White Party Palm Springs 2011

before the white party..

If I don’t get this blog out, it’s going to be severely old news!! The other weekend I went to my third White Party in Palm Springs. I’d gone last year, and a couple years before that. It’s always a really fun time, with tons and tons of people from here in SF going down, plus friends from all over, including my Chicago friends who I don’t get to see enough! This year was my first year in the host hotel, the Renaissance. I shared a room with my best friend Tristan, and our friend David from LA. For months, I’d been looking forward to the HEAT, but sadly, mother nature wasn’t listening, and there was a very rare cold spell right when I was headed there. When we arrived on Friday afternoon, it was so cold that the pool party had only a couple of people wandering around. We huddled, clothed, by a really cool rock fire they had set up. After a quick gym and some dinner, it was time to get ready for the first party, the Boxers or Briefs Underwear Party. Fortunately, we didn’t even have to leave the hotel and walked right down in our underwear. I was wearing boy short VS jammie shorts over my real undies, but they looked pretty underwear-ish, with a sports bra. Hector Fonseca and DJ Theresa djed together the whole nite, it’s rare to see two djs so coordinated as they dj, and they looked like they had a lot of fun too! Zoe Badwi performed and did a great job. That first nite was kind of a warm-up, I was tired from packing late the night before and getting up early for the plane. We closed the place out though at 4am! The next morning, I awoke to a migrane. Once in a while I get them, and probably the whole being in a different place triggered it or something, but I ended up skipping the pool party for the day. It was chilly anyway, though not as bad as the day before. So, breakfast, relaxing, dinner, and I recovered in time for the main White Party Saturday night. The Saturday party is held at the Convention Center next door, and everyone is supposed to dress up in white, although there was an added theme of Tron. It’s kind of funny to see the mixture of geek and circuit party at the same time lol. I had a cute 2 part outfit – it looked like a white dress for the first part, then went down to an almost bra top with shorts for when the dancing got too hot & intense.  I got there in time to hear Djs Dave Aude and Peter Rauhoffer, to see some cirque de soleil performers, and to hear, not see, Robyn perform. I’m short, but I heard she even crowd surfed. I’d like to puzzle over the fact right now that there were a few people I know were at WP, but I never saw them. So many people, it’s hard! Closed out Saturday night too, at 4 or 5, I forget, but skipped the extra afterparty. Sunday morning, I woke up happy and sad…fun day ahead, but last day of the festival! First up was the pool party…finally got to put on a bathing suit, it was warm, but not super hot or anything. It wasn’t too crowded, but I saw Luciana perform. After brdunch (yes that’s breakfast/lunch/dinner) we got ready and went to the Tdance, held outside in the field next door. Somehow, I’m not sure how, we lost time, and arrived pretty late. Oh well. The two best things about this party were the ferris wheel and the fireworks. I love ferris wheels and you get an awesome view!! Freemasons were djing, and they did a great job coordinating the music for a beautiful fireworks display near the end of the night. I have a video which I’ll be posting soon. Of course, Katy Perry’s Fireworks song was included. During such a display is probably the ONLY time I’d sanction that song lol. Alexis Jordan performed and she’s really cute in person! We left around ten to change for my favorite event, closing party, which was back inside the hotel. I think we got there around 11, 11:30, and the party was scheduled to go to 7:30, although it closed early at 7am. Was I there when it closed? Of course I was! Rosabel dj’d the last party and they started off great but tapered off…I had a lot of fun, but it didn’t have the same super effect as Tony Moran’s closing parties have in the past. It was like a really good club nite, instead of like an amazing Experience. Hey though, a really good club nite is still great! Wynter Gordon performed, I’d seen her before here in SF. That dancefloor was so HOT I could barely breathe! I was sad when it all ended, but the good thing is, we were staying a couple extra days!! By the time I woke on Monday, it was already afternoon, and after lunch, relaxing, and dinner, Tristan and I checked out a casino. There’s not much else to do in Palm Springs…the whole city dies at around 8pm. I am not an experienced casino person, but I did lose $20 in the slot machines. I kept switching them up every so often…it was fun! You can’t stay there too long though, otherwise you’ll accidentally end up with an empty bank account! Tuesday was sunny and hot, just the weather I’d wanted all along. Lunch outside, packing, then reading poolside. I could do that for a while longer, but it was time to go to the airport, where after a short flight, I was back to cold, 50 degree SF weather and back to reality. THANKS to all my old & new friends for a SUPERFUN weekend!! It was great! And if you want to see more pics, go here!

Photos by Merredith Lloyd, Marques Daniels, Richard Henry Thomas, Franko Salvatore and Jason Arca

t-dance!

t-dance!

our classy portapotty t-dance photo!

finally made it to a pool party..

yay and my shirt is OFF!

why on earth didnt i just PUT DOWN THE WATER? lol.

happy times on the dancefloor..

friday night undies party..on way to the bathroom

at the hotel room before the undies party fri nite..going crazy to start dancing!

Tuesday before the flight home..finally relaxing in the hot sun!