To be perfectly honest I don't like parades and I really don't understand why other people seem to like them so much. I am not talking about just Pride parades, but parades generally. My small town has an annual Thanksgiving parade that literally the whole town comes out for. I sit through it every year. I somehow feel like I have to, but I really don't like it.
Back the Pride parade today, I am going. I want to see what it's all about and what happens. Back in June I went to my very first Pride parade in London. It was fun, and not quite what I expected. We will see what happens today.
Yesterday (and today) there was a street festival. A few stages with bands, lots of local businesses with booths, and lots of people.
I went with the Chef. It was nice to not be there alone, but it was also nice being there with someone I liked. (T says I love him, but I am not to that point yet.) Pride and other "gay" events are not really Chef's thing, but he went for me, which I was pretty happy about.
It was a lot of fun. I like people watching and there were a lot of people to watch. There were a lot of young hot homos there, but there were a lot more regular looking people. There was a lot of people my age or older. There were a lot of pretty, muscular guys and there were a lot of... er ... not so pretty guys. There seemed to be a lot of straight people there. There were not that many gay couples holding hands, but when I saw straight couples, the man was almost always holding the hand of the woman he was with. (tee hee)
Chef and I were at this booth waiting to talk to the people running it. I can't remember what it was, but it's not important. There was a young couple in front of us. They were about 25, and it seemed to me that they had been together a while. When they talked, there were very in sync with each other. In a lot of ways K and I were like that (and still are). I was thinking about how sometimes wish I had that when i was that age. That I would not be at Pride now with a guy I was thinking about getting serious with, but instead being there with my partner of 20+ years.
I don't spend a lot of time thinking about, "what if I had been able to come out in my 20's". but I did have a flash of it today.
I'll let you know how the parade comes out.
