What a [crazy] night!

Well as it happens, strangely enough I hadn't been out much this week. Well at least with my gay friends. I had thought about going to the Phoenix on Wednesday but that didn't pan out. The weather on Thursday was pretty bad, raining most of the day, well drizzle anyway. But when you get a text that says 'splash at 10.30?' what are you gonna do but say 'hell yeah' . Shower, change and time to head out.

I got in and there they were. Hanging out near the entrance with drinks chatting away. Um this is Splash is it not? A few guys left early (working boys I guess) while the rest of us ended up on the dancefloor. It was a real fun night, at one point some girls started dancing with a couple of us, and kind of got in between us, after which one of them asked if she'd just cockblocked me, lmao! No, we were just friends. There were a couple others (guys) who wanted to dance, but I just wasn't interested, even having to remove my hand from the grasp of one of them. There were a couple cute guys I noticed, but I wasn't exactly on the prowl. I came to enjoy myself, and if something happens, then it happens, lol.

I did notice one guy, i thought he was kinda hot. His name was Marco, and he was visiting from Milan. Anyway he was older than me, not quite sure how much older. But that's sort of my type, someone who looks like a man, as opposed to someone who looks like he just became legal. Facial hair trimmed short, T-shirt off, perfect. After a while looking at each other and it seemed like he was dancing with another guy, he came over to me and we started dancing. He got really close, close enough to touch, I did.

We danced alot, got very sweaty, got really up close and personal. And then we kissed. And kiss we did. I guess I really love kissing :) Every time he walked away for a drink or to check on a friend or something I couldn't wait for him to get back. We were there for a good few hours and we were all over the place. Too bad there's not so many places to hide. It got really hot and heavy at times, he had me up against a column near the bar here, another place there, upstairs, downstairs, against one of the booths at the back. One thing I know for sure is that I need to read up on indecent exposure laws in NY, lmao! I must've gotten quite carried away at times.

We went out and the question was what to do. I couldn't bring anyone back to my place and he was visiting and couldn't go back to where he was staying. I thought that might be it then, but he suggested going to a men's sauna. And for some reason I said yes. He googled it on his iphone, found one and off we went. Now i'd read about these places but still wasn't sure what to expect.

I'm sure the fact that I went will bring different responses. Some will probably think WTF why on earth would you go somewhere like that? Others will probably think great you got to experience another side of gay 'culture'. I really had to think about whether I was going to write about this or not, i'd thought it might be time for my blog to get a bit less explicit about what I do. I mean, i'm not as anonymous as I used to be. Plenty of my friends know who Jay Murray is and read all about my life. Including someone who knows who I am, lives in the place where I'm from and won't tell me who he is. Not that I think he'll go around telling people about this, but who the hell knows.

Anyway so back to the point, I didn't do anything crazy there even though he was into more than 1 guy at once, we settled on a bit of a compromise. I played safe and when I was done and poppers were brought out, I left. Waste of money I can tell you. Lesson for next time, hook up with a guy who has somewhere to go to!

Thus ends the fun and games

I know i already blogged twice this week, but I've been having withdrawal symptoms and this post just needed to be written. So i'll start with PhD. I liked him, i thought he was funny and sweet, and smart, and the fact that he was hot didn't hurt. We had an interesting kind of friendship. We were very open with each other, very flirty, i loved chatting with him online. Once I thought i'd gone too far and the response was basically not to worry about it. If I was myself, he could be himself. Suffice to say I had a crush on this guy. Don't get me wrong, I never thought anything would happen between us, I just thought we'd be good friends. Spending the weekend with him was great but i think i went way too far with my games and flirting and such and started to feel bad about it. Obviously it was because I had this crush on him (i think). So at some point during the week I was in Manhattan so i texted him if i could see him to chat.

