2005-07-30 - 3:52 p.m.
The Black and Blue Ball to benefit Muscular Dystrophy made its appearance in my little town again this last weekend, and true to form, I made out with a strange guy. A stranger, that is. You might remember that last year I made out with My Boyfriend Matthew, who ended up not even coming close to becoming my boyfriend, and eventually started calling himself "Your Ex-boyfriend Matthew" when he called me. I ran into him at the party about a thousand times, and our lips stayed distant. Too bad.
My new stranger's name is Scott. I saw him while I was on the perimeter of the gala having a smoke. He was decked out in his motorcycle riding gear and looked as if he was heading up to his room. A little later, I saw him in the lobby of the hotel looking a bit lost, and still wearing all his riding apparel, so I figured correctly that he was not actually a guest at the hotel.
I approached him and asked what he rode and nodded as if I knew exactly which bike he was talking about. I then asked if he would like to come to the party, which he was totally up for. We stashed his gear in my car, and then I got him in with an illicit wristband I had stashed in my purse, and bought him a drink. Turns out that he had just taken about 9 hours to ride down from Big Sur, taking all the little curvy roads he could find, and was too tired to continue home, which lies about 40 minutes south of here.
So, we drank, and talked a little over Sheila E. pounding some drums, and relaxed until a friend came to pick him up. While we were at my car, he started the kissing thing, which was ok. The kissing itself was fine...I'm thinking that I was pretty tired and ready to call it a night by that point and just was not too much into it. Anyway, he took my number and we shall see if he calls. Seems a nice enough guy.
The party was a good amount of fun, and I was much more behaved than last year. I did, however, drink six double vodka cranberries in the first 2 hours, while nibbling on too few appetizers. I was pretty smashed. A number of my friends were there, and since this party is much like the orgys of Roman times, everyone talks to everyone else, and you can dance with whomever is nearest to you,I was kept busy and happy. I did talk to tall and beautiful Christopher...he must be the most gorgeous man I have ever seen in person.
I also flirted heinously with two local tv personalities, neither of whom I am attracted to at all. But that's what celebrity, such as it is, can do to a person. One is this short, 50-ish Jewish guy who for some reason kept calling me Sunshine and telling me that he loves my body. Ok, he only told me that part once, but I was drunk so I was hearing double. The other is this strange looking Italian guy who is in desperate need of a good hair cut and shave. I was told to introduce myself and warned that he is extremely shy around women. He could barely get a sentence out of his mouth. But on tv he doesn't shut up. Go figger.
After my short time as a celebrity ho, I attempted drink number 7, and fell far short of completing that mission. I got an ice cream instead.
Later that week I got a last minute invite to the King Tut exhibit down at the LA County Museum of Art. It was pretty cool. Some of the stuff was stunning. All of it was over 3000 years old, which is stunning in its own right. Especially to a California girl- next to nothing here is over 100 years old. I remember whistfully being driven past the museum as a child, staring at the lucky people waiting in a line which went down a few blocks to see Tut the last time he was here. Tut was not here himself this time. I'm not really sure that he was actually here last time. But what I mean is that I really wanted to see him or his stuff then, and I was unsure I'd ever get a chance to. I feel very fortunate.
The exhibit let out into the gift shop with the most cheesy faux Egyption replicas I have ever seen. Terrible necklaces, chintzy statues, absolutely horrible Tut likenesses painted on papyrus. Very much like a leering pharoah you might see silk screened onto some t-shirt bearing "I like your Tuts" or something terrible like that. And they wanted over a thousand dollars for each one.
Well, it is time to get ready to go out. I'm having dinner with a friend and will probably end up people watching (tourist season) and having a drink somewhere downtown. It's an absolutely perfect afternoon, and I look forward to getting out into it. Have a great weekend.
