First Impressions

By nature, I’m very much an introvert in relationships. I’m very uncomfortable meeting new people, I rarely if ever make the first move, and I’m slow to warm to new relationships. I’ve been making a concerted effort to push myself outside my comfort zone in this regard during the past year, forcing myself to take the initiative, being more forward about meeting new people and seeing what happens. Thus far the results have been spectacularly underwhelming, but I’ve kept trying.

I recently found myself chatting for the second or third time with a woman on IRC. Each time the banter has been light and brief, but when I’ve made comments about having been in her neighborhood, she’s responded with “We should have lunch sometime” or something like that. A couple of days ago I made plans to head up to San Francisco for an art exhibit at a gallery, and it occurred to me to invite this person along and finally meet face to face. I sent her the URL to the gallery show, she seemed interested, and so plans were made to meet at the gallery. Yipes! Meeting a new person! What an adventure! (Yeah, yeah, I know. I told you, I’m an introvert.)

The exhibit was called “Beasts and Angels, Erotic Nudes by Kelly Grider” at a place called Eros Gallery. Okay, so the name of the gallery should have tipped me off. I totally didn’t think about it. Maybe I’ve been in the bay area too long.

Come Thursday evening, I drove up to San Francisco, parked at my favorite garage and grabbed a cab to the gallery. I hadn’t been there before, so it took a while to find the store front. Hmm, “Eros Gallery”. Hey, there it is. Get out, pay the driver, and approach the door. Hmm, no windows. Lots of posters outside. Posters of men. Men with big shiny muscles and bare chests. Hmmm… Okay, so I go inside. This isn’t so much a gallery; it feels much more like a hotel lobby. But it’s definitely the right place. The room is ringed with 30 or more framed photographs, black and whites and sepia tones, very well done, very professional. All of large muscular men, most with very visible, very erect penises. Soon I noticed the locker room just off the lobby. I also noticed the sign at the back of the lobby that said “No poppers or glass bottles past this point. The steam rooms are a “No Glass” area.” Oh, and look, there are naked men strolling about with their white gym towels hanging at their sides, walking through the room.

Great. I’m at a gay bathhouse. Looking at an exhibit of gay erotica. Where I invited a total stranger, a woman, to meet me.

I make a hell of a first impression.