Drink 5: Lost in Space

The Story: I met Michael when he worked at the Chamber of Commerce. He was the staff liaison to the downtown committee, of which I was a member. It didn’t take us long to realize how simpatico we were and soon we were carousing around town together causing mischief.

We created a lot of confusion around town for a while since I had a boyfriend but Michael and I were always out together, whether it was a business or social function. In those days, you had to know Michael pretty well to know he was gay. In fact, I had more than one girlfriend ask me to set her up with him. I’m not going to deny that we had a little bit of fun with that – along with everything else we did.

The ironic thing about that is that Michael and I have always had the same taste in men. My love for his Vlassis is continued proof that he and I choose the same kind of man.

Five years ago, Michael moved to Boston to go work for the Boston Redevelopment Authority. I miss having him around the corner. For a few years, I was living with my parents and he lived three blocks up the street. It was nice to have him that close.

A couple years ago, I went to Provincetown for a weekend with Michael and some of his friends. On the Saturday afternoon we were wandering around town browsing, both the trinkets in the shops and the men on the street. We found ourselves in one of the sex shops and, after browsing the wares in there, started up a conversation with the woman who owned the shop and a man who was working there. After chatting for a while, the man said that Michael and I looked alike and asked if we were siblings. Now, I’m not sure how many siblings go wandering into sex shops together (I certainly never have with either of my brothers!) but I couldn’t help myself and said, “yes, we’re twins!”

That’s the day Michael became my twin brother and I’ve considered him just that ever since. It’s a little more flip – and appropriate for us – than acknowledging that he’s my soul mate. That just doesn’t have the same ring when you’re out at a bar on a Thursday night.

I was recently at Michael’s place in Boston with a few of his friends. He has two pictures in his place: one of himself and one of him and me. He picked up the picture of us and showed it to his friend and said, “these are my two most favorite people!”

I swooned when I heard that. I don’t see Michael as much as I used to, or nearly as much as I’d like. You never know how people think or feel when you’re not in touch with them as often as you once were, so it was truly wonderful to hear that he still loves me as much as I love him.

The Drink: The Lost in Space is essentially a Tang martini. I was a baby during the early 70s, when the ad campaign for Tang featured astronaut Alan Shepherd and promoted it as “the drink of astronauts.” My mom used to feed it to me in my bottle which predisposed me for super soft (thanks to the sugar) baby teeth and a love for the taste of Tang.

I found this drink many years ago with Adrian and it quickly became one of my most favorite drinks ever. How perfect, then, to share it with one of my most favorite people ever.