The Steffiverse

Neighbors is closing. Yup, this weekend is the last weekend for the only real gay bar in town. That said, everyone I knew wanted to go last night. So I really wanted to go too.

I have 250 names in my cell phone's phone book. To try and get myself an ID, I must have called at least half of all those names. I started working the phones at 5pm, and only managed to score an ID at like 9pm. Apparently I am most people's 'token Asian friend.' See the thing about the culture here is that all Asian people fall into one of two categories: the Asians who ONLY hang out with Asians. And the Asians who have few or no Asian friends.

Guess who falls into the second category? And apparently the few Asian friends that I do have are exactly like me too. huh.

But anyway, I eventually landed Piyawan's ID. She's this Thai-American girl whom I used to play tennis with a lot my freshman year. I called her out of desperation. And it turns out, she was 21!

I got to Neighbors at about 10:30. And for the first time in my life, I saw a LINE of people waiting to get in! There's NEVER a line at Neighbors!!!! So I waited in line for a half hour and then Crystal and Angela, who were inside already, talked to one of their friends who works in the bar, and persuaded her to let me in.

Inside, it was crazy. And I had an absolute blast! The thing about the gay community that's a double edged sword is that everyone knows everyone else. There were at least 20 people I knew there last night! So it was nice hopping from group to group just dancing with people.

And Crystal kept feeding me beer. She bought me like 4 drinks! At the end of the night, all I'd really paid for is one Sex on the Beach for me, and one rum and coke for A-Scog.

I also got the shock of my life when I saw Shadra B. there. She's the Managing Editor of the Emerald, and she's in my Reporting class. Now, it takes a lot to intimidate me, but I've always been a little intimidated by this girl. She's a self-confessed grammar-fiend, always has her poker face on, has a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor, and just looks super-competent-- as if she's been in the business forever and knows exactly what she's doing.

She's also a couple of years older than me, and I always manage to feel like a little inexperienced kid playing the role of reporter when I'm around her. I've always suspected that she might be kinda gay, but have never really dared to call her on it.

But she was at Neighbor's last night!!! And when she saw me she started dancing. So here's silly Stef whose had enough alcohol to have dissolved the verbal diarrhoea filter between her brain and her tongue. She sees Shadra, and starts dancing with her. And the first question silly Stef asks is the one that has been on the tip of her tongue for the last 4 months, "Are you gay?"

Shadra looks at me and throws back her head with one mighty laugh. "Am I gay?"

"Yeah. 'cause I always thought you had kind of a gay vibe to you."

The uproarious laugh again. Then, "I don't know." Then in a stage whisper, "I think maybe I'm bi, but I'm gonna take my time to figure it out."

And then Shadra pays me the biggest professional compliment that anyone has up till now. She tells me, "You're one of the best sports reporters I've ever read."

I'm suitably stunned. Since I always feel somewhat like a bumbling nitwit in front of her, I never thought I'd hear those words come out her mouth.

But there's more. "I've never been interested in reading about tennis before. But you have this way of putting the human emotional element into sports. You're good."

I pronounce my sincere thanks. And we start dancing.

But wow. Really. I never thought I'd hear ANYTHING like that from her. It's really an ultimate compliment.

So we have a blast till 2am, and I make out with one chick while dancing. Just a fun sort of thing. Then after the bar closes, me, A Scog and Jenn head over to Jenn's and hang out, just talking, till like 5am. We fall asleep. And I wake up at 10am and come home.