The Fetish Ball!
Hey, I forgot to tell you all about my trip to Ithaca back in July.
I met this dude Austin through OKCupid awhile ago, and when we were new e-friends, he asked me if I had a MySpace profile, so I linked him. In my ridiculous "top 8" I just have the profiles of businesses/movements/sometimes musicians that I like, so that none of my friends are vying for the #1 position or whatever, and so I don't have to agonize over where to put who. (Not that I actually do that, or that I think my friends really care... I just think the whole idea is stupid, and I'd rather use the space to promote various bits of awesome.) One of the things in my top 8 at the time was Bound, one of the "fetish events" in central New York. Austin noticed that, having no idea that such a thing even existed in New York State (he's originally from Texas, and was just in NY at Fort Drum in Watertown because he was in the military), and we kind of kept a tentative plan in the backs of our heads that we'd go to it together if we were both able to, since there was a ball coming up in Ithaca on Friday, July 13.
So, being the jaded skeptic that I am, I kind of forgot about it, since my plans with people seem to fall through more often than not. But then he started bringing it up again, and after much agonizing over whether he'd actually be able to go (the date of it coincided with his release from the Army), and many changes of plans on my part (I originally planned on renting a car to go down there, but that ended up not working out because I don't have a credit card), we were able to hammer out all the details and he picked me up that Friday after signing out.
We stopped in Syracuse to get something to eat and saw Transformers which was not bad but not awesome either, and then we were on our way to Ithaca. It was exciting to me, because I love Ithaca so much and have lots of memories of that whole area, so once we got onto Route 13 I had my face pressed against the car window: "There's the house Marco's apartment was in! Oh my god, that furniture store is gone! There's the A&W Drive-In where I got chili-dogs with Megan and her mom! There's the Price Chopper where James and I drove the little mart scooters around at 1am! WHY DID THEY WAIT UNTIL I WAS GONE TO PUT IN A DUNKIN' DONUTS IN BOTH CORTLAND AND DRYDEN!?!"
Finally, we got to Ithaca, and we spent a lot of time searching around for a place to stay. My original plan, when I was still going to rent a car and drive down myself, was to stay with a couple from CouchSurfing (the same ones whose house I have directions for in my purse, hurr hurr), but Austin has no sense of adventure when it comes to things like that and told me I "wasn't allowed" (plus it would've been a lot of driving around for him), so I called them and told them I wasn't going to be coming. Apparently it was orientation weekend for one of the colleges there, so most of the hotels were booked. We ended up staying in some "quaint" (lol) little inn on a hill across from some pretty apartment complex, in a very home-y room with three twin beds, all in their own little corner. We checked in, got our stuff in the room, Austin changed and I put on a bit of makeup, and we were on our way to The Haunt!
Man, the atmosphere in that place is pretty cool. The space above the bar is decorated with a "fence" type of thing, with ... well, I don't really remember what was behind it. But it's awesome. We went over to the bar and ordered a couple drinks from a bartender with lots of piercings and I felt like a bit of a nerd because of my super-plain dress and the wimpy little ring in my septum, and then we went out back. They have a little outdoor area with a porch and an outdoor bar, and picnic tables and stuff, so people can sit out there and smoke and hang out. We sat at a table and talked... Austin told me about his adventures in Afghanistan and showed me some "magic" tricks with his magnetic ball (he's got a magnetic implant in his left ring finger, and actually was featured in a BME article about it fairly recently--he goes by the name "Powder" there, and there's a picture of him picking up a paperclip). We were the only two sitting at the table we were at--everyone else there was in larger groups--so we decided to "force ourselves" upon this table of a couple women not too far from us. They were pretty friendly, and they'd apparently been to Bound before, so they attracted a few more people eventually... including Kokoa Chanel, the drag queen performer of the night. Haha. :) She came over a few times in this tiny, tight patent leather outfit and fishnet stockings, carrying a riding crop, which she slammed down on the table in front of me at one point, asserting that "[she was] the dominatrix here, bitches!" ;) It was great.