My problem is i'm kind of a shy person, and being the closeted gay guy that I am I'm used to keeping my feelings and emotions to myself. Anyone I ever had a crush on never had the faintest clue. And here was someone I could actually tell. I had everything planned out, what I was going to say, but actually getting the words out was like pulling teeth. A few times I wondered why I had even bothered to come to tell him. It would just make things awkward between us. But I was here and I needed to let it out. I get comments from people that love the way I write. I have a decent english education and seem to have a knack for writing and writing and writing. Even writing about this stuff is easy. But put me in front of a person and ask me to talk about my feelings and i turn into a blubbering mess.

Ok so it didn't happen that badly and eventually I got it out. Yes I had a crush on him. It's probably why I went way overboard and i was sorry if I made him feel uncomfortable. I told him I knew that there was nothing going to happen between us, but I hoped we could stay friends and things wouldn't become awkward between us. He seemed cool with that and we hugged and I left, feeling alot better afterwards.

Of course things don't always turn out the way one hopes. Now things kind of feel strained between us. I'd see him on fb chat and say hi, but things just aren't the same. Now I don't even bother to say hi. Everything just feels different. I'm not really in the mood to go into specifics right now, but I feel like I just lost what could've been a good friend. I'm surprised he hasn't actually unfriended me on facebook. Jay, next time keep your fucking mouth shut!

As a side note speaking of being unfriended on facebook. It happens, nothing really can be done about it. I don't care, well usually I don't care because I don't even notice. There is this one guy who I noticed just unfriended me (from both my real and fake profiles). We weren't good friends or anything. But he was a nice guy and we used to chat every now and then and he'd even suggested meeting me in person sometime soon, which I was excited about. And then he unfriended me. It sucks I tell you.

Ok onto the next person I wanted to talk about. The guy I met Thursday night. Yeah the guy I kissed. I barely know him, and I don't know why i'm so mad about this but I am. He texted me from LA on Friday night and I replied. I thought should I text him to see how he is or wait for him to contact me again? I weighed up the options and decided on Sunday to see how his weekend is going so I sent him a text. Only I didn't get a response. Oh well, things happen. He'd said he'd be back in NYC midweek, so i guess that could be Wednesday, or possibly even Tuesday or Thursday. In his texts to me he seemed quite keen. Keen for what, i'm not quite sure. By Wednesday I was going crazy. Maybe it's just me but if I text someone I do expect a response. Isn't that the normal thing to do? I wonder if i'll actually hear from him again.

Of course there was this other guy from Saturday. I got his number but thats about it. We'll just be friends it seems, if that.

Sometimes I wonder if i expect too much from people. Is finding someone to date that you click with supposed to be all awkward and fucked up? Or am I just looking in all the wrong places?

j

Fire Burning on the Dancefloor

I know people are reading my blog, I do see the traffic it gets. I guess my life is kind of boring for most of you. For me my everyday life is exciting, something i've never been able to do before, and something I really enjoy writing about. I promise the next post will be more serious and thought provoking and even possibly scandalous (maybe i'll even get a comment or 2 ;) ). Reading through this post I realized how repetitive it gets since I don't mention people names, so it's always a friend, the boys, the guys. It's annoying for me to read and I know who they are, so it must be even worse for you. Sorry about that, but there's nothing I can do because I am not coming up with fake names for all my friends, lmao.

All this takes place the week after the last post. A friend of mine was having a birthday party at a bar somewhere in the city. I was practically out the door when I get a call letting me know that a cousin of mine had gotten engaged and instead of heading to Manhattan, I was heading to one very religious neighborhood in Brooklyn for the engagement party. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to be there, but how about some notice people?!

Anyway at least I had something to look forward to... I was meeting PhD the next day :) only to have him cancel on me again. Yeah I know, some of us have to work. So instead I met up with a friend from back home who was visiting NYC on some crazy trip around the world. We met in Soho and practically the first thing he said to me was how does my family not know i'm gay. Well I did have my 'gay look' on then. But i guess no-one sees me like that, except my gay friends. We went around while he shopped and shopped but didn't quite drop. We then went back to his hotel to unload all the purchases and for a couple of drinks before going off to dinner in the meatpacking district. The place he wanted to take me to was closed for renovations so we went elsewhere, had a nice meal and then decided to go up on the highline - my second time up there. This time it was sunset and really nice. Quite full as well!

