2010

So Cal Leatherwoman 2010-11 contest

The Southern California Leather Woman contest is a great event! I was honored to be asked to judge the contest along with Amy B, So Cal Leatherwoman 2006 (the head judge), Olga, producer of Desire, Andie from PSLOD and West, VP of the LA boys of Leather. Kathleen, the outgoing SCLW held a fundraiser / step-down party at the Bullet bar on friday night, so we headed up to Van Nuys Friday to participate in the event. It took us 4 hours to get up there! Traffic was pretty hideous, but the time went quickly thanks to our traveling companions. Tiger, Ms San Diego Leather 2010, Wish, Daddy and I piled in to Tiger's van and off we went around 3:30 pm or so. We stopped along the way at a diner called Ozzies for dinner. We definitely recommend it! Then it was back on the road. Of course, I finally fell asleep about 10 minutes from the hotel. After checking in, we headed out to the bar. When we got there, I received a number of compliments on the tweets I made on our way up. There were many funny moments I managed to capture! After making the rounds and saying hi, I jumped right in helping to sell raffle tickets, and then while the wet t-shirt contest was going on, I handled the door. In between -- Daddy and I entered the boot worship contest. But sadly we lost to the amazing Spike and Amyy *woof* what a combination, and Wish and her partner. I sat back, watched and drooled, and picked up a number of great tips! The evening finally caught up with us and we headed back to the hotel. We were asleep very quickly. Saturday started with the Judges luncheon, so I met Amy at her room.

Amy was wearing her "bunchy, femmy, casual" look, and I received many requests for a photo of her. We headed out to the luncheon at the Cheese Cake Factory, where we met up with the rest of the judges.

Ok, so thats not a picture of the judges at the luncheon, but it is a picture of all of us together! After a delicious lunch, we headed back to the hotel and did the contestant interviews. It was very interesting to listen to the questions from the other judges and to learn more about the contestant, Serene. After interviews, I got together with Olga and Blu for a drink and to talk about their website! We had a great time! They are amazing people. I headed back to the room, and helped Wish and Tiger change rooms (they moved next to us!) We headed to dinner at a chicken place, and coincidently several of the other judges were right next door at the sushi place! Then it was off to the contest! This year's theme was "Alice in Kinkland" and it was! There was the Tea Party, and a Mad Hatter room! The first part of the evening was a meet and greet where and an opportunity to make mad hatter hats. So, knowing that Tiger would not have the opportunity to make one for herself, I made her one for her! I think it came out very nice!

Of course, everyone insisted I try it on too.

After fun was had by all and everyone got the opportunity to meet the contestant, it was time forr the event of the evening. The contest was very well put together, and Serene did extremely well. From the way she dressed to the way she carried herself, and spoke she was a joy to watch and judge. When the tally master totaled the points, she had more than enough to be awarded the title. At the end of the contest, she was awarded the title So Cal Leather Woman 2010-11.

After the contest ended there was a play party. We decided to get something to eat instead. It was Tiger, Wish, Daddy, Joanne and me. We laughed through the entire meal! It was a lot of fun. We headed back to the event and helped tear down the play party before finally going back to the hotel and caching some z's. Sunday morning, we all met at Cafe 50's for a celebratory / thank you brunch. Duff presented her new titleholder with 'everything she will need in the coming year.' and PuP brought Lammie, so I got to have some fun and get a few pictures with Lammie. It's been a long time! After brunch we piled in to Tigers van for the ride home. A good event with good friends makes for a great time! Thank you Duff for all that you do! And Tiger, Wish and Daddy, you make the time fly! Stay tuned for SCLW Funnies -- Coming soon!

