So apparently it's easiest for me to post about every 2 weeks during our home time - being out of town, ironically, makes it easier to blog since I have time in the car during the trip to write everything down and talk with Sir so I can get His take on things as well.
Whew, let's see what's been going on the last few weeks...
On August 16, the Seattle Men in Leather (SML) invaded Linda's Tavern in gear for an evening drinks, food and good company. We saw several folks we hadn't seen in a while - including a dear friend and previous Washington State Mr Leather. We had a funny moment when he realized we were BOTH title holders - I guess he though Sir won and I was just along for the ride, as it were. When he suddenly made the connection, the look of utter pride on his face made us both so very happy to have seen him out that night. It was just such a great moment to know our dear friend, whom we look up to and admire, was proud to call us successors in the title.
August 18 was a lovely summer day, overcast but warm with enough breeze to breathe. We headed out to JoostGaard where there was much lovely lounging and chatting in the grassy front yard, a very fluffy blue chicken, delicious BBQ beef ribs (yummy!) and enough boots to have this girl swooning for days and days. We had the chance to talk with a lot of friends, new and old, and were advised of a wedding for two good friends which made Sir and I both so very happy. It's great to know that there's so much love in the world around us!
I was given the opportunity to boot black, first one pair of delightful white boots, then a lovely pair of saddle brown Fluevog boots (which left a lovely but sadly short lived) impression over my right breast. So pretty... And then the boots kept coming! I was able to set up an actual stand in the garage and got to boot black all night long so folks could enter the house with their boots on. While I played with polish and made boots sing, Sir got to chat with more folks and work out some of the logistics for our upcoming fundraising but I'll talk about that more in a few minutes.
After we left the party, it was over to the Cuff to see the SEA-PAH puppies! We got there and sadly there was only a few puppies who had been able to make it out but the night was very busy and they seemed to be having a lot of fun just milling about so that was nice to see. I bumped into another friend of mine and we ended up going out on the dance floor and making general silliness of ourselves enjoying the music and good energy of the night.
The rest of the weekend (which is to say Sunday) was spent recovering from the sun and mosquitoes - ewww.
This last week didn't start out with a lot of fun for me; I got food poisoning on Monday night and was laid up all day Tuesday as a result; on Wednesday we grabbed dinner and headed over to the SML Dress Code social with a SEAPAH invasion. It was wonderful, I got my boots blacked by Paul and play with puppies all while admiring handsome men in leather all around.
Friday was a quieter night, Sir and I met up at a local watering hole near my work where we had a bit of dinner before going to a Farewell party for a good friend of our's who is moving to San Francisco for at least a year, if all goes well. It was a nice mellow party at a coffee shop with lots of his own art hung for sale and viewing before he moved, and I got to sit and chat with a friend for a while, just enjoying the quiet of the night.
Saturday was a very easy day where I spent most of it sitting in the yard - or in bed - and knitting while I waited for information to roll in regarding the upcoming NW Leather Weekend and tried to write bios for myself and Sir. Writing a bio is hard, it's harder still when it's your own! We finally gave up on the bios Saturday evening, got up and dressed and went off to DivaStomp at El Norte in Lake City. It was a nice event, though a bit crowded for the venue. Sunday was a nice enough day, cooler than I like but hey that's Seattle for you and we got to go out to another event and hang out with some friends for a while.
But on to other things of more interest and import : This weekend is the NW Leather Weekend (http://www.nwleatherweekend.org) and I hope to see you all out during the weekend. It's shaping up to be absolutely amazing with fantasies and performances and raffles and/or auctions for amazing items. I hope to see you all out!
Monday, August 27, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
Oregon State Leather Week/Contest
So we're back in Seattle as of late last night from a fantastic weekend in sunny, sultry Portland, Oregon. I have only been to Portland as an adult a total of two times now, which I do realize is a very sad fact since I've lived in Seattle my entire life. It's a very pretty city, and both Sir and I are guilty of saying how very pretty all the different bridges are on multiple points throughout the weekend. Portland is one of the quietest, cleanest cities I've ever been in. Then again, there's also very few children (by percentage) within the city so that might have a lot to do with it...
