windy city pride

grand marshall sulu originally uploaded by orange.paper.bike

mister sulu [george takei] was the grand marshall for the chicago pride parade, [set your phasers for stunning!] i was fortunate enough to be able to watch my very first major pride parade from the penthouse terrace smack in the heart of boystown. i couldn't have planned a better "first" if i tried. nice location, good food, great drink and hot hosts.

although pride was the main reason for me heading to chicago, it was the rest of the weekend that made the weekend great. i stayed with one of my best friends, t, the designer, and his partner. t just recently bought a motorcycle so we terrorized boystown and andersonville [gurlztown] by motorbike for the weekend. i have to say, the biker bitch role suits me. to an extent. i'm sure others would disagree.

the weather was great until pride sunday when we woke up to rain. not to be discouraged we trudged forward and prayed to all of the gay icons [saints judy, barbra, bette and joan] and finally, just as mister sulu's convertible cadi slipped into sub-warp speed, the rains stopped and we enjoyed the parade in the dry. the sun even made an appearance late in the parade.

after the parade we met up with some toher friends of mine and proceeded to head to big chicks for an evening of revelry and debauchery. t decided to head home early since he was going to work on monday. i decided to stay out a little longer and asked t to just leave a key under the door for me. when i made it in much much alter i found that he did indeed leave the key to the building under the door mat, however, he locked the deadbolt on his apartment door. after about fifty unanswered phone calls to his cell phone and several attempts at knocking quietly on the front door, i ended up sleeping [you can't make this shit up!] on the landing at the top of the stairs right outside of his front door. luckily at about five-thity in the morning, i called again and his partner answered the phone and then let me in. i had to hurry and shower, change and head out to catch the el to the airport and come home. a hurried end to a fabulous weekend, unfortunately, but i am never one for long drawn out "good-byes". i always look forward to the next "hello".

in the background::don't rain on my parade:barbra streisand