A Strange and Magical Week

The title says it all. From last Sunday to yesterday, I have had a weird week...

So it starts out that just after midnight last Sunday morning, the guy I was seeing breaks up with me. I thought I was cool with it as we had only been together a short time and I was thinking that it wasn't going to work out either. He then goes away fro a couple of days to visit family. So the whole time I just can't get it out of my mind that we are broken up. I felt that I didn't even have my say as to why it should end. I then remembered that I still had his key and of course I used that as a way to get face to face with him and get some kind of closure. So I know that he's working Wednesday night at his bar (he too is a bartender like me) and I go in, and he comes out from behind the bar, gives me a hug and a kiss, we look into each others eyes and right then knew that we weren't broken up. It was when he asked me if he should bring me back my toiletries that we both smiled and knew that it wasn't going to happen. And he even mentioned to me that if I hadn't come to see him that night, he was going to come find me the next day and try to talk to me. Funny.

Then I started my new gig at a new bar and the place is beautiful. I get this very strange vibe from the building. As it is a former nineteen thirties speak easy with a tunnel in the basement that runs from it to the precinct that was used during prohibition (which is now sealed up), there is a lot history here. Plus it is just a nice bar on an otherwise weird corner of a weird block in Little Italy. So anyway, this curly haired guy comes in with a few friends, orders a round of drinks with his quaint British accent and I'm looking at him because he looks familiar to me. I knew that I had met him through my guy at his bar and we were introduced before. I don't know why I didn't say anything to him, and I knew that he vaguely recognized me too, but again, nothing was said between us other than drink orders. So then, a couple of days later, my guy and I go to see Squeeze at Radio City Music Hall and it was a pretty good show. But the point to this story is that the nice British guy who sat at my bar turned out to be the lead singer of Squeeze!! I was dumbfounded, especially since I knew I should have been more polite back at the bar and let him know that we had been introduced before. I felt like such an asshole.... But then I felt better dining on lobster and drinking champagne with my guy after the show....

And aside from feeling the magic of the season changing, and the magic of the history of Little Italy, I compulsively felt I had to go visit my guy after work Saturday night....or should I say Sunday morning. I was supposed to go home and get a few things done, but something told me to go to his house, so off to his house I did go. And what do I find when I get there? Well, let me back this up a bit. He came to sit at my bar Saturday night to come say hi and to check in. When he walked in, he said hi and maybe two more words and I knew right then and there he was drunk. I know when he's drunk even if he doesn't say a word. He has this weird look on his face and that's how I know. And again, for some reason, it bothered me that he was drunk. So much so that I mentioned it to my manager just as an innocuous comment. So anyway flash forward, I get onto his apartment and I come to find that he drank more after he left me, and attempted to ride his bike back home and fell. He has a huge road rash on his shoulder, his elbow is swollen and scraped, and he said that he couldn't move his wrist. I immediately cleaned him up the best I could as he was half passed out, then waited until morning to really asses his injury, which turns out he also has a mark on his head from where he hit his head on the ground--but I tell you what, I wouldn't date ANY man that didn't wear a helmet. He swears that he is still alive because of his helmet. Anyway, I contemplated the meaning of my "feeling" to go to him after work only to find him busted up and in need of my help and company. Strange and magical, especially after having broken up earlier in the week that somehow we could be that close. However, I told him that he gets no sympathy from me because riding drunk is stupid and dangerous. I should know.....

Also, I have realised that I can't drink as much as I have been this year as I now work later hours and don't have the time to sit around and get blasted in a bar. Which coincides with my hearkening to stop drinking so that I can ride harder, and ride harder I have done. Like today, I pounded out a quick twenty-five to thirty miles just for good measure, as I was really supposed to go running, but my knees aren't up to par today. I really need to do something about my throbbing knees. I'm hoping just a sorely needed massage will do the trick. But anyway, drinking has gone down, pedal power has gone up, endurance is leveling out and body is in great shape, other than the knees....

What a difference a week makes!!