Folsom Street Fair

We arrived in San Francisco Saturday afternoon. We had a quick snack as we were all hungry, and then stretched out to relax for a while before we thought about doing anything. After napping for a little while, we decided to go out and see what was going on. We stopped first at Chaps II, and had a drink. It was fairly quiet there, so we headed over to the Eagle. On the way there, we stopped in at a sandwich place and had a Meatball sub. At the Eagle, we met up with Lenny and Oz, a friend of his from Phoenix. We also met the Florida Leather boy from 1997 -- we were actually at his contest! We also ran in to Lance, Mr San Francisco Leather, and Sir Hugh International Leather Sir. All in all it was a fun evening, and we wound up staying out much later than we planned to! We got up Sunday morning at around 8:00 am to get ready for brunch at Donna Sachet's. We were expecting some problems with traffic, so left for the brunch at 9:15, and wound up being almost 20 minutes early! We were outside smoking when we met up with Stephano. We have talked with him in the past and it was good to catch up with him again. Utah Rox, Mr. International Olympus Leather came out from inside. He was another one who expected traffic and was early. We chatted for a bit and decided to head in to the house. It's a beautiful home and the brunch was fantastic. We (Daddy, Tiger and I) met up with many people that we know and it was a nice kickoff to Folsom. We left the brunch around 11:15, and had enough time to do a quick run through of the fair before it got crowded, and the Titleholder announcement that occurred at 12:40 (approximately?) Lance did a great job announcing all of the current titleholders. After that was over, Daddy, Tiger and I headed back to the hotel to get out of our "high holy cow" leather and get into something cooler. Tiger wore her title vest and jeans, Daddy and I opted for vests, jeans and chaps. Of course, I wore my sash as well. We took a taxi back to the fair, and wandered from 8th St back to 12th St. It was packed. WOW. All three of us volunteered at the Alameda County Leather Corps Margarita booth helping out by filling glasses with ice, pouring drinks, filling the pitchers and performing body guard services during a bank run. I had a lot of fun talking with Tyler while we were working. I also had fun people watching as we worked. In the end, we left around 5:00 to see what was still going on, and headed for the Eagle. There was a huge line there, so we tried the Lone Star, but there was a huge line there as well. At that point, we decided to wait in line, but if a taxi came by we would head back to the hotel. Tiger obviously wanted to head back to the hotel as she was flagging down every taxi that came by, even standing out in the middle of the street! A taxi came before we got in the bar, so we headed back to the hotel. Once there, first thing on our agenda: FOOD! We went to a sushi place and looked at the menu. We decided to have Italian because daddy & tiger could not get meatloaf & mashed potatoes. So, having had dinner we returned to the room, and packed everything up for the morning. It's 9:00 pm on Folsom night, and the only thing I can think of is stretching out and sleeping. Does that mean I am getting old?

Folsom funnies

Tiger almost did nonconsensual fire play on daddy's pubes. She thought that there were stray threads coming out of his cod piece! We went to a sushi place and looked at the menu. We decided to have Italian because daddy & tiger could not get meatloaf & mashed potatoes at the sushi place. I can't get my pants off... Why? Because I am still sitting on them. (It really is time to go to bed -- at 9:00 pm Sunday night. Tiger got topped by the hotel room! Tiger wanted to know if she had a spot on her shoulder. We looked and looked but didn't see it. "oh" she says, "maybe it was on the other shoulder." So she shows me her back and asks if there is a mark? I touch the spot, asking is that it? Apparently, she answered "Oww!"

Traveling to Folsom

We are driving up to Folsom. We have Tiger, Ms San Diego Leather 2010 wirh us. Right now Tiger is driving! Just passed by Stockton, but weren't quick enough with turning the air conditioning recirculation on... nothing like raw cow in the heat smell. Blech! Topics have ranged from politics to the international Leather scene! Tiger is an invertebrate punster, spinelessly unable to resist a pun. Though riding with her is not any kind of PUNishment. It's lots of fun. :) Daddy says i should stop now. More later on our Folsom adventure.





