🌈 My First PRIDE

This post was first published in This Weekend I Noticed. a weekly-stitch journal exclusive to The T. subscribers. It has been slightly modified for the blog.

“If someone corrects you, and you feel offended, then you have an ego problem.”
— Nouman Ali Khan

🐈‍⬛ 🐆🐅🐘🦓🦒

This weekend I noticed.

A Weekly-ish Stitch Journal
100 words or less. Sometimes more.

24-25 June, 2023

In Plain Sight 👀

This weekend I noticed that sometimes the best way to hide is in plain sight. It was dark when we exited the Hair of the Dog restaurant and stepped back into the crowd of fantastically clad festival goers. I half expected the two male nudists, nay, naturalists we had spotted earlier in the day to make an encore appearance, balls and penises swinging as they walked the streets hand in hand in celebration of Pride. Only a little disappointed that they didn’t, I looked down at my phone to check for messages before carefully “hiding” it in my zip up pocket. “I can’t afford to lose this!” I thought. I felt for my phone again as we shuffled our way deeper into the crowd in search of our friends. It lay against my thigh, snug and safe. Miraculously, we shoved and pushed our way straight into the people we were looking for. After a moment of joyous celebration, we stepped outside of the crowd to plot our course of action. That’s when I noticed, “where is my phone?” I shouted in panic. Everyone stopped to look at me. I rushed back into the crowd in search of it, retracing my steps but alas, it was gone. All that I recovered was my distinct, pearl-strap phone case, discarded and trod upon on the street not far from where we stood in front of Woody’s and SAILOR, the phone itself long gone. “Where is MY phone?” Another friend shouted as she ruffled through her purse. Her blue case lay not too far from where I had recovered mine. That was the end of our night. 

As we made our way home to remotely activate the security features that would prevent the thieves from further violating our beings and privacy, we noticed that everyone who had not been so clever as to “hide” their phones still had theirs in their hand where everybody could see. 

Indeed, sometimes the best way to hide, is in plain sight.

pride 
: confidence and self-respect as expressed by members of a group, typically one that has been socially marginalized, on the basis of their shared identity, culture, and experience e.g. black pride. [Oxford dictionary]

… before it happened
📸 : Adel Tipora
🏡 : 7 West Café