Quiet, busy.....

Personally, i think the Holidays have been very quiet here. i mean, we did all the usual - The Aunt, The Other Relatives, etc but somehow i didn't get frenzied this year - which was a very nice change of pace. my Solstice was quiet also, but very, very nice. Master and His Aunt got me some nice kitchen equipment -Knives! Calphalon pots! i feel the urge to chop and saute....

We took both pups over to The Aunt's house and they were... well behaved! By the time we got home, they were unable to keep their eyes open and were like two over tired children at the end of Christmas day... right to bed with them. Master and i got to have a quiet night with cups of tea to settle our over-fed bellies and then we hit the sack also. Nice.

No holiday bonus this year...Wah! Very sad, but a bonus is a gift and not to be expected. However, i did get a nice, very nice raise and a teriffic review. i did get a very unexpected gift from my clients - some of the Ladies there chipped in a got me a lovely business card holder. In the 25 years my company has been taking care of them, no one there has ever given a gift to us. my bosses feel this is a direct reflection of the relationship i've built with them and acknowledge that i saved that part of our business! That, my friends, is better than a bonus! Now, if things go as anticipated and i end up going on the road as part of my job duties this year.... :-)

Some One had a half day today and so He baked some cookies all by Himself {first time solo baking, i might add!} DELICIOUS!

Recap

A recap of the week:
Very busy at work. i spent most of the week getting ready to visit my clients next week. This is my favorite client visit of the year - i get to deliver presents and gift cards and since i really like about 90% of the people i get to visit, i have a blast!
Wednesday was Jury Duty. Blarg! i enjoy doing my civic duty as a Good American, i just wish the process was so awful. my company doesn't pay for jury duty, i am out of vacation days after going to Black Rose and the Court system pays $5.00 per day to serve. i'm sorry, but that amount of money is more of an insult than a help. It's not enough for gas or parking or lunch. Grr... but i wasn't selected for jury and ended up getting out at noon. FREE day!

i ended up going to Target, buying a big shelf unit for the Master's bedroom and re-organizing all His boots and toys. Now easily accessed, neat looking rows of boots (my eye beholds!) and somehow the bedroom seems brighter.
It's a continuation of the decluttering going on here. i also got rid of another bag of clothes and a bag of papers we don't need and a lot of stuff that i ended up looking at and wondering "now, why did i save this?" i was reading a blog on being spiritually stifled by your stuff. It's true. So very true. Whether you go the Feng shui thing or what ever your spiritual practices are, all that "stuff" is just so much spiritual goo that's got to be removed before you can move ahead. Interesting food for thought.

Last night i took Master out to a new restaurant in town. Pretty good food. i would eat there again. Then off to toy shopping for the Argonauts toys for tots drive in Asbury Park tonight. We don't have any kids to buy for so any excuse to shop for toys is always fun.

Listening to Master's old band Sticks and Stones. First off, it was just weird downloading all His music from I-Tunes, Secondly - wow, such good memories about traveling with the band in that big ugly ORANGE VW van. i realized that just about every band the Man has been in has sampled stuff from the movie Blade Runner. Weird.
Waking up each morning to the Black Crowes sing "then she said my name" It just sets the whole tone of my day and makes me feel good. Great song...

hat - check. coat - check

OK, i'm all ready to go outside and watch the shuttle. Nope, launch is scrubbed! Safety first and foremost! Maybe they'll try again tomorrow, maybe Saturday....

Shuttle

For those of you, my faithful readers, on the East Coast of the U.S. - you can view a rare night launch of the Shuttle (assuming the weather cooperates and she gets off the ground!)

Here are the instructions. i don't know if i can see it from where i am, there are a lot of trees and it's only going to be about 10 degrees off the horizon (roughly the width of a clenched fist) But give it a whirl anyway. Thos of you by NY Harbor may have a great view!

Amazing that it only takes 8 minutes from launch (9:35 pm) to get over NYC! Cool! *space nut* that's me!

to Black Rose and back again....

