Part 1 of 2 of San Francisco Vacation...
Friday
I was up very early on Friday to catch my plane. I was bawling in the airport because I didn't want to go without Andrew and I missed the dogs already. Andrew hugged me and said, "Stop crying; they'll think I'm sending you away." *lol* The woman at the counter was super nice. She said in the saddest tone possible, "I'm sorry to do this...but I have to charge you for your luggage." Hahaha! She suggested we go sit down for about half an hour and come back. When I came back, some guy was all like, "Are you in the right line?" or something, but the lovely counter lady was like, "She's fine; she can come through! Come with me, dear." Awww. I flew United from Winnipeg to Denver where my original 40 mins time between flights ended up going to 2.5 hours. Not impressed. When I got to the gate I needed to be at (after a fucking mad dash to get there), the board said the flight had been changed from 10:00 a.m. to 11:09 a.m. Lame, but what can you do? I milled around for a bit. The delay then went to 12:00 p.m. They started boarding people at 12:15 p.m. only to bring them back and hold us up another 15 mins. It was a sold out flight of 138 people so you can imagine how ticked people were. When we got on the plane, the pilot announced that San Francisco airport had closed down all but one runway due to cloud/fog coverage. Seems like a poor excuse. The pilot explained we may be delayed another 30 mins at which point I nearly flipped out. My main hatred of planes/flying is the claustrophobia. I don't want to be sitting in this enclosed tube with over 100 strangers if I don't need to. The pilot then was basically fuck this and took off, hahaha. The California national (high school) girls' wrestling team was on the flight, 2 of them sitting next to me 1 of which was gay. They won gold. How nice. Anyway, so instead of arriving in San Francisco just before noon, I got there mid-afternoon. Long fucking day.
It was foggy and cold compared to Winnipeg. Winnipeg is quite hot nowadays (we're talking over 20*C), but San Francisco was hovering around probably the 10 - 15*C mark most of the time I was there (except Sunday, day of the parade).
Corey met me at the airport and we went to his place to drop off my bags before heading out for food since I had eaten nothing. We went to Herbivore which was amazing despite the crummy waitress. I love going to all vegan restaurants so I don't have to think about what I'm going to eat. After that we headed back to his place since it was already evening. I met his gf, Aurora, who gave me a pair of knitted fingerless mitts she made which came in immensely handy since I wasn't quite prepared for the cool weather. The rest of the evening was spent just hanging out and I talked to Andrew on the phone to complain about the flight delays.
Saturday
Corey and I headed to Black & Blue Tattoo as I had booked an appointment initially with Micah but then was transferred to Leona as Micah was going to Germany. Anyway, as we were stuck on the bus, I called the studio to let them know we'd be late. Well, Leona hadn't written my appt down and "wasn't planning on working" that day. She was the one that answered the phone. I explained I booked my appt about 2 or 3 months ago so I expected it to be done. We got there around 12:30 or 1:00 and she agreed to do it up. I got a rainbow heart with "Feelin' fine." underneath it on my right hip/abdomen area (hard to explain). It's cute and simple and, not to be a total prick, but I don't think she could do something more ornate since I repeatedly told her to just do it however she wanted yet she was completely rigid. Anyway, after that we went to Crepeville (or something like that) for lunch which for me was scrambled tofu and hash browns.
A wonderful gay man and his partner were sitting next to us. The more fabulous one of the two leaned over and said to me, "I love your tattoo!" (Medusa one) I said thank you and that some woman had the gall to ask me who it was supposed to be. He was like, "I recognized it right away. It's obviously Medusa!" Then he saw my contact lenses and said how they went so great with my hair and that it all went so well with my tattoo, hahaha. He was amazing. He told me that he had Lasik surgery done as he couldn't handle poking himself in the eye to put in contacts. I loved him!
After that, we headed to the train terminal thing to wait for Aurora so we could go out to Berkeley. I was dying for Starbucks which wasn't all over the place to my dismay. We found one and another fabulous gay man working the counter commented that he loved my ear bling (they're pink). He said he had a pair of white ones that he was going to wear to the Pink Party that night. I told him I'm sure he'd look amazing. As I was waiting in line, a woman told me she loved my hair. I thanked her and told her I was in a hair modelling competition. She said not too many people could pull off green hair, but I certainly could. <3
Aurora arrived and we took the train to Berkeley. We went through the campus park and then down the street to look at shops. This guy with dreadlocks and a cardboard sign on him that said "Hippy Escort" said to me, "Hi, I'm gay." I was like, "That's wonderful! I kinda figured you were." :) I got a couple of cute tops from West Seal. We also went to T-Shirt Orgy (or something like that) and I got a Star Trek t-shirt for Andrew that has William Shatner on it and "KHAAAAAAN!" Hahahaha! He loves it. Aurora got a salad from one restaurant and I got pasta from another place. We then headed back to San Francisco. On the sub-train-thing, the whole thing was packed with the most beautiful, fabulous gay men I'd ever seen. A petite, well manicured Asian guy was in front of me and we were chit-chatting a bit about the crowd. Well, the sub-train-thing stopped in the tunnel between stops. I'm telling you, as someone with claustrophobia, if you have to be stuck in a train-thing in a tunnel, you want to be stuck with these guys. They were just amazing. One guy was wearing the tiniest red spandex shorts I'd ever seen that had a zipper the length of the leg for quick access and rainbow suspenders. *lol* Someone started singing Lady GaGa and another person started to play their MP3 player. Thankfully, that's when the sub-train-thing started back up.
I talked to Andrew on the phone when we got back to Corey and Aurora's and then it was time for bed.
