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What a great week this has been! I just woke up from a much needed 2-hour nap. I was exhausted but in a good way.

I didn’t do a whole lot of Pride-related events during the week. I had 2 PDX Gaymer game nights. I didn’t participate in any work events because I was busy trying to make a deadline. I don’t think there were many work events. We did most of our celebrating at work last month.

On Friday, I went to a going away party for 2 friends who are moving out of country. After that, I went to my first Gaylabration with 2 friends I know through PDX Gaymers, Matt and Neil. It’s the guys I’ve been going to Blow Pony with. There were sooo many people there. And I knew so many people there. I’ve been living in Portland a long time and I’ve met a lot of people. The only complaint I have is the music was pretty bad. I’m glad to say that I’ve gone to Gaylabration at least once.

On Saturday, I went to the underU4men block party to visit my friends Aaron and Josh. Aaron was modeling. We re-started our tradition of getting a pic together that started years ago when this store would have a booth at the festival on the waterfront. I spent over $100 on underwear that I’ll probably never wear. Later that day, I hosted the annual PDX Gaymers Pride Party. We all had fun. The rental space got really hot though and the A/C didn’t help much.

On Sunday, I went to CCs the watch the parade. I met up with Matt and a slew of others I’ve known for much longer, many of whom were at the going away party Friday night. Neil was in the parade. I hated not marching in the parade this year, ending a streak (not counting lockdown years). My physical condition wouldn’t allow me to do it.

There were so many things I planned to do, but never had a chance to. One being going to the festival. Everything was pretty tentative anyway.

The only negative was the Lyft driver who took me to the Pride parade. I just wanted her to get me close to CCs and I would walk the rest of the way. She was really frustrated about street closures and wouldn’t listen to my directions on alternative routes. She made some comments that came off as homophobic to me about “the gay people” and how “they want to celebrate but don’t want us to celebrate” regarding the street closures for the parade.

Anyway, I had a great time this year as always. I’m looking forward to next time.