Wow, what a busy weekend! BR was a blast, Master and i had pretty good turn outs for both classes (considering having the first session and the last session) Amazing people in both classes, with great questions. A surprising (to me anyway) amount of people from NJ - hopefully we'll get them out to the NJ or MAsT Metro NY meetings. i was surprised and happy to see a Gentleman in the Sunday class who has been to several of our classes at other events. i really enjoy his questions and feedback and just his energy in general. *Super!*

We got to spend some time with Quality People who we don't get to see often enough. Very nice! Excellent time in the dungeon, i was a bloody mess when all was said and done. That just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. There was some cool/funky/weird energy stuff going on between Master and i. i've done energetic healing before and i'm also "Reiki I" initiated, so that feeling of energy flow is familiar to me. To feel it flowing out from the needles was amazing! Master felt it flowing OUT of me and i felt it flowing IN from Him. Lots to think about after that scene...

Home to the puppies and MUD everywhere! They were frantic to get hugs and puppy love. i spent all day Monday comforting them, tripping over them and feeding them. Between the 2 of them they've eaten 12 cups of food and are still going!! i also spent the day doing 4 loads of laundry. How we wore so many clothes in 4 days i have NO idea! :-)


i'm going to wrap up my evening, finish folding Mount Laundry and go root for Master's fantasy football team! (and beg for a few puffs on His relazation cigar....) G'night.....

Thanksgiving

What a great weekend! So much to be thankful for this year, so many wonderful new experiences, so many good old friends, so many new friends! Even the rotten and uncomfortable parts of the year have lead me to be a stronger woman and have helped me to grow.

Master and i spent the Holiday with NYbOL, it was great to get to know the guys a bit better and the food! OMG! Good Goddess, can those boys cook! What an excellent group of people - good looking, good cooking...how can you go wrong?

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent doing some major cleaning, revamping and redecorating in the Household. Master was a huge help and over all great co-ordinator. This is a continuation of all the decluttering going on in our lives. It started in the studio and it's spreading though out the house and in to other parts of my life. It's a nice, lighter feeling for me. i wasn't a big believer in Feng Shui, but i'm starting to see that a lot of it's principals apply to my life. Either way, the holiday tree and lights are up, most of the house is decorated, most of the house is clean and shiney again. i feel great about that, YAY!

We even fit in a great time at Paddles on Friday. An awsome thigh caning, hung Kyle & friends :-) PLUS we got to meet up with the Pride Household - it was great to see those guys. i miss seeing the old gang regularly.

We had a 2nd Thanksgiving meal today. i usually cook a rack of lamb for Master for Thanksgiving so we had that today along with some turkey and butternut squash & apples, Pommes Anna.... now i'm stuffed!

Master gave me permission to register for ARTiscape, which is a 4 day artist's retreat. It's in May, shouldn't conflict with any leather events. So, i picked out my classes and booked my room. The host hotel is the only hotel in the U.S. that's a Botanic Garden - BEAUTIFUL! i left some space in my schedule to walk the grounds and relax. i am so excited to go there! i signed up for all the banquets and parties - very unlike the old me to go anywhere by myself, much less to a dinner or party alone. i am getting to like the stronger me.



i'm headed off to clean up the kitchen and take a much needed bath. But i will leave you all with my favorite Tanksgiving picture this year - Wild Turkeys, caught on security camera, trying to board a NJ Transit Train!

BUSTED!

Exhaustion

my poor Master has been absolutely brutalized at work. The powers that be keep demanding more and more work from fewer and fewer people - all in the name of the all-mighty dollar. Watching Him get up to leave at 4:30 am, to fill in for people who have been down-sized is really breaking my heart.

He works so hard: because He's got that amazing work ethic, because He is an amazing provider, because He wants to be sure that He can provide medical insurance for me in case i have a relapse.
And this Man still goes to the gym every day after work and puts most people to shame with the energy that He gives to His workout. Yes, His workout - the one that He does to make sure that He's in the best shape ever so He can take care of business and take care of me.