We then walked through Chelsea and went looking for a bar. It was early so we just went in to Ate Ave for a drink or 2. Our waiter was a cute boy from North Dakota... so dreamy :) . It was here that this guy made a move on me. How on earth do you tell a person that you're not into them that way? That they're not your type? Besides the fact that he has a boyfriend back home. Seriously, WTF?! Is it just a gay thing? Where everyone is into open relationships and multiple sex partners and all that shit? I just don't get it. If you find someone that you like and are in a relationship with this person why do you look elsewhere? This whole i can sleep with who I want as long as we maintain a DADT policy back home just riles me up. I guess that sort of ended the night on a slightly bad note.

The next day I had a date. With a girl. I don't think I need to tell you about that, but glad that it's over. The next day I was in Manhattan and I felt I needed to speak to PhD about something. I'd go into more detail but I think it deserves its own post. Suffice to say I have a huge crush on him, lol.

That night was hanging time at the Phoenix. I'd never been there before (almost made it with Mr Z but that didn't happen) so I was glad to see some new bars, especially since I hadn't done much in the East Village. I'd received a text earlier to meet some of the guys there. "Was there a special occasion?" I enquired. "Do we ever need one?" was the response. More than enough reason for me :) . Of course even getting there after the scheduled meeting time doesn't mean there'll be people I know there. There was one guy, glad that someone had shown up to save him from all the boys/men in the room. And he's cute so I could definitely see why he needed it. Eventually people showed up, cheap beers, what more could you want? Drinking, talking, meeting people, friends of friends. It was lots of fun. Eventually most of the guys left so I decided to head to Eastern Bloc with some of my new friends. Of course the 2 minutes I was left alone before we left the Phoenix was more than enough for guys to pounce. Umm no thanks. It was quite late, probably around 2am when we left. We spent an hour at Eastern Bloc (which was past it's prime that late at night) and went home.

The next day it was time for more partying! A friend was having a birthday party at the Elmo Lounge. One thing I don't turn down is a party with the gays cos they sure know how to party. First I popped into Urban Pita on Houston with a (straight) friend before he went off to his own thing. And who do we run into but one of my gay friends. It wasn't a problem because this friend I was with is a close friend that i'd outed myself too. So I kind of introduced him and included that he was straight. Anyway we ate and then went our separate ways. It was funny at this party how many people I recognized as friends of Jay Murray yet who didn't know that I was actually him. So what does one do at a party? Drink, talk, socialize, dance, meet people. So thats what I did. Met lots of people, new guys, old friends, really enjoyed it.

As it got later the party ended and we moved to the location of the afterparty which was Key Club. Maybe 15 of us total, but others were there already. The place was packed and really pumping. What else does one do at a place like this? Drink and dance of course! And yeah more of Jay's friends were here. There were gogo boys, and some dancers and drag queens that put on a bit of a performance. One of the backup dancers was absolutely gorgeous! There was one guy I met there, well I was introduced to him. First we started dancing, then things got closer and before you knew it we were kissing on the dancefloor. Unfortunately things ended too quickly because he had an early flight the following morning so had to make it an early night. But we exchanged numbers and let's see if I hear back from him soon - he said he'll be back midweek. So here's hoping :) It appears that one of the other guys was into this guy and not too happy that I was introduced to him... because he just got cockblocked! And i made it back home before 4.20am for once!

