Pride! A Deeper Love!

As Pride month comes to a close, I wanted to take a little bit of time to write about my own experiences during Portland's Pride weekend. I'd be remiss to not acknowledge the difference in how this year's Pride felt compared to last year's Pride. Last year Portland Pride happened just after the Orlando massacre and every event (and all of our lives and hearts) heavily reflected that. From candle-light vigils to a more somber collection of marchers at the parade, we all felt crushed and scared.

I think we all still feel crushed and scared but it's overshadowed by something else - anger. Determination. Resistance. And community. We're going to fight but we're also going to dance, sing, and celebrate who we are. That's exactly what I spent 4 days doing this month.

I started the long weekend off with my trivia team, Darryl's Lesbian Haircut, with special guest teammate Nick, attempting to redeem ourselves at the annual Queers vs Breeders trivia night. Two years ago we experienced a humiliating defeat when we lost by a hair for forgetting a lyric to a Gaga song. It was so bad we skipped the following year but managed to shake off the defeat and come back this year AND WON!

Were we only one of two teams who actually showed up this year? MAYBE, but we were the victors nonetheless and therefore get to be considered the smartest queers and allies in the whole city for the next year.

Anyone who knows Portland karaoke knows that this sign means a complete shit show occurred. Sometime in the Spring, Kathy, Jill, and I decided we wanted to do a Pride karaoke and invited everyone we thought would be down for singing queer anthems, dancing, and having 1 too many strong, cheap drinks.

About a week before our event, Chopsticks 3 announced that karaoke that night would be PRIDE KARAOKE and everyone who wore gay swag would get 50 cents off all drinks. I didn't even mind that they clearly stole our idea because now the bar was going to be full of beautiful gays that weren't part of our group and we'd get discounts.

If you know anything about me at all, it's probably how much I love a discount.

Did my Queer As Fuck rainbow shirt get me 50 cents off every drink? I'll never know, you guys. It's Chopsticks 3. Do you think you get a detailed receipt? NO you sign off on whatever they say it is and stumble into the night hoping that you managed to tip (and not tip 700%)

Karaoke is my favorite thing, but this night was particularly good. We all got to sing a lot of songs - highlights probably being Emily doing Defying Gravity in ASL (as shown in the above video), Jill and I killing an A+ duet of Meatloaf's 'I Would Do Anything For Love', and all the amazing dancing we all did (also as shown in the above video, secretly captured by Emily on my phone). The low point was when they didn't have the Mulan song Ash was going to sing and we all died just a little bit inside.

The bar was full of LGBTQ beauties and each song choice was better than the last. Hell, our Speaker of the House was there and sang a country song with another lady. I saw her laughing along with the rest of her table when Kathy and I performed 'Fuck Her Gently.' (HEYYYY Tina Kotek! If you google your name and find this, that was me! Hit me up; let's talk politics!)

I will say, I probably won't close the bar out again. As most of our friends left at (semi?) reasonable times, Jill, Kathy, Katie, and I stayed until they kicked us out. Things got weird at least a half hour before that part. Frankly things got weird way before that for me because of a particular lady who wouldn't leave me alone but honestly, I was in no position to care! Why wasn't I?

Remember how I mentioned having 1 too many strong drinks? Well, I may have had more than 1 too many.

After getting home around 3am, I woke up at 5:30am and thought I was dying so I made the executive decision to add thousands to my already outrageous medical bills. Luckily after being really cold in a silly gown for a while, I felt well enough to snapchat which is great because I'm very pleased to have evidence about how good my eyebrows looked after such a night. In the end, after multiple tests, I was discharged with my cure:

And some tips from the doctor on how to handle my alcohol in the future. (Sorry family and bosses, current and future, but it was PRIDE!?) The next thing on the docket was the Pride Festival. I was 100% ready to rally - once I make a plan, I hate to change it, and no little thing like being in the hospital was going to stop me!

However, I wasn't the only one who closed out the bar and was feeling it the next morning and not everyone is as dedicated to doing things while feeling awful just because it was the plan. Who knew? It honestly turned out for the best that we skipped the festival because, after napping, it gave Jill and I a chance to leisurely visit our favorite local camera shop, Hollywood Camera, to pick up some film and chat with the owner, Ed. We followed that up with picking up churros and pizza so the grease could sop up  the previous night and get us ready for the Thorns game that night.

