Tailgating. Friends. Laughter. Rivalry.Saturday began as the usual routine. Plants, coffee, Luvy Duvy's, friends, catching up on a weeks worth of gossip. Pure homo heaven. A quick trip to Macy's for shoes. (Got none, bastards are getting rid of all their brands so the selection has went down the toilet!) Shot to Gordman's to get a Mizzou t-shirt and 5 more pair of flip-flops. (GREAT clearance sale) Then back home to finish up MIZZOU bracelets for our friends. I have become quite "crafty" in the past few months.
Off to Brian's loft for a pre-tailgate party. Fabulous time. Good food. Lots of people I have not seen since my stint in "rehab" as they called it. A general good feeling. From Brian's loft we began our treck to the Edward Jone's Dome for the Mizzou-Illini rivalry.
I had forgotten how much fun it is to tailgate. Football is like a disease. It gets in your blood. It is intensified by those that you surround yourself with and the atmosphere in which it breathes. Football takes on a life of its own. The trek from the loft to the dome was a good natured, boy watching, ribbing the ILLINI fans stroll. Met a Tom Cruise look a like. (the early years-Taps, Top Gun-before he had his teeth capped and straightened!) Ran into a few old friends. Made a few dozen more new ones!
As the picture above reflects. It was a GREAT day weather wise. Everyone in good spirits. And this was just 4:00! It was still 3.5 hours to kick-off. From this tailgate of ILLINI fans we trekked through the parking lot of a mere 2-3 thousand people tailgating! PURE HEAVEN. Passing out beads. High fiving random MIZZOU fans. Booing ILLINI fans. General Good TIME!!
As the picture above reflects. It was a GREAT day weather wise. Everyone in good spirits. And this was just 4:00! It was still 3.5 hours to kick-off. From this tailgate of ILLINI fans we trekked through the parking lot of a mere 2-3 thousand people tailgating! PURE HEAVEN. Passing out beads. High fiving random MIZZOU fans. Booing ILLINI fans. General Good TIME!!Now, Joe was a virgin to the whole tailgating experience. As was Quentin. I am quite sure they were shocked at the joy of football fans coming together. It is a very "straight" experience and culture. But, boy oh boy, do the straighties love the HOMOS! Homo's have no boundaries. Homos are, usually, not embarassed or shocked with any question or situation. And Homo's have the unique ability to befriend straight men and women in our quest to conquer the world! Saturday was NO exception to the rule.
We finished our trek through tail-gate land and settled into Geri and Tom's tailgate group. This group is HARD CORE tailgater's! They do it for every Rams game. They have not missed a tailgate since the Rams have been in St. Louis. The cool thing about this tailgate was seeing all the "guys" dressed in their orange and blue and black and gold shirts! 
The ribbing was non-stop. We were all one community in celebration of the game of football. Ok. Maybe not football, just a good time and the experience of meeting some GREAT people! I met the cutest two sisters! (Yes, the one does look like Chelsea off Days of our Lives!) We played a very interesting trivia game. These "youngsters" were unfamiliar with Valerie Bertenilli as "Barbara" from "One day at a time" but knew her as some "old" actress that lost weight via Jenny Craig! FOUL! They did not know the three main characters on "three's company" but remembered it was that "old" show with the gay guy who played a straight dad on a show where he died from a rip in his heart! I will give them their props though. They could name all the Brady kids but were at a loss as to who "took a three hour tour" and landed on an island where they built huts and could build anything with a coconut! Cute kids! I stress the word KIDS!
The ribbing was non-stop. We were all one community in celebration of the game of football. Ok. Maybe not football, just a good time and the experience of meeting some GREAT people! I met the cutest two sisters! (Yes, the one does look like Chelsea off Days of our Lives!) We played a very interesting trivia game. These "youngsters" were unfamiliar with Valerie Bertenilli as "Barbara" from "One day at a time" but knew her as some "old" actress that lost weight via Jenny Craig! FOUL! They did not know the three main characters on "three's company" but remembered it was that "old" show with the gay guy who played a straight dad on a show where he died from a rip in his heart! I will give them their props though. They could name all the Brady kids but were at a loss as to who "took a three hour tour" and landed on an island where they built huts and could build anything with a coconut! Cute kids! I stress the word KIDS!
As with any good party. It had to come to an end. It amazes me the trust our new friends bestowed upon us. We were left with the task of cleaning up! Gathering coolers! Securing everyones belongings! And were told to stay and eat and drink as much as we want! AS IF! Okay, we stayed and drank a little longer and took a six pack for the trek back to our car!
