J. Fruit Says...

Ah...so I headed back to NYC this weekend. It's a long weekend and one of my friends is moving to London. I manage to survive the bus ride up (which surprisingly lacked the traffic I expected), despite my imaginings of terrorist plots (who the hell is going to bomb a bus load of people coming up from DC?). This south Asian dude with a gimp walk asked to get off the bus at one of the rest stops along the NJ Turnpike. (Yeah, I can be way politically incorrect.) It's not so much that he's south Asian or even that he had some physical limitation but rather pop culture that made me think that some Keyser Sose was targeting the bus I was riding. Of course, I txt some friends to let them know, just in case. That and the fact that I always hate the whiny people who ask to stop. I don't want to spend anymore time with those folks than I absolutely have to. I just want to get to where I want to be. I arrive to my friend Cinnamon's lovely abode and head right out. I join up with A. and G. down in the East Village for a drink at Phoenix. It's gotten a little younger and a lot cuter with the years but it was still boring. A little empty because of the holiday. Bored, we head up to Chelsea bars. There were people there but still a little empty. Nothing exciting happened at all. Though one little (he must've been under 5 feet) boricua (his term not mine; I would've called him a Nuyorican because of his thick NY accent) started chatting with me. I can't remember much of what he said other than I must've been born in the Bronx the way I was chewing my gum. I think it was meant to be a compliment. He also informed me that he'd be at Splash the next night. I didn't make it.
The rest of the weekend was spent with friends who I hadn't seen as often as I would've liked. Lusty Lady and I met for lunch and walked around SOHO, LES and the EVill. Took a nap to recharge for another night out with some more gays, organized by the departing one. But first, I went over to help pack. Well, honestly, I didn't do much more than shred some documents and make drinks. Somewhere in between, we grabbed a bite at Say Cheese in Hell's Kitchen. When we were done, we went over to the Ritz to meet the others saying bon voyage. It was pretty chill. Got a little dancing in. Started flirting with a couple of boys because that's all I'm interested in right now. Oops. I don't think they thought it was anything serious though. Moved on to Barracuda and danced a little more. Ended up at Cafeteria where I ordered the steak with chimichurri.
The next day was a little slower. Had brunch at Rue 57 with J., M., B. and little M. and M.'s parents. It was cool. The waiter was nice and cute. I wasn't the best conversationalist though because I was so tired. Of course, I took the role of manny for a few minutes when necessary. Yeah, that one came to bite me in the ass when I was slow to note that my white jeans were soiled from her little booties. Fortunately, I was too tired to care/go buy a Tide To Go pen. Then, I walked around a bit with J. to Saks and through the Brazilian Independence day celebration. We parted as I went again went to help V.B. with some last minute packing. This time my help consisted of laying on the bed trying to take a nap and accompanying him to have some chips and margaritas. But I did wash the dishes and lug that heavy ass box down to the cab before sending him off to the airport. Headed up to meet J., A., G., and S. and P. for some dinner at Asia-Kan. We could've gotten free drinks by helping to inaugurate the lounge at the restaurant but apparently I hang with high rollers and didn't need to worry about free. S. and P. head back to their baby and the rest of us headed down to the Gym bar, supposedly for the "friendly" gays there. Yeah, the best I could do was have one guy move across the bar after I told him he looked good with salt and pepper hair. I guess I should've let him just stand there and watch the pool game. Extremely tired, I announce that I'm too tired to go on and we call it a night. Cinnamon will be happy to know that I didn't keep everyone out until 5PM in the morn. Labor day plans didn't pan out so I just strolled around thinking I'd grab a burger at the Shake Shack but the line wrapped around the entire bottom of the park. Ugh! I just grabbed a panini from a deli and took a seat on a bench instead. Great weather for it all weekend, so I was glad to be able to just relax and take it in like the sunbathers as the summer ended. I picked up Bram Stoker's Dracula (anyone up for a book club reading?) for the ride. The bus ride down was uneventful though this one girl that I thought was annoying actually was very sweet because she gave me her cup of soda at the Burger King at the rest stop. Yeah, I was grumpy that we stopped then too.