Bachelor week: progress report

Let’s see, it’s Tuesday, so I’m almost a week into my bachelor time here at the House of Kyle.   Let’s catch up a little.

Friday night, I headed downtown to the Brotherhood, one of my favorite bars to hang out in and owned by a friend of mine.  My goal was to get some happy hour beers and maybe hang out with some friends.  As I came in out of the rain, I saw some butches sitting on the far corner of the bar.  I knew all but one, so introductions were made and we did some catching up.  The bartender, Angie, was so surprised to see me out and about, she bought me the first beer.  That was a sign of good things to come.

One of the butches, is also a writer and we had a spirited and alcohol fueled conversation about the joys and tribulations of writing.  I encouraged her to continue writing and putting it on the web where people could read it.  I envy her way with descriptive words and phrases and her skills of observation bring a lot of depth to everything she writes.

Sitting on the other side of me was another friend.  She and I got into conversation about gender, masculinity, trans topics and the like.  She’s been learning a lot from her queer sister and some FTM friends.  She knows she’s got a lot to learn with regard to vocab and philosophy, and she’s wonderfully open and eager to learn.  Her boyfriend, the bar owner, joined us as well.  He and I have known each other for almost 20 years.  Before long, he had ordered a round for the group of us and that’s how I ended up with a shot of Hussong’s tequila to go along with my second beer.

Did I mention I hadn’t had dinner yet? I had a late lunch, from 1 – 2, at my favorite brew pub, the Fish Tale.  Along with a delicious Rachel sandwhich (Reuben with turkey instead of corned beef), I had an organic amber.  I think I might have snacked at home before leaving for the bar, but by the time the tequila was hitting me, I was in need of something more substantial.

The bar owner and girlfriend were also in need of chow, so we set off together.  They recommended Al Forno Ferruzza, a new place on Fourth, featuring excellent thin crust pizza, calzones and stromboli, among other tasty dishes.  I ordered a very basic pizza and can’t for the life of me remember the name.  At any rate, it was delicious and filled me with happy-tummy feelings.  Even better, my friend decided to treat me.  I’m going to pay that forward by taking Roxy there for dinner, and dessert.  Not only do they have great vegetarian options, they serve classic coke in bottles and have a reputation for excellent canolli.

I had a soccer game on Saturday, but not until 1 pm, leaving me plenty of time to sleep in and still get some housework done.  I busted out some much needed work downstairs, clearing out the grotto so that it could be a guest room later this week.  I processed a bunch of recycling, sorted out items for Goodwill and other destinations.  My soccer game was fairly mild, even if the weather wasn’t.  There was rain and sunshine, alternating, with an almost constant bitter cold wind.  We won handily against the weaker team, meaning I stood watching from the goal most of the time.  And getting cold.  By the time I rode my bike home, it hurt to breath and my sinuses were full.

That’s one thing I hadn’t counted on, getting sick.  I bucked up for Sunday, because I had appointments in Seattle, but since then, I’ve worked from home more than in the office.

On Sunday, I had a date with a photographer.  SD Holman is collecting photos and words for her Butch Photography Project, which will result in a book, at least.  I made my way up and was greeted by Jen Crothers, who I met at Butch Voices in Portland.  Jen is acting as assistant for the project.  I spent a half-hour with SD.  It wasn’t anything like being photographed by Roxy, and I was a bit nervous.  SD didn’t want to give direction, she wanted me to do whatever I needed to in order to express my butchness.  I struck some poses and threw some meaningful looks.  With Roxy, I’m way more relaxed and she’s more spontaneous.  She gives direction and makes suggestions and it’s more play than serious.  Probably not surprising that I’d be more relaxed with her.  I’m a little worried that my photos with SD will come out a bit rigid and forced, but I haven’t seen any, so I don’t have a clue.  I talked to Roxy afterward and confessed that I felt some butch envy/insecurity about the whole thing.  SD is very butch in a completely unambiguous way and I’d showed up in a button down, doing my suburban butch dad/engineer thing.  I’m not sure I’ll ever be completely immune to that insecurity, but I also know a photo book of butch clones isn’t what Holman is going for, and I support that vision.

After completing the session, I had a lot of time to kill on Capitol Hill before meeting Onyx and Scarlet for dinner.  I got an expensive and overly-pretentious mocha and walked the length of Broadway.  Some things haven’t changed much there in the decades since I used to frequent those sidewalks and bars.  It’s still a young and fairly superficial place.  In a salute to my younger years, I had a slice at Pagliacci’s, browsed the SGN and watched bundled up hipsters rush by on the side walk.

A couple of hours later, after having a beer at the Wildrose and buying a glass dildo at Babeland, I was holding a table at Ayuttaya, a Thai restaurant nearby.  Onyx and Scarlett soon joined me and we were soon eating great food and having great conversation.  Topics ranged from work, the dearth of quality technical employees available, gender variance, writing and more.  The evening ended all too soon, as Onyx had to work that night.  We are in agreement that going whole years between visits is too much, we really enjoy hanging out.

This content is published under the Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license.