International Ms Leather 2013

Stepping down from Washington State Ms Leather 2012 was hard, like anything you put a year of your life and energy into, I mourned for the sudden lack of this thing in my life. Not for the sash itself, mind you, the sash was a very nice piece of leather but it was never mine and it was no longer my right to wear it. But after a year of dedication to my community, I was lost for a few days despite the knowledge that I would be in San Francisco less than 4 weeks later to compete for International Ms Leather 2013.

Which is not to say I hadn't been preparing in what spare time I could find before step-down but I suddenly had more time after step-down to the surprise of nobody, I'm sure. Prep was hard work - as it always is - with lots of homework, research, and consideration as to the implications of the information and facts. Still and all, it was good to refresh my memory on some of the information and to have the excuse to research some events and people more than I ever had previously.

After weeks of prep and planning, panic and mad flailing like a crazy woman, it was time to fly to San Francisco. We arrived a day in advance of the events on the 17th and took the day to just walk around and enjoy the sunny weather. We took the trolley to the water front, stopped by Boudin and shared a bread bowl and then finally opted to head back to the hotel to check in. While waiting for our room, we had the fortune of meeting a lovely woman from Wales who turned out to be the wife of one of the judges for the contest. She was quite interesting and I loved the chance to speak with somebody from an area I've never had the chance to visit at all.

After we got into our room, it was time to unpack - I took the opportunity to strip before unpacking - and sorted through all my outfits so that everything was neatly organized by likelihood of being worn or scheduled to be worn on a certain day or for a certain look once the contest got started. Then we decided to grab dinner and head over to the Eagle for the SHEagle event to meet as many of the other contestants as possible. I should also point out that Sir & I intentionally used the public transit options whenever/wherever possible while out of town as it's not only more cost effective but usually pretty easy to sort out.
Anyway, that was Wednesday and while it doesn't sound too busy, it was really nice to have a day to acclimate before starting the actual contest.

Thursday dawned sinfully bright and it was warm by 10am; not that I really noticed as I was in the process of finding my way to orientation and introduction with the other contestants and crew. After orientation, we signed about a million (100) posters and then we were introduced to the choreographer for our opening number. At first, it was a tangle of people, limbs, chairs as any new routine always starts out. By the end of the first rehearsal, we had a vaguely decent idea of what we were in store for. After that, we headed up to the top suites and met with all the producers and organizers to meet them and to be assigned our contestant number which would tell us where in the order we would be for each portion of the contest.
After that, we had a few minutes to change and then the contestants got to take a tour of San Francisco - we stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge, at Ghirardelli Square where we walked down to the Trolley carousel, to Mr. S Leather for the meet and greet where we got to meet some of our judges and most of the media covering the event. From there we then went on to visit an adult novelty shop and then on to grab dinner at a pizza & pasta place (though I got sick from their food, which was not very fun at all). After dinner, it was back to our rooms to change for Seduction - which was fun, although very loud and the ballroom was just a tad chilly for a little gal like me; but hey, I had a blast before it was curfew and time to slip out to bed.
Of course, I didn't just go to sleep - nope, I had to finish coloring my hair and that meant a second bleach application to get the copper tones gone.

Friday arrived even earlier and if possible, more sunny and lovely - which made the injustice of being inside just that more ironic. After our morning rehearsal - which went quite well, we'd all picked up where we needed to be and what we wanted to do - we were split into groups of those who had interviews first and those who had stage rehearsal for their fantasies. I was assigned Contestant #2 which meant I was the second interview but the seventh rehearsal, so up to my room to change into my interview outfit it was.
Speaking on the interview, I know that Tyesha of Leatherati posted the questions each contestant was asked so if you're interested in seeing the questions asked (but not the answers sadly) then definitely go check out that post of hers. I personally found the interview to be none-too-painful or anything although I think everyone gets all wound up about the "OMG IT'S GOING TO BE HORRIBLE AND THEY'RE GOING TO HATE ME" fears that happen when you're sitting in front of a group of folks all staring at you and writing down notes that you can't see. But at the end of it, I felt good about the answers I'd given and the questions I'd been asked.
My fantasy rehearsal went well later in the day and by the end of the day, I was back to my good old silly self.