My age was starting to show. It was now 8:00 pm and all I longed for was the comfort of the couch! Joe and I headed home. Ordered a pizza and were in bed by 10pm. We still didn't know who won the game when our head hit the pillow! Oh! I forgot to mention that we had to SNEAK into our house! There was a house warming party going on next door and there was NO way we were going to make it to Matt and Lauren's house! So we sneaky freaked our way into our house!
This is just day one of the extended weekend. Sunday is the GAY rodeo! It should prove to be an interesting day! Goats in panties. Boys on studs. Clowns in barrells! Till then!
GO MIZZOU! WE WHOOPED THAT ILLINI ASS!!!
2 comments:
A virgins point of view:
The day started out with excitement, but mostly nerves were attacking me from all directions. All I could think about was being in a crowd of thousands of drunk straight people. Brian's pre-tailgate party was a great way to start the day. I was comfortable in the surroundings, met a few new people, ate some Mexican and started on the beers.
Tattoos, OH YES, we started to put MIZZOU tattoos on our bodies, beads around our necks, and signs to show our Spirit of the game.
We headed out. The excitement in the air was like a contagious fever in the air and was honestly hard not to catch. BUT the nerves I think were stronger than the fever. At least for me.
We ended up at a ILL mobile home, HARD CORE DRUNK STRAIGHT PEOPLE, Strongly apposed to MIZZOU fans. I was told that I had to take my beads off to enter the trailer, were they serious? Not sure! SCEERED ME!
I had a guy tell me he would show me his penis and jack it off for some beads. AGAIN, was he serious, was he only testing me to see if I was a fag? Do I allow myself to get out of my safety bubble?
Well Rodney took over and told him he had to show 4 inches to 1 strand, and at least 8 inches to get 2 strands, never the less it didn't happen, but why can't I have that self confidence within my self to be myself and not care?
Maybe because I was tormented and teased EVERYDAY of my life from Kindergarten thru the day I Graduated. How can a person let that much teasing go by, adn it not afect him? Will I ever have the confidence the security within myself to JUST BE ME, and not care what others think. I am a strong gay man, but once around straight people, I loose all comfortability, and become closed within myself. What do you talk about with "them"? It scares me to death.
Anyway, we ended up at a group of tailgaters, and Rodney dived right in and ended up in the middle of the group with all eyes and focus on him, again how can he do that? It amazes me the self confidence he has, the undeniable attitude of "fuck them if they don't like it". Your amazing to me Rodney.
I sat back with Quentin in the back ground and we watched, we chatted little, but mostly just watched. I thought about just diving next to him, but by that time it was like fish in a tank, feeding time, and Rodney was the food, they were just all around him, no room for me, Honestly I was scared of being bitten, lol
The crowd was amazing, the buzz in the air was so loud it was hard to hear at times, but it was fun, exciting, and new to me. I have realized now that I am still uncomfortable in my own skin, that I am not secure and proud of the person I am, enough teasing in man's life can truly affect a person for the rest of jis life, I now see that it has effected me (long term), otherwise I wouldn't allow "straighties" to make me feel like hiding. I am a strong man, how can this me????
SO I promise myself right here and right now that the next time I will just dive right in for myself.
Here's to my friends and my husband for holding my hand and leading me through this experience. I LOST MY VIRGINITY yesterday! I think it felt good! :)
Here's to that!
Love and Kicks,
Joe
There are so many times that seem so strange to me. The crowd on Saturday was one of those times. The day was great. The differences of everyone makes the whole experience worthwhile. What I most enjoyed was the fact that our little group is so comfortable with each other that we all can go and do without worrying about hurting each others feelings.
Let me explain: the day started off at Brian's, great food, good friends and the best location since it was so close to the Dome. Once the group started moving out, some left and some stayed behind to clean up with the, "Go ahead, we will meet up with you guys." attitude. So we moved to the Illini tailgate and boy were Rodger's friends shocked to see him in a Tiger T-shirt. HA! We claimed another one.
Once that little party wore off of us, and after we got a little more "FREE" booze we moved on.
This is the point of my story. People went different places and we meet back up at the game. That is what it is all about. People are allowed to have fun and move at their own pace. So Yo-Yo, this is for you. You move at your pace and set your own scale for progress. Don't judge what you should or should not do based upon others. You take control of what YOU need to face and face it on YOUR TIME TABLE.
I had a great time on Saturday and I went to bed saying that exact thing to my partner. It was fun seeing people I have not seen in a long time and it was nice seeing my friends out of their bathing suits. Oh laugh at that, that was funny.
Later, folks.
BOSS
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