First Travel Story...

So, I was in a frenzy yesterday and today getting things straightened out so that I could head out of town for my first trip out of the LA area as ALM09. I'm headed off to Atlanta for the beginning of a couple of weeks of rubbery goodness with the Mr SouthEast Rubber weekend this weekend and contest and then back here in Los Angeles for the West Coast Rubber event and contest next weekend.

Anyhow, so I got my code pretty stable on our development and staging servers (yeah, geek by profession). In a frenzy of packing late last evening/this morning (thank you to my savior and husband, Loren) I managed to get out the door, get to the office (since today had to be the day I got the email saying my email inbox was full, and I wasn't able to log on to my work computer remotely to empty it) and get to Burbank airport with just over 45 minutes to spare. I got my bag checked - 50.0 pounds exactly (Woo hoo) and just after grabbing my mentos for the flight discovered that they had started boarding.

I got on the plane, and wandered all the way to the next to last row for my window seat, only to discover that in the row right in front of me is a woman with a small child and a lap-toddler. Both of the kids are somewhat restless, but not too bad. The young boy wants to sit in another row by himself. The flight attendant informs the woman that if the baby is going to sit in her lap she needs to sit on the other side of the plane because they have three oxygen masks over the two seats rather than just two like on the left side of the plane (this is something I had never thought about before). So they move to the other side. As they do so, I discover they guy who was about to sit there (now sitting in front of me) has a small dog in a carrier with him. Oh goody...

The plane is just about full, the flight attendant tells the boy that he can sit next to her if he likes. On comes the captain, indicating that we need to close all of our blinds cause the plane will heat up really quickly, and oh yeah, we're going to start bringing some bags onto the plane, since from a flight balance standpoint the count more under the aircraft than above the wings (I get the physics of it, makes sense, but I'm wondering, ummm why...this isn't exactly a puddle jumper). So, it turns out the runway at atmosphere are just hot enough that we're too heavy for liftoff. Apparently every six bags they can get up above in the overeheads means one less person that will need to be bumped. I think two people volunteered to leave the plane.

I'm sitting there, wondering, "Ummm.... US Airways, guys, it's late August. HOT IS NORMAL! Why did you book the craft so full that you'd have to bump people?" So, this goes on for about 35 minutes. The captain comes on saying that they are going to start strapping luggage into the empty seats. Now I'm thinking, "boy, isn't the picture of modern capitalism at it's finest, let's cram so many people into the craft that we have to dump some, and then shove some luggage in with the people to 'balance the plane'. I can just see someone going back to a third world country saying 'man, in America, they put the baggage with the people'." But seriously, so much for systems intelligence. August = heat = put fewer people in small aircraft = no complaints or delays.

Again, after about 35 minutes of this (it's now 1:12 for our 12:44 departure...clock is ticking on my Phoenix transfer), the captain comes back on the PA and says..."well folks, I know this day isn't turning out to be fun for you..." I could hear the "you know you'll laugh about this at someday" coming, having an inkling of where this is going. Mind you, the hottest time of day is usually between 2 and 3pm in the summer...

He continued "...but, it turns out, after we got all that weight shuffled, we had to check back in with traffic control, and, well, the temperature on the runway went up a degree while we were working. What that means is that, well, we're going to have to take off another 1700 pounds. A woman just getting off the plane has said to me that we're making everybody anxious. Let me tell you folks, we are well within our engineering safety margins for flying, but we need to make sure we have no questions about being able to get up off the runway."

I immediately grabbed my laptop and got up, knowing that they were going to have to bump 8-10 people, and that while they were figuring that out, I was definitely going to miss my connection in Phoenix. Got to the gate agent, adn discovered that the next options out for me is the red eye. But I got a $300 travel voucher.

So here I am, at my desk, at home, working, rather than sitting in Pheonix waiting for a red-eye all by myself.

And when you've got a national or international title, you'll do just about anything for a plane ticket ;-)

A weekend at the bars...

This was a stay-in-town weekend. The weekend kicked off with Loren and me going to the Eagle for his first event as Mr. Golden Leather 2009, Daddy Meat. Dancing go-go daddies, a cigar boy, definitely a busy night for those looking for fun at the Eagle. It was fun seeing him working the title, and me just being there chattin' and socializin'. Although, I did work the door for an hour and a half.

