Thursday, October 8, 2009

August... and still going....

Its Rodeo time... Aug 1st and 2nd was the 2nd annual Liberty Stampede Rodeo. The location this year moved to the Shriners Temple in Plymouth Meeting PA. They have a permanent rodeo arena set up and are some of the greatest guys on earth. Once again I brought my horse Quinn and entered in 8 events. The events are barrel racing, pole bending, flag race, calf roping, chute dogging, wild drag race, goat dressing and steer deco. It was hot on Saturday...very hot. There were a bunch of speed demons with their horses and I decided right off the bat to have fun. Quinn is a valiantly handsome man who can do it all. He has the biggest heart but not the fastest legs. I completed every pattern with him. I wound up placing in almost all events and took 1st in the wild drag race with my friends Mark and Jim. Sunday the skies opened up and the rodeo was canceled. The results from Saturday rolled over and I wound up winning my 8th All Around Cowgirl Title. I have now competed in over 80 rodeo's across the country and have buckled in 7 different events.

The big memory of rodeo weekend was the riderless horse ceremony. It was done in memory of Caren Cunningham who was Ms NJ Leather. She had passed in December of last year to cancer. I was given a chance to say goodbye to her the cowboy way.

I still had not fully recovered from the flu bug I caught in NOLA and it came back 5x's as bad. This time I was home and could see my own doctors. I was grounded... The timing could not have been worse. It is Aug 3rd and I turned 40 on Aug 7th and had a flight to Toronto on Aug 8th. I never took such good care of myself. I stayed home and canceled all birthday plans. I ate/drank soup took my meds and slept as much as I could. Friends showed up the night before my birthday and slid my birthday dinner in the door. I found myself wrestling with the dogs for my Outback Prime Rib. I was happy. I made it to NYC on the 7th and had a fabulous dinner with my friend. Then we flew to Toronto on the 8th. Surprisingly I was able to pull it together enough to not get stopped at the boarder. This was a dream trip. I am quite smitten with my Canadian friend and I adore to court the girl. So three of us went to Niagara Falls for the night. It started with a helicopter ride and ended with the Maid of the Mist. As you only turn 40 once I splurged and we stayed in the Fallsview Marriot with a wall to wall picture window overlooking the horseshoe falls. Damn… what a view! The rest of the week was down time...there was a BBQ at the house and a birthday dinner later on. I couldn't help but rest. I came back still sick and doubling up on the flu medicines.

While still recovering I decided to take some me time and go camping. Not just camping but Princess camping! It was leather weekend at Oneida Campground and I rented a cabin complete with electricity and a fridge. 3 of us went and I brought my dogs, they deserved a vacation too. Ironic that I went from being with 2 femmes the weekend before to 2 butch’s. We must have been quite the sight. Upon arriving at the campground I was asked to judge the leather contest. I was very happy to do so and it was a wonderful experience. The weekend was just what the doctor ordered and I was even able to get some dancing in. I was finally feeling better. I can’t wait for next summer…. I’ll be back and I am ready to rebook the same cabin.

Next up Floating World in Edison NJ. I was head DM for the event. It was a sold out event with 1200 paid attendees plus volunteers, staff, presenters, medics, vendors etc... I spent most of the weekend in the play area. It still does something to me when I'm around the energy. The big highlight of the weekend was being accosted by a gaggle of lesbians not once... but twice. Poor me... I had to have been on my feet 35+ hours over the weekend on that damn industrial cement floor. I knew I was in trouble by late Friday night... by the time I got home I could barely walk. Nothing like a stress fracture in my left foot to try and slow me down... yea right.
Home from the event I now had two local events to attend. My title sibling Brandon had his fundraising party that Friday night. He is getting ready to compete for International Community Bootblack in October. The day after that was a BBQ/pool party to raise funds for our local play space.

August is over.... now the work starts.....

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