I had an awesome evening/night after all – even though everything seemed to go wrong initially. The official FNS page kept saying that FNS would take place, meanwhile there were more and more clouds appearing on the horizon.

Around 6pm I gave T. a call to find out if we would meet like we had planned to earlier. He was all like, I don’t know, the weather doesn’t look very inviting, not sure if I wanna go…etc. So I was all like, dude, I need to get out of this apartment or I’m going crazy here, I need to go bicycling – and, believe it or not, I was able to convince him to hang out (that’s another first with T. that he agrees to come out after he’s already almost canceled. The guy still has some surprises in store, I’m telling ya). We agreed that I would take the 8.09pm train and meet him at Heldenplatz unless FNS was canceled, in which case we might meet for drinks instead.

Around that same time I sent a text message to my friend, Martin, who was supposed to meet me too, so I wouldn’t have to go by myself (he didn’t know that T. might be coming) and asked him if I’d see him at 9pm.

At 8pm I left the house and when I was in the train I got a text message from T. asking me what the plan was. “I’m on the train”, I replied. Just as I got off the train it started raining. Fuck! I tried to go on Facebook to see if they were canceling FNS after all (since it’s dangerous for skaters to skate on wet roads, they cancel it whenever it rains) but couldn’t get my phone to work. I considered calling T. but at that point I just decided to ride to Heldenplatz and hope for the best.

Then I got a text at 8:37pm from Martin, who told me he wasn’t coming. Thanks a lot, dude. I replied “So glad I can always rely on you. I’m in Vienna” and rode on. Yeah, so much for that friendship. (this is not the first time he’s canceled on me).

But then everything turned out just fine.

When I got to Heldenplatz T. was already there. There were very few people (no sign of the ass-ex, IR, thank God) and we were afraid they were going to cancel it after all but then they announced they were going to give it a try. So we rode – it was a slower pace than usual since the streets were wet but we still had all the lanes of the Ring to ourselves and awesome music coming from the speakers of the sound-car.

Of course we had to pass the bridge, where I assume a red lock is still hanging… that hurt, of course, but other than that I tried to put all of last week aside and just enjoy the ride, like I have always done. There’s something about FNS that just makes me feel good – and even more when I get to ride with a person that I like as much as T. Of course it is not like last September – too much has happened since then, but it’s still special, even when we were both not in the greatest of moods (T is really stressed out these days).

After about 40 minutes it started to rain again and that’s when the organizers decided to turn back – bummer, but it was really pouring and not much fun at that point. We got back to Heldenplatz at 10pm, which is mad early, so we decided to go get some drinks at the bar we always go to after FNS.

We literally got the last table, right by the door (poor T was being rained on) – whatever. After two delicious strawberry daiquiris we didn’t care and just went on talking about relationships, exes and the importance of physical contact (also between friends). Things between T. and me are very different now compared to a year ago, I can’t really say how, but it seems he’s trusting me more and telling me more personal things while at the same time I am more comfortable around him. I am nowhere near even thinking of dating someone else, still, being around T. feels good.

At 11:30 we made the decision for me to take the last train at 1am, so we hung out until 12:45 and then I rode up Argentinierstrasse drunk, like I have done so many times in the past few years. Taking the last train going south was hilarious as usual and reminded me of the one time Greg and I went to see the fireworks at Coney Island and the train back was packed with drunk Puerto Ricans (PR party train). There were drunk people lying down on the ground last night – luckily no students of mine, but still… pretty funny actually.

So, I had a good time despite all the heartache of the past week.

Oh and then I made this short video clip of part of last night’s route – riding along the Ring is always the best part, especially when there’s only a few people like last night…