oh, mama raised me well

august was pretty busy - geekfest and the punk rock flea market on the same day, akron pride at the end of the month (that we marched in!! i talked for three years about getting a group together and i finally committed to it this year!). lots of kitties and a NEW KITTY given to us by the cat distribution system

did something almost every weeken in august - punk rock flea market, porchrokr, pride. plus had some cool weather and a lot of blimp sightings lol

last weekend was pride! i kept meaning to post about it but kept forgetting lol. new season of destiny also dropped, so that was a distraction!

we went down to watch the parade with friends chris and sam - both of which this was their first pride. parade was fine, a lot of corpo garbage which is always somewhat grating even tho i know it's a complex thing. good to see employees and stuff showing up, but you know in your heart that business probably isn't as inclusive as it could be

ran into a handful of furries and gave them zines and ohiofurs biz cards. browsed a lot of vendor booths, ate some good food. spent a solid five or so hours wandering around until it started to get pretty hot with the sun directly over us between a bunch of concrete buildings. i miss when it was at hardesty park, but they outgrew that venue quick

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around 3 or 4, we went home and laid around for awhile. hund asked me if we were going to the furbowl in oakwood that evening and tony wasn't up for it, but he offered to grab me so i figured why the hell not. i hadn't been bowling in awhile

and the meet was nice! a newer local furry was running it and kind of put it together last minute. the alley seemed to like us, they came over and gave us glowstick bracelets and took photos, which is always nice to see. we had some younger/elementary-aged kids in the neighboring lanes come over and pester the fursuiters, but that was about the worst that happened

i got some bad, blurry, dark photos lol

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THIS WEEKEND we're going to cleveland to swim. a local trans group is rented out part of a beach for trans/gnc folks to come swim. we had a little cold snap this last week (high yesterday was in the 60s!!) so idk how warm lake erie is gonna be, but it's supposed to be almost 90F that day, so even if we just wade around a bit it'll be nice.

also planning on trying to hit up the cool curiosities shop in lakewood, too, as well as the queer thrift store nearby. i also have a bunch of stuff i've been holding on to to donate there, so this kills two birds with one stone haha

sunday is pathfinder (i think??? i also think i remember this week could be up in the air) and monday i'm off work for labor day and probably gonna go to the geauga county fair with my mom AND see about hitting up the area around camp whitewood (which i went to for an end of the year school trip in, like, 6th? grade??) - there's a little church near there that i've always wanted to go back and get pictures of. this is also the same camp i stepped on the sunfish in the lake at and it fucked half my trip up lol but not enough that it didn't leave good memories for me - i loved that we did a lot of rougher hiking and traversing the river around camp to go places. i caught A LOT of salamanders there lol

it's been very fun to do stuff with friends lately, even if i feel i need a couple more hours in the day to just lay in a dim room and decompress

Yesterday we marched in the Pride parade in Cleveland with the leather group we're a part of. It was really, really hot and the parade goes from downtown near Tower City to Voinovich Park by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's about a mile. A mile is not that far at all. A mile is extremely far in a staggered parade (we line up on a four lane street and then each lane goes one at a time to make the whole parade) in 90F weather in downtown Cleveland with no shade. Thankfully, that was probably the worst part of the day. I did manage to acquire sunscreen (because i was like herp derp i'll wear a tank top because it won't be too long and it's only a mile and i didn't think to consider zero shade and the super hot weather), so I only got burnt the places I forgot to put sunscreen, like around my neck and the collar of my shirt. Way to go, me. I think there might be a little on the back of my arms, too, but it's not awful.

Tony carried the transgender flag for our group, naturally, and I helped carry the fuckall huge leather flag.




Despite the heat and the sun and the lack of shade, the parade was really nice and it was really great to see Angel Action blocking the usual handful of protesters that always show up.

At the park, we hung out for about an hour and I got custard because that's the kind of thing you should eat on a ninety-something degree day. After a round or two around the park, we met back up with folks and let them know we were out for the afternoon, heading to the zoo, and we'd see them at the bar that evening.

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EDIT: OH MY GOD I LEFT A WHOLE BUNCH OF SHIT OUT

After Pride, we HEADED to the zoo, but first we stopped at the West Side Market, because it's on the way and, of course, we love the market. We were super said to find out that J&J Meats isn't making the chicken jerky EVER AGAIN. It was a sad moment. But we bought some of their regular jerky and the guy who helped me last time recognized me, so that was nice!

I also stopped at Cake Royale for, of course, macarons and freaking Bailey's irish cream cannoli. The had Nutella macarons and they were delicious.

After grabbing noms, we went over to Horizontal Books which, if you've never been, is amazing. They discount stuff according to how many items you purchase (50% off one, 60% off two, 70% off three). We ended up buying...

Dragon's Luck by Robert Asprin
Socks Appeal: 16 Fun & Funky Friends Sewn from Socks by Brenna Maloney
How to Save Your Tail*: *if you are a rat nabbed by cats who really like stories about magic spoons, wolves with snout-warts, big, hairy chimney trolls...and cookies, too. by Mary Hanson
Bad Girls: Sirens, Jezebels, Murderesses, Thieves & Other Female Villains by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple
The Year of the Beasts by Cecil Castellucci and Nate Powell
Repossessed by A. M. Jenkins

...as well as a Winter Soldier trade, some glow in the dark scratch paper, and a Scythian metalworking kit.

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THEN WE WENT TO THE ZOO

And we actually got to spend time walking around and doing stuff, cause we got there around 3PM, I think, maybe 2PM. But the zoo is open until 7PM in the summer, so we could check out all the exhibits and take our time. We haven't been to the zoo in, literally, years, so it was nice to do that. Other times, as well, we were always in a hurry to see things and then go somewhere else, but since we didn't have to be at the bar until 8PM or 9PM, it was nice to be able to take our time.

I took a lot of pics which I will stuff behind a cut...


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After the zoo, we still had an hour to blow and were hungry, so we decided to hit up the asian markets and drive by Koko Bakery and see if maybe possibly they were open (the last time i knew, they closed at 7pm). Much to our delight, Koko's was still open and we bought a whole bunch of buns and tasty things (like castella cake with lemon in it!) and sat and got off our feet for a little while before stopping over at Park to Shop and then heading out to the bar.

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The bar was mostly uneventful aside from the presence of Douchebag Who Isn't Allowed To Talk To Tony (which was the only negative) and Tony winning a t-shirt (which, of course, was a positive!). We hung around and helped sell raffle tickets and socialized before heading out early around midnight and making the long drive home to Kent.

It was a long, long day, but it wasn't nearly as grueling as I anticipated it to be, and that was nice.

ALSO BEFORE I FORGET AND AS A NOTE TO MYSELF TONY SUGGESTED DRAWING OUR NYC CHARACTERS A LA HUMANS OF NEW YORK AND I AM SO ON BOARD WITH DOING THAT YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW /HEAVY BREATHING