We've Studied the Map & We're Going This Way

Last night was meant to be my night at home to finally catch up on water and sleep, or at least attempt to sleep, in the heat, with my three fans placed on high several feet from my body covering it in thirds.

In New York though, I've learned quickly, that's never a given.

At 10pm I received a phone call from a friend proclaiming the night as one not be missed: and honestly, it wasn't.

We quickly met at a place called Beige, where by midnight the extensive seating, dance, bar, and patio areas were filled with largely attractive and young gay men by the near hundreds. On a Tuesday night. I'm never leaving this town.

I'll add, however, just how fitting the bar's name really was: conversations were the farthest thing from colorful. They were largely promiscuous and self-absorbed, shallow and flirtatious; but there's a place for everything and you make of New York what you will. Another thing I've learned quickly is that the city offers everything and you cultivate from it what you will (I'll refrain from karma diatribe).

This brings me to Nicholas, the friend I came to meet. Nick moved to New York from San Francisco two years ago, and therefore came from a nearly identical background and served as a perfect exemplification of how I might expect to feel two years from now.

I spent two hours with Nick last night for the first time in those two years. Words I would use to describe him: pensive, bitter, shallow, weathered, irritable, discontent, disillusioned, and ready to leave town as quickly as possible.

It was great to see Nick, in fact I'd go as far as to say destined. It was pretty obvious though that he had spent the past two years in New York frequenting places like Beige in hopes of finding something more enriching and resplendent in his life.

I think I'll go back next week - if only for the irony.