Priding it up: day 3

The 2008 Pride festivities are officially dunzo and, in hindsight, it was a pretty mellow pride for this panda. Yesterday started off a bit chilly, but fortunately warmed up just as Chocolate Thunder and I made our way to Civic Center plaza for the festivities. It's sort of the same every year - thousands of obnoxious, drunk out-of-towners, companies sponsoring booths and trying to capture "share of wallet" from the gays, stages playing dancey remixes of popular tunes, political speeches promoting equal rights and long lines waiting to get at some chicken on a stick.

We made our way through the festival pretty quickly, then met up with Dyson, GarGar, Roommate J and Selives apart from the crowds. We remarked on the "fashion" choices of the gays - from wearing nothing at all to wearing a whole lot of look! Selives was concerned that someone had spilled on his jeans, Roommate A wanted to change once his volunteer shift at the margarita booth was over and I wanted to grab another layer, so we split up and headed home for a few moments.

I met up with Puppy and we headed over to Juanita MORE's pool party, which was packed full of trannies, drag queens, hipsters, go-go boys and girls and other misfits. What set the party apart from others in my mind was the entertainment. The Chipman Middle School Cougar Cadet Corps was invited to showcase their drumline abilities! It was totes adorable - all these little talented kids drumming their hearts out (but strangely wearing scowls on their faces) - and totally rocking the crowd. ChickenHawk tried to claim credit for bringing them to the party, but I never really followed his argument. Something about a donation he made.

As the party winded down, Roommates A&J, Dyson and I headed to Dyson's to recover for a bit before heading to Big Top, where I stayed for only a few moments. Surprisingly, I was home by 10:30pm and I picked up a pint of ice cream from the two block walk between the bar and my apartment. Happy Pride!