Recovering from Bear Week
Jul. 19th, 2011 10:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wwcitizen... otherwise known as "returning to a bland world".
Bear Week is amazing. People stop short of the word, "amazing," and think, "Can it really be 'amazing' like everyone says?" If you've been, you'd know and comprehend.
Consider these things
The build-up is at least 2 months prior to your arrival. The overall planning can take about 1 week, but earlier in the year around January when you schedule your accommodations, travel, vacation schedule with work (yes, 6 months ahead of time). Other things, like clothes shopping, planning get-togethers (birthdays, anniversaries, parties, etc.) during the week can take a full 4-6 months.
If you're going to be a vendor at Bear Market, you're planning your most exciting merchandise additions 6-9 months in advance and then making enough for the event. Then you plan your table layout, payment options for customers, and ship your goods to Provincetown. If you're DJing at an event or planning a show during Bear Week, you're creating posters at least 6 months in advance and posting information everywhere on the web, including Facebook and the Bear Week in Provincetown group (i.e. don't worry if you're not an "official" event sponsored or supported by the Ptown Bears; there are plenty more things to do than are "official" events).
Once you arrive
However you get to Provincetown, you arrive. That arrival is met with friends in town greeting you up and down Commercial Street. If you don't know anyone in town yet, within 10-15 minutes, you will notice someone somewhere in town smiling at you (and I don't mean at a store). You may even pat a belly, do a belly bump in the street, or just exchange a few laughs. This process of greeting people on Commercial Street and seeing people you've met grows exponentially throughout the week and EVERYONE is smiling, laughing, and having a good time.
You check into your accommodations, get settled for the week, and head to the Boatslip Tea Dance at 4PM on Saturday - the first Saturday of Bear Week. BUY YOUR BOATSLIP PASS for the week. Fill in your fun as it happens. Make sure you take pictures or have pictures taken of you.
The Week
Fun happens and you define that fun. Eat, shop, drink (start after 12PM!), shop, go to an event, get together with friends (the same or different ones) daily, eat, drink, dance, and sing. Oh, and eat, drink, get together with friends, etc. Repeat cycle for 7-9 days.
Recovery
Your return trip home starts when you get on the ferry to Boston or turn down 6A out of town toward a long, possibly empty straight road. On your trip home, start the very slow process of coming down back to reality, as much as you want to hold onto the amazing Bear Week you had.
You have to remember (as the Firemen's Ball music still echoes in your head!) that not everyone in your home town (or any town you drive through) is as happy as you've been for 7-9 days. Many of them have families, friends, or jobs with varying degrees of stress.
Other reality checks
- Not everyone will greet you with genuine gusto and excitement.
- Most people will not hug you in the street.
- You will not see handsome, burly men walking hand-in-hand.
- You might have to return to work within a couple of days of getting home.
How to deal
- Get in touch with friends who were there.
- Look through and post pictures.
- Journal your experiences at Bear Week - what did you do and who did you meet?
- Find the music you tagged (via Shazam) on the dance floor; play it loud for about a week after your return.
- Get other men to come to Bear Week the next year.
- Start planning your next year's vacation in Provincetown during Bear Week!
Get back to reality and look forward to the next year's fun and excitement.
Bear Week gets better EVERY YEAR! And the recovery gets evermore difficult. If you have more ideas for recovery, please submit comments below.
Bear Week is amazing. People stop short of the word, "amazing," and think, "Can it really be 'amazing' like everyone says?" If you've been, you'd know and comprehend.
Consider these things
The build-up is at least 2 months prior to your arrival. The overall planning can take about 1 week, but earlier in the year around January when you schedule your accommodations, travel, vacation schedule with work (yes, 6 months ahead of time). Other things, like clothes shopping, planning get-togethers (birthdays, anniversaries, parties, etc.) during the week can take a full 4-6 months.
If you're going to be a vendor at Bear Market, you're planning your most exciting merchandise additions 6-9 months in advance and then making enough for the event. Then you plan your table layout, payment options for customers, and ship your goods to Provincetown. If you're DJing at an event or planning a show during Bear Week, you're creating posters at least 6 months in advance and posting information everywhere on the web, including Facebook and the Bear Week in Provincetown group (i.e. don't worry if you're not an "official" event sponsored or supported by the Ptown Bears; there are plenty more things to do than are "official" events).
Once you arrive
However you get to Provincetown, you arrive. That arrival is met with friends in town greeting you up and down Commercial Street. If you don't know anyone in town yet, within 10-15 minutes, you will notice someone somewhere in town smiling at you (and I don't mean at a store). You may even pat a belly, do a belly bump in the street, or just exchange a few laughs. This process of greeting people on Commercial Street and seeing people you've met grows exponentially throughout the week and EVERYONE is smiling, laughing, and having a good time.
You check into your accommodations, get settled for the week, and head to the Boatslip Tea Dance at 4PM on Saturday - the first Saturday of Bear Week. BUY YOUR BOATSLIP PASS for the week. Fill in your fun as it happens. Make sure you take pictures or have pictures taken of you.
The Week
Fun happens and you define that fun. Eat, shop, drink (start after 12PM!), shop, go to an event, get together with friends (the same or different ones) daily, eat, drink, dance, and sing. Oh, and eat, drink, get together with friends, etc. Repeat cycle for 7-9 days.
Recovery
Your return trip home starts when you get on the ferry to Boston or turn down 6A out of town toward a long, possibly empty straight road. On your trip home, start the very slow process of coming down back to reality, as much as you want to hold onto the amazing Bear Week you had.
You have to remember (as the Firemen's Ball music still echoes in your head!) that not everyone in your home town (or any town you drive through) is as happy as you've been for 7-9 days. Many of them have families, friends, or jobs with varying degrees of stress.
Other reality checks
- Not everyone will greet you with genuine gusto and excitement.
- Most people will not hug you in the street.
- You will not see handsome, burly men walking hand-in-hand.
- You might have to return to work within a couple of days of getting home.
How to deal
- Get in touch with friends who were there.
- Look through and post pictures.
- Journal your experiences at Bear Week - what did you do and who did you meet?
- Find the music you tagged (via Shazam) on the dance floor; play it loud for about a week after your return.
- Get other men to come to Bear Week the next year.
- Start planning your next year's vacation in Provincetown during Bear Week!
Get back to reality and look forward to the next year's fun and excitement.
Bear Week gets better EVERY YEAR! And the recovery gets evermore difficult. If you have more ideas for recovery, please submit comments below.