Here is something I know to be an undeniable truth: women's soccer is superior to men's soccer and the Portland Thorns are the best women's soccer team. Kathy and I met up at the stadium with Ash and Ilea early so we would make sure to get our desired seats for the Pride game. We're all season ticket holders who "sit" in the supporters section, which means we stand and chant and yell the whole game along with the rest of the Riveters. It also means our seats are general admission so we need to be in the second gates open. Jill and Danielle joined us before the game started and we settled into our home to wave rainbow flags and chant with 18,000 of our closest friends.

One day I'll find the words to write about the Thorns and how special being in Providence Park supporting them is, but this is already pretty wordy, so just know that it's an incredible feeling being in a place where you feel 100% welcome and supported by everyone you see.

Finally, we've reached the day of the parade. We have a spot we like to sit, near the end of the route, beneath the stag sign. After dropping Kathy off to march with her work, and walking to grab some breakfast, Jill and I arrived at our spot a couple hours before the parade was slated to start. I worked on some friendship bracelets while Jill tried to nap.

Eventually we were surrounded by The Worst People on all sides and were forced to move to a different area. It was truly the difference between feeling like we were surrounded by people watching a spectacle and feeling like we were surrounded by our peers and allies. Maybe that will be our new spot.

The parade was everything I've come to expect - the same things make me cry every year: Dykes on Bikes, Raging Grannies, any and all elderly queer marchers, anyone carrying a sign about how much they love their gay/trans/etc child, and anyone who yells about something important to them (IE a cutie marching with an HIV awareness group who stopped and yelled "I'm healthy, I'm STRONG, and I'm HIV positive" before marching away.)

I love the marching bands and all of the singing. The Spin Cycle people who are doing their thing on a float for an hour. This year, I loved the abundance of protest signs everyone was carrying. I loved all the specific call outs to Black Lives Matter and, in particular, supporting and protecting our black transwomen sisters. 

I always keep an eye out for a Catholic church because, even though I'm an atheist as an adult, I was raised Catholic and still have all the guilt and mixed emotions that come along with that. I don't know how to explain it, even to myself, why I want to see them amongst all the different religious groups that march in support but it likely has something to do with listening to anti-gay sermons when I was younger and wanting that reminder that not all Catholics feel that way. Who knows? All I know is there's ONE that always marches in our parade and I'm glad for it.

Anyway, I yelled out to my own work's marchers (who tossed me beads and hugged me) and Kathy's work (Kathy didn't see us, she was too serious about her marching) and various groups and places I like ("PORTLAND NURSERY! I BUY MY PLANTS FROM YOU!") because I literally have zero chill at Pride. I leave my body and all of my shy tendencies behind, just for a minute.

Once the parade concluded, we went to a brewery on the east side with our dogs, had a drink and some lunch, and declared this Pride weekend a success. Honestly, I'm ready to start planning next year because nothing at all feels as good as Pride.

John Day Fossil Beds Roadtrip!

I first have to say that this blog is about 2 months late, but in the interest of getting back into writing and blogging, I'm doing it anyway. So, let's get into it!

In April, my favorite roadtrip companions, Kathy and Jill, and I spent a whirlwind 3 days exploring a little slice of Eastern Oregon. This is a trip I've been wanting to take since the minute I moved to Oregon but, despite it being an easily driveable distance, it always seemed like an insurmountable task. I was determined to make it happen in 2017 (my hastily written new year's resolutions demanded it, in fact) and we managed to carve out a few days to turn it into reality.

When I first started planning this trip, I really didn't know what to expect. I knew that I wanted to take the Journey Through Time Scenic Byway because, well, the 3 of us all really love a scenic byway. I knew that there were 3 units in John Day and that I wanted to stop in all of them. However, I didn't know too much else.

There was an amazing switch almost immediately once we pulled onto the Journey Through Time. The landscape became vast, wide, and incredibly humbling. We spent most of the time without cell service and also without seeing another car or human being. As much as I love that kind of 'off the grid' experience, the super anxiety ridden part of my brain can't help reminding me that if the car broke down or one of us had a medical emergency we would be totally on our own. That's why I live in cities and only visit sparsely populated areas, to be frank.

 

The best thing about areas like this, where you don't see another car for hours, is that there's nothing to stop me from slamming on my breaks to exclaim in joy over a wild animal I caught in my peripheral or pull over and walk down the middle of the road taking photographs of the breathtaking hills surrounding me. 

