Whine and Cheese

After being gone all last week, I have to admit that I was not necessarily looking forward to going to Pride this year. Not that the "open carry" gun nuts or religious blowhards would deter me from going, but because I was so tired of being social, that the idea of being around so many people seemed potentially draining.

I stayed up late last night getting my Pride shirt for the year done. I didn't have a lot of time to draw something new. I wanted the shirt to have two bears kissing, so I used the image of Grizzly and Colour Cub kissing from the engagement story and dressed it up. I loved how it turned out.

I got up and went to see the parade this morning. Once I was in the middle of all of it, my worries of being socially exhausted faded quickly. It felt so good to see everyone. There is a group identity of pride attendees in a way, there is an energy, the feeling of community. The environment of everyone celebrating love, pride, being out is very satisfying. I saw several of our old LJ crowd in the parade, a coworker or two, and friends I'd not seen in a while.

After about three hours, I was wearing down. Not from the social aspects, but from the heat, the lack of sleep, and the recent traveling. I drove home, showered, and napped. I got up and went to a surprise 60th birthday party for a retired coworker, seeing former coworkers, current coworkers, and their spouses. It was a good night.

Now I'm home and sleepy. I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. Hopefully, Milo the Cat will let me.

I'm flying out to DC tomorrow to "audition" for a teaching group for a work training class. I'm not worried about it. The presentation I've been assigned to give is simple and I'm knowledgeable about it. Luckily, one of my good work friends is already one this teaching group and she knows my teaching style.

Getting ready for the trip is the rough part. One of my molars has an apparent abscess. This tooth has already had a root canal and wears a crown. It started flaring up yesterday, hurting whenever I put pressure on it. I've had this before, a couple of years ago, and the oral surgeon I saw gave me antibiotics to get rid of the infection and held off doing anything more, hoping it wouldn't recur. It makes me wonder if this has been why I was so tired this week.

This morning I went to an urgent care and saw a nurse practitioner. She was bubbly, funny, and wearing braces. What I wouldn't give for her energy, she was so frenetically active. She typed about 120 words per minute on the screen as I told her what I was experiencing and what I had gotten in the past. My fear was they wouldn't just give me antibiotics and then I'd have to deal with the abscess with ibuprofen for a week. I need not have worried, she wrote me a script for amoxicillin and sent me on my way. I'll deal with the abscess when I get back.

The Cincinnati Men's Chorus Pride concert is tonight. With everything that has happened to the gay community in the past week, it certainly will be a show full of emotion and solidarity. I feel bad about not going, but with everything that has gone on, I just don't have the time to spare. I've doing laundry, packing, and cleaning house all day before I leave.

I'm looking forward to the Pride parade next weekend.

As most people know by now, the Supreme Court voted yesterday that same-sex marriage was a constitutional right. It was an amazing day. I had trouble working as there was this constant flow of good news, wonderful tributes, and moving stories online. It's been a long time since I've felt such positivity and hope in the air. I'm happy to have seen this wonderful part of history finally unfold. I was looking forward to the Cincinnati Pride festival for a while, but the announcement made the promise that festival was going to go from fun to pure awesome.

This morning, I donned my Pride shirt this year. I put together the final touches on the design a few nights back and put my shirt together on Thursday night.


Pride Shirt 2015
I had a great time. It was fun to see cincycub, _decibel_, kybigstew, thrd_uncle, among a host of other non-LJ buddies.

I was constantly on the move. Pride festival, beer and lunch, festival, movie theater, festival.... it was a lot of walking and a lot of sights to see.

Midway through the festival, I took a break and went to see "Ted 2," which was cute and surprisingly applicable to the gay marriage fight, getting mentioned more than once in film. It's a crude movie, but that's part of the charm.

The headliner for the festival was Steve Grand. I'd never heard of him before, but I admit he puts on a good show. I spent the last hour of the festival standing, hugging, and chatting.

I stopped by Graeter's Ice Cream on the way home, a little treat to cap off a fantastic day. I had bourbon pecan chocolate chip, which was a seasonal flavor that was so popular they made it a permanent addition. Oh, soooo goooood.

Happy Pride everyone!