Well.. I survived!
Pride week/end was absolutely fagtastic.
It marked the end of a MONTH of partying, as well as the first anniversary of gay partying for me.
Pride stuff I went to:
Thurs: Trans Pride art showcase. (This deserved a bigger audience!)
Fri: Pride is for everyone party at VAL (Vancouver Arts & Leisure, an art gallery/party spot)
Sat: The Downlow in the basement of Celebrities (then crashed in a cute professional dancer boy's hotel room so I was in town for the parade in the morning, which he danced in w/ Celebrities' (gay-ish club that used to be very gay) float as he danced there and The Junction (very gay club) as a go-go boy)
Sun: Parade - first time I saw the whole thing. Then I made my way to Celebrities and danced with some beautiful people for a couple hours. Then off to a new friend from the weekend's place for a shower and to both get ready for the party we were both going to. I left my car in his parkade and took the train/bus. We went to Backdoor (by VAL) at a one-off party location.. it was amazing! Huge party warehouse, mezzanine level surrounding the dance floor, white walls, bar, dj, booming sound system, really good laser lights, some art, a huge courtyard outside with a 15+ foot tall tricycle (that was built for some festival or burning man or something) that we had about 10 people at a time on, and hundreds and hundreds of people.. had to have been more than 600 at least. It was absolutely awesome! As art director Paul Wong (~60years old) said.. he's been to massive gay parties in Hollywood and this party rivalled them - "this is as good as it gets!" and omg we had an absolute BLAST! So many wild and free happy people sharing drinks, drugs, conversations etc - just magical. Then we walked a while, checked out the after party (eeeew, the tiny place was all steamed up with sweat and stale weed smoke.), then cabbed it to some guy's place in another city and hung out there.
Mon: I lucked out and was able to go retrieve my car from the next city over before my friend went on a pride recovery dinner cruise. I ripped back into town and went to the beach to hang out with dancer boy and his girlfriend for the evening, then out for dinner, and then he came home with me so I could give him a ride to the ferry in the morning on my way to work so he could go visit his mom while he's here. (he's from here-ish, but lives and works in London.)
One new friend commented Sunday afternoon that "whoa, you know e v e r y o n e!" after he saw me making out with some cute blonde boy on the dance floor.. Him? Nah, just met him outside like an hour ago and saw him in here lol. Turns out I'd chatted with him online recently, too. But anyways, yeah, I hadn't thought about it until that moment.. but it's been exactly 1 year of gay partying for me and I really have met a LOT of people. I knew people at the beaches, the parade, various clubs, after parties, in the street, hanging out at the new plaza, everywhere. A friend from the beach recently pointed out that I know TONS of people at the beach now in one short year, too, and that it's very very easy for me to make new friends - and he's right. It's just fluid & natural for me.. maybe someday I'll meet the right One. heh
Of course I kissed a few boys over the weekend and had some fun, as one typically does during these things.. but of course, just my luck, the one I quite liked the most is in a long distance relationship w/ someone in Calgary where he recently moved from. Meh, such is life. I had so much fun it's going to be a challenge to outdo this weekend next year.. but I'm up for it and I'm sure I'll figure out some epic way to improve upon Pride weekend.
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No
for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.