Seattle Pride 2012

WOW! 
What an amazing weekend, despite the rain we had all Saturday day. (Of course!)

Sir and I went out on Friday after work in the hopes of getting to meet Ms. Sharon Needles at the Broadway Grill but the show was much later than they implied on their promotional materials. I was very disappointed but also falling asleep on my feet so we had to leave before Sharon arrived.

We decided to just go home and call it a night and curled up in bed while the rain rolled in; as I mentioned, it was pretty ugly out on Saturday when we left to go up to Cal Anderson Park and meet up for the Leather Pride Picnic. It was very disheartening to stand in the wind & rain and know that the forecast said more of the same for Sunday. I wasn't looking forward to marching in the rain again but if that's the way it would be, I'd just wear rubber pants again and make do with it.

After an hour or so in the rain, enjoying conversations and a very yummy hot dog, Sir and I decided to head home and recoup before going out for the night. Wouldn't you know it but around the time I peeled of my wet clothes, set my boots by the heater to dry and curled up to get warm, the sun came out and the temp started to rise as well. 
Sir and I decided to take a nap and warm up a little before deciding what to do for the evening. After a few hours of snuggling, we realized neither of us felt like going to the play party being hosted by GLPW before a parade and the other play parties would also make us feel odd to be there and not have a scene so we talked and decided the idea of curling up and just sleeping lots before the parade sounded like the best option. It was delightful to just stay in and snuggle.

We got up bright and early Sunday, got ready and drove out to Seattle. Lo and behold, we found a parking spot right near the Cuff so we parked, paid for the day and then grabbed our Block Party wrist bands before starting for Downtown. 
And can I just say that I love how Seattle Downtown is literally down the hill from EVERYTHING? It makes getting there on foot a simple matter of tumbling downhill with grace, style and not a little good fortune.

We got down to the sex positive / kinky / leather contingent with lots of time to spare; so much so that we got the chance to run around and see some of the other groups - which was totally fun before starting out ourselves. First rolled out the SEA-PAH Puppies group - oh those tails a-wagging was so cute!!! Then there was the SgoL group, what a pink group to follow! After that came the remainder of the leather contingent including Sir & myself as well as the GLPW group and title holders.

We started marching and wow, just wow! 
There were so many people on the streets - which was a really big change from marching at Spokane or Boise where it felt like the entire crowd was in the parade but it felt like the crowd was smaller than last year, but who knows. It was my 3rd parade in 3 weekends... 
The energy was great and getting to march with so many other leather lifestyle titles and community members was such a blessing. I could not have asked for a more lovely day, or for a better group of people to get to march with. Despite the heat, I couldn't help feeling ecstatic as we waved and cheered and posed for random photos. (Some of which were emailed to us and are awesome!!!)

After the parade, we stopped and posed with the GLPW & Oregon state title holders (including International Mr Bootblack!!! squee goes the fangirl of all things made of pretty leather) for a couple of posterity-photos before we marched ourselves across the City Center park and caught a bus back up to the Hill for the block party. 
I wish we could have stayed in the park longer but I was in a corset & we were both in leather and there was no breeze or shade to speak of when we got there so we opted to just head upHill.

The Cuff block party was crazy! We got there pretty darn quick and it was already filling up fast when we got there. So after a cocktail and a quick tour of the area, we settled into a corner and started enjoying the weather, the music and the crowd. After a little while, and while in conversation with a friend, I admitted my leathers have only ever been cared for by me - mostly because I'm always working on leather when other people are too. So Shawn, bless him, decided as soon as we finished our drinks he was going to get his kit from the car.

I got my first ever boot blacking, and was treated to my pants and vest also being treated. It was lovely and as I stood there under the truly summer sun, I couldn't help but just bliss out and enjoy the experience. I also was a bashful little girl over the entire thing and it made me giggle and skip after. I've officially had my first boot blacking and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!

We stayed until the sun started to make my head hurt (that is what we get for forgetting our SPF) which was into the early evening. Sir and I decided we'd like some real dinner and a bit of shade so home we went and that was Seattle Pride as Washington State Ms Leather 2012.

I am glad to have this weekend off from Prides but excited to go to Bellingham next weekend. Bears!!!

WSMsL2012 - PrideTrip days 8, 9 and the final 10

Friday ended up being a ton more fun than I think either Sir or I had expected it to be. We got going to a slow start and drove around the town a bit, looking at all the amazing Model A's that were all over the Riverside of Boise. After that, Sir took me yarn shopping.

