"All Together Now" Seattle Pride In-Person Fall Event 2021

I was very happy to learn, a few weeks ago, that Seattle Pride had organized an in-person fall Pride event, after everything in June had been shifted back exclusively to virtual events for the second year in a row. The decision to make Seattle Pride 2021 all-virtual yet again had actually been made several months earlier, I believe before winter even ended, and that was back when we didn't even know what a huge impact the Delta variant would have—they just knew it wouldn't be quite as safe for a huge public gathering by the end of June, even considering the original strain of COVID-19. It was both deeply disappointing and totally understandable. The worst part of it, however, was knowing that, in the end of June when far more freedom of movement and gathering was allowed than had been the case in June 2020, probably a fraction of the people who had participated virtually in 2020 would again in 2021—and 2020 participation itself had already been a fraction of what it had been for in-person events in previous years. I still went out of my way to attend Virtual Pride this year as I could. I want Pride to succeed, whatever the method or form it takes. The Capitol Hill Pride Festival did attempt in-person events, of sorts, the weekend of Pride in June, although it ultimately was nothing more than just a few booths at Cal Anderson Park, with a sparsely attended stage on the south end of Bobby Morris Playfield. That might have been more successful, except for how we sort of dodged a climate bullet by canceling the Pride Parade and other crowded events this year: that weekend was the hottest Seattle had ever seen: Saturday June 26 we hit 97°, on that day an all-time high for the month of June; Sunday June 27, Pride Sunday, that June record was broken yet again with a high of 104°, easily the hottest Pride Sunday we've ever had. Even without COVID, had we had a normal Pride Parade, with hundreds of thousands in attendance, the heat alone would have been a dangerous situation. (Seattle hit our all-time high for any date of the year the next day, Monday June 28, with 108°.) Thus, it seemed clear that even with halfhearted attempts at in-person events that weekend, people largely stayed home due to both the virus and the weather. Enter fall 2021. As it happens, Capitol Hill Pride already had their own rescheduled fall event, over Labor Day Weekend. And, in spite of that organization's stupid racist controversy this year (and it should be noted they are distinct from the Seattle Pride organization, which organizes Seattle's official Pride events), I still would have gone to check it out had I had the chance—it was messy, but not everyone participating in Pride was aligned with the idiot organizers literally releasing public statements criticizing Black Pride for something that was truly none of their business. But, whatever, I didn't go anyway: I happened to have too many other plans that weekend, what with Gina's 50th birthday party in Olympia on Saturday and hanging out with Karen and Dave at their new property in Tulalip on Sunday. Thus, when I found out Seattle Pride was doing this "All Together Now" in-person fall Pride event on Saturday, October 9, I was all about it, and immediately marked my calendar. It was significantly scaled down from your typical outdoor Pride festivals that are supposed to happen the last Sunday of June, but it was better than nothing for sure. And it was in person! Also, I kind of loved that it was at Volunteer Park, giving it a bit of an old-school, retro feel, because the Pride Parade actually marched northward on Broadway on Capitol Hill to culminate in the Pride Festival at Volunteer Park for decades, until Pride was shifted downtown in 2006. In fact, Capitol Hill Pride was borne out of that, with Capitol Hill businesses pissed about Pride being taken out of their neighborhood (an unavoidable thing, as Broadway could no longer accommodate the crowds) and so they took their toys and went home: forming the Capitol Hill Pride Festival. And although CHPF has always existed based on petty motivations, over the years they have coexisted with Seattle Pride just fine, and I loved having events to go to on both Saturday and Sunday of Pride Weekend—and then even three, when the Trans Pride Seattle events began happening on Friday of Pride Weekend (this year being the first break they took from it; they did virtual last year but, for some reason, not this year). Surely they knew that a scaled down festival would be easy to fit at Volunteer Park this year, so it wasn't as big a deal to return to Pride roots in this manner. They still aren't done constructing the Volunteer Park Amphitheater replacement, the old one being where Pride Fest performances were done back in the day; I honestly thought it might have been done yesterday and this festival could be done from there. But, alas, that area was still blocked off by fencing, and there was merely a temporary stage constructed in the grasst lawn over by the Conservatory. It still worked just fine. The event was only scheduled from 3 to 7 p.m., starting with bingo being run from the stage for the first hour or so, and then three hours of musical performers. There were maybe eight or ten vendor booths set up—including PCC, a sponsor—and a few food trucks on the road that runs through the park, in addition to the stage. Oh, and a beer garden off to the left of the stage, which Shobhit and I did go into and buy a couple of cocktails. It was the only money I spent there, $22 or so. I