Don Iago's Den of Arrogance

After Pride we went to a pre-Prowl party hosted by KiraTiger, the guy who kind of ghosted my room at FCL. This may have been the closest I came to a real low point during the weekend. Nocturne kind of ditched me to talk with other people, I didn't really know anyone else there other than Ashy and Drac, and it was crowded and warm and left me very much contempating showing myself the way out...complicated not only by the fact that Nocturne was my ride but by the inevitable conflict it would cause if I did bolt. Thankfully, things picked up once Nocturne remembered I existed (JFC I hate how this is making me sound codependent on him), but perhaps mostly because this hot young barely-21 year old started chatting me up literally five seconds after I put my Snap Jaw on. In all fairness, I did tell him, when he asked whether I was in college(!) that that had been "half a lifetime ago", but I'm not sure he quite did the math. Oh well, more hot young guy for me! I don't know that things would have gone anywhere, and maybe that's for the best.
To my surprise Kira approached me and apologized for the weirdness at FCL. I was so taken aback by it that I later asked Nocturne whether he'd put Kira up to it, and he claimed ignorance. Kira professed an interest in keeping in touch, though I messaged him recently to lt him know how much I appreciated his approaching me and I've not heard back, so we'll see if that's borne out by reality.
But yeah, I think this was probably the worst part of the weekend otherwise. Just really not my scene despite the good interactions, and I don't think introducing me to his friends is exactly one of Nocturne's strong suits.

In any event, after that we went to my first Prowl. Between lots of people and loud music I wasn't exactly thrilled about this either, but it actually turned out to be kind of fun, though definitely loud...and bassy! They had a pro photographer there, so Noc and I got pics twice, though never just by ourselves. We also danced, mostly by ourselves but sometimes with Ashy and Drac, and it was kind of more swaying and cuddling than dancing per se, and it was...it was nice to feel people wanted me in that way.
To my surprise Noc himself got tired of the dancing before very long; he said he was overheating due to his wetsuit, which seems entirely likely, but I was amused that I had more endurance. Happily, Prowl also had a lower-key area, so we hungout in there for awhile before heading home. I got to see Brash for a bit too, and he was very nice, talking about how I was a good guy. I kind of think he wants Noc and I to become a couple, heh.

We got back to Noc's place at 3am (ow), and to my concerned shock Ashy and Drac headed home right afterward. I wouldn't have minded some wolf-cuddles myself, but before I'd even gotten out of my spandex Noc was crashed out. Boo. :p

Sunday we had to wake up a bit early because Novar was picking us up for our trip to Boston...except our trip to Boston was also a trip to Dover, NH and then to Worcester, MA, which took us hours out of our way. By the time we got to Ikea we barely had time to enjoy it, because Novar had forgotten that Microcenter closed earlier on Sundays, so I 'saw' an Ikea in record time, which was fairly disappointing. Then we went to Microcenter, and I couldn't think of a damn thing I wanted there. We met two other furries there, but there was barely intros and they didn't join us afterward, so the whole thing felt pretty superfluous.
The best part of the evening was probably going out to dinner with Novar and Dark and Noc. We found a place that had good burgers, and amusingly enough "Ghostbusters" was on TV at the same time. It was nice to just chill with people instead of feeling like we were on a (stupid) quest. We did also go to Mike's Pastries, and riding the T was kinda fun, so...yeah, I didn't really get the kind of whacky adventure I was hoping for that day, but at least I got something.

We got back to Noc's place around 11, and he helped me 'field-test' my new suit. That was a whole lotta fun, and I got a shit-ton of photos out of it, both solo and with him. Well, typically he was the one taking them because I was all suited up and at times also tied up. ;)

Monday I drove home, getting to take a couple of pauses to enjoy the scenery in the mountains.

I'm so, so glad I went to see him.

So, tomorrow I'm off to Portland, having slightly misapprehended my weekend situation. It was gnawing at me too, because I was pretty sure Nocturne lived near Portland, but he definitely said we were going to Manchester Pride.
Nope, I'm driving to Portland and then on Saturday we'll be backtracking to Manchester. :p Well, alright.
I'm thinking I might try a different route this time, at least on the way home, because doing the all-highway approach on the way home from FCL almost got dangerously tedious.

