Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my Parade....

This Saturday is the Capitol Gay Pride Parade in Washington DC.  It will be 14 years since I went to my first one.  Let's review.

1998: Went with Ag, Carl and Harley (and older couple we knew from Headquarters), and two other guys my age that were friends with them that I didn't know so well: Arnie and Jeff.
1999: Went with Ag, Amie (on her only trip) and Johnnie (on his first).  Didn't actually get to the Parade, as I had car trouble on the way down, had to be towed back to Waynesboro and then we drove down in Ag's car. Made it in time for the Pride Festival (which in those days immediately followed the Parade.  Now it's the next day).
2000: Went with Ag, Johnnie (again) and his friend Paul.
2001: Went with Ag, Johnnie (his last time), Jen (a girl I worked with at Borders), two guys we knew from Deer Park Randy and Brian.  Met my friend Mark down there and he hung with us.  Also met a college girl named Kendra on the metro.  She was by herself and we kind of adopted her and she hung out with us the whole day.
2002: Went with Ag, met Mark down there and he hung with us again.
2003: Did not go, because I was in the wedding of Mr. And Mrs. A Local Celebrity, Mr. David ParisPeking.
2004: Went with Ag.  Spent the weekend down there in a hotel right on DuPont Circle cause Saturday was the Parade, Sunday day was the Festival and Sunday night was a Madonna concert that Ag and I had tickets for.  Could one HAVE a more gayer weekend (even though it did not, unfortunately, include any of teh gay sechs).
2005: Went with Ag.
2006: Went with Ag, my friend Gar and his boyfriend at the time Troy (you can find out all about him by going the Labels over in the sidebar and clicking on the first one "T").
2007: Went with Ag and that total loser she ended up marrying, Andrew.  Yeah, what a fun time that was.
2008: Went with Michelle, her brother, his girlfriend at the time Kara, and the sexy, blonde, English Conrad.
2009: Went with StratCat (her first time).
2010: Went by myself.  Had a fun time, but it just wasn't the same without someone there to enjoy it with me.  Right after the Parade ended, I did meet up with the FABulous VUBOQ for a few short minutes.
2011: Went with StratCat and her cousin CC.  VUBOQ joined us and watched a good portion of the parade with us.
2012: And this year, I'll be going with StratCat and CC (again) but this time with CC's son Josh, and "Viva-La-Swirl" Paul and his insanely cute boyfriend Travis!  YAY!

Wow, I had no idea I took that many people with me over the years.  By my count, I took 25 different people to the Parade over the years (including this year's upcoming one).  And of those 25, 11 were straight, 14 were gay and 5 of them I took multiple times.  Hmm, interesting stats (at least to me).

If I get up the motivation, I may scan a some photos from past trips for a post tomorrow night, who knows?

POLT