Bear Trap 2007
I'm so sore and dead tired today after this weekend. My legs, feet and back are all killing me from the standing and dancing and such. My knee is starting to feel better though. (And don't bother guessing the reason for the soreness -- cuz you're probably right. *eg* Tho you'll have to be on the naughty filter to find out for sure.) My voice is also a little dead but improving over time. Too much talking over the music. So, overall things went pretty good this weekend. There were a couple rough spots that gave me some problems but it finished off a lot better than it started.
Friday
I got out of work at 6 p.m. on Friday and headed home to take care of the cats before heading downtown for the events. Took care of what I needed to at home and headed out but looped back to get my camera which I forgot. I ended up up even taking any pics that night anyway though. :P So, I get downtown around 7:40, get my stuff, and have some chicken wings and chat with people. (The joke of the run with the run bags what that there was one condom and about a half dozen packets of lube. Were supposed to save this stuff for one single really tight bottom or something?) I missed out on the contests that they have early on like hairiest guys and stuff. Oh, well. I did end up being used as a model for a conversation about beard trimming since how I wear mine is what they were talking about. I finally got to meet dont_hideaway in person there too. After a while, people started to filter over to the Century Grill where the comedian would be performing and the keg party for the rest of the night was. We get over there and a bunch of people were still watching the Sabre's game. Of course it went extra long so we were waiting for ever to get things going. And then we had to fight to get the people to leave as it was a paid event unless you paid for the whole run, you had to pay for the open keg and comedian. They made announcements a couple times and a lot of people (mostly all females who were acting quite full of themselves... Sorry girls but all the guys coming in have no interest in you!) just sat there until they more or less corralled them out and they weren't happy.
I had a couple beers since it was still early and hung out talking to geekbearjeff and listening to the comedian Richard Rider (a gay bear that was on Last Comic Standing). We were also watching the TVs showing the baseball games and commenting on the cute players. The middle screen was a wide screen TV that stretched the picture. We got a nice laugh out of how big it made the batters' butts look. A few of the guys were heading over to Jim's Steak-Out for something to eat. Since I hadn't had anything other than a few chicken wings since lunch at 1 p.m., I asked if I could tag along. I learned that I need to start wearing a belt with my shorts tho, especially if I'm going to have my camera in my pocket. The one bad side of losing weight -- pants don't stay up as well. They ended up heading back to the room of a couple guys in the group. I had thought they were going to eat at Jim's or something so I asked if I could tag along and got an ok. I was saying something to someone as I walked into the room and had a pause in my speech when I rounded the corner to see a frame with a sling in there. The reaction made my one friend laugh. I explained that it wasn't the item in general that surprised me but that they were able to actually bring it from out of state and set it up in the room. Also, I could just imagine the reaction of the cleaning lady in the morning. After eating, we headed over the the hospitality quite for the after hours party. Things were getting quite interesting for a number of people but anyone I was showing interest in didn't show me any back which was a bit of a downer for the night. The only guy who did show any interest was some really obnoxious drunk guy who was a tad bit scary. (I heard later from multiple people that he was bothering them too and acting real creepy, including one person that he walked up to and tried to stick poppers in his nose without even asking if the person was interested.) So, around 3 a.m. or so, I just headed home to get some sleep.
Saturday
The first event of Saturday was the "scavenger hunt" which in the package I got said it was like "The Amazing Race". I wasn't interested and wanted to get some decent sleep since I had to drive home to sleep anyway so I passed, and took it easy in the morning, getting downtown around 1 p.m. It kept raining on and off on the way down there. I figured there would be a number of people still hanging out in the hotel but very few people around. I was chatting a little with one guy, Guido from Hamilton, who was sitting in the lobby on his laptop. I had brought my kilt to change into later on in the day and we were talking about it so I showed it to him and discovered that it had a bunch of cat hair on it that I hadn't noticed at home. Of course, none of the bears had any masking tape to get it off with. I tried asking at the hotel front desk and they just had scotch tape too. When I said what it was for, the girl headed down to the end of the counter and gave me one of those pocket things they put invoiced and stuff in on the outside of boxes, saying they used those all the time for that, as you could slip your hand in the pocket, rip the paper backing off and use the sticky side to get the hair off. It worked great.
