Beach Buddies

"A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends."

... Ralph Waldo Emerson

White Meat Monday - My Buddy

“Nights are long since you've been away, I dream of you all through the day, My Buddy, My Buddy, Nobody's quite so true”

... Walter Donaldson

Friends

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

... Albert Camus

Dinner With The Gals

Took Maddie to a neighborhood Greek/Cypriot joint last night, and we were joined by the fabulous Designing Wally - a fellow Astorian who I'd never met. A couple of hours and 3 bottles of wine later, the three of us were laughing like schoolgirls and delighting in each others company. Truly a wonderful evening.

Wally is good people (the jury is still out on Maddie), and I hope he enjoyed our company as much as we did his.

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Motivators: Friendship, Jealousy and Vanity

Early 90's Pool Party at Budge's house. I'm the fabulous bitch in the turban - don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful. Budge's identity will not be revealed, in order to protect the convicted innocent.

In the past when I’ve lost weight, it's usually been for a specific purpose (a guy, an upcoming trip, etc). This time I’m doing it for many different reasons (mostly for my health) – but it never hurts to have a little extra motivation.

One day last week I got a call from my dear friend “Budge”, who happens to be serving time in a federal prison camp for embezzlement. Budge has called periodically over the past 3 years while he’s been “away”, and it’s always nice to hear from him. And it was during this phone call when I got a whole bunch of motivation to lose weight…

A few minutes into our conversation, Budge dropped a bombshell – he has lost 65 pounds!! After being locked up (and the same weight as me) for 3 years, Budge finally decided to start spending time in the gym – especially since he'll be released in lest than a year. And, YES, the fact that Budge has been incarcerated multiple times for White Collar crimes doesn’t faze me in the least - but the fact that he lost so much weight has me in a frenzy.

You see, ever since Budge and I met in 1991 on the dance floor of Stallions bar in Harrisburg, PA – he's usually been just a tad heavier than me. Even when we were both relatively thin 20-somethings, Budge still seemed chunkier (he’s also shorter, which adds to this perception). And I will BE DAMNED if he comes out of prison looking fabulous while I still look like Jabba the (Pizza) Hutt.

Vanity and jealousy can be extremely effective motivators - especially among friends.

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Visiting With Friends

Over the past two weeks I've had the pleasure of not one, but TWO visits from dear blogger friends of mine.

The Minx came to town a while back, and we shared a nice dinner near my job in the Village. I love it when Ms. Minx visits, because she researches and choses restaurants for us based on her culinary knowledge (and my likes/dislikes). Check out the Minx's post HERE for more about our lovely meal.

And yesterday I got to see dear Dan - and finally got to meet his adorable husband, Luis. I met Dan at the bar in his hotel for a drinky-drink, then we met up with Luis and went for gay brunch in Hell's Kitchen. We actually ate at a restaurant directly across the street from my old apartment - and the food (and bartenders) were fabulous. Yes, we dined at the bar (instead of in the dining room) - does that surprise you??

Dan (left) and hubby Luis

So who's coming to visit me next??...

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Sunday In The Bars With Howard

I had an absolutely lovely Sunday with my dear friend - and award-winning music blogger - Howard. Yes, his visit was the reason I called in DRONK yesterday morning.

Howard told me a couple weeks ago that he was coming to NYC to see  Australian vocalist Nathan Leigh Jones perform at Joe's Pub:

I told Howard that I'd love to accompany him, so we met in the village a few hours before the show to catch up and have a "few cocktails". And by "a few", I mean "MANY".

We started at Baoguette/Pho Sure - a Vietnamese sandwich place that The Minx turned me on to for a quick (and cheap) bite to eat:

Then it was cocktail time. First stop - the legendary Monster:

Next stop - the even more legendary Stonewall:

After many rounds, we decided to stumble walk over to Joe's Pub. Once there, we met one of their lovely bartenders - Kate - who served us many MORE cocktails. We found out that Kate is a musician, and one of the projects she's involved with is an Andrews Sisters tribute act called The Tickled Pinks. OMG - Patty, Maxene and LaVerne - in the flesh!

After chatting with Kate for a while, we enjoyed the absolutely delightful show and then were invited to the after-party (it was Nathan Leigh Jone's 30th birthday) at the nearby Cooper Square Hotel:

The Second Floor Bar was extremely swanky - but I was passing out getting tired, so I went home to Astoria:

Howard stayed at the party for a while, before eventually retreating to his sister's house in New Jersey. And, I'm sure once he's recovered, Howard will recap the show in much more detail on his BLOG.

