PHILLY OUTFEST: ALWAYS A BLAST!

Holy crap!  7:30 am leaving time for Philly Outfest.  Too early for me.  I have been running on empty for a while now but must keep trudging along.  I have til mid November before events wind down for a few months. So flying along I 95, I arrive in the streets of Philadelphia.  I love this city but on this day it looked terribly dirty.  Trashier than I imagined.  It was an absolutely beautiful morning though.  And it got even better because the first person I spotted was my ATB Boi!!!   For those of you that don't know, there are various people who have joined forces with the ditc gang along the way and ATB is one of them.  Her real name is Amy and when we met at Michigan Womyn's Fest a few years ago, she began doing all the tattoos for us.  We began to call her Amy Tattoo Boi, which turned into ATB, hence ATB BOI. Redundant, but necessary in life.  Nonetheless, the name has stuck and she is referred to everywhere as ATB.  And she is fucking amazing.  So, she was my helper for the day and we have so much fun together.  And let me tell you, the snrkowitz's were out in the morning.  You will start to understand my lingo and language as you read my blogs.  But you have to keep up with it or you will be like, what? 

So anyway, as I go to park the car, I return to see ATB fighting with some homeless dude.  Apparently the one thing we left out from under the canopy was my black suitcase carrying all of my hangers in it.  Well, homeless dude decided that the suitcase was his find and was trying claim it for himself.  This resulted in a suitcase tug-of-war between homeless dude and ATB Boi.  Fucking hilarious!  This is what I return to upon parking the car.  I basically break up the argument and send Mr. Homeless dude on his way.  Good beginning of the day.  It continued throughout the morning with more and more snrkos coming up to the booth until the crowd began to thicken with real live Outfest attendees.  The other piece of good news about the day was that my friends at RIOT GRRRL INK were a few booths away.  My props to Gina and Angie, they are the bomb and they give away free shit!  They are the largest Queer Record Label in the country.  So Philly outfest was a great success!  We talked to so many people all day long.  I love it because the youth come out and support the festival and everyone is so cheery and happy.  Even the protesters were under control this year.  Usually they are a royal pain in the ass but this year, they were just walking around and giving out flyers.  There was one really hot protester girl giving out a flyer that said "I used to be gay" and I wanted to be like, "want to be gay again..." but there was no time for that.  I got to see my very close friend Nathan and his adorable boyfriend Kevin, a treat I get every year at Outfest.  Nearing the end of the day, we chilled with the Sisterspace crowd that camped out in our lounge chairs.  It was great to talk to Carly, Becca, Beth, Jordan, Abney(I call her Cagney), and the rest of the folks accompanying those girls. 

Another highlight of the day was Joan, my favorite customer of the day.  She was a girl that had worn the same "Gap" sweatshirt for the last 10 years of her life.  Her friends had been encouraging a clothing makeover for Joan, but Joan was resistant to change as other dykes are in this world.  I am sure you know a few.  Anyway, being the Dennis the Menace that I am, i was giving Joan a hard time.  She finally came back and bought a new dykesinthecity blue/orange hoodie.  I know it was a step in the right direction for Joan.  I was happy to hear from her later that day on my e-mail.  She had gone home and begun to wear her new hoodie in the 80 degree weather and the "Gap" sweatshirt would be retired for all eternity.  Kudos Joan... hope you get some new phone numbers out of the deal!    Many enjoyable people flocked to the Philly Outfest and I encourage all people in the area to go in future years.

    After every Philly Outfest, I always go to my favorite Philly restaurant "El Vez."  Parking is a bitch after fest, so I encouraged a cop giving me the look of death to remove her cop car from a spot so I can park.  I felt super good about myself for making a po-po scoot for my Silver Bullet Mini Van and couldn't stop talking about it through dinner.  This place has the best Guacamole in the whole fucking world.  ATB Boi, her girlfriend Leah, and I indulged like never before.  It was like I had never eaten.  Full and feeling good about our meal, I go to leave and find a damn parking ticket on my car.  BASTARDS!!!!  A ticket on a Sunday. I still don't understand it.  Oh well, I still felt too good to even care.  Back home to Baltimore in preparation for one of my favorite weeks in P-town, Women's Week!!!!  This craft fair where dykesinthecity will be selling is at the Unitarian Church this coming Friday and Saturday.  Please visit our booth!