A post in which I celebrate the 4th

Unfortunately, I did not celebrate the 4th by getting laid, as I had hoped.  But that's OK.  I spent some time this morning chasing guys basically just to watch them run.  Then I decided I needed to get some stuff done.  I had two things that needed to be done today.  I got one of them done.  I hauled off the recycling, which was building up in bags and boxes all over the house.  It seems that I don't have any, but as soon as the cans are full, everything I use empties another box or bottle. 

I went by the grocery store on the way home so I wouldn't have it to do this weekend (ha), and picked up sundries.  Then I went home and got in the kitchen.  I made my pasta salad.  It's hard to tell how it turned out, because it really has to sit and marry for a while before you can tell, plus it has to be well chilled.  I did eat a bowl for lunch when I got done, but the jury is still technically out. 

Billy had sent a good bit of the Japanese cucumbers Russ bought last weekend home with me.  Russ had also told me that sour cream cucumber salad is his favorite.  Some relative of his used to make it.  I had found a pretty good recipe for it when I was in treatment, so I whipped some up today.  I haven't eaten it since I was in treatment - I was craving it, and after I made it I ate some and was SO sick - but I felt like it again today. 

By the time I did all that, cleaned up the kitchen, and got cleaned up myself, it was time to head over to Russ and Billy's house.  We had plans tonight for the movies and dinner.  We went and picked up Brian and Vince and were off to see Magic Mike.  Now.  The gay online community had just been a-gaggle over this movie.  Personally, I am not a huge stripper fan.  My feeling is that if you take your clothes off in front of me you had best mean business.  Don't show me the candy and then take it away.  That just pisses me off - and then you want to be paid for that?  I don't think so.  Also, because the movie had gotten decent reviews, I was expecting it to be more story than beefcake.  That would have suited me fine, but I figured the guys would be disappointed. 

From a beefcake perspective, there was plenty o' that.  Plus you had a micro-millisecond view of the very tippy tippy top of Channing Tatum's wiener like right at the beginning so the guys were encouraged.  But for a beefcake movie reputed to have been slated for a NC-17 rating, it was remarkably tame.  You could have cut out about a minute and shown it on TV.  The strip routines were primarily shirtless dancing.  They would rip the pants, and then two seconds later the scene would change.  There was about 45 seconds of Matthew McConaughey in a G-string near the end, and I guess if you're just dying to see that it was worth the price, but his character was such a sleaze-ball that I didn't like hime enough to really care.  These men were beautiful, don't get me wrong, but they were all a bit plucked and perfect for me.  One of the transition scenes for the ingenue was that his sister walks in to find him shaving his legs.  Ew.  So the beefcake thing for me was pretty much not working.  When I can see just as beautiful men (or indeed men more suited to my taste) online, completely naked, engaging in pretty much any activity I would enjoy watching them perform, for free, well it was just hard for me to get all het up over the beefcake angle. 

Then there was the story line.  The dialogue was wincingly bad.  There was a lot of 'smell the fart' acting.  There was a 'love story' that wasn't fleshed out enough to be even slightly believable.  All of the strippers were aggressively straight (there was one hinted-at 4-way, but there were two women involved, and the only flesh showed was a pair of patently fake breasts).  None of the characters were round enough or sympathetic enough for me to care what happened to them.  The plot line followed one young man's descent into drugs and hinted at addiction, while Tatum's character discovers that he is, in fact, just a male stripper.  He has apparently been in denial about this.  The movie ended abruptly, as if they just said "enough".  Personally, I was pretty glad to see it end. 

After the movie we headed for Stax Omega for supper.  There had been enough discussion of breakfast food (it was a lame running gag) in the movie that some folks were craving it.  I had one of the humongous salads they make, deciding I needed some vegetables.  It was a pleasant meal.  Afterwards we dropped Vince and Brian back at their place, and I went on home.  It had been a pleasant day.  I enjoyed the day off, despite being unable to cobble it into a mini-vacation.

I drove home through town as the fireworks went off.  Greenvillians lined the streets to watch the display over on my side of town.  But I needed to get to bed.