muckefuck | Bear Pride 2005 Mid-Stream Report

What I've done so far:

Met exciting new people! There's the Yugoslav CPA/Tibetologist who lives in Vienna and until recently (bear club drama is universal!) was treasurer for the local group that was so hospitable to Nuphy and me on our trip, the trilingual Norwego-Germano-Texan historian who attracted our attention with his "Spreebaeren" t-shirt, the soft-spoken Sicilian with the State Dept. being sent to Southwestern Asia, the drop-dead Alabaman who was able to taunt me for being too slow, and more others than I can remember right now.
Earned thrown beads! Perhaps "earned" is too strong a word. I was on the patio at Bucks for the Boxer Party, I saw men with beads on the second-floor balcony, and gesticulated crazily until a very pretty black queen flung a golden strand down to me. Oddly, all the boys up there seemed to be deaf--they were signing to each other and "shouting" to friends down below. One of them was a Polish man so lovely it made we reconsider whether I should learn some ASL.
Traded in my schoolgirl crush on danlmarmot for a schoolboy crush on cpratt! Both very, very cute men, but cpratt has the sexier voice. I fell in love with Dan's lj icon over a year ago, but in person he ends up--through absolutely no fault of his own--reminding me of a co-worker who I also think is handsomer than hell but with whom I have such a thoroughly fraternal relationship at this point that it's difficult to imagine doing the nasty. Chris is just one step away from being too acerbic in his humour for me and sharpness is attractive. (So is anyone, honestly, who doesn't think I talk too much.)
Crashed an A-list party! Unfortunately, this ended up reminding me why I shouldn't go to A-list parties. However, as the day worn on, I figured out that all the people I most wanted to see were going to be there and not at the Double Door. Plus, it was right in my neighbourhood, so I let myself get dragged along with aadroma and nytemarewulf. It reached its apotheosis when I was talking to an artist friend and we overheard a guy behind us say to another in a conversational manner, "Is that a cum stain?" "Kind of an odd way to make small talk," I commented and my friend said, "I was just thinking the same thing!"
Got chatted up by someone I thought was blowing me off! Last year, I went up and tried to talk to the extremely cute bear that I'd gotten photographed with at Gay Pride the year before and gotten a disappointingly cool reception. He had taken up a strategic position at the corner of the bar and it was difficult to avoid him when ordering drinks. After the second trip, someone I don't remember seeing ever before said--in a friendly way, if you can imagine--"Are you ignoring my boyfriend?" "I was trying to," I replied. Then he started recounting how I'd "rushed across the street" that day two years ago to meet his hubby, leaving me gape-mouthed until the latter begin recounting scatological ER stories that his other half was too squeamish for.