Whine and Cheese

Work has been brutal of late, or at least it has felt that way because I've not taken a lot of time off. I'm not overwhelmed, but I think I'm suffering from a bit of burnout. My fuse has been short and growing shorter.

Last week, I remembered that drag queen comedic superstar Bianca Del Rio was going to be in Columbus, OH with her "It's Jester Joke" comedy show. I knew this was going to be the closest the tour was coming to my location, so I hopped online and bought a ticket. I was amazed that I managed to get a FRONT ROW ticket. I had also debated on staying the night to avoid driving home late at night, and I eventually booked a room at a nearby Marriott to the venue.

I ran into some Cincinnati and Dayton bear friends of mine outside, but none of them had seats in the front row. So I was sitting solo and the seats around me were unsold, or the ticket holders did not come. The show was WONDERFUL!

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 7 Alumna Mrs. Kasha Davis opened the show. I think she has a fantastic sense of humor and I loved hearing her sing. She saw me sitting solo and asked where my friends were. I shrugged. She told me that SHE would be my friend and she liked my beard. She asked if it tickled testicles or vaginas. I told her "testicles" and she announced me as a gay and I got a round of applause. I was in heaven.


My new friend Mrs. Kasha Davis

After the warm-up, Bianca came out and did an amazing 90 minutes. She never stops moving. I took probably two dozen or more photos and only a few had no blurs. Her humor was bawdy, irreverent, and non-PC. She explained to the masses that it was going to be that way. I can't imagine why anyone would go to Bianca's show if they didn't know her humor. I absolutely loved it and was howling with laughter many times. I can't wait to see what she does next.


Bianca Del Rio! Yes I was this close!
I made my way back to the hotel and crashed almost immediately. I did make the mistake of opening one of the apps and getting so much "fresh meat" messages. Nice guys, but I didn't have time or energy to hook up with anyone. It must be my age these days.

The next morning, I woke up, got ready, checked out, and drove down to The Book Loft, a 32-room bookstore in the German Village part of Columbus. It's co-owned by a brawny bear friend of mine and I'd not visited there in a long time. I wasn't disappointed. I spent WAY too much money there, but they have so much good stuff there. Seriously, you can wander that book store for hours upon hours and still never really see all of it.

I finally headed for home, enjoying my day off from the office and still basking in the aftermath of the comedy show. I spent a lot of money in the last two days, but the break from the work was certainly worth every penny.

On Saturday, I made a day-long trip to Columbus. I got there just before lunch time to meet a couple of friends for lunch. I've been chatting with Mike and Tony for years. Mike is a KY transplant to Columbus, a handsome ginger bear of a guy, and his hubby Tony is a sweet cub type from Michigan. We met up at the Old Mohawk for really good food and service. After lunch we walked to a coffee house next to a 32-room bookstore called "The Book Loft" for coffee-flavored drinks :)

Tony had to work and he and Mike had driven together, so they went on their merry way. I didn't want to be super-early for the party at Sean and Bo's (aka fedex_cub and demcub), so I decided to check out The Book Loft. The bookstore is a converted multi-apartment home or something like that. The gay/lesbian section was all the way at the top of the floors. I ran into a group of trio of bears who were in town for Bearcamp. While we chatted I happened to notice a fourth daddy bear of sorts who seemed to be following us from room to room.

Eventually the bear trio parted ways and I was shopping alone again only to notice the daddy bear still going room to room with me. He was a tall, blue-collar guy, blondish-gray goatee and stache, and wore a baseball cap. The proximity of him to me was noticeable, but I thought I was just being cruised. It was very flattering actually. Finally we ended up talking, him asking me if I was local and where was this great burger joint he'd heard about. I had to defer him to the clerk for that info. After a quick chat, we split off to other rooms.

As I was roaming about, I ran into him again. He was sitting in a room reading through a book. He saw me and we started chatting again. He asked me what I was in town for and I explained I was there for an annual party some friends throw during the bear run. He perked up on the phrase and asked what that was. "Oh boy," I thought. So I explained what a bear run was and told him the three guys I was hanging with earlier were here for that gathering. He asked if there were guys that looked like him there and I told him emphatically, "Oh yeah...." He was waiting there for his wife to be done with a conference nearby, but that he often spent time at some adult bookstores to meet up with guys. He added, "Of course, I don't want my wife finding out about that."

He was heading out soon and I needed to make my way to the party too. I felt really sorry for him. He seemed like a nice guy who yearns for something he felt he can't have. I suspect he is one of those guys from rural Ohio who got married because that was what was expected of him.

Party time rolled around, so I went to Bo and Sean's and had a fantastic time. It was quite a list of folks attending, including Brian (cincycub), Derek and Chris (_decibel_ and kybigstew), and Jeremy (jeremasaur). I also got to finally meet a few folks in person, like Sean (txwriterbear), Tommy (allsmilesbear), and John (rockyjohn).

The punch was tasty (and way too inviting on a hot day) and I skipped the Jell-O shots because I heard they were potent (Heh!). There were so many folks there, I've heard the number was around 150. It was hard to keep track of them all and I did eventually start forgetting names, though I will blame the punch for part of that. Despite the rain, it was a fantastic party and it was great to see so many familiar faces. Big thanks to Bo and Sean for another amazing bash!

I took lots of pics. The full set can be seen here.

Two odd things happened earlier today. The first involved two cutesy college chicks at the next table at Max & Erma's for lunch. One got a phone call from a girlfriend who needed a college roommate. The one girl who answered the phone replied to her friend, "Well, what about Erin? You know, the one who was in trouble with the law last semester.." Poor girl, even her friends don't seem to like her.

The second one had me at a stop light with the window down. A car with a man and woman pulled up beside me and just yelled "Hi" as politely as possible. I just smiled nervously and said "hi" back. They drove off when the light went green. Very pleasant, but very strange.

I had a great night with stripedtiger. He picked me up from my hotel and we had dinner at The Happy Greek. Flaming cheese, the various spreads on pita bread, and Chicken Athena made for one of the tastiest dinners I've had in a while... and better service than that hag gave us at the Red Robin the other night. I'm not bitter :) After filling up on dinner, we walked to the Open Book bookstore and I checked out the dirty movies and the store's cat, Harvey Milk, who is really sweet tomcat. After the bookstore, we went to Cold Stone Creamery for desert (yes, we're pigs.. but we're happy pigs..). A quick walk though the local park and Dan took me back to my hotel. He's such a sweet guy :)

Well, now I'm full and beat, so I'll sleep well tonight...