Madonna night in Adventures in paradise

Last night I went to the 14th annual Madonna party at The Wickham, one of our local gay bars. It was okay. Steve kindly picked me up from work when I finished at 7pm. I’d brought clothes to change into but I wasn’t prepared enough for a costume. Also I think that I won’t know anyone anyway, so what’s the point of going to the effort with a costume?

Steve and I grabbed dinner first. Getting a park was impossible on Saturday night. Every street space was taken. I guess it was a combination of people having a night out, the EKKA and a local Burger festival that was happening across the road from my apartment building. I had to walk around my building the other direction to get to work that morning because the whole street had been blocked off for it.

We had Betty’s Burgers, which was as bland as I expected. I really don’t get the hype of American burger chains, or at least that’s what they market themselves as. Even Johnny Rockets is better I reckon. We should have gone there, but oh well. They ran out if cider, so I started my night with a róse. I wasn’t doing beer and if I’m gonna do a wine, I’ll lean toward the pretty pink one.

When we were walking to the venue from dinner, Steve was asking how much I pay in rent. He did some calculations and reckons I could co-buy an apartment in the city with him. He also said I could probably borrow $600,000.
LOL! Way to make me cower in a corner with conversation like that. Yeah, cos I wanna go $600k in mortgage debt plus interest on MY wage. Fuck 😂
Let alone the idea of half-owning a place with Steve. Not sure it’s the best idea. But I’m so fucking negative about anything to do with home ownership in my lifetime. It just depresses me to high hell.
I didn’t even think Steve was wanting to buy another place. He already has his place on the Northside.
Even if I did consider it, I couldn’t contribute what he does. He was even saying he could rent out his room or get a job in the city, like he’s been thinking about this for ages. It was very sudden and strange, really. It’d be a big commitment if I were to consider it. And could I ever buy out his half? I dunno, I’m not even sure I’d want to live with Steve. He offered me to live with him when I was looking for where I am now. But he’s just way too far out of the city where I work.

Anyway, we get to Madonna night. My friend KT recognised me pretty much as soon as I walked in the door lol and gave me a big hug. Her and Steve were the only people I knew there though. Steve told me back at dinner that he was meeting up with a doctor from Grindr there that night.
I went to the bar and grabbed some drinks. I needed them after that typical busy Saturday night shift. I was whinging about the express orders to Steve, as they are the bane of my existence at work these days. Of course bakery had exactly zero hotdog rolls (yet again) when that’s what everyone seems to order every weekend 🙄
I made sure to let them know my thoughts on that at work today.
Anyway, I thankfully loosened up a bit after I had a Smirnoff mixer or two. I went back and said a proper hello and hug to JT, since I was probably a moody queen when I first arrived.
I’d worn my big leather jacket that I bought in London, but I probably didn’t need to. We’re coming out of Winter now and it’s that weird ‘Is it gonna be cool or warm’ weather and I got caught out. Then I eventually took it off and had to awkwardly hold it over my arm all night 🤨

There were a couple of cool costumes people had worn. My favourite was a lady who’d gone as Madonna with the black top hat and cane. She just looked perfect. But when the tranny-host (sorry, Yana) was getting everyone to cheer for their favourite outfit, the lady in a wedding dress got a louder cheer and my fav came in second. She was very humble though. She looked nice. I should have told her I liked her outfit, but if course I didn’t. The only people I spoke to all night were Steve (mostly) and briefly KT. Then KT’s friend Dwayne who I only ever see at these events. He’s kinda cute and doesn’t seem to have aged at all. I hadn’t seen him in years.
Yana actually tried talking to me when I first arrived, but we don’t actually know each other and I am terrible at conversation so it was all her 😆
I have no idea what she said over the Madonna music.

I kinda just swayed to the songs all night. Steve danced less than I did. He’s the big Madonna fan whose entire house is Madonna memorabilia and has seen her live twice. He still goes on about how incredible her 1993 concert at ANZ Stadium was. I was like 9yo then.
I was hoping ‘Rain’ would get played, but I may have missed it earlier on it it wasn’t dancer enough to be played.

I tried to order Steve a long island iced tea, but the queeny guy behind the bar said, “probably not, we don’t have the right glass’ 🤔🤷
Weirdest response I’ve heard to that. I had to order him a vodka redbull.

I must have talked a fair bit to Steve (and sang to the songs) a lot last night because my throat hurts and that only happens when I’ve been talking too much. I’m a quiet person so it doesn’t take much. I would be totally useless giving a long presentation or stand-up or something like that. I wouldn’t even make it through. Kinda embarrassing. Just goes to show how often I have long conversations with people.
Anyway, I’d drank enough to make it through the evening relatively okay. I mean, I was still self-conscious of being in a room full of mostly strangers, but it could have been worse.
Anyway, I said I was going and Steve could stay if he wanted and just message me. His car was parked at mine in my housemates spot because we just couldn’t get a park anywhere else. He left when I did though. It was probably about 11:45pm when I got home. That’s a big night for me nowadays 😅

I lost Steve for a while and found him outside chatting to two older guys, who I think were a couple.
As I was going, one of them said, “Welcome to Brisbane.”
🤣
Wow, I was that awkward and non-talkative to Steve’s friends that he thought I was an out-of-town friend of Steve’s. Fucking hell, Matt.
I’ve only lived here for 17 years now.
So that was awkward. I didn’t correct him though. 🤷