Sunday night I went out with a guy named D-. I’ve been having issues with my car and the damned thing wouldn’t start so I had to take the bus downtown to meet him. It’s always great to be 20 minutes late meeting someone new. Not! Then I got off at the wrong stop and had to walk an extra 4 blocks to get there. As I was hauling butt up the street I realized I was going to be a sweaty, out of breath mess if I walked into the bar as I was, so I slowed down and took it easy for the last block. Once inside I immediately took off my zippy so I wouldn’t pass out in the heat and smoke.
There are various types of hipster in this town, as we all know. D- fell into the scruffy hipster category– thermal long-sleeved shirt under a regular faded t-shirt with a hoodie on top of that, camo pants cut off below the knee, Chucks on his feet, big-framed hipster glasses, all topped off with a newsie cap. Combined with his Chicago accent, he was too adorable!
We had a lot of fun talking over drinks. So much so that he suggested we move on to shoot some pool. A couple of hours of that and I was suddenly without a bus ride home. My bus line stopped running about a half hour before I needed it. The next closest bus line wasn’t due for a half hour so I decided to walk home along that line and see if it would catch up to me. 45 blocks and a river crossing later, I turned off into my neighborhood. The bus never caught up to me even though it should have, according to the schedule. It took me a solid hour to get home, almost all uphill. I was nuked!
On the way, I had a text conversation with D- who had texted me when he got home (a shorter walk in the opposite direction for him) to let me know he’d had a lot of fun. It was nice to be in touch with someone as I walked the empty streets. I have to say, in spite of my aggravation with the lack of buses, it was cool that I was able to walk through the inner city at 1am on a Sunday night without running into trouble. The “don’t even think about fucking with me” vibe I give off in such situations probably helped.
Anyway, D- was a doll and I would totally hang out with him again. He was interesting and good natured, easy to chat with, and cute. He’s about 6 years younger than me, but I didn’t notice it. He didn’t even seem to get mad when I kept beating him at pool. Nor did he try to “teach” me stuff. These are both good signs in my book.
Now the poor guy is down with a bad cold. He didn’t get it from me! There was no kissing or touching of any kind. I might have kissed him if I hadn’t been so distracted by my transportation issues at the end. On the other hand, I don’t mind that we didn’t go there. There’s time enough for that and after all, I have another Chicago boy lined up for tonight…
