Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Thursday, October 12, 2000 9:31 AM

Another Boring Wednesday Night


It is Wednesday night and I have no ice hockey game. I get home, watch some of the second presidential debate, and get frustrated when neither candidate tries to grab the other one by the throat and squeeze. I take Nopester out for a good walk during the last portion of the debate. The reasons are twofold: 1) Look in everyone's windows as I pass by and see how many people are watching the debate, 2) Try out a heart rate monitor which just appeared in the mail. (I figured that when I recover from all of the recent ice hockey games, I'm going to start running again and I wanted to take a scientific approach to training intensity. And I wanted to see some ridiculously high number, like 200, when I do intervals on the bicycle.)

After getting back from the walk and checking email, I am bored. I get in the truck (with new battery, remember) and drive to the Frat House. The parking lot is very empty. Before I get in the door, Sabrina...er...Tony, the HVAC...er...nice guy is there and stops me. We sit down on the planter outside the Frat House and have a good long discussion about boredom, Halloween costumes, work, and stuff. After a while, Sabrina...er...Tony excuses himself and says that he will be back shortly.

I strike up a conversation with a pretty girl...er...lady (to be less chauvinistic about it). She has gorgeous eyes! Very gorgeous eyes. We talk about relationships and life. I want to ask her to run away to Peru with me, but I realize that she is interested in a different gender. Maybe if I dress up as a woman...no. Maybe not.

Sabrina comes back. As Sabrina. She has taken the last half hour to change from a boy to a girl in her car. With a nice open shoulder silver dress that I've seen her in before. We giggle together. Seeing that the Frat House is dead and I haven't even been inside yet, Sabrina asks me to go to El Calor (The Hot One) with her. I agree and we have a ten minute discussion regarding logistics with cars and getting there. Eventually we drive individually so that we can leave whenever we want to.

It is a 14 minute drive to El Calor near Beach and Lincoln. The parking lot is full and so is the club! It is wall to wall people and we have difficulty pushing our way through the place. As expected, the crowd is 49% latino, 48% latina, 0.25% white (me), 0.25% asian (Sabrina), and 2.5% unknown nationality and/or gender. I practice a bit of spanish and enjoy the music. We are there for about 3 songs when the lighting changes, the artificial smoke machine starts, and the DJ announces, in rapid-fire spanish, that the floor show is about to start. It is time for the midnight drag show!

One of the participants, why did I expect otherwise?, is impersonating Anna Gabriel - as a crisscrossdresser. Typical, but it is a good performance nonetheless. The floor show ends just before 1am. The next few songs are techo/trance songs that I like so I stay around a bit longer. I have lost Sabrina in the excitement of the floor show. But I'm tired, so I try to leave. The front door where we came in is now locked, so I have to push and shove the entire length of the club to pass by the bathrooms, through the patio, and finally to the rear exit. I'm finally into open air and away from the crowd - walking towards where we parked. I note that Sabrina's car is already gone. The clock is about to strike 2am when I am collapsing into bed.

And on Thursday morning I note that I have a slightly elevated body temperature. About 1 degree as measured orally. I will have to keep an eye on this.