Monthly Archives August 2012

Play at GLLA

August 31, 2012 Uncategorized  5 comments

In all the years that I have been attending GLLA now, and this year was my tenth Great Lakes Leather Alliance Weekend, I believe I had, before this year, played twice there.  Back two or three years ago, I beat a gentleman who, as it turned out, was not worth the effort, but he was a masochist, so I still had fun.  The next year I played a planned scene – something I never do and it was not all I had planned it to be.  That was entirely my fault, but it was with a pair of friends, both switches.

This year I played three times.  It’s never that I couldn’t play, I could easily find playmates, but I usually just don’t have the energy or time,literally.

I had so much help this year, so many people who did things I usually do, or helped me with things, people I knew I could trust to do it, ...

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Shades of Grey

August 29, 2012 Uncategorized  7 comments

I am going to interrupt my own GLLA musings – and there will be more to come, I promise – to provide the public service announcement I feel is needed.

(Remember Emily Litella, from the early years of SNL?  “What’s all this I keep hearing about “Presidential Erections?!”  I feel a little like that, though I know I’m right.  But then, of course I do, I’m a dominant.)

Anyway, this is the public service announcement.

What’s all this I keep hearing about how awful it’s going to be when the Shades of Grey folks find the larger community.

If you’ve been involved in any organized kind of community, you’ve probably heard it.  It goes kind of like this:

Kinkster who has been involved for all of three or four WHOLE YEARS shakes his or her head and grumbles...

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More on Why I am Too Old…

August 28, 2012 Uncategorized  3 comments

So yesterday I ended the recitation of my schedule around 10am Saturday morning.

So, I go around and pick out attractive or popular folks, and convince them to auction themselves off.  I also organize the contestant baskets for the auction itself, and make sure that my contestants will be around with their baskets.

I go from the Atrium, where 90% of my events take place to the vendor area, to the outside smokers, to the bootblack area, and pass out forms.

The forms ask whether you’re being auctioned off as a bottom or a top, what your experience level is, who you’ll play with – men only, women only, either, singles, couples or groups, and what kind of scenes you prefer, heavy pain, light sensuous, service scenes or something else.

We also ask them their least and most favorite BDSM ...

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I Am Too Old to be Doing this Shit…

August 27, 2012 Uncategorized  4 comments

You would not believe how tired I still am.

I went to bed late on Thursday night, after the cocktail party, after getting unloaded and unpacked, after moving tables and setting up the party, after sorting through papers and getting things put together…

I got up at 7:30, just enough time to shower and dress and scurry to the contestant meeting, at which I warn contestants that I will boss them around for their own good and to raise money, after which I scurried to get the silent auction set up, with much help from Gray and Chrisdy and Kenny and Meg and Charles and jacki and drew and god knows who else.

Then I scurried to teach my traditional class, a newcomer’s class for GLLA itself, where I talk about the event, the things we do and why we do them, and generally answer any questions the au...

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Home Again

August 26, 2012 Uncategorized  One comment

We have been back from GLLA for about seven hours now.  I’ve slept about half that time.  I took a LONG nap, then got up for an hour or two before going back to bed in a bit.

So, another Great Lakes Leather Alliance is in the can.

It was a good one.  I expect it’s going to keep me in blogging material for a while, but that’s not going to begin tonight.  Tomorrow.

 

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5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Blastoff!

August 23, 2012 Uncategorized  No comments

So, tomorrow we head for GLLA.

Along with half the kinky people we know in the area.  And then some.

I got a fair amount done towards getting ready, but, of course, there’s still more to do.  What I do have, though, is a list, and a lot of the small, time consuming tasks done – jewelry picked, forms printed, auction stuff gathered.

Kenny came by and got the 25 or so various bottles of punch stuff, plus the paper products and a few other odds and ends.

And it’s midnight now and I need to head to bed.  I don’t know whether or not I’ll post over the weekend, but I’ll be back as usual in a couple of days.

Somebody, hold down the fort.

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The Day Before the Day Before

August 21, 2012 Uncategorized  2 comments

So, today was productive.  I have clothes mostly sorted out in terms of what I’m taking, have purses and gloves and hats either laid out or settled on.  Shoes are pulled out, though they’ll get whittled down when I set them out again and admit that perhaps I could do with only one pair of boots and two pairs of dressy shoes.

I still have to pull out jewelry and makeup and perfume and toiletries and sleep drugs and electronic gear and all the forms I need…

I went to the grocery tonight and got the makings for the Titleholder Kickoff punch, except the actual booze.  I meant to do that and then other things interfered, but I mustn’t forget that.  I got fruit and some snacky things and paper products.

I also freed up another block of time, which is going to be helpful...

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Lists Continued

August 20, 2012 Uncategorized  One comment

So today was both stressful and stress-relieving.

I know this will amaze those of you who know me, but I didn’t get as much as I wanted to do done.  Life interfered, as it has a nasty habit of doing.

However, I also did get a few things done, made a start on others, and made a contingency plan if I need to.  But, of course, it’s past time for bed, too, so I am heading there.

And I know I’ve not answered comments and I might have missed an email or two, but I do promise once the weekend is over and I am at least a bit rested, I’ll catch up on all those things.

I swear.

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The Time of Lists

August 19, 2012 Uncategorized  4 comments

The time of lists has begun in earnest.

We leave for Great Lakes Leather Alliance mid-day on Thursday.  Before then, I have approximately eleventy jillion things to do/pack/remember/check on.

And I am NOT being dramatic!

Well, ok, I am, but I do have a ton to do, still.  Not enough to be panicky or worried, just enough to say, I gotta get my act together here, and get serious tonight and tomorrow about knocking items off the list.

We will have about 500 people at GLLA, I imagine; we usually do.  I will know, probably 350 of them, maybe 400..  Some I won’t know their names, but I know there faces and we’ll greet each other as friendly acquaintances.  Probably half of those 350, maybe more, genuinely are friends, albeit perhaps some are not as close as others.

There will be a few there ...

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Fitting In

August 18, 2012 Uncategorized  No comments

This is actually something I wrote a few months back for another project that seems to have gone nowhere.  Given that, and the fact that I want to go to bed very soon,

I was actually going to write about another topic, and this one pushed itself to the forefront of my mind.  I read a friend’s blog and she mentioned that she had never felt as though she was enough, as a child.  She was always supposed to be more, and better, and brighter, and more perfect.  I suspect that for her one of the benefits to this community is that it’s a place where people who don’t fit elsewhere can fit.

I don’t know that I felt exactly that way, but I understand what she meant.  I never felt like I fit in.  There was little “normal” about my childhood.

I grew up in a little tiny town in the mi...

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