Hello everyone,
As some of you may have known, my bf and I went to pride in NYC. We did Pride here in DC too, but it wasn’t quite as fun as it always is in NYC.
While in NYC we went out and met Cajun Man and DrMatrix. They are both so cool and genuinely nice. We saw some old pictures of DrMatrix where he thinks he resembles Jesus. I always thought Jesus would look less Caucasian, but we don’t have to go there. 
He did resemble the honkified version of Jesus.
We stayed at a friends house just south of Harlem and parked along the street. Luckily the car wasn’t robbed while there. This friend, has perhaps the tiniest apartment in the world. It is a rectangular studio that is about 8 or 9 feet by about 16-18 feet not including the tiny bathroom that is attached on the other end. It is divided out into the kitchen/dining area, the living/bedroom area, and the bathroom. It was even smaller than I remembered it being from earlier in the year when we were at his birthday party. It was nice to be able to stay in the city for free though.
Our trip into the city was supposed to take about 4 hours but in reality it took about 7. We left early on Friday (about noon) and stopped for a quick lunch (about 30-45 minutes) and then got almost all the way into the city and were stopped several miles from the Lincoln Tunnel where we waited for about 2 hours to just get into the city. We were both tired and cranky by that time but not so much as to not have dinner with DrMatrix, Cajun Man, Kelvin, and Richie (the person whom we stayed with and his boyfriend). We ate at a pretty good restaurant that was surprisingly cheap for six people and was quite delicious. DC had a dessert at the end of the meal that was heavenly. MMMMM
Well, we did things everyday, not a lot of shopping (once you’ve done that thing once there is not much reason to do it again in NYC. You can get some good deals but then you have to carry the things around all day long until you get back to a place where you can drop them off and that really sucks. On Saturday evening, we went on a Bears on the Water boat tour. It was fun. It was sponsored by the big bear group in NYC (the Metro Bears). We rode out on the Queen of Hearts (the boat) and were in the water for about 4-5 hours. The beer was free (even had Heinekin on draft) and the food was free but crappy (I had the vegetarian meal since I was hungry. We ate pizza (cheese pizza, it was huge) later that night instead. It was more filling and better. We took some nice pictures from the boat of the skyline and some of the Statue of Liberty (didn’t turn out as well) and even videotaped some of the ride. If I ever get off my lazy butt I will put them on a webpage.
Oh, a little earlier we went out with Cajun Man and DrMatrix for lunch at a little burger joint (it was good, still cheap) and then went down the street in the East Village to meet their friend, Oliver. She was a wonderful person. I wish we had spent more time there but we had to catch the boat ride that is listed above. They were all the Old Warholian people but not in the commercialized sense. They were interesting, articulate, and funny. Nothing like most of the gay people I have met in the DC area. (Talk about boring city.) Gay life in DC is fairly open as most can attest but from what I have seen NYC has had an open gay life for such a long time it has become more ingrained and there is less that you have to worry about there. That is not quite the case yet in DC.
Sunday was Pride day. We woke up fairly early due to Richie’s compulsion. He was getting ready for the parade and couldn’t decide what he was going to wear. (FTR, he sets all his clothes out the previous day.) So after what seemed like six hours of him pacing (actually closer to 3) he finally decided to put on what he set out afterall. He does this every day. It takes him two and a half hours to get ready for work and another hour on the subway to actually get there. He then rushes off to get to the parade because he has to sign some extra things or something to march with his group. Kelvin helped us navigate the subway a little and left us on our way when he got off on the proper stop to catch up with the other marchers. We were going to march but decided that it was too hot and crappy outside to bother this year. It didn’t make a difference though since there were so many people in the parade.
We went out to Christopher and Seventh Street with hopes of meeting Manhattan and possibly SaxFace whom Cajun Man and DrMatrix had been trying to contact all weekend long. We didn’t meet them, if they showed up we missed them in the huge crowd. We watched the parade through section five. Standing out in the sun/shade and constantly sweating made me feel very light-headed and after our friends passed in section 5 out of 12 (coincidently, it was about 4 hours into the parade) we went back to Cajun Man’s and DrMatrix’s apartment. All the tar/bubblegum on the street was melting by that time and it was really gross. We sat up there for a while and eventually went to meet back up with our other friends to say goodbye and then went home. The parade was really interesting and fun, but it should be in September or something when it is cooler and standing for many many many many hours wouldn’t be as much of an issue. I wish we would have seen all of it but by that time DC and I were both really tired, cranky, and feeling a little bit of heat exhaustion. It was time to go. We got in the car and did our long ride back. Luckily it wasn’t as bad getting out of the city. We went by way of the Holland Tunnel this time and after the hour and a half it took to get out of the city all was well.
HUGS!
Sqrl