AAAAAAAAargh. Posting attempt 3

Let's try that again, shall we?

It's been a long weekend, with a lot of fun and a lot less sleep. Saturday a 'net-friend popped into town, his first time in the big city, and wanted to be shown around...so, given he was drop-dead gorgeous and charming to boot, of course he got the bar tour of the local establishments. Actually quite a bit of fun, and the town has changed quite a bit in the 4+ years since I last did a grand tour...part of the fun, of course, was running about with someone who was seeing it all for the first time, and part was the evil pleasure of arguing "We really have to go to the Eagle to appreciate the full range of diversity in the community....." when one of my companions has been cringing in fear at such a thing for some years..since I took him to the ToolShed in Palm Springs and he spent the night with back plastered against the wall with such force that he left the "OL Memorial Buttock Prints" emblazoned thereupon.

Night wound up (more evil pleasure) with a moderately tossed 21yo listening to three older guys go at it (2 GOP, one LIB) on the topic of control as his lil' eyes bulged out at variously (1) Non-Dem Gays, (2) Pro-Gun Gays, (3) Non-Liberal Gays, & (4) Arguments thereamong not portraying members of the GOP as consistently diseased pustules of concentrated evil upon the buttocks of humanity. It didn't make it any easier for him that he'd already decided he liked all of us, and respected us.

Poor thing. Having ones worldview shattered is such a trying event. In any instance, my friend (who suffers from a bad case of "not from around here", being from Michigan and all) who was arguing that variously "Nobody needs an AK47 to hunt deer", "The 2nd Amendment only applies to a government sponsored militia", "Semi-Auto Rifles are Uniquely Deadly & Scary Weapons of Mass Destruction", and "97% of folks are too stupid to be allowed to have guns" was blessed with an educational evening as his boyfriend and I ganged up on him and spoonfed him reality....

He got to learn about the relevant titles in the State Code, the USC, that England has higher rate of violent crime per capita than most U.S. cities, that the most firearms-hostile cities in the U.S. are also the most violent (and oddly with the most firearms related deaths), that ballistically an AK47 matches up with a .30-30, that any modern rifle will solve the problems of most ballistic vests (no, virginia, it's not because the gun has a plastic stock....), and sundry other details that left this normally loquacious friend sufficiently baffled that he agreed that before voting on or commenting further he'd at least read the State Code and USC to verify my claim that every "bad thing" that could be done with a firearm (and quite a few things that aren't bad things at all) had long since been legislated as criminal acts...that further gun control attempts were simply misguided attempts at "looking busy" in the face of insoluble problems if painted in their absolute best and kindest light...

As lil' Gop'r tottered off into the night, brain-bent and intellectually battered (for some reason gay folk just get all boggled when you point out they are engaging in wild-eyed bigotry and elitism, or that they are suggesting that the government be authorized to determine who is "worthy" of civil rights), I meandered off into the pre-dawn hours to deliver my visiting and equally boggled friend back to his hostel...

New Years Eve was a blast...Brunch in the morning, then in the evening the same crowd, ending up on the basement dance floor at the big LGBT dance club in town (2+ dance floors, one with '80's music, is a GOOD thing). Was my visiting friends first adult New Years, and so he had way too much fun, and I actually got out on the dance floor (rare in any case) for the first time since Big Surgery last February. It was grand fun, but by 1am I was, with the exception of one rather special and charming gentleman, done for the night...and on those occasions I danced further, doing so w/ my right arm tucked in tight - immobile and out of harms way.

Everyone was delivered safely home, amidst curses at the shortage of 24hr dining joints in this town, and a good night had by all. Fortunately my designated "sober driver delivery service" was only required by one companion (the rest being within crawling distance of their homes), and after 2 nights out late for the first time in ages...I headed home and crashed.

And with all that..it only took THREE tries (w/ 2 Firefox implosions) to post this today/night...

To all a Happy New Year, and to All a Good Night...