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kkscatnip
So, Pride! Let me say first: I had never been to a Pride event before, but I thought I should go to this one because my BFF was volunteering at it and I have a girlfriend now.
And I guess here is where I will interject: it's not that I've never felt pride, precisely, but more that what I am has always been a matter-of-fact thing with me. I've been sleeping with girls and boys-- sometimes both separately in the same night-- since I was far too young; it really never occurred to me that I should be proud just because I wasn't mainstream. But that's another discussion entirely, I think, so I'm not going to do more than mention it for the sake of explaining why I'd never been to a pride event before.
Anyhow! I went to the event at the Georgia Aquarium on Friday night. I got to shake the mayor of Atlanta's hand, and got to hear an absolutely amazing speech by John Lewis, my US House rep. He was just... fucking awesome. I got to shake his hand, too!
After the awards and speeches they opened the doors and let us out of the ball room and into the rest of the aquarium. It was really cool: the whole place was closed to the public but they still had all the exhibits going so it was likeme and 3,000 of my closest friends I got a private tour or something. I totally went through the penguin crawl-tunnel three times. Met this nice girl the first time through, when she bumped her face into my butt. No better way to meet people, really, imho.
Overall I felt rather-- alone, in a lot of ways. Because there were many many older people and I just felt like, wow, no one here my age! But Em and I did find a small group of people our age, and I promptly proposed spin the bottle because that's more kosher than "Can I make out with each of you in rapid succession?"
There was only one girl there I didn't know, who happened to be the tunnel-girl I'd met before! Her name was Leia (or something-- that's the phonetic spelling; I never got her number so I have no idea the proper spelling) and she was by that point as drunk as I was (which was very; free drinks, you know?) so there was much kissing etc etc blah blah. She had two friends with her, who were too busy playing tonsil hockey with each other to play with us.
I think for me, despite the slight alienation, it was a good easing-in to pride itself, so I wasn't quite so overwhelmed the next day. We ended up leaving rather early because I had to get home in time to not miss the last bus back to my apartment, so I was well-rested for Saturday.
I made it over to Piedmont Park sometime around noon and ended up catching Em when she was on her break with the place she was volunteering at, so the two of us got to walk around a fair bit. I brought my free hugs sign, and happily gave out A ZILLION HUGS oh my god it was great. I'm totally going to start bringing that with me whenever I go anywhere with crowds, heh. Such a great ice-breaker! (Em ended up making a sign, too, hahaha.)
We also met Leia's friends twice and Leia herself one more time during this, which was amazing to me and quite a happy thing. Hugs were exchanged!
Also, we discovered pStyle-- a thingy that allows you to pee standing up! I'm ordering one off the website, because it comes with a nifty carrying case. I imagine it will come in handy while I am in Oregon; I'm probably going to be spending a lot of time out-of-doors.
After three laps around the park, both of us were tired so we went down to the dock and put our feet in the water and lazed about until we were cooled off and planned the night. We'd bought tickets to the Peach party, which was the big lesbian bash, but since the party didn't end until 3 and busses stopped running at 12 it required a bit of finagling to manage things. But we came up with a plan and so I went back home and played with my dog and took her on a walk and got dressed for going dancing.
I couldn't find any sort of "OMG THIS IS THE BIG GAY BASH" thing for guys; it seemed like there were a zillion parties scattered all over, so I chose one close to Em's place and we got there-- oh, tenish? Maybe. It was a drag bar, but it was a bar so it was smoky. And the people there were old, and next to nobody was dancing. And I wanted Em to have enough time to get drunk and then sober up again, so we left after a few songs and went to Peach!
OMG. You have to understand-- I'd never been out dancing properly, although I had been to bars before and I had been to raves before. But this was very much a clubby sort of dancing, which was completely new to me and completely awesome. I want to write a story about it, but I'm not sure how to write something that's not completely trite and cliché and stuff, because it really is such a cliché.
Anyway, we met Leia and her friends again, ahahaha. I got to make out with her a bit more, and bought her a drink, and stuff.
Dancing was just... it was so awesome. I was covered in sweat, and so was everyone else, and everyone was laughing and having a good time and making out and just. Fun. Fun!
There were a couple pro dancers there, too, and at one point I was up near the stage and tried to get one lady who was watching them to dance with me, and the lady said, "I'm at church! I can't dance," and reached up and put a five in one of the dancer's outfits. Ahaha, it was so awesome. I worshipped a little, too; those girls deserved it, with as hard as they so obviously worked.
I also discovered that due to my height, I have to be careful when grind-dancing with taller people, so that our privates are actually rubbing together and not like, their ass on my stomach or their crotch against my lower back. All these unforeseen complications, lol.
And so loud, oh my goodness. Like thrumming through my body. But it was quite a good system and didn't make my ears ring, even if I felt quite deaf by the end of the night.
I was so sooooreeee, oh my goodness. My feet especially. And this morning I woke up and my legs were like rarara, we hate you, and all I could do was giggle to myself because I guess that's the price of having fun when I'm not fit. Obviously this calls for more dancing!
