So Halloween was fun. It started first thing in the morning when I put on my sexy new cowboy hat and tottered off to work in my seldom-worn boots with my little pan of brownies decorated to look like a graveyard. Our office Halloween party started around 1:00 and included a good five hours of eating, drinking and -- yes -- karaoke. (You haven't lived as a homosexual until you've belted "Stand By Your Man" in a cowboy outfit in front of a conference room packed with inebriated co-workers.)

After work, Dan, Nick, Phil (as Wolverine -- the only other one of us not too chicken to dress up) and I met up for pizza and headed to Boystown to watch the parade. Unfortunately (fortunately?) the crowd was too thick to see anything so we headed into Sidetrack where it was warmer -- and there was a constant loop of gay boys parading around the bar in their Halloween finery. While we were standing around gawking, I managed to start talking with Neil, a guy I've been wanting to meet for a good three years. Fresh out of a relationship, he was amicable and chatty enough that I thought we'd get to know each other a lot more before sunrise. He even volunteered that he was going commando -- a fact I assume is usually mentioned only in the context of a gay seduction. Turns out, though, that he was only making conversation.

Sigh.

But after three otherwise wasted hours, he did give me a ride home. :)