Sunday, June 3, 2007

Palm Springs Weekend


I spent the weekend in Palm Springs with my friend Jim at his condo off Racquet Club. It's over by the Movie Colony. which is one of the oldest sections of town. He called on Thursday to ask if I had any absolutely unchangeable plans, and through some miracle of nature I hadn't. Cher can wait. I wasn't even scheduled to work this weekend.

Only 100 miles from LA, Palm Springs is a different world. Relaxed, even slow paced. It's one of my favorite places in the world to do NOTHING. Easy to get to, I commented- "just head East on I-10 and get off in 1957".

Actually, we stopped a bit before that. Outside of town there are thousands of windmills generating electricity. They operate on all but the windiest days (too much risk of propeller damage). It's a beautiful sight to drive through. We stopped at the side of the highway so I could snap a picture. I emailed it to a friend with the caption "Because I'm not one of your FANS". I tend to do things like that in the Springs.

We spent some time by the pool, and stopped by a bar called Toucan's to play video trivia with the locals. We drank Margaritas and chatted up a woman whose husband was one of The Tubes. I serenaded her with songs from Xanadu. It was stupid and wonderful. We went home and made Martinis and grilled steaks. We hopped from video bars (I danced! to "Love Shack", no less...) to leather bars and ended up chatting and cocktailing on the patio until 2 am.

On Sunday, we had a relaxing breakfast around noon at Hamburger Mary's. I love watching straight families who stumble in. It's way fun when they realize where they are. They look around, and slowly begin to notice the high concentration of hunky males unaccompanied by females, except for possibly one to a party. Some pick up quickly, and some don't. Some don't even get it until their check arrives...in a red stiletto heel.

After lunch, we went off for more shopping. We found a brand new little GayMart called b fabulous and flirted with the very cute help. I bought a terrific new book called "When I Knew", in which gay people tell of the moment when they realized. I bought it on a whim, and read it aloud to Jim in the car on the way home (after we stopped at the Barracks and got our picture in the local bar rag- Talk about being treated like fresh meat!) Anyway, the book. It's full of funny, touching tales of guys and girls coming to the realization that they really, really are one of THOSE. The stories are sweet, and sad, and funny, and embarrassing, and affirming, and they reinforced to me that we really are born with this, its not the result of bad parenting or funny uncles. We are, and we have a right to be. Highly recommended little book.

I love Palm Springs.

1 comment:

BigAssBelle said...

i've never been, have always wanted to go. more so now.