Sweet joy! Fiber, fresh to my fingers and blissfully unaware of it's precious import to me. I got some Malabrigo lace & some Debbie Bliss fingering. I was only going to get the Malabrigo but Sir told me that I could have both and made me nearly cry in the store I was so happy. I am a very lucky and loved little knitter.

After the yarn, we went over to Joe's Crab Shack and I got to have a bucket of steamers! Snow crab, Dungeoness crab, and lots of shrimp as I couldn't have the andouille sausage. Also potatoes and sweet white corn. It was so delicious and I couldn't even finish it, so I took it back to the hotel and popped it into the fridge.

Upon sitting down, we both realized it was a nice day and we had a lot left to do before we could go out for the night. So I pulled out my boot black kit and dragged a chair onto the balcony of our hotel room along with both pairs of Sir's boots and mine as well. I put on my iPod, jammed out to Daft Punk's soundtrack for the Tron sequel and started onto Sir's knee high boots. Cleaning and drying them with care before starting the process of applying the polish and working it into all the forms of the boots before brushing them to a soft polish. I was very happy with my work thus far and accepted a beer from Sir before picking up His jump boots.
I needed a bolstering swallow of it to face the daunting task ahead of me - I haven't worked on those boots in a while, and Sir wears them nearly every day. So I grimly started cleaning them, one at a time and having to go back over spots time and again to get the grime and dust out. Once they were clean, I let them sit for a few minutes while I debated what to use. I started with touching up the wear points with a bit of dye and then carefully glued down the patch that snagged somehow...
In the end, I started with my standard two body coats of Kiwi black. It fills in the cracks and wear points well and gives a nice warm shine to the boot when polished. Then it was time to pay special attention to the toe caps and heels. I told myself that 3 coats of Lincoln's would do the trick but 4 coats went on and they still just couldn't pull a shine together. Gritting my teeth, I carefully added the lucky coat #5 and suddenly I had glittering shine in my hands. Sir came out and said He was very pleased and they looked fantastic so we moved them inside to let the polish harden before he would wear them in the parade the following day. (Seeing how it *was* 80 degrees, this made since)
I meanwhile sat down and started on my boots. I'm glad oil tans are so quick but my poor boots were THIRSTY. I cleaned them and then had to oil them twice to make them happy! I suppose I deserve it, I've been so busy I haven't given the pretty leathers the attention they deserve. My vest still needs to be cleaned and oiled... hrm.

Wish I had a form bodice...

Anyway! After boots, I jumped into the shower and then we started on our outfits for the evening. The plan was to meet up with Jezabelle and DVana at Lucky Dog to carpool to the Burlesque show, so we couldn't play the go back and get things game - but we did anyway before we forgot things, of course. In the end, we still got there in plenty of time and were able to find a nice spot in the front for the show.
Also, Fatty's has 32oz super beers. I couldn't resist a giant ice cold quart of ShockTop Belgian White. :) It was amazing.

The Burlesque show was entertaining and the head of the show is quite adorable. Also, her perma-lip color really was perma-... I scrubbed for 10 MINUTES to get it off. That thought makes me wonder if my left tit is scrubbed raw instead of sunburned as I originally suspected.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

After the show, we went outside and had the opportunity to wave hello to some Queen-shocked Mormons. I've never seen muggles aperate before, I will just say it this once. I know it's probably horrible of me to be so amused but they truly weren't sure what to do because one of us happened to ACTUALLY BE A WOMAN. Oh it was priceless!
Once we had our fill of tormenting the normals, we made our way back to the car and drove back over to Lucky Dog for the Leather Night. It was a lot of fun but there wasn't very much leather to be seen which was disappointing but not unexpected - their community has almost disappeared although there were several people who quietly expressed interest/desire to have the community regain a foothold. We are both hopeful (Sir and myself) that we can help this happen but regardless of who is responsible, I'd love to see Boise get a Leather community again!
After we both realized it was time to get going so we could get enough sleep to be able to march in the morning, we headed back to our hotel room. A few friends stopped by and brought some beer to mellow for a little before we all decided it was sleepy bed time and said farewells and good nights.

