Pride

This weekend is St. Louis LGBTQ PrideFest...



... and this will be my first one as a non-vendor in many years.

I decided to sit this one out.

No volunteering, just straight partying from the time I got there until it was time to leave.

I started the day off with making sure that I'd avoid the National Weather Service's threat of a severe thunderstorm warning by religiously checking my Weatherbug every 5 minutes.

After I was satisfied that the thundercloud was successfully out of the area, I set plans to have a day of good old fashioned lolly-gagging.

I setup a Plan B: Movies and some dinner. Seeing that I had already planned to eat and had movie ticket vouchers courtesy of Fandango, there would be no extraneous costs.

Of course, when you're talking about PrideFest, there's always going to be extra costs. One of which is that you are going to eat and drink way more than you anticipate.

After traveling with friends to the festival, we walked the length in what seemed like only an hour, then left to go get something to drink.

The bartender, Samantha, at Absoluti Goosed was an awesome delight, knew the menu off the top of her head, and I recommend her to anyone traveling up and down the South Grand strip, this evening.

I was later told that I was quite loud, but laughed a lot and had a good time. By the second drink, food was calling.

A short walk across the street carried my numbed feet to Pho Grand. Surprisingly, it wasn't at all as crowded as I expected on a Pride weekend.

I remembered that my usual order was a tofu rice noodle dish and ordered such. I kept water on the table so that I could slowly start to go back to some sort of normality.

By the end of the meal, I felt full, but pretty much the same as when I walked into the restaurant.

The next stop was a club on the Manchester strip.

For safety, we all decided who would be designated drivers (yes, kiddies... it really does work) and split off to drive cars to the club.

Pride weekend usually means a cover fee for entry. That club, fortunately, had a low cover and the lot of us made our way from our far-off parking spots to the club's front door.

After a couple of more drinks, I got my butt beat in pool and participated in a somewhat loose interpretation of the ChaCha slide.

I left the club to gain entry into the next one, stopping off at the car to throw my jacket and other wares into the car.

Midway, another decision was made to drive to a further-off location, but a bathroom stop was needed by a few of us.

We were smart enough to get stamped, so we went back into the club and proceeded to use the facilities and dance to a song before we took off.

On our way to the car, the wind picked up with monsoonal speed and I had a slight mouth full of dust. I was sure that there was going to be torrential rain to follow.

We drove straight to the club, getting there in about 15 minutes when I got a phone call saying that the other party took a wrong turn somewhere near Albuquerque and would be along shortly.

So far, so good.

Lots of dancing. Good drinks. Fun with friends.

I was actually starting to have a good time, and pushed on to continue for another hour or two.

The rain poured down for about 15 minutes. I judged the speed of the previous storm and figured this one would be over with in about 20 minutes, top.

I waited, and my bladder proceeded to fill up.

After I examined my hand, I figured the stamp was still visible enough and I asked for a dropoff at the club again.

We started back down the main street with a blinding sheet of water on the windshield when I spotted a tiny blue car.

As I was about to warn the driver to maneuver around the car, I noticed that it was stuck... in about two feet of water.

We stopped instantly, turned around, and pulled into a close gas station. I frantically asked the attendant if there was a bathroom that I could use.

The attendant proceeded to tell me how flooded it was, took another look at me, then said, "Look, I'll let you use it, but you have to give up liability." I told her that I solemnly swear to not even give a complaining peep and quickly used it.

That bathroom was the best place in the world at 12am midnight. It was painted in gold with sunbeams and moonlight. I could have hugged the toilet.

After exiting, we drove back to the club and awaited the arrival of our friends. The streets were turning into rivers and I advised that we park on the less lake-y side.

It was close to 1am before we sobered up to the fact that the rain was not going to really stop anytime soon and the clubs would be closing.

We slowly made our way through traffic and to my abode, avoiding any street that we could think of which could possibly resemble a lake at this time.

A friend stayed overnight to avoid driving in the freakish weather and I drank about half a glass of water with a couple of aspirins for good measure.

This morning, I woke up to the feeling of mother nature reminding me that I still had a uterus.

I'd love to do it all again today, if it weren't for the latter... which will keep me bed-ridden for most of the day.

I'm now awaiting what I hope will be shipment of Ibuprofen and the advent of a long day's rest.

Happy Pride, everyone. May it be as memorable as mine!