Day Twenty-Four: Hooping

We hear bongos as the sun is setting.  “Let’s go play with the hippies!” Chris suggests.  I follow him to the grass area behind the fire pit.  On the grass, there is a row of about ten people sitting and playing the bongos and other instruments.  The leader is chanting, “We will not wait… to celebrate.”  The girls have flowers in their hair.   Everyone else is hula hooping.

“Chris, come do the hula!” a lady in purple exclaims.

Chris and I give it a try.  I haven’t hula hooped for years.  I can’t remember the last time I did it, but I think it was in grade school.  After failing to keep it going a few times, I finally start to get the hang of it.  Then I move my hips to the beat of the bongos.  Jen teaches me how to spin the hula around my arm and down my body.  This is so much fun.  

The Leader

The sun falls and the sky is dark.   We come together and hold hands in a “harmony circle.”  The leader tells us that the best thing we can do for ourselves is to ask others, “How can I help you?”   He continues, “To connect with other people is the closest thing you can find to heaven on earth.”  I agree.  I am so fortunate to have connected with so many good people on my trip.

I am sitting with Chris and Jay having dinner and a hostess comes over and tells Chris that the gentleman in room 18 would like his mini bar empty.  The man is threatening to throw all of the mini-bar food out the window.  The mini bar attendant only works until 5, so Chris sends Nick, one of the waiters, to room 18 to take care of the situation.  Nick walks in and the guy is in the room.  The mini bar food is spread across the floor.  “He was such a queen,” Nick explains.  Some of the stories I’ve heard from Chris and Jay are jaw dropping.

When Chris worked at the Standard Grill in New York, a lady punched him.  She walked in, acting normal.  After a few drinks, she began to ask Chris and then others at the bar, “Why won’t anyone sleep with me?”  Then around 3am, she proceeded to flash her breasts.  Chris had to remove her from the bar, but she wouldn’t leave.  They had to pull her from the bar, but she was hanging on.  When the cops came and questioned her, she pointed to Chris and shouted, “Lord of the Gays! Lord of the Gays!”