Belmo Joins The 40/40 Club

December 20th is Belmo's birthday and this year marks the big 4-0. You know... 40, otherwise known as the new 30...whatever THAT means!?! Anywho, he began celebrating three days prior to his 40th by spending the day in NYC. Belmo, myself, and a childhood girlfriend of mine, Anitra, embarked on our trek early that morning by catching the infamous Chinatown bus from downtown Philly. What makes the Chinatown bus blogworthy would be the following: a plethora of foul odors such as feces, rotten fish, urine, and bus fumes, the sound of an Asian woman screaming,"TICK-ET! TICK-ET PEESE!" and the way the bus driver weaves in and out of New Jersey Turnpike traffic at speeds exceeding WAY over the limit. We arrived in Manhattan at 10am, criss-crossing the island via subway and making stops in Midtown, Harlem, and the East Village. Before we knew it, night came and we were back on that bus on our way home.

The next day Belmo's sister, Rhea, came to visit as well as help celebrate her baby brother's milestone birthday. Allow me to paint a picture of Rhea. She's the splitting image of Belmo, a compact, cocoa brown shade lady with delicate Latin facial features. However, Rhea's personality contrasts with Belmo's, which is more laid-back, and reserved. A "take the bull by the horns", "she's fired up, she ain't taken no more", "no Roger, no Re-Run, no rent!!!"kind of a woman she represents. To witness the two siblings communicating is a treat.

Later that day, Belmo, Rhea and myself decided on happy hour cocktails at Bump, a "Gayborhood" bar and restaurant where we met up with his friends. In attendance were Chris, a pre-Curtis running buddy, Alex, Belmo's ex , and his on again, off again boyfriend, Marnell, Carla and her girlfriend who we met the week before at Chris' birthday dinner, Peter and his date Chris. Now it's time to talk about the latter two.

Peter is one of Belmo's friends from WAY back in the days of Kurt's, one of the many local hangout spots for gays during the 1980's. He's a Jewish man about 5'5", small build, and VERY wealthy. Now Peter has the reputation of supporting men (black men to be exact) young enough to be his sons in exchange for sex. His date that evening, Chris, was one of those "sons".

Once happy hour ended, we all walked over to the Hyatt located in the Bellevue building for dinner at XIX, the restaurant on the top floor. An elegant dining atmosphere with sweeping views of downtown Philadelphia, XIX specializes in fine seafood cuisine as well as new American entries for one's appetite.

My friend Ian joined us for dinner increasing our guest list to nine. By that time, everyone gave their drink orders to the server, which by the way took longer than I've anticipated. Almost an hour later, our food arrived which was mediocre. Apparently I wasn't the only one who felt that way. With me being a vegetarian, my options were very limited. So limited than I was subjected to eating a caesar salad as an appetizer followed by pierogies as an entree. So one can only imagine the disgust I was feeling not to mention the thought of devouring a whole pizza when I arrive home. After we all ate our dinner, the server bought out a plate of dessert with a lit candle for Belmo only to be snatched away after he made his wish. The server quipped," Did you want dessert for real!?!" As she moves the plate over in front of Peter's boychild, Chris, who by the way had 4 cocktails and isn't even older enough to drink, I was officially over the function. Nothing could have prepared me for the check of $645. Now, I don't know about some folks but "I ain't even trying to spend money for shitty service and a view of the skyline". Peter suggested that we split the tab evenly among eight people excluding Belmo, totalling $81 per person, which I wholeheartedly disagreed with. He can say that with money coming out of his ass, with his "jumpoff" ordering more than anyone else and I ate some fucking pierogies. What the fuck are pierogies anyway!?! I think everyone should have paid their amount for dinner and a fraction of the guest of honor's meal; however, Peter's way won. Yeah there's certain protocol in a situation such as this but "DAMN!?!" Once we scraped our pennies together for the check, we all said our goodbyes in the lobby of the hotel and departed our separate ways.

In conclusion, Belmo expressed his gratitude, enjoyed himself greatly and valued the time spent with those dear to him as he steps forward into another chapter of this book of nonfiction called "life".