Anyway, we left Seattle around 12:45 on Friday afternoon and arrived in Portland around 5pm, I would estimate (traffic was a true nightmare on Friday). We were hosted by a member of the Portland Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and her wife, two very funny women I have to say; it was nice staying in a house, not a hotel for once, it didn't feel so impersonal to walk in. I hate how sparse and bare hotel rooms always feel.
Well, we arrived and took a few minutes to shower off the trip and get ready for the meet&greet at Embers. Fortunately, we were only a mile or so from the location, so we walked over on Friday despite the heat because we didn't know if there would be parking available. Among other things, there was a cycling race going on downtown so we got to watch that as we walked by.
Once we reached Embers, we immediately felt better. For starters, they had AC! On the less shallow end, there were leathermen and -women everywhere we looked - many we knew and many more we didn't yet know. I'd like to believe we got a chance to meet everyone who attended by the end of the weekend but if we missed anyone, it certainly wasn't intentional. The meet&greet was delightful, they had a rather unique idea for the auction and did a Vegas style blackjack table room. For a donation, you could purchase a buy in and then use the "funny money" to gamble, or you could just buy the credit towards the auction. At the end of the Vegas period of the night, all players were encouraged to count up their winnings and then bid on items in the auction with their winnings.
There were several really awesome items donated to the auction including a cigar/humidor set that Sir and I both wanted rather badly but it went for well over what we had to spend (I bought in $200 of auction credit and increased that to around $900 before the auction) - selling for $1200 or more. I can't remember the final bid on this one, sorry. As disappointed as we were, there was another item that I actually wanted far more: a set of Women's Engineer boots, size 6, donated by Oregon State Bootblack 2011 / International Mr. Bootblack 2011 Nick. I am happy to say that I did win the boots and for a lot less than I expected them to go for since I apparently was the only size 6 in the room. With that in mind, Sir & I won an aftercare/body care kit including a bath salts set, a bar of muscle aches&pains soother and a body spray that I think actually smells really good (for a change haha!).
As the final item of the night came up, Sir and I pooled all of our remaining bidding funds and were able to win a private bootblack session with Nick. We'll still have to sit down and negotiate how that will work, but it was a busy weekend and we'll have to work on that a little later on in the month, I think.
After the auction wrapped up, it was time for a final drink and then some socializing before we headed back to our host house to get in some sleep.
On Saturday, Sir & I met up with one of his friends for brunch. We chose to try The Stepping Stone Cafe, which reminded me of Beth's or The Hurricane - but with less food poisoning involved. The food was fantastic, the service was friendly, but it was very loud and extremely busy. If you ever go, I suggest grabbing the homemade biscuit - it's huge and delicious! After brunch, we went back to our host house and hung out for the afternoon before heading back to Embers for the contest.
We had figured out that the Portland Streetcar ran very close to our host house the night before and decided to take it back into town to grab dinner before heading to the contest. As luck would have it, we made the standard mistake of tourists and missed our stop by nearly a mile. By the time we backtracked and managed to grab dinner, we were getting close to contest time but we managed to get there in time to find seats and say hello to a few people.
The contest itself was really amazing, if very quick - there were 2 contestants for Mr, 1 for Ms and 1 for Bootblack; they all had very short but poignant speeches, clever and quirky pop questions (and answers) and the fantasies for both Mr and the Ms contestant were all very well done and displayed how varied and interesting our community truly is. I always wish Bootblacks got a fantasy too, though I do understand that asking them to have a technical and a fantasy would be far too much work for them to complete in the weekend.
Due to some minor technical difficulties (which the tally masters handled superbly) we were asked to say a few words while the counts were completed along with a few other folks who had announcements or were visiting. I was sad to hear that the brand new sex-positive center was opening up for it's first event on Sunday night - when we would already be on the road home again. But don't worry, Portland, we'll be back!
At this point, I want to extend another congratulations to the just stepped down title panel: Oregon State Mr. Leather 2011 Tarsus, Ms Leather Ms Tracey and Bootblack 2011 Nick. Their year was amazing and the first year Oregon has had a Bootblack title - you three left large boots to fill. Thank you for your commitment and your passion.
