Cutting Corners

Memorial Day 2005

[d1noli @ Saturday, June 04, 2005]

What an experience this couple of days turned out to be!  

This past weekend was the Memorial Day holiday. Observed on the last Monday in May, Memorial Day is the United States' commemoration of those in the armed forces that were killed in war. For a Filipino such as myself, however, this day has no other special meaning to me other than an extra day off. (I know I should probably be more 'patriotic' about all this specially since my brother is off fighting for this country. However, having no real history to root me to this land kinda makes it hard to do that.)

So, anyways, my weekend started off earlier than most folk as I took the Friday prior off. I really didn't do much and my day pretty much boiled down to playing online pictionary with a friend in the Philippines. (Ahhh! The beauty of the internet. You can actually hangout without hanging out.) When my partner came back in the afternoon, we spent the rest of the day running around doing errands. Most of these centered around the party we were going to hold on Sunday and by the time we had ended, it was close to 1 AM.

Saturday started off with a tremendous amount of cleaning. Being the neat freak that I am, there was no way I was going to present a messy home to our guests the next day. Under the circumstances, I would have cleaned on the morning of the event itself. However, I knew we would be coming home late that night so I had to do my chores now or else not have another opportunity to do so. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time noon rolled around. And that was just the beginning of the day!

By that afternoon, we had arrived in the city to partake of the International Mister Leather festivities. The event was being held in the downtown Hyatt just as it had been the year prior. (Yes, I actually attended the event last year too. It's a shock, I know.) Now, I'm not much into the whole leather scene but I do respect anyone who is a part of this culture. It's an interesting one to say the least and I always enjoy seeing a different world. Makes me embrace my belief of diversity and tolerance so much more.

Of course, we also had a MO for coming here. We were shopping for some leather! This was going to be the theme of our party, after all, and we weren't about to chicken out now specially knowing that some would go "all the way". Needless to say, we ended up spending about $200 worth of "toys" (snicker!). The only regret I had was that I didn't get that humongous strap-on bed that was on sale. NOT!

After that enlightening experience, we headed off to have some drinks and dinner at Crew. Then, from there, we headed off to The Eagle. Now, for those of you who do not know this place, let me just say that it's NOT a hangout for the weak of heart (specially during Leatherfest Weekend!). Still, a friend forced convinced me to do it and, to be honest, I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Surprisingly, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. It was just a bar with people who happened to like the leather culture. (Again, not my scene, but hey, I'm sure there are people out there who don't like my scene either. So it kinda balances out the karma in the world, right?) Anyways, the visit to The Eagle pretty much served as the nightcap before heading home.

Sunday was party day so we pretty much spent the morning preparing the food. We were going to have kabobs as a main entree so we had to skewer all the meat and vegetables. (Hehe! I said "meat".) We were also serving some white sangria to complement the meal and that called for chopping up an enormous amount of fruit. (Hehe! I said "fruit".) By the time we had gotten preparations done, it was almost 2 PM and our party started at 3! We, therefore, quickly got into our leather attire and readied ourselves for the first guests to arrive.

People slowly trickled in at first. However, by the time 5 PM rolled around, our house was pretty much full and the party had officially started. I cannot say this enough --- We are so lucky to have so many friends! Many of the people we invited could have easily said no since it was Memorial Day Weekend. Instead, they made a decision to spend the day with us (some even chose to stay ALL NIGHT). That's no small gesture in my book and for that I feel blessed.

Anyways, somewhere along the way, a guest had decided to make Cake Shots. This was a potent mixture of vanilla vodka, frangelico and a lemon wedge topped with sugar. All I can say is that, this drink HITS YOU if you're not paying attention to the alcohol content. So let's just say that by the end of the night, some people were "happy". (Too happy, if you ask me.) When you're feeling THAT good, playing a round of CLR and/or singing kareoke and/or getting spankalicious just seems all the more fun.

All-in-all, my partner and I had a great time hosting. The cleanup was a bitch afterwards but part of me knows it was all worth the effort. (It's still trying to convince the other part of me though!) We got a chance to welcome people into our home and celebrate the friendships we shared with them. It's events like these that make life worth living.

My Memorial Day Weekend started off with nary a pop and ended off with a big bang. The momentum of this whole weekend was both exciting and scary at the same time. It was kinda like International Mister Leather, to tell ya the truth. I think that's what made the leather theme of our party all the more appropriate. Getting to partake in a whole range of diverse experiences --- from lounging around doing nothing to scurrying about trying to be a good host --- was exactly what I needed to do. These memories I have gained are what Memorial Day is all about.