Overall, OMG SO MUCH FUN. Yep. The only sadpants thing was that Leia didn't come home with me, and after Em left this morning I went back to sleep and didn't wake up until like 2:30 so I missed the parade entirely. And then I discovered a new episode of Star Driver was out, so, you know. Had to watch it. Now it's 4:30 and I'm tired again but so happy.
Yay.
And I guess here is where I will interject: it's not that I've never felt pride, precisely, but more that what I am has always been a matter-of-fact thing with me. I've been sleeping with girls and boys-- sometimes both separately in the same night-- since I was far too young; it really never occurred to me that I should be proud just because I wasn't mainstream. But that's another discussion entirely, I think, so I'm not going to do more than mention it for the sake of explaining why I'd never been to a pride event before.
Anyhow! I went to the event at the Georgia Aquarium on Friday night. I got to shake the mayor of Atlanta's hand, and got to hear an absolutely amazing speech by John Lewis, my US House rep. He was just... fucking awesome. I got to shake his hand, too!
After the awards and speeches they opened the doors and let us out of the ball room and into the rest of the aquarium. It was really cool: the whole place was closed to the public but they still had all the exhibits going so it was like
Overall I felt rather-- alone, in a lot of ways. Because there were many many older people and I just felt like, wow, no one here my age! But Em and I did find a small group of people our age, and I promptly proposed spin the bottle because that's more kosher than "Can I make out with each of you in rapid succession?"
There was only one girl there I didn't know, who happened to be the tunnel-girl I'd met before! Her name was Leia (or something-- that's the phonetic spelling; I never got her number so I have no idea the proper spelling) and she was by that point as drunk as I was (which was very; free drinks, you know?) so there was much kissing etc etc blah blah. She had two friends with her, who were too busy playing tonsil hockey with each other to play with us.
I think for me, despite the slight alienation, it was a good easing-in to pride itself, so I wasn't quite so overwhelmed the next day. We ended up leaving rather early because I had to get home in time to not miss the last bus back to my apartment, so I was well-rested for Saturday.
I made it over to Piedmont Park sometime around noon and ended up catching Em when she was on her break with the place she was volunteering at, so the two of us got to walk around a fair bit. I brought my free hugs sign, and happily gave out A ZILLION HUGS oh my god it was great. I'm totally going to start bringing that with me whenever I go anywhere with crowds, heh. Such a great ice-breaker! (Em ended up making a sign, too, hahaha.)
We also met Leia's friends twice and Leia herself one more time during this, which was amazing to me and quite a happy thing. Hugs were exchanged!
Also, we discovered pStyle-- a thingy that allows you to pee standing up! I'm ordering one off the website, because it comes with a nifty carrying case. I imagine it will come in handy while I am in Oregon; I'm probably going to be spending a lot of time out-of-doors.
After three laps around the park, both of us were tired so we went down to the dock and put our feet in the water and lazed about until we were cooled off and planned the night. We'd bought tickets to the Peach party, which was the big lesbian bash, but since the party didn't end until 3 and busses stopped running at 12 it required a bit of finagling to manage things. But we came up with a plan and so I went back home and played with my dog and took her on a walk and got dressed for going dancing.
I couldn't find any sort of "OMG THIS IS THE BIG GAY BASH" thing for guys; it seemed like there were a zillion parties scattered all over, so I chose one close to Em's place and we got there-- oh, tenish? Maybe. It was a drag bar, but it was a bar so it was smoky. And the people there were old, and next to nobody was dancing. And I wanted Em to have enough time to get drunk and then sober up again, so we left after a few songs and went to Peach!
OMG. You have to understand-- I'd never been out dancing properly, although I had been to bars before and I had been to raves before. But this was very much a clubby sort of dancing, which was completely new to me and completely awesome. I want to write a story about it, but I'm not sure how to write something that's not completely trite and cliché and stuff, because it really is such a cliché.
Anyway, we met Leia and her friends again, ahahaha. I got to make out with her a bit more, and bought her a drink, and stuff.
Dancing was just... it was so awesome. I was covered in sweat, and so was everyone else, and everyone was laughing and having a good time and making out and just. Fun. Fun!
There were a couple pro dancers there, too, and at one point I was up near the stage and tried to get one lady who was watching them to dance with me, and the lady said, "I'm at church! I can't dance," and reached up and put a five in one of the dancer's outfits. Ahaha, it was so awesome. I worshipped a little, too; those girls deserved it, with as hard as they so obviously worked.
I also discovered that due to my height, I have to be careful when grind-dancing with taller people, so that our privates are actually rubbing together and not like, their ass on my stomach or their crotch against my lower back. All these unforeseen complications, lol.
And so loud, oh my goodness. Like thrumming through my body. But it was quite a good system and didn't make my ears ring, even if I felt quite deaf by the end of the night.
I was so sooooreeee, oh my goodness. My feet especially. And this morning I woke up and my legs were like rarara, we hate you, and all I could do was giggle to myself because I guess that's the price of having fun when I'm not fit. Obviously this calls for more dancing!
Overall, OMG SO MUCH FUN. Yep. The only sadpants thing was that Leia didn't come home with me, and after Em left this morning I went back to sleep and didn't wake up until like 2:30 so I missed the parade entirely. And then I discovered a new episode of Star Driver was out, so, you know. Had to watch it. Now it's 4:30 and I'm tired again but so happy.
Yay.
