Friday night I went to the New York LGBT Center for the Cuddle Party, which was pretty much what I expected and fun, although I didn't quite feel comfortable enough on my first time to fully participate in the non-structured part of the gathering. We went through exercises on how to ask for what we wanted, and how to say yes, and how to say no without hurting others' feelings. All these things are practiced in my family, so it wasn't completely unfamiliar, but it's all still new to me. I come from a culture where many behaviors stem from unspoken expectations and obligations (a high context culture, for those of you familiar with communication theory), so it will take some time for the idea of explicit, honest and open communication to become second nature to me.
Toward the end of the party, I met a few nice people I just felt comfortable talking to, a pagan couple and a very bubbly cat-lover. I'm actually a little disappointed with myself for being so inhibited, but I knew this was going to be a challenge for me to let go a little. But I think now I know what to expect, if I have the opportunity to attend another party I will probably be able to participate more fully.
Saturday I had my cable TV installed in the early afternoon and spent some time tweaking and setting things up properly. Then Tara and I took a trip into the city to the Ziegfeld Theater, which is probably the largest movie theater I've ever been to, one of the old-fashioned one-screen movie palaces I've always dreamed of visiting. This weekend was the opening of Ridley Scott's final cut of his classic sci-fi film noir Blade Runner.
The sound and picture of this new digital presentation was breathtaking - I don't remember ever being so impressed with the quality of a movie screening, and this is a restored movie that's 25 years old. Scott's cut of the movie wasn't much different from the version on DVD, but it seemed to me to be a little more linear in the storytelling. After the screening, we took some time to fill out the questionnaire for the film's marketing team, since this is an exclusive engagement at this one theater for now.
Sunday I went over to my family's house to watch the Yankees game, and fortunately they won their elimination game against the Cleveland Indians, which means there will be a Game 4 tomorrow night. Go Yanks!
