P R i D E

pride was just amaZing _ and actually, amazing doesn't even begin to cover it.

1st off, the drive there was a BITCH! 4hrs of nothing but enna and jennifer. lol. just kidding, i love those two. But yahh, 4hrs in a veryyy hot car because jenni's Scion couldn't handle the interstate and all those frikken hills and the added pressue of AC. Ahhh, those very beautiful hills. I do have to admit that driving down those hills was fun. People on the interstate are crazies. They cannot drive; they don't use blinkers or mirrors, actually, i'm pretty sure they drive with their eyes closed and their feet pressed heavily on the gas. Once we got there though, (after stopping for directions twice because we wern't sure which church was the right one [note: there are a billion churches on church street]) we saw a bunch of protesters, which I inadvertantly renamed "the prostesters". haha. i was just like...nice. But they wern't bad they actually said "goodmorning" and "hello" and stuff as we walked past. So we got to the meeting place and saw some interesting people. I had to approach the people because enna and jen were too shy. So I introduced us to two girls named Laura, who had amaZing mohawk-like hair which she did herself, and Cj, who had dreds. I'm pretty sure they were hippies. I know, sweet right? anyway I talked to them for a while and I asked them if we could walk with them and they were like sure...Lauren then proceeded to take out a small bottle and blow bubbles. A few minutes later she was doing cartwheels. She was such a free spirit. Cj just kinda sat there in her coolness. Neither of them had shoes on. They were just dandy. Some time passed and a woman named Ginger (with glitter all over her hair) walked up and talked to Lauren about something and I ended up introducing ourselfs to her too. She invited us to walk with her in the Greenville section. We were like awesome. So Ginger and I were talking until it was time to march. Man on a Megaphone: "We stay on the streets, they stay on the grass!", and with that, we were off. Jen and enna walked behind the banner. I walked with Ginger right behind them. Probably a minute into the walk I met Ginger's friend, Tera. I asked them how long the walk was...1mile. dangg. It was soooo hot. 1mile isn't so bad when you have the support of nice, colorfull people singing "Jusus loves me". lol. As we walked I heard people shouting sayings back to the "prostesters". One saying was, "Hey hey, Ho ho, Homophobia has got to go." and then it repeats. Hmm...another one was "What do we want? Equal Rights! When do we want it? NOW!" that one wasn't so original but we said it. There was another one but I don't remember it. There wer some pretty creative signs too (on both sides of the parade). I don't remember many signs, but I know for a fact that a few people had signs that said "I'm straight, but i'm not narrow." jen made sure countless times that I knew that was her favorite sign. =) During the march we saw this cop on a bike yelling her face off at some guy who was getting too rowdy. She was cheered on by every passing person in the march as she arrested him. ahhh, yuss! I wish I could remember more of the signs, but i'll upload some pictures somehow when I get them from enna. We got some great pictures. When we reached the end, we had to hike up a mountain (not quite a mountain, but the heat increased the height of the hill) to get to the food, water and assorted rainbow merch. I got some tea and talked to Ginger for a while. Jen and enna went to scavenge for food. lol. I swear jen is always hungry. Ginger told me her and Tera were going to walk to the gas station to get some ciggarettes and junk. I said ok and that i was going to find a seat in the grass to watch the singers and speakers. We gave hugs and I said "bye, it was nice meeting you if I don't find you when you come back." It was kinda sad. But I did end up seeing her and Tera when they came back. I invited them to sit with us. A girl named Anna ended up sitting with us too...we were supposed to walk with her too but she was AWOL when it was time to go. They got some food and sat with us in the grass. We listend to a speech from a woman whos son died from gaybashing. I cried. It was so sad. The music was ok. We didn't even know what one lady was saying in her song...it sounded like "she's so pretty (or si se puede), we don't have to pay"repeated over and over for 4minutes. and yuss, i do, in fact, understand that this doesn't make sence. But that's all we could make of it. After the songs and stuff we walked around and looked at the tables. At one table they had a bunch of free lube and condoms. interesting. lol. At another one they had a bunch of pride stuff for pets, like rainbow dog collars and shirts. pretty random stuff. I said bye to Tera, Ginger and Anna. I should have asked for Ginger's number or something. damnn. =I ...too late. well...that's the story of my life, {Once upon a time, I meet a nice woman and I never see her again. the end.} So then we went home, or we atempted to. First, we ate a this really cool Drive-in Diner place. I forget the name. It's amazing how i never forget the name of a person, but ask me what I did yesterday and watch my eyes scramble and my face writhe in pain searching for a clue. After eating we made about 6,084 lefts, 935 rights and 60 illegal U-turns. We could not figure out how to get back on I26. We ended up stopping at this park to play in the water for a minute and think things out. We got back in the car made 4more lefts, 6rights, we skipped out on the illegal U-ies this time and miraculously found our way to the interstate. WE WERE OFF (and so there was 4more hrs of jen and enna)! Overall: Spartanburg rocked my sox! I'm totally going to greenville pride tho. SOOOO much closer!
WARNING: After being in a pride parade your mind set will change...you will experience unexplained happiness and a change in the color of your aura. You will walk around being polite to everyone, saying things like "hello, how are you?" or "excuse me" if you accidentally bump into someone. You will notice rainbows, EVERYWHERE! On rare occasion you may find yourself smiling for absolutely no reason at all. There is also a 1 in 3 chance you may also go into "homo vision" (having the sence that everyone around you is LGBTQ).

Life after pride is SUHWEET!