Stay tuned for Sunday and Monday!
I was up very early on Friday to catch my plane. I was bawling in the airport because I didn't want to go without Andrew and I missed the dogs already. Andrew hugged me and said, "Stop crying; they'll think I'm sending you away." *lol* The woman at the counter was super nice. She said in the saddest tone possible, "I'm sorry to do this...but I have to charge you for your luggage." Hahaha! She suggested we go sit down for about half an hour and come back. When I came back, some guy was all like, "Are you in the right line?" or something, but the lovely counter lady was like, "She's fine; she can come through! Come with me, dear." Awww. I flew United from Winnipeg to Denver where my original 40 mins time between flights ended up going to 2.5 hours. Not impressed. When I got to the gate I needed to be at (after a fucking mad dash to get there), the board said the flight had been changed from 10:00 a.m. to 11:09 a.m. Lame, but what can you do? I milled around for a bit. The delay then went to 12:00 p.m. They started boarding people at 12:15 p.m. only to bring them back and hold us up another 15 mins. It was a sold out flight of 138 people so you can imagine how ticked people were. When we got on the plane, the pilot announced that San Francisco airport had closed down all but one runway due to cloud/fog coverage. Seems like a poor excuse. The pilot explained we may be delayed another 30 mins at which point I nearly flipped out. My main hatred of planes/flying is the claustrophobia. I don't want to be sitting in this enclosed tube with over 100 strangers if I don't need to. The pilot then was basically fuck this and took off, hahaha. The California national (high school) girls' wrestling team was on the flight, 2 of them sitting next to me 1 of which was gay. They won gold. How nice. Anyway, so instead of arriving in San Francisco just before noon, I got there mid-afternoon. Long fucking day.
It was foggy and cold compared to Winnipeg. Winnipeg is quite hot nowadays (we're talking over 20*C), but San Francisco was hovering around probably the 10 - 15*C mark most of the time I was there (except Sunday, day of the parade).
Corey met me at the airport and we went to his place to drop off my bags before heading out for food since I had eaten nothing. We went to Herbivore which was amazing despite the crummy waitress. I love going to all vegan restaurants so I don't have to think about what I'm going to eat. After that we headed back to his place since it was already evening. I met his gf, Aurora, who gave me a pair of knitted fingerless mitts she made which came in immensely handy since I wasn't quite prepared for the cool weather. The rest of the evening was spent just hanging out and I talked to Andrew on the phone to complain about the flight delays.
Saturday
Corey and I headed to Black & Blue Tattoo as I had booked an appointment initially with Micah but then was transferred to Leona as Micah was going to Germany. Anyway, as we were stuck on the bus, I called the studio to let them know we'd be late. Well, Leona hadn't written my appt down and "wasn't planning on working" that day. She was the one that answered the phone. I explained I booked my appt about 2 or 3 months ago so I expected it to be done. We got there around 12:30 or 1:00 and she agreed to do it up. I got a rainbow heart with "Feelin' fine." underneath it on my right hip/abdomen area (hard to explain). It's cute and simple and, not to be a total prick, but I don't think she could do something more ornate since I repeatedly told her to just do it however she wanted yet she was completely rigid. Anyway, after that we went to Crepeville (or something like that) for lunch which for me was scrambled tofu and hash browns.
A wonderful gay man and his partner were sitting next to us. The more fabulous one of the two leaned over and said to me, "I love your tattoo!" (Medusa one) I said thank you and that some woman had the gall to ask me who it was supposed to be. He was like, "I recognized it right away. It's obviously Medusa!" Then he saw my contact lenses and said how they went so great with my hair and that it all went so well with my tattoo, hahaha. He was amazing. He told me that he had Lasik surgery done as he couldn't handle poking himself in the eye to put in contacts. I loved him!
After that, we headed to the train terminal thing to wait for Aurora so we could go out to Berkeley. I was dying for Starbucks which wasn't all over the place to my dismay. We found one and another fabulous gay man working the counter commented that he loved my ear bling (they're pink). He said he had a pair of white ones that he was going to wear to the Pink Party that night. I told him I'm sure he'd look amazing. As I was waiting in line, a woman told me she loved my hair. I thanked her and told her I was in a hair modelling competition. She said not too many people could pull off green hair, but I certainly could. <3
Aurora arrived and we took the train to Berkeley. We went through the campus park and then down the street to look at shops. This guy with dreadlocks and a cardboard sign on him that said "Hippy Escort" said to me, "Hi, I'm gay." I was like, "That's wonderful! I kinda figured you were." :) I got a couple of cute tops from West Seal. We also went to T-Shirt Orgy (or something like that) and I got a Star Trek t-shirt for Andrew that has William Shatner on it and "KHAAAAAAN!" Hahahaha! He loves it. Aurora got a salad from one restaurant and I got pasta from another place. We then headed back to San Francisco. On the sub-train-thing, the whole thing was packed with the most beautiful, fabulous gay men I'd ever seen. A petite, well manicured Asian guy was in front of me and we were chit-chatting a bit about the crowd. Well, the sub-train-thing stopped in the tunnel between stops. I'm telling you, as someone with claustrophobia, if you have to be stuck in a train-thing in a tunnel, you want to be stuck with these guys. They were just amazing. One guy was wearing the tiniest red spandex shorts I'd ever seen that had a zipper the length of the leg for quick access and rainbow suspenders. *lol* Someone started singing Lady GaGa and another person started to play their MP3 player. Thankfully, that's when the sub-train-thing started back up.
I talked to Andrew on the phone when we got back to Corey and Aurora's and then it was time for bed.
Stay tuned for Sunday and Monday!