I could say I avoid going home for the holidays due to the lack of having the vacation time, or the money to afford the inflated airline rates, or to brave unanticipated storms that could have me stuck camping out near the Midwestern airport smoking rooms, which I loathe. I could also say that I tend to stay close to home for Thanksgiving since my aunt, who lives just across the Bay, is the best cook I know. But the real reason why I stay put in San Francisco for Thanksgiving is because it’s the one time of year I get to celebrate my chosen family in the city, those odd characters that have eccentrically inspired the last twelve years of my life. And it was one particular Thanksgiving almost ten years ago, when I entered the inner circle of these very characters, in order to mark my place in the center of San Francisco’s crazy people map.
I met Gareth, Michael, and Tomas on a random night at one of the Castro neighborhood’s newest dining hot spots. I had planned a birthday dinner for one of my guy friends, and when we were finally able to take a seat at the highly-anticipated table, there wasn’t one for me. Instead of causing a fuss like most social-planning divas might have done, I did what came most naturally to me; I made friends with my neighbors. Then I grabbed my purse, my drink, and my derriere and plopped down at the empty fourth seat where Gareth, Michael, and Tomas sat. They had invited me to do so, of course, but I followed suit by charming the designer labels off the three of them by dessert.
For the next year, running around with my three gay boyfriends had me in a social scene that was miles outside my party-girl reach. We charted a debaucherous course from sweaty dance floors in San Francisco to black-eyed peas and soul food in the Village on New Year’s morning. No matter where we went, we always managed to turn heads, since Gareth, who was English; Michael, who was African-American; and Tomas, who was Mexican, were a like a beautifully-presented cocktail, and one that went well with our threesome of equally attractive straight girls.
