Thursday night, I met 'Cuse and Commack for beers (well one beer in my case) and pub grub at Whiskey Tavern in Chinatown, which is perhaps the most non-Asian place smack in the middle of Chinatown one can find. 'Cuse is another former coworker and though his abrasiveness was a bit off-putting in our initial interactions, we have since become good friends. I see 'Cuse and Commack every couple weeks when I'm not traveling and our relationship is reminiscent of the one I had with my male coworkers in Toronto, who allowed me to join in on their boy's club steak dinners at the Keg and all you can eat rib nights. Being the "guy's girl" is a very comfortable place for me to be, likely due to a lot of time hanging with my younger brother growing up, bonding over our shared love of sports. Not that I can't be myself in front of my girlfriends but with the boys I can watch the game, dress like a slob, eat like a pig (tater tots with cheese sauce and nachos on this occasion), spill half the meal on myself and then swear like a sailor about the whole damn thing without feeling at all self-conscious. But what I appreciate the most when I hang with the guys is they are also not self-conscious in front of me and will pretty much say anything, including some brutally honest advice! One gem from last night was "While you're chill and get along with everyone, you are very specific with who you choose to date, which is probably why you're still single." Yup, guilty - but that's a story for another day. Anyways, it's a very direct form of communication, which can occasionally be a bit much for me (especially when the topics veer into X-rated territory), but I can always laugh it all off. For example, when Commack was recounting a drunken tirade in which 'Cuse had made remarks regarding gay copulatory habits (a weird subject for all straight males, often resulting in homophobic comments when one is not necessarily a homophobe, as in this instance) and yelled:
"Dude you just screamed, 'You're gay, you take it up the a**!'" ('Cuse had no recollection of this tirade and looked genuinely horrified)
Whereas if Giggles were to tell the same story it would go something like this:
"And then he yelled that if you're gay then they like..you know..it up there?" (probably coupled with some awkward hand gestures, and of course - giggling)
In this case, I would have preferred Giggles's approach since I think Commack's comment was said at a volume that not only the table beside us could hear, but really the rest of the bar, over to the West Village and possibly parts of New Jersey could also hear. This forced me to smile tightly at the patrons at the next table, in a "he's a little tipsy, please disregard him" sort of way - but then I ended up laughing. We ate our fried food feast and I forced the waitress to take the plates away as I was stuffed and did not need to continue picking at the remnants of the nachos. The waitress brought us free shots (SoCo lime for me and 'Cuse and Jager for Commack), we did 'em and then I bid adieu to my boys and walked home. I wandered through Chinatown, Soho, Noho, Astor Place, Union Square, thinking about how happy that I am that I have my network of guy friends in NY (and about all the laundry I needed to do). And while I know they like my guy-side, I'm sure they are still happy that I still have a closet full of dresses, a purse full of lip gloss and and a posse of girlfriends so I can provide the female perspective. I got home and my guy-side thought I could use another beer, while my girly-side was happy that my walk home had mitigated some of the damage from the tots and nachos!
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