Saturday dawned far too early and far to bright for me; I woke up with a migraine-esque haze on the horizon. We both tiredly crawled out of bed and made for showers and then dressing for the parade. I got eye liner in my eye and then all over my eye lid so called a quit on make-up for the day, rinsed my eye with lots of cold water and Sir laced me into my leather dress. Then I remembered the allergy drops for my eyes and did my best to not look like I had the startings of a shiner from the stupid eye liner causing my eye to get inflamed and red and angry. Fortunately, the eye drops did the trick and it was sunny enough to keep my sunglasses on the entire time. On the unfortunate side, however, I was suffering from heat sickness before the parade even began being so small and garbed all in black leather.
We were lucky to find water bottles in one of the first aid stations at the beginning and Sir got me a lemonade and pretzel afterwards. The actual march of the parade was amazing, at one point we turned and could see neither the front nor the back of the parade for blocks in both directions and the parade ran on and on and on... there was such a huge crowd of marchers, it was amazing. Ironically, I don't think there was anybody left in the city for the size of the parade. Which sort of makes it all that much more amazing.

The parade wound from the steps of the capitol building all the way to the park on the other side of the city. The park was large and beautiful and fully of such amazing colors. There were walking rainbows everywhere - it was so fantastic and surreal.

After I had to call it quits and head back to the hotel, Sir called a cab and we slunk back into our hotel room to take cool showers and snuggle under the covers for a bit while we just shook from all the energy. We were elated and exhausted all at once and agreed to set an alarm and get some sleep. So, snuggled together although very sore, we let time slip past for a little while. I got up first, needing to eat, and pulled out some left overs. (Remember Joe's?)
I had a wonderful snack, sitting on the balcony in the summer heat and gnawing away on my sea-spider (as Sir lovingly calls crab). After that, I very carefully washed all the seafood off and snuggled back up with Sir who laughed and called me the eater of death; I guess I'm okay with it, as long as I'm His death eater. (I know, I'm a dork)

We got up eventually and got ready for the After-Pride Party at Lucky Dog and made our way over. I was hoping to boot black and set up but nobody had leather or was interested so that was a little disappointing but otherwise the night went really well and was a lot of fun. We even got to go over to a private party and chat with a lot of really cool people before calling it a night and heading back to bed.

We got up a little later than expected on Sunday and hurried down to the continental breakfast room for waffles, bagels and yogurt before going back up to pack and do a final once-through before loading up the little blue Leather Bug and starting for Seattle.

We stopped in Yakima for lunch at Black Angus and then I got to drive the last leg of the trip. I was disappointed to watch the temperature consistently drop from 85 to 54 degrees before we reached Seattle. Still we got into town early enough to stop and see a good friend and unwind from the driving before heading back to our dwelling to unpack.

We slept heavily last night and I woke up knowing I was not ready for work; so I took the later bus in and left a little early today so I can make up the time later in the week when I'm feeling a little better.

But yes, that has been our 10 days of Pride travel; I have had so much fun and truly do feel really refreshed. I am looking forward to Seattle's Pride this week, Vancouver is next week - which I don't know if we'll hit or not yet, and then in 3 weeks is Bellingham.

And then we'll hopefully be back out to Boise for coronation at the end of July. :)

WSMsL2012 - PrideTrip days 6, 7 & 8

Wednesday night was fun!
I was craving red meat of the side of a cow variety, so Sir consulted a friend we've made here in Boise about a good place for BBQ and such. They recommended Goodwood and so we went out there and it was delicious! I had some of the very best beef ribs I've ever had and I ate way too much and it was delicious.

Sir says it's OK that I indulged because I was able to decide on food quickly and easily, so He feels it is a reward to let me eat my fill when this happens. Since my body likes to play guessing games about what to have for dinner, this was a big deal. Haha!

After dinner, we went to Pitchers&Pints for trivia; which we did OK at but that's not really surprising. Trivia is not my forte anymore, but I am alright in trading that in for more interesting hobbies like knitting.
Which reminds me, I have a shawl to block on this trip...

After trivia, it was back to our hotel and crashing for some well deserved snuggling.

Thursday, we got up and met up with a couple more new friends and went to the Boise Zoo. The Butterfly exhibit was a ton of fun (and I got a lot of awesome photos!) but no butterflies landed on me sadly. After we got to see lots of different animals, feed some goats, snag a couple photos of a very undignified snow leopard and coo over a baby wallaby, we decided to head back into town. A quick stop at the store and we got back to our hotel to find that the Vancouver, WA Model A club is in town for an "A Rally". Model A's. All over Boise.
Sir and I want to find a couple who would be willing to drive in the parade and let us ride in the back. I haven't yet mastered my "Princess Wave" so I need to practice before this happens.

