t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g



minibow tank, 7.0-6.8 pH

my guppies are swimming around the tank again (though they still prefer the top half of the aquarium). a check of the pH level revealed the water returning to near neutral condition. the new thing i'm worried about now is how the male guppies seem to be bothering the female guppies non-stop. i can't tell if the females don't mind the attention or if it's stressing them out. i haven't noticed any physical signs of abuse yet, but i read that ideally a tank should have a 2:1 female to male guppy ratio. guppies seem to be too much hassle. they're pretty and all, but because of them i can't use my CO2 injector and i had to remove the cherry barb. if the baby guppies reach adulthood though, at least it wasn't all in vain. if i just had neon tetras, none of this would be a problem.

my sleep pattern has shifted towards more noctural hours these days. i sleep later which makes me wake up later as a result. like today, i didn't wake up until almost 1pm. this gave me just 3 hours of daylight before it got dark again, highly depressing and motivationally draining. i heated up some biryani for a late lunch (while watching another episode of keen eddie) and then in the evening had some vegetables for a light dinner. i played colossus for an hour, beating the 5th giant, a flying dragon that lives in the lake. i had the hardest time trying to jump onto its hairy body as it flew down trying to knock me into the water.

i met eliza and jerica at jacque's, the drag bar in bay village (near boston's theatre district). it was the first time for them but the 4th time for me (my 2nd and 3rd time all happened back in 2003). you can say that over the years, i've become a modest drag fan. it was surprisingly empty when i arrived (9:30, a $10 cover), eliza and jerica had already procured a small round table in the back of the room. people - all females - arrived in large groups: one young bachelorette party (the bride-to-be in a mock wedding veil), one old bachelorette party (the guest of honor in a tiara, natch), and one group of middle aged ladies doing a girl's night on the town (one of them had a plastic star-tipped wand). there was another reservation for a long table but that party ended up cancelling. carl and hilary showed later and the show started at roughly 10:30.

most of the drag queens seemed mannish except for destiny, whom i'd swear is a woman. i stayed with jerica at the back of the room huddled underneath the spotlight platform as the rest of the gang moved up to get a better view. sometimes eliza would turn around to check out our reaction. the back wall is also all mirrored, and throughout the night street trannies would preen themselves in front of us. i did my best not to ogle despite the threat of augmented flesh bursting at the seams of inappropriately tiny outfits.

it wasn't all lip-synced performances: one of the ladies sang snippets of pop songs but with funny sexually revamped lyrics. more and more people arrived throughout the night, as the queens pranced through the audience during their numbers, collecting dollar bill tips. the three groups of women got really wild, especially the older women, who would occasionally stumble onto the stage in a drunken stupor and dance with the performers, who probably wanted nothing more than to push them back to their seats. there was also a lot of photography, as girls and ladies got their snapshots taken with the drag queens.

the show as well as the bar closed at midnight. i followed jerica, who gave me a ride home in her barbie mobile (now that she lives in central square), while eliza went home with carl and hilary.