Seamen Everywhere

More than Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and my birthday combined there is a special time of year that gets me excited. It's a time when the streets are filled with hot, freshly buzzed, cocky, drunk boys fresh from the sea - and here in New York we call this special holiday Fleet Week. It is a Navy event, but since I am not much into guys who wear all white - I love the week for the Marines who come out in full force as well.

Sigh.

I had been counting down the days to Fleet Week - each time I get off the train to go to work at the gym I see the MTA poster announcing it and it would give me a little pep in my step. Memories of seeing all the uniforms and wide-eyed, eager-to-please, tipsy boys on 14th street last year in Chelsea come rushing back. Marines in Chelsea - now that porn sort of writes itself and I am first in line to guest star in the opening scene.

Tonight I had a session at the gym with one of my regulars. He had some scheduling issues over the past few weeks and a vacation before that so we needed to re-vamp our momentum to get cookin' on his goal of a Memorial Day swimsuit debut. With only 5 days to work with I had to act fast. It was a great session -- he was a somewhat shaky, severely sweaty, and still smiling - just how I like my clients to be at the end of the session.

I ended up walking with my client because he lives on the way to the train I was taking to go workout. I bid him farewell with a cheerful, "Happy Fleet Week" and then hoped on the train. I hit up Better Burger for a bunless chicken burger. Sitting in the window looking at all of the relative cuteness, I almost decided to work out in gay mecca but my better judgment kicked in (who can concentrate on a good work out with hot boys in the room?) and I headed back up to the UWS.

A great workout - not too crowded, caught the Idol finale while warming up - and by the end my body was sufficiently beaten into a self-tortured pulp. I went to the locker room, saw the skeevy crowd (this location is notoriously un-cute at night), and opted out of the shower in order to escape an attack by a towel snatching senior citizen (I have seen this happen).

So, all of these decisions were out of the norm for me - switching two trains just to go work out, not showering after the workout, stopping by Chelsea just for some random protein. This, my friends, is how fate works. This night turned out to be timed perfectly.

I run down into the 79th street station and cannot believe my eyes.

Yes. Marines, a gaggle of them standing on the opposite platform. Ok, maybe not a gaggle but there were 8 of them and still - 8 is enough for me. Heck, I would have taken the one incredibly cute dark-haired one who was swaying back and forth in his drunken stupor. I devised a plan - separate him from the pack, attack while he's weak, nurse him back to health and keep him in my bed for a few hours.

I was a little disappointed in the guys however - as I often am when I see a random Marine walking around. I guess I'm into the idea, or the uniform - well definitely the haircut, but this group had just 1 cute one, and 2 so-so ones. That means there were 5 not so cute ones. They were soft around the middle - Marines are not supposed to be soft - they are supposed to be hard.

The sight of the guys really got my Fleet Week spirit pumping. I can't wait for more . . . here's to a great week with seamen all over the place.