Gathering 2015
My Knights chapter hosted Gathering in (where else?) Vancouver this year. With my new job and my getting a car, it was certainly a busy weekend for me. It was also another "quick weekend" in that it ended much too soon and we didn't get a chance to go anywhere else except within two blocks of the downtown core. Kind of a wasted opportunity I'd say.
I had two work shifts on Friday, my usual one for 6 hours and then a high school I have done from 3:30-7:30pm since Wednesday. It was tiring and I didn't leave until 8 as I needed information on my duties for Sunday morning. I would be opening the school for the first time that day. I then drove to pick up Wayne M. (the third person to be a passenger in my car LOL!) and took us to the Sandman Hotel on Davie, our host hotel. This was the first time I ever drove in Vancouver, especially downtown Vancouver. I parked by the Pumpjack Pub and we went and got the room reservation I had. For $20 a night, I added parking for my car given that I had to work early on Sunday. Wayne M. and I went up to the room, 604, and afterwards I went back to the car and parked it into the back underground parkade - accessed via the alleyway through either Thurlow or Bute. I returned to the room with my luggage and bags. I dressed in my full leather and Wayne M. his utilikilt. We went to the Pumpjack Pub for the VML social and met up with Wayne T. and Damian. As we walked toward them in the usual back part of the bar, I noticed a number of men were kind of checking me out as I was wearing the most leather that night. There was some artist (a cute bear too!) who was doing naked body painting and canvassing. We spend about a couple of hours at the social as we were still waiting for the Seattle Knights arrival by train. As we left, Damian went back to the room he was sharing with Wayne T. as he was tired. We quickly checked the hotel lobby and didn't find any of them so we went to a nearby pizza place and I treated both Waynes and myself. When we returned to the hotel lobby, Eugene from Spokane was waiting so Wayne M. and I took him up to our room as he was staying with us. After settling down, we got a phone call from Bryan & Arnie to have a little get together in their room. We went and also got to see Fugi from San Diego and Bill who, like me, was President of his chapter and within his first year too! Thad & Charlie couldn't come because Thad accidentally booked their hotel room at the Sandman Hotel... On Georgia Street! After over half an hour, we returned to our room and went to bed around 1am.
I woke up at 8:56am, which meant it would be too late to go back down to Burnaby for my first union meeting at 9. I instead snuggled up to Eugene and started to spoon and fuck him. I then jerked and shot a nice load in his mouth. He of course loved it LOL! After my shower and getting ready, we all went down to brunch at the Fountainhead. Thad & Charlie were at the hotel and we greeted each other. We walked down to the Fountainhead together and met up with Paul and Norman. I ordered pancakes for brunch and after I ate them, I get a phone call from a guy at the Marquis Grande who wants to get into his storage locker but the rooms are all deadbolt locked. I didn't realize this or likely have completely forgotten as I rarely went into the storage locker rooms whenever I was relieving David, the resident manager. I was not thrilled at this so I drove all the way from downtown Vancouver and back to Burnaby - only to find the doors unlocked! I called the guy back and he says he got the janitor to open them for him! So essentially wasted both my time and gas over this crap. I was very unimpressed with my manager for putting me into the situation. Both he and the Strata Council president did not have the key to open those doors. Anyways, I would be late for the Interchapter meeting which was supposed to be at 2pm but I warned the Knights about this and they said that they would wait for me to get back. I called Kevin from Fresno when I got back to the hotel since none of his Knights could come up and I needed information from him about his chapter's status. He replies that he would send me an email with all the information I needed. The Interchapter meeting was at Paul's place and for the first time, I would be Chairperson of the meeting. I called the meeting to order at 2:27pm. When we got near the end of the meeting and Kevin's emails hadn't come in, I called him again and just had him verbally tell us what we needed to know. He also authorized Fresno's proxy votes to be given to the Dogwood chapter. Gathering next year is scheduled for the July 4th weekend and will be in Palm Springs. The meeting adjourned at 3:39pm.