Last night John told me that Casey's been dragging his feet on the PTO thing -and- wants to try to do a big trip later this year and that John's exasperated to the point of wanting to tell Casey to plan it himself. That was a bit awkward, and I half-jokingly suggested John come to Jersey with me and leave Casey at home. Which...I'd totally go for, but I'm not sure just how many divorce points something like that would incur for them.

The person who runs my work area's engagement committee said that my boss's boss's boss mentioned me as possibly being a good fit for said committee. I find this kind of hilarious myself, very in keeping with my penchant for either talking too much or not talking at all. I warned her about this, and made sure to suggest that I have a role that doesn't involve the actual execution of events.

The weather's thankfully much better now, 67F currently, 30 degrees lower than it was on Monday and Tuesday. When I left for the office this morning my appartment hadn't quite normalized; hopefully it will be nice when I get home.

Still waiting for Nocturne to let me know plans for Manchester Pride. It's still over a week away, so I'm not exactly worried, but I'd like to nail it down one way or another. I'll be a bit disappointed if I can't see him, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Going to call Amanda on Saturday. She said there's a lot going on, so I guess I'll find out what when we talk.

Aster was kind of a dick about Pride after I tried to talk to him about People's Pride, so waiting for him to make the next move now, not that he has any real shot at me. I'd just like to see how serious he really is. It's simultaneously unbelievable and entirely believable to me that he'd go all, "I just wish there weren't so many kinksters and naked people there..." Dude, have you even attended one?

Literally just today started talking with a leatherworker who makes awesome gear that I'd like to order from, and who it turns out is entirely up for RP as well. In a word? Woof.

Got into a scene on Taps a couple of nights ago that was surprisingly hot. I'm not sure there's anything more likely there than just fun, but it was a lot of fun and I hope I'll see him around again.

Get to leave work early today for the holiday, most likely, and then have tomorrow off. Serendipitously, I guess, my periodontist was able to schedule me to come in tomorrow for a quick X-ray for the part of my mouth that they didn't work on before.

Went to my first-ever People's Pride on Saturday, which was kind of like normal Pride if you stripped away the corporate sponsorship and pushed it about two notches to the left for social activism, so at times it felt more rally than Pride...which I'm totally onboard for. It actually felt a bit more 'authentic' than the normal Pride, and certainly less busy and arguably overwhelming.
While getting dressed up for it I put my spandex on only to find I couldn't get the zipper on my right side to move at all. This was particularly irritating because a) I was running late, and b) I soon realized I wasn't going to be able to get a proper look at it without taking off the suit I'd just started putting on (it's not really a fun process for me). Even after getting out of it I couldn't budge the zipper, which sucked, but at least the spandex wasn't 'required'; I just ended up showing more skin than I'd intended. But after getting the suit off I started to feel the same kind of panicky I've felt when trying to put my paws on, and I needed to stand in front of my A/C for a few seconds to cool off and try to relax, which...sucked.
The event itself was a decent time though. I met a bunch of new to me (and significantly younger, but cool to engage with) furries and got some compliments on my get-up and, as I said, it felt more 'real' than the usual Pride.
One of the bigger downsides besides my evident spandex failure (but I got the zipper working again the next morning, yay!) was that because a good chunk of it was a rally before City Hall, I ended up in suit for over an hour with the sun beaming down on my head in humid weather coupled with a low air quality warning. Not the smartest thing I've ever done, but I didn't realize it was going to be like that. Getting out of my head afterward was quite the relief.
Oh, and predictably on my way back to the parking garage someone yelled "Faggot!" at me from the safety of their car. Because of course that happened.

Nocturne's apparently serious about inviting me to Manchester (NH) Pride, which really is basically at the end of the month. I'm not really pleased by the idea of either driving down there the day of and jumping right into Pride, or trying to drive home right afterward, so I'm kind of hoping he'll be onboard with letting me crash over two nights. If he's not, I'll have some difficult decisionmaking to do. I've already requested the Friday off work, in any case.

Aster and I got into a bit of a to-do about Pride, with him saying, "sicne the whole purpose of the Pride parade should be to show everyone that anyone and everything can be gay and just people like everyone else..and not walk the streets naked in harness and pup hood, or full BDSM gear straight out of their sex dungeon". I don't know whether he's ever even been to a Pride, but that's exactly the kind of nonsense conservatives spout, and it was very off-putting. I wouldn't have even heard from him if I hadn't messaged him, and now I'm kind of wishing I hadn't.

