Kicking things off*

Well the day was eternal, but at last I got to leave for Augusta. I skipped my lunch hour so I could leave work at 4:30, which allowed me to miss the traffic hell near my office. I went through the house, set the cats up, loaded the rest of the stuff, and was on the road by 5:30. I made pretty good time, but stopped briefly for dinner outside Columbia. Nothing fancy, just a Subway sandwich. Fast food is really limited if you're not going to eat meat, or fried fish. I figured I was going to indulge this weekend anyway, and should put a few more veggies in the tank first anyway.

I got to Augusta about 8:30. I was pretty tired after the long drive, and not sleeping well for the last couple of days. After a brief collapse though, I went out to find Russ, and to get registered for the run. A brief trip around the place failed to unearth Russ, who I figured was holed up with somebody doing something. I did find a couple of people Russ had told me to look for, who got me hooked up with the folks in charge, and signed in. After that, I got showered and dressed. After a cigarette, I felt almost human. I went out to decide what to do. I ended up meeting the guys in the room next to mine, who were pretty nice, and they invited me to walk over to the bar next door with them. I figured Russ had to be there. The bar has recently opened, and they were having a "drink and drown" party for the Knights. The deal was that you paid $7.50 and got all you could drink for three hours. I was wondering how they could make money on that, until I went up to try to get signed up. The lesbian working the bar was incredibly slow. But she was nice, and we all got signed up eventually. Fortunately we were there before the wave came in, so I could scoot to the bar in between times that the guys that came later needed drinks. There was a line for the bar through the middle of the small bar for a good portion of the night.

The guys that I walked over with ended up being touch-screen slots junkies. What they were really interested in doing was playing that. So I moseyed over and found a seat. The only barstool that was available was between two guys who were nice enough, but were kind of on the flip side of cool, if you know what I mean. Fortunately, the music was so loud you couldn't hear thunder in the bar anyway, so we didn't talk much. But no one came over to talk to me either. I was remembering really well why I hate bars so much. There were obviously other people from the run there, but no one I knew, and I didn't really feel like I could just walk up to someone and start screaming in their ear. There was no dancing. At leather runs, the "cult of masculinity" rules are fairly inviolate.

So I sat there and smoked and drank. After a couple of drinks (I'd had a refresher in my room before I got there too), I was thinking that I should probably switch off for a bit. Then they started the karaoke. I love karaoke, but haven't sung in public since my surgery. Fortunately, I was tipsy and bored enough it really didn't seem to matter; and no one was really paying attention anyway. The first guy that sang was so bad that I figured I could sound better than him anyway. So I got up and did my song, "Cleopatara, Queen of Denial" by Pam Tillis. It went pretty well, I thought, and no one was really paying that much attention anyway. After that, I got a Coke and sat back down. Another guy started singing was pretty good, although he had obviously received choral training, and was trying to sing a pop song like a choral arrangement. Still, it seemed to go over.

By this point, I was feeling pretty tore down, and had been thinking I needed to leave anyway. Then the bad guy from before started singing, and that pretty much clinched it for me. I was glad the bar was right next door to the hotel.

I wandered next door and did a bit of a tour. I ran into Richard, of Richard and Tommy, whom I know from River's Edge. I was really glad to see him! After hanging out with him for a bit, I finally found Russ, who was holding court with some others in front of their room. I found out Lady D was here this weekend! I was really glad about that dax was with her, but sadly gypsy had just had surgery last week, and couldn't come. Billy wasn't here yet, Russ said. I sat and talked to them for a while, but between the alchohol, the drive, the poor sleep, and the late hour, I was pretty much done in. I got to bed about 1am.