Then He comes home and has to do yet more work from home. Then i get snappy at Him that He fell asleep on the couch instead of having conversation with me.... Oy, what a rotten slave i feel like!

All i can do is say "Thank You" and try to do as well at my own job and in the service that i give to Him. Sometimes, and this week is one of those times, what i give to Him just doesn't feel like enough.

So, this has been a rotten 2 weeks for us and i blame the down-sizing of corporate America.

11/17

On 11/17, when i was 15 - i went to see the Circle Jerks, False Prophets and A.O.D. at the Reggae Lounge. (i'd run away from home, for the last time, about a month earlier - escaping from an abusive situation and beginning a cascade of legal events which ended in me having my own apartment by the time i was 16. Which was much less fun than you'd imagine it was!)

i went to the show with a bunch of friends (Sir Larry included) Some how, thru much finagling, i got another friend of mine to hold on to my glasses, asked Sir if He could hold my hand and take me up front to be in the mosh pit... since of course, i could see with out my glasses, i needed an escort.

The rest is history. He stuck with me thru all those freakin' HORRIBLE days in court, while i had to testify against my glaring, threatening family. We've been together ever since. It's been 24 years. We've gone from those crazy punk kids with the crazy hair, to those crazy Metal heads, with the crazy hair, involved with many, many bands along the way, to the crazy Master slave couple - still with the crazy hair.

i couldn't have asked for a better life. i am a damn lucky woman!

MAsT D.C. joint meeting

Tuesday Sir and i presented for MAsT DC, a joint meeting of the Men's & the Pan groups. An uneventful, quick trip to Master Taino's. (great directions!) What a beautiful home, such a gracious host. We were so well taken care of by Master Taino and slave david. What a great dungeon, i wish we'd had the time to play down there. Maybe next time! :-)

A great bunch of people at the meeting, Awesome to see Master J, Master Tallen, Master Wes, slave andew, and many, many others. Excellent questions from them all - the presention hinges on audience participation (as most do!) and the quality of the audience's questions makes the presentation sing. It's interesting that, like life, you get out of a presentation exactly what you put in to it.

Sir and i stayed overnight and then up at 5:30 am to return home to our angry dogs. Taybor and LiLu were happy to see us, i ended up giving them an empty box to tear apart so they could vent their frustrations. Between cardboard destruction, some new toys and a lot of wrestling they were asleep by 10:30 as were Sir and i. i love traveling but nothing beats coming home to my own little bed on the floor, next to Sir's bed where i can hear Him snore.

GMSMA Leather Fest

NYbOL logo In M&M'S! GMSMA leather fest was a blast, we got to spend more quality time with NYbOL - what an awesome bunch of guys. Sir Larry & i ran off to the Leather Man so He could get fitted for some new pants, which we'll pick up on 11/18.

Some how i ended up getting hugged and flung up in the air by one of the NYbOL's..... wel, that made me feel like i was just a tiny girl! :-) Funny!

organized Chaos

So, i've gotten my studio space fairly organized... enough so that if i have a free 15 minutes i can dash in there and do some art or sewing. It's very nice.
i have had 2 problems.... the first one is that my work table is low enough or my dog is tall enough that he can reach my work in progress. Which has resulted in: paint on nose, glue on nose, paper glued to dogs head, various pieces of assemblage art (i.e. anything that has any organic pieces in it) being picked apart & eaten, etc, etc.

The other problem is that things still go missing. It used to be that they were simply buried under the rubble of untamed art supplies and piles of things that had no businesss being in the studio. Now however, things are gone and.. well, i don't know what happened. The most annoying missing thing is my Artist's journal, which had some watercolors and collage in it. Gone. Missing. Doh. It's not that the work was so astonishingly great, it really isn't. And i don't care that it was bad, or not so good (or a sign of my progression, i suppose i should say!) It's the fact that it was a mostly unused Moleskine notebook. Yes, i have a Moleskine fetish. (tribute givers, please keep that in mind..) i really was being good about keeping it with in easy reach so i could just throw it down and do some work immediately.

