after Asheville

We got home from Asheville about half an hour ago. It was a long day! The pride festival was good, but much smaller than I expected. There were only about a dozen vendors and 4 or 5 booths of support/advocacy groups. I had a wonderful time talking to all these people, particularly the support groups. There was a woman there who is working on her doctoral thesis, and had a survey for LGBTs to fill out about relationships with their family of origin from before, during, and after the coming out process. I couldn't fill one out, being a parent/friend and not gay myself. She's a candidate for a PhD in Counseling Education and Supervision at UNC Charlotte.

I got some information and encouragement for starting a PFLAG in my little town. We need one! I am supportive of the effort, of the idea, but I know myself well enough to know that I am not gifted with administrative skills and am not a good candidate to organize a group by myself. I am too disorganized, easily distracted and discouraged, and am afraid to call people on the phone. The PFLAG volunteers there encouraged me to get started with it, saying that the national PFLAG organization is very helpful in the start-up process.

The boys were disappointed at the size of the event. This was Superman's first pride event. The South Carolina Pride in Columbia last month was better, I think. But this was good, if small.

After leaving the festival we drove downtown for dinner. Downtown Asheville is a pretty big place, at least to me coming from this tiny town. It was so vibrant on a Saturday evening! There were people everywhere, walking down the streets, shopping, dining. Finding a parking spot was challenging. Parking our huge van in spot we found was challenging! We checked in at the restaurant, was told there was a 40+ minute wait time, so we poked around in the shops on that block. It was great. There are some fun little shops, at least in that block many of the shops we saw carried non-mainstream type merchandise. We spent a long time in a shop that sold lots of incense, artsy postcards, funny or thoughtful buttons, scarves, tie-dyed t-shirts and the like. Alternative, really. Then I went to a used bookstore. It was really big, took up 3 "store front" units there on the block. I found the LGBT section almost by smell, or some 6th sense. Just about went directly to it without having been in this store before, not asking for nor receiving assistance. Didn't end up buying anything there, though would love to have spent more time perusing.

I'm just about to fall asleep, face first on the keyboard. Goodnight y'all!