Friday was a crazy day, it wasn't hot, but it was humid as hell. I had planned a weekend in the city (an invite out for Friday night dinner) but for reasons I won't be going into here my usual places were unavailable. I sent out an SOS via facebook status before going out the previous night and someone came through for me. So all was set. I dropped off my stuff at his place (in Washington Heights), had a shower and picked up some fruit for dessert for the meal I was heading to in Hell's Kitchen. I arrived as the guys were in the middle of prayers, which I joined in a bit. Then it was time for food! It was a really nice meal - dairy, which you don't really have much on Friday nights, great company, good food, nice wine. It was a really fun and enjoyable evening. And the huge glass windows provided a light show with a storm in the area. At one point my cellphone buzzed. I must've had a huge smile on my face because the guy sitting opposite me saw me reading the message, and asked if it was from the 'guy from Thursday night'. Yeah it was :)

After the meal we all went our separate ways I went with one guy on the subway, he was heading to a party, but I had no idea where I was heading. But we always have a blast on the subway, and he mentioned how weird it felt realizing the world doesn't stop for the sabbath, everyone goes out, does their own thing and here we were, doing the same thing. Some people overheard us and we got chatting with them a bit, before it was time to get off. Shabbat Shalom bitches!

I decided to meet up with some of the guys who were meeting at Rockit, which is essentially a dance party. Great music, lots of bodies, dancing, drinks. Had a great time even though it was boiling inside and i felt like i had sweat pouring down my face and body constantly. We left late and made it home late (via subway and cab - don't ask, lol).

Saturday morning, time to sleep in. I showered and came out only to find the lunch guests had arrived. I wasn't exactly appropriately dressed to meet guests, haha, but we were going out anyway. We met up with a couple others on the UWS for brunch. A beatiful day, perfect for brunch. We thought of one place but ended up at the Arte Cafe on 73rd St. For an extra $12 they offered unlimited drinks, this was going to be a long brunch. Their menu was big enough that those of us who didn't keep kosher yet wouldn't eat non kosher meat or shellfish would have plenty to pick from. And non stop Peach Bellinis and champagne (among other drinks)? What more could one ask for? Once the glass was emptied they came to refill it. If only service was like this everywhere.

It was a very long and lazy brunch, and once we were done it was off to check out the Met, aka the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some of us were more intoxicated than others, and more guys joined us. There were a few exhibitions we checked out - Francis Bacon, Michaelangelo's first painting, the Egyptian exhibit, a great fashion exhibit and the rooftop of course with some weird metal structure that apparently qualifies as art, lol. After the Met we went to Central Park. Smallish gay Jewish crowd being that it was quite late, but still full of gorgeous guys, including one that sat near us who was quite stunning. What else do you do when you're at a huge place like this. You go for a walk and check out the scenery ;) .

Those who did not join us for the fabulous brunch were getting hungry so we got some food and before long it was off to another party. This time a housewarming in someone's apartment in Hell's Kitchen. I wasn't feeling the best and was thinking of bailing early, and then suddenly I felt fine. Weird. Anyway, the usual crowd, gays, jews, gay jews, and others, together with drinks, music, dancing, and a male to female ratio of approximately 10 to 1. Can't really go wrong with that. Well actually there is if you see a guy you like and are too shy to do much about it other than chat a bit. And of course I get hit on by a girl. Well not quite hit on, she was basically telling me that I am the perfect package, and if I meet someone who is exactly like me, just not gay, I should let her know. Meanwhile if I find someone like me that's not gay, i'm not telling her, i'm going to turn him gay, lmao.

Before the night was over, with plenty of alcohol in my system and a bit high I told this cute guy that I thought he was absolutely gorgeous. But I can't remember what his response was. FML! I think he wasn't interested, but I got his number, and unless I made a complete ass of myself that night, maybe i'll hear from him sometime in the future. Funny though how everyone else I spoke to woke up the next day hungover or threw up upon getting out of a cab, and I was absolutely fine. Ok i know TMI. Maybe my system had been saturated from the last few nights that it just didn't affect me, because I did have plenty to drink throughout the night.

Wow this has been a crazy long blog posting. Well that's my life, until next time :)
Jay

More fun crazy times

Hi,
I know it has taken forever for me to post this, and it's usually best when it's fresh in my memory. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, so I hope I don't forget any details :). And i'm even breaking this post into 2 parts just so I can get something posted while I work on the next part. And this was a good couple of weeks ago.

