Fun and Games Dept

So today has been our first full day in Ireland. In all actuality, aside from a short nap this afternoon it has been a continuation of yesterday, but with the time difference and wildly scheduled meals, I’ve hardly noticed the marathon day aside from the slight dizziness and buzzing in my ears.

We are having a great time. The first order of business was to drive to Limerick to try on our tuxes/kilts for the wedding on Wednesday. Here we are, complete with rental tags.

After we confirmed everything fit properly and we also navigated the mechanics of a kilt, we did some touring of Limerick. Afterwards we headed back up N18 toward our current homebase of Ennis.

I drive like a native of this beautiful land.

On the way through, we stopped Bunratty Castle for some touring.

Since we don’t have buildings nearly this old in the United States, I have to admit that I was quite intrigued by the castle and it’s grounds. I was very impressed with some of the rooms, including this one with it’s lavish furnishings.

This evening went to a local pub for some dinner and drinks and did some touring around the town center of Ennis. It has been a great start to our vacation.

Earl and I spent the evening in the Capital city of Albany for the Albany River Rats hockey game. I’m not much of a hockey fan, but I always enjoy going to a game for several reasons, the least of which is the actual game itself. It’s not that I don’t enjoy watching the game, but I’m always so fascinated by the people at the game.

First of all, hockey stands out in my head because it’s the only team sport I can think of that encourages unsportsmanlike behavior. (That cringing you hear is my sister’s boyfriend, a professional hockey player. They call him The Instigator.) The crowd goes wild when two or more hockey players start throwing down their equipment and beat the hell out of each other. What’s up with that?

One of my favorite activities at a game is to make as many odd noises as possible. The Jumbotron and the announcer both encourage everyone to get loud, so I go through a whole selection of loud noises, including the traditional sportsfan chants, bear-like ‘woofs’, Xena war cries and blood curling screams. If the encouragement for noise continues through this selection, I then resort to yelling “kitty” as if I was beckoning the cat from 50 acres away.

The neighboring fans just love me.

When our team makes a goal, I like to hold my popcorn and jump up in the air so that I send a shower of popcorn to celebrate. I feel it’s a fan thing to do.

Tonight’s game was a bit of a bummer, in that we had to go through various overtime exercises before finally losing the game, but what I found more disturbing was the rendition of “God Bless America” and our National Anthem. A bunch of elementary school kids were herded out onto the ice (on carpet pieces), where the music teacher grabbed the mic and croaked out some weird verse of the former that I had never heard of. To keep it interesting, she consistently ignored the key and avoided any sort of tempo. Her students then joined in behind her. Since she was playing random with the pitch, the students had no hope of keeping up with her and it was, in my opinion, probably the worst rendition of “God Bless America” I have heard in my 39 years on this planet.

But they had spirit.

This was quickly followed up with a junior high chorus, also herded out on the ice, who promptly sang our National Anthem, again in random keys that changed throughout the song. Deciding enough was enough, I joined a drunk man several rows back by singing the National Anthem as strongly as I could and I chose to remain in the key that the group was in when I decided to join them. If I’m going to be proud of this country, I’m going to do it out loud.

Now you’re probably thinking I’m throwing some cheap shots out and let’s see me do any better. Tell you what, I’ve sang the National Anthem in sports arenas on several occasions (solo and a cappella) so I feel like I can be a bit of a critique on the subject. I’m just saying. I would welcome the chance to do it again.

All in all it was a fun night.

Earl and I are at the local Panera, having a little bite to eat and doing to Mac surfing in public. It seems like a fitting way to wrap up the weekend, as it’s seemingly been all about relaxation, being in public and eating.

Last night was Bear Night in Albany and it was rather enjoyable. I liked seeing our friends from the Capital District and meeting new folks as well, but the club was JAMMED packed with people. The “Bear Den”, which is in the basement of the club, has a typical cellar low-ceiling and little to no ventilation. While I find the smell of a “natural man” quite intoxicating, sometimes a cub needs a breath of fresh air. So Earl and I had a hot and sweaty time and we weren’t even doing anything leud. Well, nothing out of the ordinary.

