Atlanta Pride 2005

SO this past weekend was Atlanta PRIDE (gosh I love PRIDE) and Arkansas came down to check it out. I actually had purchased tickets on Friday night to the Atlanta Symphony to go see "Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy" and we RUSHED out the door when he pulled in to go see it.

I thought that a concert of video game music was just about the COOLEST thing. Nobuo Uematsu is definitely a genius and I have been a fan of the video game series since it first came to the states as Final Fantasy I on the NES (8-bit system). I have beaten every US Final Fantasy except for FF8 and FFX-2 (which I really need to go back and play otherwise I lose my true fan status). They had videos from the game series playing on large projector screens (I wish they had blended more footage together so that it lasted the whole song...there is definitely enough CGI animations within the series to go more than 30 seconds).

Friday after the concert, we sped home, cleaned up and were out the door in 30 minutes (a record for me) and off to "The Jungle" for their "Studio54" themed party. I love this event (they had it last year) and I wore my super gay metallic mesh silver shirt and my blue LED belt with a pair of jeans. A fun outfit and it very well could have fit in back in the real day of Studio54. We met a few of my lez-beans friends out there and got a bit toasty off of some green apple martinis.

Saturday we got up and trundled on over to my friend DG's house for a pool party. There were lots of softball people there and I had a good time. There was lots to drink (are you seeing a theme for this weekend?) and some barbeque chicken and pork. About 4PM A was ready to go so we went home and crashed on the couch, debated for about 5 minutes about going out, and finally decided to put in a DVD and continue parking our phat asses on the couch.

Sunday we woke up to a misty rain and scooched on over to Publix to grab some turnover bites to bring to a PRIDE brunch at B&M's apartment which is situated RIGHT on the park where the Atlanta PRIDE festival is held. We grabbed a final cocktail (again, continuing the theme for the weekend) and went to browser the vendor booths. I found a booth with hand made glass jewelry pendants and I bought a really nice one for $30 but couldn't resist and went back later and bought two less expensive ones for $20. Hand made jewelry is my favorite because you can be fairly guaranteed that someone won't be wearing the same thing you have on. We picked up a couple of frozen margaritas and some various advertising trinkets.

Then we moved our way through the park toward 10th Street to catch the parade. It was fairly interesting this year. Not as "nice" as I would like it to be personally...I guess I am jealous of the really expensive parades like the Rose Bowl parade and the like. I wish that some businesses would put out some cash and some talent and really make some nice floats. I am SURE that there are lez-beans with power tools and the homos with their creativity and ability to make amazing things out of a toothpick and some toilet paper (me thinks I have been watching too much Trading Spaces and House Invaders).

After the parade, we moseyed around the booths again and it was time for A to go home so we drove home, got a bite to eat at the chinese restaurant and he left leaving me debating if I wanted to go back and watch the finale Starlight Cabaret. Well...after popping 4 ibuprofins I said to myself "get OUT...its freaking PRIDE damnit!" and jumped in the car and met my lez-beans out at the park.

About halfway through the show, I got a bit tired (of watching these two youngling lesbians perform clothed oral sex on each other) and went home about 10:30PM to make sure I knew where I had to give a presentation at on Monday morning :)

Monday morning I gave a presentation on a system I helped develop for work. It was fun and I attended their closing dinner at Fernbank museum, got a bit buzzed (apparently the weekend theme spilled over into another day) and stayed to enjoy their closing speakers as well as a really cool IMAX movie.

It's already the hump day, and I am simply CRAVING going back to the gym. I read that it's a good idea to take a week off every 8 or so weeks and I hadn't taken one off since November so I figured my body needed a break if I am going to continue this. I'm serious that it's like having withdrawl from endorphins or something because I can't WAIT until Friday when I can go back again :) Although maybe...maybe it's just getting to see the hot boys in the gym or the sauna I am missing *grin*