Neighbor Night

Last night, I decided to go out with my neighbor Garett. We've lived in the same building for three or four years, and while we've hung out socially before when we would bump into each other, we've never actually planned to go out together before. I was looking forward to it. Garett is awesome.

I started by going upstairs and hanging out with him in his apartment. I've lived in this apartment just shy of five years, and have been friendly with a number of other tenants (most of whom have since moved out), but I have never set foot in any other apartment in the building before. It was really quite interesting to see what Garett had done with his space, versus what I've done, considering that our spaces are almost identical. He has a better view than I do, but I also have a lot less stairs to climb to mine, and my plumbing fixtures are cooler than his, but he has a bedroom door where I just have a doorway. It was a bit like hearing a radical remix of a familar song. We drank whiskey and listened to music and talked about our neighbors and smoked a cigarette on the fire escape.

Then we went to 440, which of course used to be called Daddy's, and Garett calls it Debbie's. I only discovered 440 a year and a half ago, but went there a lot in the six months leading up to meeting Marcio, and since I've been with him, it's been pretty much the only place I've gone. It's walkable, which is nice. On the walk there, in front of the gym, I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in almost a year.

We stayed at Debbie's for two beers, or maybe it was three, and then went to a bear-themed dance party south of Market. I texted Marcio: "of course they have food at the bear party" but what they didn't have was PEOPLE, so we didn't even get one drink there, but went instead to the Lone Star, one of many places here that I've never been. The Lone Star is a bear bar, I guess, though it was also pretty empty, and the most memorable part of that experience was that there was a table of Krispy Kreme doughnuts right inside the door. Yes, it's true. Yes, I had one. We stayed chatting in a corner of the back patio until closing and then we came back here. We had one last beer in my apartment, for the symmetry of it, and then Garett went upstairs and I went to sleep.

And then ... today. I ask myself how on earth I ever used to manage to go out two or three nights a week, considering that today I had a headache all day and never even managed to leave the house, and my biggest accomplishment was a three and a half hour nap. Seriously - less than a year ago, I would have had a day like today but then gone out again tonight, and possibly again Monday night. How on earth did I ever get anything done? It's nice not to feel like I have to do that all the time.