On the main floor of the club is good-sized dance floor. It was somewhat cooler up on that floor, but still relatively hot. The DJ was playing great music last night, at least from what we heard. He had this habit of mixing in the middle of a musical phrase, for example halfway through a verse of in the middle of the chorus. The boys would be jamming to “How Will I Know” by Whitney Houston and before one could find out if he really loves me (or yell “Bobby!”) we were suddenly in the midst of Conga, which was then promptly interrupted by Bad Girls. Before we were bad, bad girls, we were then into some cha-cha song. It was then that I gave up on trying to dance for the night.

Even though the clubs in that part of the state are open until 4 a.m., Earl and I decided to call it a night and head back to Motel 6 around 1:30. They left the light on for us. I went straight to bed, as apparently I’m getting old or something, but Earl roamed the motel looking for the afterhours party. He came back to the room about half of an hour later, so assumedly there wasn’t much going on.

This morning I sent a text message to Sean and Jeffrey to see if we could get together for breakfast. Jeffrey was still in bed, but Sean and his friend Andrew were on their way to the Gateway Diner and they invited us to join them. What a lovely breakfast. It was good to relax and just hang with friends this morning, so it made the whole Albany experience worthwhile.

This afternoon, I decided to get a little exercise (see previous entry) and then attempted to mow the lawn, where I promptly lost interest and decided I’d finish tomorrow. So now we’re here at Panera. Homework awaits before bedtime.

And there’s the life of two bears on a weekend in the middle of September.

The social whirlwind continues, as Earl and I have installed ourselves in the capital city of Albany, New York. We started with a diner-iffic lunch at the Metro 20 diner and then stopped at the behemoth Crossgates Mall for an obligatory Apple store excursion. I really wanted a case for the new iPhone, so I picked up a rubber case made by InCase. I’m loving it.

Tonight is bear night and Earl and I will be hanging out with friends and growling and woofing in various directions. It’s always a good time.

Note: I wrote a blog entry about this adventure last night, but for some reason my ISP decided to restore the hard disk the site lives on and they wiped it out, along with several other files I uploaded last night. I apologize if you experience deja vu while reading this.

So yesterday Earl and I joined my high school friend Scott and his partner Mark for “Out In The Park” at Six Flags New England. Here’s a little blurb from the Out In The Park website.

Out In The Park is a Gay Day event organized by a not-for-profit organization. We are a dedicated group of unity-minded people that are interested in creating events that are fun, all-ages, social opportunities for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Intersex and Allies community to Get OUT with their friends and family.

The events that we plan and organize are warm-up events to National Coming Out Day on October 11th. Our first event, Out In The Park, was held on Saturday, September 27, 1997, at what was then known as Riverside Park (now Six Flags New England). The focus of the events we plan and organize, is to foster a sense of pride, dignity and unity among the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning and intersex community and their allies through social and cultural events to promote diversity, visibility, awareness and acceptance throughout the New England region.

First the backstory. Scott and I were the best friends in high school. We went camping together, we went canoeing together, we had the same interests, we even shared a girlfriend (but not in a kinky way, ewwww). Around December 1988 we lost touch with each other. At the True Colors concert in Boston back in June we ran into each other and vowed to stay in touch. Summer schedules are very busy, so this was our weekend to catch up. Here’s a picture of us.

On Saturday night we met up in Hartford (after choosing between Hartford and Springfield, Mass. for a place to spend the night) and went to a place called “City Steam Brewery Cafe”. A brewery and cafe (hence the name), City Steam is a really great place to hang out in Hartford. The food was delicious, my one glass of beer was excellent (all beer is brewed by the owners) and the conversation was great. I highly recommend City Steam.

After dinner we walked and drove around Hartford a bit. We debated going to a movie but ended up at Club Polo, a local drag bar. We left before the show but we had a few drinks and just talked and talked and talked.

Yesterday we went to Six Flags, got our special Out In The Park wristband that got us into the picnic lunch and show if we wanted and then hit the rides.

Mark is a bit of a roller coaster nut, so the first ride up was Superman. I ended up riding in the front seat by myself and while the ride was quite enjoyable, it was the most harrowing of roller coaster rides I had ever been on. I loved it. I felt like I was hovering a little bit when I tried to walk away from the ride.

After Superman we went over to Scream, which is like Disney’s Tower of Terror but outside and facing away from a tower with two other people, so you have the sense of nothing around you. Freefall is fun with friends! Here’s a picture of Mark and I and a young girl that got to hear me scream.

We then headed over to the picnic grove where there was an Out In The Park picnic lunch. There were a couple of cool things about Out In The Park. First of all, it was an official Six Flags event. Secondly, because of the traveling to bear events, Hillside, etc. that Earl and I tend to do, we ran into quite a few people that we’ve met along our adventures. This prompted Scott to comment that we get around. Well!