And also - I'd like to say congratulations to the new 2012 title holders : Oregon State Mr Leather 2012 Danny, Ms Leather 2012 Michelle and Bootblack 2012 Sammy. We eagerly and wholeheartedly extend to you our warmest wishes and support. Should you need anything, please let us know, our dear sash-brothers and -sister.
After the contest was over, Sir & I drove Sammy up to the celebration after-party at the Portland Eagle where we had the chance to oil a pair of leather shorts Sammy had won during the auction the previous night. We spoke with a lot of interesting people, I got the chance to actually chat with this years American Leatherwoman, Trinity - what an amazing woman! By the end of the night, I was wilting a little from the busy day, but had truly enjoyed every minute of the whole day.
We woke up late on Sunday and headed over to the brunch, fortunately there was plenty of time before they started the awards for the community. It was wonderful to meet the people recognized by Portland as their honored persons for the year and the stories of some of these individuals were heart warming to hear.
Our trip home was long and stressful due to a few engine hiccups (my car is grounded), but we are safely home in Seattle now and looking forward to the next chance we have to visit.
I still owe our hosts spanikopita too...
Anyway, we left Seattle around 12:45 on Friday afternoon and arrived in Portland around 5pm, I would estimate (traffic was a true nightmare on Friday). We were hosted by a member of the Portland Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and her wife, two very funny women I have to say; it was nice staying in a house, not a hotel for once, it didn't feel so impersonal to walk in. I hate how sparse and bare hotel rooms always feel.
Well, we arrived and took a few minutes to shower off the trip and get ready for the meet&greet at Embers. Fortunately, we were only a mile or so from the location, so we walked over on Friday despite the heat because we didn't know if there would be parking available. Among other things, there was a cycling race going on downtown so we got to watch that as we walked by.
Once we reached Embers, we immediately felt better. For starters, they had AC! On the less shallow end, there were leathermen and -women everywhere we looked - many we knew and many more we didn't yet know. I'd like to believe we got a chance to meet everyone who attended by the end of the weekend but if we missed anyone, it certainly wasn't intentional. The meet&greet was delightful, they had a rather unique idea for the auction and did a Vegas style blackjack table room. For a donation, you could purchase a buy in and then use the "funny money" to gamble, or you could just buy the credit towards the auction. At the end of the Vegas period of the night, all players were encouraged to count up their winnings and then bid on items in the auction with their winnings.
There were several really awesome items donated to the auction including a cigar/humidor set that Sir and I both wanted rather badly but it went for well over what we had to spend (I bought in $200 of auction credit and increased that to around $900 before the auction) - selling for $1200 or more. I can't remember the final bid on this one, sorry. As disappointed as we were, there was another item that I actually wanted far more: a set of Women's Engineer boots, size 6, donated by Oregon State Bootblack 2011 / International Mr. Bootblack 2011 Nick. I am happy to say that I did win the boots and for a lot less than I expected them to go for since I apparently was the only size 6 in the room. With that in mind, Sir & I won an aftercare/body care kit including a bath salts set, a bar of muscle aches&pains soother and a body spray that I think actually smells really good (for a change haha!).
As the final item of the night came up, Sir and I pooled all of our remaining bidding funds and were able to win a private bootblack session with Nick. We'll still have to sit down and negotiate how that will work, but it was a busy weekend and we'll have to work on that a little later on in the month, I think.
After the auction wrapped up, it was time for a final drink and then some socializing before we headed back to our host house to get in some sleep.
On Saturday, Sir & I met up with one of his friends for brunch. We chose to try The Stepping Stone Cafe, which reminded me of Beth's or The Hurricane - but with less food poisoning involved. The food was fantastic, the service was friendly, but it was very loud and extremely busy. If you ever go, I suggest grabbing the homemade biscuit - it's huge and delicious! After brunch, we went back to our host house and hung out for the afternoon before heading back to Embers for the contest.
