Saturday Dancing

The evening hours would bring a new experience for being in Las Cruces. KS and I went to the Hotel Encanto's Azul Lounge for what they were calling "Sexy Saturday Night." The thing about it was it was going to be a dance party for GLBT folk in the area. Since it was the first one and it was being put on by some of KS's friends, we decided to check it out.

The Azul lounge itself is pretty good, there's a well-stocked bar and plenty of comfortable chairs to sit in, along with a patio area for people to go out and chill at. There's also a small dance floor area, which became a logistical problem later as more people showed up. KS said the patio reminded her of West Hollywood bars, and the bar itself was like an NYC bar. I've only been to an NYC bar so I can vouch for that, but I'll take her word for it about the patio ;-) They also have a pretty good selection of beers on tap and bottled beer as well. I would partake in bottled Shiner Bock since it has been a while since I had any that was from close to the source.

The party itself started out well, with lots of good music to dance to. I also met a number of KS's friends and some new folks as well. As it was, I was just glad to see that there were people coming out to this thing. I also got to meet a friend and co-worker of KS, CO. CO had moved to Las Cruces from San Antonio a few months ago, which is funny considering now my parents are moving to San Antonio. Perhaps I can drag him back there to be a tour guide when I visit my parents at some date in the future. Anyway, so of course with the music, there would be plenty of dancing that night. It's been years since I have gone dancing, and seriously, I need to do it more often. Perhaps it's time to explore some of the dance clubs again in DC and Baltimore and see if I can find one that's fitting.

The thing where the party didn't quite fit anymore is that when it was advertised on the radio, there was no mention this was primarily for the GLBT crowd, so of course we got a lot of straight people coming in to party as well. It does make things a bit uncomfortable because you don't know how they're going to react if they see any same-sex dancing or PDA's going on. Eventually KS, CO, myself, and a few others decided to take off to another bar just to hang out because by then it had gotten really crowded and the music being played became a bit lame. All of us may have grown up in the 80's, but it doesn't mean we wanted to start hearing the music again, or any more Michael Jackson, especially after how much he has been (over)played in the last month.

We got to the other bar but it was closed unfortunately, so we hung in the parking lot and chatted before heading home since it was after 1 AM by then.

The thing is, I could see the Sexy Saturday Nights being a success, but we need the GLBT people to actually go out there and actually make their presence known. It would be nice to have a place to go on Saturdays in Las Cruces for them because there isn't much as it is for GLBT folks in the southern New Mexico area. I know when I was dealing with coming out, I would have killed for a place I could go to meet with other folks to socialize. However, it's not going to happen until either there's more open people in the area, or until a person's sexuality becomes a non-issue. I'm betting on the former.

Still, if they're doing it the next time I'm in town, I'll drop by and see how it is.