Since there wasn't anything else going on, I figured I'd take a walk to Starbucks and get something to drink when a couple of guys came back with food from McDonald's and Arby's. I realized I should probably grab some lunch myself so headed over for pizza just down the block. The food was good but as I headed out, it started to lightly rain again and I had left my jacket in the car since it had been nice. I get back to the hotel without getting too wet and head back to the registration/vendor room to see what's going on. A couple other guys are hanging out there so I stick around. I see one guy walk in who I had ran into earlier who had mistaken me for someone else out in the lobby when I was sitting around reading. I was talking to Scott, who I had just officially met, when the guy was checking in for the run. As the guy headed over, Scott was just walking off to talk to someone else. The guy wasn't bad looking really. He walked up and said hi and shook my hand and then goes, "I think you're hot. I want to make out with you right now," and all I could smell was the alcohol on him. This was only about 2:00 or 2:30 at this point. Needless to say, I passed on the offer for the time being. (And, no, I never caught up with him again later.) So, I continued to hang out for a while chatting with Scott more as well as his roommate, Wayne.
After a while, it was time to head to the hospitality suite for the Steel City Bears (Hamilton, Ontario) sponsored Tiki cocktail party. Before going there, I switched into my kilt for the night. They served really good drinks of pineapple juice and some alcohol with little pieces of fruit on a plastic stick while wearing multi-colored hula skirts. A few of us were hanging out in the back bedroom (where the fun stuff happens at night at the after hours party. People kept wondering what was going on back there. We got a good laugh at that cuz we were just back there as there was more room and air conditioning. People were keeping their clothes on this time. Since I didn't have a room of my own to hang out in after the cocktail party, I stayed in the hospitality suite with a few others and got to meet Dan and Ron from Bear Wear International. Dan is a really cute thin guy with enough belly fuzz on him who was a lot of fun to flirt with. Eventually, it got to me time to head down for dinner. I decided to drop off my bag in my car since I'd changed already and didn't want to keep carrying it around. When I get to my car, the front driver side tire is flat. I was NOT happy. So, I head over to Century Grill for dinner a bit frustrated and "why me?" with plans to call AAA after dinner.
Dinner was good and after things started breaking up, I headed over to the car to double check what I had for a spare. It was the donut tire as expected but at least I knew for sure then. I called AAA and they said the guy would be running in about an hour. I headed back to Century Grill where some people were still hanging out to wait. I had been finally taking some pics so I could a few there (one with mrpandabehr and the very cute Mike who I found out is actually sorta local.). Well, I guess at one point, one guy who was too shy to ask or try had Jeff take his camera and take a shot up my kilt. I thought it was just Jeff doing it for himself til I saw him hand the camera over, not that I cared. Tho I wouldn't have minded a chance to fluff some since I'm a grower. ;) After a half hour, a few of us head over to the Hyatt right across the street that was the host hotel. Just after I get in there, my phone goes off. It was AAA already so I headed back out to the car. We got the tire off and there was what looked like a bolt in it so we put on the spare, tossed the regular one in the trunk and the guy was off. (The AAA guy was actually sorta cute.) I stopped by the hospitality suite but it was closed so I just headed off to the Town Ballroom where the next gathering was going to be. The place used to be a bar called Sphere but I was never there back then. It was actually called the Town Casino originally and is a very old building with a lot of original fixtures and moldings. It looks really cool. I hung out with Dan and Ron some more tho Ron just wanted to lay back and rest. I had gotten a Labatt's Blue (They didn't have Labatt's Ice) and I was telling Dan that if I get to move, that's one thing I'll miss is the Canadian beers. When I was in NYC, I got the weirdest look when I asked for Labatt's and that's still in New York state. I had a good time there chatting with people and finally got to meet one very handsome guy John from Toronto (bondagebehr on Bear411) who I'd seen around before but never officially met. We had a really nice conversation. Even jlyon1515 made it out. I was dancing my ass off on the dance floor too with Dan and some other friends. It was so warm that I had my shirt off like a lot of the guys. With all the music and dancing and lack of windows in that room, I never even noticed that there was a short rain storm outside during all of this. It was fun watching Max (from Toronto) made fun of Dan's dancing tho. Max was a lot of fun and a cool guy. Eventually, everyone started filtering back to the hotel and the after hours party (especially after the music began to suck). I chatted with a few people there but didn't stay too long. I wasn't getting any attention back again and one person who I had talked to earlier who expressed interest in playing later (who ended up telling me he was tired and was just heading back to bed but would see me in the morning) showed up and started playing with someone else and took off with him. Sorta left me feeling shitty on top of all the car issues I knew I had to deal with so I just headed home. (I did found out Sunday that sometime during all of this, another "under kilt" shot was taken tho a lot more stealthily this time.)
