Good Idea, Bad Idea in The Stuff That's Not Interesting But Is The Most Interesting Stuff I'll Write

So this is basically an update on what happened in my entries from last year called “Spinning” and “Falling Off That High Horse”.... which means I finally got to see Richard.

It was his graduation party, which meant that he dragged all of his friends out to Drag Brunch. Now I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I don’t find drag entertaining at all. I never have, I’ve never really gotten into the Drag Race show, I just don’t care. Apparently, that’s sacrilege in the gay community, but whatever, I’m a bad gay.

The funny thing is that I ran into TJ while I was wandering the streets of midtown waiting for Richard to make his appearance. I invited him to come to the brunch with us, but I also wanted to get a little gossip… I guess Edgar is living back in town since he was expelled from the UK and France at the beginning of COVID, and TJ, still being relatively close with Edgar, has been hanging out with him. I didn’t really want details or gossip, I just want to know Edgar’s happy and healthy, living his life. Which was really all he would tell me (good boy), although he did mention that Edgar is still hanging out and partying, which is fine, I just find it odd that his reason for refusing to talk to me is that he blames me for his alcoholism. Whatever.

For Richard’s birthday a few months back, I bought him a set of Tiffany men’s cologne since I know he likes Tiffany (once upon a time he worked there in SF), and it wasn’t that it was too expensive, it just wasn’t cheap. I decided that while I’m getting rid of my stuff, I would give him all of my wigs (speaking of drag and my distaste for it, I still had my Liza Minnelli wig from that one time I did drag, plus my Daria and Riddler wigs from Halloween). He was more excited for my hand-me-down wigs than the $200 perfume I got him… I mean, I should have known.

The drag show was fine, if not a bit awkward. The headlining drag queen is also the manager of the bar, a couple of years ago after the incident in which someone threatened to attack me and they did nothing about it, so I decided it was best if I don’t work there (the bar I’d been working off and on since I was 21). It was especially awkward when I ran into her on my way out the door as she was starting her show.

When it was all over, Nate, the other third of our teenage triad of comedy, was heading back to Vallejo, but had to work that evening. He works at Midnight Sun in the Castro, one of the oldest bars in the city, and he invited Richard to go with him. In a rather Faustian bit of confusion, Richard stood there looking back and forth between myself and Nate trying to figure out if he should go. My personal feelings about San Francisco aside, I knew that there would be trouble if he went.

Richard’s roommates hadn’t acted up in a while, but I think that was mainly because he had his head down and was focused on school, so he didn’t really do anything to provoke their ire. (Although, apparently they were unhappy with him that he let me swing by to drop off the aforementioned birthday present… assholes).

I basically told him, “Look, make your choice and accept the consequences of it.”

He looked at me and said, “Well, things are opening up, I’m fully vaccinated and I’ve behaved and done all my schoolwork and got all A’s this semester!” I didn’t let slip that that sounded more like an argument you’d use with a parent when you’re a teenager as opposed to full grown adults who just live with you, but whatever.

I went about my day, got wasted with TJ and ran into far too many people that I wish I didn’t know. Every few hours, Richard would post pictures of the city (my favorite was him sporting my pink Riddler wig as he went in to buy weed in a convertible). He had fun, stayed the whole day in SF and went home Monday evening.

At around midnight, I missed a phone call and got a text from him that simply read, “Check my story.” When I woke up for work, sure enough, some cryptic thing about people trying to control him, something about absolutes, and then an announcement that he wants to move.

I’ve never in my life wanted to say “I told you so” more than this moment.

The problem is, moving out won’s solve his situation. During the past year, when he was “getting his life in order”, he made changes, at their prompting, that will now be at odds. He quit his job at a very nice five star hotel, after working in hospitality for over 9 years, to work with his roommate as the “business manager” of his hair salon. Now the reason I put that in quotes is because they really just made him the appointment setter and cleaner-upper but gave him a fancy title so he’ll feel like it’s a promotion. Instead of pursuing his career in hospitality, after being accepted to Cal Poly Pomona, which has one of the best programs on the West Coast for hospitality, he decided to go to Sac State and pursue Business Management, since that’s his new title.

On one hand, I don’t really blame Richard. One of the things I love about Richard is that he’s the exact opposite of me. I’m Daria. He’s Pollyanna. But I just keep thinking to something I said nearly a year ago to him when I was in a fit of anger about how he keeps putting himself in these situations… “STOP BEING SO EASY TO MANIPULATE!”

I guess we’ll see how that goes.