After several months of promising, I finally dragged myself to Dyke Night at the Eagle. I wore black jeans, my $15 Payless pumps that have lasted me a zillion years, and a tight black t-shirt that says “I do bad things” with a smiling bunny. preppyperv was the first person I saw when I got there, and she gave me a great hug. I hung around a bit and chatted with pegsioux, liquidamy, and a few other people I’d met at least once before; I also got to meet bias_cut for the first time. leatherboydre came in and went upstairs to do her bootblacking work, and I had a good time chatting with aidan_boi_x for a long time. Eventually I drifted upstairs, chatted more, and met more people; I paid $3 for a can of soda, listened to gossip, and met new people.

Finally I decided it was time to leave, and I started saying goodbye. Of course it took forever - there were a lot of people to say goodbye to - and I also got caught talking to a deaf man who had come upstairs to go to the back bar where the regulars hide out when the place is overrun by lesbians. I was starving, so on my way back to the metro I stopped at a 24-hour CVS to buy a snack to eat surreptitiously on the metro. I made my way from there to the top of the metro escalator, from where I could see…the gates were closed. I’d forgotten that it was the middle of the week and the metro wasn’t open late! I started hurrying back to the Eagle and sent an instant message to aidan_boi_x but didn’t get any response. I called preppyperv because she was the only person in my phone’s address book who was at the bar. She showed herself to be the most caring person in the world by answering the phone: “Meredith, are you okay?” She had seen me come up on her caller ID, knew I’d left about 20 minutes ago, and figured I wouldn’t be calling if there wasn’t something wrong. It turned out she and pegsioux had already left, but she suggested I go back anyway to see if anybody there lived in Virginia. Once I got there, I went back upstairs and plopped myself down to catch my breath. A woman I didn’t recognize came over to ask if I was okay, so I mentioned that the metro was closed. A woman nearby overheard me and asked where I needed to go; it turned out she was going that way anyway so she gave me a ride! It was actually a nice trip home, she was very friendly and dropped me off as near to my car as she could.

I certainly hope to go to Dyke Night again. I had a really good time, even if I did come home reeking of smoke and with sore feet. I loved seeing my friends again; I hadn’t seen anybody in several weeks. In fact the only thing I would change would be the metro mistake…next time I will have to leave a bit earlier. Other than that, though, I had a great time.