Well, I am finally home from the chorus' retreat and let me just say one thing...Hooboy! So let's start in the very beginning...a very good place to start...

Friday Night

Friday night started with the trip up to the Hudson Valley Resort and Spa. I had to haul ass from the office to make it to Grand Central in time to meet one of my fellow bus monitors (yes, I had a title) and pick up the tip money for the drivers. When I got there (roughly at their departure time), the bus was packed and I was presented with the situation that there might not be enough seats on the final two buses due to the fact that the bus totals didn't include spouses or children. Therefore, the first bus went off with people sitting on the floor and I was faced with the daunting task of trying to cram people onto buses when I might not have seats to accomodate all of them.

The first bus arrived and I immediately started to load people onto the first bus (with the assistance of my lovely assistant, Maev). I ran into the issue of people trying to "save" seats for their friends. Now, I had a strict "first come, first serve" policy and I was not about to pull people from the rear of the line to give them a seat on the bus when they could have had it if they had gotten their ass to the bus on time (enough said). Anyway, turns out I was fine on seats on both buses and we got everyone on with no one sitting in the aisles.

Now on my bus, the driver turned to me and said, "I have a movie if you guys want to watch..." The movie was The Chamber based on the John Grisham novel and starring Chris O'Donnell, Gene Hackman, and Faye Dunaway. It elicited quite a few laughs from the crew and was probably not the best choice for their viewing pleasure but it kept them occupied and with little disruption. Oh and while I am at this point, let me just thank Mr. Mark Flores (who despite his protestations that he looks fat is absolutely adorable) for my rainbow striped knit cap. It was the perfect beacon to draw people to the chorus line. Sorry for the non sequitir but you can deal...

So, we get off a little late because the second bus not only arrived late but the driver that drove the bus in was not the driver that was taking us up to Hudson Valley. Now we took off around 7:15 or so which was 45 minutes behind schedule. Now the funny part came when the first bus called us to find out our status and we learned that in the hour (and then some) that they left before us, they had only made it up to 125th Street from Grand Central. Even funnier was when I got a call from one of the organizers asking about our location and was shocked to learn we were so close as the first bus had still yet to arrive. Yes, the bus that left an hour plus before us was not there yet. This elicited a huge round of laughter. In fact, we arrived five minutes after the first bus which meant a HUGE line at the front desk.

The arrival also meant that it was time to grab a small drink and the chorus to go do a late rehearsal. But before all of that, there was the arrival of the New Crush. When he arrived, he had his hair up in the ponytail and we talked about the trip up and things like that. When he came back downstairs from arriving in his room (that he was sharing with no one else but his bottle of Absolut Mandarin -- of which I didn't get a single drop) and he had his hair down out of the ponytail (for which he has earned the nickname Steven Segal from some chorines). I about fell off the couch because he was even sexier with the hair down -- something the Union Girl agreed with me on). So I joined him briefly at the bar and chatted for a while until he was admonished for not being in the rehearsal (something which he knew he should be in there but passed it off with grace and panache). However, it was after he was in the reherasal that I got the news I was dreading. The New Crush has a husband. In fact he said he's been "married" for five years and who knows how long they have been together before that. Okay, I'll admit that it was a little heartbreaking to hear this but hey...he and I will probably wind up being very good friends and I have nothing against that whatsoever.

For the record, let me just say that the last time I had a crush on a chorine, he was also in a relationship, got out of the relationship, then got into another one, got out of that relationship, and into another one...oy vey...That, of course, was the Old Crush.

Anyway, with the reherasal over, we all adjourned to the lounge where a local wedding band (because that's all you can really call them..they weren't covering one artist but several). Now when I first saw them...they were kinda scary to me, but they grew on me and were actually quite good. So there was a night of dancing and drinking and revelry and I had to save the very drunk Union Girl from doing something horrible and I crawled into bed around 1:30 or so...

Saturday

Not much to report in the morning as I went to the gym and did my little thing there, watched the chorus a little, and read my book. During the break, one of the chorus members and I were talking and he pretty much told me that I had a nice butt. Now, you have to understand...I do not hear these things very often so being told that I have a nice butt made me very happy. Now, since this person will be coming back later in this posting, so we'll have to give him a name...we'll call him Officer Bob since at one point he was dressed as a cop...so anyway, I did thank Officer Bob for telling me I had a nice ass and he, in fact, said that all I had to do was hang out at the lobby bar and I would be picking up plenty of action. Well, I kinda laughed it off because things like that...well they just don't happen to me. In fact, as I proved this weekend, I have no idea when I'm even being cruised. One of the chorine's boyfriends repeatedly cruised me as I walked by and I didn't know it until someone pointed it out to me.

Now Saturday night was the annual "No Talent Show" where the chorus puts on fun, amusing acts usually at the expense of the artistic director. Well the acts were fabulous as usual but I had one moment that got me quite a bit of praise and applause on my own. Now, mind you, I was nothing more than a simple follow spotlight operator. My job was to make sure that people were properly lit and nothing more. Well, one of our hostesses for the evening, Ms. Barbie Stilleto, has a way about her that is well...how do I put this...she's a funny woman...she's notorious for her crass, bitchy comments that always elicit laughter. For example, when one chorine wanted to take her picture but was having a hard time operating the camera, Barbie got tired of waiting and finally said, "Sketch me." Well, during one moment, we had to present a CD to a spot in the middle of a track. While our sound guy was doing that, Barbie was on stage doing her schtick when she heard the music. Her reponse, "Oh that's lovely. These wonderful non-union houses." Well, you don't insult your crew that way, so as the follow spot operator. I turned the light off of her and let her sit in the dark. It was a movie that garnered me a little moment of infamy, allowed me to pose and let them know that it doesn't matter who you are, what you are, or what you say, you don't insult the people that make you look good on stage. The grand conclusion was the crowning of Ms. Witti Repartee as the Chorus Queen and Gary Diamante as the Chorus Butch for 2003. Major kudos to both of them as I know they will do the chorus proud. It still cracks me up that I got four nominations. Two more and I would have been one of the finalists.

