Not so straight from the ATL, mixing one electric personality with a dash of humorous wit commenting on life, the universe, and everything.

Sunday, July 28, 2002

Washington, D.C. (July 21-28), 2002

Phew am I tired. After reviewing a previous journal entry, this is starting to sound like the norm *giggle*. But I've got GOOD reasons to be tired. This entry might be a bit long, but I've been in Washington, D.C. for a whole week so I've been racking up the stories for you... It all started on Sunday, July 21st as I flew out of Atlanta, GA to Washington, D.C. An hour and a half flight was not bad at all, however the entire time I was sweating that I just didn't have enough clothes to last me the week.

Boy...was I EVER right about that...hehehe

So Sunday I rested up and just went to dinner at Pepper and had my favorite dish from there, the Pretzel crusted chicken. MMm MMm good.

Monday was a good day as I was in DC to teach a class on some software and technology that I had been researching for about 2 years now. The class went great and I was off for the rest of the evening. So should I rest up or hit the town?

LOL. What do YOU think?

Going out in DC is very different. They have "nights" like this night is this bar and that night is that bar so not knowing where to go on Monday, I went to the most convenient spot, JR's a little video bar. It was "Showtunes" night and I had a blast watching all the people sing and carry on. I had to turn in early as I was teaching on Tuesday so that was my one and only stop.

Tuesday, my class went well again as we finished up early and I headed back to the hotel ahead of schedule for a nice LONG nap. I had met up with an aquaintance, Shane who told me that the place to go would be Cobalt. However, first I went back to JR's as a little add about "Pick a Trick" game that started at 9:00. It was the funniest thing I've seen in awhile. Think "The Dating Game" but much more vulgar and with really cute guys. I mean, when 2 of the contestants answer the question "If we were going on a picnic what would you bring?" with "Condoms and Lube" *eyeroll*. The guy that "won" the date with the guy had the most "slutty" answers, but it was funny.

I met up with Shane later at Cobalt and as it turned out, it was retro 80's night. FUN! I actually ran into "Contestant #1" from PaT who, poor thing, was so drunk from playing the game and actually was upset for losing. I was like, "Dude...sometimes when you lose...you win...that was one contest I wouldn't MIND losing if he wanted the slutty one..."

He didn't quite get that and kept harping about losing so I politely "moved on" and introduced myself to this really cute guy Patrick who happened to be from LA and we had a blast dancing and hanging out together the rest of the evening.

So Wednesday I trucked into work and did my "thing" and they want to have me teach another set of classes (woo hoo!). After upgrading this and that, I was bushed for the day so went back to the hotel to take a nap (notice a pattern yet?). Not wanting to be the "barfly" that I had seemingly become, I decided to go and take a stroll to the Washington Monument and from there branch off to see a few other historical landmarks.

For those of you that have never BEEN to the Washington Monument, let me tell you it's HUGE. I actually felt vertigo looking up at it's pinnacle and had to get away from it.

After that I tripped on over to the Lincoln Memorial and took a few pictures and read the engraved walls with his famous "Four-score" speech. It was quite an impressive piece of art and gave me a definite sense of weight at his importance in the development of our great nation.

The next monument left me with a hole in my heart as I've always wanted to see it...the Vietnam War Memorial aka "The Wall". Hundreds and hundreds of names of those killed in this brutal and often debated war adorned slabs of cold polished granite. I had always seen movies and television shows about the Vietnam War, but never have I, as an american, really felt as deeply as I did reading the names. In the darkness, no one could see the drops forming in my eyes, for here, written on The Wall was the name of the person I've always believed to be my guardian angel, Joe. I had always thought that I had "invented" Joe as someone to "talk to" in my head, but I was drawn to a particular name and I put my hand on it feeling the grooves as a sort of physical reassurance of him. After passing the monument, I noticed a small book, a listing of names and dates of their passing and looked up the name I believed to be my Joe. I stared in disbelief at the dates as I had always believed my Joe to be only 21...and this name I was drawn to...out of the hundreds of names was a 21 year old Joseph, died in 1969, 5 years before I was born. Maybe it's him or maybe I'm just silly. It doesn't matter...at that moment I felt a strong connection to the Universe and believe that he was there with me, walking The Wall as we both remembered.

