His reaction amused me

I briefly mentioned (see the sixth paragraph of this post) that a guy chatted me up and even asked for my phone number on Pride Weekend.  At the time, I half figured that he was mainly looking for a free drink that night, and the fact that he never contacted me pretty much confirmed my suspicions for me.  Last night, we crossed paths briefly while I was at Home Bar.  I found the entire thing rather amusing, personally.

If a player like this doesn't call me,
I'm most likely to count myself lucky.

I was wandering through the bar, enjoying myself and smiling at people like I normally do.  As I turned slightly to head for the restrooms, I spotted him directly in my path.  It took me a second to recognize him.  I think the only reason I fully recognized him was the expression on his face.  It was a mixture of displeasure and concern.  I don't know if he thought I was going to come up to him and start talking to him, make a scene over the fact that he never called, or otherwise interfere with his attempts to get lucky and/or scam something else out of someone else.  (I heard that he ended up leaving with some other guy shortly after that.)  At any rate, I found his reaction funny.  At the time, I only had one objective in mind:  Making my way to the bathroom that was directly behind him from my current position.  So I kept smiling and weaved on by.  When I came back out, he was gone.

Guys like that amused me.  I mean, we chatted two weeks ago, he came on strong, asked for my number, and then never followed through after that.  At that point, I shrugged my shoulders, said "Damn," and got on with my life.  To be honest, I thought that his reaction simply pointed out how highly he thought of himself, to think I'd continue to chase after him or mess up my night over him.  The guy was that cute, but not that cute.  (These days, no one is that cute.)

Plus, you know, I have better things to do than chase after players.  Like go for walks, chat with friends, flirt with other guys, and watch paint dry.  ;)

Expanding my social network and scene options.

I decided not to get with Pianoman yesterday.  I just decided that no matter how good it would be, I wasn't in the mood for no-strings sex, especially not with someone who's not into me so much as into the idea of having sex with whoever is available.  Granted, I probably should have contacted him to let him know I had decided not to hook up with him.  Instead, I just didn't contact him again to make definite plans.  But then again, he didn't contact me or follow through, so fair's fair, right.

This is not a color you're likely to find in Manly Bar.

I ended up going to a new bar last night.  I'll call it Manly Bar (yes, this post will call for some updates to the score card), since it caters to guys into leather and bears.  Last night was a night mostly for bears (and guys who like bears) and sponsored by local bear group.  Management told me about the event a week ago and thought I'd be interested.  I mentioned that I was considering going earlier yesterday and Sassy Waiter really pushed me into going.  So I showed up around 9pm.

I was a bit nervous going to a different place where I didn't know anyone.  I mean, I want to get out and meet people, but I have a problem just starting conversations with random people.  Fortunately, that problem resolved itself when I ran into Nicely Neurotic, a friend of mine who I tend to know from a more professional setting.  So I walked over to say hi to him, and he gave me a surprising favor.  I ended up spending my time there hanging out with him for the most part and he introduced me to about a half dozen other guys there.

Granted, Nicely Neurotic saw what he did slightly differently.  When I told him that I appreciated the fact that he introduced me around and made things much more comfortable with me, he responded by saying, "Yeah?  I was just being a friend."  He seemed to find it weird that I considered it such a big deal.

I suppose he's right.  Good friends do things like that.  I guess the problem is, I'm not used to being out at bars and in other social settings with good friends.  I've usually gone to Home Bar with people who just don't think think of simple things like making introductions.  Well, Management and the waiters have when they can.  But I also usually see them when they're working, so they really can't play social butterfly.

So having Nicely Neurotic around gave me a chance to meet people, be friendly, and be charmingly witty.  Plus it gave me someone to tease, which went over well with one of his friends.  One of his friends even started playing with my chest.  I wasn't really into him, but it felt nice.  Plus it was one of those rare moments where I felt a guy was actually enjoying my body because he liked it, rather than just looking for a hole to get off in.  So I think I'll be going back to Manly Bar.  Who knows, I might even ask Nicely Neurotic to let me know when he's going again so I can hang with him, at least until I get to know some of the other patrons well enough to not need him to feel like I have a connection.

I only ended up staying about an hour and a half.  I'm not sure why I left when I did.  I was having a great time.  Well, I know why I left.  I was getting restless for some reason.  I just don't know why I was getting restless.  I was restless most of the night.  Even when I stopped at Home Bar after leaving Manly Bar,  I felt restless.  I ended up going for about a ten minute walk around a few blocks while I was there.  I think I was just in a mood where I wanted to be on the go.

Manly bar will be having another event geared toward bears next month.  Hopefully I'll be more calm and able to stay longer that time.

On Friends and Commitment

Today has been a pretty quiet day.  I got up way early and did a load of laundry, then went out to breakfast and hung out with friends.  Not the friends throwing the pool party, mind you.  I decided to skip the pool party.  To be honest, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that those particular "friends" had been out of my life for out of six months and I saw no reason to pull them back into it, even for a nice pool party on a hot day.

I'd love to be in a group like this.

Don't get me wrong, they're not bad people.  However, I had spent some time trying to contact them and get together with them last summer.  And while I certainly appreciate that they were busy, the fact that they didn't even return calls to let me know they were busy left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.  So I eventually gave up.

I was a bit surprised when I got the text inviting me over yesterday for that very reason.  So I told them I'd think about it and let them know.  Well, I let them know by not showing up.

In some ways, it was a hard decision for me to make.  I've never been one to just kick friends out of my life, especially at a time like this, when I'm actually trying to expand my circle of friends so that I have someone to hang out with.  So it seems a little counter-intuitive to blow off (insert Beavis and Butthead soundbite here) an invitation to hang with friends.

But the thing is, I also feel like I've been down this road with these friends before.  They suddenly decide they want to have friends over and they send out last-minute invitations.  I go and admittedly have a good time.  I get my hopes up that this is the beginning of getting together more often.  Then I'm disappointed when the radio silence resumes.

I just don't need that.  So I'll let them go and find friends who are more consistent. I'll find people that I can hang with on a regular basis and seem to be interested in putting in their share of the effort.  (Hey, do I sense a theme here?)

On that note, I think I'm going to go to Home Bar tonight and catch some of the drag show.  Management says they'll be serving food outdoors even, so when I need a break from the crowd and the heat, I can run outside for a quick bite.  I just hope I can avoid Snuggly Bear for most of the night.