cheerfulAndy and I drove up midday on Friday;
word to the wise: take 580 and head out through Tracy / Stockton if you want to get to Reno on a Friday The new Martinez Bridge construction plus the usual clot at Cordelia made for an extra 2 hours on our trip. It took an hour to go the 10 miles from Concord to the bridge toll plaza!
Got there in plenty of time to drop off music go be in the Out of Town show. With the help of Madame Steele and Crown Princess Siobhan, I had a blast singing Peel Me a Grape.
From there we went over to the 1099 club ("the Nine"), where I finally met Emperor Jules from Vancouver, BC (we'd traded messages on the Impchat mailing list, because it was his first trip into the US for a coronation and he wanted to make some connections early). We taught the bartenders how to make Vespers (aka James Bond martinis).
Saw lots of old friends (among them Trixie, Tish Crab, and of course Jackie Best and Rosie Rotten). Also made some new ones, among them James, Jim and Jodi (yum!) from the HSRA (High Sierra Rodeo Assocation).
Saturday we slept in, folded coronation trifolds, and ICP Allen and I made an excursion to a local party store. I found inflatable fish, plus some Finding Nemo fish balloons, dolphin balloons, whale balloons and some irridescent circular transparent balloons that looked like bubbles. We were thus set for our big "in theme" walk (Reno's theme was "Atlantis Discovered").
Got down to the ballroom just as the doors opened to stake out our table (we have a new easier to pack centerpiece item, a giant translucent color-changing illuminated plastic ice cube. Rachael arrived and I finally got to see the magnificent charcoal and grey coat that Allen made for her. The traditional distribution of butterflies and cookies commenced through the course of the first act.
Then it was time to walk (Jack E and Jackie Best kept the protocol ROLLING, and we barely had time to change before our walk). I wore Water and Allen attached a spectacular 30' rainbow flag train to Rachael's coat. We used the Simpsons version of "Under the Sea" to set the tone before we walked and had lots of steel drum music as we were announced. After our Imperial Family walked, Andy came out first and plunked down our floating fish and bubbles, and the rest of us emerged through the sea creatures. We were definitely a hit, and Rachael and I were stopped many times for photos afterwards. (We'll have some on the IRLM website later.)
After the crowning (before 11pm!) was the Vegas party. I knew this year I wouldn't be able to dodge the "Dam water", so I'd kept my drinking very light at the ball (though to keep up appearances, I had my stainless martini glass full of icewater most of the night ;-) ). Sure enough, I had to cope with 2 shots of the vile stuff, except they made it wrong and it actually tasted good.
Sunday morning at brunch we found that all our efforts had been well received, we received the "Best Entrance in Theme" prize!
Andy and I stopped by the Alaska party on our way out of town, but since we had a long drive ahead of us, we begged off of tasting their trademark "bird water", which resembles nothing more in taste and color than Windex.
Stopped in Historic Auburn for a late lunch. Discovered that almost every kitchen in Historic Auburn closes at 4pm sharp. Fortunately, "Z'Pie", a specialty pot pie cafe, had just moved up its Sunday dinner hour from 5:30 to 4, so we had a lovely meal and headed home. Stopped to visit with Wander in Pleasanton, and finally got home about 9:30. Conked out on the spot...
Updates about SF Pride next.