Rollercoaster

Things with the Ibanker were going up and up and then suddenly plummeted down, as is the pattern of our entire "relationship". But first....

This particular Friday night I had invited my dear friend GF to be my date to the private opening of an exhibition at the museum where I worked. I knew he wasn't the biggest art fan but the events are fun and always make for good people-watching. We agreed to meet at a certain time on a certain corner--GF was late and finally revealed that he had been at the nearby Chirpin' Chicken. He was like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar . We walked towards the museum and planned our night out. His roommate had some friends in town who wanted to go out so the plan was to meet up with them after the event. Of course this event turned out to be the very worst for a non art lover. Contemporary, Minimalist Asian sculpture. Essentially rocks placed in very specific ways. I thought it was cool, if not a bit underwhelming but GF walked through the entire thing clucking his tongue and informing me that he could make that. I chuckled because before even walking in I knew that would be his reaction.

After enjoying some wine we headed to the nearest Duane Reade to buy some drinks for our next stop--his roommate's friend's apartment in the East Village. We were low on time so we decided to crack open our douces of Heineken on the subway. GF's first time boozing on the subbers and admittedly, my second. I wasn't quite sure what to expect out of this gathering but when we arrived I was pleasently surprised. Everyone was cool, just sitting around drinking and chatting. I had another beer and not long after someone busted out the 4loko. It was all downhill from there. I drank one and have minimal memories of the first bar. In fact when I woke up the next morning I wasn't sure we had gone to more than one bar. I remember a few scences from the place but for the most part it is a haze. Very healthy. But apparently I was having perfectly cogent conversations, about lord knows what. I am fairly certain that I was trying to buddy up to one of the guys in the group, the roommate's friend. This must have worked a little because I know he bought me a Corona at the karoake bar we went to next and we performed a duet to "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". I also sang "I Saw the Sign" with GF and apparently got a random girl's email address. At the end of the night GF dragged me to a pizza place down the street where we made friends with some guys from Boston next to us. When we arrived back at GF's apartment I was very excited that his other roommate was out of town and I had his large bed all to myself. I briefly debated inviting the friend to share it with me but luckily I passed out before that offer could be made.

In the morning I waltzed out the room to find GF still passed out. I sat for awhile with the roommate and the friend trying to quiz them on where we had gone the night before. Not getting much of a response I decided it was time to head home. I walked with the two of them to the subway and had a flash of deja vu to the first night I went home with Cute Guy and left in the morning with he and his friend. This intensified when I received a text from Ibanker asking if I wanted to meet for brunch. I debated but decided to go even though I looked like death. I really questioned this decision as I walked down the subway platform and a guy in a group of Bosnian teenagers whispered to the others, "Wow she looks really bad". I inwardly cursed them but there was no turning back now.

I took the subway to the West Village and wandered around lost. After a few minutes I somehow crossed paths with Ibanker and I tried to look like I knew exactly where I was going. We walked to the place and of course it was much too nice for what I wearing (80s denim skirt). Though I knew I shouldn't, I ordered a mimosa. I didn't feel so bad when Ibanker drank 4 to my 1 (did I mention he has a drinking problem??). We chatted and had a nice brunch though and he said that he had friends that were heading to a boat bar for the afternoon. I was enticed as I had been wanting to try this bar but knew I couldn't stomach an afternoon being so gross. I said that I would head home and shower and meet them later. And this is what I did. I showed up to the dock and there was a massive line. For once Ibanker's schmoozing didn't work on the bouncer and we were forced to wait in it. We eventually made it on board and joined the group. Apparently Ibanker only knew his friend who was in town with her Australian boyfriend, who had the worst teeth I've ever seen. No accent can make up for that. The rest of the people were her friends that he had never met. They were ok but I felt a little out of place. It was all couples, though Ibanker had been acting much more couple-y lately. We stayed for quite awhile and even though my stomach was feeling a little churny from drinking hungover in the sun all afternoon I agreed to join everyone for dinner at a bbq place. I was informed that it was the same level as Dinosaur BBQ but this was faaar from the case. Although by the time we were actually able to eat I was so filled up with beer that I was only able to pick at some green beans. After dinner we stayed and Ibanker discovered that some of his finance friends were there as well. I knew I had met one at the white t-shirt/warehouse party from months earlier but when he introduced his Asian friend I was fully convinced for a full 30 seconds that it was one of the guys from the Balkan European extravaganza (he is also Asian....whoops). They were accompanied by very done up, very bitchy looking girls. When I made a comment that I wasn't dressed to be hanging out with them Ibanker replied that I was much prettier than them, which was pretty amazing.

My stomach was in knots at this point. I am apparently not hardcore enough to be hungover, drink beer all day, eat bbq and then drink more beer. I told Ibanker I was going to have to leave and to my surprise he accompanied me. When we got back to his place he was very attentive to whatever I needed. I was really beginning to like this.

In the morning I was feeling better so we decided to head to another brunch. We walked over to Greenwich Village and ate at a French place with a patio. At this point we had been together for almost 24 hours, which was unheard of for us. I had every intention of leaving after this but when we finished brunch we discovered that the Pride Parade had already started and we were on the other side of the parade route. Now this parade is intense, especially with NY passing the gay marriage bill. I was pretty excited to check it out--I wanted to see muscley bears in leather chaps. What we got were mostly fat lesbians in spanks. There was limited techno music and it seemed like every trashy person from the Bronx had shown up. I was over it in about five minutes. Unfortunately we were stuck. His apartment was on the other side of the route and there was nowhere to cross. We wandered around for about an hour and a half searching for a route. We came dangerously close to fat men wearing what we will call a "change purse" on multiple occsions. Finally we were miraculously able to hail a cab and had it take us the three blocks we needed to go, where pedestrians weren't allowed to cross. After this we were both fairly traumitized so we bought a tub of ice cream at the bodega and holed up in his room. I had every intention of leaving after the ice cream was finished but then we started watching stupid youtube videos then one of his friends called and wanted to get dinner. I almost had a heart attack when he asked if I wanted to join them. I sure did and since my stomach had finally recovered from the day before, I ordered myself a steak. After dinner I decided it was finally time for me to leave--it was 8pm on a Sunday night and I had basically just spent two solid days with him. I was pretty excited about this and was even more so when he said we would hang out during the week, since he was going to be gone for the next few weekends.

That was the top of the roller coaster. From this it has been a swift decline. We did hang out a few nights later. It was fine but he was much more distant (he didnt even kiss me) and made no mention of his Hamptons invitation. He did invite me to stay over which I was pleased about but just got pissed off in the morning when I got hopelessly lost in his neighborhood again and was 20 minutes late to work. And the real kicker was a few nights ago when I was out for happy hour with some girls I worked with. I invited him out, he said he would come and then bailed at the last minute even though I was no more than 10 blocks from where he was.

And this is how it goes with him. It's fun but I never know what to expect. Things go well and then I don't hear from him and then all of a sudden I will after I've almost written him off. I have no idea how this roller coaster ride will progress but sometimes I grow worried that it is going to derail and I am going to fly out. Or maybe I will be the one to put a halt to it. I am not sure but for now I guess I will ride it out until my patience is up.