 

Our first stop off the byway was a small ghost town called Shaniko. It has a population of about 30 and, if you include Sadie the dog, we met 10% of it on our stop. From what I understand, it gets a bit of a tourist boom in the summer months, but we essentially had the entire town to wander around by ourselves. There were 2 open shops - a small mini-mart/junk shop where I was hoping to buy sugar cubes for any roadside horses we might come across and a small "gift" shop labeled as a bar. The woman working in the mini-mart ignored us entirely and knitted while we wandered the store. Even when I told her to have a nice day I just got stoney silence in response. 

Was she actually alive or a ghost? We'll never know.

The woman who owned the gift shop, however, was amazing. Her dog ran out to greet us and she offered to take our picture with some carved wooded cowboys on a nearby bench. While we looked around her shop, I asked her about the town and when more things open. 

"Does the hotel open in the summers during tourist season?"

"That hotel hasn't been open in 10 years."

GHOST TOWN, Y'ALL. Also that plays right into the running joke Kathy and I have going of "she's been dead for 10 years."

Kathy and I walked down the street a bit to meet a very dirty horse who was extremely happy to  meet us. I didn't have any sugar, but he happily took handfuls of grass from my hand. Every time I'm around a horse, I miss riding. I miss it deep in my bones. BUT I DIGRESS.

Onward!

 

Eventually we hit the first unit of John Day - Clarno. The Clarno Unit is made up of these enormous walls of rock, made from volcanic mudflows. Apparently this area used to be a rainforest area until the volcanos turned it into the desert area it is today! We took a walk on a small trail around the base of the rocks. Jill climbed up on a trail into them a little more while I quietly panicked and waited at the bottom, nbd.

If you're not on a hike, a climb, or a fossil finding expedition, the Clarno Unit is a quick stop on the byway.

Our next stop was in Mitchell, OR. This tiny depressed town is the "gateway to the Painted Hills" and our home for the night. I booked us a room at The Oregon Hotel which, frankly, was a Dream Come True. We were the only people staying at the hotel and were greeted by a teenage boy who gave us our room keys (actual keys!!), told us that there would be muffins at the front desk for us the next morning, and left. We saw him the next morning briefly (he let us pet his amazing dogs) but aside from that, it was just us and the hotel.

 

We grabbed dinner at one of the two restaurants in town, bought some cheap wine at the tiny grocers, and made our way to The Painted Hills.

 

 The Painted Hills are completely indescribable. To say that they're beautiful is wholly inadequate and no photos I've ever seen can capture how it felt to stand and look at these miracles of nature. The hues of the painted hills showcase a color blocks of climate change over thousands of years. They're all super delicate and the ones you can get closest too are surrounded by wooden walkways.

It was actually quite shocking how there were no other people around and nothing protecting these beauties FROM people besides a few signs asking that no one touch the hills. Maybe I don't think highly enough of people to assume that that's enough?

 

The next morning we decided to try out the other restaurant and were immediately uncomfortable with the men at the table next to us both strapped with guns. Honey, we're not in Portland anymore! Their conversation consisted of liking concealed carry laws and not wanting their pictures on facebook because of face recognition software. Cool, cool...check please?

Before we headed out of town, we came across these guardians that I had to take a photo of. I snapped this and then took out my film camera and leaned across the stone fence at the end of the yawn to get in closer. As soon as I did that, the orange cat stood up, hunched his body, and started moving towards me to kill me. Who's shocked this town has aggressive kitties? Not Kathy, as she immediately tried to pull me away while I hung over the wall trying to focus.

 

 Final stop in John Day was Sheep Rock Unit. This was my favorite area for a few reasons:

1. The wind was INSANE that day and all of my photos of us are just my hair covering my face entirely.
2. There was a little visitors center where we got to walk around and learn about the plants and animals of this region, see people actually working on restoring fossils, and watch a short film about John Day.
3. I finally got to buy myself a National Parks passport.

 When the short film started I exclaimed to Kathy and Jill "I love national parks!!" which the adorable park ranger overhead and replied "ME TOO!!" Perfection.

Additionally, driving into Sheep Rock was a new experience for me in terms of awe. I've seen a lot of beautiful things over the years and plenty of lovely landscapes, including what I had already seen on this trip, but this was something special. I asked Kathy to pause her playlist so we could drive a bit in the silence and take it all in.

Having had our fill of John Day, we started heading west again to a more populated town, Bend,  where we'd spend the last night of our trip. The last day of our trip was spent eating delicious food, visiting a brewery, 1000000% enjoying the High Desert Museum, and MEETING ALPACAS, but I can't blog about everything now, can I?