Wayne M., Eugene, and I returned to our hotel room and just relaxed for a couple of hours. We dressed in our Knights formals and went downstairs to Moxie's at 6pm. In attendance for the formal dinner were Bryan & Arnie, Thad & Charlie, Fugi, Bill, Eugene, Damian, Wayne T., Paul, Norman, Wayne M., Ray, and myself. After we ordered our drinks and food, I got up to do a speech and toast. I first thanked the Jet Chapter for their coming up and then got to say what I wanted about our fallen brother-Knight, Peter Hanson, since I couldn't attend his Celebration of Life the previous Saturday. I told the Seattle Knights that Peter mentioned them before he died, excited to see them again at this event and hoped they could've visited one last time but as we all know... he passed away much too quickly. With that, I had us raise a toast to Peter. After that, the group pictures were done. For dinner I had a New York steak with baby potatoes and veggies, which was pricey but very good. As it was Wayne M.'s birthday coming soon, I paid for his meal plus I paid for my fellow-Knight Ray's too as I promised I would given he couldn't afford to come originally. There was a cocktail party being hosted by Damian and Wayne T. in their room so we went there (with our in-suite bar stools since they needed the extra chairs) after dinner around 9pm. Damian was serving drinks while Wayne T. handed out the food and snacks, including a meat platter! I set up my laptop to connect to the TV so everyone could see pictures of Peter and also Knights events from the years 2014, 2008, and 2006. Larry Thomas joined us and in his drunken state, started to cruise me and feel my leathered ass and crotch. He wanted me to go home with him but he lived too far so declined the offer. Damian and Wayne T. also did raffle prizes for everyone. It was a great time and we all slowly left by the end of it. Wayne M., Eugene, and I returned to our room and went to bed about midnight. It would be Wayne's last night in the hotel as he had to go home and help with Thanksgiving dinner. I had to wake up after 5am to go to the high school in Burnaby and open it up.
The alarm woke me up at 5:15am and I got ready and went down to my car and travelled the relatively quiet streets before sunrise back to the high school. I had problems with security and the blood donor clinic that was using the Atrium that day but I managed to survive the 7-hour shift and return downtown to see 5 of the Seattle Knights before they left for the train home. They were back at the Fountainhead having their last drinks with Paul as the only other Vancouver Knight there. During conversations, I was STILL getting a couple of phone calls about the damn storage locker rooms being locked! Thankfully, I didn't have to go out this time. After about an hour, we said our goodbyes to Seattle with only Eugene and Fugi remaining here. Eugene and I returned to our hotel room and just puttered around chatting and watching a couple of episodes of the Nostalgia Critic ("The Wiz" and "Godzilla"). We were getting hungry and since I didn't eat anything that day, we tried to call Fugi to see if he'd want to join us for supper but no answer. Eugene and I walked south on Davie for any ideas on where to eat and we decided on Nando's. He's never eaten there before (in US, the only locations are more east) so I'd thought he should try it. Besides, I'm Portuguese anyways LOL! He ordered a chicken sandwich with medium spicy peri peri and peri peri fries as his side with a coke while I had a chicken wrap with hot spicy peri peri and both peri peri fries and wedges as my two sides and a root beer. He liked the food, especially the peri peri fries. I also got us for dessert a couple of pastel de natas (Portuguese egg tarts) or as what we call them in the Azores, queijadas de natas. He loved them too. It was an overall good supper and we went back to the hotel and watched one more episode of the NC ("Pearl Harbor") before we went to bed at 11pm. The alarm was set as Eugene had to get up early to catch the Amtrak train to Seattle.
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And early it was when the alarm went off and Eugene got up to do his business before saying goodbye to me. There was an "Express Check-Out" sheet that the hotel dropped off and he left it on my laptop. I was now all alone and slept in a bit until I got up at about 9am and packed up. I filled out the sheet and took my bags down to the car first before dropping off the sheet and two out of three of the key cards. When I got to the parkade, I dropped off my own card and then drove back to the condo to do some tidy-up in the office as my manager wanted this from me (grrrrr...). He also wanted me to stay for about 4 hours but I only did 3 before driving home.
Despite the work-related hiccups this year, I had a very nice time at Gathering here. Having 7 of the Seattle Knights coming up was a real treat. It was also nice to see Fugi again. I still wished Kevin could have come up but that likely won't be until next year in Palm Springs. I'm hoping I can get the time off with this new job if I pass the probation period but I'm very likely to get it off with my current day job. It's going to be an interesting climb to the next Gathering...