We had figured out that the Portland Streetcar ran very close to our host house the night before and decided to take it back into town to grab dinner before heading to the contest. As luck would have it, we made the standard mistake of tourists and missed our stop by nearly a mile. By the time we backtracked and managed to grab dinner, we were getting close to contest time but we managed to get there in time to find seats and say hello to a few people.
The contest itself was really amazing, if very quick - there were 2 contestants for Mr, 1 for Ms and 1 for Bootblack; they all had very short but poignant speeches, clever and quirky pop questions (and answers) and the fantasies for both Mr and the Ms contestant were all very well done and displayed how varied and interesting our community truly is. I always wish Bootblacks got a fantasy too, though I do understand that asking them to have a technical and a fantasy would be far too much work for them to complete in the weekend.
Due to some minor technical difficulties (which the tally masters handled superbly) we were asked to say a few words while the counts were completed along with a few other folks who had announcements or were visiting. I was sad to hear that the brand new sex-positive center was opening up for it's first event on Sunday night - when we would already be on the road home again. But don't worry, Portland, we'll be back!
At this point, I want to extend another congratulations to the just stepped down title panel: Oregon State Mr. Leather 2011 Tarsus, Ms Leather Ms Tracey and Bootblack 2011 Nick. Their year was amazing and the first year Oregon has had a Bootblack title - you three left large boots to fill. Thank you for your commitment and your passion.
And also - I'd like to say congratulations to the new 2012 title holders : Oregon State Mr Leather 2012 Danny, Ms Leather 2012 Michelle and Bootblack 2012 Sammy. We eagerly and wholeheartedly extend to you our warmest wishes and support. Should you need anything, please let us know, our dear sash-brothers and -sister.
After the contest was over, Sir & I drove Sammy up to the celebration after-party at the Portland Eagle where we had the chance to oil a pair of leather shorts Sammy had won during the auction the previous night. We spoke with a lot of interesting people, I got the chance to actually chat with this years American Leatherwoman, Trinity - what an amazing woman! By the end of the night, I was wilting a little from the busy day, but had truly enjoyed every minute of the whole day.
We woke up late on Sunday and headed over to the brunch, fortunately there was plenty of time before they started the awards for the community. It was wonderful to meet the people recognized by Portland as their honored persons for the year and the stories of some of these individuals were heart warming to hear.
Our trip home was long and stressful due to a few engine hiccups (my car is grounded), but we are safely home in Seattle now and looking forward to the next chance we have to visit.
I still owe our hosts spanikopita too...
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Well gosh, I have been remiss in my blogging duties as a title holder this summer. I apologize and ask understanding in that it's not that I don't want to talk to you all but more typically that I *am* out talking with you all in person and that's just such a rush, I can't even describe.
My last post was July 5 and a lot has happened (and changed!) since then. So I'll jump right into trying to make all my partial posts make sense yes?
Starting off with the week after the 4th, we went to a Run with a local Leather family with some of my very favorite people in the world. I should give the preface that this particular Family was some of the very first Leathermen, -women, -family I'd ever encountered and it was their positive reinforcement and examples that set me on the path I am walking today. It is very easy for me to say that without their influence, I wouldn't hold this title or be doing the work we're doing this year. And so I must expound how much I love them all and respect all their input and advice.
The run was a blast, as it has been every year we've been able to attend. With a pool, BBQ, and lots of fun play apparatus to fiddle with. I even got to pull out my boot black kit & show it off to a few folks and work on a few pairs of boots before the night was over.
We also got eaten alive by the mosquitos out the long house. (I had welts for nearly 2 weeks!)
The following week was pretty hectic as we were starting to seriously move into our new place (yay!!!) and then on Friday, it was straight down from work to Tacoma to see my own Leather Family. We got to see them, hang out and have a great night of geekery and then curl up in bed for a few hours of rest before Tacoma's Pride Festival.
Unlike previous cities we'd been to, Tacoma no longer has a parade/march but instead gets a festival in the middle of the city center. Seeing random pedestrians try and figure the event out was a little amusing, I must admit. We had a lot of fun in Tacoma, saw a lot of people we know and even got to meet a few we didn't. Eventually, with heat and sun starting to take their toll, we headed home to Seattle for the night.