I'm not quite sure what I expected--no serious scening or anything, of course--but it was generally just your average bar/nightclub type of environment, with loud music and people socializing and drinking and hanging out... except with a LOT of interesting costumes and one young couple practically having sex up against the sliding-glass doors at one point. Haha. It was visually lots of fun: there was one guy dressed up in just a chef's apron and a g-string (with a very pert bottom, I must say! Austin even told me at one point to "stop looking at the chef's ass," haha), a bald pregnant woman with plentiful piercings in her ears and face and a skull tattoo wearing a shiny black patent leather dress (she was hot!), a guy with part of a fake noose around his neck who kept introducing himself as a "well-hung man", and many other gorgeous people who made me feel a little self-conscious in my plainness. Haha. :P
The drag queen's first performance came a little later than expected, but she proved to be an amazingly talented performer, so it was worth the wait. Her first song was "Pussy" by Lords of Acid, which I of course had to go in and dance a little to, because I love that song. By this point I'd had a few Smirnoffs, and had to pee, so I did. I came back out and stood around with Austin for a while, watching people dance. In retrospect, I wish I'd danced more with him and with the other people there. We did a little bumping hips and stuff, but I'm such a shrinking violet that I was afraid of embarrassing myself with my gimpy pseudo-moves. I need to get over that, haha. I did see this girl I recognized from my public speaking class at TC3--she was onstage, scantily clad, dancing with another girl (who was wearing just duct tape, if I remember correctly) to Rob Zombie's "Pussy Liquor," which is now one of my favorite songs EVAR, and which I must now listen to again. Eventually, Kokoa came back out for her second performance. I can't remember what song she danced to, but again, it was a great show.
Austin and I went outside to sit for a bit after that because we were both feeling tired of just standing around. While we were out there, my (male) friend from college, Alex, noticed me and came running over. "Kelleyyyy!!! Oh my god, I haven't seen you in forever!" He was wearing a black dress with red flowers on it, stockings, fancy satin gloves, and a flower in his hair. Haha. He was telling me about how sweaty and uncomfortable he was in drag, but told me that he was, in fact, wearing underwear... but then promptly decided to take his boxer-briefs off and give them to me. Haha! "I'd probably just end up giving them to some random guy otherwise, and you're way better than some guy!" I still have them here in my bedroom somewhere. ;)
Then it was time for the costume contest!
Lots of interesting characters, and some lamers, participating in the costume contest. Haha. Let's see... my personal favorites were:
- the couple dressed up like a priest and a pregnant nun, who mimicked the nun giving birth onstage, complete with small baby doll (it even had an umbilical cord!)
- a cute girl with a septum piercing that looked like it just belonged on her face, and beautiful thick blonde dreadlocks
- "the naked chef" with the pert bottom *giggle giggle*
- my friend Alex, who called himself "Miss Daisy". lol
- ...
Geez, I'm kind of blanking. Hah. I shouldn't have waited so long to write about the damn thing. :P BUT ANYWAY, LAST BUT NOT LEAST. There was this one woman in the costume contest who called herself "The Shoe Mistress". She had on this pair of impressively tall platform stilettos, and had a girl with her who was on a leash--obviously her sub--and wearing a cushion on her back. The Shoe Mistress whacked the sub on the ass with a riding crop, and she immediately got down on all fours so that Mistress could put her feet up. It was such a blatant display of D/s, seemingly much more serious than anything else there that night, and frankly, was pretty hot. Austin and I noticed, though, that the sub seemed to be on some kind of drug--probably ecstasy or something. Or perhaps just really deep in subspace, which would have been kind of impressive. I don't know; they intrigued me. I would've liked to have gotten to know them better.
I don't even remember who won. I think it was a tie between a couple people, with the pregnant nun and priest one of them.
