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ATL Pride Part III: The Lobby

I may not be able to give this entry justice, but I will try.

The Lobby is the funnest place to hang out at Pride. Personally, I make it a destination for two reasons:

1) I need to be in a place where I can see folks, see what's going on, post a few books on a table, and in general, promote the novel while relaxing somewhat.

2) I be tired.

Atlanta had a nice lobby, but it wasn't as on and poppin' as the lobby in DC was. Although the ATL lobby had drinks.

Highlights from The Lobby:

Larry. Well, that's not his real name, but he was this really entertaining and cool dude who lived in the Dominican Republic. He was working every last hat he had on. He reminded me of other sassy dudes I knew, but he was still very unique and fun to be around.

Pineapple Cake Martinis. Oh. My. God. Fred treated me and Callis to martinis one night. We were gonna have apple martinis, then the bartender convinced us to try his Pineapple Cake martinis. They tasted JUST LIKE PINEAPPLE UNSIDE DOWN CAKE!!!! (Did I blog about this already?) They were so good -- and I finished the whole thing! I so rarely finish an entire drink. I was proud.

The Que Who Read Me. So I see this Que (member of Omega Psi Phi) in the lobby on the first day, and being all Pan-Hellenic and shit, I say "Nice shirt." He says "Thanks!" then he walks a little bit, stops, turns and says "Whatchu know about this shirt?"

And I say "Nothing really; I've got a different one at home."

And this man says "Oh...sounds like YOU MADE A MISTAKE! HAHAHAHA!"

My face was cracked and on the ground. LOL. He was cool as fuck though. I like Ques.

Ass. So apparently, the thing to do is to have your pants slung so low that your entire ass is out. And boxer briefs are in. So all weekend, all I see is bubble butts covered by cotton. No mind you, this was hella nice to look at, because black ass is a beautiful thing. But it didn't make any sense to me. Why wear pants at all if they're going to be so low that your entire ass is out? And....how in the hell did these guys keep their pants up? I mean they PERFECTLY rode just below the apple bottom.

I don't get it. I enjoyed looking, but please believe that if I had a man, I for damn sure wouldn't let him out the house like that.

Youngins. Although it was hella scary to know that so many of the folks there were 18-19 (and some were undoubtedly younger) it was good to see that they, too, were reveling in their Pride. You know, thank God for Ellen. Thank God for Michael K. Williams on The Wire. God bless Karamo. I'm just so thankful that the youth can be confident in who they are in safe environments.

Speaking of which, Callis and I met a young man who was all of 19. He had gold fronts and Callis asked him about them. From there, somehow he got to talking about what he was doing with his life, his achievements in high school, how he planned to go to school for nursing -- he was really fucking inspiring. I am like dude, I wouldn't have gone to a Pride at 19. Just wasn't ready. Had no gay friends. But here lil youngin is -- doing the damn thing. I was so moved by his story and his courage that I went ahead and gave him a book. I mean hell, they mine to give, lol. I needed to reach a younger audience anyway, but more than promotion or possible positive opinions sent my way, I just really wanted to show this dude that hey, you can be like Adrian. Or Savion. Or better than them. He was really appreciative of the gesture and said he'd start reading it that night. I may never see dude again, but I'm so proud of him.

Shenanigans. So me, Callis, and Fred are hanging out in the lobby. (What else is new?) Issam (at that point) had gone to hang out with some doctor he knew from Ohio. (That guy was mad cool, too. It's really amazing how diverse the gay black community really is. But I digress.)

So we are joined by this dude....I shouldn't say who he is. I really shouldn't be telling this story, but it's too funny not to.

So dude is talking to Fred...exclusively. Like, he BARELY acknowledges us. It's painfully obvious that he is really only talking to Fred, even though Fred is trying to include us in the conversation. So Callis and I are like whatever, fuck that.

So Callis writes me a note on a flyer after "dude" says something....Callis writes "Excuses" (something that is relevant to Greeks) and I smile. Then, a few minutes later, Callis writes on the flyer something like "You like how your boy (and he drew an arrow) is totally ignoring us." And I was like yeah, that's messed up, but whatever.

Our dumb asses didn't tear up the flyer.

So like TEN MINUTES go by, and finally dude is like "What's this?" and picks up the flyer. So I am like SHIT! We done wrote about that man on the flyer! So Callis sorta snatches the flyer and puts it down on the table, then puts his index finger on it and says "Yeah, so um, THIS is a flyer for Omicron Epsilon Pi Sorority...." and tries to slide the flier back toward us with his finger.

I was laughing at this point, but not obviously.

So Callis is trying to downplay the flier, and dude is like "Well is there a website?" and me and Callis are like "Naw, no website." LOL

Then dude TAKES the flyer and looks at the back, and Callis SNATCHES it back and is like yeah, nothing to see here. LOLOL.....he tries to crumple up the flier. At this point I think Fred says something like "I think he just wants to see the phone number on the flyer." And I can tell Fred is somewhat annoyed because I am clearly laughing and Callis is acting crazy, though I am trying to hide my face in my palms.

So Callis pretends to hear somebody calling him from across the lobby and runs off with the flyer.

Dude was annoyed. Fred was confused. I was convulsing with stifled laughter. Then the good doctor returns and is all smiling and doesn't understand why everybody has these different looks on their faces.

I hope I have conveyed how utterly hilarious the whole scene was. Callis ended up coming back with a little teeny tiny piece of paper from the flyer that had a phone number on it in case Dude wanted it, LOLOL.

I still laugh out loud every time I think about that.

Mens. Keeping it real here -- the men were hot. And mostly respectable. And many were from DC. So now I have a reason to start going back to the clubs -- I was impressed.

That's all I can think of. The Lobby was the hot spot...always was, always will be.

Posted by Rashid on September 7, 2005 8:15 PM

Comments

Commented by Frederick Smith on September 7, 2005 10:01 PM

Commented by kristal on September 7, 2005 10:58 PM

Commented by darion on September 9, 2005 1:31 AM

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