Kilt check total for the night: 4 guys
Sunday
Sunday morning was the brunch but it was extra and I needed to take care of the car so I skipped on that and took care of stuff at the house before heading to BJ's to get a new tire. When the guy there checked out the tire, despite the head being larger, the part going into the tire was pretty small (like a screw) so he was able to patch it. He also rotated the tires and the whole thing only cost me $15, which is a lot better than what I was expecting. So, I head back to downtown to see what's going on. Nothing really much at this time so I hung out in the lobby and chatted with a few of the guys, including Paul from Toronto who I hadn't gotten to connect with much over the weekend til then. Eventually we headed off to the fitness center where we had the pool party. I got a locker key and headed to the locker room. I had the key for #80 so I start following the numbers. 20... 30... 40... 50... 130... What?!? Eventually I found 80 way in the back. Someone must have been drinking laying that place out. So I put my trunks on and headed to the pool. (About half the guys had swimsuits on at least at the beginning.) The water was a bit on the chilly side. (I heard later that the jacuzzi was luke warm at best, the wet sauna was the warm place, and the dry sauna was the hottest.) After a bit, they got all the guys down to one end for a group picture in the pool. For fun while we were there, Steve tells everyone "Grope the person in front of you." I looked in front of me and passed on that idea. Then he said "Now, grope the person behind you." I looked behind me and it was a guy I'd seen on Bear411 and at the bar and always thought was cute but never had the guts to talk to. So, this time I followed instruction and groped. *eg* After the pic, everyone separated more. I saw one cute cub (heard someone call him Evan) that I'd seen around the run before but never seemed to talk to people much and just hung out with one slightly older guy the whole time. He had tanned skin (maybe Hispanic) with black hair and goatee and in decent shape but just cuddly enough. He seemed pretty shy so I was surprised to see him in the pool naked. (Happy to see it, of course, but surprised. ;) ) I was hanging out chatting with someone (I forget who) and weebax came over piggybacked on Max and acting goofy. As they head off, Don goes "I'm off riding the SS Negro!" (Max is black) which made us all laugh. Later on, I see him piggybacking Scott (who is white) and Don tells me "I switched to the SS Ebony." What a goofball!
Eventually, the pool party ended and I headed off with everyone else to Century Grill for the German dinner and last dance of the run. While there, I saw the one guy I had groped earlier (OK, there was more than one but I mean the one I mentioned in this post.) and walked over to say hi. I figured I'd already grabbed his crotch so I might as well introduce myself. (Yes, I am getting better about being able to approach people and just see how things go.) We're chatting and his partner comes over and is standing about 90° or so from me looking at stuff on the vendor table where we had been standing. I introduced myself and he turns around and I see it's my friend Mike. He'd trimmed his hair a lot shorter and changed his facial hair since I last saw him and so I didn't recognize him til I saw him from the front. Had fun chatting with the 2 of them and joking around with Bob some. Hope I didn't scare him too much, but if he's dating Mike, I'm sure he's used to it. Why the time we got up there to eat, all there was was some apple strudel or some baked apple thing, sausages, and sauerkraut. I guess there had been a little bit of German potato salad early on but not much. At least the sausage was good.
After dinner, they did Bear Factor (their version of Fear Factor). The first involved the drawing of a guy on a board with a dildo sticking out from it that they use every year somehow. This time, they had it standing up with 6 big plastic rings around the dildo. What the contestants had to do was strap a plunger around their waist so the handle stuck out and try to remove the rings one at a time and drop them in an open duffel bag. It seemed to be a lot more difficult than it sounds. (It had to be one at a time and their hands couldn't touch the plunger.) Part 2 involved removing bite sized candy bars from a plastic butt. Use your imagination on that one. The final part, 2 contestants had to try to guzzle down a pitcher of this white creamy substance. (We all know what's it's supposed to be like, but it was really peach yogurt, milk, and something else. Blech!) They did this through a hose with a funnel on top. (There were 4 people assisting on this one - one on each of the 2 hose/funnel contraptions and 2 pouring the stuff in.) mrpandabehr, who won last year's event was in the final 2 but came in second place. The guy who did win was discovered to be in the bathroom not long after getting rid of the stuff. (Again, blech!) The night went on to some dancing and disco music. weebax disappeared for a bit and then came back in his Kung Fu Jones (or whatever the name was) outfit - black top and pants, a BIG afro, and shades. He was having a blast.