I have to say, as a sidenote, that I really don't like working door at bar events. It's not so bad when it's a cover, although even then sometimes people hassle you. I just am amazed, when you ask for a donation, and people will sort of sniff at you and walk on by. The Eagle is particularly tricky, cause it's not normally a cover, so people aren't used to getting told to pay to enter, rather than being asked to make a contribution. Just one of those things. I keep a smile on my face and keep the energy up.

A good crowd showed up, but was shaken loose a litle early by the DJ announcing repeatedly that parking enforcement was towing cars to start getting things set up for Sunset Junction.

***

Saturday, we managed to sneak in a matinee showing of District 9. I quite enjoyed it. My impression was that it was conceived of as a mashup of Kafka's Metamorphosis set against a documentary peek at apartheid in South Africa using the common element of aliens to tie the two together. Quite well executed, it left me curious to see what they'll do with a sequel. And there'll almost certainly be a sequel.

Saturday night was my monthly event at the Bullet Bar in Norht Hollywood, HAWT GEAR. My goal is to bring back the classic leather bar, with a modern slant. Heavy push on fetish gear, encouraging play in the bar, dark atmosphere, hot porn on the vid, steamy music over the speakers. Michael and Dan at the Bullet have been amazing in supporting the event. I had started it out on a Thursday, because I didn't want to interfere with the regular weekend crowd. After the first month, Michael suggested that he'd be open to moving it to a Saturday if I wanted to do that.

Last night, the crowd was simply amazing. Seriously seriously hot! I can't help but feel like it was exactly the sort of night I was working to put together. Guys from the Bondage Club, Avatar, Band of Brothers, the B&B uniform club, the B&Ts uniform club. Guys from as far as Ventura and Orange County came out. Even a guy visiting from Albuquerque came out in a rubber catsuit—schwing! And gear, gear, gear! Rubber, leather, uniforms, skin gear, even an auto racing pilot suit. Bondage, paddling, chest punching - guys were playing here and there in the bar all evening.

If you came out for it, thank you for being hot and coming out. If you didn't—you missed a helluva fun bar night, and I'll hope to see you next month.

***

Last thought for the evening. A guilty admission. After bar nights and dungeon parties, I, more often than not, stop at Yum Yum donuts with Loren on the way home for a cinnamon roll. That'll have to stop if I don't get back to the gym fast!

An Evening with Guy Baldwin

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of sitting with the Los Angeles Band of Brothers (and a few special guests) for a Q&A with Guy Baldwin.

Amongst the many words that can be used to describe Mr. Baldwin, one that comes to mind is expansive. Not surprising, given his background in psychology and experience as an author. Guy did not have a simple answer to any question of the evening. And that was a splendid experience. All too often we find ourselves looking for how to say what we mean to express in as few words as possible, often distorting the personality and color of our perspective in the process.

Guy is a consummate raconteur. Each response a stroll through his experience, opinion, philosophy or personal history. I found myself with question after question at the ready, wanting the conversation to continue for far longer than was possible.

From my first question of the evening asking him about when he found himself at his lowest in his relationship with the leather community to the afterchat and book signings, Guy's fluidity matched the voice I've heard over the years in all his writings.

My parting comment to him was a reflection of my experience with running for and winning a title: that there was a time not that long ago when I could never have imagined actually speaking to Guy Baldwin; that with achieving the title (and all the background that is implied in having done so), I not only have had the opportunity to meet him, but have the hope of being able to have a further friendship with him, and have a stronger degree of comfort and hope of being able to someday serve in a similar capacity for a subsequent generation of leathermen.

He expressed to us that it was a special evening for him in that in all the interviews he'd given over the years, he hadn't had the opportunity to have one with a roomful of titleholders. That we are the closest things he has to children.

I hadn't truly realized the extent to which his presence had played a role in my development as a budding leatherman so many years ago until last night, both directly and indirectly.

Staying in touch....

Well...I've always known myself to be a horrible correspondent, and I appear to be batting 1000 with my blog. So, I will, rather than making a big deal about it, simply keep on posting, and work toward making a habit of it.