Pride Roundup 2012!

Pride Roundup

Last weekend was Pride in my hometown.  Not that we’re not proud year-round…

Anyway, here’s how it went down.

Friday evening ~ hair cut.  Gotta look good for Pride, right?  T had a light trim and I had the clippers. 

Left side: shortish but swoopy

Right side: super short!

(I have a cowlick in front... can you tell?)

Saturday I had planned a busy but doable evening for us.  Before we could start on the gay fun, we had a backyard party for a friend to attend.  Got that done.  Then went home to don our gay apparel.

Next up was the Dyke March.  Now, let me give you a little history on that one.  Every year I say that I want to go to the Dyke March and every year T objects.  She used to say things like, “You just want to look at other women’s boobs.”  Or, “Why, are you looking for a new girlfriend?”  Yes, I know, she’s painfully insecure.  She doesn’t say that anymore, but this year it was, “It’s such a ridiculous spectacle.  I just hope the rest of the world doesn’t judge all lesbians by that.”  I mean, really.  I can’t spend the time going over these pointless arguments.  It’s …  never mind.

So, this year we were going.  A friend of mine was going to come with us.  My friend the jumper.  She needs to stay busy these days and I thought that our busy evening would be perfect for her.  We had a complicated arrangement logistically.  She met us at our house.  Then we took our car to the place where we would end the evening and parked it.  We got in her car and drove downtown to watch the March.  Only, when we got there, we discovered that we had missed it!  Argh!  Made T happy, though.

We went out for a bite of dinner.  There were two more things on our itinerary: the Hot Flash/Inferno Pride Party which was slated for 8pm to 4am.  No, we were not staying for the whole thing.  And the other entry on the itinerary was the World Naked Bike Ride.  We saw it last year and unbelievably T said, “Let’s do that next year!”  Of course she changed her mind, but still wanted to see it.

So, at this point, sitting in the café having dinner, I said “look, if this is too much for one evening, let’s skip the bike ride and just go to the Party.”  Yes, they agreed with that.  Fine.

So, we drive back across the river and arrive at the warehouse for the big Pride Party.  Holy smokes!  The place is teeming!  Teeming and Steaming!  We danced some, we had a drink or two.  We saw lots of friends, lots of gals who we typically only see on Pride weekend.  My fragile friend left after a couple of hours.  We stayed on a bit longer but eventually the heat and noise drove us out.  When we were leaving, maybe 11:00ish, there was a line down the block to get in.  I love that.

On the way home, we got up to 7^th and Burnside and found traffic at a standstill.  We drove up a few more blocks and parked the car and got out.  What do you know, we got to watch the Naked Bike Ride after all!  In fact, we couldn’t get across Burnside to go home for probably 45 minutes.  There are thousands, literally thousands of people participating in the ride.  Wow.

On Sunday, my fragile friend was picking us up to go to the Parade.  We got downtown in a timely manner and found a reasonably good spot along the route.  T and I nipped in to Hobo’s for a couple of quick mimosas.  We met up with another friend and the four of us watched the parade together.  Afterwards, we walked down to the Waterfront and strolled through the booths and enjoyed a couple of beers.  My fragile friend left and we caught a ride home with T’s friend Donna.  I would have liked to stay longer – the people watching is fantastic and we hadn’t seen some friends that we usually see there.  But, overall, we had a pretty good time.

Who else has a Pride story to tell?  I hope you are all out there waving your rainbow flags!

Because it’s not always about us… thankfully!

T stuck her nose in someone else’s business last weekend. Not usually a good idea and she almost got it bitten off this time.

T has had a couple of relationships end because of cheating. The most painful was with a woman she really thought she would spend the rest of her life with. And the worst thing? Yep, her girlfriend left her for a man. Ugh. She’s pretty sensitive about the whole issue.

So, last weekend we were supposed to go to a party at an old friend’s house. T has known this woman for decades but had fallen out of touch over the last 5 or 6 years. They reconnected early this year and have been hanging out a little and just having a good time reminiscing about days gone by.

This old gal, Buck and her girlfriend, Tiffany, have been together for about a dozen years. They are an odd pair, but pretty well suited. They like some pretty kinky stuff and it can’t be that easy to find a partner who goes in for that kind of … pleasure.

T called Tiffany on Friday to ask what we should bring to the party and got an earful! It seems that Buck had taken off for the beach with another mutual friend. Not only that, but left with her strap and toys packed to go. She even had the nerve to tell Tiffany to go out and buy a new strap for when she got home! [Insert stunned expression here.]

T immediately called Buck’s cell phone and left a message. Then she left a text for Pam, the mutual “friend.” Both had posted something on their FB walls and T commented on both of them. Ok, here’s my confession: when T read to me what Pam had written, I offered a comment. But, really it was because I thought it sounded more poetic.
Pam said, “What a great day!”
T’s comment, “A beautiful day for betrayal.” That was mine. T was going to say something like: you are a nasty, trashy ho and I hope you drown in the ocean.

Then T called Tiffany back and they talked for quite some time about how horrible it all was. There was some more back and forthing with the cheaters (I’ll just add that Pam is both married to a man and has a steady girlfriend) and with Tiff and eventually Tiffany told T to butt out and let her fight her own battles. Buck and Pam both defriended T on FB.

Now, all of that is just ugly and sordid bad behavior. And who cares, right? T is worried now, though, because tomorrow night we are going to the once-a-month Old Gals dance downtown and she is pretty sure that Buck and Pam will be there. She is such a weenie, she is afraid that they will be mean to her. I find that hilarious. First of all, I’m a black belt and tough little scrapper and not afraid to fight. I know they won’t try anything physical, but if they did I would actually enjoy that. We so rarely get to use our skills! Second of all, what are they going to do? Glare at us? Call us names? I’m sorry but that just doesn’t scare me. And it won’t hurt my feelings, either.

What a bunch of stupid dyke drama. And at our age, for crying out loud! They all need to just grow the hell up. Acting like a bunch of teenagers is not attractive.