It's frustrating when things like this hamper my progress. i feel like i can't get out of my own way. Sigh.

blogging guilt....

i hate it when i get behind in my blogging and then... Well, i get overwhelmed. Do i go back and blog all the stuff i missed writing about? Just pick up from where i am now? Then i procrastinate and don't blog at all, a vicious cycle!

Between my last entry and now i served as the Judge's girl for Mr & Ms NJ Leather. That was fun. i got to spend some time with a few of the Judges that i already knew, which was great and also met some new people who were awesome! All the contestants made a great showing and the Winners were Chuck for Mr NJ Leather and boy robi for Ms NJ Leather. i am really proud of both of them. Chuck's had a heck of a year and i am just so proud of him stepping up and entering the contest. boy robi kick butt also and looks damn good in formal wear! :-) i'm sure they'll represent NJ well and do a lot of good work this year.

i set up an ancestor altar this year at Samhain to celebrate the lives of my dearly departed. Samhain wasn't as festive (it is my new year, after all!) as it usually has been for me in the past but instead was more introspective and quiet.

i've spent an unusual amount of time on the road for my clients, things are looking good business wise and i may end up having to travel out of state a few times a month. i'm looking forward to more money because of that but i'd really rather be here in NJ serving at home! Seriously, i try to live simply, more money just adds up to more gadgets and somehow the money, no matter how much there is, finds a way to get spent. i'd rather have more time than have more money.

Master and i presented for DSF on Friday, that went pretty well. Lots of people had questions afterwards. i am starting not to judge the response to the presentation until it's done and we're wandering around... then i count how many people come up to ask questions that they didn't want to air in front of the crowd. Which is fine by me, i know that sometimes i have stuff that's either too personal or perhaps doesn't fit the "theme" of the presentation exactly and i'd rather ask later. Or ask via email It's all fine to me!

In keeping with my big "search and destroy" anti-clutter mission in the studio, Master and i have embarked on either starting or finishing a ton of Household projects that needed doing but have been neglected for quite some time. We installed closet organizers in His bedroom, whihc resulted in a major purge of old crap. There's now plenty of room to actually walk in to the walk in closet AND all Master's leathers are hung in one place.

We finally figured out how to display the fabulous pillows we were given at the M/s conference. With the unruly canines in the house, they couldn't be displayed on the couch or on Master's bed, so i sewed some chain on to the corners and we hung them from the ceiling. Yup, pillow bondage! i love the way they look like that. They make me smile.

That's my update for now, signing off before this becomes tooooo long.

CBGB'S

This weekend CBGB's is finally closing.
i am really very saddened by this, for both the NY music scene and for personal nostalic reasons. When i was a kid, i got 5 bux allowance. That was enough cash to take the bus to the S.I. ferry, get to NYC, walk to the Village, $3.00 to get in to CB's to see the show, with 25 cents left over for the return trip on the ferry.
There would be at least 3 bands on the bill - usually more. i saw some of the most amazing punk and hardcore bands play, from all over the world. i was there every weekend for about 10 years.
It was on the stage there, at my VERY first concert ever that i saw my Master for the first time. Who knew we'd still be together? He played there many, many times with a number of different bands. We made friends with some of the sound men and used to get them to tape concerts off the sound board for us. (where are those tapes now???)
i got my first black eye there, in the mosh pit. (because Sir jumped off the stage and kicked me in the eye.... ahh, the early S.M. blossoming of youth!) i carried Sir and a bunch of friends in the pit on my shoulders (chicken slam!)
i, myself, sang on that stage with one of Sir's bands. So, yeah - CBGB's closing is a very personal thing.
i read that Hilly is going to take everything, including the urinals with him and re-open in Las Vegas. i hope he does it, i really do. It won't be the same (nothing in life ever is, i've discovered) but let it become a huge entity with financial backing and pray that the powers that be stick to the spirit of feeding new music, discovering new bands and keeping some dreams alive.