When the doors opened for the night, I was the 2nd IMsL speech and boy was I nervous! I've never given a speech in so large a venue and while I tried to joke that it would all be well when I stepped on stage, it was very difficult to remember anything other than how to walk in my boots. Bless him, Sir must have known I was having nerves because he barked - yes he barked - and (bless them) the pups and handlers sitting behind him barked too. Which was just the little jolt out of my own head that I needed. My speech went well and - despite shaking like a leaf when I got backstage again - and although I took a small amount of time to get my nerves under control, I soon was sitting beside Sir and listening to the other speeches of the IMsL Class of 2013.
Upon the completion of the speeches and contest wrap-up for the night, I slipped back up to the room and changed for the Uniform Party which turned out to be a lot of fun but very very loud. After a while, it was curfew time again so we went up to see Sarha and try some of the meats she'd brought with her all the way from Alaska. I now really want to try more Moose and Reindeer, and I still want to try Carribou!
Once curfew rolled around, back to my room we went and I pulled out packages of color and proceeded to go from platinum to the finished project of sapphire blue and teal - I wanted to go with a peacock kind of coloring or at the very least, open ocean tones. All blue and green.

Saturday morning, I woke up early and dressed, pulling a bandana around my hair to carefully hide what we'd done as it was going to be a big reveal that night - much to the frustration of at least a few people who wanted spoilers. I was too nervous to eat and was having anxiety about the contest that night but after a stern look from not two but three elders in the community, I shut up and tried my best to eat a bit of breakfast. After that, it was down to rehearse the opening number again; the difference was that this time, we got it down so well that we wrapped almost an HOUR early. Shortly thereafter, I had my final rehearsal for my fantasy and then we adjourned up to the room for a little more work before deciding that it was as good as it was going to get (which is to say, awesome).

Before it was time to go down and get ready for the show to start, we had a good little nap break and I had a few minutes to center; then it was time to go down. I snuck down incognito, deciding that I'd have a big reveal for the hair and quickly enough managed to get backstage and get myself sorted. As we waited for the opening number to start, the room was very tense and you could taste how nervous most of us were. For what it's worth, I doubt anybody else knew any of us weren't professional stage performers because when those lights came up, we were spot-fricking-on. It was a great number and I had a lot of fun with my part in it.

After the opening number, we were all introduced again (and my blue/green hair was called out which made me laugh) before being sent back to get ready for the next portions of the night. At this point, the back stage sort of blew up in chaos as half of us scrambled into our fantasy outfits while the other half changed into their sexy/cruise looks and prepped for pop questions. I was the third person, and the second fantasy, of the night so my fantasy was early on in the evening; fortunately, I think that played well as it got the "hard" part out of the way early. After this, I had the rest of the night to wait as my pop question was third from the end so I tried to help wherever needed and otherwise just enjoyed the time to breathe and tried to entertain/distract the other girls from their stress.

After intermission, and most of the other girls were finished, it was finally time for my sexy look and pop question - fortunately, my pop question came up and was something I actually had a clue about because a few of questions that the other contestants I had no idea about. And I got to make a couple people blush, because well I'm like that.

Finally, after all that, the contest was over - it was time to change into my formal leather gown and we were all announced one last time onto the stage for the announcemetns of the Heart and Sole and the new IMsL and IMsBB 2013.

IMsL Heart and Soul : Minion

IMsBB Heart and Soul : Bootblack Bella

IMsBB 2013 : Bootblack Bella

IMsL Runner Up : Youkali Youkali (there was some confusion with the announcement unfortunately but congrats to Youkali!)

IMsL 2013 : Sarha Shaubach

It was a great run, an amazing contest, a wonderful experience.

I am grateful to my Community for the chance to represent you for a year; I am honored to have represented at IMsL. Thank you all for your support, your faith and your big hugs when I got home.

To my IMsL Class-sisters, thank you for the experience and for the lessons you taught, for the time you shared and the dedication and passion you shone with.