There was a bit more dancing (they played a lot of songs you would have expected at such an event, including, of course, "Head Like a Hole" and "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails. Haha. At one point they also played "Du Hast" by Rammstein, and this dude who was dressed up as some sort of bondage Nazi or something freaked out to that one, which was highly entertaining!), and then a final performance from Kokoa. Her final song was "Maneater" by Nelly Furtado, and shit, the music was SO LOUD and the bass turned SO HIGH that I could feel my pants vibrating against my legs. That almost crossed the threshold of "too much bass" for me, which means it was pretty bad. Haha. That's also one of my new favorite songs; incredible to dance to, and in my wildest fantasies, it's my theme song. ;)
Austin and I left after that, and went back to our "inn" for the night.
- - -
Saturday morning we woke up kind of early, Austin panicking about his car because he'd had to park in a zone where there was no parking between 9am-5pm, checked out, and went downtown to the Commons. Alex had told me that he was working at Juna's Cafe until 11am, so we went there for some breakfast. I got something called the "Juna's Jumpstart," which is basically a bagel with egg, tomato, and cheese melted on top of it. It was delish. (But not very quick, sadly. Haha Matt.) Austin just got a bagel. He doesn't eat much, and it made me feel like a hog. Haha. Oh well.
THENNNN, we went to the Corning Museum of Glass! That place was pretty amazing. I love glass, and I definitely got my fill of it! I'd love to go back there someday, there are a lot of neat things to see! We also got to see a glassblowing show, where they made a neat glass bowl and then gave a previously-made one away to someone in the audience.
- - -
On the way home, Austin introduced me to the music of Richard Cheese (AKA "Dick Cheese," hurr hurr), who does lounge music versions of unexpected songs... such as "Down With the Sickness" by Disturbed, which was incredibly amusing. Haha. I took a wee nap, drank in the view of my collegiate stomping grounds one last time, and then was home. Austin gave me a hug and then was on his way to Syracuse to wander around aimlessly for a few days before flying back to Texas.
I guess that's all I've got for you for now. 'Twas a fun couple of days. :)
P.S. Happy Birthday, phuzzydee!!!
I met this dude Austin through OKCupid awhile ago, and when we were new e-friends, he asked me if I had a MySpace profile, so I linked him. In my ridiculous "top 8" I just have the profiles of businesses/movements/sometimes musicians that I like, so that none of my friends are vying for the #1 position or whatever, and so I don't have to agonize over where to put who. (Not that I actually do that, or that I think my friends really care... I just think the whole idea is stupid, and I'd rather use the space to promote various bits of awesome.) One of the things in my top 8 at the time was Bound, one of the "fetish events" in central New York. Austin noticed that, having no idea that such a thing even existed in New York State (he's originally from Texas, and was just in NY at Fort Drum in Watertown because he was in the military), and we kind of kept a tentative plan in the backs of our heads that we'd go to it together if we were both able to, since there was a ball coming up in Ithaca on Friday, July 13.
So, being the jaded skeptic that I am, I kind of forgot about it, since my plans with people seem to fall through more often than not. But then he started bringing it up again, and after much agonizing over whether he'd actually be able to go (the date of it coincided with his release from the Army), and many changes of plans on my part (I originally planned on renting a car to go down there, but that ended up not working out because I don't have a credit card), we were able to hammer out all the details and he picked me up that Friday after signing out.
We stopped in Syracuse to get something to eat and saw Transformers which was not bad but not awesome either, and then we were on our way to Ithaca. It was exciting to me, because I love Ithaca so much and have lots of memories of that whole area, so once we got onto Route 13 I had my face pressed against the car window: "There's the house Marco's apartment was in! Oh my god, that furniture store is gone! There's the A&W Drive-In where I got chili-dogs with Megan and her mom! There's the Price Chopper where James and I drove the little mart scooters around at 1am! WHY DID THEY WAIT UNTIL I WAS GONE TO PUT IN A DUNKIN' DONUTS IN BOTH CORTLAND AND DRYDEN!?!"
