Fun Weekend

Saturday afternoon I was over at Brad's house, playing silly board games again. In the evening, I picked up Nauber and we headed to Framingham to pick up Geremias. He had agreed to come back to town with us, so I asked Russell if he could crash at the house, and we were all set.

We grabbed dinner in Framingham. For those of you not local, Framingham is an epicenter of Brazilian settlement. Look up the province of Minas on a map of Brazil. Then picture that territory devoid of people because they all live in Massachusetts. That's the joke, but it's based on reality. Geremias guided us to a churrascaria ('zilian BBQ), but Nauber got all pouty and said he wanted to go to Ruby Tuesday instead. He loves their salad bar... Geremias said fine, and that's where we went. We all got the combos, which are like $9 and include the salad bar ($8.50 on its own).

Nauber slept at his house, and went to church in the morning. He said he'd call when he got back. Geremias and I drove around town for a little while in the morning, and I showed him the mansions on Salisbury hill, and picked up some a bunch of berries at the produce stand. Nauber was running a little late because he had decided to do LAUNDRY. So, grabbed Ronny instead, and ran to the store to pick up soda. When Nauber was finally ready we stopped in at the Brazilian bakery for a little bite to eat (breakfast at noon!) and some coffee - I had chocolate milk. Stopped at the liquor store and bought Smirnoff's (strawberry acai is excellent, and we tried the mango, which is also very good) and Brazilian beer (cerveja).

There was big party to go to at Rick and Andre's. Their birthdays are about the same time, so they have a joint party. A gay couple inviting all their friends and family to one big party. You may recall one of these from a while ago, when cutie Junior was still around, and HERE are the details. No pictures this time around, though. Nauber and Geremias were surprised how many people there were, and what a total mixed crowd it was. There was some self-segregating, but everybody got along well. The gays were mostly American/Brazilian couples (Nauber&I, Brad&Cris, Rick&Andre, plus a couple others whose names I don't know) and their friends, so that was culturally mixed. The straights further split off into the Americans over by the beer cooler and the Brazilians over by the grill. They love churrasco, so gladly ran the grill all day long. No hotdogs this year, tho.

Nauber actually knew a couple people there, including this lady who had bought some chicken at KFC a couple weeks ago. She is American but has lived in Brazil her whole life, has been here a couple months to take care of some things, and was at the party with one of her sons. Turns out they run a small intra-Americas business, and are looking for people in their USA/LatinAmerica operations, as well as their Central/SouthAmerica operations. Geremias speaks Portuguese and Spanish (not much English yet, so Nauber's one up on him there) so spent a fair amount of time talking with them, and exchanged contact info. Nauber and Geremias were both very excited to meet so many new people, though mostly they met more Brazilians, and primarily the gay ones at that. Nauber was also excited to meet Rick's chickens and rabbits!

Psycho-ex was there, too. And being civil. We actually conversed briefly, and he gets along with Ronny now, too.

One of the Brazilian gays was bartending. The drink of choice was caipirinha, though the fruit and cream version (I saw strawberry or pineapple) was big, too. I don't like cachaca (with a tail on that last 'c' like the french, which makes it sound like an 's') because it tastes like tequila, so I didn't have any. Nauber, however, had several. Possibly too many. He got rather drunk. At one point, I'm holding him in the bathroom as he starts crying and says he misses all his old friends. He also said "I love you" which I should have been excited about, since it was the first time, but since he was really drunk, and I don't think he even remembers saying it, I'm letting it wash over me. Mykael ended up taking Geremias back home, and I just brought Nauber back to my place. He immediately plopped down on the bed, and started making gurgly noises. I suggested he go to the bathroom, but he grunted, and stayed there. For about 10 seconds. Until the vomit sprayed out across his clothes and my blanket. Guess who did a special load of laundry the next day!

Not the most auspicious ending, but overall a great day. The chocolate dipped strawberries were especially worth it!