We woke up bright and early on Sunday (well, it was early...) and got ready for driving halfway across the state. I make it sound worse than it is, Bellingham is a lovely city situated near the BC border and set in a valley with a breath-taking view of the Bellingham Bay. It was cool but very muggy on Sunday, and the wind didn't help matters overmuch on that front; but I didn't really mind so much as it was at least a little relief from the heat of the day before.
The parade got started with only a few hitches and one stray dog. It wasn't an overly large parade group but what they lacked in numbers, may I say that Bellingham made up for in energy, exuberance and sheer tooth-and-knuckle Pride in their identity? It was an amazing experience - and an honor - to march amongst them and share our support with the community there.
We wound out the weekend with a stop into Mallard Ice Cream - if you're ever in Bellingham, you have got to try this place. I remember going with a friend who lived up there for a couple years for school and their varied selection (they make all their own ice cream and rotate the flavors) always made me giddy. I had Yerba Mate and was bouncing for the rest of the day from the caffeine.
Whoopsy!
We were scheduled to go to the Coronation of the new Boise, ID Court's Emperor & Empress but our car broke down the night before we were supposed to leave. It was with great sorrow (and not a few bouts of tears and tantrums in the lead up) that I finally called our hosts and advised that we weren't going to be able to make it out. Fortunately, nobody was upset with us - though I'm still disappointed.
As we were unable to make it to Boise, Sir and I started looking at the calendar and realized that the Kitsap Pride Festival was going to be on Sunday 7/22 so, as we couldn't be in Boise, we decided to suck it up and not throw a pity party at all but go to another Pride. I am so glad we did, too. We took the bus from our house to the Seattle ferry terminals, jumped on a ferry and enjoyed a nice hour long ride across the sound. If you're not familiar, the trek is long and rather non-eventful but it's almost always pretty.
Upon arriving, friends in the Kitsap ACES picked us up and trollied our grateful butts to the festival. I cannot say it enough, these small events are amazing - and this year Kitsap crowned their first Mr. & Miss Kitsap Pride; I am sorry we missed the competition but the entire day was sunny and warm and full of happy people. The support from the surrounding community was absolutely wonderful and I can't wait to go back out to Bremerton again soon.
On Tuesday 7/24, Sir surprised me with the news that we'd been gifted tickets to San Francisco for that weekend to be able to attend the International Leather Sir/boy and International Community Boot Black contests. I could not have been more excited to be able to support NW Leather Sir Jim Drew, NW Leather boy Dan and NW Community Bootblack Ruin. There's so much I could talk about on this, the entire trip was just mind blowingly amazing.
We flew out Friday morning and a dear friend who moved down to California a few years ago came up to the airport to collect us. As a side note, if you are wearing makeup with glitter in it, wash your hands before you go through TSA. Glitter reads as explosives on the new scanners, apparently. (me rolling eyes at TSA here) We got a hotel room last minute and took a little time to unwind from the flight and change into more comfortable gear for the first night of the competition. Night #1 the Sir/Boy jocks and speeches, and we got to see a lot of booty and hear quite a few amazing stories of growth and discovery.
I do need to stop here and say that both Sir & I were blown away by the Florida State Leather boy, Rick - at 70 years old, he only recently found the community and his passion wasn't just visible, it was palpable. I found myself on the verge of tears as he spoke about his life and joy in finding his path. One day, I hope somebody finds me half as inspirational as I found his story.
After the first night of the contest, we went back to our hotel and just curled up. Travel is hard, yo.
Saturday morning, we got up and headed over to the Bootblack "testing" - all contestants were lined up and working on boots of participants and attendees of the contest whilst being observed for their interactions with their clients. Coinciding with this was the silent auction (Sir found himself a pair of amazing chaps with a an even more amazing story) which was a lot of fun and there were a lot of really cool items.
