The One With the Depression and the Non-Oppression
Depression
So this past weekend I was quite depressed. My favorite weekend for the past 5 years has been the weekend that Rutgers hosts RutgersFest, Cook College's Ag/Field Day, and the New Jersey Folk Festival. I guess I love it mostly because all during college, it signified the end of the school year, the beginning of summer, and was pretty much just a really fun time! And this year, my friends were having a party at their house after, and I really, really wanted to go.
But alas, I have entered the real world. School is crazy- I'm in two grad programs at the same time- and work as a teacher is way more work than as an aide... no offense to any aides out there. I mean, I know I did important work before, but my day ended at 2:30 and that was that. Now, I'm like constantly working on things.
Anyway, I decided, I'll be darned if I'm going to stay inside all weekend and let school and work totally take over my life! I'm going to the city! And on Sunday Kelly and I decided to go into Philly for a tasty meal and some tastier drinks.
Non-Oppression
I picked Kelly up at her house and we headed to the PATCO high speedline station. We bought our tickets and walked up to the platform. Then, after standing around for awhile, I whispered to Kel, "Do you notice anything... different about everyone up here?" To which she looked around and said, "Uh, yeah." And then a short stocky woman with short spiked hair walked by, and she said, "Ohhhhh yeahhhh..." It seemed we were the only non-butch women up there! And even so... we were with each other...
So we get on the train, and there are even more butch women. And some kind of femme guys. And one chick is wearing a shirt that says "Vaginas Are..." but then we couldn't see the rest of it. I said to Kel, "Oh there has got to be something going on. And come to think of it, I remember Chris (my token gay friend) saying he was going to be down here this weekend. I'll call when we get there and ask him."
The train stops, and we walk up the stairs behind some girl whose jeans say "She loves me, she loves me not" on the butt pocket, and I take out my phone, and just as I'm dialing Chris' number, we look down Market Street and there is a HUGE rainbow balloon arch. "Oh yeah," says Kel. "There is definitely something going on." I leave a message on Chris' cell phone to the effect of, "Chris, is there a function in the city this weekend? There are butch lesbians everywhere I look!" and we are on our merry way down Market St.
We start seeing signs for "Equality Forum" everywhere, and about halfway down Market, Chris calls back and says, "Butch lesbians everywhere, huh?" "YES! EVERYWHERE!!" And he just laughs and tells me what's going down. At some point, I saw a vendor for funnel cake and I screamed, "Funnel Cake!!" and Chris goes, "Yeah, it's rainbow." I thought he was serious, and got even more excited, but he was just kidding about that.
So I hang up with Chris, and we're continuing down the street, and Kelly is walking in front of me a little, but doesnt know where we're going, so she yells back to me, "STRAIGHT?!" And she immediately clamps her hand over her mouth, because she realizes she has just screamed "straight" down a street full of gay people. It was mad funny!
And then, our trek ended at Cuba Libre where I had an amazing watermelon mojito and something else called a Sunburn, and landed myself nearly under the table had it not been for the food coming.
Now that's a Sunday afternoon...
So this past weekend I was quite depressed. My favorite weekend for the past 5 years has been the weekend that Rutgers hosts RutgersFest, Cook College's Ag/Field Day, and the New Jersey Folk Festival. I guess I love it mostly because all during college, it signified the end of the school year, the beginning of summer, and was pretty much just a really fun time! And this year, my friends were having a party at their house after, and I really, really wanted to go.
But alas, I have entered the real world. School is crazy- I'm in two grad programs at the same time- and work as a teacher is way more work than as an aide... no offense to any aides out there. I mean, I know I did important work before, but my day ended at 2:30 and that was that. Now, I'm like constantly working on things.
Anyway, I decided, I'll be darned if I'm going to stay inside all weekend and let school and work totally take over my life! I'm going to the city! And on Sunday Kelly and I decided to go into Philly for a tasty meal and some tastier drinks.
Non-Oppression
I picked Kelly up at her house and we headed to the PATCO high speedline station. We bought our tickets and walked up to the platform. Then, after standing around for awhile, I whispered to Kel, "Do you notice anything... different about everyone up here?" To which she looked around and said, "Uh, yeah." And then a short stocky woman with short spiked hair walked by, and she said, "Ohhhhh yeahhhh..." It seemed we were the only non-butch women up there! And even so... we were with each other...
So we get on the train, and there are even more butch women. And some kind of femme guys. And one chick is wearing a shirt that says "Vaginas Are..." but then we couldn't see the rest of it. I said to Kel, "Oh there has got to be something going on. And come to think of it, I remember Chris (my token gay friend) saying he was going to be down here this weekend. I'll call when we get there and ask him."
The train stops, and we walk up the stairs behind some girl whose jeans say "She loves me, she loves me not" on the butt pocket, and I take out my phone, and just as I'm dialing Chris' number, we look down Market Street and there is a HUGE rainbow balloon arch. "Oh yeah," says Kel. "There is definitely something going on." I leave a message on Chris' cell phone to the effect of, "Chris, is there a function in the city this weekend? There are butch lesbians everywhere I look!" and we are on our merry way down Market St.
We start seeing signs for "Equality Forum" everywhere, and about halfway down Market, Chris calls back and says, "Butch lesbians everywhere, huh?" "YES! EVERYWHERE!!" And he just laughs and tells me what's going down. At some point, I saw a vendor for funnel cake and I screamed, "Funnel Cake!!" and Chris goes, "Yeah, it's rainbow." I thought he was serious, and got even more excited, but he was just kidding about that.
So I hang up with Chris, and we're continuing down the street, and Kelly is walking in front of me a little, but doesnt know where we're going, so she yells back to me, "STRAIGHT?!" And she immediately clamps her hand over her mouth, because she realizes she has just screamed "straight" down a street full of gay people. It was mad funny!
And then, our trek ended at Cuba Libre where I had an amazing watermelon mojito and something else called a Sunburn, and landed myself nearly under the table had it not been for the food coming.
Now that's a Sunday afternoon...
posted by Jess at 11:01 PM
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