Finally, we got to Ithaca, and we spent a lot of time searching around for a place to stay. My original plan, when I was still going to rent a car and drive down myself, was to stay with a couple from CouchSurfing (the same ones whose house I have directions for in my purse, hurr hurr), but Austin has no sense of adventure when it comes to things like that and told me I "wasn't allowed" (plus it would've been a lot of driving around for him), so I called them and told them I wasn't going to be coming. Apparently it was orientation weekend for one of the colleges there, so most of the hotels were booked. We ended up staying in some "quaint" (lol) little inn on a hill across from some pretty apartment complex, in a very home-y room with three twin beds, all in their own little corner. We checked in, got our stuff in the room, Austin changed and I put on a bit of makeup, and we were on our way to The Haunt!
Man, the atmosphere in that place is pretty cool. The space above the bar is decorated with a "fence" type of thing, with ... well, I don't really remember what was behind it. But it's awesome. We went over to the bar and ordered a couple drinks from a bartender with lots of piercings and I felt like a bit of a nerd because of my super-plain dress and the wimpy little ring in my septum, and then we went out back. They have a little outdoor area with a porch and an outdoor bar, and picnic tables and stuff, so people can sit out there and smoke and hang out. We sat at a table and talked... Austin told me about his adventures in Afghanistan and showed me some "magic" tricks with his magnetic ball (he's got a magnetic implant in his left ring finger, and actually was featured in a BME article about it fairly recently--he goes by the name "Powder" there, and there's a picture of him picking up a paperclip). We were the only two sitting at the table we were at--everyone else there was in larger groups--so we decided to "force ourselves" upon this table of a couple women not too far from us. They were pretty friendly, and they'd apparently been to Bound before, so they attracted a few more people eventually... including Kokoa Chanel, the drag queen performer of the night. Haha. :) She came over a few times in this tiny, tight patent leather outfit and fishnet stockings, carrying a riding crop, which she slammed down on the table in front of me at one point, asserting that "[she was] the dominatrix here, bitches!" ;) It was great.
I'm not quite sure what I expected--no serious scening or anything, of course--but it was generally just your average bar/nightclub type of environment, with loud music and people socializing and drinking and hanging out... except with a LOT of interesting costumes and one young couple practically having sex up against the sliding-glass doors at one point. Haha. It was visually lots of fun: there was one guy dressed up in just a chef's apron and a g-string (with a very pert bottom, I must say! Austin even told me at one point to "stop looking at the chef's ass," haha), a bald pregnant woman with plentiful piercings in her ears and face and a skull tattoo wearing a shiny black patent leather dress (she was hot!), a guy with part of a fake noose around his neck who kept introducing himself as a "well-hung man", and many other gorgeous people who made me feel a little self-conscious in my plainness. Haha. :P
The drag queen's first performance came a little later than expected, but she proved to be an amazingly talented performer, so it was worth the wait. Her first song was "Pussy" by Lords of Acid, which I of course had to go in and dance a little to, because I love that song. By this point I'd had a few Smirnoffs, and had to pee, so I did. I came back out and stood around with Austin for a while, watching people dance. In retrospect, I wish I'd danced more with him and with the other people there. We did a little bumping hips and stuff, but I'm such a shrinking violet that I was afraid of embarrassing myself with my gimpy pseudo-moves. I need to get over that, haha. I did see this girl I recognized from my public speaking class at TC3--she was onstage, scantily clad, dancing with another girl (who was wearing just duct tape, if I remember correctly) to Rob Zombie's "Pussy Liquor," which is now one of my favorite songs EVAR, and which I must now listen to again. Eventually, Kokoa came back out for her second performance. I can't remember what song she danced to, but again, it was a great show.