We took lunch after the auction / boot black observation ended; Sir had a new pair of chaps and freshly polished boots to show off, after all. I, mean while, located a bookstore that had several different translations of the Illiad and the Odessy - a set I've been meaning to pick up and read for years. I couldn't say no to a 40+ year old set for $20.00 hardbound. In fact, I may have had a minor spaz out in the shop over them; but they happily went home with me.
Back to the competition for the final portion that night : Sir/boy fantasies and Bootblack speeches; we had a lot of fun watching all the fantasies and I'm still not sure what my favorite was. There was the police fantasy, or the Pigs in Space variation... but really I loved the story of how the Southwest (Tuscon, I think?) Sir and his boy first met and the Northwest fantasy (I will not spoil this because I want to see it done this month at the GLPW Leather weekend). Ruin was one of the last speeches and there was no question for anyone in the NW region who heard her speak, she nailed her speech.
Sadly, Northwest didn't get all three titles (yes I know, that would be asking for too much, but one can always hope) BUT - I *must* send my congratulations to Ruin for being recognized as our International Community Bootblack 2013!
During a break in the contest, I had the fortune to meet Glenda Rider (Owner and co-producer of IMSL) in person. We'd had a few online correspondences but it's always such a pleasure to meet the leaders and elders in the community - they have so much information, insight and experience to share. We should all be so lucky to absorb so much in our lifetimes! Sir & I were invited to her after-party, and were very happy to be able to accept.
I had expected that Glenda would like to get to know me a little better, as a state title holder, to get a feel for me in case I was intending to run for IMsL 2013; instead, she told me she'd invited me up to ask me to consider running (in case I wasn't) and now I'm really in a pickle kids, it's admittedly too early to commit to the idea of running for IMsL but at the same time, how could I not want to? This year so far (all 4 months of it) have been such an amazing, mind-blowing, stunningly fantastic experience. I have met more interesting people, experienced a wider array and depth of personalities, events and situations than I could have imagined. There's so much to still think about.
After the party, a friend of Sir's took us to her place for the night as we'd only booked the hotel for one night. She drove us back into town the next morning and we got to go to Up Your Alley. It was hot, sunny, and there was a lot of nearly (and fully) naked men all around. Sadly, only a few women but hey! I'm an equal opportunity admirer, so that's alright too. On the down side, we forgot sunscreen so I was a little pink around the top and Sir - bless Him - had decided to wear chaps & a codpiece out... so His tan lines are really impressive now!
Luckily (ironically?) our flight was delayed so we made it home without too much trouble.
On Wednesday 8/1, we got to attend a monumentous event : "Sistory-25 years of Sisterhood in Seattle" - which was an amazing event held at the Lobby Bar on the hill and was a celebration of the reforming of the Mother House as well as a general history of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. (Did you know the Mother House of Seattle was the 2nd US house founded? And the 4th in the world?! WOW!)
Sadly, I did not get to attend this year's 2nd annual Seattle SlutWalk because we were packing and moving things from storage to the new place.
For those not in the know, Paradise Unbound just opened up last night. Check out their site for more info!
http://www.paradiseunbound.com/
Which leads up to today: today is a mellow day, tomorrow will be as well. I am working long days this week so we can leave early on Friday to make it down Portland for the Mr & Ms Oregon State Leather contest. (http://www.blackoutleather.org/OSL%20&%20OSB%20Page.html)
I will get to meet another of Sir's good friends and also I get to meet a Sister I've had on my facebook for 2 years but never personally met. YAY!
My last post was July 5 and a lot has happened (and changed!) since then. So I'll jump right into trying to make all my partial posts make sense yes?
Starting off with the week after the 4th, we went to a Run with a local Leather family with some of my very favorite people in the world. I should give the preface that this particular Family was some of the very first Leathermen, -women, -family I'd ever encountered and it was their positive reinforcement and examples that set me on the path I am walking today. It is very easy for me to say that without their influence, I wouldn't hold this title or be doing the work we're doing this year. And so I must expound how much I love them all and respect all their input and advice.
The run was a blast, as it has been every year we've been able to attend. With a pool, BBQ, and lots of fun play apparatus to fiddle with. I even got to pull out my boot black kit & show it off to a few folks and work on a few pairs of boots before the night was over.
