Bowling in Ohio...Bowling Green that is!

So quite a number of events have flown by since my last post, but as with some of the best storytellers, I figure things should go in chronological order!

My trip to fabulous Bowling Green, Ohio was to attend a networking security conference. That kind of stuff is right up my alley and gets my mental pistons firing. Well of course I kind of had some reservations going into the great midwest. And LAWD let me tell you it was FLAT. Check out this photo of a railroad track:

I could see all the way to the horizon! (Shaddup, I'm easily amused, you nasty bitches! Haha!)

But quite by accident, I sat down at a table with what was to be the most fun group probably at the whole conference. "Texas" Joe and I started some idle chat and then he started cracking jokes and we were bouncing funny comments off one another's jokes and had people laughing. He and I apparently had a similar sense of humor and one of my previous day's aquaintances, Kevin, sat next to us and dubbed us the "Troublemakers". So of course we had to hang out more to proove them correct. Texas knew "Vegas" Vicky, Jill, and "New York" Raphael from previous conferences and fortunately I was included on their "cool people list" and this was pretty much my circle of friends (later adding Drew) for the entire conference.

We would all meet up during the breaks and chat and talk about the seminars we went to and the rest of the time would laugh and joke around.

We went out to this bar called "Junction" a couple of times for a beer after a long brain-draining day of presentations. Some of them were interesting and some of them...from my point of view...were downright SCARY. Some people should just NOT be allowed to present. Although I do have kind of a "leg up" when it comes to experience in informing and entertaining from the various and sundry activities that have come and gone in my life.

Some of our adventures include an afternoon trip to "Dave and Barry's" which is a clothing store not unlike "Old Navy" where everything is $7.98 or less. My coworker from Georgia Tech, Miles, had been there before and they came up with a theme song:

(sung to the tune of Frere Jaques/Are You Sleeping):
Dave and Barry's, Dave and Barry's
Seven Ninety Eight, Seven Nintey Eight
You know that you wanna
Come on spend a dolla
We Love You, We Love You

Hehehe :) So from time to time we would lightly sing "Seven Ninety Eight" and giggle. On the trip to Dave and Barry's we crammed about 8 people into a Honda Accord (none of us had a car except for Miles).

Another one of our fun and exciting adventures that weekend was a trip to Cedar Point, which is one of the most talked about Roller Coaster capitals of North America. And by absolute coincidence, it was their Gay Day (since Cleveland was having it's Pride) *laugh*. That turned out to be alot more fun than I thought. We rode coaster after coaster (awesome awesome) but unfortunately didn't get to go on the most awesome one, The Top Thrill Dragster because of weather conditions. But I will say that the gays were out and about, definitely not in the number that Gay Days at Disney brings out, but there was a presence felt. I got complimented a number of times on my tank top I had bought in Atlanta with the pride colors stitched into it in small color blocks. :)

So all in all, I'd say the conference was quite enlightening. I got to look at what other institutions are doing in regards to network access control (geek alert), go to Gay Day at Cedar Point, and meet some seriously awesome straight people who I hope to see next year in San Diego (if I'm allowed to go). My best memory was of Rafael saying to me, "You know...I'm glad I met you. I haven't hung out with that many gay people, but you are really cool. You've really opened my eyes." Aww. :) I felt like a Gay Ambassador :) And personally I think that's the best way to accomplish social change...one person at a time.