”

Me: “So much for an afternoon of culture.”

We bellied up at The Ritz first, which was sparsely populated and not all that cutely so. But the upside was the music and getting to watch The Fifth Element on their TV screens. There’s a scene where they re-compose Leeloo's body and she’s crouched over inside a glass cage dressed in the white bandages with the bright orange hair. The closed caption said something like, “Mutters indistinguishable language.” I immediately blurted out, “Rah rah ra-a-ah! Roma Ro-ma-ma! Gaga, oo lala!”

As we were watching and harmonizing with whatever pop music they were playing (which, at one point, involved arm choreography and background vocals to “Dreamgirls” from Dreamgirls), a white guy in his 40s came up and started talking to MicHELLe and me (mostly MicHELLe). MicHELLe made a joking comparison between herself and Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and this guy said something about the actor being fat now. Then he said something about tap dancing that went into slightly dangerous territory. We laughed it off, and after he walked away, we laughed even harder as I did the minstrel-dancing-for-chicken dance.

We had a nice kee-kee with a cute Asian dude who was sitting right near us and overheard before we moved on to 9^th Ave Saloon. While there, MicHELLe managed to attract and engage the least attractive, most drunk, and youngest person in the bar. He was going on and on about how he thought this pop diva was so much better than some other one, and I literally kicked MicHELLe under the bar when she asked him follow-up questions. It was obviously time to eat.

After some Thai food, and run-in with TTT at Starbucks (she was being lame), we ditched HK and headed to The Village. Our first stop was Boots ‘N Saddle, where they were celebrating Dominican Independence. They had 3 Latin go-goes and free red shots. They were playing all the classic bachata and salsa that I was used to hearing at No Parking. MicHELLe and I started talking to a circle of 4 older white guys, one of whom was really handsome. I noticed about 10 minutes into MicHELLe's flirting that one of them had a gold band on his ring finger. It took another 5 minutes before I saw the matching one on the other guy.

We bade our banter buddies adieu and headed to The Hangar. They were celebrating the birthday of HEB (Hot Energetic Bartender), whom I may not have mentioned before but I kind of adore because he’s about 3x as energetic and attentive as any bartender I’ve ever seen (okay, and because he’s hot). I first met him about a year ago at View Bar, but now he's at The Hangar on the weekends.

HEB (talking really fast): “Hey, how’s it going! Good to see you! You look great! What can I get you?”

Me: “Hey, let me get 2 scewdrivers, please.”

Him: “Two screwdrivers. Okay. Cool. Two screwdrivers. Alright. Coming right up!”

They brought out a lit birthday cake and sang happy birthday to HEB. Not long after that, MicHELLe and I left went to Rock Bar, where we ran into the 4 older guys from Boots 'N Saddle. MicHELLe finally noticed the matching rings.

We ended the night at Posh. I stayed for a little while, but for some reason, I just wasn’t feeling it that night.

Did I mention I was leaving for Australia in 2 days?!

Here are a few teaser photos from my trip to Oz. Enjoy.

Click here to check out Northern Decadence '09 (Labor Day).

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Photos borrowed from tg7archive.blogspot.com and gogirlfriend.com.