I was wearing my "How many licks does it take?" (with Mr. Owl) which Max wanted to get off of me. For a change, someone was doing that to actually get the shirt! I had a couple people mention that it looked like I was losing weight but when a local friend of mine I see more frequently even noticed it, it hit home more and made me feel better and feel that the gym is actually helping. As people starting migrating outside the Century Grill, the goofiness followed. Someone got called a slut to which I said, "That's ok. We decided that this weekend 'slut' is a compliment." Max had ended up with Don's afro wig and was being goofy too. He was queening it up (don't think it took too much. ;) ) and saying "That's my pimp", pointing to his boyfriend Brian who won Bear Factor, and "That's my daddy over there", pointing to someone in a group off to the side. A couple minutes later, Dan walks over from the group and someone asks if that was his daddy to which Max responds "Oh, no. Not him. That's a broken down daddy." Everyone burst out laughing at this other than Dan who stole the afro. Max got it back and put it on Brian and then me. (Yes, there are pics of both.)
Although it wasn't on the schedule, they opened the hospitality suite for people to hang out as the event wound down. Everyone had fun hanging out and chatting as most people had no energy for anything else. Max and Dan were still at it on and off and at one time, Max says something to Dan about Dan trying to find a line that would shut him up. Well, the evening progressed and we were all chatting and I said something that left Max sitting there with his jaw just hanging open staring. The person next to him reach over and closed Max's mouth saying "Oh my god! He's speechless." At this point I just raised my arms declaring "I win!" I called it an early night, heading out a little after midnight. Others were already heading off to bed. It was good seeing a bunch of people I don't normally get to see. I wish I got to see some of them more. A group of them were heading to IHOP this morning for one last breakfast together but I had to be at work. Will look forward to seeing them next time.
And there ends the PG version of the weekend. I'll try to get the other part done tonight too as well as getting the pictures from the weekend edited and posted.
Friday
I got out of work at 6 p.m. on Friday and headed home to take care of the cats before heading downtown for the events. Took care of what I needed to at home and headed out but looped back to get my camera which I forgot. I ended up up even taking any pics that night anyway though. :P So, I get downtown around 7:40, get my stuff, and have some chicken wings and chat with people. (The joke of the run with the run bags what that there was one condom and about a half dozen packets of lube. Were supposed to save this stuff for one single really tight bottom or something?) I missed out on the contests that they have early on like hairiest guys and stuff. Oh, well. I did end up being used as a model for a conversation about beard trimming since how I wear mine is what they were talking about. I finally got to meet dont_hideaway in person there too. After a while, people started to filter over to the Century Grill where the comedian would be performing and the keg party for the rest of the night was. We get over there and a bunch of people were still watching the Sabre's game. Of course it went extra long so we were waiting for ever to get things going. And then we had to fight to get the people to leave as it was a paid event unless you paid for the whole run, you had to pay for the open keg and comedian. They made announcements a couple times and a lot of people (mostly all females who were acting quite full of themselves... Sorry girls but all the guys coming in have no interest in you!) just sat there until they more or less corralled them out and they weren't happy.
