Boybutante 2009!

This was my first time ever going to Boybutante, a big HIV prevention fundraiser held in Athens, GA every year. It's kind of like a big drag show, but with some non-drag performers mixed in. And hella fun, of course.

I got some videos and photos... a couple good ones in there, but it's hard to take photos of people dancing in bad lighting! I'm proud of my little Canon Powershot! I've uploaded all the decent and semi-decent photos to MySpace, but I'm having some issues with the videos.

Mary Jane getting some money :). I met her cousin when I went to the mall to buy my outfit earlier today. Yesterday. Whatever. The girls at Charlotte Russe were awesome. They asked if I was going to buy accessories to go with the shirt I picked out, and I said "Well... if you can help me pick them out." And they did! I don't usually wear a whole lot of jewelery, etc, but they helped me pick out some nice shiny stuff.

Big pot of money. Some people were giving more than just ones apparently! Those of us up close to the stage took the job of rescuing all the money that went astray and making sure it ended up in the pot. We buried the hundred under the ones after I got this photo, haha.

Athens Mayor Heidi Davidson put in an appearance. I think she goes every year. Best mayor everrrr!!

I didn't get any better quality shots of these girls, but they were awesome. Effie's Club Follies.

And on that note . . . I'd better get to sleep so I wake up in time for lunch tomorrow! Mmm, I just remembered I had ChickFilA for lunch/breakfast today (at like... 2 pm) and it was soooo good. Goodnight!

Drag Show!

I took my camera with us to the drag show on Saturday. Usually I end up leaving it at home because I won't even carry a purse with me when we go out. For now, I'm a little addicted to taking my camera with me everywhere since I got used to having it on hand all the time in Italy.



I was so excited that I got this shot. Mary Jane Dube, the drag queen above, used this photo in a flyer for her latest show!

We brought some straight guys with us. For one of them, at least, he had never been to a drag show or even a gay bar before. He was nervous about it, but had his really nice camera with him and decided he would sit on the stairs of the stage in order to take better photos, haha. I think he was still pretty freaked out, but I guess he was willing to get up close for photographies sake.

The other guy with us sat on the stairs too, to stick close with his friends, and ended up getting danced on a lot by Mary Jane, haha.

Trans Man Mapping Project

I thought this was interesting: I just followed @TransGuys on Twitter (found through @Audaciaray), and on his website he has this map where trans guys can add themselves and see how they are all over the world. It's called the TransMan Mapping Project. So far, I only see one person who has added themselves for Athens, GA.

http://transguys.com/map/

Ears

Mel, Michal and I went to a concert tonight at Caledonia Lounge here in Athens . . . it was very loud. I feel a little bit like an old lady . . . or like I'm back in high school, because that's the type of thing my friends would want to go and see. Maybe I'm thinking of my first year of college? That feels so far away now, haha.

Anyway, I'm all about some acoustics. And Ludacris. "I killed so many men I sell rappers on Ebay!"

Gratuitous photo of cioccolata. It is my new goal to figure out how to make cioccolata calda, italian-style, out of american ingredients.

Ciao Mirko!

I made it to Athens, ahead of the tornadoes, but it was a bit scary! The sky got all gray and swirly above me while I was driving, just as they announced a tornado warning for the county I was driving through.

We ate dinner at Mirko tonight in Athens, which was nice. I miss Italian food, and hearing Italian all around me, and even hearing people speak English with Italian accents. So Mirko was awesome because they have good, real Italian food, and then Mirko the owner came over and talked to us in Italian. He loves us because we study Italian, and not many people around here speak any Italian.

He brought us some free cake, shipped from Milano. "Torta della nonna" and "a cake with lemon" is what he told us.

Also, I wore my new glasses.

Lucca, Italia

Lucca is a small town near Pisa, Italy, but with fewer tourists (I think) because it doesn't have the famous leaning tower of Pisa in it. I didn't actually go to Pisa, so I can't judge, but I absolutely loved Lucca.


Lucca is surrounded by a city wall, and you can rent a bike and cycle around the ramparts. It takes about 20 minutes to circle the old part of the city slower. The above photo is a grassy bit on top of the wall where I ate some pizza for lunch.


I got pizza from this small family-run place. The guy working there was really cute, but didn't speak English, which probably just made him seem even cuter to me, haha. I wanted to get my food to go, so I had to figure out how to explain that in Italian. It turned out to be pretty easy, haha.


It was a beautiful sunny day, but the wall has nice shady trees on it, so it was nice and cool for biking.


I left the city around 4 in the afternoon, to head to Cinque Terre. The light was just hitting the tops of these trees. I took this shot on the gound inside the old part of the city, looking up towards the walls. A few minutes later I walked through the wall to head to the train station, very much wishing I could stay.

Back from Italy!

Yay! I'm home from Italy, and I managed to sleep in until a decent hour, and I'm going to go and pick up my new glasses soon, and go to Athens tonight, and I can upload photos now! Whee!

Except for the 400 photos on a CD I left in Italy, along with half my gifts for people, lol. But they're going to mail that to me. But I'll get them all in the end, so I'm excited about that! It's so typical of me to leave the most important stuff behind, haha.

I have so many good stories from my last couple of days.

I hiked all day with an Australian on Monday. I met these two lovely people from Uruguay on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday I went back to Milan and had a lovely time just hanging out in a park, and playing catch with a Frisbee. I had a great chat with this English couple on the train to Milan as well.

Yesterday I spent most of the day traveling home, but I sat next to a woman who is a designer for one of the top fashion houses in Milan and met the US east coast competitive pizza team in the customs line. The guy who came 4th in the world for freestyle pizza toss showed me a video of his award winning performance on his buddy's digital camera, lol, which was pretty awesome.

Then, when I got to the airport, I randomly ran into Juliana at customs, on her way home from Dubai. Then I found a confused Danish couple, and played tour guide through the airport and helped them find their bags and car rental.

Right now I'm uploading photos to facebook. I have sooo many amazing sunset photos. I have to shower now, pick up my contacts and glasses, and then go to the doctor, so I'll have to write up all of my stories sometime later. I want to remember all the great people I met.