I tried to take my first self-snapped photo of four, but it didn’t work out so well.

So a nice man offered to take a photo of us near the fountain at the picnic grove.

After the lunch we went back to the rides. After an extremely bumpy ride on one of the wooden roller coasters, Mark found the ride we wanted to do. I had noticed this ride earlier in the day, which looked like a giant spatula with too ends that someone would flip end over end in the air. I called it “The Spatula” or “The Fly Swatter”. Turns out its called The Catapault. Mark wanted to ride so we sent him on his way, in which he reminded me that he rode Scream, so I should go. So off I went.

“The Catapault” has eight rows of six on a platform. There’s two platforms at each of the long arm. When everyone is strapped in and restrained so tightly that bladders are starting to leak, they raise the arm up 50 or so feet and then spin it around like a baton at 30MPH. Our side went forward first. Then it stopped and we went backward while the others went forward first. During the pause between the two spins, Mark told me that he tends to pass out on rides like this. Luckily, he didn’t. I thought I might from my bladder being squeezed but everything held itself together.

To be honest, “The Catapault” didn’t bother me at all. I thought it was a thrilling ride and I would ride it again in a second. I’m not sure about Mark though. Here’s a picture Earl snapped when we got off the ride, I think Mark is faking the smile.

I loved the Out In The Park experience. It was great to see all types of gays and lesbians (bears, circuit boys, lesbians and their families, etc) mingling with the regular Six Flags crowd. Everyone was having a good time and there were no open signs of hostility.

It was also great to get together with Scott and catch up on old times and reignite our friendship. We’re not going to lose touch with each other again. It looks like we have another reason to visit Boston!

Earl and I are parked in Hartford, Conn. for the evening. We are meeting up with my one of my best friends from high school, Scott, and his partner Mark. Tonight we are going out for dinner and drinks and then tomorrow we are going to “Out In The Park” at Six Flags in Agawam.

Aside from bumping into each other at the True Colors concert in Boston back in June, Scott and I have not seen each other since December 1988. It’s going to be wicked cool catching up on what’s transpired over the past 19 years or so.

It’s time to go get prettied up.

Earl and I made our annual pilgramage to “The Great New York State Fair”. Today is the last day of the festivities.

I’ve been going to the fair for as long as I can remember. What was a fun family activity for me as a child has turned into a fun family activity for me as an adult. As kids, Mom and Dad would load us into the car, stop at my grandparents to pick up my cousin Jean and then take us to the fair to enjoy all the exhibits, the food and maybe a few rides. Mom and Dad were quick to teach us that the rides weren’t the most important thing at the fair because there were plenty of other things to see and do, what with all the livestock shows, the Center of Progress building, the Horticulture building and whatnot.

This year Earl and I didn’t even go on the midway. I don’t think we were into it as much as we have been in the past or something because we both found ourselves irritated by the huge number of Wal*mart-esque people carts motoring around the grounds. Now this is going to sound particularly nasty on my part, but I couldn’t help by almost sneer at the woman who could have easily used TWO of those carts to move around eating a fried blooming onion*. When her pudgy grandchild (judging by age) went to grab a ‘petal’ from the blooming onion, she reminded him that she had fries and pulled away! To keep things interesting there were also several of the latest model baby-buggies without children being pushed around in a weapon-like manner.

Nevertheless, we walked through the barns so that I could chat with the animals and ask how the Fair was this year. Those that stayed until the last day seemed relatively happy, however, because it was the last day of the Fair many had already left and the farmers that live with their animals in the barn for the 10 days of the fair had packed up. I like seeing the woofsters in their living arrangements.

Earl and I also took a peek at the table decorating display and subsequent awards. I’ve always found this to be interesting. To think there are actually clubs out there that compete as to who can build the most impressive table setting based around a theme. This year’s theme was The Orient. I found many of the entries to be quite impressive but the judges didn’t agree: “The sizes of the mums contradict the size of the serving plate.”

And so goes another year at the Fair. In the spirit of tradition, we ran into my cousin Jean and her family which was nice. I’m always a little sad to see the Fair come to an end though, because it means that the end of summer is here.

Per wikipedia: “A single Blooming Onion has been reported as containing 2210 calories and 134 grams of fat.”