SF Pride 2010

It's been almost a week since SF Pride and I think I'm just recovering now. Wow, what a fun and fantastic time. For the first time since we've been writing for them, Curve magazine had a float in the San Francisco Pride parade. I was so excited when I got the call. Did I want to ride on the float? Are you kidding me? I wouldn't miss it!

But before Sunday and the parade began, I had a lot of other partying to get through. I arrived in SF Friday morning. I spend the afternoon with my friends, before heading over to the Olivia/Curve comedy night show with Dana Goldberg, Julie Goldman, Sandra Valls and Gina Yashere. I ran into many friends from past Olivia trips and laughed my little a** off. Then it was off to Tease to dance the night away. Perhaps I should have started pacing myself earlier.

I had to be up early the next morning to join my friends over in Delores Park because I was helping out on stage at the Dyke March. My good friend Retts is stage manager and I volunteered to help out with stage crew. From noon until 7pm or so, we hustled ladies and dykes on and off the stage. Drummers and poets and politicians and singers and drag kings. What a lot of fun! I got to say hi to old friend Alix Dobkin and meet one of my butch Role Models, Phranc. The only bummer is we were wrapping things up at the stage and I missed the beginning of the march. The Dykes on Bikes. You know how Dipstick loves the Dykes on Bikes.

After a quick dinner and outfit change, it was time to head out for more dancing with Curve and Olivia. This time over at the Olivia headquarters where I got to hang out with new friends: Mikey from The Real L Word and Top Chef Josie. But the big thrill of the night was when a tall woman came up to me and said, "Hi, I'm Sheri Sam." As in, Sheri Sam, the amazing WNBA star. If there's one thing Dipstick likes better than Dykes on Bikes, it's women's basketball. What an amazing day this was turning out to be.

Lord knows what time it was by the time I got home to bed. And we had to meet at some corner at 10:15 am for the float. When I finally found the corner, I found the Curve ladies frantically gluing tissue paper and glitter to the Curve float. I grabbed a staple gun and got right to work.

I love coming down to San Francisco for Curve events, because I get to meet other Curve contributors, like the amazing photographer Cheryl Mazak and blogger Queerie Bradshaw. And of course, any time I get to hang out with Curve publisher Franco Stevens, it's a good day. Once the float was together, we relaxed a bit, practiced our butchest parade wave and watched all the beautiful people stroll by.

After about two hours of waiting, finally it was our turn! Our big cupcake float pulled out onto the street and the crowds were deafening. Our onboard DJ spun some old school Michael Jackson and of course, Pussy Cat Dolls. I waved and blew bubbles and looked for people I knew in the crowd while the ground crew handed out magazines to the crowd. The sun was out. We were happy and gay. And too quickly, it was over.

I headed back to my hotel room to rest up, because, no, oh no, there was still much more partying to be done. Met some new friends for Happy Hour, old friends for dinner and then we all went to see Red Hot Blues Sisters play in a small club downtown.

I stayed in San Francisco an extra day. I planned on spending some time hanging out and seeing the city. Instead, I got a late check-out from my hotel, met a friend for lunch and took the shuttle to the airport.

You can see why it took me so long to recover. I'm not as young as I once was. But still, Pride in San Francisco never gets old.