I had a couple beers since it was still early and hung out talking to geekbearjeff and listening to the comedian Richard Rider (a gay bear that was on Last Comic Standing). We were also watching the TVs showing the baseball games and commenting on the cute players. The middle screen was a wide screen TV that stretched the picture. We got a nice laugh out of how big it made the batters' butts look. A few of the guys were heading over to Jim's Steak-Out for something to eat. Since I hadn't had anything other than a few chicken wings since lunch at 1 p.m., I asked if I could tag along. I learned that I need to start wearing a belt with my shorts tho, especially if I'm going to have my camera in my pocket. The one bad side of losing weight -- pants don't stay up as well. They ended up heading back to the room of a couple guys in the group. I had thought they were going to eat at Jim's or something so I asked if I could tag along and got an ok. I was saying something to someone as I walked into the room and had a pause in my speech when I rounded the corner to see a frame with a sling in there. The reaction made my one friend laugh. I explained that it wasn't the item in general that surprised me but that they were able to actually bring it from out of state and set it up in the room. Also, I could just imagine the reaction of the cleaning lady in the morning. After eating, we headed over the the hospitality quite for the after hours party. Things were getting quite interesting for a number of people but anyone I was showing interest in didn't show me any back which was a bit of a downer for the night. The only guy who did show any interest was some really obnoxious drunk guy who was a tad bit scary. (I heard later from multiple people that he was bothering them too and acting real creepy, including one person that he walked up to and tried to stick poppers in his nose without even asking if the person was interested.) So, around 3 a.m. or so, I just headed home to get some sleep.
Saturday
The first event of Saturday was the "scavenger hunt" which in the package I got said it was like "The Amazing Race". I wasn't interested and wanted to get some decent sleep since I had to drive home to sleep anyway so I passed, and took it easy in the morning, getting downtown around 1 p.m. It kept raining on and off on the way down there. I figured there would be a number of people still hanging out in the hotel but very few people around. I was chatting a little with one guy, Guido from Hamilton, who was sitting in the lobby on his laptop. I had brought my kilt to change into later on in the day and we were talking about it so I showed it to him and discovered that it had a bunch of cat hair on it that I hadn't noticed at home. Of course, none of the bears had any masking tape to get it off with. I tried asking at the hotel front desk and they just had scotch tape too. When I said what it was for, the girl headed down to the end of the counter and gave me one of those pocket things they put invoiced and stuff in on the outside of boxes, saying they used those all the time for that, as you could slip your hand in the pocket, rip the paper backing off and use the sticky side to get the hair off. It worked great.
Since there wasn't anything else going on, I figured I'd take a walk to Starbucks and get something to drink when a couple of guys came back with food from McDonald's and Arby's. I realized I should probably grab some lunch myself so headed over for pizza just down the block. The food was good but as I headed out, it started to lightly rain again and I had left my jacket in the car since it had been nice. I get back to the hotel without getting too wet and head back to the registration/vendor room to see what's going on. A couple other guys are hanging out there so I stick around. I see one guy walk in who I had ran into earlier who had mistaken me for someone else out in the lobby when I was sitting around reading. I was talking to Scott, who I had just officially met, when the guy was checking in for the run. As the guy headed over, Scott was just walking off to talk to someone else. The guy wasn't bad looking really. He walked up and said hi and shook my hand and then goes, "I think you're hot. I want to make out with you right now," and all I could smell was the alcohol on him. This was only about 2:00 or 2:30 at this point. Needless to say, I passed on the offer for the time being. (And, no, I never caught up with him again later.) So, I continued to hang out for a while chatting with Scott more as well as his roommate, Wayne.
After a while, it was time to head to the hospitality suite for the Steel City Bears (Hamilton, Ontario) sponsored Tiki cocktail party. Before going there, I switched into my kilt for the night. They served really good drinks of pineapple juice and some alcohol with little pieces of fruit on a plastic stick while wearing multi-colored hula skirts. A few of us were hanging out in the back bedroom (where the fun stuff happens at night at the after hours party. People kept wondering what was going on back there. We got a good laugh at that cuz we were just back there as there was more room and air conditioning. People were keeping their clothes on this time. Since I didn't have a room of my own to hang out in after the cocktail party, I stayed in the hospitality suite with a few others and got to meet Dan and Ron from Bear Wear International. Dan is a really cute thin guy with enough belly fuzz on him who was a lot of fun to flirt with. Eventually, it got to me time to head down for dinner. I decided to drop off my bag in my car since I'd changed already and didn't want to keep carrying it around. When I get to my car, the front driver side tire is flat. I was NOT happy. So, I head over to Century Grill for dinner a bit frustrated and "why me?" with plans to call AAA after dinner.
