what is the word

Last nite, as predicted, there were explosions in the sky. They were essentially the same as they have always been, except with a kind that looked like a magic wall of glitter I called the Forcefield & a series of rings we thought alluded to New York’s Olympic bid. Polly joked that any minute we'd see "NYC 2012" spelled out in the sky but it didn't materialize. There was an excellent turnout of people on my roof & we looked out at the other rooftops full of black-silhouetted people poised against the sky to see the show. It was the same as it has always been & I even wore the same white dress for the third year in a row.
The weekend felt like déjà vu as well. On Saturday I took the 2 train to Flatbush & got the Q35 to Jacob Riis beach; on Sunday I did it all over again. The same bikini, the same sunscreen, the same buses & trains but different friends & different areas of the beach. On Saturday we claimed a spot at the northernmost stretch of sand, the unofficial gay/clothing-optional section, where there were many fat topless women & young men in G-strings brandishing sloshing martini glasses but thankfully no children. We bought illicit Budweisers for $3 from a guy walking around with a plastic bag of them & smoked cigarettes & ate apricots. A 50ish black man with a green beard kept disappearing momentarily & reappearing in new, wildly flamboyant outfits. He would trot out in gold lamé with black sequins or a tie-dyed minidress with a wreath of vines on his head or a pink negligee & a small poodle as an accessory. Then he'd make the rounds, saying hello to people, sipping a drink, curtsying grandly. Once he stripped off the negligee & dove into the ocean; resurfaced & disappeared to change ensembles again.
Sunday we sat towards the middle of the same beach where there were families with coolers & beach balls & strollers & buckets of fried chicken & a little girl flung sand around liberally right next to us & we tried to read the Times & ignore it. So it was a lesson learned. Back to the gay section next time -- where the beer is cheap & the fashion show is free.