So who's coming to NYC next??? I promise to get you wasted show you a fun time!

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Buddies & Booze

The gentleman on the right is British Royal Marine and television "Gladiator" David McIntosh. See an earlier post about him HERE.

A Great Weekend With Friends

What a lovely weekend spent eating and drinking (my two favorite hobbies) with good friends. 

On Friday night, Kailyn arrived from the West Coast and checked into the DustBunny-Astoria Hotel. We went to a local hole-in-the-wall neighborhood restaurant for some authentic Mexican grub – and our bill came to a whopping $41 bucks for the both of us. I will definitely be back. 

On Saturday we picked up my old friend (and I do mean OLD) Maddie at Penn Station and headed over to The Spanish Institute on fancy Park Avenue. The Institute was putting on an exhibition of the designs of the great couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga, featuring some of Balenciaga’s most fabulous creations – including one of Maddie's favorites: 

After our moment of cultcha, we cabbed it over to Harlem in order to dine at Dinosaur BBQ. Since it was late afternoon (after lunch and before dinner), and because the restaurant is kind of out-of-the-way (125th St. & 12th Ave.) – I figured it wouldn’t be too crowded. 

I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was packed, and we had to wait a little while at the bar before being seated. Also spotted waiting for a table: New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn! 

The food was delish – but unfortunately my pictures didn’t turn out too well so I snagged this one (and the pic above) off the internet. This is the “Tres Hombres” – BBQ brisket, ribs and pork – and it was phenomenal: 

We went back to Astoria and rested a bit before hitting the booze. The plan was to drink it up at my apartment (on-the-cheap) before heading out to The Urges. We laughed, we cried, we danced – and at about 2:30 am we realized we weren’t going anywhere so I made a drunken pizza run before we passed out. 

Yesterday we had Hangover Brunch at my restaurant and Maddie headed back to PA. Kailyn transferred from Casa de DustBunny to a hotel in Manhattan, so she can be closer to all the restaurants she plans on visiting over the next 2 days. Yesterday she went to Harold Dieterle’s place, Perilla (read about it HERE). 

All-in-all, the weekend was absolutely great – even though it didn’t involve any gogoboys. Maybe next time. What did YOU do this weekend??

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Friendship

“Friendships are fragile things, and require as much handling as any other fragile and precious thing.”

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?”

 ... Henry David Thoreau

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Happy Birthday To My Dear Sister - Mistress Maddie

I certainly hope my dear friend and sister - The Mistress Maddie - is having a SMOKIN'-HOT birthday! How does it feel to be 29 AGAIN, Girl?!? Hope you got everything you wished for ...

Here is my gift to you - a "Birthday Boy" for you to play with. Hope you like him!!

Your Loving Sister,

Mame

XOXOXOXO

It Gets Better

I wish every LGBT kid out there could read these beautiful and touching words from Athenae at First Draft. This is SO very true ...

You'll have friends you haven't met yet. God, will you have friends. Friends whose faith will give you faith, whose strength will awe and inspire you, whose company you'll glory in. You'll be courageous with them beside you. You'll laugh so hard your sides hurt. You'll go to baseball games and football games and plays and farmer's markets and out to dinner and brunch and to movies and plays together. They'll come to your parties. You'll go to theirs. They'll e-mail you four times a day and you'll drop everything to answer. You'll babysit their kids and love that their kids know your names. You'll pick them up from the airport and they'll cook for you when you're sick. They'll follow your life like a soap opera and you'll follow theirs. You'll go for months without speaking but think of them every day. You'll think, every day, how lucky you are to have found them. You'll wonder, every day, why they put up with you and sometimes you'll get down and feel broken and unworthy, and they'll come around, and they'll lift you up again.

You'll fill your house with them whenever you can, and as you're in the other room getting drinks you'll hear them laughing and talking. The paint might be peeling and you didn't get a promotion and nobody's making enough money, and everybody in the room is fighting some kind of battle every day and so are you, but you'll hear these people talking and laughing in your home and the love you feel will almost choke you. You'll feel ten feet tall. You'll think to yourself, "I have the life I wanted." And your greatest fear will not be that you'll never get there but that it will all be taken away.

{{{tears}}}

Entire post is HERE. Hat tip to Marker.

It really DOES get better.

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