Without further ado: Leather Retreat 2009
This is the best camp I've ever had. I'm thinner. Healthier. Sleeping properly. And I brought the BIPAP machine. Camp had very little drama and wonderful weather. Heeeeere we go:
Wednesday
After an exceptionally smooth, easy ride down with my lovely traveling companion tootlelulu, I got unpacked and moved into our beloved cabins 3 and 4, the (deep breath) Award-Winning, Website Hacking, Flamingo-Torturing Mafia Badass Sadists Lair In Effect, Yo!, and began to experience the pleasures of being at camp and being down sixty pounds since February. I was moving better. I was playing better. And best of all, my lovely friends at camp found me um...more attractive. Wow. I set up a chair over in Tent City, (next door, at cabins 1 and 2) and commenced relaxation. Camp had a good groove this year and I settled immediately into the best way of life there is for five days.
Thursday
At breakfast on Thursday, I found out that the famous Sadists Lair bondage flamingo was in fact IN camp. Bill and I kidnapped him off the steps of the White House--a small manor at the entrance to the camp that is used as a staff residence. So we spent a lot of that day putting up the cabin art--two tableaux. One featured the Death Flamingos--two skeletal back plastic lawn ornaments put into a gray and black spider web--one of them inverted so it looked like a yin-yang or a post-mortem 69 position. The other, was our pink friend in an inverted duct-tape suspension with a sock over its head and a pack of Reeses Pieces taped strategically going up its bird-chute. A good look. Our front cabin art makes the golf carts stop on the road outside the cabin just to look.
Thursday night, my planned scene with tweekie went off--a caning up in the dungeon just to the edge of severe beating. We were going for catharsis and it was a great scene. It was what I needed and what she needed as wel. Great energy and a late night.
Friday
Friday was a lot of negotiation, setting up the weekend and getting work on the cabin finished. Not to mention time in the pool and at Nayland's class.
Friday night featured Cigars and Chocolate, an annual camp ritual run by the redoubtable fortryll. Up on the hill, we smoked and relaxed as the sun set over the camp. Finally, I worked the door at Lucky's, our own home-made strip club. Every year this becomes a scene in itself as I played "bouncer" for three hours. People were peppered with trivia questions, forcibly searched, and occasionally turned away or moved back down the line five or ten spaces. Pretty arbitrary, like any New York club. Finally, I went downstairs, took off kilt, shoes and shirt, jumped in the pool and yelled up to the balcony" "I quit, motherfuckers!"
Saturday
Big Scene Day. The highlight was a four-way whip scene with Cooper, our running boy from last year. He was in his boots, with the laces tied together, trying to dodge the three whip tops (RTB, the Vampiress in Vinyl and my own good self). It was exceptionally intense and a lot of fun. And the kind of high physical energy scene that was not in my abilities last year. This went for an hour and a half with breaks, on a hill, with all of us running and whipping and whipping and running. Great energy and a great scene. And then we took a break for shaved ice. And did it some more, this time adding a fourth whip top. Man oh man. That boy ain't right.
Then I got up to the Pamporium for my boot-blacking appointment with pony_bootblack. I have known pony for years, but this was my first time in her chair. She did an award-worthy job on my boots, which was instructional as well as aesthetic. Later that evening, I took K up to the dungeon with my cane bag--and beat her into bliss with the two of us lounging on the gigantic red LoveSack. It's a huge pillow six feet around, and it was us and the cane bag. Afterward at Snack, I presented Cooper with his black hanky and explained about the Hanky Code. He's earned it.
Sunday
This is traditionally the busiest day, when you're trying to get all your scenes done before the Monday crash. And I was involved in three. Did a knife scene up at the Labyrinth, Pressure points, poking, punching and a whispered "Why so SERIOUS?." Good scene. Then the formal dinner. Vest, L.U.R.E. t-shirt, boots, hankies, long kilt. I looked good. I felt like me. And our cabin won the decorating contest for its third year in a row.
After the formal dinner, I had another knife-play scene with a Certain Redhead who I've wanted to play with for a long time. There was terror--but no mayhem. Afterwards, we went back to Tent City for aftercare (Jersey Mudslides made by Den) and then I was off to the play space to help my fellow Lair rats take down one of our own. Grabbed cuffed, punched, pummeled. And we had help from an Angel. Had a long slow wind down afterwards, several long in-depth conversations, and a crazed golf cart ride 'round camp while blasting The Doors. I won't name the driver here but he should be designing roller-coasters.
Monday
I woke up Monday morning with the first thing on my mind being the tree-planting ceremony for Wild Bill, our good friend who had died earlier in June from A.L.S. I showered, dressed and took my six-foot red-and-black Peter Jack bullwhip. The family--the Lair--were there, along with the Boston crew, Harry (who owns the camp) and Greg and Karri. Pony said some really beautiful words. We planted the tree, shovels biting into the dirt under the hot sun. And then I asked the crowd to step back, and proceeded to bang off twenty-one whip cracks. Carefully paced, with the same swing each time, these loud cannon shots that echoed across the bowl of the camp in memory of our friend. It cleared the air and emptied me of my angry emotions at our loss. Very cleansing and very loud.
Then brunch, and went and took the flamingos down. Our much-loved, much-abused Big Pink friend was ceremoniously returned to the porch of the White House. Did more packing. Did more hugging and instigating. And then back into the waiting arms of my beloved green_kohai.
I conclude this VERY long post with this. Thank you, to my friends and my beloved cabin family. Thank you to my hosts at Tent City for giving me the best relaxation space in the world. And thank you finally to everyone who worked their asses off at camp so I could go play in the sun for five days. As I told Greg, this was the best Leather Retreat I've ever had--and I am not the only one who said that this weekend.
