Flying over lake Michigan I saw the Chicago skyline for the first time in my life. My Mother was born here, and my grandfather was a career musician for the windy city, but for now the O'Hara airport and distant skyline is a beautiful reminder of my families history.
Being it is vacation, and being that Brenda and I have such a grand time together we took a quick stop one of the many "Cubs" sports bars in the airport and shared a toast to the week that is sure to unfold!!! This is history, only occurring once every four years, and being the first time ever in North America, World Pride is something neither one of us is totally prepared for.
Meeting people of Queerness from the Iran, North Sweden, Germany, France, Egypt, South Korea and so many more is going to be beautiful. That the 3.5 million people that will be frequenting the same concerts, human rights talks, and streets as us fills me with Joy. How do other countries fight their battles for equality? With so many fights finished, and so many ongoing the amount we can learn from one another is fills my bones with the electricity of the moments ahead. People change the world, and in about an hour Brenda and I will be sharing the same space.
It may seem foreign to some, and obvious to others that so many people would gather simply because they are not straight, but those of us who this exemplifies, it will be a place to breath just a little bit easier, laugh a little bit freeer and love a little bit easier.
Lets not forget it is going to be one heck of a party though! And one with stunning and interesting people from all over the world, I suddenly have Jack Whites new song, Lazarus sneaking into my mind "my bones are electric!
While approaching our landing Brenda and I started to inquire about what was planted in all of the cornfields below us. Also we noted that the fields were square and not circular. Now Brenda later told me that she thought this was bizarre considering that we were landing in the Gigantic city Toronto…. Or were we?
Kitchner…. um no, said the well dressed man beside us, Toronto is roughly an hour or two from Downtown Toronto… oh shit! After explaining in a voice that was easy to over hear, that Orbitz lead me to believe that we were landing in Toronto a nice man, whom we ended up getting to know very well later that evening, explained that the same thing happened to him so he rented a car…. Do you have room for two more??
Thank god he said yes, and for the next three hours we found ourselves driving through the quaint Toronto country side in driving down rain, praying that our cell phones would wake up so we would have access to a map that did not require crayons.
"Are you both drunk?" Yelled a woman whom we would later learn to be Princess through a bathroom stall in McDonalds. I suppose she was responding to me conversation through stall to Brenda. I laughed a little and eventually is came out that we were from America, were lost and desperately trying to get to World Pride. She and her friend squeed and offered to drive us to Toronto seeing as we were just about a half an hour out. You see we had driven right past it the driving rain and stopped because Brenda had a gut instinct that we had missed it. After parting ways in the parking lot she made us promise that we would knock back a couple of shots for her.
Our phones finally woke up and we rolled into the Eaton Chelsea roughly about 8pm. We quickly made it into the hotel bar, had a drink, a bite and I developed a phantasy crush with the Jazz singer who was performing; qawinkidink but it is also the Toronto Jazz Festival and I do believe Handy man is the most fantastically dirty song from the thirties:)
We wondered about a bit, landed in another bar for a night cap and are laying in bed excited for the day to come. The human rights convention starts bright and early; bright is not so much the issue as the early part!
General side notes: Canada has signs that read "Gentle Delays ahead" "Toronto Pride is everywhere" (That last one was huge on an overpass coming into the city). I didn't get hassled about my gender not matching my passport. The nice woman Kayla said the entire hotel was sold out, and that World Pride was the only thing of note going on in the city! The elephant and the castle bar
People of Note: The Jazz group was, (look up) in the Monarch Pub, Josh our driver, Charlie the concierge that could not ready a Google map(he had a dreamy accent though), Jim the Alaskan in Chicago,
 |
| Shortest Customs Line Ever!!!! |
 |
| Bumming a ride:) |
 |
| Not the busy Toronto Airport! |
No comments:
Post a Comment