Rain on the Parade

I got up yesterday morning with a plan to hit the beach in Asbury Park, which happened to be the locale for the NJ Pride Parade & Festival, in hopes of saving my rapidly fading Jamaica tan. Plan was to hit the beach for prime sun hours and then hit the festival -- because, hello, Debbie Gibson was headlining. Yes, THE Debbie Gibson. So, I get up early, put on my bikini (which is looking pretty awesome thanks to this super-fun "Latin Cardio" class I've been taking), pack my beach bag, and await my ride (which is my friend Kelli, her teenage son & his girlfriend - apparently all my other friends had better things to do). The sun is shining. The heat is palpable. Looks like it will be a fantastic beach day. Sweet.

About a hour later my ride arrives (late), we hit the road and an hour after that drive into Asbury just in time for the first drops of rain to fall in the much cooler temperature -- it was above 80 leaving my house but was only 67 in Asbury. Yippee. Looks like the beach is not an option, at least not until the sun comes out, so off we go to the Pride Festival. Son (possibly bi) & girlfriend (definitely not), who both have more piercings than I do (and I have quite a few), split off from us as soon as we approached the festival grounds. Goddess forbid they should be seen with us loser grown-ups.

Anyway -- we hit the festival for which people were collecting a "suggested donation" of $10 per person to get in -- I'm sorry but I've never seen a "charge" for a festival before in my life. It kinda pissed me off. But whatever. We paid our "donation" and wandered around. It wasn't a very big event, but there were some cool vendors, and some great festival food (you know the kind, totally unhealthy but tasty as shit). I got a great "Love is Love" shirt (had to buy something -- I was wearing a tank dress and freezing my hoo-hoos off), and Kelli & I met a really nice lesbian couple when we were in line for fries. Apparently, Kelli and I make "such a cute couple." Except that she's totally not my type. If I were to have one that is.

After making our new friends, we found our way to the parade grounds and watched that for a little -- basically we got to see the Latina drag queens and Mr. and Ms. Leather NJ before the rain started in earnest. Since I don't really enjoy catching my death, and was already a tad cold, we decided to split (without seeing Ms. Gibson, unfortunately) and head to another beach nearby where there was actually places you could go inside. It was inside one such place that the bartender asked us about our bright orange paper bracelets (from our "donation") which read "Got Lube?" Again, it would seem Kelli & I were mistaken for a "cute couple." At which point Kelli told me I wasn't her type either -- apparently, given the choice, she'd prefer a girlier girl. ;) And I thought, holy shit, same here.

So...long story short -- I got up early and put on a bikini and a cute sundress to spend the day in the rain. Drinking Corona. And being mistaken for a lesbian. Sweet. Can't wait to see what next weekend brings.

P.S. I did not forget to tell the tale of Jamaica, I just don't have my camera with me and wanted to include pics (although I've yet to decide if the bikini pics will make the cut as requested by D-Bud).