We ended up staying in last night and just watching a couple episodes of 30 Rock and snuggling and wrestling and giggling. Well, I giggled. It was a nice night off and we both slept quite well.

As I've mentioned before, we've taken to sleeping in, all snuggled together which has been lovely but sadly we don't get to do that anymore, as we have to be up early tomorrow for the Parade & festival and then Sunday for the drive home. Be that as it may, we had a late start again today and are currently working on what to do today while I've been writing up this entry. Once we figure that out, we're going to clean up our hotel room a little and head out for the day.

Later there will be a Burlesque show and then Leather Night at the Lucky Dog Tavern and then tomorrow is all day Pride! YAY!

I should put on some pants now.

WSMsL2012 - PrideTrip days 5&6

So we started out our day deciding to have lunch before we got too busy in the titles & opted for some Italiana Americana (otherwise known as the Olive Garden) before heading over to Lucky Dog Tavern for happy hour.

After a drink and some good conversation, we headed over to the Boise BDSM Flogging Class and got to listen to the experiences of others in the community I've not met before - which is always fun for me! Then Sir & I had a short bit of flogging time for us before wrapping it up and heading back into town.

We got into downtown and went by the Balcony for the Pride Bingo contest being hosted by the Imperial Court here, and then joined them as they moved to Lucky Dog Tavern for drinks, socializing and karaoke. We opted to skip the karaoke segment of the night and had a lovely time chatting with different folks we've met since we got here.

This morning we had a lazy start and ended up out at the World Center for Birds of Prey outside of Boise; we got to go on the tours and view the different birds before heading back into town to recharge a little before tonight. Yay!

WSMsL2012 - PrideTrip days 3 & 4 (Sun & Mon 6/10-11)

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday so I'll pick up with Saturday night.

Let's see, I had a nap and then we went to the Suki Anna Inn for sushi & teriyaki. (They have swordfish nigiri and it's fantastic!!!) After which, we walked but up to Irv's and had a drink before meeting up with Savannah SoReal & a new friend Johnny to hang out. After the drag show, we were back to the hotel to grab our play bag and drive out to the play space for the Inland BDSM Community.

We arrived to find them completing a St. Andrews Cross for their space; I was told that since they had invited state Title holders to their play party, they had felt it necessary to have equipment in case we wanted to play.
Needless to say, we were both very flattered.

After some chatting, I admitted that I had never experienced wax play and was very curious. Sir decided that we should watch the wax scene that was being planned and I was invited to join in. I got to play with some of the paraffin wax for a bit and then I got to wax the stunt-bunny's belly button. The look on his face was AMAZING.
Then I got to try wax play for the first time. I can't say I didn't enjoy it, but it wasn't my favorite thing and triggered some nerve issues low in my back. Sir and I agreed we should get some soy wax candles and try actual candle-drop wax play some time as opposed to using the pre-melt method. I am definitely curious to try again!

Once our scene finished, Sir helped me clean up and then offered our host (and my belly button wax victim) the chance to break in the St. Andrews Cross. Two hours later, the cross was sufficiently broken in and our host was a happy stunt-bunny to be sure.
And so ended our Saturday night; we wrapped it all up and drove back to our hotel. I accidentally left my blue bunny ears headband at their space but decided to will it to the stunt bunnies (specifically Trolly) as I have a white pair back in Seattle.

Sunday. Day 3.
We slept in - by a rather impressive bit - before making our way back over to the Satellite in the early afternoon for a nice bit of brunch & drinks. I had French toast for breakfast, and the mimosa was really the best compliment ever. After brunch, we walked next door to Irv's for a drink; I was still heavily dragging from sub drop & just a bit of exhaustion so I left Sir there and made my way back to the hotel for a nice relaxing nap.

By the time Sir got there to wake me up at 6:30 to get ready for our dinner-date, I was feeling much better. We got dressed up and went down to Spencer's (the Steak & Chops House inside the Doubletree) which was fantastically good food. Our waitress was very nice and the place was very quiet so we took our time and enjoyed our dinner.
We had a porterhouse steak - Sir let me have the larger portion of Filet Migon while He enjoyed the New York - and 6 onion soup. Sir got their house special hash browns which included bacon and cheese and such while I got spinach seared with pan-fried cherry tomatoes. It was delicious.

After dinner, we went back up to our room and had a nice quiet night in while we just blissed out over good food and each other's company.