Dinner was good and after things started breaking up, I headed over to the car to double check what I had for a spare. It was the donut tire as expected but at least I knew for sure then. I called AAA and they said the guy would be running in about an hour. I headed back to Century Grill where some people were still hanging out to wait. I had been finally taking some pics so I could a few there (one with mrpandabehr and the very cute Mike who I found out is actually sorta local.). Well, I guess at one point, one guy who was too shy to ask or try had Jeff take his camera and take a shot up my kilt. I thought it was just Jeff doing it for himself til I saw him hand the camera over, not that I cared. Tho I wouldn't have minded a chance to fluff some since I'm a grower. ;) After a half hour, a few of us head over to the Hyatt right across the street that was the host hotel. Just after I get in there, my phone goes off. It was AAA already so I headed back out to the car. We got the tire off and there was what looked like a bolt in it so we put on the spare, tossed the regular one in the trunk and the guy was off. (The AAA guy was actually sorta cute.) I stopped by the hospitality suite but it was closed so I just headed off to the Town Ballroom where the next gathering was going to be. The place used to be a bar called Sphere but I was never there back then. It was actually called the Town Casino originally and is a very old building with a lot of original fixtures and moldings. It looks really cool. I hung out with Dan and Ron some more tho Ron just wanted to lay back and rest. I had gotten a Labatt's Blue (They didn't have Labatt's Ice) and I was telling Dan that if I get to move, that's one thing I'll miss is the Canadian beers. When I was in NYC, I got the weirdest look when I asked for Labatt's and that's still in New York state. I had a good time there chatting with people and finally got to meet one very handsome guy John from Toronto (bondagebehr on Bear411) who I'd seen around before but never officially met. We had a really nice conversation. Even jlyon1515 made it out. I was dancing my ass off on the dance floor too with Dan and some other friends. It was so warm that I had my shirt off like a lot of the guys. With all the music and dancing and lack of windows in that room, I never even noticed that there was a short rain storm outside during all of this. It was fun watching Max (from Toronto) made fun of Dan's dancing tho. Max was a lot of fun and a cool guy. Eventually, everyone started filtering back to the hotel and the after hours party (especially after the music began to suck). I chatted with a few people there but didn't stay too long. I wasn't getting any attention back again and one person who I had talked to earlier who expressed interest in playing later (who ended up telling me he was tired and was just heading back to bed but would see me in the morning) showed up and started playing with someone else and took off with him. Sorta left me feeling shitty on top of all the car issues I knew I had to deal with so I just headed home. (I did found out Sunday that sometime during all of this, another "under kilt" shot was taken tho a lot more stealthily this time.)
Kilt check total for the night: 4 guys
Sunday
Sunday morning was the brunch but it was extra and I needed to take care of the car so I skipped on that and took care of stuff at the house before heading to BJ's to get a new tire. When the guy there checked out the tire, despite the head being larger, the part going into the tire was pretty small (like a screw) so he was able to patch it. He also rotated the tires and the whole thing only cost me $15, which is a lot better than what I was expecting. So, I head back to downtown to see what's going on. Nothing really much at this time so I hung out in the lobby and chatted with a few of the guys, including Paul from Toronto who I hadn't gotten to connect with much over the weekend til then. Eventually we headed off to the fitness center where we had the pool party. I got a locker key and headed to the locker room. I had the key for #80 so I start following the numbers. 20... 30... 40... 50... 130... What?!? Eventually I found 80 way in the back. Someone must have been drinking laying that place out. So I put my trunks on and headed to the pool. (About half the guys had swimsuits on at least at the beginning.) The water was a bit on the chilly side. (I heard later that the jacuzzi was luke warm at best, the wet sauna was the warm place, and the dry sauna was the hottest.) After a bit, they got all the guys down to one end for a group picture in the pool. For fun while we were there, Steve tells everyone "Grope the person in front of you." I looked in front of me and passed on that idea. Then he said "Now, grope the person behind you." I looked behind me and it was a guy I'd seen on Bear411 and at the bar and always thought was cute but never had the guts to talk to. So, this time I followed instruction and groped. *eg* After the pic, everyone separated more. I saw one cute cub (heard someone call him Evan) that I'd seen around the run before but never seemed to talk to people much and just hung out with one slightly older guy the whole time. He had tanned skin (maybe Hispanic) with black hair and goatee and in decent shape but just cuddly enough. He seemed pretty shy so I was surprised to see him in the pool naked. (Happy to see it, of course, but surprised. ;) ) I was hanging out chatting with someone (I forget who) and weebax came over piggybacked on Max and acting goofy. As they head off, Don goes "I'm off riding the SS Negro!" (Max is black) which made us all laugh. Later on, I see him piggybacking Scott (who is white) and Don tells me "I switched to the SS Ebony." What a goofball!