We also got eaten alive by the mosquitos out the long house. (I had welts for nearly 2 weeks!)
The following week was pretty hectic as we were starting to seriously move into our new place (yay!!!) and then on Friday, it was straight down from work to Tacoma to see my own Leather Family. We got to see them, hang out and have a great night of geekery and then curl up in bed for a few hours of rest before Tacoma's Pride Festival.
Unlike previous cities we'd been to, Tacoma no longer has a parade/march but instead gets a festival in the middle of the city center. Seeing random pedestrians try and figure the event out was a little amusing, I must admit. We had a lot of fun in Tacoma, saw a lot of people we know and even got to meet a few we didn't. Eventually, with heat and sun starting to take their toll, we headed home to Seattle for the night.
We woke up bright and early on Sunday (well, it was early...) and got ready for driving halfway across the state. I make it sound worse than it is, Bellingham is a lovely city situated near the BC border and set in a valley with a breath-taking view of the Bellingham Bay. It was cool but very muggy on Sunday, and the wind didn't help matters overmuch on that front; but I didn't really mind so much as it was at least a little relief from the heat of the day before.
The parade got started with only a few hitches and one stray dog. It wasn't an overly large parade group but what they lacked in numbers, may I say that Bellingham made up for in energy, exuberance and sheer tooth-and-knuckle Pride in their identity? It was an amazing experience - and an honor - to march amongst them and share our support with the community there.
We wound out the weekend with a stop into Mallard Ice Cream - if you're ever in Bellingham, you have got to try this place. I remember going with a friend who lived up there for a couple years for school and their varied selection (they make all their own ice cream and rotate the flavors) always made me giddy. I had Yerba Mate and was bouncing for the rest of the day from the caffeine.
Whoopsy!
We were scheduled to go to the Coronation of the new Boise, ID Court's Emperor & Empress but our car broke down the night before we were supposed to leave. It was with great sorrow (and not a few bouts of tears and tantrums in the lead up) that I finally called our hosts and advised that we weren't going to be able to make it out. Fortunately, nobody was upset with us - though I'm still disappointed.
As we were unable to make it to Boise, Sir and I started looking at the calendar and realized that the Kitsap Pride Festival was going to be on Sunday 7/22 so, as we couldn't be in Boise, we decided to suck it up and not throw a pity party at all but go to another Pride. I am so glad we did, too. We took the bus from our house to the Seattle ferry terminals, jumped on a ferry and enjoyed a nice hour long ride across the sound. If you're not familiar, the trek is long and rather non-eventful but it's almost always pretty.
Upon arriving, friends in the Kitsap ACES picked us up and trollied our grateful butts to the festival. I cannot say it enough, these small events are amazing - and this year Kitsap crowned their first Mr. & Miss Kitsap Pride; I am sorry we missed the competition but the entire day was sunny and warm and full of happy people. The support from the surrounding community was absolutely wonderful and I can't wait to go back out to Bremerton again soon.
On Tuesday 7/24, Sir surprised me with the news that we'd been gifted tickets to San Francisco for that weekend to be able to attend the International Leather Sir/boy and International Community Boot Black contests. I could not have been more excited to be able to support NW Leather Sir Jim Drew, NW Leather boy Dan and NW Community Bootblack Ruin. There's so much I could talk about on this, the entire trip was just mind blowingly amazing.
We flew out Friday morning and a dear friend who moved down to California a few years ago came up to the airport to collect us. As a side note, if you are wearing makeup with glitter in it, wash your hands before you go through TSA. Glitter reads as explosives on the new scanners, apparently. (me rolling eyes at TSA here) We got a hotel room last minute and took a little time to unwind from the flight and change into more comfortable gear for the first night of the competition. Night #1 the Sir/Boy jocks and speeches, and we got to see a lot of booty and hear quite a few amazing stories of growth and discovery.
