la pride

i had been forewarned about la pride. told that it would be the 'craziest' of all. i was a little uncertain about what to expect, and frankly, a little concerned. all for no reason it seems. had this been my first pride i might have been a little surprised, but being my third, there was nothing that i hadn't seen before. i would actually classify phoenix, my first, as by far the most scandalous. this event was for the most part, pretty tame. what was different was that there were a lot of booths with good giveaways!

totally gratuitous shot, because frankly, i think i look pretty smokin' here

i picked up some hair products from the got2b booth, some chapstick and hand sanitizer from the walgreen booth, and the biggest tchotchke score of the weekend was petco, right next to us. they just kept giving us stuff! I ended up with some of those doggy bag holders you attach to the leash, a portable water bowl (it folds up), balls, coupons, food samples. and almost as good as the giveaways were the staff. turns out that there were two older gentleman working the booth who do it in between acting gigs. one of them was recently in a movie called 'i love you, man' with paul rudd, the other plays a bartender on the holly hunter tnt show 'saving grace' (i dvr'd it last night just to see him - and i did!). they kept me entertained when the festival traffic was slow — which was a lot more often than i expected!

trying to make the best of the longest day ever

ironically, the most interesting thing about working la pride this weekend had nothing to do with la pride. rather, the most interesting thing was the house fire that started next to our hotel while melissa and i were on our 3 hour break. while three hours may SEEM like a long break, consider that even with the break, we would still be working about 11 hours in the booth. chalk it up to a control thing, or the fact that nobody does it better than us, but 3 hours was the most i was comfortable being away form our little slab of pavement.

trouble in paradise

on the first day of pride we had spent our wonderfully relaxing break at the rooftop pool at our hotel. we ordered lunch pool side and lounged on chaises in our cabana. we had every intention of repeating that bliss on day 2, but drama found me again. our lunch had just arrived and we heard a nearby siren. then we saw the nearby smoke. nearby as in, within spitting distance...if you are a really phenomenal spitter. the house next to the hotel was on fire. for the sake of full disclosure, there was a very small apartment complex between us and the fire. two levels, probably 4-6 units. so the fire wasn't exactly RIGHT next to the hotel, but it was pretty darn close. certainly closer than i've ever been to a fire like that.

should we stay or should we go?

we weighed our options: hightail it out of there, or watch and take photos. as you might imagine, we opted for the latter. we went up to the tennis court (a ½ level higher than the pool) for a phenomenal view. we couldn't (and never did see) the actual house as there was so much foliage, but we sure saw the flames. after getting some good photos and facebooking all the while (what is it with kids these days? ooops.), we decided to check out the action at street level. they had blocked off the street to vehicle traffic, but not to pedestrians, so we were able to watch from right across the street. the trees still obscured the house itself, but we were able to see a completely burned out truck, and watch as the firefighters fought the flames from the rooftops of the next door school, and that apartment building i mentioned. the apartments had been evacuated and while on the roof, we could see the smoke coming through their windows. i don't know how you get that kind of smell out.

up close and personal

our three hour break was over before we knew it, and our dreams of relaxing poolside had given way to the voyeurs inside us. the flames were still going by the time we left, although they seemed to be under control. by the time we finished out the night , some five hours later, most of the emergency personnel had departed, leaving only a couple of police officers to guard the remains of the house.

heading back to work

when all was said and done, the most appropriate word for the weekend was exhausting. i'm not used to spending quite so much time on my feet, and in such a small space. my body was feeling pretty abused after this one. however, i am lucky and grateful to have had melissa's help again. even when our bodies are falling apart and our minds have left the building, we still manage to have a really good time whenever we have the opportunity to work together.