Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Hawaii '93

This is perhaps a continuation of this story, or if you wish, a prequel to this one.

We had booked the barn in the sky to get to Hawaii. Four workmates and myself had dreamt up this trip using our employee benefits to stay at Ritz Carlton properties in Hawaii. A new charter company had started up with one plane and daily service to Honolulu. $99 each way. Such a deal, even then in 1993. The stewardesses wore jeans and t-shirts and pulled down a screen to show the movie with an ancient schoolroom projector. They gave out free popcorn in baskets that were passed down the rows like the offering plate in church. The flying contraption rattled and shuddered for six hours half way across the Pacific. We had lodging lined up for two weeks and I think we each paid only incidentals as we had gotten many nights comped. We were upgraded to club level for half the trip which included foods and libations. The only downside was that we all shared rooms, so privacy was limited. The gang consisted of a straight girl, a gay guy in a relationship with a woman, two gay guys and myself. One of the gay guys grew up on the island and we all visited his parents house where he turned into a spoiled little brat right before our eyes. I have not been in contact with any of these people for many years, but I do wonder what ever happened to them. Google isn't giving anything up.

Our first and last stop on our tour of the islands was Honolulu, a couple days at the beginning and the end of the two week vacation. Honolulu had a couple of gay bars and the gay boys went to these places at night while straight girl and gay guy pretending to be straight went out to the straight clubs. At the gay bar, I was quite flirty with one of the waiters. He was quite flirty back. The trouble with this was that one of the gay workmates had a crush on me. I knew it but couldn't do anything about it except make it clear I wasn't interested. He held that candle firmly in his grips and made disparaging remarks about the waiter each time he passed by and winked or made a comment. "Pretty cocky for a short guy," he said and, "He needs something better than a five dollar haircut." I responded to these barbs with, "Ooh, I love short guys," and "Wait, where do you get a haircut for $5, I want one." It didn't matter really, we were all going to go back to our room (note singular) and head out to Maui the next day. As I left, I told the cute flirty waiter that I'd be back in ten days and I'd stop in to say hi. Poor guy, life was going to give him a whammy through the vehicle of me. You'll see, just hide and watch.

Part 2

18 comments:

Snooze said...

this sounds intriguing... can't wait for the next part. I love the idea of flight attendants in casual wear.

Anonymous said...

Ohh! a serial. A true Soap Opera if you will. It would make a great TV show. A name for the show? Gay Lei. Ed

Jeff said...

Looking forward to the bada-boom!

Lemuel said...

I love your serialized adventures!

Polt said...

Oooo, I LOVE the continuing adventures of Tornwordo!!

It's better than most of the crap on TV nowadays!

HUGS...

(PS, my word verification today is: unjavina...weird, eh?)

don said...

Does the whammy involve crap of some kind? I am kinda expecting that given the source of this story.

GayProf said...

I wonder if this involves a visit by Mr. Roarke.

It's disappointing to me that a good number of people that I lost contact with have such common names that it is impossible to use google to track them down.

Rox said...

Did you try looking on Facebook? Good lord, the people you can find there! LOL! It's not just for Scrabble, you know.

Is it just me or did you give everyone a label in this post, but you spared yourself. Interesting.

Birdie said...

Yeah, Rox, I noticed the same thing: "two gay guys and myself." Hmm.

A few years ago I googled a high school science teacher's name and got five hits; I wrote them all to discover he's a doctor at the Mayo Clinic. I wrote him the thank you he deserved for being a huge positive influence on my life. I highly recommend it!

Anonymous said...

Should Torn have written, "two gay guys and myself, another gay guy"?

That sounds a bit obvious. I think we already know that fact.

(But now that you mention it...whatever happened to that desire to hook up heterosexually? wink)

Great story so far!

Mark in DE said...

Try www.zabasearch.com instead of Google for locating people.

Oh, how these installment stories torture me!

Mark :-)

Patricia said...

i love your retorts to the snotty comments. :)

TED said...

I gather that crabs were harder to get rid of back in the last century?

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful beginning to an adventure to share with us! The story is proving as addictive and delightful as the author!

-C

RJ March said...

Hmmm. I'm hooked.

(and I love short guys and I love $5 haircuts-- they're the sexiest...)

Cooper said...

I love your Airplane description!
Was the waiter named Serge? Part deux, please!

madamerouge said...

Between my friends and I, there have been many stays at Westin and Canadian Pacific... and a few upgrades... but something tells me R-C employee stays would be amazing!

David said...

Cruel to throw a "To be continued..." just as the story was picking up.