We woke up this morning and realized we had still not had any luck getting in touch with the Tri-Cities area so we re-considered our plans and started checking on Fetlife for any other information. We confirmed there is a group in Tri-Cities and we even had been recommended a bar to check but as it turns out, it isn't open Monday or Tuesdays. At this revelation, we decided it would be best to either take another night in Spokane or to head directly to Boise. In the end, we decided on Boise and jumped on HotWire to find a hotel. Fortunately we got a fantastic deal on the Shilo Inn in the Riverside district so we jumped up, finished packing everything else up we had to do and loaded up the car.

After checking out, we jumped on the highway and were on our way!

The drive from Spokane to Pullman (our first pit stop) was very scenic and peaceful. For being stuck in a car for a couple hours with nothing but hills and fields and the occasional tiny little township for variety, it was actually very refreshing for me!

After Pullman, we turned towards Lewiston and began moving almost truly south through the scenic terrain of Idaho - we had actually opted to take a different route than Google suggest at first because it wanted to take us south-west before pulling a U and going back south-east; we took I-195 to US-95 to ID SR55 all the way into Boise.
There were a couple of delays with road work running for stretches up to 3 or 4 miles of one-way one lane roads but even that didn't actually slow us down because we got into Boise by 8pm local time (which is 6.75 hours of actual driving, instead of the expected 7.5).

Boise is muggy and warm, even at midnight last night it was very muggy. I don't mind overmuch, but it's a big chance from the cool dry weather we saw in Spokane.

We checked into our hotel, changed out of our driving clothes and into casual leather dress and hit the only gay bar we could find listed (which also just happens to be around the corner and less than a mile away) - the Lucky Dog Tavern. Lucky us, the local Court & community was out and having a night of fundraising with a poker game to start of Pride week here in Boise. What fun!
We had a few drinks, socialized, grabbed dinner, socialized some more and eventually called it a night to return to our hotel room and crash.

I have to say, for all our concerns about a 2 start hotel, this is much more what I'm used to and actually is very comfortable. (And there's a continental breakfast every day for the win!)

So I'm going to go enjoy my bagel and apple before we get ready for our first full day in Boise!

WSMsL2012 - PrideTrip day 2 (Saturday 6/9)

Day 2 of our Pride Trip has gone swimmingly thus far, despite fewer tweets. Sorry about that - I've been busy.

We got up this morning and got ready for Pride, as it turns out, the forecast for today was a high of 54 and rainy. We opted for rubber instead of leather pants as a result and suited up. The staff here at our hotel is AMAZING and the bell hop drove us up to a local diner since it was POURING on the way.

Satellite Diner is really good, but they were very busy this morning and our food took so long that we basically inhaled breakfast and then quite literally ran to the parade staging grounds. Which turned out to be a good thing, it gave us the chance to meet the Inland Northwest BDSM Community & Pasties&Paddles groups that were marching in Spokane's Pride Parade.

It was really great to see another aspect of the community and get to interact with them, talk with them, hear them and see them celebrate their part in our great big kinky community. It made me so very happy, I really couldn't have had a better day!

The parade ended at the park and we had a great chance to meet with more of the local community and found out about another show tonight to hit, plus an invitation to a local play party that we are both really looking forward to.

And so, after a quick nap we are about to run out for dinner before more socializing. Yay!

WSMsL2012 - PrideTrip day 1 (Friday 6/8)

If you're not following me on Twitter, you really should go read up on the progress of our trip thus far.

I also realize I need to be writing about the title a little more, just to keep it all real in my own head. So to start that new change off, I'll be taking a little time out of each day for the next week to blog about our trip to Spokane, hopefully Tri-Cities, and Boise for 2 Pride events and maybe a few parties and/or fund raisers!

We decided to forgo the Pride events in Olympia & Portland for those less represented at by the Western Washington title holders. Being state title holders, we felt it was better to represent on a state-wide scale. (Also, I'm very glad NW Leather Sir Jim is in Anchorage this week representing)

So yesterday Sir picked me up at work around noon and we ran a few last errands before I drove us out to Issaquah for lunch at XXX RootBeer because Sir had never been there and then it was off to Spokane! (there are lots of tweets with & without photos already up from last night)

We decided to hit Irv's as it was the only gay bar we could find listed in Spokane and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I was surprised that my brain had decided that Spokane would be "just like Billings" but at the same time, I've only ever been IN Spokane for a stop over, not for a stay.
After the bar, it was late and we were tired so back to our hotel we wandered (with a few snide remarks about our outfits but fortunately my wit was sharp even that late).

And now, Sir is out of the shower so it's my turn.

More later!!!