FabYULEus!

I saw the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington's holiday show, "FabYULEus!", at the Lisner Auditorium Saturday night with Jeff M., Bob R., and another man named Bobby. Doug M. was supposed to join us, but he's struggling with some bug and didn't feel like coming out, poor dear.



The show lived up to its name. GMCW has some very talented people working on stage and behind the scenes. I had a fantastic time! My favorite number had to be when Santa and several cute men in long red underwear and white gloves sat in a row and did a "hand jive" number, their gloves flying back and forth. The men wore little elf hats with bells on them, and they would tap their hats to ring the bells in time. Second place goes to the Sugar Plum Fairy!



They also had the March of the Toy Soldiers, with a little platoon of toy soldiers marching around the stage and a number where Santa had prohibited the elves from using iPods or MP3 players while working. He also forbid them to sing their beloved showtunes, so they sang Christmas songs arranged to showtune music. Very cute.



"Carol Channing" made an appearance in "The Three Kings and a Star" (Carol was the "star"). The DC Cowboys strutted their stuff for a couple of tunes. To cap off the program, they ended with "Silent Night", performed with an ASL interpreter standing in front of the chorus, then performed again with the entire chorus signing, then a third time in absolute silence in ASL. It was wonderful!

I went home Saturday night with Rob, who was one of performers. This was his last production with GMCW before he and Mike move up to Martha's Vineyard in the spring. I must have talked quite a bit about how much I enjoyed the show, because he woke me up Sunday morning and invited me to see it again!

So Rob, Mike and I went back into DC for Rob's very last show. I didn't get a seat with Mike, but I sat in one of the front rows in the orchestra section. This time I remembered my camera, which explains these photos. Afterwards, we attended the chorus reception, where I got to rub elbows with these talented men!

Boundaries?

Before we went to the concert Saturday, I met Jeff at the metro station near his home and I accompanied him to pick up a rental car for the weekend so he could run some errands on Sunday. I was intending to tag along with him while he ran errands on Saturday, but he invited me back to his place to mess around instead.

He told me that he wanted to try something new, and introduced me to a little device that Mr. S Leather calls the "neuro wheel" — it's essentially a tracing wheel like you would use when sewing, but made out of solid metal with more weight and the points are sharper.

Wow! Amazing sensations! We spent more than an hour running these things over each other (he has two of them, for "stereo") before we had to clean up to meet his friend Bobby for the concert.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should try a little harder to explore more stuff like this, because I seem to really enjoy it. Hm... (Insert thoughtful pause here.) Nah. I think that my current pace is just fine. When my friends suggest things that they think I might enjoy, it's not like a course of study, it's just play. No need to go whole hog, so to speak!

Fun with Jeff in the afternoon, dinner with Bob and Jeff, then the concert in the evening. Saturday was a great day!

Just a note...

I know the difference between "it's" and "its" and it really annoys me when I make an error. I like my spelling and such to be the best I can make it, although I don't know as much about the punctuation that I use as I should (like semicolons and dashes). I should take the time to figure those out.

Just a note because I was re-reading the FabYULEus! entry and found "it's" where it should have been "its".

I immediately fixed it. :-)

:-(

Today, I added another entry to my links list. It's the post where I'm musing on the thought that HIV can be a blessing. After I did that, I visited the first link, the one that I labeled, "My HIV Story," about how I discovered that I have HIV.

And there was a comment from Cameron. "Thank you for being part of my life."

I replied that I was hoping to see him again and give him a big hug.

That never happened.

Monday: played hooky

Mike and Rob left early this morning about 6:30 a.m. to catch their plane to Massachusetts. I know it was 6:30 because Beau started howling and crying when they left, which was fortuitous because it turns out that I had set the alarm for 6:15 p.m. rather than 6:30 a.m. Stupid clock. It doesn't indicate PM, it only indicates AM and I always forget that when I stay here.

Anyway, I borrowed the car and drove to Baltimore and back to sacrifice a vial of blood for a reading of my health fortunes. Stopped at my apartment to drop off a rent check and pick up a shirt for a client meeting in Lanham, MD tomorrow morning. I also stopped for a breakfast sandwich at the Dunkin' Donuts, which screwed up my appetite for the rest of the day. :-/

I called Eric once I had returned to Forest Glen and I accompanied him to Target to select a Christmas tree for his apartment. Then we stopped at the food court so he could grab some lunch.

I had intended to do some work after I got back, rationalizing the morning away as time off for my doctor's appointment, but ended up taking a nap instead. I have to get up to speed on the newer versions of FileMaker Pro because my new project uses it. I have to convert an existing solution from version 5.5 to version 8 and then improve upon it.

This project is for my old company. My boss is renting me out to them to help them manage a labor crunch. As I left Friday evening, my old boss exclaimed that he knew he'd find a way to get me to work for him again someday! I bit my tongue and refrained from replying that I'd still be there if his guy hadn't fired my ass when he bought the company! The same guy that's going out to the client's office with me tomorrow. Go figure.

Anyway, Eric rejoined me after 5 p.m. and we went to go see Aeon Flux in Silver Spring. Then we scoped out the book store for a bit, had dinner and returned here to soak in the hot tub. He had to return home tonight to prepare for an early start to his work day tomorrow, but we have plans to pick up where we left off tomorrow night.