My First Bloomsday

(It's been a bit since I blogged, sorry about that readers, honestly, I've been busy.  But let me tell you about my awesome weekend.)

I used to make fun of people who ran Bloomsday.  Back when I was a total jerk-nosed teenager, I really didn't understand what was happening, other than we couldn't go downtown that one Sunday, and it ticked me off.  A lot of things did back then.

When I met Deanna, I started to realize what it really was.  She opened my world up to a lot of things my own hometown had to offer, things I felt too snooty to really bother with before.  Now though, I realized just how much I missed out on.  Leave it to a woman from Montana to show me what my own city has to offer.

Anyways, Bloomsday is a big event in Spokane (my town).  Like, huge.  Gigantic.  Large, even.  We had over 60,000 people there this year.

The year after we first met, I missed Bloomsday due to being in the hospital with pancreatitis.  The next year, pretty much the same thing.  Deanna came home really sick that year from walking it, thanks to a low blood pressure and general coldness issue that day.

But this year, we both participated.  She walked it, and I cheered. 

Now, I know what you want to say, "you didn't walk it?  How does that count as participating?"

The answer is simple.  I volunteered.  In a manner of speaking.  I have friends who are part of SpoCon (the Spokane Sci-fi Fantasy Convention) and the Spokantina (I'm a member there, and we're the local Star Wars Fan Club).  So I dressed up as my Firefly LARP character, Dorres McLaine, and went to cheer on the runners.

Granted, I got to bed at midnight the night before, and up at 6:00 am to get there in time for a good parking spot, so I wasn't in the best of moods to start with.

But after the people started coming by the booth we had set up, it was a total blast!  We were energizing them, and they were energizing us!

Right now, I'm sunburned, sore, tire, and need a day off to recover.  I'm also planning a more popular costume for next year, when we both participate again...

Have any of you, dear readers, done Bloomsday?