I spent most of Monday indoors, I was busy with plenty of things to do but as evening came I needed to get out. Checking fb I found a friend who also wanted to head out. We'd met about a month before but never connected, so it was perfect timing. We met at the subway and headed into the city. First stop Splash - Musical Mondays. It definitely was different to my first time there with Mr Splash. Well it wasn't different, but it felt different. I knew what to expect, and while we didn't get into the crowd singing along with everyone we did have a nice time, chatting about life (and drinking of course!). Time to move on, G lounge was pretty dead so onto the Gymbar for more of the same :) Another drink and the odd cigarette later we heard from some boys that were in Vlada, so off to join them for another drink of course! We then moved to Posh, a place I hadn't been to before. It seemed fairly tame once we arrived with people mainly hanging around the bar, but once we hit the dancefloor, the party took off! It was a really fun night, with us boys eventually calling it a night and heading home. Funnily enough I arrived home at 4.20am.

On Wednesday I met up with Mr Splash for lunch. We met in union square and went to a cafe nearby. It was a gorgeous day to be outside. We had a nice lunch and then went walking around the city, window shopping a bit, checking out Chelsea and what it has to offer during the daytime. We ended up deciding to check out the Highline, which for those who don't know is an unused elevated railway line that has been turned into a public space, with gardens, and plants, and lounge chairs on the railway tracks. It looks like it'd be enjoyable to spend some time up there one day. We came down at Gansevoort St and stumbled onto the set of Law & Order: SVU, with a bunch of photographers taking pics of Chritopher Meloni in a sleeveless shirt (yeah he looked hot :) . We made our way back to Union Square where we parted ways.

Thursday was gonna be fun. I had planned on meeting up with PhD for a while, we had done coffee before, and we met at CBST a few weeks back but this time we were actually going to hang out for a bit. We had planned to meet at the Pier on Christopher St, of course nothing ever goes to plan, and he had to stay at work longer than he thought so we just planned on meeting at Union Square. While waiting for him I walked around checking out some stores. Found a shirt at H&M that I liked, but maybe it was too gay to wear it in the very Jewish neighborhood that i live in, so I didn't purchase it. Also in Union Square was live music, which happens every Thursday throughout the summer. Eventually I spotted him through the crowd and we decided on a shawarma place nearby. It was a beautiful day so we headed back to Union Square to eat. I don't remember how long we were there but it was really fun. He's a really nice guy, funny, smart, we had a really nice time. Well I did anyway. We went walking around, checking out some stores a bit before we headed to the UWS for the JQY meeting. We arrived early so went walking on the UWS until it was time to head to the JCC. And I was already starting to regret not buying that shirt.

There was a large turnout at the meeting, larger than normal. The topic of the month was being gay and jewish. There's quite a few new members so it was definitely time for a fresh perspective. It was moderated by a new member too. After the meeting we all headed to the Candlebar which has become the usual hangout after meetings. After a while PhD left but a bunch of us stayed till late. Real late. We started walking and ended up at Posh, which was followed by the Ritz which was quite dead. So we called it a night and went home. 3 of us heading to Brooklyn had a crazy fun time on the subway, these guys are hilarious :) And for the second time that week I got home at 4.20am. Must be an auspicious time.

The next day the weather was beautiful, perfect for getting some sun at the beach with a friend. I had planned a weekend in the city again. I was invited out for friday night with some of the gays, so I asked PhD if i could crash at his place. All was set for my weekend away. On the way to his place I stopped at H&M. Only the shirt in my size was gone :( . So off I went to his place, dropped off my stuff and went to the UWS. The meal was really nice, it was also good to get to know some guys I hadn't really had much of a chance to. When the meal ended we all headed off. I wasn't interested in going out partying so went back home and my host was already back too.

