Our Fantasia experience was winding down, and it was time to say goodbye to those who weren’t going back to the hospitality suite, but the club started playing some 1980s disco to close out the night, tunes like Celebration, You Make Me Feel Mighty Real, Hot Stuff, etc. and GF and others wanted to dance to this stuff, so despite my poor aching feet, how could I say no?

The hospitality suite was only across the street,but by the time I managed to pry the door open, my feet were killing me again, and I staggered through the door with a staccato, “Owww… oww… ow!” to snickers of laughter. (Where’s the sympathy, empathy, support and understanding? Huh?)

Off came the boots that seemed to have fused themselves into the bones of my feet during the last chorus of Disco Inferno, and my feet hurt even in stockings alone! I kept looking at my feet to be sure my boots were, indeed, off! It took a few minutes for them to decompress. I kinda wanted to avoid nerve damage, y’know!

We sat and talked with various people for a while, though I was too tired to make conversation. One of our friends came over and made us laugh; her company was so enjoyable all week long, and I am certainly going to miss her through the year!

More girls kept showing up as we got into the wee hours of the morning, and we knew most everyone. That’s such an amazing thing about this event. I almost always keep to myself when I’m thrown into a big group, but for some reason, I have gotten to know a lot of the girls and we all genuinely like each other! Sounds like hooey, but that’s the way it is!

When it came time to say goodbye (that was when we were so tired, we weren’t sure we could walk the 50 feet to our room), it took an hour, with promises of seeing each other during the year and making it back to Provincetown next year. I even had to promise to be in the show. It was touching to be so warmly treated, and told, most sincerely, that we are now part of the family. There was some talk of us going to one of their events, or them coming to visit our fair city, and who knows, it may happen. But Fantasia #36 waits in the background; in case we can’t connect on our own, it will be there to ensure that we all have a place to come and renew and revive our friendships.

I hobbled back to the room, we packed and went to sleep; it was 4:30 am.