just in time for pride!

I have insomnia! Or something very similar! But that's boring, all you need to know is that it's 7:50am right now and I've been awake since 6. And I went to bed at one. So... you do the math.

Anyway, so I'm delerious! And I'm here to write about gay pride! And I will be using a lot of exclamation points! Because I'm delerious! I said that already!

It's gay pride week here in Stumptown and, just in time for pride, some dvds came in from the library that I've been waiting for: L Word, third season, and Oz, first season. I've never seen Oz, but it takes place in a men's prison and... well... there may not be much gay pride in there, but there's bound to be some hot guy-on-guy action...

(Remember: I'm delerious.)

But don't worry, I won't spend this whole, fun-packed pride weekend sitting in my bed watching soft-core gay porn on dvd (thanks Multnomah County Library!) -- I'll be getting out and about. Just last night I made my first foray into the world of hanging out with a group of strange lesbians from Craigslist.

What's that you say? Lesbians from Craigslist? Yeah, well, there's this lesbian breakfast club that meets every Sunday at a different location and they post invitations on Craigslist. You answer the ad and they email you the week's location. A few weeks ago, I answered the ad, which got me on their mailing list, but I never showed up for a breakfast.

As pride approached, messages from the Breakfast Club starting rolling in. They were making big pride plans and the itinerary kept snowballing. The first stop on the agenda was a pride week, kick-off dinner at Hobo's downtown. I love Hobo's. It's three blocks from my workplace and, over the six years I've been in town, I've spent a LOT of time in Hobo's. So I decided this time to go.

I expected a less than appealing array of desperate, lonely lesbians to be gathered there at Hobo's, but as one after another of the Craigslist Lesbians showed up, my fears diminished. They were all reasonably interesting, my age-ish, non-disfigured, cool people. Amazing!

I ended up having a *lot* of fun, which I did not expect. And which is also a miracle because we had the WORST SERVICE ON THE PLANET. Hobo's, a gay piano bar/restaurant, was SWAMPED with unexpected Pride-related traffic *and* it was our server's last night. So...

I will spare you the details (like all the wrong orders or the spanish coffee served with a SALTED rim instead of a SUGARED rim... TWICE) and I will sum it all up like this: we got there at 8. We got our food at 10:20. Enough said.

But it was ok b/c we really managed to entertain ourselves pretty well. I was the only newbie to the group, but everyone was really sweet and friendly and nobody ever tried to edge me out or neglect me from conversations in the way that already formed groups sometimes get cliquey and treat newcomers with disdain. And there was a LOT of laughter, so much laughter that my face was hurting, and I hardly even knew what I was laughing at, I was just laughing because everybody was laughing and it was contagious. It was pretty awesome.

It was also awesome to find myself sitting at a table full of lesbians for a change. When I lived in Columbus, I socialized exclusively with lesbians. It wasn't intentional, it just worked out that my circle of friends (almost ready-made out of my friend Rebecca's friends) were all dykes. Except one bi-chick, but she still qualified. Ever since then, however, I've had a much more mixed group of friends, which is good too, but I realized last night at that table full of dykes that it feels NICE to be with dykes. Familiar and fun and comfortable and good. I imagine it's like traveling overseas... you like all the new, different people you meet, but after awhile it might feel really good to suddenly find yourself around a table in a hostel with five people from your own country. Something shared and familiar (almost familial) that you can enjoy, even though you're strangers.

So it was good, even though the service was terrible. Which is a shame, because Hobo's has always been really awesome and wonderful. I think it was a fluke 'cause they were so busy. Unfortunately, because dinner took THREE HOURS, nobody was up for the gay dancing at Halocene afterwards. Oh well. Maybe next time.

I don't know if I'll be hooking up with them for any of today's events, but I came home last night and *finally* RSVP'ed for breakfast on Sunday. I was on the fence, but after last night, I think it'll be fun. And then we'll all go to the march and festival together, and that'll be cool b/c, otherwise, nobody else wants to go.

Maybe pride parades are dorky, but I still like them. And now I get to go and I don't have to go alone! Yay Craigslist!