Dakota

Nothing like posting once a week. :-\

There's something going on in my life, but I don't know what it is. The symptom seems to be complete lethargy when I'm at home. Maybe it's because I'm tired when I get home. Maybe I just want to grab time to do absolutely nothing. Whatever it is, it means less writing.

I attended the Baltimore Pride Festival last Sunday. As I was leaving, I ran into Dakota, a man that I haven't seen in years. He's changed quite a bit -- filled out in all the right places. He looks better than ever!

He was leaving the festival as well, so he gave me a ride back to my place. The sexual energy was high between us, so I invited him in, only to find that Paul was lying in my bed, surfing the Internet. Paul was on his way back from Pennsylvania and I had given him keys so that he could dump his stuff at my place and go visit the festival.

The three of us hung out for a bit. Paul continued surfing while I lay my head in Dakota's lap. As soon as Paul left, Dakota and I got back to work on that sexual energy thing. As we were lying in the bed, spent, Paul called to ask for directions to the BWMT booth, but Dakota suggested that Paul was just trying to determine if we were fooling around. :-)

Fast forward to Wednesday evening. I met Dakota in Silver Spring after work. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant there, then went to Video Americain to grab A Beautiful Thing, which neither of us had seen in some time. Then his house, movie, sex, sleep.

At the festival, Dakota shared that he's had a crush on me for over ten years. I think that I may have another part-time boyfriend. :-9

Taking inventory

So, on the subject of part-time boyfriends. These are the men that I have a strong emotional connection to:

• Eric, Episcopal priest
• Dakota, Wiccan librarian
• Jeffrey, office manager, massage therapist, plays the viola da gamba

Perhaps adding Dakota to this list is a little premature. We've had only the one date, so it's too soon to tell whether we'll be spending a lot of time together. I certainly hope that's the case.

There are certainly other men that I spend time with. Paul is a regular visitor, coming by at least once a month for dinner and maybe a movie. He'll spend the night and go home the next day, but he's a bit more than just a fuck buddy. Eric, Paul and Jeffrey are the boys I usually spend the night with. Anybody else is a rarity.

I ran into another man at Capitol Pride -- David. I met him at the Mid-Atlantic Men's Gathering in May 2005. We're trying to find time for a date. I get a good feeling from him as well.

la Didone

Last Friday after I left the office, I traveled to American University to see La Didone, an opera written by Francesco Cavalli in 1641. They had an orchestra of period instruments, and Jeffrey was one of the musicians, playing his viola da gamba.

I have to admit that this was the first opera that I ever attended, and I enjoyed it immensely. There were some problems with the translation -- slides weren't advanced on time and then flashed by to catch up. I found out later that that person who had trained to advance the slides dropped out three days prior.

Other than that, the rest of the production was absolutely engrossing. My favorite performers played Cruesa, Cupid (this character was impersonating another character, but I much preferred the Cupid performance), Cassandra/Dido and Venus.

Sometimes, the staging and lighting almost took my breath away. For instance, in Act I, Corebo is killed. As he is dying, he and Cassandra are bathed in a spotlight. Actually, what I took for a single spot was actually about four. As he died, they slowly moved away from him, as if the light were draining out of his body. Another nice bit of staging was the visitation of the dead Cruesa, where the performer was completely backlit with a blue light. I think I remember lighting that suggested tongues of flame flaring up during this part. Very cool.

There were times that I actually forgot to follow along with the translation, so engaging was the performance. I'd glance back up only to see the slide advancing.

The music was great as well. Jeffrey tells me that there were mistakes, but my ear never heard them.

After the performance, Dan gave Jeffrey and me a ride back to Baltimore. After he dropped us off, we sat around and chatted. After a time, Colin and Titus showed up. They were in town to see the opera and Jeffrey was hosting them for the night. The three of us stayed up until 3 a.m., just talking and enjoying each other's company. I'm sure they stayed up later, I went home to bed.

AVAM

The day after La Didone, my friend Mark visited Baltimore. Mark lives in Virginia. We've known each other for years, having met through square dancing. He started attending the heart circle a few months ago.

We spent the morning at the American Visionary Arts Museum, which had a great exhibit titled Race | Class | Gender ≠ Character. I made various notes on my cell phone about things I wanted to read about or think about later. When I ran out of note space on my cell phone, I started leaving private LJ voice posts to myself, reading particularly interesting passages or making note of a book that sounded interesting.

After the museum, we went to the Paper Moon Diner, which was almost like being at AVAM, what with all the found objects making art all over the restaurant. Eric was suitably impressed.

We went back to my place for a bathroom break, then went out to catch the Baltimore Pride parade. We got good spots and had a fine time cheering everybody as they passed. Then it was back to my place. Mark took a nap and I noodled around on the computer. After his nap, he left for a John Denver tribute at the Peabody. I just hung around the apartment for the evening.