As I've mentioned before, some of my friends are trying to turn Mondays into Gay Night at Rich O's, and I've been named an Honorary Gay for these occasions.

That's honorary only, so you girls just go ahead and breathe those sighs of relief.

Monday was my last day of vacation. I normally don't like to go out when I have to work the next day, but I figured that since I was technically still on vacation, what the fuck.

It was a pretty quiet night. I think that Gay Night might be a bust - most of them have been quite sparsely attended. I drank three bottles of yummy Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier (413) and talked with SassyGirl, SassyBoy, TacoBell, and LibraryGirl.

I guess SassyGirl's brother is getting married in February. I may go to that, even though I don't know the guy. It would give me something to do, plus it'd be nice to meet some of SassyGirl's relatives. The wedding will be in Eastern Kentucky, right next to West Virginia, so it'll probably be full of redneck clichés and stuff.

Let's see, what else?

SassyGirl took this lovely picture of me.

SassyBoy saw a guy out in front of Rich O's that he said looked like me, but I didn't see any resemblance at all, except that we were both wearing glasses. I guess all straight men look alike to SassyBoy.

This one bull dyke came in, but it was just a coincidence- she didn't know about Gay Night. Her girlfriend was a very hot brunette though. I thought about asking her to put on my glasses, but I was afraid that the bull dyke would beat the shit out of me.

On a completely unrelated note, I've deleted VigilanteGirl's information from my cell phone's memory.

On another unrelated note, HatGirl was a no-show (she's another Honorary Gay) so that sucked.

I'd like to have a vagina for just one day. Okay, two days. I'd spend the first day masturbating, and the second day I'd try to gain some insight into the female species.

A year ago, I sat in this little bar at The Executive West hotel in Louisville. I talked for a while with a friend from the Internet, and I drank some BBC Dark Star Porter. After my friend left, I stayed for a while. I looked at the empty chair across from me, and I imagined that she was there with me, smiling at me, laughing with me.

Tonight, I sat in that same bar. At the same table in fact. I drank the same BBC Dark Star Porter (154). It was a different friend that sat with me this time. More of an acquaintance really. Just one of the local players. Most people think he's a jerk, but I think he's an okay guy.

After he had left, I stayed for a while, and I looked at the empty chair across from me.

She wasn't there of course. No more than she'd really been there last year at this time. No more than she's really been in my life at all since she moved away.

She wasn't there, but that didn't stop me from seeing her.

Just as an experiment, I loosened my grip just a little bit, and I allowed the slightest trickle of that which I'd so successfully stopped back in the Summer. Just to see what would happen.

It was good. It was a happy delusion.

An awful lot has changed in the past year, but some things remain the same.

I have this nearly overpowering urge to do something to break this silence, to see what's going on. But I won't.

I don't know what I'd say anyway.

So I guess I'll go to the tournament and watch for a while.

...is that I'm a little bit too honest sometimes.

For this, you can blame MixedSignalGirl, for showing me the value and freedom of open and honest communication. If you want, you can also blame the fact that the last time I was anything less than completely honest, it didn't particularly end well for anyone involved. Especially not for me.

I paraphrase here:

Dave, I have flung shit into the fan. Brace yourself for the splatter.

And what really sucks is that there was nothing to follow that up. There I was, wearing my best raingear in hopes of weathering the shit storm that was about to hit, and nothing else happened. Nothing at all.

And what sucked even more was that there was nobody that I could whine about it to. None of my friends were at Rich O's - unless you count CuteBlonde and her husband, who I don't count, or DooRagGirl, who was there with some kids for a brief time - and I ended up bracing myself for nothing.

While I waited, and braced myself, I had some beer. Specifically, I had a couple of bottles of my beloved Baltika 6 (298) and a bottle of Weihenstephaner (378).

And now, now I wait.

What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do?

I don't know.

Last night I wasn't supposed to be at Rich O's. I was supposed to be over at the tournament.

Didn't work out that way. I plan to write more about it, but for now I'm still coming to grips with it a little. Plus, I don't want it to sound like sour grapes. So maybe later.

Anyway, after a nap, I went to Rich O's.

The place was so fucking crowded. I really just wanted to leave, but I stayed to keep up the appearance that I wasn't as bothered by things as I really was.

The draft list didn't have anything that interested me, but the bartender recommended one of these:

New Holland The Poet Sweet Stout (4)

(draft) Recommended by the bartender. I didn't really give this beer a fair tasting. It was very roasty, and tasted a little burnt to me. Past experience tells me that if I'd finished the glass I'd probably have liked it better by then. I'll attempt to have this again someday.

After I'd stood at the end of the bar for an hour or so, the island opened up and I went and sat with DooRagGirl and LuckyFucker and this dude that doesn't have a nickname yet.

I switched to something I know and like for the rest of the night. I had three bottles of Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier (362) and all were yummy.

Eventually all of the strangers left the living room area so we went over there. LuckyFucker and his friend left soon afterward and I just spent some time talking with DooRagGirl and making fun of this one fucker who was wearing a leather cowboy hat.