Now, after the No Talent Show, we adjourned once again to the Empire Lounge to listen to our wedding/cover band and to have a lot of fun. One of the chorines (who just split with his boyfriend) was very drunk (as in "could barely stand drunk") and propositioned me to go back to my room (which I was sharing with three other people mind you) and have some fun. Well, I have a small code of ethics...I never do anyone who is way too drunk because I don't want to have the feeling that I was taking advantage of someone in a weak moment. So I decided to go back to the lounge and have some more fun. While in the lounge, I was introduced to New Crush's husband. To make it even worse, there were two people who know of my crush and commented that they thought that I resembled New Crush's husband in terms of body type and hair and so forth...that did nothing to take care of the mild heartbreak I went through...but like I said, he and I will probably wind up being very good friends and nothing more...

It was during this time that I hooked up with Officer Bob (whose ass was clad in leather pants and he had a harness on under his cop shirt) and he and I started dancing. We took turns following but it was finally determined that I was a better follower than I was a leader so we proceeded to dance to a litany of songs. During one song, I wound up standing in front of Officer Bob with my back against his chest (now almost bare, just encased in a harness) and we were having a good time. Well, I opted to go out and get some more water (because I was a little sweaty and thirsty) and I ran into a member of the chorus who said, "I hate you now." And I asked if it was in regards to Officer Bob and he said yes. It was something I just found funny but when I relayed this story to Officer Bob, he said, "Why? Could they tell I was falling in love with you?" Now I have no idea of how to take ths since he was a little tipsy at the time. Mind you he wasn't as drunk as the previous chorine as he at least appeared to be cognizant of the fact that we were dancing and so forth. But this just kinda took me off balance so I was just like..."Hey kiddo, just play it by ear." I dunno if Officer Bob even remembers saying this, but he did say it...of course at this point, I was trying to remember if he was still with the hubby I had been introduced to quite some time ago or if they had split...

So I did some more dancing with Officer Bob and when I slow song came on, it was some very close, very tight holding and a bt of fondling during the song as well. At one point he had one hand on the back of my head and another right above my ass. I don't even remember where my hands were but I was getting the impression that if I wanted it, I probably could have it. About 2:00 we headed down to the pool as we heard there was skinny dipping going on with about 20 of the guys from the chorus, however, we missed that part as when we got there it was empty. However, there were a few people in the game room playing one of those lovely, super violent zombie shooting games. So we headed back up in the elevator and opted to head to bed.

Now this is where Brian decided to play the moment for what it was and conveniently "miss" my floor and see what happens when I let Officer Bob off at his floor. We shared a nice sweet kiss where he trailed down from my mouth to my neck. I made the comment that it was something he could do again and he said, "Hold onto that thought..." Now here's where I think I personally screwed up. I should have followed him out of the elevator and seen what happened. If something had happened, I probably owuld have pursued it and done whatever happened. But I didn't I went back down to my room, changed into something a little more comfy and went back downstairs to find one of my roomies who wanted the scoop on it all. Well, actually, I sat in one of the chairs in front of the elevators and drank a bottle of soda first. Part of me was telling myself I should go back upstairs and see if he's waiting for me but I didn't do it. Odd isn't it...I have a problem taking advantage of drunk people but when it comes to other guys in relationships there's no problem...hmmm...maybe my priorities are all off...

So when I got back into my room (with a major erection mind you), I spent most of my time cursing myself for not going after him and seeing where it would go...

Sunday

Not much to report here. I flirted heavily with Officer Bob, even asking which bus he was going to be on by telling him I needed a "pillow" for the ride home. Sadly he wasn't on my bus. I did get a few kisses out of him but I wasn't sure if it was friendship kisses or kisses for pursuing something further. I hate to mention this, but my curiosity is just a little piqued. If he's single now and wants to go out on a date...well, let me just say that I would be a little interested...

Also interesting to note, one of the new chorines that I know by name but that's about it came down and sat next to me and inquired as to the book I was reading ("A Great Deliverance" by Elizabeth George). At first I thought he was making fun of the fact that it was set in Britain by putting on an accent. Well it turns out he is from Australia (not to mention rather attractive) and I am trying to convince him to come out and play rugby with the team (not to mention this other guy named Andy who is 6'7" and would make a perfect lock in a scrum). Anyway, Mr. Aussie may come out and watch a few practices so we shall see. In any case...if Mr. Aussie asked me out on a date, then I would be a little interested...

So...it's been an interesting weekend....in summary, New Crush is no longer a crush as he's married, I was dancing rather close (and as some said, hot and heavy) with someone who may be married, I was propositioned by a drunk guy, was engaged in an interesting conversation with an Aussie...and well....it's all up in the air....we'll see what Wednesday's rehearsal (not to mention the post show party next Tuesday)....