Eventually, the pool party ended and I headed off with everyone else to Century Grill for the German dinner and last dance of the run. While there, I saw the one guy I had groped earlier (OK, there was more than one but I mean the one I mentioned in this post.) and walked over to say hi. I figured I'd already grabbed his crotch so I might as well introduce myself. (Yes, I am getting better about being able to approach people and just see how things go.) We're chatting and his partner comes over and is standing about 90° or so from me looking at stuff on the vendor table where we had been standing. I introduced myself and he turns around and I see it's my friend Mike. He'd trimmed his hair a lot shorter and changed his facial hair since I last saw him and so I didn't recognize him til I saw him from the front. Had fun chatting with the 2 of them and joking around with Bob some. Hope I didn't scare him too much, but if he's dating Mike, I'm sure he's used to it. Why the time we got up there to eat, all there was was some apple strudel or some baked apple thing, sausages, and sauerkraut. I guess there had been a little bit of German potato salad early on but not much. At least the sausage was good.
After dinner, they did Bear Factor (their version of Fear Factor). The first involved the drawing of a guy on a board with a dildo sticking out from it that they use every year somehow. This time, they had it standing up with 6 big plastic rings around the dildo. What the contestants had to do was strap a plunger around their waist so the handle stuck out and try to remove the rings one at a time and drop them in an open duffel bag. It seemed to be a lot more difficult than it sounds. (It had to be one at a time and their hands couldn't touch the plunger.) Part 2 involved removing bite sized candy bars from a plastic butt. Use your imagination on that one. The final part, 2 contestants had to try to guzzle down a pitcher of this white creamy substance. (We all know what's it's supposed to be like, but it was really peach yogurt, milk, and something else. Blech!) They did this through a hose with a funnel on top. (There were 4 people assisting on this one - one on each of the 2 hose/funnel contraptions and 2 pouring the stuff in.) mrpandabehr, who won last year's event was in the final 2 but came in second place. The guy who did win was discovered to be in the bathroom not long after getting rid of the stuff. (Again, blech!) The night went on to some dancing and disco music. weebax disappeared for a bit and then came back in his Kung Fu Jones (or whatever the name was) outfit - black top and pants, a BIG afro, and shades. He was having a blast.
I was wearing my "How many licks does it take?" (with Mr. Owl) which Max wanted to get off of me. For a change, someone was doing that to actually get the shirt! I had a couple people mention that it looked like I was losing weight but when a local friend of mine I see more frequently even noticed it, it hit home more and made me feel better and feel that the gym is actually helping. As people starting migrating outside the Century Grill, the goofiness followed. Someone got called a slut to which I said, "That's ok. We decided that this weekend 'slut' is a compliment." Max had ended up with Don's afro wig and was being goofy too. He was queening it up (don't think it took too much. ;) ) and saying "That's my pimp", pointing to his boyfriend Brian who won Bear Factor, and "That's my daddy over there", pointing to someone in a group off to the side. A couple minutes later, Dan walks over from the group and someone asks if that was his daddy to which Max responds "Oh, no. Not him. That's a broken down daddy." Everyone burst out laughing at this other than Dan who stole the afro. Max got it back and put it on Brian and then me. (Yes, there are pics of both.)
Although it wasn't on the schedule, they opened the hospitality suite for people to hang out as the event wound down. Everyone had fun hanging out and chatting as most people had no energy for anything else. Max and Dan were still at it on and off and at one time, Max says something to Dan about Dan trying to find a line that would shut him up. Well, the evening progressed and we were all chatting and I said something that left Max sitting there with his jaw just hanging open staring. The person next to him reach over and closed Max's mouth saying "Oh my god! He's speechless." At this point I just raised my arms declaring "I win!" I called it an early night, heading out a little after midnight. Others were already heading off to bed. It was good seeing a bunch of people I don't normally get to see. I wish I got to see some of them more. A group of them were heading to IHOP this morning for one last breakfast together but I had to be at work. Will look forward to seeing them next time.
And there ends the PG version of the weekend. I'll try to get the other part done tonight too as well as getting the pictures from the weekend edited and posted.