jd yates

So I’ve just decided that this impromptu blogging sabbatical I’ve taken is capped at 2 months… and golly-gee-whiz if that isn’t today.

The story of what kept me too busy to blog over the holiday party season follows:

Monday: Meeting a new boy and a surprise birthday dinner…

After psuedo-stalking an incredibly attractive guy for the better part of 60 days… I finally nailed him down for a meet over coffee. The clicking was instant and after several hours of enjoyable drinks and conversation we agreed to meet up again after my dinner obligation, to continue where we left off. Little did I know at the time that this was only the beginning of a marathon week, not only for my social calendar, but this thing he and I were starting.

My cherished friends Tiffany and Ryan had mysteriously sequestered my evening for what turned out to be a fabulous and intimate reinvention of my birthday dinner at Javier’s from the year before. The three of us enjoyed amazing food and drinks for hours. It was the nicest gift they could have given me, for there are few people with whom I enjoy spending time quite so much, and I was destined to miss them over the 3 weeks they were about to spend in the South of France over the holiday.

I met up with Brandon again after, and we stayed up late into the evening drinking and chatting and just generally enjoying each other’s company. I found this all extremely unexpected. And unexpectedly pleasant. I don’t often enjoy the company of another so quickly and completely, and when I do it’s generally bad news. But that comes later.

Tuesday: Donna’s Tree Trimming Party. (Photos)

The next day he and I exchanged txt messages throughout the day and set up a movie night that was very soon to be derailed. I got a voicemail from Tiffany late in the afternoon inviting me to our friend Donna’s annual Tree Trimming Party which we thought wouldn’t happen this year. Turns out her schedule opened up and this night was the one and only opportunity, so we took it. Given the option of canceling on Brandon or introducing him to my friends, I threw caution to the wind and invited him. Suffice it to say he was a hit, further solidifying his seeming perfection.

A small group of us opened bottle after bottle of champagne and drank until the wee hours. The final tally was 3 bottles of Cristal, 3 bottles of Vueve Clicquot, and 3 other miscellaneous bottles killed by the end of the evening… among 5 of us. Epic, to say the least. This night will not soon be forgotten. Miraculously, the tree ended up beautifully decorated, and we got some truly incredible pictures. Conventional wisdom dictates that the fallout from such a night should be tremendous, but thankfully Donna provided us with an amazing hangover cure and we were all fine the next morning, if a bit tired (…when I woke up at Brandon’s house, the first of what turned out to be several times).

It was that next morning that I found out the limit to his perfection. Some of you know what this is, but it won’t be mentioned here. Whether this was a deal-killer or not was yet to be decided, and I was far too consumed with the newness and otherwise-perfectness of the thing to really give it any attention. Mistake.

Wednesday: Wino Wednesday

My dear friend Kristi gets a group together at one of our favorite local wine spots every Wednesday for this event. It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet people you might not otherwise be connected to. The group is very eclectic. Some met in social settings, others through work, or dated into the circle, or found us through various other means… so it’s very mixed, and we always have a good time. This was looking very much like my only respite from the holiday theme, so of course I jumped on the chance to be normal for a while and enjoy some good wine… and invited Brandon.

As expected he assimilated into my friend-group instantly, and everyone loved him. I was thrilled. So thrilled in fact that I gave in to my typical PDA-phobia and we held hands like an old married couple the entire night. Infatuation does unpredictably weird things to me. Before long we’d consumed a dangerous amount of wine (having been spared the champagne hangover from the night before) and most of the Wino Wednesday crew had thinned out. That’s when his friends started filing in, and the party was started, anew. His friends were great. I was extra thrilled that he’d proven reasonably socially adept, both with me and independent of me. We drank more wine until good sense fell upon us like… something that falls on stupid people… and we realized that the next day’s party would be not only our fourth night in a row, but something of a marathon in itself, and we adjourned to his place to rest. If memory serves, very little rest was actually had.

… This has reached what I consider the maximum viable length for a single entry, so I’ll stop here and cover the other half of the week in another post. Oh, yes… there’s more. Much, much more. Stay tuned…