A happy and gay new year

It wasn't how I pictured spending the start to the new year.

I didn't have any grand plans, but I knew I didn't want to sit home alone to celebrate the start of 2006. So I went out for a drink. While I was out at the bar I got a call from a friend at work. My friend from work was out with some people at another bar and if I was bored I should meet them there.

Well, I was indeed bored. So I set out looking for their bar I'd never heard of. All I knew was that it was near the Salem airport. So off I went. After driving all around and watching the New Year come and go, I still couldn't find the place, so I went home. I tried looking for the place in the phone book but still couldn't find it. So, I decided to try Google. And I found it. So between Google and Mapquest I found an address and directions. So I finally got to this bar in an industrial park near the Salem airport at about 12:30 a.m. Too late to celebrate the new year, but enough time to get a drink or two.

But when I walk into the front door. I notice something, um, different. For a little bit I can't quite put my finger on it. But then the difference starts to come into focus. There seems to be a lot of gay people here.

For whatever reason, I seem to have pretty good gaydar, not that it does me any good. By friend B from Palm Springs used to turn to me and our friend H when we were out somewhere whenever he saw a hot looking guy. B would ask us whether or not the guy was gay, because he couldn't tell. If the guy was attractive he wanted him to be gay, but that didn't necessarily mean he was gay. B always jokes that he has the Japanese beta version of gaydar.

Well, my gaydar was pinging like crazy, but I wasn't sure if it was the real thing or a false alarm. So, I pay the cover charge and go inside and walk up to the bar to get a beer. And a short while later I recognize a guy I know from work. So I get my beer and walk up and talk to him. Then a little while later, the other friend from work who called my cell phone earlier walks up. So at least there were two people in the place I know. A short time later I notice the unmistakable rainbow flag hanging on the wall. Yep, this is definitely a gay bar.

It certainly wasn't my first time in a gay club. I've been to one in Portland and to a couple of gay establishments in Palm Springs. So now I am 1,200 miles from Palm Springs and in a gay club and out on the dance floor with probably the most innocent young women I've ever met. It was a kick to watch her facial expressions as two gay men are grinding against each other on one side of us and two lesbian women and groping and grinding on the other side of us. She looks like she doesn't know whether to laugh or faint, and leaning severely toward fainting.

It was certainly not how I expected to ring in the new year. But then again, it was better than sitting home alone, if for no other reason that to see my friend's face while two guys not 4 feet away were sucking face.

Maybe if I had looked a little deeper into my Google search, I would have realized just where I was going when en route to the Southside Speakeasy in Salem.

New Year's Eve
Salem gay club