Blue Moon

Tonight, a full moon on Halloween, for the first time in 46 years, and a blue moon to boot. Seems like some kind of extremely rare coincidence, but come to think of it, any full moon on Halloween would be the second full moon of the month, thus "blue."

When I was in the Street Patrol, we had a Haloween security gig every year. Since there's a huge street party in the Castro District every year, and it's become well-known throughout the Bay Area, straight people come to gawk. This has basically ruined the event since the beginning of the 90s, with street-clad gawkers far outnumbering the costumed revellers, but what's worse is that homophobic teenagers see it as an opportunity to visit the neighborhood and bash queers. So we would make our way through the crowds for hours, clad in our fuschia berets, trying to stop evildoers. (Once we were on "60 Minutes.") The later it got, the more drunken and out of control the crowd became; after midnight, it would always get dicey. It got to where I would hope for rain to keep the crowds down and spoil the party, so as not to have to deal with violent drunks. Drunks are the most boring people in the world. It's like dealing with mean, stupid dogs.

But no chance of rain tonight. It's gorgeous today.

So I'm not exactly anticipating Halloween with much pleasure. In fact, since the Street Patrol broke up, I try to stay as far away as possible. I hate dressing up and I hate huge crowds and I hate drunks. It's sort of the worst possible place for me.

I've got some birthday shopping to do. My partner Cris' birthday is next week and we're off to Paris on Friday. So for several days this will become a Paris tourist diary, I guess.

Oh, and since it's the last day of the month, it's payday. I hate that I get anxious for payday to come. When you're a kid, it's okay to wish the days would go faster so that some eagerly anticipated day would come -- the last day or school, or Christmas, or a big date. But when you're an adult, as Joni Mitchell said, you drag your feet just to slow the circles down. And waiting anxiously for payday is just killing time. I hate that.