I woke up the morning of Pride 2009 almost as excited as I was as a child on Christmas morning. It was my second Pride so I knew what to expect, I was ready to let loose and have a wild time. We started that Sunday on Hennepin avenue for the annual parade. Of course there were more politicians than any Gay Pride parade should have, but it also had the usual; drag queens, leather daddies, and twinks in underwear. The marching bands are always my favorite part of any parade.
I had to get out of the sun, I was starting to look like a tomato so we stopped off at a friends house for mimosas before heading to Loring Park, his birthday is always the same weekend as Pride.
Loring Park was buzzing. There was live music, food vendors, and hundreds of booths selling things and/or giving out freebies. Of course we tried to hit up every free booth we could including the usual stop at the Target booth to get our Target Pride tattoos.
Leo had decided, about a week before Pride, that he was going to take advantage of the best free booth at Pride, the free HIV and hepatitis screening booth. We separated ourselves from the rest of our friends and found the booth on the far side of the park. I sat on a small patch of grass and waited for him.
It wasn't long before friends were texting and calling wondering where we were. I couldn't hide from them so I told them were I was waiting. A small group had gathered before Leo made it out of the tented testing area. I felt bad because I knew he wasn't expecting them all to be there. Everyone was anxious to find something to eat, but all I wanted to know about were the test results. He told us all that he was clean.
I sighed a HUGE breath of relief and told Leo how lucky he was considering some of his past. I always hounded Leo about getting tested because he didn't get tested regularly so finding out that he was fine meant I could stop bugging him for a while. Even though Leo was in the clear something was pulling at my mind. I was able to calm my nerves after eating a gyro and finding the beer garden. We hung out in the sun for the rest of the afternoon and worked on our sunburns.
Leo, Blake, and I crawled back home in the late evening to rest before the block party. After a quick, but satisfying nap, I mixed up some margaritas and we went to sit in the back yard to enjoy the warm summer evening before headed back to the park for the fireworks.
"Chye, I have to tell you something."
No comments:
Post a Comment