Forever for a day or two

2005-05-18 - 7:10 p.m.

At the end of my last entry I was talking about flying home from New York to Seattle. I took the bus from the airport to downtown. I had just missed the bus that stops a couple of blocks from my apartment and had to get off a bit farther away. I made it to my place at around 1am, threw in a load of laundry, did the dishes, and was in bed by 2.

I got up at 6 the next morning to pick Somn up from his hotel. He had arrived Thursday and had been hanging out in my city. It turns out, in the end, that inviting Somn to visit me was a really stupid idea. Somn and I met online and spent quite a bit of time chatting on MSN Messenger back in the second half of 2002. We were sort of crushing on each other at the time in that weird internet way and we ended up meeting in real life during a business trip to Atlanta. It soon became obvious to me that in real life I was never going to feel anything romantic towards this particular guy. I made the mistake of being afraid to tell Somn exactly how I felt and letting things linger for a month before I eventually told him. What followed sucked, but two and a half years have passed and it seemed to me that everything was ok between us. I don't remember exactly how it came about, but next thing you know I had suggested him visiting Seattle and he was buying plane tickets. And this time I made it very clear before he committed to coming that this was purely a friendly trip and nothing more. He agreed. As it happens, he wasn't willing to leave it at that. But despite the weirdness (which I wasn't too blind to notice early on, but was hoping that he would at least not act upon it), we still managed to have some fun times.

So I picked him up at his hotel Saturday morning and drove him to IHOP for breakfast. Afterwards we had a quick stopover at my place to drop off his luggage (I had offered him the use of my living room floor) and then we headed up north to Vancouver. He made me a couple of CD's and we had fun singing along to the one that had songs I knew. In Vancouver our first stop was the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which was really cool. It's long and narrow and really high up and it really does swing when you walk across it. It was annoyingly full of tourists hanging on to the handrails for dear life, but it sure was beautiful. The rest of the stuff around it was a bit more kid-oriented than we had expected, but I think it was still worth the stop.

Afterwards we headed over to Lonsdale Quay for lunch. We didn't know exactly how to get there and we didn't have a detailed map, but we eventually found it. Once there, however, we had difficulty finding an eating establishment that met with Somn's approval (a recurring and patience-testing theme of the weekend), but eventually settled for a British restaurant that I quite enjoyed.

The next stop was Stanley Park. Since I had just run a half-marathon through this park a few weeks ago, I sort of knew my way around it and I took us up to the highest point for a view of the Lion's Gate Bridge. We had a short walk and an ice cream cone and then I drove us down to the shore where we hung out until we decided we'd better start heading home.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge

Sunday we got up and walked down to the Market where we managed to find breakfast. It was drizzling a bit when we first left my place, but had pretty much stopped by the time we got there. We walked through the Market a bit, but since it was Sunday and early morning, not much was open yet. We continued down to the waterfront, through Pioneer Square, and up to the International District where we were supposed to meet Duke and a few of his friends for lunch. But first we had to find somewhere else for Somn to eat so he ate before anyone else arrived.

Then we headed to Safeco Field to watch the Mariners play the Red Sox. Somn gave me a Red Sox hat, which I really like and actually wore all day Saturday in Vancouver, but it makes me feel like a bit of a poser. I feel like one of those people who only roots for a team because they are doing well. Oh well. I wore the Red Sox hat to the game, but cheered for the Mariners. We had fairly decent seats, I thought, but we also walked around the stadium a bit and hung out with Duke and the gang. The Mariners ended up beating the Red Sox 5-4. Afterwards we went back to the waterfront for some souvenir shopping and then I drove us over to Redmond for dinner at the Claimjumper. And then back at my place we sat out on my porch and talk a bit before going to bed. And then Monday morning I dropped him off at the airport before work.

David Ortiz hits a homer