My Adventures at the Southwest Leather Conference 2009 – Part 1

Howdy All,

  This past weekend, Jan 23rd – 25th I attended and volunteered for Southwest Leather Conference 2009. The central theme of the conference was “The Fire Within“. Here is a portion from the “Welcome” page within the conference handbook as written by the SWLC Executive Committee:  ”FIRE, it’s primal and elemental. It is a symbol of the sexual and spiritual passion within all of  U/us; Fire, a purification, a healing, a letting go … and so we ask, “how does that fire burn inside of you?” Do you find yourself here for the first time, ablaze with curiosity and want? Have you been here before, holding an ember waiting to ignite once again? May the weekend ignite an eternal flame inside each one of you that will continue to burn well beyond the weekend. Welcome back to the Leather Family Gathering of Heart and Spirit! Welcome to The Fire Within!”

  The event on Sunday that was the highlight of the conference, the “Dance of Souls”, really hit on this theme of “The Fire Within”. I will try to explain what it was like, but it is really something that must be experienced to truly understand it. It was Amazing!!! But first things first. 

  The conference actually start Friday morning, but I had a major “brain fart” and forgot! How could I forget something like this you ask?! All I can say is major brain fart!! I did catch the error early BUT I don’t have a car and where it was located at was a good 3 to 3 1/2 hours away via public transportation. To top it off I was volunteering. By volunteering it reduced the cost of the conference to something I could sort of afford. I had only remembered about the conference at the middle of the month! This is one of my grips for living so far away from the city. I am cut off from the information flow living way out here in Gilbert. Yes, your right, I need to get my ass online, find that info source and plug into it!! What do they say, “Hindsight is 20/20″. But anyway I signed up to do 8+ hours of volunteer work. Well I finally made it out the door at and to the bus stop by 1:30 pm, missing the bus as usual and not actually starting the trip until 2 pm. I had left several message saying I was still coming and on my way and the approximate time I would get there, about 6:30 pm. I ended up taking the wrong bus and having to roll a mile to the hotel, Bus 15 is not Bus 19. But I finally got there around 7:45 pm (the Opening Ceremonies had already begun) and I just about panicking that I got there too late to register and get my badge and information. I was lucky and I was directed to the correct person and got my badge. I went and watch the end of the show and helped clear the room so that they could get the equipment set up for the Dungeon (6000 square feet of bliss). The Play Party was going to happen on both Friday and Saturday nights from 9:45 pm to 2 am. Because I was late I had mentioned that they could put me on the late shift. I was at the curtain making sure that everyone had a badge, that no one had a cell phone/camera and if they did the consequences if they brought it out anywhere behind the curtain and that certain body parts/play toys were covered if they were leaving or going to the restroom. I figured I would serve here Friday and then I would be free to attend the Play Party on Saturday night, or so I thought. 

  What made me mad is I missed a few classes that afternoon that I really wanted to go to, namely either “Blood Rituals” or “Electronic Stapling”. OH MY, what was that face?! These are two classes that one would deem “EDGE PLAY”. All these new terms, I can see the confusion setting in. Let me see if I can find a site that can help with the terms I’ve used above. This link will take you to an essay entitled “SPIRITUALITY AND THE LEATHER LIFESTYLE” by Sloyd. Read it, please. It explains many ideas that this weekend was about, especially the idea around the “Dance of Souls”. If you have time look over his website, it is amazing! Here is another essay entitled “The Grey Handkerchief – Why be tied?” by Sloyd. It is about bondage and it is also an amazing read! 

  I have a little more to tell you about Friday but it is almost 4 am and I’m a bit tired. I will do my best to get Part 2 to the blog tomorrow. There is a party in the evening so I will try to do it early. Please keep checking and I will get the whole weekend on the blog. If I had a laptop I could have done it after each day. Hopefully I will get another one soon, long story as to what happened to the one I had.

  Have a great day and talk later.

Oh My Lord, Have I Not Posted At All This Month?!?

  This is what came to me as I sat down to write this quick entry. Oh I have three different draft entries in the works that if I had finish and posted they would have been sprinkled out nice this month, but I have not finished them and once again it looks like I’ve abandoned my poor blog to the nothingness. Beat me with a leather flogger, oh no wait I’d enjoy that too much!!

  Speaking of leather floggings I attended the Southwest Leather Conference (http://www.southwestleather.org) this past weekend in Phoenix. I had an amazing time! I’ll recap the weekend tomorrow as the late nights and early mornings have caught up with me. I would like to think if I had stayed in the hotel this might not have been the case but then I can only imagine what goes on in the hotel room after the play party is over !! Perhaps next year I will get to find out as I will definitely be staying in the host hotel. I’ll explain in more detail what I’m talking about as well as give a recap of my experiences of the weekend.
  Talk tomorrow, good night all.

  P.S. – I don’t count the posting I did on January 1st because I actually started writing it before midnight, when I finished I had to go back and reword the first sentence to better match when it was actually getting posted. But still even it I did count it, I haven’t posted anything for 26 days!!! Way too long, especially with three haft finished posts stilling in “Draft” status! <grrr to myself>!