January 2007

While in Albany yesterday, Earl and i joined our friends for breakfast at a local diner. We are always fans of a good diner experience, so we were eager to check out this place we hadn’t been to before, the “76” diner on Route 9 in Latham.

The “76” is your typical diner from the mid 70s. It has that “diner car” feel on the inside, while the exterior is done up with big windows, lots of fake stone and colors reminiscent of a 1976 Ford Grenada. The five of us (Earl and I, Sean and Jeffrey and Evan) piled into a booth, eager to partake in some delicious and unhealthy diner breakfast food. Our waitress’ name was Arlene.

Arlene was in her late 50s or early 60s I’d say and filled to the brim with sass. I guess you could say she was a cross between Bea Arthur and Flo from “Alice”. She wasn’t abrasive in the least, but she had a certain boisterou charm to her that one only finds in a diner like the “76”. She was loud, she wrote in some strange shorthand on her well abused pad and she fired right back when we went a little outside of the norm: Earl wanted a burger with a fried egg on top (“what? A burger for breakfast? With an egg on top?”), Jeffrey wanted a diet pop with his omelet (“a diet coke. With your breakfast. Who’s ever heard of such a thing.”), Evan and I both had two sides of meat with our meal (she snickered when I told her I was feeling too healthy) and Evan changed his bread type from wheat to rye after she had already written down “weat”, which I translated to “wheat”.

Arlene threw our straws at us, sat down next to me as we piled more requests on her tiny pad and assured us that she was in a good mood as she put the filled plates on the table and let us sort it out for ourselves.

It was a great breakfast and Arlene certainly helped make it memorable. We look forward to going back again.

I’ve mentioned that my grandmother was a waitress in a similar type diner for many years. I don’t remember her in that role very well, but I’m sure that while not as boisterous as Arlene, she made the experience just as memorable for her customers.

Earl and I had parallel parked ourselves on the couch and were flipping through the channels when we stumbled upon “Grease: You’re The One That I Want.” Having not followed the show, I don’t know if tonight were the finals but if they were, the two people we watched audition for Sandy were just dreadful.

Anyways, before clicking away from the show, we noticed that a woman that had the same accent as Olivia Newton-John was one of the judges. Her eyes sparkled like the big ONJ’s but the person speaking had nothing else moving on her face. Her eyes moved side to side and her lips moved up and down. Apparently this shellacked creature had starred in Grease.

I asked Earl, “When was Joan Rivers in Grease?”

I mentioned a while back that through various bear channels I ran into an ex of an ex online. Back in 1990, based on the brief time I had to talk with him, I secretly thought he was a pretty nice guy but I naturally couldn’t say that since he was the current boyfriend of my ex. I mean, he moved in shortly after I moved out, and while I claimed washer and dryer rights and then finally took the units with me, he was nice enough to fold the laundry that I left there. I think that in itself speaks volumes. Anyways, he came to his senses a little while later, made my ex his ex and then went on to find his true love.

This weekend Earl and I met up with Sean and Jeffrey for the first time face to face. Their friend Evan joined us for the fun as well, as it was bear weekend in the fine city of Albany. We stayed at the Clarion Hotel, as the Motel 6 across the street was sold out. There were furry guys to be found at both hotels.

Earl and I had an absolutely smashing time. Just as I knew back in 1990, Sean is a really, really nice guy and the same goes for his husband Jeffrey. The five of us went to dinner at the Butcher Block in Albany, a lovely barn of a place that has a wonderful salad and soup bar and a comfortable, down-to-home ambience that I rather enjoyed. Earl commented that Sean and I carried on like we’d known each other (better) for years. Afterwards we headed to bear night where we hung out, got bumped around by all the guys and smattering of women milling around the place, downed a few beers and chatted with many people. There’s something about bear night that makes me a little more outgoing. Perhaps it’s the beer, maybe it’s all the woofiness. Either way it’s moderately innocent. I enjoyed chatting with some like minded guys and exchanging e-mail addresses.

Earl and I are really looking forward to getting together with Sean and Jeffrey again soon. We took the long way around to become friends, but it was a path well worth traveling.

I’ve been speaking with Earl throughout the afternoon today. He’s been sitting on his flight bound home. It’s been sitting on the runway in Indianapolis for approximately three hours. No food, no water, no deposit, no return. That’s right, the average American pays hundreds of dollars for the privilege of sitting in a aluminum paper-towel tube in the middle of a runway without amenities.

It’s is one of my greatest hopes that the airlines permanently go bankrupt. Perhaps then we’ll all slow down just a bit and drive an electric car to our desired destination.