Sunday, June 21, 2015

T's Big Gay BBQ

T's straight sister has a lot of gay friends.  I mean a lot.  




I think it all started with a private Spanish class she was taking.   I have met a lot of them at T's house over the past several months.  Most all of them are partnered or married.    There is one of the group who is single, then there is me and T.  I think many of them think that T and I are partners.   When I make conversation I sometimes to refer to events that have happened in the past to us, so it is clear that we have know each other a long time.  I would not be surprised if one or more of these guys asked T's sister what the story is with the fat white guy.

Last weekend T had a BBQ at his house.  I have attended these types of events many times in the past, but usually they include his family.  All his siblings, their spouses and children, in addition to a selection of friends.  I have even brought my kids to some of these events over the years.  But not last weekend.  This was a big gay BBQ.  Aside from T's sister, there were no straight people there.

It was a nice time and T is encouraging me to get to know these people as much as possible.  Even though they are partnered, they might have single friends.  It's possible, but I am not holding my breath for the possibility of getting "fixed up".  I am mostly going because I like to be around people (gay people in particular).  I also like being around T, not to mention there is always a ton of good food.  (Really, there is always a TON of food.)

After the dinner, I set up a fire out back in his fire-pit and the group of homos sat around the fire and talked about stuff.  

Being introverted and shy around new people, I was pretty good about engaging with the everyone around the fire.  I listened and talked when I had something to add.  One of the couples, a married couple from Columbia, suggested I should meet up with them sometime and hang out.  They live not too far from me, in a northern suburb of Charlotte, while T and most of the others live to the south.

I thought that invite was a good thing.  All these guys seem to have a pre-existing friendship.  I am not sure how they all know each other, but it's clear they do.   These kinds of groups are hard to break into.  They are always friendly on the surface, but only when fate or other forces put me in the same place as them.    It was just like the people at bowling a few years back and kickball this past spring.  Everyone already knows everyone else and while polite, they are not much interested in getting to know anyone new.  

I am taking a business trip to England next week for about a week and a half.  When I get back, I will look up the Colombian couple and see what happens.

1 comment:

TwoLives said...

If you have a house that's suitable for entertaining, consider hosting regular homo get-togethers. You'd make a ton of friends that way. Invite T's friends, the softball boys, the bowling boys and in the invitation tell them to invite their friends. Give the party a generic name, like Charlotte Gay Guys Gathering, so everyone feels welcome. Make it a snack/beverage pot luck. On the day of the party, set up an email sign-in sheet for new people so that you can send notices out to them for the next gathering. Use name tags and buy small heart stickers that guys can put on them to indicate they're single. Have a party every three months and within a year you'll be the center of gay life for the over 40 crowd.