Time for more sleep, laundry, and unpacking and repacking. TESFest starts Thursday. Y'all ready?
Wednesday
After an exceptionally smooth, easy ride down with my lovely traveling companion tootlelulu, I got unpacked and moved into our beloved cabins 3 and 4, the (deep breath) Award-Winning, Website Hacking, Flamingo-Torturing Mafia Badass Sadists Lair In Effect, Yo!, and began to experience the pleasures of being at camp and being down sixty pounds since February. I was moving better. I was playing better. And best of all, my lovely friends at camp found me um...more attractive. Wow. I set up a chair over in Tent City, (next door, at cabins 1 and 2) and commenced relaxation. Camp had a good groove this year and I settled immediately into the best way of life there is for five days.
Thursday
At breakfast on Thursday, I found out that the famous Sadists Lair bondage flamingo was in fact IN camp. Bill and I kidnapped him off the steps of the White House--a small manor at the entrance to the camp that is used as a staff residence. So we spent a lot of that day putting up the cabin art--two tableaux. One featured the Death Flamingos--two skeletal back plastic lawn ornaments put into a gray and black spider web--one of them inverted so it looked like a yin-yang or a post-mortem 69 position. The other, was our pink friend in an inverted duct-tape suspension with a sock over its head and a pack of Reeses Pieces taped strategically going up its bird-chute. A good look. Our front cabin art makes the golf carts stop on the road outside the cabin just to look.
Thursday night, my planned scene with tweekie went off--a caning up in the dungeon just to the edge of severe beating. We were going for catharsis and it was a great scene. It was what I needed and what she needed as wel. Great energy and a late night.
Friday
Friday was a lot of negotiation, setting up the weekend and getting work on the cabin finished. Not to mention time in the pool and at Nayland's class.
Friday night featured Cigars and Chocolate, an annual camp ritual run by the redoubtable fortryll. Up on the hill, we smoked and relaxed as the sun set over the camp. Finally, I worked the door at Lucky's, our own home-made strip club. Every year this becomes a scene in itself as I played "bouncer" for three hours. People were peppered with trivia questions, forcibly searched, and occasionally turned away or moved back down the line five or ten spaces. Pretty arbitrary, like any New York club. Finally, I went downstairs, took off kilt, shoes and shirt, jumped in the pool and yelled up to the balcony" "I quit, motherfuckers!"
Saturday
Big Scene Day. The highlight was a four-way whip scene with Cooper, our running boy from last year. He was in his boots, with the laces tied together, trying to dodge the three whip tops (RTB, the Vampiress in Vinyl and my own good self). It was exceptionally intense and a lot of fun. And the kind of high physical energy scene that was not in my abilities last year. This went for an hour and a half with breaks, on a hill, with all of us running and whipping and whipping and running. Great energy and a great scene. And then we took a break for shaved ice. And did it some more, this time adding a fourth whip top. Man oh man. That boy ain't right.
Then I got up to the Pamporium for my boot-blacking appointment with pony_bootblack. I have known pony for years, but this was my first time in her chair. She did an award-worthy job on my boots, which was instructional as well as aesthetic. Later that evening, I took K up to the dungeon with my cane bag--and beat her into bliss with the two of us lounging on the gigantic red LoveSack. It's a huge pillow six feet around, and it was us and the cane bag. Afterward at Snack, I presented Cooper with his black hanky and explained about the Hanky Code. He's earned it.
Sunday
This is traditionally the busiest day, when you're trying to get all your scenes done before the Monday crash. And I was involved in three. Did a knife scene up at the Labyrinth, Pressure points, poking, punching and a whispered "Why so SERIOUS?." Good scene. Then the formal dinner. Vest, L.U.R.E. t-shirt, boots, hankies, long kilt. I looked good. I felt like me. And our cabin won the decorating contest for its third year in a row.
After the formal dinner, I had another knife-play scene with a Certain Redhead who I've wanted to play with for a long time. There was terror--but no mayhem. Afterwards, we went back to Tent City for aftercare (Jersey Mudslides made by Den) and then I was off to the play space to help my fellow Lair rats take down one of our own. Grabbed cuffed, punched, pummeled. And we had help from an Angel. Had a long slow wind down afterwards, several long in-depth conversations, and a crazed golf cart ride 'round camp while blasting The Doors. I won't name the driver here but he should be designing roller-coasters.
Monday
I woke up Monday morning with the first thing on my mind being the tree-planting ceremony for Wild Bill, our good friend who had died earlier in June from A.L.S. I showered, dressed and took my six-foot red-and-black Peter Jack bullwhip. The family--the Lair--were there, along with the Boston crew, Harry (who owns the camp) and Greg and Karri. Pony said some really beautiful words. We planted the tree, shovels biting into the dirt under the hot sun. And then I asked the crowd to step back, and proceeded to bang off twenty-one whip cracks. Carefully paced, with the same swing each time, these loud cannon shots that echoed across the bowl of the camp in memory of our friend. It cleared the air and emptied me of my angry emotions at our loss. Very cleansing and very loud.
Then brunch, and went and took the flamingos down. Our much-loved, much-abused Big Pink friend was ceremoniously returned to the porch of the White House. Did more packing. Did more hugging and instigating. And then back into the waiting arms of my beloved green_kohai.
I conclude this VERY long post with this. Thank you, to my friends and my beloved cabin family. Thank you to my hosts at Tent City for giving me the best relaxation space in the world. And thank you finally to everyone who worked their asses off at camp so I could go play in the sun for five days. As I told Greg, this was the best Leather Retreat I've ever had--and I am not the only one who said that this weekend.
Time for more sleep, laundry, and unpacking and repacking. TESFest starts Thursday. Y'all ready?