Notes From a Full Moon: A Homobiles Adventure Story

Before the night really got started I received my warning.  I was driving towards Wicked Grounds to drop off some fliers for FetFest and then get rolling on my shift and I cut through an alley, really a small street.  At the end of the block the building met the sidewalk in such a way as to create a blind to my left and I got closer than I should have to a pedestrian.  I was going under the limit, wasn't texting, being careful and still scared her.  She walked behind the car, gave me the stink eye and then as I was rolling down the window to apologize for our (totally legal but still scary) near miss she whacked my car twice with the bag she was carrying.  It was apparently full of tin cans and small rocks from the noise it made.  I was speechless, not angry, but not happy about my car/livelihood/work space getting messed with while at the same time knowing she was reacting from fear.  I drove off, unsure about doing anything, feeling like there was nothing productive to say and just decided that it was my warning from the universe that tonight was going to be special and I needed to keep my head up & eyes clear. (Clear eyes, full heart, can't lose - right Coach?)

Boy howdy was that right.  After an hour of odd interactions, near misses & general chaotic behavior all around me it slowly sunk in - full moon.  Right after the first of the month.  So money to get loaded, buy favors, get extra wasted and the strong pull of the lunar bloom on our animal hearts & bodies - yes, San Francisco was flavorful last night.

There is no way to bottle & share the weird vibe out there last night so I'm going to give you some fortune cookie vignettes.  All quotes are as I remember them.  All stories are true and frankly have been toned down a little because I'm afraid you won't believe me.  But trust me, it was like that.

"And how did that crackhead Marion Barry get re-elected after getting busted?"

He's drunk, sitting on his bicycle, resting his front tire on my car and looking like he might fall off onto my hood at any moment.  I'm parked in front of a bar in the Tenderloin waiting for my passenger to emerge.  There's a sketchy van lurking ahead of me.  He picks up the sign that falls out of my window and waves off the dollar I offer in return.  He says he likes my smile & somehow tells me he's from Philly, I say I'm from DC and of course we're talking about Marion Barry.  My fare doesn't show up, dispatch asks me to go inside, my spidey sense tingling I reply that I'd rather not get out of the car just now.   He says "Good idea."  I concur, and he takes the dollar bills I hand him as I drive off to the next stop.

"It's like you're the sun and I'm the moon and they write songs about us."

He was drunk enough leaving the bar that he didn't quite understand what I was offering at first.  He opened the back door, squinted inside and said "Are you going to preach at me?" Reassuring the drunk Marine looking high & tight guy that I was not about to ex-gay minister to him, he got in & we set off towards his next destination.  After a moment of talking he busts out with "You are like the sun, your smile is so bright and your light is so strong.  I am like the moon, I am beautiful and mysterious and they love me.  But I am nothing without you, I need your light to glow."  Then he confesses that he was loaded (I'd figured that one out) and goes back to singing the praises of the Sun & the Moon.  At the end of the ride he asks how old I am, and it finally dawns on me that he's cruising me.  I tell him I'm 38 and he visibly starts.  Walking across the intersection he shakes his head and yells, "Keep doing whatever you're doing."  I will man, I will.

"Three black men robbed my building. If someone grabs me from the dark honk your horn and don't stop."

This is how he starts the ride.  I am speechless but keep the Jay-Z pumping from the stereo, a little discomfort is all I can offer against his racist blurting. When we get to his building he tells me to defend his honor with my blaring horn.  As he walks the ten steps into the lobby he really looks like he wants someone to jump out of the dark and make all of his fears come true.

"My eyes aren't blue." "I changed it to green." "My eyes aren't green."

You don't get full context on this one.  Only this: a couple taking about karaoke songs sung in each other's honor. And it made me like them a lot.

"Was it the guy with one feather earring or two feather earrings who hit you with the bottle?" "One earring and the hat like the guy from Digital Underground."

A convo outside the club between the door guy, a bar guy, and the one who got clocked. Told you it was intense out there. 

"I love you baby"

Mouthed frequently in a very wasted condition to me by the bartender making the surrounding patrons squint and stare at me.  The ones who read me as male have a very different reaction to the ones who read me as female.  I get out of there, smiling.

"P Street Beach in Washington, DC?"

We're talking about our trips to the East Coast last weekend, he was in DC, I was in North Carolina. He mentions growing up & coming out in DC.  We start talking pre-ball park DC, Nation's and the rest.  He said he was young & coming out as a teeneager in that scene.  I told him I had mc'ed Youth Pride - he mentions Cookie Buffet.  I tell him I mc'ed with Cookie, that I was the Reverend, and he squeals loudly enough that someone on the sidewalk turns their head.  He says he was a teenager with his bio & chosen queer family at those shows in the early 2000s and he cannot wait to tell them he met me.  Once again, moving to the Bay is like the queer family reunion I didn't know I needed.  Later I grab some of my old performance numbers off iTunes, dreaming about maybe dusting off the numbers.  

"Just one look at you, and the world's alright with me."

This one is Bill Withers singing "Lovely Day" and the sun is breaking through the clouds in a little crack of pink in the gray sky and we are flying across the Bay Bridge to SFO and everything is indeed alright.