What did you do this weekend?

Friday night I went to 'A club called Rhonda' event in SF. These events are marketed as queer events. They get queer DJs and set up wherever they are to be extra gay. In this case the headliner was Derrick Carter, but honestly I mostly wanted to go because the club called Rhonda that this place refers to was a famous set of circuit parties and this is some way to carry on the legacy and have an obviously queer space to dance to some good EDM. This was by far the gayest party I've been to in years - the last time I was in a place with so many queers was 2019 for honey soundsystem (a group of gay DJs). It. Was. Glorious. Even in SF, the norm is at best for maybe a quarter of the club to be queer of some flavor and probably only a quarter of them visibly flagging. Sometimes you have to spot the gays by their colored hair or general vibe. Not here. There was a beautiful person with some amazing makeup dressed as some kind of gender-bending alien. A drag queen wearing nothing but panties and a clearly visible bulge. Plenty of harnessed men. Women in camo pants, a tank top, and a beanie. Any kind of queer you can think of was at this party and it was wonderful. I felt so much as home. Unfortunately one of the girls I went with ended up tripping too hard, puked, and had to go chill out in the car - with no ins and outs we ended up leaving early for how long they were going, but relatively late for a normal club outing (~3am).

We got home and crashed, slept for a few hours and were up again at 7 or 8 (thanks sun). We had RSVPd for another party during that day that we had to be there before 3pm and we started joking a bunch about how we're totally going to go, despite how exhausted we were. After joking enough, having a bunch of coffee and adderall to wake up, come noon time the joking turned more into a 'hey lets get ready and just go though' because one of the headliners recently came out as trans and we wanted to show support. We rallied and ended up going to the show and I'm incredibly greatful that the dynamic we had going on allowed for this to happen - the right amount of joking, egging each other on, being supportive, etc. At the daytime event we ended up getting in for free instead of the $10 cover charge listed on the ticket (was it because they thought we were cute? that they noticed we were trans? I don't know but I'm glad either way). We grabbed some food and spend the first few hours mostly vibing, eating, and not dancing a ton. There were a few booths set up and I bought a pair of killer sunglasses for $15, my partner bought some vinyl art and a beanie for like $10 (beanie thrown in for free because the owner took a liking to her), and my partner's partner got a jacket for $22. Some real steals. Flash forward to later on and we show some support for the headliner/recently out DJ, but are kind of dragging/exhausted at the time.

At some point during the set a girl named Kayla sat down next to me and my partner. I had sat down to give my shoulder a rest and my partner was just in general not feeling very energetic. Kayla told us that she was upset to see two beautiful people just hanging out on a bench and not dancing and then grabbed us and dragged us out to the dance floor right in front of the DJ. This gesture was enough to get us motivated and energetic again, and we had a blast dancing. During the set I smiled and interacted a bit with a few other people and ended up chatting with a nice boy named Erik who used to live in SF but recently moved to Germany. When the set was over we let the DJ know we really enjoyed the set, I complimented her on her nail polish, and we got ready to go to the after party (apparently entry to this got us free entry to the after party). We offered Kayla a ride.

On the way to the after party Kayla decided to flash some dudes partying at their car blasting some bass music getting ready for a different party and we started to understand how much of a party girl she is. We had a bit of a conversation on the way there, in the car, and parked in front of the next venue. Apparently she painted the bathroom at the place we just arrived at. She was quite enamored with my partner and her tits, and kept wanting to compare hers. Maybe she just wanted to look at them out of a bra? Who knows. She asked a few questions about being trans as she clearly didn't know anyone who was, but was really sweet about it. She offered us some drugs and we gave her some of ours and prepared to go into the next party.

When we got inside we found ourselves upstairs pretty soon because that's where the gay DJ was. We found Erik upstairs and had some more conversation and were happy to see the room fill up with more queers. At some point I noticed the DJ from earlier (worthy) had made her way upstairs and I said hello and struck up some small talk. She was nice enough to offer us some drink tickets and we got a drink and had some conversation downstairs next to another booth selling some clothing. My partner's partner picked up this amazing dress there. Worthy went off to find her friend and we made our way back upstairs. At some point worthy returned and introduced us to lillit, a newly out pre-trans person and we had a few conversations about transitioning and continued to dance. Maybe an hour later worthy asked if we wanted to go to another party and we all figured why not, grabbed our stuff and left.

I was sober at this point so I drove us all to another club sometime around 1230 or 1am. I've been to this club plenty of times before but as soon as I pulled up it was clear this place was both packed and hopping. We had trouble finding a place to park so worthy called up someone at the club and they directed us to hop the curb and park somewhere. We were immediately given special wristbands and whisked right to the greenroom with the artists. We grabbed some waters, made some small talk and she left the room and came back a bit later and brought us all onstage with Channel Tres. Wow! Can't say I've ever been on stage at an event big enough that the crowd is a good 20' from the stage behind metal barriers. We spent a bit of time there then left to meet up with some of her friends at a table next to the DJ at a second stage. Turns out some of her friends are local and live nearby and also trans so I got their info and we're trying to plan a day to come hang out, hot tub and do dinner maybe. We stuck around until the club closed down at 2 and made our way home and collapsed.

After such an amazing weekend I'm feeling beyond blessed. Just a few weeks ago I was also able to spend a night with a fav DJ of mine, Kristina Sky and she treated us to conversation all night after her set and a VIP table and drinks. It was a surreal experience and something that I thought wouldn't ever happen again, and yet here I am about to maybe be friends with another big name act. I absolutely adore how down to earth everyone in EDM seems to be and the more time I spend in the industry as an observer the more I consider the idea of ditching my day job to spin music as well even if it's not as financially viable simply because I feel so much more happy and at home in this kind of environment. I guess I don't have to make any decisions anytime soon but it's causing a lot of self-reflection.

My rescue chihuahuas mix puppy Jean passed 9/10 of the items on the Canine Good Citizen test! She would have to get all ten to get the certification, but considering she’s only 9 months old, she did amazing! The only item she did not pass was passing another dog she hadn’t met before (which is easily the hardest item on the test). We’ll keep working on that, and we’ll retest again in a few months. In the meantime, she’s doing well enough that I’m ready to start training agility more seriously with her alongside my older dog.

Puppy tax: https://postimg.cc/gallery/xMgGJWf