The next morning we popped into a local (orthodox) synagogue for shabbat services. First time i'd done something like that in a while. Afterwards we went for a walk. It was a beautiful day outside so we went from Murray Hill, along the East River down to the Lower East Side. We then subwayed it back to midtown for some shopping. Of course I couldn't find the shirt there either. We parted ways as he headed back home and I was meeting some friends at Central park. It was already starting to get a bit cool and decided I'd stop at a few more stores to see if they had it. Eventually I found it, so off I headed to central park. A bunch of the guys were planning on seeing Bruno that night and had already bought tickets, so i went quickly on someone's iphone to get mine. It had only been open for a few days and it was gonna be a packed house. A few of us decided to go early to save seats for the rest of the stragglers (with a stop on the way where I got to meet a cute guy). Anyway the movie was totally in your face, over the top, vulgar and freaking hilarious. I loved it. Not so sure about the elderly couples and old women who went, lmao.

After the movie everyone was hungry, so we decided on a place for sushi in Chelsea. Some of the guys were going to a birthday party nearby so it was convenient. The only problem was that it was pouring. I hate walking in the rain, especially when i'm going out. Cute guy from before met up with us and brought an umbrella, the rest of us had to tough it out. First stop is a bar on 26th street. The guys weren't sure if it was the black door or the back door. It turned out to be a straight place and the black door. I didn't know the birthday boy at all but i was hanging out with the boys so I didn't care. Cute boy also seemed to be in the same situation, only he was more dressed for a night at a gay club than a night at a straight bar. A tank top with a scarf, he looked adorable :)

Anyway I decided to call it a night, and got soaked again on the way to the subway and then again back to PhD's place. Thats the end of that week And the next week is all ready to be typed so keep an eye out for it :)

J

Funny clips

Yeah I know things have been going slow recently. I'm in the middle of writing a post, and it gets fairly personal... wait this whole blog is personal! Anyway I need to do some things before I post that, so in the meantime I thought i'll do something different. Here's a few clips I thought were really funny (Bud light makes great ads BTW)! Enjoy

My life at a crossroads

So here i am, my life at a crossroads, and not sure which way to turn. I've been in New York for about 6 or 7 months now, and i've been having an amazing time. But the time has come to make some tough decisions. I'm currently in the US on a tourist visa, which allows me to stay for periods of up to 6 months at a time. Clearly i'm not a US citizen or green card holder and things are tough.

I do have some kind of work here, which gives me something of an income. But it's on and off, definitely not a living. I have a college degree, but my industry (along with others right now in New York) and the job market is in the shitter right now. Definitely a bad time to be looking for work, especially when I didn't go to an American college and spend time interning for some large firm here, nor do I have that many connections that I can use to help find work, which is what you really need right now. With people losing their jobs left right and center, even if I manage to find a job, going through the whole visa process just isn't that worth it for companies when there are plenty of Americans looking for work that can start straight away.

Which leads me to my crossroads. While I am enjoying myself here immensely, I'm not exactly accomplishing things with regards to my future. If I can't find work, then what the hell am I doing here? My option is to go elsewhere, i.e. home. I have a return ticket thats coming up soon, that I've extended numerous times and paid the damn change fee each time. And i'm going to have to extend it again. With all the fees i've paid I could've bought an entirely new ticket. I know I want to be here for at least the summer and my visa expires at the end of August. So while technically I could leave, say to Europe or South America and then come back and not go home till later on the in the year, is it worth it?

What do I have here? A great social life - jewish, gay and straight, which I don't really have back home. A smaller jewish community means a smaller circle of friends, and zero gay friends. Most of them are married, with kids, or have moved away. There is something sort of drawing me there. There's this guy I met online. He's a friend of a good friend of mine, and we've been chatting quite a bit online, texting, calling each other. We just really clicked. We've even actually talked about this kind of stuff and are both interested in seeing where it could lead. Obviously no-one is moving to another country just yet to live with the other guy but it'd be nice to finally meet him in person and see what happens. Really it's a matter of who knows! One good thing about living there is I can actually work, I don't have to pay rent, or for food or anything like that until I find a place and move out.

But then i'd be living with my parents at least to begin with and I don't know how i'd handle that, being under their watchful eye the whole time. They don't know yet that i'm gay, in fact I had planned on telling them sometime soon, but definitely not face to face, and certainly not when i'd be seeing them so soon. So really I don't know how much longer to give myself here to try and make things work. It's not like I can claim asylum from persecution in my home country or anything. I live in a 1st world country so that's a waste of time.