Told mom about my anxiety issues with my costume, and she sounded intrigued by it, though she didn't have anything to offer me in terms of advice or such, not that I expected any.

Got my follow-up periodontist appointment this week. The bottom feels fine to me; the top, less so, but recovering. Hopefully this will be uneventful.

The front-bottom of my mouth basically feels like normal again.

The front-top of my mouth doesn't basically feel like normal again, but at least it's getting there. I just wish it would hurry up.

Zack finished up the cuddly art of Nocturne and I, and I think it looks lovely, and I hope Nocturne will agree. I sorta-kinda have four arts now: the final piece, a 'Prideified' version, a SFW version, and a silly one where Siph is doing some extreme yoga.

I ordered a new laptop, mostly because the one I have is five years old, though it's still doing everything I need it to do. I ordered a new portable SSD to go along with it, which should make backups faster. Not really a big deal, but it will help.

The Criterion Collection is realizing a huge boxed set of Wes Anderson's first ten films. My poor wallet. :|

My car inspection went without incident, which was nice.

Out of nowhere, Aster messaged me. He's single again, which has certainly piqued my curiosity, but I don't exactly trust him to give me an honest answer if I asked...though I intend to ask anyway. He went from zero to 'I've always loved you and I want you to collar me' in about ten seconds, which was just crazy, and made me wonder whether he even believes the things he says...or perhaps he's just in some crazy-ass rebound. I...also wonder whether he said the same thing to ten other guys.

Hung out with Toast on Church St. on Monday. It was...alright. He really does tend to talk too much, and often not exactly about anything I find interesting, and I feel as though he's not exactly engaging with me and may not realize he's not engaging with me. Possibly neurodivergent? He certainly didn't seem to take much of a personal interest in me.

People's Pride is next weekend. I expressed some interest in going in the DMZ chat, only to have it emerge that Thrall had asked previously (though not, AFAICR, in the DMZ). So I asked him whether he had any sort of plan, and it doesn't seem like he does (he basically put me on hold and I haven't heard anything definitive since). In the meantime, several furs expressed interest in going, so I really don't want to elbow Thrall out of the way, but he should probaby say something or I'll poke him. Also, if he tries to gatekeep the event, I will fucking lose it.

In mid-July my office is relocating back into downtown. I wish I could get more excited about that, but I'm so annoyed that I have to go in at all, when all of my teammates are hundreds of miles away, that the fact of my needing to go into the office kind of dwarfs the matter of where it's located. Though I may try taking the bus again, which could be either cool or seriously annoying.

Since I'm now in the office 1.5 days a week, maybe I can do some posting here during my lunch-breaks again.

I'm watching "Avatar" (not the one with the Smurfs) and enjoying it a fair amount.

Did I mention I've been editing a furry-adjacent book series for Joaquin Baldwin? If not, there's that. It's probably one of the achievements I'm most proud of in my life. Considering I went to college for Writing, getting to edit professionally is great. Amusingly enough, it's likely to take me roughly as long to edit the series as it took me to get through college (ideally). :p

I've been exploring new things for myself for the past few years, and that's been a lot of fun, though I don't get to do it as often as I'd like.

Yesterday I reestablished contact with Harke, a guy from the Viro days. I don't have a strong opinion of him yet, but the couple of messages we've exchanged were enjoyable.

I should probably get back to work now. Went out on the nature path near the office and that chewed up a good 30 minutes.

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Cross-posting test...

Based off a list on EW. The totals of the first 4 categories should be 25.

! = Recommend it! (7)
+ = Seen it. (1)
= = Heard of it. (13)
? = What's that? (4)
* = Wishlisted (3)

= Doctor Who
! Buffy the Vampire Slayer
! Arrested Development
= MST3K
= The X-Files
= The Wire
= It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
! Star Trek: The Next Generation
? The Comeback
! My So-Called Life
! Lost
! Firefly
= Twin Peaks
= Veronica Mars
= Battlestar Galactica
= Community*
! Undeclared
= Fringe
? Wonder Showzen*
+ Supernatural (disclaimer - very new to it)
= Popular
? Party Down*
= Farscape
? Better Off Ted
= Archer
= Pushing Daisies