By that time it was very late (11:00PM) and I didn't want to be out that late so I headed back to the hotel walking quietly in memoriam.

Thursday? Well Thursday Scott, my best friend, arrived from Atlanta to hang with me and we went to Pepper and I had my pretzel chicken. From there we went to JR's again and met up with Jason again who was up by himself on the upper deck. After chatting there, he convinced us to go to Cobalt once again as this was "the night" for it. Yours truly was in RARE FORM and decided to enter their "Best Package" contest after one of our bar aquaintances, Josh decided to enter. All I had to do was strip into underwear behind a curtain and do a "little dance". I did, got plenty of free liquor, but did I win? Oh no. LOL. But I had a blast and did end up with a free pair of 2-Xist underwear that I'm wearing RIGHT NOW. Hehehe.

So Friday I actually was "off" from my contract work and Scott and I spent the day shopping and running around the Museum of Natural History. I took quite a few pictures that will be posted into my gallery soon.

Friday night my friends Ron and Justin came in so we went to dinner at "Trio" an italian restaurant with EXcellent alfredo. Mmm...gained 10 pounds just from that dish.

After that we hit JR's again because Justin doesn't really do country so I felt giving him a little fun before we headed out to Remington's. While there we were told that Remington's was dead on Friday and we should to go Badlands. We had promised my friend Jaret that we would stop by as he's the manager. We had a good time though, but left Rem's to hit the Badlands at around 12:30ishy.

The entrance to Bandlands is kind of unnoticeable. However, I couldn't help but notice the guy outside to the right PUKING his guts out. He made noises like I haven't heard since Jurrasic Park. Badlands was amok with party boys and there were quite a few...WOOF. My friends started crashing while I was still in the GROOVE. I was ready to go when the crowd started thinning out.

On the way home there was this CUTE guy (WOOF) that from ACROSS the street I was cruising. :) He was a little short guy with a goatee/beard going on. We both kept looking back but I wasn't about to dump my friends for a boy. I never realized I could "cruise" that far before. How funny!

Saturday the boys left early in the morning and Scott and I were hungry so we went for breakfast at Annie's. After that was shopping at Universal Gear (I spent like 0) and then to the Aerospace Museum. We got rained on big time on the way there and I was melting because you all know I AM made of sugar.

Saturday night we were supposed to go to Velvet Nation for the foam party but ended up going back to Remington's for dancing. It was very fun that night, not as dead as the night before.

Sunday I was back home in the afternoon, VERY thankful to be home, but glad I had the opportunities I had while in DC. The things I saw and did, the people I met (and did JUST KIDDING), all in all was a very enhancing experience for me.

Tuesday, July 16, 2002

July 16th, 2002

Quit yelling at me already ;) I'm updating this damn journal. Well folx, lots has happened, some good, some bad, mostly good. We probably should talk about my trip to Norfolk, VA for the 9th Annual Convention of the International Association of Gay/Lesbian Country Western Dance Clubs (IAGLCWDC or "ig-gle-kwih-dick")... July 4th found my ass destined for a plane bound for Norfolk, VA. After arriving at the airport early, I found my friend J waiting at the terminal. He had missed his flight the night before and had spent all evening at the airport. Bummer! A semi-nervous airline passenger among others, the flight (thank goodness) was uneventful.


Thursday night was a dance (country-western style of course) and then the always fabulous after hours party. It was way fun hanging out with my friends from around the country and pushing our hoedown here in Atlanta in October (see http://hoedown.southernline.org).

Friday was spent mostly by the pool lounging with the other attendees. This REALLY hot guy Sam from Columbus was there in his white squarecut swimsuit. Woof.

Friday night was another dance (can you guess...country western style) twirling around with all my OTHER friends that had arrived that day.

I've pretty much determined I don't go to take the classes, I go to see all the people that make being part of the organization fun.

HOWEVER, watching the competition Saturday was fun. The team from Atlanta which my friend Tim is choreographer for really did well. Southern Line Atlanta always has found its niche in competing "under the gun" as it were. I was very impressed with their showing and I think that it was one of the more entertaining pieces of the competition.

