hugs one dollar

i torture my dear roommates, amanda and hilary, with hour upon hour upon hour of logo television. well, not so much amanda because she's either working, commuting, or with her boyfriend 24 hours a day, mostly 1 and 2. we eat dinners together, but our dinners usually ignore the television, even though it's on in the background.

for those of you without digital cable, logo is the sole remaining gay cable channel. there was something called...i think q network or something like that, but it's gone the way of all flesh. so logo is it. it's mainly a bunch of reruns of five-year-old television shows with "gay themes" and "original programming" that takes place in front of a bluescreen. you didn't expect them to pop for an actual set for a gay channel, did you? because they're in front of this bluescreen, the hosts (one in particular, some reality show star who now hosts the travel show) are really, shall we say, enthusiastic. if you ever hang out with hilary, make sure you get her to imitate this man. "WE GO THERE!" she'll shout, flailing her wrists.

i subject them to so much gay television, i think, because my life now is less gay than it's been since...gosh, i don't know when. my senior year in high school? at depauw i was in the gay group, hung out with gay people (and amanda). by the time i left depauw, we had a whole gang of queers who'd watch each others' backs. then, somehow, i landed in baltimore's gayborhood. now i'm in new york, in a neighborhood that's decidedly not queer. it's more like, um, decidedly immigrant and greek. and we know how greeks and muslims feel about gays. they just LOVE us. can't get enough of us.

it's not that my roommates aren't a great support system; it's just that i'm used to having a lot of gay friends around. i have, i'd say, one gay friend here in town: scott. and scott has a boyfriend of like six hundred years (which is quite a feat seeing as they're both in their 20s) so he's not exactly looking for a new partner in crime. i know that i can't expect an instant group of friends, like chia friends, who i'll just sprinkle seeds for and water and they'll grow into perfect replacements for all the people i left behind at depauw and baltimore. i'm not, you may be surprised to find out, the most patient person, however. and so i'll go stand around at barracuda or phoenix wearing a sandwich sign that says something like "hugs $1" or "wanna be my friend?"

i'll be the most popular girl at ridge valley high.