I'd hate to give up on this place, but there comes a time when one must accept the reality of things. Is it time yet? Decisions, decisions, and none easy to make :(

j

Debauchery and Divinity in Downtown Manhattan

There was something i felt I needed to blog about... but i think that can wait a bit, and I want to write about the past few days of mine. Well on Thursday night the JCC in Manhattan held a Pride County Fair. After all it is pride weekend/week/month culminating in the pride parade on sunday. I hadn't been feeling the best throughout the week but i wasn't gonna miss this for anything. Got my ticket beforehand and headed into Manhattan. I planned to arrive JMT (jewish mean time) about 45 mins after the scheduled start. Of course knowing my luck I got there to find I didn't know a single person there at the time. Great timing as usual, lol. Wasn't much to do but get a drink and begin schmoozing, which I did, and eventually people I recognized began to show up. There was a whole spread set up, food, drinks, a couple of bars, live music and some carnival games.

It was a lot of fun, meeting new people, hanging out with my friends, the music could've been better though lol. It was a really great social event. Unfortunately it ended early, yeah it was after its scheduled end time but 10.40 or so is still early! The party moved downstairs until people actually decided what to do. And Splash it was! I'm sure you remember my last experience there, which gave birth to the name I gave my friend Mr Splash. Being a few days before Pride Sunday the place was packed! The dancefloor was full and pumping. And of course there was a bit of a tribute to Michael Jackson (and Beyonce... all the single ladies lol). At one point one guy came over and started dancing behind me. I did get a glance at who it was but didn't turn around just yet, i did reach around and held his hands, dancing with him getting closer and closer. Then I turned around and we continued dancing, and then we kissed. He was cute :) . He lived nearby so after a bit of that we headed back to his place, and continued what we started on the dancefloor. The kissing, not the dancing, lol. Of course the kissing led to other stuff, clothes being thrown all over the place, it was hot! Turns out he wasn't that experienced as a bottom and couldn't quite 'accomodate' me, lol. My experience was even less, but we still managed to make it interesting, and sexy and fun. I slept the night and then made my getaway early the following morning. And by getaway i don't mean the walk of shame ;) .

Now i've got a question for you people. If you meet someone in a bar or club or wherever, how do you know if you're sexually compatible? What if you end up at his place only to find out that you're both tops or both bottoms? Do you actually ask? Or just hope that one of you is versatile? And what about the morning after? Or the days after. Should you call him or text him? To say thanks or anything or just let things be. Who makes the first move? Ok too many questions!

Onto the rest of my weekend. Friday was planned earlier in the week. I wanted to attend CBST - Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, aka the gay shule (synagogue) at their Chelsea location. Mr Splash had someone staying at his place so even though I could have stayed there too, I crashed at someone else's place, somewhere lower down and more convenient to where I was going to be hanging over the weekend. So thats how I ended up on the LES - definitely not as Jewish as it used to be. Mr Splash complained that I never end up at CBST when he's there, so maybe we might meet up there sometime in the future, who knows. Now I need to come up with names for people. I stayed with a guy I'll call Reuvi, and then there's PhD (who also asked about going to CBST that week) who I met for coffee not long ago. And no that doesn't stand for pretty huge dick, I haven't met it in person so I can't comment on that ;) . I went with Oliver to CBST and got absolutely drenched on the walk from the subway to the shule (which is funnily enough held in a church). I absolutely hate getting caught in the rain. It messes up my clothes, my hair, everything. It looked like I hadn't bothered to wear an ironed shirt for services.

So Oliver and I got there, and it was starting to fill up, pride weekend and all. We took a couple seats on the side and waited for everything to begin. I notice PhD sitting in the row behind us so I told him to come forward. He was dressed to the nines, with a white shirt, tie, and smart vest. I went for the more smart casual look. The first thing was the blast of a shofar, followed by the choir boogying it up to the front from the back singing and clapping as they went along. There was the lighting of the Shabbat candles, singing various parts of the shabbat prayers, accompanied by music, someone played a clarinet (I think, or maybe it was an oboe). There were 2 women who translated everything into American Sign Language. There were the usual cantors, rabbi and assistant rabbi (or should that be rebbitzens because they were women? lol). It ended up being a full house. One song the choir sang ended up being from the musical La Cage aux Folles (trust Oliver to recognize it).

