Alan's Hot Spot

When I first moved to San Francisco, back in March of 2004, I remember unpacking one suitcase, putting my bed on the carpet and running to grab my keys and my laptop, headed for Starbucks. I was 25 and newly out. I had joined a gay social networking site called Connexion and I had received a message from Alan.

I went to Starbucks and signed up for a one year pass to the T-mobile hotspot. T-mobile provided Internet service for users in Starbucks, Kinkos, AT and T stores and airports--and for $30 a month it would be my one way ticket to read messages from Alan.

Alan was listed as 5' 4" and 150 pounds. One of his pics had him shirtless and he was built like Canadian WWF legend Dino Bravo. His interests included Skittles and softball. He had Brown hair and he was 29 and looked like my aunt Judy. He was sexy but he was also nice. He LOL'ed an awful lot in our messages.

While I didn't actually go on a date with Alan until September of that year, I went to Starbucks daily to look for a message from him. I bought a lot of coffee and hot chocolate and biscottis because I felt guilty just using their hotspot. I used to go to the Wells Fargo next to the Starbucks and use their direct deposit advance to get $20 or $40 bucks to make sure I could afford these visits over that summer. Occasionally, I'd meet other guys on the site and meet up with them that night at the Midnight Sun or Moby Dicks. I accumulated $3000 in credit card debt from the time I landed in San Francisco until the moment I met Alan six months later.

We went on two dates.

And wi-fi at Starbucks is now free. I'm typing this from one now.

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Location:Starbucks West Hollywood