I do need to stop here and say that both Sir & I were blown away by the Florida State Leather boy, Rick - at 70 years old, he only recently found the community and his passion wasn't just visible, it was palpable. I found myself on the verge of tears as he spoke about his life and joy in finding his path. One day, I hope somebody finds me half as inspirational as I found his story.
After the first night of the contest, we went back to our hotel and just curled up. Travel is hard, yo.
Saturday morning, we got up and headed over to the Bootblack "testing" - all contestants were lined up and working on boots of participants and attendees of the contest whilst being observed for their interactions with their clients. Coinciding with this was the silent auction (Sir found himself a pair of amazing chaps with a an even more amazing story) which was a lot of fun and there were a lot of really cool items.
We took lunch after the auction / boot black observation ended; Sir had a new pair of chaps and freshly polished boots to show off, after all. I, mean while, located a bookstore that had several different translations of the Illiad and the Odessy - a set I've been meaning to pick up and read for years. I couldn't say no to a 40+ year old set for $20.00 hardbound. In fact, I may have had a minor spaz out in the shop over them; but they happily went home with me.
Back to the competition for the final portion that night : Sir/boy fantasies and Bootblack speeches; we had a lot of fun watching all the fantasies and I'm still not sure what my favorite was. There was the police fantasy, or the Pigs in Space variation... but really I loved the story of how the Southwest (Tuscon, I think?) Sir and his boy first met and the Northwest fantasy (I will not spoil this because I want to see it done this month at the GLPW Leather weekend). Ruin was one of the last speeches and there was no question for anyone in the NW region who heard her speak, she nailed her speech.
Sadly, Northwest didn't get all three titles (yes I know, that would be asking for too much, but one can always hope) BUT - I *must* send my congratulations to Ruin for being recognized as our International Community Bootblack 2013!
During a break in the contest, I had the fortune to meet Glenda Rider (Owner and co-producer of IMSL) in person. We'd had a few online correspondences but it's always such a pleasure to meet the leaders and elders in the community - they have so much information, insight and experience to share. We should all be so lucky to absorb so much in our lifetimes! Sir & I were invited to her after-party, and were very happy to be able to accept.
I had expected that Glenda would like to get to know me a little better, as a state title holder, to get a feel for me in case I was intending to run for IMsL 2013; instead, she told me she'd invited me up to ask me to consider running (in case I wasn't) and now I'm really in a pickle kids, it's admittedly too early to commit to the idea of running for IMsL but at the same time, how could I not want to? This year so far (all 4 months of it) have been such an amazing, mind-blowing, stunningly fantastic experience. I have met more interesting people, experienced a wider array and depth of personalities, events and situations than I could have imagined. There's so much to still think about.
After the party, a friend of Sir's took us to her place for the night as we'd only booked the hotel for one night. She drove us back into town the next morning and we got to go to Up Your Alley. It was hot, sunny, and there was a lot of nearly (and fully) naked men all around. Sadly, only a few women but hey! I'm an equal opportunity admirer, so that's alright too. On the down side, we forgot sunscreen so I was a little pink around the top and Sir - bless Him - had decided to wear chaps & a codpiece out... so His tan lines are really impressive now!
Luckily (ironically?) our flight was delayed so we made it home without too much trouble.
On Wednesday 8/1, we got to attend a monumentous event : "Sistory-25 years of Sisterhood in Seattle" - which was an amazing event held at the Lobby Bar on the hill and was a celebration of the reforming of the Mother House as well as a general history of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. (Did you know the Mother House of Seattle was the 2nd US house founded? And the 4th in the world?! WOW!)
Sadly, I did not get to attend this year's 2nd annual Seattle SlutWalk because we were packing and moving things from storage to the new place.
For those not in the know, Paradise Unbound just opened up last night. Check out their site for more info!
http://www.paradiseunbound.com/
Which leads up to today: today is a mellow day, tomorrow will be as well. I am working long days this week so we can leave early on Friday to make it down Portland for the Mr & Ms Oregon State Leather contest. (http://www.blackoutleather.org/OSL%20&%20OSB%20Page.html)
I will get to meet another of Sir's good friends and also I get to meet a Sister I've had on my facebook for 2 years but never personally met. YAY!
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