Some other interesting things were saying Hallel and Al Hanisim for gay pride. For those unaware, hallel is a prayer that is said on Jewish holidays, Rosh Chodesh (the beginnings of the new month) and in some communities on Israeli Independence Day and Yom Yerushalayim, the day that commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967. Al Hanisim (literally 'for the miracles') is a prayer that is added on the festivals of Hannukah and Purim, because the there was a miracle that happened on both days. Coming from a religious background, it was definitely interesting to see these added in. As a side note, I wonder if one has to go back and repeat the shmoneh esrei/amidah if one forgot to add in these special prayers (and if you don't get the joke, just move on, lol). There was also a speaker who ended off that we should all do a mitzvah and go online after services and make a donation toward a campaign for gay marriage. Of course, going online on shabbat is technically more of an aveirah (sin) than a mitzvah, but i've done worse ;) . Throughout the services more and more of my friends showed up. Unfortunately I had to turn down a couple of dinner invitations that night. Not that I wasn't going to enjoy myself, but with a bunch of friends that you'd love to hang out with, you never want to turn anything down. After the services there was supposed to be some kind of kiddush, snack time, but that never eventuated, so it became a social mingling thing. I was going back to Oliver who was hosting a Shabbat dinner with some guys, and had to turn down PhD who was going out to eat with a friend, and had to say no to some other JQY boys who were going with the CBST 20s and 30s out for Japanese.

We took 2 cabs back, one guy was nice enough to offer to walk with me if I didn't want to take a cab on shabbat. I took the cab. We made it back home and had a non traditional shabbat dinner. It was dairy, not meat. Was it kosher, not exactly. But we did start with kiddush (a blessing over a cup of wine to sanctify the sabbath). It was actually quite funny to hear the person who volunteered to say the kiddush to announce before he began that he doesn't believe in god. We then made hamotzi. And onto the food. Tzatziki, pasta, a bunch of different cheeses, Moroccan carrot salad and some nice wine. Of course with the great dinner came some great discussion. Jewish topics of course, there was a shiur (lesson) on Purim (a jewish holiday). Good food, good discussion, with a bunch of friends. What more could one ask for? The night ended with a showing of the Triplets of Belleville before we both fell asleep.

The next day we both slept in. The sun was shining, everyone was tweeting, and we got ready to go to the gay shabbat lunch in central park. Under the usual gay tree, of course. Food there was plenty of. Blankets to avoid wet asses, not so much. The weather was great, the sun was out, what more could one ask for? Perfect day to walk around the park with sunglasses on and just look at all the hot shirtless boys just lying there getting some sun. Oh the humanity! I had a discussion with a friend about some kind of service he was looking at starting up. I won't go into any detail here but it sounds quite interesting and was glad he asked for my perspective. Eventually we made it back home before the rain began.

The next morning I had to work so no partying with the boys on Saturday night, but Sunday night that was a different story. A friend of mine from London, B. was in town with his boyfriend, and I'd been sick most of the week so hadn't managed to catch up with them. We decided to meet at the G Lounge, and then David who you may recall from earlier posts saw my fb status update and said he would meet us there too. Of course the place was packed and the queue was moving very slowly, so we decided to head elsewhere. We began with a drink at a place called Room Service on 8th Ave, and then followed that with a few drinks at the View Bar, also on 8th. We had a fun time, the streets were packed being Pride weekend and all. I may have missed the parade, but at least I was enjoying the afterparties. Eventually the Londoners left and David and I walked around, heading towards the village before I said goodbye to him too. I went back to Chelsea just because I just enjoy walking the streets of Chelsea, full of hot guys, lol.

And that was my gay fun weekend :)
J