thought I should spend at least something there, though; as I said, I want to support Seattle Pride however I can. Shobhit and I walked the mile or so there from home—nearly a mile and a half once we walked to the festival area of the park—and it was 3:30 when we arrived. It was just about 5:00 when we left, after we hung around for right around 90 minutes. That was ideal for this event, and it gave me ample time to get a full photo album on Flickr (34 shots total), and that was the main thing I was going for: this way my Seattle Pride 2021 collection includes three albums instead of just two, which was all it had until yesterday—specifically thanks to Trans Pride not happening this year. I haven't even had as few as 3 albums for Pride since 2014, although to be fair I got up to 4 in 2020 only on a technicality: I had included the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Random Hot Guys album from February 2020 in that collection just to keep that set going for my Pride collection for each year. No "random hot guys" album for 2021, however—first year without any since 2004, thanks to it being too hot in June, and thanks to it being too cold in October. At least it didn't pour down rain on us. It did drizzle a bit, but it was fine. Also, we stayed to watch a couple of the performers, and this lady named Cassandra Lewis was wonderful. Shobhit and I actually would have been out of there several minutes earlier than we were—we started heading out at 4:45—but then, we stopped at the "FREE COVID-19 VACCINATIONS" booth we had passed on the way in, on our way back out. Were they doing booster shots? They were! The rule, currently anyway, is that we should wait for a booster shot until six months after our second dose of the Pfizer shot. Shobhit had gotten his on April 11, which meant yesterday was two days short of six months. They checked the date on his vaccination card, and deemed it close enough. I asked if I was close enough too—my second dose in April had been on the 13th—and they decided it was as well. As it happened, I had already scheduled an appointment just yesterday for my booster, for Friday next week after work. I was rather glad to have it scheduled two full weeks before our trip to Las Vegas. Well, now I was getting it a week earlier even than that! I did ask the lady if it was better or worse for me to get it now than next week, and according to her it made no difference. I suppose it should be noted that she was not a doctor, but I still decided to take her word for it. My appointment next week included getting a flu shot, which they were not doing at this booth yesterday, so I still need to go in and do that. If I can't manage it before Friday then I guess I can just keep the appointment. It's at the Walgreens on Broadway and Pine so it's on my regular commute anyway. In any case, Shobhit and I were both rather excited that we could just get our boosters within minutes of approaching a booth at a Pride event. This was a far cry from the rigmarole we had to go through back in March and April to get our first and second shots, when demand was by far at its highest. (I added four of the photos from yesterday to that "Corona 2021: Vaccination" photo album, as I took a photo of Shobhit getting his shot, and had Shobhit take one of me getting mine. Many people were doing that back in the spring but I was a little more squeamish about the idea then than I am now.) I still had to look away from the needle, even as I have gotten more used to them over the past year and a half, and hyperventilated as usual. Mostly I was dreading the pain of the injection as my second dose in April had been painful. This one, though, I didn't even feel going in! "You're done already?" I asked the lady who had given me the shot. "My last one hurt and I didn't even feel that!" She was kind of just nonchalant when she replied, "Well I've done a lot of these." So what of side effects, then? So far so good! Not long after shobhit and I returned from Volunteer Park, Ivan and I walked downtown to the AMC Theater at Pacific Place to see an Icelandic film called Lamb—it was both very slow and fucking weird—and I did struggle to stay awake. I knew it wasn't the movie's fault, and for a while I wondered if it was the shot that was making me tired. Then I remembered sampling one of the CBD infused sparkling waters one of the Pride booths literally gave us a case of to take home, and I had drank about half a can before leaving. I'm convinced now that's what did it. That stuff was actually kind of gross, tasting more like hemp than like the "flavor." I think that case will last us a very long time. On the other hand, if I ever have difficulty sleeping, I feel like I can pretty easily rely on that stuff to solve the problem. For now, it's mostly just the soreness in my arm. I did feel kind of "off" physiologically speaking for a bit last night, in addition to getting drowsy, but it never amounted to much. My arm still has the adorable rainbow band-aid on it that they gave both Shobhit and me. I slept like a log last night and am feeling pretty well rested now, which is good because I want to be at full capacity for when Ivan and I take our Argosy Locks Cruise today. It's looking likely to rain on us for the duration, but that's okay. As Ivan said when I told him about it yesterday, "That's life!" Indeed it is, especially in Seattle in October. Besides, Argosy Cruises is now requiring proof of vaccination and my card now has three doses on it, and masks are required. I honestly think it will be fine. [posted 9:24 am]