Saturday night I was going to try and go out on the town but decided it would be more fun to stay at the hotel and I was right. My friends there put me BACK on the wagon with a coffeecup or two of Cowboy Cocksuckers. If you've never had one, I suggest you have several as they will FRELL you UP (and they are mitie tastie).

Sunday I tried to get a flight on Monday, but arrived at the gate too damn late to get a bump. My friends that had stayed apparently had the BEST time (and incidentally got bumped twice and made like 0 in airfares...those bitches!).

My Mom is here tonight but will save that story for tomorrow...it's interesting.

Monday, July 01, 2002

July 1st, 2002 (Day 2&3 of Pride)

I'm tired. Not "tired" as in 110-year old drag queen tired, but physically spent like after great sex. And to answer that question, NO I didn't. Saturday my best friend called and bailed out of going to Piedmont Park for the PRIDE celebration (bitch) so I got up, worked out, and then got geared up in my little blue running shorts and hit the park.


The park was very festive although they didn't have very many things that I wanted to buy. I did find this GREAT shirt that I will def wear in Norfolk, VA this coming weekend.

So after wandering around for a few hours, I had to go to Hoedowns for what would be my only "real" practice for a routine that the dance team of Southern Line Atlanta was doing Sunday. One of their dancers got hurt and I had to fill in at the last minute for their performance on Sunday.

Practice went well and after that, I went home and worked on something or other and then went to help put the float pieces into the moving van. After that, zipping home to get ready for the night's festivities at Blu.

11:45 found me at Blu with my friend M and I was styling. I was wearing a pair of cargo shorts with my phospho-electric wire sewn into it. Damn things took me an hour and were heavy as hell. Met up with this guy J that I had met in Pensacola who is way way cute. Woof.

Danced the night away until 4AM and then headed home, did some work on the CDs for the float and got to sleep at 5AM.

7:00AM rolled around and the alarm sounded like a klaxon in a nuclear testing facility. Crawled out of bed and headed for Hoedowns where we were assebling the float.

Working my ass off for the next 5 hours to get the float together and then organized at the parade staging grounds was...PHEW. No words, but I'm just glad it's OVER.

The parade itself was incredible. We sailed through the crowd performing on the float with a set of line dances that I selected/designed. The crowd seemed appreciative of my musical selection and if it's one thing I know, it's how to work a crowd ;)

Only two minor incidents of the parade, it rained for a little while and one of my dancers got motion sickness on the float. He recovered really fast though and surprisingly enough was back on his feet to finish out dancing on the float. Kudos, Gurl.

After the parade I hustled home to get in the shower to clean up for that evening's performance at the Bellsouth stage at the park for PRIDE. It went off well for me only having about 3 hours total practice for this routine. Either I'm good or my muse was seriously empowering my mojo.

I stayed at the park handing out cards looking what I hope was sexy in my black jeans, boots, and cowboy hat. My walk through the park to the Showtime stage for Raven's finale was fun. I thought this one guy was going to kidnap me! LOL.

As is my tradition, I have always gone to the finale of PRIDE and this year (as with every year) I was NOT disappointed. I really wish I could get a video of the finale. If they sell it, I am SO going to get it. For those of you unfamiliar with Atlanta Pride, Raven of Backstreet Atlanta is the designer of the finale. She's incredible. Her opening number was a mix of Anastacia's popular songs and her outfit was EXACTLY what she would have worn. If you didn't know better, you'd think that it was really her.

The performers this year were incredible. There was even a drag King this year that was hilarious! As always, they only increase in ability and stage presence and performance, but the crowd really comes to see Raven. This year her finale performance was a GREAT mix of all the popular Pink songs. She even did the pink hair and costumes from the video.

The final performer was this woman who sang the "Star Spangled Banner" like I have NEVER heard it. The power and the majesty of our great country was wrapped up this this woman's voice. It practically streamed patriotism in every note and I every attendee at this performance was uplifted even higher as our celebration of Gay Pride...and American Pride ended.

All in all...I would have to say that each year of my life PRIDE seems to get better and better. This year is no exception.

Thanks to all those that helped make it memorable, Southern Line Atlanta, M and S, the VERY handsome J, and everyone else I saw and met at PRIDE this year.