"Gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay!"

Okay, so now that I'm all settled into our apartment, found a job(s) that I am content with, and got a California license and registered my car, what else do I need to be a true Californian...how about some new friends? For the last month or so, Sara and I have been feeling desperate to find some gay friends down here. In fact, we made it our mission.

Mission #1: befriend the hot tub lesbians.
We noticed shortly after I moved in that there was a lesbian couple living across the courtyard from us. Their apartment overlooked the pool area and we would see them out on their balcony every time we sat in the hot tub (creeps, I know). The plan was to coincidentally use the hot tub at the same time they did. In such a small perimeter we would be forced to make small talk and potentially become friends, right? Well, easier said then done. That perfect situation never happened, and when it could have, I'll admit, I backed out. Sara was out of town for a few weeks and I had decided to go down to the hot tub by myself one night. Picture it: I walked down stairs in my bikini, approached the gate down to the pool area, saw one of the hot tub lesbians soaking in the pool, turned around and went back upstairs. Yup, that happened. I am pretty shy, but that was a definite low. What happened to my game?! Needless to say, mission #1 failed and we gave up on the hot tub lesbians.

Mission #2: brave the Boulevard.
Before I moved in with Sara, I came down to visit her back in September. It was the first time seeing her after she had moved down for school and it was also a chance for me to see if I could picture myself living here. Of course I could, everything seemed great. I just needed to make sure of one thing. It was on that trip that I grabbed Sara's computer and googled searched "gay bar pasadena." I needed to make sure there was a place nearby to be with family. The Boulevard Bar popped up. I said to Sara, "Did you know that there is a gay bar .1 miles from here?" She was equally as surprised and said that we would have to check it out when I moved down here. Well when that time came, many things kept us from going. We were skeptical. I would drive by and see it week after week and think, "Man, we gotta go there. It's so close." But here, let me give you a mental image: hole in the wall looking place, black painted rock textured wall, red trim. Let's just put it this way, we were afraid it would be all old men in there. Finally we sat down and read reviews of the bar online (I know, when did I turn into the kind of person that needs to read reviews before going to a bar? I'm getting old and boring). People loved it! We were convinced enough to take the two minutes to walk there and check it out.

. . .It was fantastic! Small bar with a disco ball and silver streamers, horrendously amusing karaoke, bartenders who remember you by name, cheap drinks, and friendly regulars of all sorts. We immediately made friends with two delightful gay boys. We made it out that night with phone numbers from two potential lesbian friends, one of whom is the first modern dancer I've met in LA. When I told her I was from Seattle she said that she had just done a workshop with KT Niehoff. If you don't know what I'm talking about just smile and nod. If you do, isn't that cool?? Mission #2 complete.

We had so much fun that night that we went again last weekend. As soon as we walked in the door, guess who we saw...the hot tub lesbians! They were there along with a rather large group of people from our apartment building. Sara and I stood awkwardly at the bar and enjoyed the talented and not so talented karaoke singers until eventually one of our neighbors came up and asked if we lived down the street. She invited us over to the rowdy gang and that was that. Mission #1 complete.

Can we talk for a moment about how the only gar bar east of West Hollywood is half a block from our apartment?! Thank you. I can't tell you how frustrating it was for me driving through weho on my way to work all the time and never getting to hang out there. It's pretty far away and after work I'm always tired and just want to get home. Problem solved! Gay friends made. Now I just have to hope the hot tub lesbians don't run across my blog someday because I will be sufficiently embarrassed...