the celebrant
so, initially my boss at the hotel was only going to give me saturday night off. that was the 17th of march, my birthday. however, because of scheduling conflicts, that worked in my favor, he decided to give me friday off too. cong, i really owe you!
let me start off by saying that i have never in my now 25 years of life partied as hard as i did this past weekend. i started friday morning (which is about 3 pm for me) by going to the gym in huntington park. it's a predominantly latino gym (you can count whites, blacks, and asians on one hand), and since i've recently made a rule that i only date latino men, the eye candy was magnificent. as soon as joel and i went towards the weight training area, we see this guy riding the abductor machine like he's bending over and being penetrated from behind. it was too much. granted that his backside was very bubble-like and quite sculted, it was too much to take seriously. he and his friends were fluttering all over the place. they were all obviously gay. joel liked this short hairy guy, and i fancied a lanky one with glasses. he smiled at me a couple of times. anyway, after that i dropped joel off and went home to shower. i later returned to his house, and he told me that mario wanted to go to circus disco in hollywood. i have not been there in ages, so i decided that it was a good idea. manu called me and told me to go to lion's den in costa mesa, but orange county was not on my birthday agenda. however, the thought of being with one of my dearest friends at the stroke of midnight (though i was born at 1 in the afternoon) on my birthday was very tempting. since joel and martina (martin the gorgeous glitter queen) wanted to go to circus disco, i decided to go with them. we would meet mario and his friend at the club. joel thought it was a good idea to get alcohol before going into the club. martina and joel bought cranberry juice. i got monster energy drink. joel bought popov. for those of you who are not familiar with vodka. it is one of the nastiest, cheapest things you can buy. it does the trick, but you REALLY pay for it. martina begged joel not to get it. i was too caught up with the magic and symbolism of my birthdate to care. so, we mixed our little cocktails. i drank about .75 litres of energy drink mixed with vodka. about .25 of it was alcohol. i downed it in less than five minutes. i also took a swig of the left over vodka. i was already fluttering by the time we walked into the club. (NOTE: all that i had to eat was a banana for breakfast. i had two tacos for lunch--two very tiny tacos. this is getting good really quickly.) so, i meet mario and his ugly friend who has a nice upper torso. i think mario's friend is also named mario. he was very flirty with martina and me. i was in another space and just started dancing. so, he exclusively started flirting with martina. i'm not competitive, and i can hold my own, but let's be honest and say that martina is gorgeous. also, i can be a little hard to grasp sometimes because i seem like i'm distant. according to mario, i was hugging his friend, and we both fell. hehehe... mario's friend, mario, buys us a round of drinks. after that ALL THINGS become hazy. there was lots of falling down. there was lots of spinning. there were lots of trips to the restroom. there was lots of hugging. there was a banging of my head on a toilet. there was lots of passing out. and endless throwing up... i remember i woke up and the sun was out, and we were still in my car in hollywood. we drove home after that.
martina wrote in his journal:
Joel, Tom, and I went to Circus and had a great fuckin’ time. We all got really drunk, except for Tom who got plastered. Despite colliding into someone while twirling about the dance floor and being pushed because of it, and then towards the end of the night being called ugly because I made some dumb ass look, well, dumb, I had a great time swaggering about the club with Joel and then taking care of Tom. Poor Tom kept throwing up all over the place, much like I had when I got wasted the last time I was at Circus when I went with Marco, and Joel and Julio. Poor Tom cut himself on the toilet and then we got kicked out by the security guard. Joel and I pigged out at the buffet to try and sober up despite how tacky I think it is to eat at a club (it was someone’s birthday that night). I got my complimentary champagne spilt on my by some dumb ass who stuck his elbow while I was walking by. Mario’s friend Mario bought us all a round of drinks, but I secretly went with Tom to go and throw mine away because I didn’t want to get even more drunk. We also had to send the night in Tom's car because he was too drunk to drive us to Joels house, and I can't drive stick. We didn't leave Hollywood until six in the morning. Man, last night was a night to remember.
i woke up the next morning (1:30 in the afternoon still on saturday). and, i felt my right eye was in pain. i touched it and felt some crust. i panicked and ran to the restroom. my father almost had a heart attack when he heard me cussing really loudly. i guess i somehow lost my depth perception while being very drunk and hit my eye on the toilet flush lever. i cut into my nose and under my eye. i even burst a vein inside my eye. i looked like shit. really... so, i called joel. i called martin. i called manu. i was in tears, but i calmed down and said that i needed to be in good spirits for my birthday. manu wanted to take me to the beach. the two of us went to santa monica and walked for a while. then, we talked on the swings. i have such love for manu. he's decided to remain my friend exclusively after eric and i decided to end our friendship. he was a mutual friend. and while i'm over that whole ordeal with eric, i'm glad manu and i are closer now than before. i wore my pradas the whole day, which had an overcast. yet, being by the ocean, which is my element according to my sign, was relaxing. i felt like everything is going to be ok. no. i felt like everything was going to be great. so, after that, i needed to get some shopping done, so we drove to melrose. i walked into the energie store and no more than two minutes into walking inside, i spotted the loveliest military looking jacket. it was blue. it was beautiful. it was on sale. its original price was 368 usd. i bought it for 199 usd. so, i was so happy. i also bought a cute short sleeve button down from the gap. (i can't believe i'm down to an extra-small. well, in gap sizes it's a regular small.) i wore my coat with a red tie, grey skinny slacks, and boots. i also wore a decorative curious george birthday hat. we all decided to meet at joel's. when i got there, efren, rosemary, alex, and martina were sitting on the couch. joel then surprised me by presenting me with a cake! manu got there too, and i was so happy to be there with my friends. i have never felt so thankful than i did at that moment. we went to ripples in long beach after that. efren and rosemary did not go because efren was tired and rosemary was going to drive him home. i meant a lot that he stayed at joel's to wish me a happy birthday though. at the club i saw mario, lesley, carla, and lisette. victor never showed up, but i knew that he wasn't going to go. i have no hard feelings for him, but i feel like we drifted in very different directions. that's okay because i am happy that i got to know him and was able to learn from him about how it's okay to be in touch with your emotions and to express them. i'm sure we'll eventually see each other again and can pick up right where we left off. we're both mutable signs anyway. we're meant to blend in. i was just so happy to see my friends. lisette was so cute; she said that joel, martina, alex, and i looked like rockstars. we do attract lots of attention when we go out. it must be our positive attitudes. :) i drank more moderately this night. i did get drunk, but i remember everything. mario told me something that really made me feel all emotional. he said that he was really happy that we are friends because what i said to him last night came from my heart. i don't remember what i said to mario, but i hugged him after that, and we went up to dance. i also saw brian, who joel and i call apple fritters. he's so much fun. i saw ray-ray too! while we have a strange relationship, a bit like rivalry and friendship, i was so thrilled to see him there. lots of people said happy birthday to me. lots of people bought me drinks. a bartender gave me a free jaggerbomb. i was hit on by a few guys, but one in particular told me that i was hot. my eye was all busted up, and i still worked the room! hahahah...
anyway, after the club, we walked across the street to the beach. we ran towards the shore and started laughing and screaming. it was the perfect closing for the night. i think everyone that day had a surge of emotions running through them. i was drifting away again, but i carried with me all the emotions that i had on this day. after that day, how can i not believe that this world is truly full of love? i'll post photos eventually.