Developing Skills

My experience of the Pride Parade is up at Roundtree7.com:
The Last Sunday in June

The video segment is on Worldwide Hippies News & Stuff.  Joe/Winston starts introducing me at about 13:00
 

This WWH News installment includes a short video Joe suggested I make describing who I am and what I'm doing in under 30 seconds.  I liked that challenge because it's a good idea for anyone to be able to be able to describe what they're doing in under 30 seconds.  It's probably impossible to say who you really are in a few seconds, but for the purposes of Worldwide Hippies, the nuances of my identity are not required.

Overall, I prefer writing because (1) there's no time limits, although I'm committed to 1200 words or less in public venues and (2) I'm very much "Deer in the Headlights" on video which is kind of embarrassing.  However, it seems sensible to develop my skills in the video area since it will help me in all sorts of public speaking situations - like curriculum night, for example, and the parenting workshops I'll be conducting over the next school year.

Meanwhile, I'm beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed by the entire prospect of August.  I have much to do at work during these next two weeks, but work is all good and if I'll focus on my work instead of fooling around on Facebook, I should be able to accomplish my assigned tasks admirably.  The minute camp is done and we lock the doors until September, things get busy.

I meant to do all the doctor stuff while I was working, but apparently every doctor and dentist in New York City leaves the office is keeping summer hours, so I couldn't get appointments until August when I could come during the morning.
Douchebags.
I really want to finish up this year long excavation project in my mouth.  Hell, it may have been two years.  Getting dental implants is a long, drawn out process since you have to wait several months for bone grafts to solidify and whatever the hell else is required.  Having the cash is also required, and that slows down the process too.

So instead of being able to lounge around in my pajamas for a week, I have shit to do.  Then I'm going up to Vermont for the annual fair at Hippy Dippy Quaker Camp.  Fair is great and I haven't been since Velvet was a camper there years ago.

This photo is from the camp's own collection.  When Velvet was there, the fire was much cooler.  They built a dragon fire so that the first flames came out the dragon's mouth.  The staff kicks out the parents earlier these days too, but I think that's just as well.   Back when Velvet was a kid, the high school kids were drumming and dancing wildly around the fire in a way that freaked out the parents of the little kids.  There always seems to be some freaked out parents at Fair - once some guy was all bent out of shape because he saw two men walking with their arms around each other's shoulders.  They may not have even been openly gay, but even still, at the time Vermont was already trying to establish itself as a destination for gay marriages.
Some people are just Douchebags.
I've been quick to call people Douchebags for a couple of months now.  Don't know what that's about.

But anyway -
I'll be driving Velvet and Cupcake back into the city on the 15th, and that night at 7pm, I'll be reading at KGB.  Between now and then, I have to write that story down, but I've told it a number of times already.  It's the one about the day I had to cancel the Gemini party where I had invited all those gay porn stars because Buzz Kill found that story in the trash about the black man with the dick the size of a maglight (Sorry, Mom) and started causing a commotion.

That story led to the birth of PENolan since Buzz Kill was compelled to require in the divorce stipulation that I write under a pseudonym.  And Donna, whose birthday we are celebrating that night at KGB, was in the hallway outside our apartment door when Buzz Kill was throwing a fit about the first story.  So this story is the story of what happened after that story - and it features the birthday girl.

It's also cool because I've been cogitating on the differences and similarities between Tricia Real Name and PENolan.  You'd think we were exactly the same, but we're not.  It's like PENolan is my invisible friend who says and does things that I'm chicken about.  Tricia Real Name has gotten much stronger as a result of PENolan's mouthiness, however.  I've learned how to speak up to people I consider to be authority figures before I feel like crying.  It's a skill.