American Brotherhood Weekend 2010 Day 1- The Arrival

American Brotherhood Weekend, for me, started on Wednesday July 14, and went through July 19. My puppy heads off to work around 6:30 am on a normal day, so he is up between 4:30 am and 5:00 am. When his alarm went off, I got up with him to spend a little time with him before I headed off for my big adventure. We sat together and had coffee and breakfast and then he headed off to work. About that time, Daddy got up to prepare for his day, and I spent some time with him as well. He doesn't drink coffee, or eat breakfast at home during the work week, so we watched a bit of Good Morning America before he got ready for work. Once my family was on to their day, I turned to the final bit of packing I needed to do, and double checked that I had everything I would need for the next 5 days. Caryl and Bob picked me up right on time, and we were off to the airport. This would be my first time on an airplane since 1998. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, and were standing in line to check our bags when my phone rang -- it was South West notifying me that our flight was delayed by about 45 minutes. Caryl and I wandered around the airport for a bit, and then caught the first leg of our flight to Las Vegas. It was an uneventful trip, until we were walking up the boarding ramp from the flight and Caryl fell, hurting her knee! We got a wheelchair for her and I pushed her through the airport in a mad dash to catch our connecting flight to Chicago. We made it to the plan with about 15 minutes to spare before they closed the doors. We arrived in Chicago and the first thing we did was smoke. Then we collected our bags and caught a taxi to the hotel. This was a long drive! We flew in to Midway, and had to travel to just north of Chicago. Along the way I started to panic and did several quick checks to see exactly how far the hotel was from the contest site. As it turned out, we were only about 7 driving miles from the contest site, so I was greatly relieved. But there was a momentary panic! We settled in to the hotel, and then walked over to the grocery store, Jewel Osco to do pick up some snacks and something for dinner. We wound up getting a couple of different kinds of salad, some hummus, and pita bread. But there was no coffee pot! Caryl simply can't live without large quantities of coffee! So, we decided to head back out after dinner to find a Walgreens. I did a search on the phone and discovered that the nearest Walgreens was just over a mile away. We headed out for a long walk (forced march). We roamed over hills and over dells and finally arrived ... at an Ethan Allen? Not where we were planning to go. Nope. No Walgreens there! So we started the long walk back (forced march). Along the way, we wandered through an open air mall, just in case the Walgreens was actually in there. We met a woman who told us where the nearest Walgreens was (almost a mile in the opposite direction, past the hotel). We talked for a bit while we were heading towards the Walgreens -- Caryl was definitely putting me on a forced march! We parted company with the woman and headed on our way. About a 1/2 mile later, the woman pulled over in her car to let us know that she had checked at the Walgreens and there was a coffee pot there! WOO HOO! And we walked. And walked. And walked. Finally we saw the beautiful lights of Walgreens, and we entered the cool refreshing air conditioning. We considered never leaving there; but figured that the folks at Walgreens would probably not be terribly happy with us if we did that. We picked up some additional stuff there... The essentials, coffee mugs, the coffee pot, and allergy medicine, tums and the ever present Zantac. We got back to the hotel, and were just unpacking the coffee pot when Adam arrived. We broke out what was left of dinner and talked about our day before getting down to business. We sorted through the cards for the fantasy, and then planned out our Thursday.

Lead up to American Brotherhood Weekend

After talking it over with my Daddy and my puppy, I decided to participate in the American Brotherhood Weekend contest. This is a contest that puts forward the American Leather Family, comprised of the American Leather Man, the American Leather Woman and the American Leatherboy. The next big question for me was whether to run for American Leather Man or American Leatherboy. I talked with several men that I respect, and ultimately it came down to 3 questions. 1. How do I identify to the world? 2. Would I be willing to run without my collar? 3. Could I justify running for American Leather Man when I am a collared boy, and there is a contest for the boy role? The answers are as follows: 1. I identify as a boy. I have a Daddy. Can't get much more straightforward than that. 2. No, I would not take my collar off to participate in a contest. 3. I looked at this one from multiple angles, and ultimately found that I could not justify running for American Leather Man when there is a contest for the boy role. Not without doing a disservice to my chosen role. Once I had come to a decision on what title I was going to go after, I began the work of getting ready. Tom D. (Mr San Deigo Leather 2002) took me under his wing and we worked through the introduction speech, formal speech, and he gave me a couple of ideas for songs for my fantasy. We worked together to build the list of what I would be wearing throughout the weekend, and finally, just before heading off for the contest, he put together a mock interview panel with Annie R. the first Ms. World and Mike R. International Leather Sir 2003 to help me work through potential questions that may have come up. As time ticked down, I worked out my fantasy, wrote up my two speeches, and started practicing them. The fantasy piece was the hardest to work out as the two people going with me are among the busiest people in San Diego. Cobi volunteered to do my leathers so they would be spotless for the contest, and slave Jeff worked with me helping out by being my errand boy during those final days before the contest. The treck to American Brotherhood began long before the actual event itself, and the preparation paid off in ways that I would not understand until I looked back on the event its self.

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