Ok, lets see if I can still remember everything!
Flying in wasn’t too bad, did hit a few bumps in the air and we arrived early but ended up waiting anyways to get into the gate, luggage made it through relatively unscaved, at least it didn’t get lost!
Thursday was relatively quite, I just went and bought some fast food before turning in for the night. Friday morning turned out to be cold and rainy day but I made it over to the the Today Show before 7am wearing my favorite blue outfit. I did get whistled at on my walk over by someone on the other side of the street, but I just kept walking along, hehe. Was only a couple other people who made it to the Today Show, but we sorta lost out getting any coverage because of them finding that murdered girl, and standing on the wrong side. Someone from the show did come out and take pictures of everyone in line of which I picked up after the show was over at 10am (and I needed to get warm!) I did some walking around the NBC store and then walked back to the hotel for a HOT bath as I was thoroughly chilled.
I changed into my black glitter dot slinky dress and headed over to Applebees for lunch (yeah I know, I’m all the way in New York and I choose Applebees) after which I headed down to the fabric district to look for some fabric, one lady commented on my outfit, she really liked it. And talk about fabric, yowza, rolls and rolls of fabric, all kinds of colors, patterns and what not, talk about overkill! On the walk back to the hotel some guy walking past me asked where my necklace was at. I played dumb but I’m assuming he was talking about a gay pride necklace. Maybe it was my purse that offended him, but I thought it was silly since he was carrying a purse like object under his arms, ignorant people are like that I guess. I went afterwards to dinner and before leaving the owner said she liked my outfit, I talked with her for a good ten minutes about what it was all about and what I was in town for, great chat overall.
Saturday was better weather (Yippie!) I dressed again in my favorite blue outfit, I could have been more subtle, but I said, what the heck? Fifteen minute walk to the bus stop, (I could have taken another bus or subway, but I was going to be early as it was) There was a good group of people already at the Guggenheim Museum when I arrived and was great to meet a lot of the people I knew online in person. The march was fantastic, it really made me proud to be in there fighting for fashion freedom, fact is, I even had a tear in my eye thinking about it. Down at the Met it was pretty cool having everyone there just chatting away, the exhibit was ok I guess, I think it lacked in some things, but other things were good and in depth. After the tour I headed back to the hotel to freshen up and out to get something to eat before meeting up again at Union Square. Oh what a mess that was! Subway ride down was fine, but then the other train to get over there was broke down so I hoofed part of it and bussed the rest, but I wasn’t too late I guess and overall that was a good place to be talking to others about who and what we are. I must have had at least five ladies comment on my legs, and three more that wanted them that day, sorry ladies, I’m still using them! I made it back to my hotel in time to pick up my skate bag and head over to Rockefeller Center and get in a 1/2 hour of skating before dinner. Rockefeller was ok, ice was torn up a lot already and there must have been a good 50+ people on the ice. Price isn’t too bad, $11 for about 3 hours of ice, but definitely a tourist attraction as rental skates cost $6! I had a little girl come up and say that her friend asked her to ask me if I was gay (oh yeah, standard question, lol) I asked her if she was gay for wearing pants, she said no. She then asked if I was married of which I told her I wasn’t and that she was a bit young for me, hehe. But overall I was able to have a bit of fun, did get a couple jumps in and even some spins, fell down doing my 1/2 lutz however, but nothing serious. Had some great chats however, and not all about my clothing either!
After skating I headed over to the bus stop to get to the restaurant, talk about a packed house! I changed into my more fancy blue outfit, even though it wasn’t a fancy dinner meeting, but again, what the heck? Talking to everyone again was great, being able to just sit, listen in and chat was great fun. The speakers were great also, I know people were hoping it wouldn’t be too dry! I know I had a couple claps in my speech, and boy did I make a mess with some of it, teach me for not writing everything out! What was a hoot was that I won a kilt in the raffle drawing, boy did that make a lot of people happy! Afterwards I went back to the hotel only to find I missed the 11pm news in which we supposedly did get some coverage on.
Sunday was another horrid day, 20 degrees out and 30mph winds or more! (Alas I wore pants this day) I didn’t make it far anywhere that day, but did walk through times square, (it’s not really square! LOL) and took the subway to the World Trade Center site, very humble experience. I tried to find a place to eat before leaving the hotel to no avail, just not that many places open early in the morning, so I ended up going back to the hotel and checking out. I did find a place on the way to get something to eat before heading to the airport. Departure went along just fine, no hangups or anything, and again we arrived early to the gate but ended up waiting for the luggage to arrive!
All in all it was a great trip, course the press did a mess of a job reporting it, anyone who saw the headline of 100 men in New York wanting to wear a skirt, that was us, as for the one in the tutu, well, that was me, even though it wasn’t a tutu! But boy did the media make a mess of it, don’t think they bothered to do much research before sending it off. Guess there is always next time, and next time we’ll just have to make sure they do a better job!
Steven