GMSMA

Tomorrow Sir and i are presenting for GMSMA in NYC. i am pretty excited about this. Some people on the board seemed to have really done a lot of lobbying to get me accepted to the panel. i am blown away by their acceptance of me.

Also, the New York boys of Leather are sending a hoard of boys down to support us! Whoo Hooo! i love those guys! It'll be nice to have those friendly faces in the crowd.

Off to do Sir's boots. Hopefully i'll have enough time to give mine the once over. Why are the slaves boots always lacking a fine shine? (don't answer that, i know the answer... LOL)

Philly & flowers, perfect together

Few things are as gratifying as getting a beautiful array of flowers after doing a presentation for a GREAT and responsive group of people. Man, i love Philly!

(Did i mention i love blogging with my camera phone also?)

**just to flesh out the post: Our hosts were amazing! Great job promoting the presentation, the Darkside was amazing and very accommodating, (i wanna go back there to play!) the table of baked goods and home-made candies were astounding. Dinner at Lord Brick's - delish! i *love* a Master who can cook! :-)
Over all, the day was just perfect. A+

Faithful Readers

To all my faithful readers:

my apologies for not writing for quite some time. i am going through a lot of emotional difficulty and this is not the forum to discuss it in. It's too public a space and the M/s world is just too small. 

my main focus right now is myself and other than that, there's just not a lot to write about. i've concurrently demolished my studio - i figure that throwing out the un-necessary was a good way to make me feel better. It's helped greatly and now having easy access to my materials is making it easier for me to work. Unfortunately, i feel all dried up and uninspired! Ah, well - i'm sure my bliss will come back to me soon. Maybe i'll put up some "Reward: Lost Bliss" signs in the neighborhood. That seems to work well for the return of cats and dogs.

Life is change, is it not? 

42? Yeah? Really?

The celebration continues.... This afternoon, i asked Sir if i could take Him to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream. When i got home from work He told me that He was emailed a coupon for a free ice cream! LOL! i got off cheap on that suggestion. We both got vanilla bean ice cream. He got white chocolate chips and coconut mixed in, i got roasted almond. Yummy! 

Long weekend

Well, my weekend started on Thursday by taking Master out for His birthday a few days early. We went to dinner at Old Man Rafferty's in New Brunswick and then over to the Tinder Box to get Him a smoking pipe and all the accessories. Great dinner and a fun time at the pipe shop. The manager/owner there is super patient and friendly. He really took a nice amount of time showing us how to pack and light (and keep lit!) the pipe, as well as helping to select some tobacco that Sir would enjoy. Fun! Lots of new stuff for me to maintain now in addition to the cigar humidor. :-)

Master also took me out to buy some new sheets for my bed - somehow all of my sheets have disappeared! Sunday Master took me to MOMA to see the DADA exhibit and we ended up wandering around in the Brasil Day street fair, eating lots of junk food and enjoying the beautiful weather, post tropical storm.

Both dogs have been super cuddly with me. taybor had an incident a few weeks ago where he snapped at me because i was trying to take a bone away from him. i swiftly corrected him and crated him for about a half and hour. Ever since then he's been very clingy - in a good way. Lilu was punished for peeing on my bed and since then, she's also been very clingy. i think i'm finally the pack leader! It's MUCH different working with two dogs as opposed to just one. With one, i can give a command (sit, stay, down, no) and enforce it quickly if it's not done. With 2 dogs, there's the whole dance they need to do with each other over who's going to sit closer to mom or which dog needs to knock the other one over to show they're the dominate one. In the mean time, my orders aren't being followed and chaos ensues. i don't envy the Masters of a multi person household - at all! :-)

All this "cuddling with mom" has resulted in me being pinned to my bed each night, one dog tucked between my legs and one pressed up against my back. That's nice for about 5 minutes before i become claustrophobic and have to get them off of me.

Our travel schedule is firming up and we're going to be VERY busy soon! It's exciting and yet a bit scary at the same time. We knew having the title was going to be a lot of hard work, so it's not surprising. What's scary for me is being so in demand! People want to hear what i have to say? me? ok....... i'm actually looking forward to it all!