Ick. 7:45 am comes way too early,
especially on a Saturday and especially on vacation. (Not
to mention being up too late the night before.) But I had
duties, first with the Internet Committee at 8:30, and then as
IAGLCWDC Secretary at 10:30. On the flip side, though,
the hotel had incredibly reasonable prices on their breakfasts
(especially compared to their $15+ dinner menu). I’m
used to $8.95 or more for brunch at the San
Diego Gay Rodeo hotel, or the IML
hotel jacking the price of their breakfast buffet up just for
that weekend. So prices down in the $5 range were very
nice to see.
No sense boring you with the details of the meetings. After they were over, I did a little shopping — needed some make-up for the Hallowe’en costume for that evening — and then took a disco nap (which I desperately needed), before getting dressed up for dinner at the RCC.
(Disco Nap = Short afternoon nap to enable you to stay up late into the wee hours. It’s a New York thing, as I understand it.)
After dinner was the general meeting for the IAGLCWDC — relaying and confirming the stuff from that morning — and then I sped back to the hotel to costume myself and then hightailed it back to the bar, bringing four people from Charlotte with me (although a different four than the five from the previous night!). Since I was on the opposite coast from in 1997, I decided to recycle the costume from the previous year. Donning my chaps and harness, black face make-up, ears and nose mask, big furry feet, and a multitude of fake-fur tails, I became a (wait for it)...
Cat O’ Nine Tails
(Hey, it went over well at the San
Francisco Eagle last year. Won me “Most Humorous”
and $75, plus a mention in Mr.
Marcus’ column in the Bay
Area Reporter. I didn’t win the costume contest
at the RCC, though; that went to Tim from the Columbus
Stompers in his “inept woman” drag of “Elmira
Hootch” [or something like that]. He did it quite
well, I have to admit. Also quite well done was Joe from
the Rainbow Ranglers as a Borg.)
One of the highlights of the evening was Gays for Patsy’s “Dragging for Dollars”, where the Renegaydes dance team did a campy routine, teaching the audience how to be a drag queen — complete with silky undergarments, lamé hair covering, jewelry, and a fabulous drag number (complete with arm movements):
The sun shines after the rain
The birds fly over the mountains
Where is the silver lining?
At the rainbow’s end(...or something like that. You really had to be there.)
Special kudos note of “Glad I Met You” to John and Mark from Columbus, and to Bruce and Jeff from Shoreline — Milwaukee.
If you thought Friday night’s staying up until 3:00 was bad, I didn’t get to sleep until about 6:00 am on Saturday night/Sunday morning.
(And I went to sleep alone, thank you very much.)
(Not that I wanted to, mind you, but that’s just how things worked out.)