Austin and I went outside to sit for a bit after that because we were both feeling tired of just standing around. While we were out there, my (male) friend from college, Alex, noticed me and came running over. "Kelleyyyy!!! Oh my god, I haven't seen you in forever!" He was wearing a black dress with red flowers on it, stockings, fancy satin gloves, and a flower in his hair. Haha. He was telling me about how sweaty and uncomfortable he was in drag, but told me that he was, in fact, wearing underwear... but then promptly decided to take his boxer-briefs off and give them to me. Haha! "I'd probably just end up giving them to some random guy otherwise, and you're way better than some guy!" I still have them here in my bedroom somewhere. ;)
Then it was time for the costume contest!
Lots of interesting characters, and some lamers, participating in the costume contest. Haha. Let's see... my personal favorites were:
- the couple dressed up like a priest and a pregnant nun, who mimicked the nun giving birth onstage, complete with small baby doll (it even had an umbilical cord!)
- a cute girl with a septum piercing that looked like it just belonged on her face, and beautiful thick blonde dreadlocks
- "the naked chef" with the pert bottom *giggle giggle*
- my friend Alex, who called himself "Miss Daisy". lol
- ...
Geez, I'm kind of blanking. Hah. I shouldn't have waited so long to write about the damn thing. :P BUT ANYWAY, LAST BUT NOT LEAST. There was this one woman in the costume contest who called herself "The Shoe Mistress". She had on this pair of impressively tall platform stilettos, and had a girl with her who was on a leash--obviously her sub--and wearing a cushion on her back. The Shoe Mistress whacked the sub on the ass with a riding crop, and she immediately got down on all fours so that Mistress could put her feet up. It was such a blatant display of D/s, seemingly much more serious than anything else there that night, and frankly, was pretty hot. Austin and I noticed, though, that the sub seemed to be on some kind of drug--probably ecstasy or something. Or perhaps just really deep in subspace, which would have been kind of impressive. I don't know; they intrigued me. I would've liked to have gotten to know them better.
I don't even remember who won. I think it was a tie between a couple people, with the pregnant nun and priest one of them.
There was a bit more dancing (they played a lot of songs you would have expected at such an event, including, of course, "Head Like a Hole" and "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails. Haha. At one point they also played "Du Hast" by Rammstein, and this dude who was dressed up as some sort of bondage Nazi or something freaked out to that one, which was highly entertaining!), and then a final performance from Kokoa. Her final song was "Maneater" by Nelly Furtado, and shit, the music was SO LOUD and the bass turned SO HIGH that I could feel my pants vibrating against my legs. That almost crossed the threshold of "too much bass" for me, which means it was pretty bad. Haha. That's also one of my new favorite songs; incredible to dance to, and in my wildest fantasies, it's my theme song. ;)
Austin and I left after that, and went back to our "inn" for the night.
- - -
Saturday morning we woke up kind of early, Austin panicking about his car because he'd had to park in a zone where there was no parking between 9am-5pm, checked out, and went downtown to the Commons. Alex had told me that he was working at Juna's Cafe until 11am, so we went there for some breakfast. I got something called the "Juna's Jumpstart," which is basically a bagel with egg, tomato, and cheese melted on top of it. It was delish. (But not very quick, sadly. Haha Matt.) Austin just got a bagel. He doesn't eat much, and it made me feel like a hog. Haha. Oh well.
THENNNN, we went to the Corning Museum of Glass! That place was pretty amazing. I love glass, and I definitely got my fill of it! I'd love to go back there someday, there are a lot of neat things to see! We also got to see a glassblowing show, where they made a neat glass bowl and then gave a previously-made one away to someone in the audience.
- - -
On the way home, Austin introduced me to the music of Richard Cheese (AKA "Dick Cheese," hurr hurr), who does lounge music versions of unexpected songs... such as "Down With the Sickness" by Disturbed, which was incredibly amusing. Haha. I took a wee nap, drank in the view of my collegiate stomping grounds one last time, and then was home. Austin gave me a hug and then was on his way to Syracuse to wander around aimlessly for a few days before flying back to Texas.
I guess that's all I've got for you for now. 'Twas a fun couple of days. :)
P.S. Happy Birthday, phuzzydee!!!